Dearest Reader, what would you say are the most significant dishes of your life? The ones that if given to a stranger, would provide them with a glimpse into who you are, where you’ve come from and what you’ve done in life in the absence of photographs and video. Your food biography if you will.
I came across this wonderful idea to catalogue my life according to food from Johanna’s great blog Green Gourmet Giraffe. She originally found it in Jill Dupleix’s July 2010 column who titled the story “Food Memories”. I thought that the new year was as good a time as any to talk about the 10 most significant food experiences and memories.
As Jill says: “Your list will be different to mine, and different to your nearest and dearest. A stranger could look at them and know so much about you and your life; where you came from, who you became, and everything in between. The places you have lived will be in there, the people you have loved and who have loved you. Every dish tells a story, good or bad.”
1. Bamboo leaf wrapped dumplings or Zongzi
Photo by Flickr user avlxyz via CNN
When I was growing up I’d hurry home from school, after a quick stop at the library where I’d check on the resident albino axylotl (I considered him “my axylotl”) and drop my school bag in my room and enjoy the pleasant half an hour before I had to get started on my homework. After school there would always be a snack waiting for my sister and I and it was usually a bamboo leaf wrapped rice dumpling. My grandmother would snip a triangular dumpling off the line of them and hand it to me and I became expert at peeling the lotus leaves off from them while leaving the rice intact.
Some days, if I had been naughty and hadn’t finished my breakfast I might find the egg stuffed inside the dumpling-my grandmother having gone through the war as a widow with six children was not a fan of wastage and I learned quickly to avoid the awful surprise of a boiled egg and tomato sauce filled dumpling. But mostly they were filled with pork and shiitake mushrooms and were the perfect kid sized snack to eat after school. Sadly my mother never learned the skill of rolling and tying these and after my grandmother passed there was no line of dumplings waiting for us.
2. Chocolate mousse
Clearly I was a foolish child giving away chocolate…
I have what may be considered a sin to confess. I hated chocolate when I was young. There is even photographic evidence of me trying to pass on a chocolate Easter egg to my little sister. Every time I would eat it I would (and sorry for bringing this up) throw it up. But I forced myself to grow to like it as I knew that somewhere within me lay a chocolate lover. And there certainly was…
One of the very first dishes I made was a chocolate mousse. I don’t even remember which recipe I followed but I am certain of two things: I overcooked the chocolate and it separated into little globules and I under beat the egg whites as we only had a hand held rotary beater and I would have gotten tired and thought that that was enough. So the little globules of chocolate has a slimy coating of egg white around them. It’s a wonder I ever cooked again after that.
P.S. My sister is not the estranged daughter of Don King or a pineapple despite her hair 
A more kid friendly and not at all slimy version of the chocolate mousse - instant chocolate mousse
3. Strawberry Charlotte cake
We had a small strawberry patch when we were little. It yielded a few strawberries and they were unimpressive at best. For starters, we picked them when they were underripe in our enthusiasm. They were mostly white but I had a desire to unite them with my strawberry shortcake doll which smelled like how I felt strawberries should taste but never did. And yes I bit Strawberry Shortcake just to see what she tasted like…
My mother wasn’t and still isn’t a huge baker. She is a savoury cook that makes Asian dishes (although she does make a carrot cake and Portuguese custard tarts on request). So cakes were reserved for birthday and celebrations. I remember trying a slice of strawberry cake made by someone who I considered as lofty as Pierre Herme if I even knew who he was at the time. It was a simple sponge cake filled with strawberry mousse and fresh strawberries topped with a strawberry jelly and surrounded by sponge finger biscuits. The strawberries in this cake were not bitter as the ones in our garden and it was exactly how I imagined strawberries to be. To this day I haven’t made a strawberry charlotte cake. But I will this year and I hope that it will taste as good as it did to my eight year old taste buds.
4. Sausage rolls
From Bourke Street Bakery
At school I was allowed one tuck shop order a week. My tuckshop order always consisted of a sausage roll. I would look forward to lunch time these days with great anticipation. Usually my lunch went uneaten as it was a ham sandwich on white bread with a frozen popper which defrosted against it rendering the white bread soggy pap. Fridays however were a special day and when the lunch monitor would hand out the white paper bags with a patch of grease on them and I would take mine which was very hot to the touch I could barely wait to sink my teeth into it.
There was a process of course. Firstly holding the sausage roll vertically I would eat the pastry from around the outside leaving a dubious looking brown tube of sausage meat flopping around. Then still holding the floppy sausage vertically I would squeeze the sauce on the top and it would slowly drip down the sausage. Looking back on it it does sound rather unappealing and dodgy and I now know why my teachers would look at me doing this with some measure of alarm. I still adore sausage rolls but I have learned to eat them in a more appropriate manner (hey I was nine years old, what did I know? );)
5. Roast chicken
All I wanted was a roast chicken when I was growing up. I wanted a beautifully bronzed bird with a shiny, glossy skin that we would carry to the table. Hearing our plaintive yelps my mother bought a contraption that was supposed to hold a chicken up in the oven and drain it of all of its fat. She had no experience of cooking roast chicken so we were literally the blind leading the blind.
We took the chicken straight out of the fridge and roasted it but the inside was still pink. Over the years we tried roasting chicken about half a dozen times and it always had to be finished off by being cut down the centre and cut up and placed back in the oven. Unfortunately we never got our bronzed bird carried to the table with a flourish.
I have since come across what has to be the most divine way to roast a chicken and when I get asked what I will make for anyone famous that may come to dinner, this is what I say I will cook. The Zuni Cafe roast chicken with bread salad which came from one of my readers spacegirl.
P.S. I later learned not to roast the chicken straight from the fridge and that some oven temperatures aren’t accurate!
6. Vol au vents
I am a child of the 80s. So Vol au vents were very much the kind of thing that featured on the menu but not at home though you do understand. When we were teens, my friends and I, with our first taste of actual earned money, would go shopping in the city and afterwards we would go to the same restaurant in the city which no longer exists and I would always order a chicken and mushroom vol au vent. Looking back on it it wasn’t a particularly spectacular example of a vol au vent, I highly doubt that they made their own but it was so different to what I was served at home and it represented a freedom from that food and times where I could buy anything that I wanted with my own money that I would order it time and time again.
