Five Things To Eat Before You Die

August 31, 2006 | By | COMMENTS

Apparently this meme is making the rounds and in a crunch for content, here’s my contribution:

The Amateur Gourmet’s Five Things To Eat Before You Die

1. A good Cuban sandwich. I like the one at Chelsea Havana, but if you’ve never had a Cuban Sandwich before you should find the best one in your area and eat it. Especially if you’re dying.

2. Pot Au Feau au Trois Viandes with David Lebovitz in Paris.

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3. Rainbow Cookies. They’re the red, yellow and green cookies with chocolate on the outside and jam in the middle. They are my favorite cookie. Life without these cookies would be a fate WORSE than death.

4. This is such an obvious choice it’s practically cliche but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’d want the lobster roll at Pearl Oyster Bar as my last meal.

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It’s decadent but cozy, rich and deeply satisfying. It’s the best single food item I can think of that you can eat in New York. Although, be warned, if you don’t like mayo–as Diana doesn’t–this won’t be your favorite. But Diana’s crazy. She can’t nibble on my last meal.

5. Pasta. I just love pasta. It’s my favorite thing to make and eat. It doesn’t matter if it’s rigatoni with sausage and tomato sauce or a simple penne with butter, parmesan and nutmeg. No matter what, a deeply comforting bowl of pasta is life’s greatest reward.

And those are my suggestions for what to eat before you die though, the more I think about it, I think I misunderstood the prompt: I think I was supposed to just list five unheralded items for people to discover, not food everyone knows and already eats. This wasn’t a last meal question. Ah well. I still like my list. Tell us, though, what are YOUR five things to eat before you die?

Categories: Uncategorized

  • http://www.tiltbob.com Jason Sholar

    Before I die I want (need) to eat more Gnocchi. I do not think it is possible to have the dish too often. Every day might be a good aim. :-) To go along with the Gnocchi should be a good sized helping of Saffron Risotto. Yummmm… Now I’m hungry.

  • http://gypsysoul73.blogspot.com Christine

    That is one mouth-watering list! Now I’m craving for a lobster roll and it’s close to 2 am here. Nothing I can do about it but dream. You’ve intrigued me with the Cuban sandwich, will have to look for a recipe to try.

  • Christine

    There was a recipe in the Times Dining section last week for a Cuban Sandwich. It sounded awesome!

  • samantha

    those rainbow cookies are my absolute favorite thing in the whole world. for my birthday once, my friend bought me an entire bakery box full of them. she pulled me aside and gave them to me in secret, away from my other party guests and told me to hide them in the back of the frigde, so i could have all of them for myself.

    best. birthday. ever.

  • Kelly

    hmmm…

    My husband’s steak that he cooks is awesome

    My mom’s meat loaf and lasagna

    fair fries with malt vinegar

    pork milanese Giada-style

    Yes, these are very yummy things to have.

  • http://www.travelerslunchbox.com Melissa

    Unheralded or not, these are some mighty fine contributions (and aside from the pasta, are all new to me). Thanks for joining in!

  • andrea

    i am unable to pick just five foods for this list, but i do need to say that i just had the most delicious cuban sandwich for lunch today! yum! if anyone in LA is reading, head down to Posh over on Pico tomorrow and eat one! they’re delicious! the hamburger is also amaaaazing. sadly, tomorrow is there last day before they re-open in a yet unknown location.

    AG, your photo of the lobster roll makes me hungry. and what are these rainbow cookies of which you speak? and yes, pasta would be on my list as well!

  • http://lobstersquad.blogspot.com losbtersquad

    that´s a great list. and rainbow cookies are pretty unheralded here. forgive me, but they sound atrocious. I can´t wait to try them.

  • http://www.davidlebovitz.com David L

    Well, it didn’t make my list, but I’ll add having a Lobster Sandwich with Adam at Pearl Oyster bar to mine (except I’m a melted butter kinda guy, and they use mayo…).

  • Anne

    5 varieties of french fries.

  • http://magiccookie.blogspot.com/ CM

    I LOVE those cookies… and, you know, they’re not that hard to make yourself! Three layers of a thin almond cake with food coloring, spread with jam and stacked, pressed with a metal pan for a while so they stay together, and then covered with chocolate. The process takes a couple of hours (less if, unlike me, you have more than one pan) but everyone is impressed because they can’t believe you made these at home.

  • jules

    Catfish tacos from Miracle Grill in the West Village! I fly back to NYC at least once a year just for them. (well, and to visit friends, but even they know the tacos seal the deal of my visitation!!!!)

  • http://pinkhouse.typepad.com Shelley (Pink House)

    This looks like a fun Meme. I’m going to do it on my blog very soon. Already my mind is at work to whittle the list down to just 5 food items. Hhhmm. So difficult. I did finally finish my Cookbook Collection Awards Meme, (inpsired by your blog post) on my blog. Click on “Cookbook Collection Awards” under categories to read my 8 or so awards.

    Also, going to Pearl Oyster Bar was on my list for my most recent trip to NYC with the hub as I hadn’t made it there the two trips before that. We planned to go for lunch one day and couldn’t find the darn place on foot in Greenwich. So mad about that! That lobster roll looks SO GOOD! I love lobster rolls and so far I’ve sampled many varieties in Maine and Boston, but this one looks great. If you’re in Boston, go to Jasper White’s Summer Shack (I like the one by the Alewife T Station) and have his lobster roll – you can get it with mayo or the butter version. The New England roll is perfectly buttered and toasted. So good! He also has the best New England Clam Chowder. My gosh, I want to go there right now!

  • http://www.tarametblog.com Tara

    Rainbow cookies are my favorite too!! Everyone gets canoli’s at Ferrara’s and I order rainbow cookies, they even have large ones that look like cake slices. I’m now adding Pearl Oyster Bar to my to visit list.

  • http://www.monicaricci.typepad.com Monica Ricci

    One of the reasons I plan to never live north of the Mason Dixon again is because you don’t find barbecue up north like you can down here in the south. I’m a Yankee by birth but I love being a Southern Belle if for no other reason but the barbecue. Lawdy Mercy that stuff is good! ~Monica