The Food Thread!

The Common Room Members, Inc.
#1

Either it’s because I’m starving and I can smell my bro cooking our delicious pepper prawn lunch, or it must be that recent viewing of Ratatouille, but I’ve decided to create this thread to discuss our culinary obsessions. I did a quick run of this board, and I can’t believe this thread hasn’t been made earlier. Anyhoo, what are some of your favourite food?

Off the top of my head, my ultimate favourite would have to be Tom Yum soup. Yes, if any of you know it, it’s that spicy seafood soup from The Land of Smiles, Thailand. The tangy sourness of the lime, the biting spiciness of the crushed chilli peppers, the bits of lemongrass lending their earthy flavour to the hot broth… and oh, the prawns and squid, the taste of the sea… ah… I’m starting to drool as I write this. My personal favourite is the chicken variety, tom yum gai, but there are prawn, fish, and mixed versions too.

The best tom yum I’ve ever tasted in my life is at a cafe at Don Mueang/Old International Airport, Bangkok. I get annoyed when some chefs try to add other ingredients like tomatoes or cabbage into it!

A good tom yum should not taste too sweet, should be a little sour, and always, always, really hot. The kind that burns your tongue and makes you reach for your water variety. It’s almost masochistic, and this might sound crazy, but if I only had one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be this (with some rice, of course).

I have a couple of other favourite foods to describe, but I think I’ll stop rambling and let you guys reveal your own taste palettes. You can also use this thread to talk about the last meal you ate, if you like. :wink:

#2

Wow, thedriveintheatre, you described that exactly like a Food Network star. :laughing:

Favorite food. First thing that comes to mind is tinola manok, a dish I can pretty much inhale when presented in front of me along with a bowl of rice. It’s a soup dish from the Philippines that my relatives made for me whenever I asked for it. It’s made with green papaya, some kind of green leaf, ginger, and chicken. There’s something about the broth that makes me want to drink it by the gallon. It has a nice savory flavor, it’s smooth, and has a ginger undertone. When you eat all the ingredients together along with some rice in one spoonful, you just want to keep eating it until it’s all gone. It’s also my only real “comfort food”, since everytime I’m eating it I feel like I’m somewhere in Manila at a table, eating a bowl of it while my family whom I love, but don’t get to see very often, are all talking and having a good time.

I went semi-vegetarian like a week ago (not quite ready to give up all meat and seafood, don’t think I can skip out on something like a new york strip steak for the rest of my life), so my favorite vegetarian food is this burger where the patty is a portabello mushroom cap. It’s topped with tomatoes, romaine lettuc, pesto, a wonderful garlic aoli, and cradled in between two whole-grain buns that taste sweet for some reason (brings it all together though).

I have a lot of others, but we’ll get to them later.

#3

My favourite food is pizza.

#4

Oh boy, where do I start? There are so much to name.

Breakfast
Pancakes w/ syrup
eggs (over easy/sunny side up)
bacon
sausage
doughnuts
sweet rolls w/ butter

Lunch/Dinner
Sushi
Pizza
Pasta
chicken
pork
beef
lamb
lobster
crab
fish
frog
mushroom
corn
rice
mashed potatos
country fried steak w/ gravy
chicken pot pes
soup (french onion, minestrone, miso, wonton, etc)
burgers
filet mignon (w/ blueberry sauce)
burgers
(and much more, but thinking of more only makes me hungrier)

Dessert
Ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, green tea)
jello (grape, rasberry)
cookies (sugar, chocolate chip)
ice cream cake
creme brulee
pie (chocolate cream, custard, apple, pumkin, etc)
cheesecake (w/ blueberry/rasberry glaze on top)

#5

Well, I have a really bad sweet tooth so my weaknesses would be: Cadbury chocolate (top deck or rocky road/creme eggs but they’re only available from January - April), custard berliners, smores, kettle chips (even though they’re more salty than sweet), M&Ms cookies from Subway, McDonalds fries, and KFC hot chips with potato and gravy. Yeah… if I didn’t have a fairly fast metabolism I’d be in big trouble. :blush:

My favourite meals would be Indian (malai kofta w/ rice and cheesy naan bread), and margherita and vegetarian pizza w/ garlic bread.

I like reading about all the traditional meals. Sounds like I need to get my hands on some warm, Asian soup!

#6

I’ll try some of that Tom Yum soup when I go to Thailand in November, thedriveintheatre. It sounds delicious! :smiley:

And I, too, love my spicy foods. As an ingredient and on its own, I love jalapeno peppers and as an afternoon snack I’ll eat them out of a jar with some sliced cheddar cheese. Mmm.

I also love cheese. :laughing: And smoked salmon, and spare ribs, and anything barbecue-ish. I generally like seafood - mussels, most types of fish, octopus- but nothing can beat smoked salmon with a bit of cracked black pepper and loads of lemon juice.

