Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'reader surveys'
It's Hard To Look Good While Eating....
I was hesitant to post the picture of Craig eating the egg onion bagel in the post below this because of a certain theory I have, a theory that goes: "It's hard to look good while eating a bagel and cream cheese." Nothing grosses me out more than globs of cream cheese on someone's lips while they snap and tear at a chewy overstuffed bagel. I know I'd hate to watch ME eat a bagel and cream cheese, which is why I mostly eat bagels and cream cheese on my own. Which leads to a question for you, readers: which foods do you hate to watch other people eat? Have you ever been on a date and gotten totally turned off by watching your date consume something unattractive? Let it all out in the comments....
What was the best thing you ate this weekend?
Every now and then I like to ask you, reader, a question. And my question, after this lovely Memorial Day weekend, is this: what was the best thing you ate this weekend? No, not the 2nd best thing, the BEST thing. Tell us about it, will you?...
Amateur Gourmet 2008 Reader Survey
Fans, Friends, Foes--- it's 2008 and on Monday we'll be celebrating this site's 4th anniversary. I thought I'd take a moment to probe you (not in the bad way) on who you are, what you like about the site and what you'd like to see me do in the future. At your convenience, please answer the following in the comments. If your comment doesn't show up, it probably means it was junked and I will unjunk it later. Movable Type can be touchy. Name: Age: Gender: Location: How You Discovered The Site: How Long You've Been Reading: Favorite Post: I Wish You'd Do More: I Wish You'd Attempt To Cook: I Wish You'd Review: You Should Have A Banner with Flying ___: Anything Else?: Thanks!...
What's your favorite cold weather food?
Tonight I made my standard tomato sauce (see book, Chapter One) except with some tweaks: I skipped the carrot, skipped the thyme. And since it's getting cold out, I started out with bacon and made a kind of Amatriciana. Bacon in tomato sauce is the kind of thing you can only really enjoy as the weather gets cooler and so it's time to ask you, lovely readers: what's your favorite cold weather food? My list also includes: chili, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, any kind of stew (particularly with lamb), soup (of course), and/or anything braised....
What was the best thing you ate this weekend?
My answer's easy: we had leftover basil from a soup I made on Friday night (a Tuscan bean soup that I'll tell you about later in the week). I whipped up a quick pesto--garlic, pine nuts, and salt zapped with the basil and then olive oil streamed in through the tube, grated Parmesan added at the end--and, instead of using dried spaghetti as I normally might, I made linguini from scratch: That might sound incredibly audacious, but it really wasn't. I used a Lydia Bastianich recipe and it was this simple: put two cups of flour into a bowl, add 2 eggs, 1/4 cup olive oil and 3 Tbs of cold water. That's it. Stir together with a fork until it comes together into a ball and then knead it in the bowl. Once it's really together, put on a floured board and need for another few minutes. Wrap in plastic, let rest 30 minutes, and then put through your pasta machine. Now I won't lie, my machine was causing me some frustration. Craig heard me yelling a certain word that starts with "F" from the other room, and that's because: (1) the machine kept hopping around, the clamp that's supposed to stick it to the table wasn't working; and (2) mysteriously, the first setting wasn't flattening the pasta the way it should have, it was making it all dimpled and weird. I resolved this by rolling it out a lot by hand and then feeding it through the machine: once I did that, it was a cinch. I got a big pot of water boiling, cooked the pasta for less than a minute, and then tossed with the pesto. It was fantastic. But enough about me...what was the best thing you ate this weekend?? P.S. My Next Iron Chef post is up on The Food Network site, check it out here. P.P.S. Last week I did an interview with Jewcy, a Jewish website, and if you want to read all about my bris and how the mohel botched it, you can click here. P.P.P.S. You may have noticed my picture quality looks a little funky: that's because my real camera's in the shop, so I've been using my cellphone camera. Hopefully my camera will be repaired and ready this week. Thank you....
Which food magazine has the best Thanksgiving issue?
I just received Gourmet's Thanksgiving issue in the mail and taken alongside Bon Appetit's (which I read in the store) plus Food & Wine's and Saveur's, there's an abundance of ideas for what to make this Thanksgiving. Thus I turn to you, readers: which food magazine do you like the most for Thanksgiving? Which magazine's proved trustworthy in the past, which has let you down?...
Your Drink
So I was watching "Groundhog Day" for a bit on TV last night and there's that scene where Bill Murray is trying to seduce Andie MacDowell in a bar. He memorizes facts about her so that when the day happens again, he can win her heart. One of these facts happens to be what drink she likes: sweet vermouth on the rocks. When he orders that for himself the second time around, she says, "That's my favorite drink." My regular drink isn't so singular: it's a Tanqueray and Tonic. I stole the drink from my dad and now it's what I order when I go out. Would I be seduced if Bill Murray crept up next to me and ordered a Tanqueray and Tonic? Probably not. I'd be more impressed if he sang a song from Pippin. This begs the question, though, reader: what's YOUR drink? How did it become your drink? How important is your drink to you? The Bill Murrays of the world want to know....
