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Definitely my very own gumbo (not only does it RULE, but it is memory in a bowl for me), my mom's fried catfish, Greek summer tomato and anthotiro salad with fresh basil, the most expensive champagne in the universe, Greek late summer figs, pecans, real Key Lime pie, homemade vanilla bean ice cream, strong-strong Italian espresso (with cream in it - so shoot me).
Right now it would be Taz's red beans and smoked sausage treat that she posted on mecha cooks. I made it yesterday, let it sit overnight, and had mouth full of marvel when i tasted it this morning. Mm mm mmm. I'm going to eat tonight with some brownrice mashed up with butter and blackpepper. I pray it wont be my last meal and that I'm around for some time to come.
Man. I have thought about this question a lot and only ever come to the conclusion that I want it all.
I mean, I start making a list, and it ends up like chicken-fried steak, collard greens, mashed potatoes, parsnips, carrots, onions, turnips, ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, fish & chips & malt vinegar, cheeseburgers, spinach salad and hard-boiled eggs, vegetable soup, sausages & sauerkraut, steamed broccoli & lemon butter, rib roast, yorkshire pudding, rice pudding, bread pudding, corn fritters, apple fritters, pancakes & maple syrup, rare steaks, pork chops, applesauce, liver dumplings, smoked tongue, french bread, black bread, sour cream and herring, pierogies, paprika, meggyes rétes, mushroom soup, tuna noodle casserole, meat loaf and gravy, cornbread, chicken over waffles, split pea soup and ham; bacon, eggs, and biscuits, fruit juice and fresh pineapple and bananas and pears and sweet cherries, burritos and beer and hot salsa and roasted peppers, funnel cake, corn dogs, polish sausage sandwiches, and pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms and olives and extra cheese, cheese steaks, onion rings, sauteed cabbage, cabbage soup, lentil soup, and black bean soup, fruit pies and cheesecake, and...
And since you like the red beans and rice, here's the gumbo recipe, in case you haven't seen it. (I'm not sure it's on the Mecha Cooks blog.)
Wolfdog: limiting it is the whole exercise! Of course we all would want everything that tastes good to us, especially when there's no tomorrow. But that wouldn't be possible... and that's exactly why it's an interesting question. Otherwise, it would just be a list-your-favorite-foods thread.
*adopts schoolteacher manner*: Now go back to the groaning board (table of abundance) and choose only what you could realistically consume on your last day on earth. (Of course, for this exercise, we also have to assume that imminent death is not going to fuck with our appetites... which, in my case, it probably woudn't).
choose only what you could realistically consume on your last day
Taz has never met my metabolism. The schoolmarm voice doesn't work on me. Sorry.
More the point is that you could pick any subset of stuff and I'd probably be happy. But I can't make a short list myself. Constitutionally incapable. I like making the board groan.
I have professional immunity. But, as a general tip, the schoolmarm act is more convincing if you don't drop a gratuitous "fuck" in as an afterthought.
But you get to have anything! Are you seriously telling me that is the whole alpha and omega? It wouldn't be, like, George Bush's heart, and some Rocky Road ice cream?
They'd have to fly me to Madrid for tapas, then London for this rabbit stew i once had, then to Paris for dessert (hopefully i would have escaped by that point)
Bush's heart is a good idea--except he obviously doesn't have one.
Brains.
But not squirrel brains. (I wouldn't be put off eating them, but mercy, you can't get more than about a tablespoon of brains out of a squirrel. Can't see the point. I like fried squirrel, but even using the whole critter you need several to make a meal.)
Mom's oyster stew. Milk and butter heated in a huge pot, oysters cooked gently in a separate pot, then combined broth and all with the milk and butter. Poured over a heaping handful of oyster crackers, sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Vegetable lasagne (like, the whole tray) and Haagen Daz coffee ice cream. And then I would hope to die immediately afterwards, because I would really feel like crap about an hour after eating the dairy products.
Any kind of brains will do, but quantity is definitely what matters. When I come back as zombie-sciurus I want to have enough initial energy to rend my captors.