My how times have changed! Of course now I rarely go to the same place twice and I certainly never order the same dish twice if I do. I have since made them from scratch and they still taste like delicious freedom to me but even better possibly.
7. Japanese food
Our last trip to Japan: Yakitori Alley, Tokyo
This is not a specific dish but a cuisine. After I completed university I went to live in Japan for two years as a second bid for freedom. Living in Japan and seeing how women (and it is a traditional society so it usually is women) shopped every single day for the very best and freshest produce really struck me as a wonderful way to eat. Also I am not the type to consider supermarket shopping a chore, especially in a country where mysterious labels might behold something stinky as natto or something as luxuriously decadent as eel.
I loved trolling the food halls in the department stores and seeing how fresh the produce was. My favourite section was the cake section and I was thrilled seeing the wagashi cakes lined up and presented as though they were jewels in a store. I would of course marvel at the $150 rockmelon (looking quite unlike any rockmelon back home) and devour the sweeter than sweet fruit that emerged each season. Seasonality and provenance is a concept that is very fundamental to the Japanese and that made perfect sense to me.
8. Singapore Chilli prawns
My mother was reluctant to share recipes with me for the longest time. But she slowly started opening up her treasure trove of recipes when you, yes that’s you my dearest readers (and I’ve always said that I have the best readers in the world) would comment on how good the recipe she gave looked or how you had tried it and loved it. So she gave more and more and more and now I have access to all of her recipes thanks to you!
My favourite recipe of hers is her Singapore chilli prawns. Firstly because they taste delicious and are an absolute crowd pleaser and second of all because they are just so damn easy to make! In fact when you have a few things chopped up it takes less than five minutes to cook it. I almost missed getting the progress photos as it was so swift an execution. My mother loved the comments on this dish from readers like mikey, Amanda, Tosh, Jade, Ting’er, Tony, Mona and Patrick who all tried it and loved it.
9. Wedding cake
It’s no secret I love cakes (this blog is a testament to this) but you may be surprised to know that it’s creating the cake that I love more than the eating of it. And the ultimate cake has got to be a wedding cake. Nothing parallels it in execution, expectation or size. I was deluded enough to think at some stage, that I could make my own wedding cake. Thankfully sense took over and I left it to the experts. But this past year saw me make a few wedding cakes. There was the croquembouche with Patisse and the two tier wedding cake with Faye Cahill which had me quietly proud and still a bit stunned that I had created them.
Then there was the the Kransekake that I made for my darling friend The Second Wife which was made not under supervision and with copious amounts of royal icing and home made marzipan. And it got to the wedding reception in one piece and the bride loved it which is everything that I could hope for and more.
10. Pastry for the upcoming book
A strawberry St Honore-proof of the existence of a pastry god
The last item is a pastry I made for my upcoming book. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but suffice it to say that it was complicated and best not attempted during the Summer which is when I made it. It took about two days to produce and there were times when I truly thought that it would be a dismal failure. Somehow, by the graces of the culinary gods it worked out. Perhaps it was confidence gleaned from the wedding cakes but I am now not so afraid of challenges and the seemingly impossible.
The resulting pastry was worth every minute because with every lovely, luscious bite it reminded me of when I was on holidays in Europe. And you cannot beat the way that food can do that. Don’t you just love food memories?
So tell me Dear Readers, what are your top food memories? I’d love to hear what makes you you!
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97 Comments | Add your own
That’s an impressive list! I will have to think of mine, but I do get very nostalgic when thinking of the food I grew up with in Finland
Oh oh oh what a delightful post. I think I may have to have a go at this challenge myself! x
You had me from the first moment with those little triangular dumplings. My aunt still makes them now, but they’re not like the little ones A-Mah used to make. Great post, Lorraine, fun reading!
I loved this post, Lorraine!
You know what, I wasn’t particularly keen on chocolate as a child either.
And I had Zongzi (or Zhang) all the time as a child too. Which I doused in pepper and soya sauce.
Another childhood memory is that pork or fish (or both with seaweed) fried floss. It is HEAVEN on thickly buttered fresh white bread. I forgot to buy some yesterday on my weekly jaunt to my local Chinese supermarket.
SSG xxx
What a spectacular list and definitely food for thought.
I think some of my most defining food memories are those from my Mother’s kitchen. In my childhood not only would she step beyond the Women’s Weekly recipe books and add her own twist on dishes ala Donna Hay, but her styling of the food would have Ms Hay’s heart in a flutter.
I look forward to adding to my own culinary list throughout the coming year.
Felicity x
This is such an interesting post! It’s amazing how food shapes our lives.
Some of my food memories are when I was very small still living in Romania. Food was rationed back then so we could only have chocolate very rarely. I remember going to the local store to buy it but when I came to Australia it took me quite a few years to get used to things like caramel and honeycomb. They were so rich and sweet I just wasn’t used to the flavour.
Being wogs also, my sandwiches at school were always so much bigger than all my classmates! It really was like that scene out of The Wog Boy! Everyone else had tidy little cheese and vegemite sandwhiches while I had big hunks of high top bread filled with salami and capsicum and tomato and cheese and onion! I never got bottles of juice or cordial to go with my lunch either. No chips or biscuits. It took me a long while to appreciate that my parents didn’t think that filling your kids lunchbox with all those overprocessed nasties was a good thing. I’m glad for it now. I think that’s a big part of the reason I’m not a snacker now as an adult and I don’t have cravings for things like chips.
As I got older and went to live on my own, budget became a big thing. I remember the simple cream & chicken pasta dish we made when I lived with one of my best friends and her then boyfriend. We had a limit of $30 each for groceries for the week so we tried to make it stretch. That was probably one of the only times I’ve been super budget conscious when it comes to food.
Then, when I moved to Melbourne, my boyfriend took over the cooking. He was rather health conscious so we ate chicken with broccoli almost every night. If it wasn’t broccoli it was a salad of tomato, cucumber and lettuce. I don’t like broccoli all that much because of this period I think!
