Some of My Favorite Foods

Why do I like chocolate? I really can't say, it's a bit like asking why a fish needs water really.....I don't really like white chocolate and I find that dark is my favorite, but milk is delicious too. I can remember a few years ago I used to enter a lot of online competitions and this one was why do you like Easter eggs in 25 words or less? I entered and then there was a knock at the door and I'd won this HUGE Easter egg basket - fantastic!

I can't remember what I wrote I just sat at the computer and thought of the eggs that were in the basket, thought of chocolate and wrote!

Every Christmas my Nana used to give my brother and I a giant Toblerone, mine never lasted very long! My brother decided to 'save' his Toblerone one year (I think he probable wanted to tease me that he still had chocolate - you know what little brothers can be like.) anyway one of our dogs - Patch found his way into my brother's bedroom and the Toblerone was no more. He was so upset that my Nan brought him another one and because she didn't think she could give him something without giving me something I got another one too!

Toblerone Swiss Milk Chocolate with Honey
and Almond Nougat, 3.52-Ounce Bars (Pack of 12)
BUY NOW

I love chocolate so much I even have my own chocolate store, but it's online....if I had a bricks and mortar one then the stock would strangely disappear!!

Lou's Chocolate Store

This is what I would have to wear if I was around chocolate all day :D

WARNING, Chocolate makes clothes shrink... by lou165
Design personalized t-shirts using zazzle

I grew up in the UK and once a week we would pop down the road to our local fish and chip shop and have fish and chips for tea. This was the first takeaway I ever had and was the only takeaway I had until I was in my late teens when we would sometimes buy fried rice on the way home from the pub.

I enjoyed my fish and chips, but sometimes I'd be bored so I'd have a battered sausage or fishcake with my chips instead. The first time I remember my parents going back to the UK on a holiday they put on quite a bit of weight - they ate fish and chips every day (sometimes more than once!) I thought this was a bit bizarre, here we were living in New Zealand (at that time) where we regularly ate on fresh schnapper, terriki and guerard, but anyway.....

On my gran's last trip over to New Zealand she was taken ill on her way to the airport and had to stay in hospital for over a week, it was very touch and go. After she was discharged she still wasn't that well to travel, but finally the doctors decided that she should try and make the trip back as she was stressing about dying in this strange country. She was still sick though so she needed someone to travel with - I was the chosen one. It was very exciting to be flying home at no cost (remember to always have travel insurance), not only that we were going first class - luxury. Then my mum takes me to one side to let me know that I wasn't to get too upset it Gran didn't make it because she was still very ill........it's a very long trip when every time your grandmother falls asleep you keep watching to make sure she's still breathing!

Anyway we made it - phew! I had been back in the UK for just over a week (I was staying for two) and I thought well I'd better try some fish and chips for mum and dad. One bite and I was taken.....I really had forgotten how great they were, I often long for them now, but I have to count my blessings that I'm living in a wonderful country and eat something else instead and I'm in luck because a British Fish and Chip shop has opened up fairly near me and the fish and chips are to die for.

What can be said about eggs? They are a perfect little food all incased in a very humble looking shell. I love poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, omelettes, egg sandwiches and any number of egg based dishes. Why do I like eggs? I'm not sure, I always remember liking them and my brother always hated them.

Easter Sunday when I was growing up we used to have boiled eggs for breakfast. Dad would draw little faces (and hair) on the eggs then boil them and we'd eat them with toasted soldiers - no egg, no Easter eggs!

When I lived at home (as a teen and in my early 20s) supper was often what my dad would call an egg buttie which was basically a fried egg sandwich. I liked my egg flipped, but with the yolk still runny which was the best type to have in a sandwich as you got delicious, gooey egg yolk running down your chin and all over your fingers - uuummmm!

When I moved in with my husband he used to make me poached eggs on toast every Sunday morning in bed with a big mug of tea - fantastic. One of his sisters worked at an egg farm and she used to drop off a tray of eggs to our house every fortnight - there were certain hens that were known to lay double yolkers and she'd make sure to give us some of these in our trays.

These days scrambled eggs are normally the order of the day, although hubby does make me a baked bean and cheese omelette sometimes - sounds strange, but is absolutely divine - eggs, beans, cheese! My daughter doesn't seem to share my love of eggs yet, but we'll wear her down!

