This Thing

Hi everyone!

It's LizPhang. Thanks for having me.

Quick note: I feel like I was invited to be a Guestreporter at least partly because of the adventurous Monterey Park luncheon Foodreporter She-Hubbs (and He-Hubbs) and I went on the other day, which, I'm sorry to say, was quite an anomaly and WAY more adventurous than the crap I usually eat. But oh well, here I am. Hopefully this exercise will lead to further adventuring. Anyway, on to the questionnaire.

When was the last time you ate an entire, full-size candy bar? What kind of candy bar was it?
I can't say I remember. I have found that my teeth have become terribly sensitive in the last 6 or 7 years -- so sugar hurts, as does cold stuff. Even the wind blowing into my half-open mouth kind of hurts. Even a warm sort of wind. So I avoid real candy. But sometimes I will buy one of those Ghiradelli baking bars (semisweet) and eat the whole thing. Great to pair with some Yellowtail shiraz. I am also sure I have managed half a Twix sometime in the past year. Mmmmm, Twix.

What is a food you ate all the time as a kid, but which now disgusts you?
As a half-Chinese, my family had a bunch of weird items around the house that were very normal and delicious to me until I figured out what they were. Foremost among them would be something called Pork Sung. I Googled it and came up with this glorious image:

http://www.kibo.com/kibofood/sung.html

Looks like the clipped dreadlocks of an honest-to-God “ginger”, doesn’t it? The same website has an excellent description: “Pork sung is a Chinese breakfast food which has the texture of cotton candy (some say steel wool) and flavor of bacon.” Yes. Exactly. These attributes made it great fun to eat when I was little. Like, to just drop big pinches of it into my mouth. My family had it around to put on top of “Jook”, which is like Chinese oatmeal made of rice. “Jook” is another thing that I used to like but am not that crazy about anymore. I’d rather just have cereal.

A quirk of fate leaves you in each of the following cities for long enough to have only one meal. What/where do you eat? Boston, Cambridge, New York, LA.
Boston: The Cuban Scramble, at Centre Street Café, in Jamaica Plain. It’s really complicated and delicious. Has plantains.
Cambridge: This is lame, but I would probably go to Bertucci’s for a margherita pizza and too many buttered rolls. I really miss Bertucci’s.
New York: Am I paying for these meals? If not, I’d go to Aureole. I went there once, years ago, when I was young and flush with Blue Mountain money. I don’t remember what I ate, but it was awesome.
LA: Gnocchi with marinara, a cappuccino (with a dollop of thick whipped cream), and lots of bread at Al Gelato in Beverly Hills.

What is a recent food impulse buy which you regretted? Which you were delighted by?
The other day I was at Target on an unsuccessful search for a new bathing suit, and I thought I would cheer myself up with a burrito from the adjacent Baja Fresh. I usually like Baja Fresh, but I regretted this particular burrito from the very first bite. I just didn’t want it enough. An impulse buy that delighted me was some little cans of Spicy-Hot V8 that I bought a couple months ago. For a while after that my at-home drink of choice became Spicy-Hot V8 mixed with vodka, though lately I’ve been less jazzed about it. And I get a little sad every time I have to look at the three-quarters-empty (more economical) large-size bottle of V8 sitting in the fridge, with its sides coated with its own contents. Does V8 ever go bad?

What was the most satisfying meal you ever prepared for yourself and ate while totally drunk?
I hardly ever cook stuff when I’m drunk, but the other day I came home from some carousing and cooked up some Thai noodles prepackaged thing that Foodreporter Strach left at our house from when she was staying with us. (Thanks, Strach!) Very satisfying. Light yet filling at the same time.

If you had to have one of the FoodFriends design your diet for a week, whom would you select?
Strach or MMW.

What are the shows you watch the most on Food Network? What are your thoughts on: Rachael Rae, Alton Brown, Nigella Lawson?
I don’t watch a ton of the Food Network. I probably watch “Unwrapped” more often than any of the cooking shows. I like watching machines making food. Chocolate being squired into molds and all that. I like Rachel Ray. I was enchanted by the one Nigella Lawson program I saw. I think she was making trifle, and also (or perhaps it was a separate show?) some grilled pineapple “lollies” dipped in chocolate. I definitely wanted to eat those.