When I became single that was when I actually started to learn how to cook. Dinner for one usually consisted of a marinated cut of meat and steamed veggies or salad.
Now I make bigger dishes for me and my boyfriend – and have the time to experiment more. I’m by no means a fantastic cook but I’ve always loved food. It’s funny how the responsibilities of feeding myself or others has changed over my life.
Your list has just made me feel very hungry! I can relate to the sausage roll – I never used to be a fan (but I love them now) so my special tuckshop order was either lasagna or a crumbed chicken drumstick – YUM! I used to love tuckshop day (which was often when Dad was in charge of doing our lunches for some reason haha).
oh what a wonderful post! One of my all time favourite food memories was finding a lady cooking pad thai from a small cart in an alley behind a market in Thailand. I am sure we broke all ‘food advisory’ rules – but it was hands down the best pad thai I have ever eaten in my life!!
LOL – love the quip about your sister’s hair. Favourite food memory is still Sunday roast after Sunday School from the ages of 9 to 12 – and Barbara Woodhouse on the telly just before lunch (I wanted to be a vet back then).
What a great topic. And I can’t believe you used to hate chocolate.
Wow, where to start…some of my top food memories: Eating chocolates in Paris from one of the oldest chocolate shops in the city that supplied French royalty; my first and only taste of yabbies during a cook-out on the banks of the Murray River in your fair country; enjoying a donut the size of my head in Portland, Ore.; and eating every last bit of the silky Italian buttercream that covered my wedding cake.
a delicious looking list indeed. i think i’ll have to add the Singapore Chilli Prawns to my recipe wish list now
What a brilliant list! Love the stories behind each one and especially the way you ate a sausage roll!
My list would definitely include a lot of childhood foods – all I loved and some of which my mother made. Her chocolate chip cookies, her luncheon meat sandwiches with chili sauce, her curry puffs. Also her singapore carrot cake, and the way she used to buy me some on weekends when she went food shopping when we lived in Singapore. Ah… thanks for the bringing back the memories!
What a great post! I am inspired to post my own food biography… although I can’t really think of 10 dishes best representing my life. o_o?
When I was a child my Mother made a dessert to have with every evening meal. It was always something delicious to follow the main course. To this day I HAVE to have something sweet to end a meal.
What a thought provoking post, Lorraine. I’ll need to mull this over. Of course being diagnosed with food InTolerances changed my life- but for the better, and I truly do think it makes me a better chef as I tend to think out of the box,and not be stuck with the ‘but that’s what we always do attitude’. Hmmm… I’ll get back to you.
What a lovely post Lorraine. I love when food transports me to my childhood, just like that scene in Ratatouille.
Japchae and surprisingly, a good bolognese always take me back.
What a wonderful post – and a great insight into your food history
I loved sausage rolls at school. Another favourite of mine was my Nanna’s crumbed sausages. Every birthday I would have my favourite cake, pavlova with kiwifruit & pavlova.
Some of my best food memories are from my limited travelling experience. In India a couple of years ago we ate vegetarian (paneer butter masala!) for the first 2 weeks until we got to Goa where we had beautiful fresh seafood. Also in Fiji a few years ago for breakfast we had pancakes with guava syrup and I thought it was the best thing ever, and in Bali for our honeymoon recently I loved all the Indonesian foods (and tried sashimi for the first time)
Oops, “pavlova with kiwifruit & pavlova” should be “pavlova with kiwifruit & passionfruit”! Haha
I ate spaghetti carbonara not long before I gave birth to my son. I couldn’t even look at it for years. I remember ice cream with a bitter chocolate sauce that I ate on one of my first visits to a restaurant. It was sublime.
Wow, loved reading this – it’s amazing how food can be a real insight into someone’s background. You’ve got me thinking about what would be on my list – nothing quite as exotic as you! In fact, maybe that’s something I can do this year – work through/reinvent 10 dishes I loved as a child…
This is such a wonderful post. I may steal the idea if that’s ok? But also so nice to have such wonderfully different things shape your life!
I love your blog and this is why. x x
thats an impressive list
and wonderful post!
A wonderful post, Lorraine!
These would be my top ten, starting from childhood to present day:
1. Matjes herring fillets/cottage cheese on rye bread
2 Piroshki with a clear consomme
3 Natural oysters with lemon or a tad balsamic
4 Asparagus/steamed baby potatoes/Westphalian ham in spring
5 Osso bucco on fragrant rice
6 Dim sum at a good Chinese restaurant on a Sunday morning
7 Singapore chilli crab
8 Well made laksa
9 Chicken teriyaki on brown rice with steamed broccoli
10 Pork stirfry with red peppers
Oh dear, oh dear – you’ll hate me for the NO cakes or desserts, but! LOL!
nice idea. will have a think and make my own list
i think you’ve started a meme
I will share it with you through a blog post!!
What a great read! Love the photos, in particular the second photo (so cute!) and the delicious-looking chicken. Yum.
What a great post
I have no idea what I’d put in mine….I can only think of a couple of foods that really stand out for my childhood. I kind of understand the chocolate thing though. While I didn’t hate it, I didn’t absolutely love it and each easter I’d put away my chocolates and every few days I’d remember they were there and have a couple of bites. After a week or so they’d disappear, not because I’d eaten them all but because my dad had ate them for me. And you know what? I didn’t care at all! I’m still mainly a savoury eater in taste, but I do enjoy chocolate and sweet things a lot more now.
What delicious dishes to revolve your life around…..
10! I’d have to put some thought into that, but one I know would make it for sure is one of the simplest of all…mashed potato. The ultimate comfort food for me.
Hmm, not sure if the first counts as a ‘dish’, but the foods that stand out for me are:
1. Maccas fries, b/c I shared my kiss ever (with my now husband) over them. Was it the kiss that made the fries so delicious or vice versa?
2. Vietnamese rice paper rolls, so delicious and healthy, requiring no cooking whatsoever.
3. Koshary, first discovered in Egypt and now one of my favourite dishes to make.
What a wonderful collection of dishes and memories.
Some of my favourite food memories…
* The tomato tea at The Lake House in Daylesford.
