gfr1111

Real Name:

Jeff

Location:

Sarasota/Tampa

Best meal I ever ate:

Yank Sing, a dim sum restaurant in San Francisco, served the most amazing variety of dim sum which I have ever had. Each dish was lovingly prepared. A lot of thought went into these dishes. For example, the steamed shrimp dumplings practically exploded in my mouth because they were so fresh and the steamed wrappers were tender and ultra-thin.

My current drink of choice:

Chateau Souvereign cabernet sauvignon and Hess Collection chardonnay.

I really wish I could:

Take a year off of work and go to cooking school.

My "Go-to" dinner party dish:

Nothing exotic here: lasagne, with hot Italian sausage, homemade tomato sauce, loads of garlic, fresh oregano and basil, mozzarella and romano cheeses. Skip the ricotta. I've never seen the point.

My favorite comfort food:

Pan-fried Northwest Indiana Lake Michigan perch.

My top 5 favorite restaurants:

San Francisco: Yank Sing, Lark Creek Inn; Chicago: the Parthenon; Tampa: Berns' Steakhouse; Singapore: the Marine Parade collection of hawkers' stalls.

My most tattered cookbooks:

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Vols. I and II), Child, Bertholle, and Beck; "I'm Just Here for the Food", Brown; "The New York Times International Cookbook", Claiborne; "The New Orleans Cookbook", Collin and Collin; and "The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook".