A lot of eaters have been divulging food fantasies lately...many people (wrong-minded people who won't be reading this blog) may argue that thinking longingly of food is self-indulgent and decadent, but I think dreaming of food usually has more to do with context than actual nosh.
Some people associate a certain food with loved ones, who may or many not be around for another 'round.
Some use food to invoke a place and time.
Some particularly cerebral eaters use it to channel the farm-to-table process that most of us take for granted.
Me? I think I'm guilty of a little of each of these.
(And I'm really impressed that all the aforementioned foodies kept their lists so SHORT...I had to cut mine off after 10 minutes of dream-feasting. Apparently, I'm a dream-glut.)
Raw Milk Versions of ANY cheese (top 3: Stilton, Brie de Meaux, Valdeon)
Any regional ham (top 2: Culatello and Jamon Iberico de Bellota)
Honest-to-God Paella, cooked over an open fire
Fried Chicken and Waffles, made by Leah Chase
Onion Soup in Paris
Fish Tacos in Baja, with my cousins and brothers in tow
Tomatoes and Burrata anywhere on the boot in summertime
Mangosteens in Phuket, with my mother
One-piece-at-a-time tempura in Tokyo
Sichuan Hotpot in Chengdu
Prawn Mee in Malaysia
Kobe Beef in Kobe
Poutine in Montreal
Poke from the Tamashiro Fish Market
Lobster on the roadside in Maine
Omakase, a stone's throw from the Tsukiji Fish Market
"Poutine in Montreal" - totally!
Posted by: Jon Sperry | November 29, 2007 at 12:36 PM
TOTALLY owe that one to the Sperrypantses travels. ;D
I suppose disco fries will do.
What are the Sperry food dreams?
Posted by: EF | November 29, 2007 at 01:03 PM
There are a lot. Malasadas from Leonard's in Oahu, Biegnets and Chicory coffee in New Orleans (both doughnut related, I know :))...
Lately I've been craving some New York specific foods. Two Boots Pepperoni Pizza, San Loco messy Mexican food with 'stupid sauce' and the antipasto plates and butternut squash ravioli special at Little Frankie's.
Alas, those are three time zones away.
Posted by: Jon Sperry | November 29, 2007 at 02:07 PM
I kept hearing about poutine the time I went to Montreal -- half-Irishman that I am, I thought they were talking about *poitin* (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poit%C3%ADn). I think the latter was originally made with potatoes, so it's all in one happy food family. Which reminds me, I sometimes think longingly of the shepherd's pie at the restaurant by the train station in Scarsdale!
Posted by: Ben | November 29, 2007 at 06:52 PM
Most of my food dreams are nostalgia-related:
* sausage rolls
* 4-and-20 meat pies
* pavlova
* homemade Xmas pudding with whisky sauce (Xmas pudding optional)
but some are more bluntly gustatory:
* puris or idlis with sambar
* baby arugala
* caprese salad
* thai green curry with virtually anything in it
* chocolate somethingorother that may or may not look like somethingorother that I've had before that also had chocolate in it
* baklava
* napoleons
* algerian cookies (like from Nomad in the E Village)
* milkshakes (sans boys in the yard)
Posted by: A-lister | December 02, 2007 at 04:33 AM
Food dreams? Sydney rock oysters on the shell with a squeeze of lemon.
Middle loin lamb chops on the grill without all the fat removed, with sugar peas and mash.
Passionfruit flummery and cream.
Posted by: Margaret D | December 02, 2007 at 11:18 PM