* The amazing degustation dinner at The Manse in Adelaide. Complete with a faux snail slithering across the plate (sounds gross but was SO cute!)
* The ploughmans platter at Pipers Brook winery in Tasmania. It’s one of my favourite things to do when I go home.
Oh too many to mention.
- First taste of French pastries in Brisbane, led to me making chocolate eclairs from the age of 8.
- Chocolate mousse around the same age.
- My first taste of authentic Thai food in Thailand – my tastebuds came alive.
- Real Italian pizza, travelling through Europe.
- Real German cakes, tortes etc, made by my own German rellies in Germany. We were force-fed them thinking that we were having afternoon tea; but then they brought out dinner about an hour later!
- My home-made sausage rolls which I stuff with vegies and the kids don’t mind because they are yummy.
- My lasagne, always a family fave which I can make from memory and taste.
- My first taste of Peking Duck, funnily enough in England.
- Moules and frites in Belgium and Belgium Beer cafes in London.
- Real home-made gelato. Again, I first tasted the real thing in Italy, and had one every day. Thank goodness it’s available here now.
- French supermarkets, markets, and patisseries for baguettes, cheese, bottled wine and other treats; all at bargain prices but so delicious.
i love finding out about other people’s “food prints” ( as I call the. It’s so telling. Ha ha- vol-au- vents seemed to feature in the early 80′s quite frequently, didn’t they. I think they are delish too.
I love this post. I’m going to try and have a go myself. It would definitely include Nana’s Chocolate Cake, eggs with their heads cut off, Oyakadon. I’m going to be thinking food all day long.
Such an easy list for me. A Sicilian girl growing up in Sydney Australia.Who put most of her top ten on her menu,ofcourse
Memories of summers in Sicily & Mammas great dishes.In no particular order….
Cannoli, Ricotta, Meatballs, Prosciuto, Woodfire Pizza, Granita, Lasagna, Artichokes, Gnocchi & one I can eat all day everyday – Tomatoes!
I was just like you with the sausage rolls. It was a Friday tuckshop treat. My method wasn’t quite like yours though. I used to eat about half of it then peel off the pastry and eat that on it’s own.
Some of the things I’d have on my list:
- Pan au Chocolat (has to be the real deal)
- potato bake with roast chicken
- Royal Copenhagen mint chip icecream with chocolate fudge
- fresh gnocchi with a tomato sauce and shaved parmesan
- flourless chocolate cake
Ok I’m going to stop now or I’ll be listing all day.
One of my favorite food memories – eating Rizogalo (rice pudding). My papou used to wake up early to make it for me when he would babysit me… And we would have a sneaky bowl of it before my nonna woke up to make breakfast
Fantastic post! I find it really interesting in that the list is so COMPLETELY different to what I would have.
From childhood to present day:
1. Lettuce and Tomato Sauce – When I was 3 I tried to make dinner for my parents, so I combined what I could reach in the fridge (iceberg lettuce and tomato sauce) in the only bowls I could reach (by the sink and dirty), and made them eat it. To this day they tease me about it!
2. Pavlova, because every Australia day my dad whips out the egg whites.
3. Curried Sausages – my most hated dish, which my mum would make every week. I’d try to hide the sausages under mashed potato.
4. Rabbit Stew – Whenever we’d go to my grandfather’s out at Albury, my dad would trap, skin, gut and cook a couple of rabbits. Memories of wood chopping and swimming in the Murray accompany rabbit for me.
5. Instant Chicken Noodles – I was eating this when I found out my cat had died. I was 10, and I’ve never been able to eat them since.
6. Chicken Stir Fry with Hokkien Noodles, the first dish I learned to make by myself.
7. Topai – My stepmum’s aunty makes the best tongan dough boys in a sweet sort of broth that we’d have after high school.
8. Gnocchi with Aurora Sauce, the dish Stephen and I had on one of our first dates
9. Pancakes – a recipe my stepmum taught me that never fails to impress Stephen (with only 3 ingredients)
10. Burritos, which I made once for Stephen’s parents, who only ate really simple food. Now they like to experiment a bit more.
Love your list Lorraine but you’ve now given me homework – not sure if my old grey matter will co-operate though with so many memories…. love your blog
I applaud your perseverance to work through that dreaded aversion to chocolate and your St Honore looks so pretty. Thanks for sharing your food journey.
What another GREAT list!
Am glad today, it was not missed!
For my birthday, used to choose the meal,
SO special the way it di make me feel!
RARE roast beef, sliced thin, was BEYOND belief, TRUE!
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!!!! OK, am dating myself too! lol
Macaroni and cheese, when crook, always did please!
And can smell the freshly made chocolate eclairs!!!
OH, what a tease!
Thanks! WHOO HOO!
this was a fantastic post! Loved reading it, especially about the sausage roll, it made lol! I too had a sausage roll addiction when i was at school, being from a european family it was exotic and different haha. So i was allowed to have one every friday with a chocolate moove!
Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories
What a great idea! I didn’t really like chocolate either when I was a kid, except for nutella (coming from an Italian background, it was hard to get away from it). But I hated easter etc, and other kids used to think I was a bit strange because of it. Nowadays, I’m a bit of a sweet tooth. Anyway..
Every christmas, my nonno used to make olives which were stuffed with mince (pork or veal i think) and then deep fried. He passed away three years ago and was the only person in the family who could make them. The cutting of the olives was a tedious process. I’ve tried similar ones at restaurants but they never taste the same, they don’t even come close.
My nonna’s pizelle is another food memory. She still makes it, but it always reminds me of when i was a kid. Pizelle is like an Italian waffle. I used to slather two pizzelles with nutella and then sandwich them together. Ok, i still do…lol.
As you can probably tell, I can’t get enough of my grandparents Italian food, but sometimes they would surprise me with some non-Italian food. When i was a kid, I used to help my nonna make CHEESECAKE. To this day, I am still OBSESSED with cheesecake, and her cheesecake is amazing. I asked her to make it for christmas, and she certainly did. She pretty much gave me half the cake to take home with me. It’s the no-bake cheesecake, which is my favourite. I hate the baked ones.
Anyway, those are some of my super favourite food memories. Love your blog!
