Five Foods to Celebrate Your Formative Years

[Zardnaar]

Tough question for me, because I’ve been cooking since I was 7 or 8, and there’s a LOT I do very well. But remembering WHEN I learned to truly appreciate and cook certain dishes is problematic.

The recipes from my youth that I cook:

Gumbo*
Grilled Ham & Cheese with tomato soup
Pie Blitz
Red Beans & rice
Omelettes


The dishes that I get in restaurants, and I may or may not cook authentically, but definitely have an outsize importance to my culinary mindset:

Schnizel
Hungarian Goulash
Shrimp Fried Rice
Garlic Cole Slaw
Shrimp Dip
Crispy Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Pho
Linguine with White Clam sauce
Clam Chowder (white)





* especially using our family’s own hot sausage

Mother taught me to bake comparatively young.

I'm not great at cooking but can do ok.

At school age 10-12 we had cooking, sewing, metal and wood work and art. Everyone had to do it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mother taught me to bake comparatively young.

I'm not great at cooking but can do ok.

At school age 10-12 we had cooking, sewing, metal and wood work and art. Everyone had to do it.

All of those were taught in some of my childhood public schools except cooking.

“Shop” was a combination of woodworking, leather working, and so forth, designed to familiarize kids with hand and power tools, plus some heavier machines. I was doing OK, but I killed my grade when I decided my last project (an acrylic Yorkie) needed just a little more polishing wheel time, and I lost my grip on it. The wheel stole it from my hands and spiked it to the ground, where it broke into 3-4 pieces.

 

[Zardnaar]

All of those were taught in some of my childhood public schools except cooking.

“Shop” was a combination of woodworking, leather working, and so forth, designed to familiarize kids with hand and power tools, plus some heavier machines. I was doing OK, but I killed my grade when I decided my last project (an acrylic Yorkie) needed just a little more polishing wheel time, and I lost my grip on it. The wheel stole it from my hands and spiked it to the ground, where it broke into 3-4 pieces.

Ah we just tried to make ninja stars. Teacher cracked down on it when one hit the blackboard.

Didn't like art or metalworking much.

 

[Guest 7034872]

• Kaisershmarrn
• German Spaghetti (don't ask...)
• Dad's sandwiches with thick, from-the-kosher-deli Jewish rye bread (best bread I've ever tasted)
• Lebkuchen
• Italian Olive Salad

We're just describing the ones we did like, right?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

German Spaghetti

Isn’t that the stuff with the beer sauce and sausage chunks?

 

[Zardnaar]

Isn’t that the stuff with the beer sauce and sausage chunks?

I thought it was the ones in tin cans in Paris.

 

[Mezuka]

Sadly, mom was not a very good cook. It was ok but nothing to remember or pass on.

 

[Mannahnin]

This is a bit of a funny one for me. Growing up my brother and I were very picky eaters, though our mom is an exceptional cook (our friends would regularly opine that we didn't deserve her cooking, when they got to visit). So foods from my formative years aren't necessarily ones that would be very good contributions to cuisine.

Stuff I loved and ate a lot as a kid:

• Appian Way home pizza mix
• Mustard toast sandwiches (literally toasted wheat bread with just spicy brown mustard), usually accompanied by chocolate milk
• Beef teriyaki skewers from the Chinese restaurant with hot mustard, accompanied by white rice with soy sauce
• Swiss Colony Dobosh Torte (my preferred alternative to a regular birthday cake whenever the family could afford them)
• Ginger garlic pork ribs with Lachoy sweet & sour sauce

The pork ribs were messy but insanely good. More sugar than I'd want nowadays, I think, but the fresh sliced big chunks of ginger and garlic were so flavorful. Mom used to complain about the work and the mess, and she hasn't made them in many years. Maybe I should try to recreate them...