My quesadillas are absolutely delicious - they may not be authentic, but they are just perfect for lunch or a snack and I adore them. My daughter thinks they are fantastic too, so guess what school holiday lunches often are.....

I adore custard creams, but not all the time. Custard creams brings warm fuzzy feelings to me because of associated memories. When I was really young we lived next door to my great aunt and uncle and I used to pop over on Sundays and help Aunty Vi with her baking and end up staying for roast dinner there. Apparently I always ate my veggies when I was there whereas I wouldn't eat them for my parents.....lies I say, of course I always ate my veggies! Anyway Aunty Vi and Uncle Wilf moved into a bungalow in a retirement village as they got older and I would walk across the village to visit with them until we moved into town when I was eight.

At this age I was invited to go and spend weekends at Aunty Vi's - not every weekend, probably about one a month and I loved it. Uncle Wilf would get up first every morning and take Aunty Vi in a cup of tea in bed on Sundays, when I was staying I got a cup of tea in bed too - with 2 custard cream biscuits. After finishing my tea and biscuits I would get up and Uncle Wilf would be out in his garden and Aunty Vi would make us all bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

Both Uncle Wilf and Aunty Vi have passed away (quite a few years ago now), but I often think of them when I have a custard cream. I don't eat custard creams as often as I would like because the brands are different now I'm living on the other side of the world and they are not all created equal!

There are a few other stories about custard creams, but I'll leave you with what my one of my aunts once said about me (not Aunty Vi, but another one - my dad was one of 12 children so I have a few!) - give Lou a nice cuppa tea, a packet of custard creams and a good book and she'll be in heaven!

Cheese on toast is just such a simple food and yet it's just perfect, a real comfort food in my opinion and on this page my opinion is what counts! I like cheese on toast to be made with white bread, I know we should eat more wholegrain or multigrain, but it just doesn't taste the same. If I only have multigrain bread in the house then I have a tuna melt instead.

I don't mind the basic grated cheese and bread combo, but I will usually add something else into the mix.....not too much or it becomes a melt as opposed to cheese on toast, just enough to 'lift it' as a tv chef would say.....would a tv chef make a comment about cheese on toast? Another interesting question that I have raised, but it is besides the point because this is all about my favorite foods!

I blame my father for this.....he used to always have to have fresh bread every day, it was his addiction. I can remember walking down to the Golden Crust with him and walking back with bread that was still warm and pulling pieces off to stuff in our mouths and swearing black and blue to mum that we hadn't eaten any of the bread!

The end crust of the loaf was something I always wanted, but rarely had as my mum always beat me to it. These days when we do buy lovely fresh bread my husband will smother butter all over the end piece and bring it out to me - isn't he lovely?

Staying with mum and dad I always enjoy the fresh bread, plain bread and butter would be fine for me I don't really need any filling. I do however enjoy a variety of different sandwiches - egg, tuna, corned beef, ham and my favorite is usually tomato and cucumber. I was finding it harder to digest cucumber as I got older until someone suggested to me to peel the skin off, now it doesn't repeat on me and I can enjoy it again.

There is one place where I recommend buying ready made sandwiches to and that is The Copper Kettle in Ngatea (New Zealand). I have egg sandwiches there every time I pass through. They only use sliced bread, but it is soooo fresh and the eggs taste so fresh, basically they are delicious. Apparently they were featured in the New Zealand Herald a few years ago and now they are always busy.

I love a lot of pasta dishes, the first one I ever made was spaghetti bolognaise - isn't that the one most people start with? I do have a weakness for lasagna however, which is also shared by my daughter and my nephew.....now there's a story, but more on that later!

These days I enjoy a frozen lasagna on a regular basis simply because we've found one we like and it's more economical than making our own. When I was first married my husband did about 90% of the cooking. Basically he enjoyed cooking and he also finished work before me so it was a no-brainer. He used to make a delicious lasagna.

In this day of reality cooking shows it's hard to admit to using a sauce in a jar, but in those days that is how we made our bolognaise.....we did add things to this sauce however, it was just a base. Hubby took an onion, some garlic, mince, pasta sauce, passata and herbs and that was how he made his bolognaise.

