one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well

1. What was your favorite snack as a kid, and do you still eat it now? 

    Pate's Cheese Pops, which apparently don't exist even on sentimental-food websites. Kind of like Cheetos but less crunchy and more crispy, and also WAY more coated with cheese powder. (I originally spelled that "power", which comes closer to the truth!) 

 

2. What’s the weirdest food combination you genuinely enjoy? 

    leftover rice with cinnamon sugar and milk. Based on some unsolicited feedback, this is among the strangest combos ever consumed by a human.

 

3. Have you ever eaten something abroad that you wish you could find at home? 

    not "abroad" but in a different region of the country, yeah. Greek chicken, Chicago-style pizza (the thin kind), anything Cuban...

 

4. What’s a food you resisted for years, only to finally fall in love with? 

    I wouldn't have used "in love" to describe it, but it was only after Chris cooked them for me that I even started to realize that green beans are food worth eating. My subsequent affection for them may be more about him than it is about the beans themselves, but vegetables don't discriminate.   

 

5. Write about a family recipe that connects you to your roots. 

    besides those I've written about before... Jello cookies. Basic sugar cookie dough, but with a box of Jello powder replacing some of the sugar. They're vaguely fruity, fun-colored, and deeply reminiscent of Valentine's Day and Christmas of my childhood. 

 

6. If you had to eat one cuisine for the rest of your life, which would it be and why? 

    Italian. It's varied, satisfies my inner carnivore and also the desire for pasta. I probably do eat from that cuisine at least twice a week. 

 

7. What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever eaten? 

    besides alligator—which wasn't really all that adventurous, since I didn't have to wrestle him to the death before I ate him—I'd say strip-mall Chinese food in Mississippi. It wasn't my choice, and it was not good. 

 

[ChatGPT blog meme questions, a set called 🍴 Food & Eating, Plate 1: Nostalgia & Curiosity; the title quotation is by Virginia Woolf, from A Room of One’s Own]