Sunday, August 27, 2006

Meme: Five Things to Eat Before You Die

I'm terribly excited to finally get tagged with a meme. (Thanks, Rebecca!) I love memes and always read them when I'm skimming through a blog that's new to me. I can do without memes that ask for five things you keep in your purse, or whatever, but food-related memes give a glimpse of the blogger's personal history, and that's always a plus.

Rebecca, of Eat, originally originally wrote about five things she's never had and wants to try. I would have liked that kind of meme more. I'm new to cooking and foodie-dom, so there's quite a lot I'd like to try. I just haven't been around long enough to have an intimidatingly exotic list of foods.

But, for now, here's my list of five:

1. Blini, my sentimental favorite. Half a dozen of warm blini with butter, jam, honey and sour cream, washed down with a big pot of tea, is one of the most delicious meals you can ever eat.

2. Manti, steamed Uzbek lamb dumplings. These are oversize pockets of dough with a filling of lamb, onions, coriander, cumin, and, sometimes, pumpkin, stuffed in the middle. They're always steamed in a special dumpling steamer. My boyfriend's mom makes pretty great manti, and she once taught me to make them from start to finish. We used ground lamb, but to make the authentic version you have to chop boneless lamb by hand. Hot, juicy manti must be eaten with your hands, I'm told, never with a knife and fork. Too bad I wasn't blogging when I got my manti lesson, but I'll make them myself one of these days.

3. Fresh fruit in season. I eat lots of fruit but so much of it is disappointing. Really good fresh fruit is one of the great pleasures in life. This is my fruit and berry hierarchy: A-list fruit-- peaches, mangos, nectarines, apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. B-list--melons, pears, grapes, oranges, grapefruit. C-list--Plums, watermelon.

4. My mom's Napoleon cake. Once year, usually around Christmas or New Year's, my mom bakes a Napoleon. You can buy mille feuille pastry ready-made, of course, but my mom makes her own. It's tricky and time-consuming, but worth it, we all agree, when we bite into layers flaky pastry and cream made of butter and sweet condensed milk.

5. Chocolate frozen custard from Kopp's. The creamiest, smoothest, richest ice cream I've ever had.

I'm tagging Jeff of Eat Wisconsin, Helen of Beyond Salmon, Betty of Cuisine Quotidienne, Lindy of Toast and Katherine of ToastPoint.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Yulinka-I've already been tagged-and did my list by comment at Traveler's Lunchbox.( I had been having computer problems.)
I was going to tag YOU-but I guess I wasn't quick enough! This is one fast-traveling game. I like your list.

Anonymous said...

I've clearly got to get hold of some of this Kopp's frozen custard; that's two of you who have named it among your top five things to eat before dying!

Don't forget to send your list to Melissa at the Traveler's lunchbox so she can add it to her master list; you have some unique items on there!

Mrs. M. said...

Lindy--I skimmed through the comments at Traveler's Lunchbox before posting this but I guess didn't see your entry. Would you consider posting it on your blog?

Rebecca--Kopp's chocolate custard is great, vanilla isn't bad, the flavors of the day are hit and miss. Come to Milwaukee and check it out. ;)

I've already sent my meme to Melissa; it's up in the comments on her blog.

Jeff said...

Thanks for tagging me. Its my first time! Anyhow, I replied on my site www.eatwisconsin.net

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