Rachel - They do chips with gravy in KFC in Australia? Sounds delicious!

#7

Oh goody, this thread is getting pretty good responses! :slight_smile:

  • That chicken soup dish sounds delicious. And I get what you mean by your homeland’s food bringing back nostalgic memories. Whenever I tuck into M’sian fare like char kway teow, curry mee, or roti prata, it brings me back to those childhood days eating at charming, unhygienic, crowded coffee shops. :smiley:

Seriously, TSS? :open_mouth: I think I may have tried it before, but anyway, what’s it taste like?

.
wags finger Tsk, tsk, naughty, naughty! :slight_smile: Going through that list made me feel ‘heavy’ for some reason. Oh, and it made me laugh out loud.
I love naan bread. And garlic bread. I have no idea about Irish cuisine, but do you have any traditional food that you like that’s not made by a fast-food chain? :stuck_out_tongue: Oh, and if you ever try tom yum, do tell me what you think of it.

I think she meant them as separate orders, lizardgirl. I haven’t encountered such a side dish offered in Sydney restaurants, but if they ever do serve such a thing, I’d love to try it!
Jalapeno with cheddar sounds interesting, never thought of that before! And I love the sound of salmon in lemon juice!

Well, talking about fast-food chains, some of my favourite are KFC (the chicken and fries in Oz are super salty, the ones in Indo come with rice, and the ones in Malaysia and Singapore are just right, IMO), A&W (love the coney dogs and root beer), Kenny Rogers (I remember looking forward to visits as a kid), Pizza Hut (well, the pizzas and atmosphere are nice) and Nandos (they weren’t kidding when they said their peri-peri was addictive!).

#8

lol, yeah, I’m a bit of a junk food junkie. I feel so embarrassed now you’ve pointed out my gluttony, heheh. Hm, well, the Irish eat a lot of potatoes and we do eat a lot of them such as in soups, and as mashed potato, since it’s one of the most versatile vegetables. The typical Aussie dinner growing up was meat and cooked vegetables (very English), of which was as boring as it sounds here.

Oh, you just reminded me of Pizza Hut! I don’t know about interstate, but the only Pizza Huts here are the ones where you can pick-up or they deliver pizza, you can’t dine in and have “pizza, pasta. salad and desert” anymore. That’s probably for the best since I heard buffet-style restaurants have nasty germs on the food. Nevertheless I still remember heaping great big spoonfulls of chocolate mousse, ice-cream and marshmallows and sprinkles into my bowl as a kid. They also haven’t had Sizzlers here in ages, but I know they still have 'em in Queensland.

Speaking of the Sunshine State, that is one of the few states in Oz that has one of my other fav foods… Krispy Kreme donuts! While those in the US are lucky enough to eat them since they sprouted teeth, but I only tasted one a couple of years ago. They’re sooo good. The original glazed are like biting into a sugary cloud, but the assorted varieties are yummy too. Unfortunately, there’s no plans to open any stores or outlets in South Australia because of licensing restrictions, so whenever a family member travels interstate they bring back two dozen KK donuts on the plane as a carry-on which lasts… oh, not even 3 days in our household - especially if I’m around! :stuck_out_tongue:

See, told you I had a sweet tooth (hence the username). :slight_smile:

They don’t have the potato and gravy tubs at the KFCs in Sydney, thedriveintheatre? You should double-check next time. It’s so good. You dip your chips into it!

Well, I’m a vegetarian so hopefully I can find or make the vego alternative of the tom yum soup. :wink:

#9

Love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They’re just so soft when you bite into 'em. And it doesn’t hurt to have all that glaze enveloping it. Kinda sucks there aren’t any nearby you, rachel. :astonished:

Also a big fan of A&W root beer, love the froth at the top. :smiley: Favorite fast food chain would have to be Carl’s Jr. or In-N-Out (California only, I think). Both serve really great burgers to the point where all the toppings might be bursting out, and the sauce/juice is literally leaking out of your napkin. When the burger is messy, you know it’s going to be good.

#10

TDIT: Well, the frog I had kinda tasted like chicken with a little hint on fresh, raw seafood.

#11

That’s a pity. They still have those in Singapore and Malaysia. I remember as a kid going to dine-in at PH or another similar pizza franchise called Shakeys used to be an occasion for my siblings and I.

You might be happy (or jealous) to know that there’s two Krispy Kreme outlets in Sydney city! I probably tried it once or twice, yeah, the donuts were nice and sweet. Makes for a good snack or dessert.

That explains a lot.

Oh, I thought you meant they sold the chips dipped in potato & gravy as a single dish! (like Cheesy Fries, have you tried one of those?) :stuck_out_tongue: Yeah, yeah, I get what you mean. It’s fun to dip those salty fries into the gravy. In M’sia and S’pore, we call em’ mashed potatoes, but they all taste the same anyway.

