In terms of giving a feeling of "utter content" I think it has to be Brown's Restaurant in Oxford circa 1981: unpretentious, delicious, great cocktails (or perhaps because I was 24 years old at the time :-) things seemed pretty good). Downhill alert: the little wooden salad bowls have been discontinued by the sanitation Police or whatever. Otherwise I think largely unchanged from 1976 - 2009: remarkable in itself.
My current drink of choice:
never to vary: gin (Gordon's) & tonic (diet Schweppes)
I really wish I could:
Find a decent place to eat in Houston
My "Go-to" dinner party dish:
Szechuan beancurd w/ pork a la Mme Wong
My favorite comfort food:
Ref "Go-to" above, or else Roast beef & Yorkshire pudding with LOTS of gravy
My top 5 favorite restaurants:
1) Brown's Oxford UK 2) McSorley's NY (on leg o' lamb day) 3) Odeon NY 4) Bouchon Bistro Las Vegas 5) Buddy's
My most tattered cookbooks:
Madame Wong's LongLife Chinese Cookbook (not only tattered, but INCREDIBLY spattered[now replaced with new copy]); Justin Wilson's Homegrown Cajun;Marguerite Patten's Everyday Cookbook