Buffalo wings, jalapeno poppers, philly roll sushi, cheeseteak with jalapenos & bacon, italian sub, bratwurts & sauerkraut, a loaded baked potato, a tall cold beer, and a deep-fried mars bar.
A bottle of 'ludes and some Mr. Boston's tequila, assuming I am going to be put to death, I refuse to give the motherfuckers the satisfaction.
Otherwise Surf and Turf, raw oysters, lots of very cold beer and maybe a good caeser salad. Which would be fine, I somehow don't know if I would want my last meal to be the best meal I ever ate.
Two filets from Ruth's Chris with steak fries and their black bread,
or
beef skewers and curry chicken (no vegetables)
both with an RC and an IBC Cherry Cola and White Chocolate mousse for dessert.
They wouldn't have to kill me I would simply explode like Mr. Creosote (I'm used to small meals).
My family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner: antipasto, stuffed artichokes, spaghetti with fish gravy (tomato sauce simmered with bacala, calamari, lobster, shrimp, scallops... oh my god), garlicky overcooked broccoli, potatoes au gratin, salad, cannoli for dessert. Although I'd need to fit pineapple in there somewhere, too.
me3dia, would your family like to adopt a 35-year old? He's even Italian.
Actually, we get a good holiday spread since we go to my rich uncle's house. He's a self-made rich guy, so he likes to show off by killing several fatted calves.
Ooooo we do the Seven Fishes too. Only it's more like 15 fishes. This year my husband is making his world famous fish cakes (all fish, no filler...mmmm) and I'm making seafood fra diavlo, which is so good. It's scallops, squid, crab, and clams in a garlic and wine enhanced red tomato sauce, with lots of red crushed pepper for the heat.
My daughter's making the 'wild card dish' this year - octopus, squid, and shrimp marinated salad.
There's always smelts, batter dipped flounder, calamari, mussels in white sauce, some cod thing with plums, and shrimp cocktail, and some other things I can't remember right now. me3dia, that sounds amazing...the whole meal. Fish gravy is just unbelievable.
Oh! I totally forgot the smelts. Put those in between the artichokes and the spaghetti
Actually, what I listed is sort of a simplified version of the meal -- I didn't want to go overboard, since it was a prison meal. The smelts usually come with fried calamari and shrimp, too, and we often have another shrimp dish (dejong, cold w/ cocktail sauce, etc.) before the artichokes.
You all must be Southern Eyetalians, (who make badass food and are incredible people). Mi famiglia is from further north, near Lago Di Como. We make gnocchi, risotto milanese, minestrone, gorgonzola. You guys do the sauce and the fish, we handle the starch.
You Italian-type folk are making me really, really hungry.
but this is important:
tetsuo: are you from the New Orleans area? Or is Ruth's Chris now all over the country? Or at least somewhere else besides the GNOMA ("greater new orleans metropolitan area" - now a phrase with very little meaning)?
Peter Looooooooooo-gyz is a Brooklyn institution. I, too, hope it has nothing to do with snot. You get abysmal service from crusty old men there, and delicious, sizzling, unadorned, aged steaks.
ah. It kind of sounds like back in the olden days of Ruth's Chris, when it was pretty much a "made-guy" (or some other, more appropriate, mafia lingo) place.
Extra-sourdough bread, rare prime rib, creamed spinach, risotto, milk chocolate, salmon, blueberries, honeycrisp apples, medium scrambled eggs, custard style macaroni and cheese, gnocchi, osso bucco, lemon pasta from Frank in the East Village, peaches, black grapes, chicken and dumplings....I could go on, but can't think of anything else right now.
It was traditional to order the toilet seat sized steak when I went, but the main reason that I said I hope you got a hundred dollars was because I always tried to get someone else to pay.
i'll let this infraction slide, janus, because my dueling pistols is currently down at the pawn ship, where they is being held for me against a great need than a pint of the bird, as it where.
In that case, eamondaly, Ruth's Chris has changed. A lot. The best ever, ever, ever steak I've ever had, ever was from there... a thousand years ago.
But also, I'd still be interested to know what the "Looooooooooo-gyz" place actually goes by in, let's say, the Yellow Pages. Like, you know? If you didn't live in Noo Yawk? What would you call it? "Luigi's"?
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