What food staple would it be most difficult for you remove from your diet?
Pasta, definitely. Lately, in my unemployed poverty, I have been eating A LOT of angel hair pasta with butter and parmesan. It has essentially no nutritional value, and it’s delicious. (Also, I add a totally unhealthy amount of salt.)

If I told you that you could only eat one of the following for the rest of your life, but you could always get whatever you chose as fresh and as good as possible, which would you choose? Also, assume that whichever you chose would be seedless: (1) Oranges (2) Clementines (3) Tangerines
Oranges.

Also, do you prefer plastic wrap or aluminum foil?
I use plastic wrap much more often but I PREFER aluminum foil.

Name a fruit, meat, soda, and candy you despise.
Fruit: I don’t think I despise any fruits. I am allergic to mangos, so I’ll say that, since they’re dangerous to me.
Meat: chicken feet (I was brave and actually tried these once, during a family dim sum outing. The soft, bloated texture of the skin is really hard to take).
Soda: I associate both Sprite and Ginger Ale with being sick as a kid, and I have never been able to enjoy them.
Candy: anything licorice. Also, since I’m allergic to peanuts, I kind of despise peanut-related candies for tempting me so cruelly.

I have a teleporter, and can send you anywhere in the world for dinner. Where will you go, what will you have?
Right now I would go to this seafood place in Maine called Tidal Falls for lobsters and steamed mussels dipped in garlic butter. I haven’t been to this place since I was like 11 and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist anymore, but this teleporter is also a time machine, right?

Do you have any well-loved or detested cookbooks?
I have definitely not stepped up to the plate in my adulthood with regard to cooking. A few years ago my oldest sister compiled a notebook of beloved family recipes and gave a copy to my other sister and me, so I will have to say that is by far my most well-loved cookbook because it’s full of nostalgic recipes. Even though I never actually make them.

Name a food that evokes a strong memory of a particular time and place in your life.
“Light” hostess twinkies = the beginning of high school. They would be a lunch-time or after-school snack, bought in the little cellophane two-pack from the CVS right by my high school. They totally encompass the misery and anxiety of high school for me.

What is your relationship to caffeine?
I don’t think I’m totally dependent but I definitely feel better on days when I have coffee. On days when I am too lazy to go out and get coffee I’ll have some English Breakfast tea.

What is the best burger you've ever had?
In n’ out animal style cheeseburger is by far my favorite. I think my family cooked pretty good burgers when I was a kid but they always insisted on using English muffins as buns, and I HATED that. I still kind of hate it. A hamburger bun should be pillowy soft.

Are there any foods that would receive an f- grade from you?
I had to taste this thing when I was in Russia that was the grossest thing I’ve ever had in my life. It was like a molded sort of pie, with cabbage and mayonnaise, I think, and an overpowering fishy element. F-.

Describe a work of art that inspired or affected your eating.
“Like Water for Chocolate” got me excited about trying mole sauce. Reading that recent article about pig farms in Harper’s made me want to try to stop eating pork, though I doubt I ever actually will. Do either of these things count as works of art?

In my family we often took to calling Ramen Noodles "Trash Noodles." Do you have any cute food nicknames?
My family actually called Ramen noodles “Topperamen” (like, TopperRAYmen, not TopperRAHmen). Not sure why. Part of the reason was that the brand of ramen we usually bought was “Top Ramen”, but I don’t know how the words got blended together, or why no one knew how to pronounce “Ramen” correctly. Also Kraft American cheese was called “Lizzie cheese” for a very long time, because I, Lizzie, really enjoyed eating it.

Based on what you've read of the diets of each food reporter, which food reporter would you eat?
Strach.

Along the lines of "Salt," "Cod," and "History of the World In Six Glasses," what foodstuff would you most like to read a book about?
I have still never read “Fast Food Nation.” I really want to read that. I suppose I would also read a book about Pork Sung. But it would mostly consist of fan fiction about Pork Sung.

Is there any food you are embarrassed about how much you like it?
Kraft macaroni and cheese. String cheese. Pickles.

What was your favorite meal in the Harvard dining halls? How much would you pay to eat this meal tonight? If this meal were available in Staten Island, would you be willing to travel there to eat it?
I was a big fan of Sunday brunch, with the chicken-and-broccoli things. I would usually eat two of those and then one of those cinnamon twist pastries. I would pay 6 dollars for this meal. I would not travel to Staten Island for it.

Whew! Look at that! It’s almost time for “Lost” club.