Favorite fast food chain would have to be Carl’s Jr. or In-N-Out (California only, I think). Both serve really great burgers to the point where all the toppings might be bursting out, and the sauce/juice is literally leaking out of your napkin. When the burger is messy, you know it’s going to be good.
Oh snap! :smiley: How could I have left out Carl’s Jr.? They have a few branches in Singapore, and I absolutely love their portbello mushroom burgers! Chilli cheese fries make a great side dish. Popeye’s are also available in Sing, they sell tasty Cajun chicken, IMO.

Nice to know. I think I was fed crocodile soup as a kid (weird Chinese cure for Asthma). Don’t remember how it tasted like, though.

I don’t know whether any of you have heard of this dish, but it’s one of my favourite comfort foods: Char Kway Teow. It’s a popular chinese dish in M’sia and S’pore. The way the hawkers cook it, they dump a whole load of flat rice noodles into this gigantic wok and stir-fry it over high heat (the flames will sometimes shoot out the sides of the stove when they add oil). Then they add prawns, cockles, preserved sausages, egg, and bean sprout, with chilli and soy sauce for seasoning. The Penang variety has the noodles cooked to a light-brown, with a subtle eggy flavour, which is the one I prefer. The Singapore version has more dark sauce, making the noodles look black, and tastes overtly sweet, but it’s not bad either. Ooh, and topped with bits of lard to crunch on, it’s absolutely divine! The only way to experience a true CKT is at one of those ratty hawker stalls in coffee shops around Penang island. It’s a sinful dish, very fatty and soaked in oil, but by God, it’s so worth it! :smiley:

#12

I really love sandwiches simply because there are lots of possibilites witgh what you can prepare them. Otherwise I love fruit salad, especially with strawberries, cherries and peaches. I also have a love for Italian food, like pizza or lasagne or spagehtti bolognese. Other things I adore are pancakes, crêpes, most things involving sausages, chicken and ice cream.

Oh, and I really like eating salt sticks with Nutella, although it’s not something everyone would like, and grilled banana. The latter is often accompanied with whipped cream or Nutella. Might not be an eye candy but it’s so delicious :slight_smile:

#13

I’ve had a few burgers like that at the Steak n Shake in where my toppings kept on falling out. It also doesn’t help when you’re riding in the car eating too. . .

Wings! Must I say more? Especially the ones at Quaker Steak and Lube. Then again, the restaraunt does have “The Best Wings U.S.A.!” :smiley: Not only are the wings good there, but also the decor! It’s a car (and motorcycle to a point) themed restaurant!!! There are two real life Corvettes inside!

I also love chocolate chip cookies!!! Especially when they are right out of the oven. The chocolate is melted, and the cookie is so soft!

#14

Favourite meal: Spaghetti Bolognese.
Favourite Restaurant: Nando’s. Mmmmm…

#15

Oh God, I love Nandos. I can eat it every day! Best Portugese chicken in the world! They weren’t kidding when they said the Peri-Peri was addictive… I always order the hottest version in Sydney, but they can’t hold a candle to the one they serve in Malaysia, the kind they serve back home, now that’s hot. :smiling_imp:

#16

I love In-N-Out! Their burgers, their fries, their shakes, and their extremely simple menu are totally awsome.

As for other foods I like, I enjoy hot dogs, apple pie (the american stuff :wink: ), burgers, Caesar salad, Subway-like sandwiches, pizza, pretzels, mac & cheese, and watermelon. Well, that’s all I could think of for now, but I’ll probably think of more later.

I’ve always wanted to travel the world and go to different countries and get a taste of their culture. So I guess that would include the foods they eat.

#17

That’s hard. I don’t know, I have a lot of favorites. Here’s a few (in order from my favorite to least favorite):

Calamari (Squid)
Sirloin steak
Chili’s mini cheese burgers
Orange chicken
Chili cheese fries
Papa John’s cheese sticks
Cheery turn-overs
Chili dogs
Sweet and sour chicken
Tuna (with WAY too much mayonnaise)
Cinnamon dulce de leche ice cream
Fudge ice cream drumsticks
Cheese pizza
Vanilla been ice cream
Milk chocolate
Cookie doe ice cream
Cookies and cream ice cream
Corn dogs
Cookie doe Pop Tarts
Special K cereal

My mom laughs at me sometimes because I’ll eat the weirdest things (i.e. squid) but I hate trying new foods :unamused: . I guess it’s just me and my habits.

#18

Violet, looking at all of the food you have listed has made me really hungry. :cry:

#19

Sorry to tease you, TSS :laughing: .

#20

Don’t worry about it. It’s all good.