Happy new year Lorraine. Your love of delicious pastry and sultry, savory flavorful food so fits your personality.
I go back to college days and pine for the chef’s mulligatawny soup where I worked. No soup has topped it.It quickly sold out. I was just thinking about him yesterday, and maybe I could find him and get that recipe. Just that alone says a lot about the power of food memories and how obsessive I can be.
What a great concept, and so telling.
One of my fondest food memories is trying new things when I travelled overseas at age 13. Frogs legs, scampi and snails. My mother could not believe it!
Cheers
Growing up my step-mother was the best cook. Everything she made was wonderful. The one thing she made in the 70′s though that was just God-awful – Creme de Menthe pineapple salad. Pineapple scooped out, chopped up and drenched in the toothpaste flavoured liqueur and set back in to the half pineapple carcass. The only thing I didn’t love. *yech*
What a fabulous, endearing, lovely read, Lorraine! It’s fascinating how different our food memories can be though, as I don’t think anything on your list would be one mine! Which is not to say that I wouldn’t happily eat all of them
Cannot WAIT for your book!!
There’s something about this post of yours that makes me warm up inside=)I still remember my loved doll when I was small, she was pretty (in my opinion) with bitten fingertips and toes (I was also a biter..LOL!) Her hair was all good when tied up but if you part it you’ll see a big bald spot in the middle (it was the design!) When I got a bit older I left her on the side of one of the electric pole near our house so that some kid can pick her up and adopt her. By the end of the day she was gone and I truly believe that she was picked up by a girl to be loved again. Food and memories…makes me teary, specially when combined..very lethal I tell you=)
BTW, saw you a couple of times now in that ice cream ad…a couple of times always tell Mr. H…”oh, oh…she’s the one I read in the web! but I stop now because he keeps on beating me into it everytime we see the ad with “I know!, I know!” before I open my mouth =)
i’m lovin the choco mousse. right up my alley! Happy New Year to you!
Admittedly, I was startled when I read the bit about chocolate. How could any kid not like chocolate?!?
Oh, I hope you don’t mind if I do a similar post on my blog.
Wow what a wonderful post! Your memories are delicious! This post had me reminicing about all the special foods of my life and yes they are like a biography! A little one that springs to mind is the fat green olive I would receive from the deli owner every week as I watched on as my mother placed her order for salamis, cheeses and olives.
I love blog posts like this where you get an insight into someone’s life. I remember fantastic meals and dessert every night with my mum. It’s only as an adult I have figured out the tiny budget she worked off. So number one on my list is sliced banana tossed in coconut in a cut glass posh 80s dessert bowl
inexpensive, but we thought it was so fancy – obviously it’s all about the presentation!
Great post Lorraine, has given me food for thought on what my top 10 are.
My absolute top food memory would have to be a meal with my Mum at a place called Seagrass in Coolum. It was an incredibly crispy skinned barramundi with baby caper butter drenched potatoes, dutch carrots and baby beetroot. It. Was. Divine.
Oh what a post. Btw, as a baby, my hair resembles your sister-and still has the nickname of durian head (and i am a girl!! grrr).
Loving your adventures so far and more to come!
This is such a lovely idea, Lorraine
1. Tomatoes. Apparently I used to eat them whole as a baby.
2. Ham sandwiches on white bread, cut into four triangles with lots of margarine, made by my father.
3. Packet self-saucing chocolate pudding that my grandmother would make when I visited her.
4. Jam doughnuts from the canteen at school.
5. Plain spaghetti with grated cheese on top, made by Mum when I refused to have anything to do with A) vegetables and B) pasta sauce.
6. Truly amazing chocolate croissants at my high school canteen.
7. The most incredible fruit I’ve had in my life (particularly apricots and strawberries) while in New Zealand.
8. Strawberry Mooves in hospital.
9. My Mum’s roast lamb.
10. Celebrating graduating from my degree with a big bowl of Laksa.
What a delightful insight into your life Lorraine! I too have many food memories, however I’ll start with the worst. I was five years old when my family migrated from Italy , my taste buds were already developed by all the delicious food I had tasted. So did I have a rude shock when I ordered a ‘Nutella’ sandwich from the school canteen ( my best friend did warn me but I stubbornly refused to believe her) when to the shock of my tastebuds it turned out to be Vegemite! Arrgh but needless to say I love the stuff now
I believe that travelling to different countries of the world has broadened my culinary horizons tenfold. Tacos, Enchiladas etc from Mexico, many Asian treats travelling through Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The best burger I’ve ever eaten in the US, oodles of lovely pastries and ice-cream from Italy and France , but the best memories are of my mum cooking everything from scratch and with lots of TLC. Pasta, Gnocchi, with lots of different sauces , all the Italian favourites like Eggplant Parmigiana, our table was always groaning from the feast. After school we would have merenda ( snack) but it was never processed food , eg a Frittata or little Antipasto dish, very, very fond food memories indeed!
Isn’t it wonderful that we now have so much information at our fingertips readily accessible through the Internet, TV cooking shows and Foodie festivals!
thank you for your kind words and I enjoyed reading this top ten – it is such a lovely idea and gives such a wonderful insight into a life.
Gorgeous photo of you giving away chocolate – if you hadn’t said I would suspect you were taking chocolate from a baby
I loved all your top ten but especially the ones I identified with – I loved lunch orders too (we had to order from the milk bar because there was no tuckshop at my school) and loved sausage rolls, and vol au vents were so posh when I was a kid – my mum sometimes bought the shells at the supermarket but they would fall apart so easily
Great post! particularly the new pastry for the new book and the choc mousse! yumo!
Some of my favourites that make me include:
1. Macaroni cheese
2. Hot cinnamon donuts
3. Popcorn ( bought at the local pool after a swim as a child)
4. Toffee apples
5. Banana fritters mmmm and
6. Pancakes ( made with my nan)
Not very healthy but divine nonetheless!
Hi Maria-Thankyou! I bet you’ve got a great list!
Hi Kavey-absolutely please do!
Hi Celia-Ahh such memories right!
Thankyou! 
Hi Sydney Shop Girl-yes what was wrong with us?
