Sunday, August 27, 2006

These are a few of our favorite things...

baby crawford peaches, andy's fig. a: Baby Crawfords ripe for the picking

Well, we've been mulling over Melissa's provocative "Things to Eat Before You Die" project over at The Traveler's Lunchbox for the last few days. On the one hand, it's been a breeze coming up with "absolute musts" of all kinds, but on the other, whittling our respective lists down to five has been difficult, to say the least. In the end, Michelle decided to do a fruits-only list, while I opted for a bit of a grab-bag, although it would have been easy to come up with similarly essential lists (to us, at least) that were, say, Montreal-specific or seafood-specific or pastry-specific (you get my drift). Anyway, without further ado (and without any further agonizing), here goes:

Michelle:

1. Baby Crawford peaches fresh off the tree at Andy's Orchard, Morgan Hill, CA
2. strawberries from Swanton Berry Farm, Davenport, CA
3. pears & black walnuts foraged in the Czech Republic (take a walk most anywhere in rural Bohemia at the right time of year and you'll find them in abundance)
4. fields of wild blueberries around Sackville, New Brunswick
5. fresh mulberries anywhere you can get them

Anthony:

1. a real S.F. burrito from a real S.F. taqueria (La Taqueria comes to mind)
2. pizza from a truck in Marseilles eaten on a bench in the Old Port with a good bottle of red wine
3. fresh (and I do mean fresh) oysters on the half-shell from a reputable source of your choice, served in generous quantities
4. real dim sum served from carts (any one of a number of places come to mind, but the best I've had in the last 12 months was at Ton Kiang in San Francisco)
5. a runny, perfectly ripe raw milk cheese (like a St. Marcellin or a St. Felicien) with some good apples, some good pears, some nice grapes, and a crisp white wine of your choice

Have your own list? Do tell.

aj

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

La Taqueria is a favorite of mine as well. They have a second location in Las Vegas, run by the family's second generation. Same fabulous food.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see the Montreal top 5 ...

Anonymous said...

i would love to see these

//Montreal-specific or seafood-specific or pastry-specific //

:)

my list...

will think and would post it here, if u dont mind..

-Mathy

Anonymous said...

I love Ton Kiang! Once upon a time I was a tutor in this awesome family whose kids were in a Chinese Immersion program and they took me there. The best dim sum in SF, i would say.

aj kinik said...

hmm, montreal-specific...

Michelle says:
1. poppy seed bagel from Fairmount Bagel, especially on those rare occasions that they're fresh out of the oven and hot
2. "honey" chocolate at Les Chocolats de Chloë
3. "medium" smoked meat sandwich, Schwartz's
4. grilled chicken, extra-spicy, Rotisserie Portugalia
5. pouding chomeur, Au Pied de Cochon

Although, I'd second all of Michelle's selections, I'd amend her list as follows:
a) add some quality cream cheese (Western brand is about the best we can get around here) and some Wolf's Head smoked salmon to that poppy seed bagel
b) make my smoked meat sandwich a full-fat number, and add some fries, a half-sour, some hot cherry peppers, and a black cherry cola to the order

I'd then add an additional 5:
1. unagi dynamite roll, Jun-i
2. ras el hanout & 8-pepper blend, Olives et Épices
3. cheese course, La Montée de Lait
4. tire d'érable ice cream, Bilboquet
5. cromesquis, Au Pied de Cochon
(and if for some reason raw spices don't qualify, I'll replace my #2 with "4-ft. beef brochettes at Église Santa Cruz's annual Our Lady of Monte/Madeira celebrations")

seafood-specific and pastry-specific lists to follow...

please feel free to post your own lists here or at "the traveler's lunchbox"