Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Scrambled egg on a bowl of miso soup drizzled with hot sesame oil. At other times: hot dogs, mustard and deli dills with a glass of wine.

At a small vegetarian restuarant over 20 years ago. I know Roti came with the dish .

I made an apple pie in college from apples grown on my parent's farm for a girlfriend. It came out quite well.

Mushroom and swiss cheese burger, with sliced pickles.

Peach cobbler without a doubt!

My mom still cans and I always liked the canned tomatoes she does. That would be number 1. A close second would be dill pickles with both the cucumbers and dill coming from the garden. I love dill in the garden just for the fragrance will weeding.

Authenic Binh Mi.

As a very young man, I craved Sonic's footlong cheese coney, onion rings and ice tea. When I was released from the Army, there were none in my region. I drove to visit a friend a few months later, but stopped at the first Sonic I saw and indulged. Not healthy or haute, but that was what I wanted.

Water as an ingredient in its own right.

Butter and garlic and some fresh squeezed lemon, especially on scallops or shrimp.

Chocolate Chiffon cake my mother made every year for my birthday as a child.

I was feeling the pressure of preparing a birthday dinner AND a layer cake for my wife's birthday. The dinner prep was done cooking in process. I was hurrying to get the cake and as I was beating the dough the rubber scrapper I was cleaning the sides with got caught in the beaters and bent them beyond use. I ended up finishing with a hand held mixer. Luckily it was not my fingers.