Next he assembled the lasagna using fresh pasta sheets, the bolognaise and cheese sauce - yes I did say cheese, I know it's supposed to be a béchamel sauce, but we liked it with the cheese sauce. Grated cheese was sprinkled on the top and then it was baked before being devoured hungrily by us.

My husband's nephew used to come and stay with us during school holidays and some weekends - with his father no longer around my husband helped to provide a stable male influence in his life. He loved lasagna and one day my sister-in-law rang me to see how we made our lasagna because he wouldn't eat hers anymore!!!!!

PB & J's are the ultimate comfort food, but they are a food that I didn't grow up with. I don't think I had even heard of peanut butter and jam or jelly sandwiches when I was growing up. The first shopping trip with my hubby when we moved in together saw peanut butter going into my shopping trolley for the first time, but it took a lot longer for me to actually try this strange combo that my husband ate!

Once tasted however.....well what can I say the salty taste of the peanut butter with the sweet taste of the jam is delicious.

I have fond memories of a suet pudding my mum used to make when we were growing up. I actually requested it the last time I was home and my mum was horrified - .." but that's disgusting Lou, we only ate it because it was cheap and filling and we didn't have any money!" She did admit later that my brother had also mentioned it not long ago wondering how it was made.

I remember having it after Christmas to use up the ham we always had on Boxing Day. It was basically chopped up ham, chopped onions cooked in a suet pudding and served with baked beans. Not the most nutritious of meals, but it brings back fond memories of childhood days and magical Christmases. My mother said that we had it several times throughout the year, but I don't recall the other times......just typing this however I can taste it in my mouth.

Quavers are a type of crisp/potato chip made in the UK which actually look like the polystyrene chips that used to be used to pack things in for shipping. A cheese flavor I really can't think of anything else that tastes anything like them.

I can't get hold of quavers very often so when I do go into a British specialty shop I'm always on the look out for some. The rarity of them combined with the delicious, cheesey, original flavor is probably why they made this list.

There were other UK crisps that I used to yearn for such as pickled onion flavor Monster Munch and scampi flavored fries, but when I tried them a few years ago I found that my taste buds had changed and I no longer enjoyed them as much. Quavers reign supreme!

My dad always made yummy cottage pie, but I think I make the best now. During winter there is not a better meal to eat on a cold night that will make you feel great. The best thing is that this is one of my few favorite foods that is pretty good for me too!!

One day I will actually write down the recipe for my cottage pie and include the 'secret ingredient' for you to try, but for now I'm just going to let you know it's one of my favorite foods.

I love Yorkshire Puddings.....growing up we always had Yorkies (our name for them) when we had roast beef, however in our house we have them with any roast dinner. Why? I have it on good authority from a Yorkshire friend that they accompany ANY roast dinner - mum always maintained you only ever ate them with beef. Mum, I hate to say it, but HA!

Popovers are basically Yorkshire Puddings with sultanas in them. I was actually taught how to make these in school, one of the few things I've re-made since!

Any Kiwi's reading this will know all about Irvine's pies, now I must admit I'm not a huge pie fan these days, but I have a soft spot for these pies. My hubby's a rugby playing Kiwi and after a game of footy most clubs would have mince and cheese pies for sell (unless they were putting on a feed). I used to watch the footy every week so I ate a few of them and then came the job.....

Saving for our first house we decided to take on a second job and so it came that we job-shared a position of bar manager at a local club as well as working our respective full-time jobs. Once pies had been reheated in the pie warmers they were supposed to be thrown away, but we used to take them home - even our old dog got to love Sundays as there were always pies left over from Saturday nights! It was ages after finishing that job before I could face another mince and cheese pie, but now eating one takes me right back to those early days of our marriage.

Well as far as mushrooms go I have to admit to the saying your mother's always right is correct. When I was a child I couldn't abide mushrooms and my mum always told me that as my taste buds grew up I would learn to love them......she was right! I have tried telling my Little Miss 7 who knows absolutely everything the same story, but she doesn't believe me - that was in the 80s mum, it's different these days. Well yes it is different because in the 80s mushrooms were, well mushrooms and today they are being heralded as a new superfood.

How do I like mushrooms? Well it might be easier to say how I don't like mushrooms because really I'm not that keen on them raw, but any other way is fine by me.

This food webpage was last updated by lou16 on 23rd May 2011