![](http://www.chow.com/uploads/2/7/4/449472_img_0026_small.jpg?20120529220558 "header=[] body=[<img alt='' src='http://www.chow.com/uploads/1/7/4/449471_img_0026_large.jpg?20120529220558' /><br /><strong>Matcha tea bowl and "brush"? (General Chowhounding Topics)</strong>] cssbody=[user_tooltip]")
![](http://www.chow.com/uploads/5/6/4/449465_img_0024_small.jpg?20120529220558 "header=[] body=[<img alt='' src='http://www.chow.com/uploads/4/6/4/449464_img_0024_large.jpg?20120529220558' /><br /><strong>Matcha tea bowl and "brush"? (General Chowhounding Topics)</strong>] cssbody=[user_tooltip]")
![](http://www.chow.com/uploads/7/5/1/216157_1973_cm_chardonnay_--_paris_tasting_small.jpg?20120529220558 "header=[] body=[<img alt='' src='http://www.chow.com/uploads/6/5/1/216156_1973_cm_chardonnay_--_paris_tasting_large.jpg?20120529220558' /><br /><strong>"Bottle Shock" (Food Media & News)</strong>] cssbody=[user_tooltip]")
Best meal I ever ate:
A tribal celebration lit entirely by torches in a remote village in the jungle in Indonesia. An elaborate wedding feast in Kerala, India -- our plates were huge banana leaves. One momentus day of tapas-hopping through the great food town of San Sebastian, Spain. A great Italian seafood meal in a cave high in the cliffs overlooking the Adriatic Sea.One particularly meaningful Thanksgiving (a friend was dying) that of all the meals I've ever cooked came the closest to Babette's Feast.
My current drink of choice:
Wine, more wine.
I really wish I could:
hop on a plane at a moment's notice to dine at some far-flung location in the world. Or better yet, "beam" in.
My "Go-to" dinner party dish:
porcini potato gratin
My favorite comfort food:
Gourmet pizza, ceviche, sushi, creamy polenta with mascarpone, a braised meat stew, great burgers, ice cream, a big bowl of wonderful pasta and sauce...
My top 5 favorite restaurants:
The best restaurant that is not a restaurant: home, or the home of friends who love to cook. All with the local or some far-flung wine.
My most tattered cookbooks:
My maternal grandmother's cookbook from the 1920s, so old and dry that its yellowed pages actually flake. The cookbook has instructions like, "Take a piece of butter the size of an egg."
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