With pepper and soya sauce? I haven’t tried them like that! Yum, that sounds great! xxx
Hi Felicity-thankyou so much!
What a talented mum you have! 
I can’t wait to read yours! x
Hi Esz-Isn’t it just!
Haha I loved that bit about your sandwiches! Actually that’s how I love my sandwiches and I think that’s how they’re done nowadyas 
Now this is a real look into the stages of your life and really interesting to read Esz! 
Yes isn’t it funny how we become cooks and I think loving food is a great headstart! 
Hi Katie-Oooh you had lasagne? I wish we did!
haha good on dad! 
Hi Lisa-Oh how fantastic and it sounds like there were no ill effects too!
Hi Cakelaw-Wenever figured out why it did that
Mmm I would have loved a Sunday roast I think! 
Hi Carolyn-Thanks-I know how crazy was I?
I can imagine that you would easily have 20 foods that would make your list or more! 
Mmm that wedding cake sounds amazing…
Hi Simon-Thanks Simon! And I hope you like them!
Hi Su-Lin-thanks so much!
I never quite understood why they looked at me oddly 
Ooh yes curry puffs! 
Oh that’s the savoury carrot cake no? You’re welcome!
Hi The Asian Pear-Thankyou! I can’t wait to read yours!
Hi Mary-Ooh now that is the mother that I wanted clearly
how wonderful!
Hi InTolerant Chef-thanks Rebecca! Yes I think that the choices from pre and post intolerance would tell us a lot too
good stuff! 
I look forward to reading it!
Hi Jen-Thanks Jen! Oh yes I do love a good bolognese (my first intro to Italian food
) And how good is Japchae?
Hi Chanel-Thanks so much Chanel!
Oooh crumbed sausages! I love pavlova too 
Ahh what great travel memories! 
What did you think of sashimi?
Hi Debra-Oh how interesting! Yes that’s a lovely combination
Hi Leah-Thanks Leah!
I agree, it can say so much and everyone’s is so different! Now that would be fun!
Hi Eleanor-Thankyou so much!
and of course please go ahead and use it! Aww thankyou so much Eleanor! xxx
Hi Gastronomous_A-Why thankyou! And I bet you’ve got a great list!
Hi EHA-now that’s a great list and really shows how you enjoy all different foods! And yes well made laksa is great. LOL no dessert?
Hi Anna-Great idea!
I can’t wait to read yours!
Hi Michelle-Great stuff!
Hi joey-Aww thanks Joey!
I love that Zuni chicken!
Hi Claire-Thanks Claire!
Yes isn’t that funny how we grow to love chocolate? I wish I hadn’t in a way (waistline wise 
) But imagine life without it!
Hi Elizabeth-Thankyou!
Hi Highlands Foodie-Mmm yes a good, buttery mashed potato!
Hi Lea-Aww what sweet memories! I haven’t tried Koshary-I must give that a go!
Hi Jennifer-three absolutely amazing sounding dishes here! Yummy!
Hi MaidInAustralia-Great list Bronnie! And I’d imagine your chocolate mousse would be much better than my first go
Yum, I’m getting hungry now!
Hi gastronomygal-Ahh food prints is a great name for it! I hope they make a revival!
Hi not bloody mary likely-Great stuff-all three sound delicious! hehe I look forward to reading it!
Hi Carm-Aww gorgeous gorgeous of course!
Everything that I’m hoping to eat this Saturday night 
Hi Claire-hehe weren’t Fridays the best?
Ahh interesting method! 
Oooh they all sound great!
Hi Christine-Aww how adorable! A sneaky bowl of rice pudding
Hi JasmyneTea-I know, isn’t it funny how everyone’s is so different? I love number 1-it sounds so cute
I’m fascinated by the Topai as I haven’t tried those yet! Good stuff expanding their horizons!
Hi Chris-Hehe don’t worry! No homework at all
Thankyou! 
Hi Linda-Thankyou-yes it was hard but worthwhile
You’re welcome!
Hi Joanne-hehe I loved strawberry shortcake too and what a delicious list! I still remember the first eclair I had!
Hi leah-Thankyou Leah!
Aren’t they delicious? I still love eating them! 
Hi MM-Thanks so much! I think a love of chocolate is perhaps inevitable
and stuffed olives? I’ve never had these before but they sound incredible! 
What wonderful food memories and they’re really just so delicious 
I much try a pizelle (with nutella now 
) Thankyou!
Hi Angela-Happy New Year Angela! Aww thankyou!
Oh that sounds amazing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you did track him down and find it! 
Hi Lisa-Thankyou!
How very adventurous! hats off to you! 
Hi Belinda-Haha I have to agree, that does sound very odd indeed
You poor thing!
Hi Hannah-Thankyou Hannah!
I know, I think your attitude to chocolate would have been different to mine! 
Thankyou!! 
Hi cusinera-aww thanks so much!
That’s such a lovely story and I bet she went to a good home! Hehe oh cool! Yes I haven’t seen the ad in a while now! I must watch more tv 
Hi Bren-thanks Bren and Happy New Year to you too!
Hi Midge-It’s true, I wasn’t a fan at all!
but now…. And of course you can do it too! 
Hi marcellina-Thankyou!
Aww how lovely, I can imagine how much it would have meant to you too! 
Hi Shan-thanks Shan! It ‘s so true! If it were served in a fancy glass (I recall a fondness for flute edged milkshake glasses) then I was smitten!
Hi Sara-Thanks Sara!
Hi Lulu-Oh that sounds absolutely amazing!
Hi daphne-Haha that is so funny! I can’t remember how old she was when it just flattened out but durian head is such a cute name
thankyou so much! 
Hi Ophelia-thankyou so much!
Wow what a delicious list and your school canteen had chocolate croissants? I wish I had gone to your school! 
Great list!
Hi Matilda-Thanks Matilda! Oh noooo! Vegemite is definitely a shock for the tastebuds if you’re expecting Nutella-you poor thing! Absolutely that’s such a wonderful aspect of travelling! Yes it’s wonderful!
You sound like you’ve had an amazing food life 
Hi Johanna-Thanks for the idea Johanna!
haha well I suppose it looks like it and I look a bit guilty! 
