So does anyone have a neat story or good memory around one of their favorite foods? Do you remember the first time you tried an unusual dish and fell in love with it? Or who you would credit with fostering your love for something?
Me first:
1) I was late to the party when it comes to Indian food. I was at the Bite of Seattle a few years ago. As many of you may know, one of the best parts of going to any fair/festival/etc. that involves food and walking around is when you see someone carrying something that looks good and you get to ask them where they got it.
So I was starving and craving some cooked protein of some kind. I see a woman with what looked like chicken in a colorful red-orange sauce - Butter Chicken! I found my way to the booth she pointed towards and the rest is history. Give me a bowl of it with rice and naan bread (which is like crack I swear) and I can die happy.
2) I have a kind of unusual food love: chipped beef on toast. My Dad got me into it. He grew up on a farm during the Depression, so he was raised on meat and potatoes (literally and figuratively). His family owned a dairy farm so cooking was all about whatever protein was in the pan along with fresh butter, biscuits made with lard, eggs from the hens, the whole nine yards. Then he went into the military and got to experience such awesome culinary delights as... baked beans on toast. So between his farm breakfasts and his serviceman's meals, he got used to routinely eating a) some kind of protein, with b) some kind of sauce on/next to c) some kind of bread.
This meant as his daughter I became well acquainted with sausage and cornbread, biscuits and gravy, chicken a la king and chipped beef on toast. I still find them all to be very stick-to-your-ribs comfort food.
So what about you guys? How did you find the foods you treasure?
