MC Slim JB

Best meal I ever ate:

Not the all-time best, but one of my top 5 "made me a Chowhound" meals: Icarus, circa 1988, first true Alice-Waters-school meal I'd had in Boston -- first time a local chef inspired a sense of wonder, excited me about the possibilities of New American cuisine. That romantic space, a great server, and some utterly novel and delicious food: that really put the hook in me

My current drink of choice:

Chateau Menino, aka delicious Boston tap water from the Quabbin Reservoir

I really wish I could:

Ban the use of the phrases "LOL" (by anyone over the age of 12), "Hands down" and "To die for" from Chowhound.

My "Go-to" dinner party dish:

Cheese, salumi, charcuterie, and baguettes from Boston's South End Formaggio.

My favorite comfort food:

Czech lentil soup. Beef on weck. Thin-crust chouriço pizza. Cold sesame noodles. Poached eggs on corned beef hash with rye toast. Barely-cooked local August butter-and-sugar corn with a little butter and fresh ground black pepper. Baguette, cheese, sliced apple, pâté, cornichons, mustard, red wine. Rhode Island jonnycakes (thin, aka "East of Bay" style), stuffed quahogs, fried calamari with hot pepper rings.

My top 5 favorite restaurants:

Rather than choose from current restaurants, I'll cite 5 "Beloved and Gone" places in Boston: Caffe Umbra, the original, divey Green Street Grill, South End Galleria, On the Park, eat (Union Square, Somerville).

My most tattered cookbooks:

Mollie Katzen's "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" (okay, I don't use it much anymore, but I've had it for many years), Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking", Cooks Illustrated's "The Best Recipe", the new English edition of "Il Cucchiaio d'argento", epicurious.com, my vintage bartender's guides.