Yes vol au vents were so very posh because they were French too! 
Hi Erin-Thankyou!
Oh yes I almost forgot about the post swim at the pool food! I had a lot of toffee apples and redskins! Aww and lovely memory as you made the pancakes with your nan! 
Love this post Lorraine! SO many good memories. I love those rice dumplings too, in my case, it was an elderly aunty who was an expert, but I didn’t have the luxury of one every day, oh yum. My daughter gets a lunch order treat once a week too, and frequently it’s a sausage roll, LOL. (Her other lunches are hopefully not as dire as the one you described though!). And my favourite ever food memory is eating Chilli Crabs at a seafood restaurant near my childhood home in Malaysia – we went there every time a family member had a birthday. My favourite part was the hammering involved
Such an enjoyable post! I’ll be trying some of the recipes for sure.
1. Grilled lamb chops with steamed veges – mum was always a super healthy cook so this was dinner multiple times a week, with only a touch of butter and salt to flavour the veges…to this day i cannot eat grilled lamb chops without them being marrinated!
2. Mums boiled fruit cake – mum ALWAYS had fruitcake to eat, i even have a video of baby me at Avalon beach sitting in the shade “Naomi what are you eating” i reply with a full mouth and pushing more in “cake”
3. Processed cheese in any form – of couse we were never allowed any processed food so when playing at the neighbours after school i’d jump at the chewy cheese sticks and Le Snacks then lick the plastic clean, til this day my sister and i crave plastic cheese on white bread on occasion.
4. SunnyBoy iceblocks – living a few years in cold melbourne my best friend and I had an agreement that if the temperature reached 21 degrees we would get a sunnyboy iceblock to cool us down.
5. Toby;s Estate coffee – mum used to get these beans regualrly (which my brother would go in and roast himself) and while living in Perth for 7years, when feeling homesick i would get a toby’s estate coffee, sit in a cafe, close my eyes and pretend to be at mums kitchen table
6. My Nonna-in-laws fresh tomato sauce on pasta – nothing compares to the fresh tomato sauce on pasta or homemade bread, thankfully she was happy to give me the recipe.
7. Grilled eggplant slices with garlic breadcrumbs with fresh mozzarella and home made dried sausage – the flavours of staying with the rellies in the mountains of Sicily, i don’t think i’ve moaned so loud while eating anything else!
8. Toasted sandwiches – whether it be simply cheese and ham, baked beans and cheese or leftovers from the previous nights spaghetti they are just so comforting. reminds me of weekend lunches.
9. Calabrese style cooked tomatoes onions and basil with poached eggs cooked in it – what my best friends mum made us for lunch the day before she got married.
10. Mums Lamb roast – i’ve never been a very good roast cooker either too dry or too rare (i’m getting better tho and i’ll be trying your roast chicken) so coming home after so many years to mums lamb roast with veges, oh my, the garlic, the rosemary and all the veges she makes! such an amazing woman!
I think that’s me
Lovely post. I definitely remember the roast chicken from my childhood
Another great post! As an early adopter of technology, when I started in the video trade and purchased my first video camera, I videotaped my Mum making some of her favourite recipes. I haven’t done anything with them up until now but I think it might be time. I could have the answer to your Bamboo Wrapped Sticky Rice Dumplings Lorraine!
Great post Lorraine. OMG… When I saw zongzi, I was a certain heartache. That will be my number one food memory. I used to sit and watch my grandma make zongzi. Hers was the best (of course) and until now, I can never find any that comes close. I don’t think I ever will. And if I do find that come close, I will surely break into tears.
What a great idea Lorraine – and a lovely set of stories/memories to go with them. I’m already thinking of my own – I really think you may have started something here.
What fun, Lorraine! I’d really have to think about this for a while!
Interestingly, I liked chocolate as a child, but not so much now. Which I guess may be a good thing.
This is a BRILLIANT post. I love it, I think it’s one of my favourites. Have I mentioned how excited I am about your book?
Not sure if I could keep my list to 10 dishes, but it’ll definitely have the following – tang yuan, “bak chang”, chicken rice, tuna pasta bake and chocolate chip cookies.
1.Anchovies (kokala)-Sundays,as a 3year old, sitting on my grandfathers lap and him feeding me anchovies he would fillet..I would watch as he carefully peel away the flesh from the spiny vertibrae-and say to him “kokala”(meaning bones).
2.Coconut macaroons.These morsels of lush,moist sweet honey coconut “rosettes” bejewelled with a red glace cherry.My aunt Poppy would make these and store them on a glass tier-There was never a need to cover them as we would eat them all too soon!
3. Salami,tomatoe and cheese jaffas.HMMMMMMMMM The perfect time to eat these- monsoon storm season. Sitting on the verandah in Darwin,on a fold out chair,hot jaffa steaming my palms through the paper plate,the waft of melting cheese and salami piping through the first bite!
4.My Grandmothers secret olive and mint bread.
The recipe to this is lost but the memory never will be.I would rarely see my grandmother (maternal side). my mum would spark my memory of who she was through the olive bread my Gran would make my mum would freeze portion by portion to make it last for as long as possible for the next visit would be some time away.
5.Mousaka.Potato scallop layer,grilled layers of zucchini and eggplant and tomato-cinammon mincea(she would make especially extra thick) for this and bechamel layer.
6.Fried chicken liver with lemon juice.-the best way to nourish one self after the easter lent!
7.Rizogalo-creamy rice pudding-after school treat-aborio rice,vanilla-milky custard set in moulds,dusted with cinnamon.
8.sorbet sunday-in paris 2 years ago, and strangely when I hit 21, I developed the habit of having Sorbet on sunday.Pamplemousse,Amarena,fraise,citron vert.
9.Profitterols. Age 8 my first experience- clever batchelor uncle Phil, studying medicine would knock out a batch of these every weekend when we visited him in Adeladie. They were filled with custard and topped with bitter-sweet chocolate.
10.Prawn skewers wrapped with bacon. The first “adventurous” combination…for me it was,
I had and LOVE.
9
What a great idea! Thank you for sharing your life & memories through these wonderful dishes! A terrific read!
