





What things give you energy?
Breath and food. But I also find movement, music, and being in a natural setting feel energizing,
I prefer to keep my cooking in the realm in which I can wing it without great a risk of disaster. Otherwise, it becomes too much like a science lab, and that’s a lot of pressure.
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
Probably about $50 USD.
No. Definitely not. I don’t have fancy tastebuds, so all my system can differentiate is how much pride they are taking in putting such scant portions of edible matter on the plate. I do not find pride filling.
Of late, I’ve thought it would be fun to learn to make some of my Chinese favorites — e.g. Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁,) Twice-Cooked Pork (回锅肉,) and Sesame Chicken (芝麻鸡.)
If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?
It would need to be someone who wouldn’t be put off or demoralized by my primitive cooking skills. So, not anyone particularly fancy or famous.
Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?
Probably Fair food would (as in County Fair.) Provided they haven’t all changed since I was a kid. (Having not been to a Fair since childhood, I wouldn’t know. Hence, its validity as an answer.) So, anything inappropriately breaded and deep-fried.
I’ve never run across home-cooking or home style cooking that was close enough to my mother’s to trigger nostalgia. (Though I guess tuna-mac recalls undergrad years lean on time and money, but with a youthful propensity to not worry over the waistline.)
Hoeing farmer, as heat haze roils,
His flowing sweat waters the soil.
All those who know food on a plate
Should feel each grain comes of that toil.
NOTE: The title of this poem (悯农, or Mǐn Nóng) is often translated as “Toiling Farmers,” though “Compassion for Farmers” or “Pity Farmers” would be closer to the literal translation.
Thai curry — red, green, massaman, it makes no difference. It tastes good, smells good, and is nutritious — at least in the way that I load it with vegetables. And it requires all those satisfying cooking actions — i.e. slicing, dicing, etc. Also, it’s simple and mistake-forgiving to an extent that even someone unskilled — such as myself — has a hard time fouling it up.