Let's Play...20 Questions

Thanks to J. from Thinking About... for tagging me on this one. You're such a flatterer!

1. What’s your #1 comfort food? For the moment it's white chocolate. Don't think of it as chocolate but as rich, creamy butter candy.

2. If you were on a deserted island, what one food would you want to have with you? What's got all the 4 food groups? Minestrone with pancetta and parmesan.

3. What is/are your signature dishes? (What dishes are you ‘known’ for?) I'm best known from my own sourdough bread from the starter I grew a few years ago and lives in my fridge.

4. It’s Friday night, you don’t know what to cook. You opt for…Easy pasta al pesto from the pesto cubes in the freezer. Snap.

5. What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to food? Sugar, sugar, sugar. It's been that way all my life.

6. What food can you absolutely not eat? Bananas. I hate their smell, their texture, their taste, everything. I once threw up after eating the required 1/2 banana on some fad diet when I was in 8th grade. I actually tell hosts who try to serve me something with bananas in it that I'm severely allergic.

7. You need a drink. You grab a… um...whaddya mean, by drink? am I thirsty? (water) or stressed? (red wine)

8. What’s the most decadent dish you’ve had? Another question with multiple interpretations: calorie-wise it would be the full cajun gumbo dinner last year where a guest brought some lasagne to share. Jeez. Money-wise, our wedding feast at Charlie Trotter's

9. What’s your favorite type of food? My favorite food nationalities are: Italian, Mexican, Indian and Thai.

10. Favorite dish? Come on! That's as hard as asking my favorite song! I could give you my top 100. But the first one that comes to mind right now (think! think!) is Gabriel's taramasalata.

11. If your partner could take you to any restaurant you wanted, which one would it be? Since I've already mentioned Charlie Trotter's (maybe for an anniversary) I'll say Chez Panisse in San Francisco. Gotta love that Alice Waters.

12. Are you a soup or salad person? Salad's great but soup all the way. Refer back to the desert island question.

13. Buffet, take-out or sit-down restaurant? I sooo miss the fantabulous street food of Chicago, Italian beef, tamales, paletas, Italian subs, etc. Guess take-out's the closest.

14. What’s the most impressive dinner you’ve ever made? Gabriel and I have collaborated on many an impressive dinner. Maybe the time he shucked 20 oysters for an appetizer, I made osso bucco with risotto alla milanese a green salad along with the cheese course and floating islands for dessert. It was really good.

15. Do you consider yourself a good cook? Yeah. I love it and I think I'm good at it.

16. Do you know what vichyssoise is? Yeah. It's cold Potage Parmentier. Believe me, the hot version is better.

17. Who’s your favorite TV cook? Um, believe it or not, there are only really sucky TV cooks in Italy.

18. Can you name at least three TV cooking personalities? Sure here's 3 I've heard of but never seen in action: Nigella Lawson, Alton Brown and Rachel Ray.

19. Homemade or homemade from a box? All homemade, all the time. Even bread and mayonnaise.

20. Name 3 or more other foodies you are going to tag. Hey you out there, are you feeling taggable? Get to it! Let me know in a comment if you decide to do this one.