What a fabulous idea, and wonderful post! I loved it! I may have to do the same, but I’m not sure it will be as interesting as yours! Love that you bit your Strawberry Shortcake doll for a taste, and your sister’s hair:) You look so cute in that photo too!
Great post, wonderful read…and oh, you were such a cute kid, and possibly the first who gave away chocolate! Am sure you are more than making up for it now!! Saw the post on GGG, and after reading yours want to make a Strawberry Charlotte … aaaaaah, the power of food blogs! So much more to do after reading NQN…and so little time! HUGS & ♥♥♥
Thanks for this thought provoking post! I think of people who have shaped who I am and experiences but food? A flood of memories are coming in and thus, my list begins.
I would certainly share a guilty pleasure of shop bought sausage rolls… it’s really not something to admit in the UK but I cannot resist a Gregg’s sausage roll with pastry so flaky its falls off.
The St Honore for the book looks splendid! I hope your book will be available on these shores? If not I’ll have to get my best friend to post me a copy.
This is such a fun idea, Lorraine! I really love how each and every dish is a reflection of you. As I was reading about your sausage rolls and vol au vents, I discovered yet more evidence that we are long-lost twins…as a child I always ordered the same thing too! (For some reason it was exciting each and every time I ate it, lol!) By the way, you and your sister were absolutely adorable!
I don’t know if I could ever have a list of only 10 foods that represent me and my likes. Definately “food for thought”
I will now confess to eating potato crisp bread rolls at school at morning tea time. They were the best. The plain old buttered bread roll from the tuckshop, with a bag of crisps lavished inside. I remember it well. Stuff & munch it down your gob, then go and change into your sports uniform in the girls’ shelter sheds and play basketball at PE time straight after … hopefully exercising off all those calories !
this is definitely a very tough assignment.
i also love zongzi very much! when i was a child, there was a ratty cafeteria in chinatown called “big ten”, and there was a station with the best zongzi. they would also cover it in this pink sweet sauce that i don’t think i have ever come across since then. sadly they shut down many years ago.
also, how precious is that photo of you and your sister?
this is a really cool post, lorraine–one for posterity, to be sure. i had to laugh–i was about to comment on your sister’s hair when i saw that you had already mentioned it.
I’ve been reading your blog posts for a couple of months now and this is definitely my favourite one. The kinds of food you eat/meet play a huge influence on who you are. I can name a number of people I’ve encountered who has shaped my food palate for better!
Great post Lorraine. I have so many food memories, but the one I used to love the most was a chocolate ripple cake. Mum used to make it for me all the time. So simple yet so tasty!
I must make those singapore prawns too. I bookmarked it when you first posted the recipe, but have yet to make it!
What a wonderful idea Ms NQN. Im so going to complete my life in 10 dishes too. Thanks for sharing, absolutely cannot wait to hear what the last dish is, hurry up June already!
Lorraine, what a wonderful list to make/read! For me it would be the foods of my chilhood and travels: my mum’s magical roast dinners on a Sunday, her slow-cooked bolognese she learned from an Italian man, the cakes we would make together, the fresh nectarines and peaches from our backyard (and the subsequent puddings and jams they would become), the smell of shis kebabs in Egypt and apple tea in Turkey, pumpkin pie in America, Tokyo street food (I visited my boyfriend frequently while he was living there for 2.5 years), goats cheese, quince paste and glorious pastries from Adelaide’s Central Markets, the first macarons and violet tea I had at Laduree in Paris, and my Uncle’s traditional English cooking in London.
Briony xx
This is such an awesome list! I’d have to put a lot of thought into making my own list!!
Hi Lorraine, Seeing as you’ve got a book in the offing; I’ll take it upon myself to correct you re tsoong (zongzi). You described them as being wrapped in lotus leaves. Tsoongs are always wrapped in bamboo leaves. “Nor-my-kai”(Chicken and glutinous rice) in turn are always lotus leaves.
You’re welcome! (An invite to your book launch will suffice by way of proofreading fees!)
Gobsmack’d.
Well, I just tried a beautiful filling for my Charlotte aux Fraises,which I put in verrine, because when I will bake the Charlotte I will use the Biscuits Roses de Reims (pink finger ladies biscuits from Reims) and they are very expensive in Sydney. You can find a photo on my website or on my blog
Next time I will change the recipe though,and maybe make a lemon mousse or a raspberry mousse instead of the mascarpone mousse.
Regarding the chocolate mousse, this is the first dessert I baked and I can’t remember when because I was so young, I still use my Mum’s recipe, which is the best chocolate mousse recipe in the world, and it’s great because my Mum is not a baker at all, and the chocolate mousse is the only dessert she ever made.
Comgratulations on your beautiful blog
Cheers
Fleur de Sel
Brilliant post!!
What a wonderful list, Lorraine. Thanks for sharing your sweet memories of food with us. And you were such an adorable little girl giving away chocolates
. One of my favorite foods are breakfast noodles from my city of birth in China called Re Gan Mian (Hot Dry Noodles). It consists of hot bouncy wheat noodles topped with roasted sesame paste, soy sauce, vinegar, scallions, preserved radish, and chili oil. These always remind me of my original home as our city, Wuhan, is famous for them and it never tastes quite as good anywhere else.
Haha you eat a sausage roll the way I eat a Crunchy! At least you grew out of your phase. I still get funny looks
Great post! started my wheels turning on what my 10 dishes would be…… wow! Its a hard one! How did you manage to narrow it down to 10??
Sounds like you’ve had a delicious life! So fun to learn more about you. xoxo Mum
Very cool! I love that you have dishes that describe you.
Jess : )
What an awesome read Lorraine, you truly are a talented story teller!
I especially love your section about Japan and their love for fresh produce. You are so lucky to have lived there and been able to immerse yourself in the culture.
I cannot wait to read your book.. you’ve given me plenty to think about about my own life in 10 dishes!
Great article
I can’t claim credit for that zongzi photo though, it looks like it belongs to
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5033820-chinese-rice-dumpling-zongzi-.php
via TinEye: http://www.tineye.com/search/e526f559e3f2aa7ee894e392721204a78b86c1d1/
No idea why CNNGo put my name on it
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