weekend food questionnaire

1) tuna melt vs. patty melt (vs. veggie/vegan melt of your choice)

2) oreo cookies vs. yer standard ice cream sandwich chocolate cookies

3) salad as a main dish vs. salad as a palate-cleanser (side, separate course, etc.)

4) oatmeal: do you like it? how often do you eat it? preferred method of preparation?

5) list the spices and herbs and rubs/blends you currently have in your kitchen.

1) patty melt >> tuna melt, but i probably order tuna melts more.

2) ice cream sandwich cookie. it comes with ice cream!

3) palate-cleanser. entree-size salads are monotonous to me.

4) i like it and i've been eating it nearly every morning. quick-cook steel cut, in the microwave at 30 percent power for 10 minutes, add cinnamon and stevia.

5) pretty much everything, although it's time to replace some of it. also, i have an espresso spice rub, a "texas" rub, and an "african" rub.

idk what a 'melt' is
n/a
n/a
n
n/a

well, what do you imagine it is?

some kind of processed medium hard cheese melted over something else such as tuna (probably chunks of it from a can) or patty (idk)

1) tuna melt seems more like its own thing, so that

2) oreo cookies. ice cream is fine, but it overwhelms things like my precious pie

3) main dish salad is okay if it has a focus

4) prefer cream of wheat, but never make it

5) i've got a shitload of herbs and spices left behind by my ex; i use almost none of them

if i were to ask a couple of questions

6) what do you think of the idea of a prosciutto crudo like parma ham or whatever but smoked quite a lot
7) what is papuan coffee like

ans 'not bad but not really necessary / idk'

6) i don't generally like "smoked" flavors unless they're part of bbq. i will take the prosciutto crudo as is, thx.

7) i don't know

1. patty melt
2. standard
3. main dish -- it's a good go-to when I don't want to think about cooking
4. Love it -- couple of times a week. 1 cup oats, 1.5 cups water, pinch of salt, 3 minutes microwave. Vigorously stir in too much cold butter, then honey + cinnamon + a little milk.
5. dozens, too many to type them all out. Put together a batch of rib rub last night from the usual building blocks.

1) I have only seen a patty melt, never had one and I'm not big on cooked tuna tbh. so neither?

2) Oreos are p boss.

3) I prefer salad as a side with steak or chicken. Salad as a main is good, but 99% of places that do this put way too much dressing on and/or put lots of extraneous bullshit items in like croutons or cranberries or wontons or whatever. I just like a few veggies and some greens. simplicity is key, imo.

4) i like oatmeal. Stovetop method with water is my favorite, then with a bit of milk over top afterwards. That's how I grew up eating it when my dad made it for me. Mostly, sadly, I currently eat stupid oversweetened Quaker instant packets for breakfast. I bought a huge box of them from Costco and kinda trapped myself into it. I try to water the sweetness down with almond milk.

5) I was bored so I made a list of everything on our spice shelf.
Allspice (ground, whole)
Basil
Bay leaves
Caraway seeds
Cardamom (pods, ground)
Celery seed
Chili powder blend
Chinese Five Spice
Cilantro
Cinnamon (sticks, ground)
Cloves,whole
Coriander, whole
Cumin
Curry powder
Dill
Fennel seeds
File (I can't figure out how to do the accent on the e)
Garlic (granulated, powder)
Ginger
Herbes de Provence blend
Lemon peel
Lemon pepper blend
Mace
Morton's Season All blend
Mustard seed (brown, yellow)
Nutmeg, whole
Old Bay seasoning blend
Onion (granulated, powder)
Oregano
Paprika (mild, smoked)
Pepper (aleppo, ancho, black peppercorns, black smoked ground, cayenne, chipotle, pasilla, szechuan peppercorns, white ground)
Poppy seeds
Rosemary
Sage, rubbed
Salt - kosher, pickling, sea, smoked
Thyme
Turmeric
+ about 5 mason jars full of various homemade rubs that Mr Veg uses for barbecue

1) tuna, otherwise, why not just have a hamburger

2) incomparable

3) main dish more often

4) i do, but i seem to go off it once winter stops: milk, two cups old-fashioned oats, a little butter, microwaved, with apples in before or maybe bananas in afterward, brown sugar, cinnamon. stovetop is better but the microwave works just fine most days.

5) cinnamon, tarragon, cumin, mustard, basil, cayenne, chili powder, rosemary, onion salt, salt, pepper, garlic, dried chilis soaked in rice wine vinegar, plus a bunch of outdated junk and weird meat spices that my sister dumped on me when i moved to my current place (thanks a lot sis)

1) never had either but would start with the patty melt. I need a ton of capers with tuna.

2) ice cream sandwich please, with chocolate cookies thanks

3) salad as a main dish, but only with something really rich like smoked mackerel or a good cheese

4) Oatmeal: I like it, but it doesn't fill me up for very long. Instead I make 1-min microwave breakfast muffins with almond flour and fruit and yoghurt.

5) allspice, bay leaves, caraway, chili flakes, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, fenugreek, garam masala, nutmeg, paprika, poppy seeds, star anise, thyme, turmeric

1) patty melt. I have horrible childhood memories of tuna.

2) probably oreos, but ideally, I'd prefer one of those chocolate-chip cookie ice cream sandwich dealies.

3) a side salad to start can be great, depending on the ingredients (and provided it's not all/mostly iceberg lettuce). I have never had a salad as a meal.

4) not a fan of oatmeal. I used to eat that hyper-processed pseudo-chocolate Cream of Wheat when I was a kid, but that was pretty much like eating a warm bag of sugar.

5) I think there's some garlic. I don't know, I usually only eat frozen food. I can barely cook, and on the few occasions I've cooked for friends, I've been politely asked to never do so again.

7) This is my coffee of choice! It has a heavenly aroma when freshly ground, and a wonderfully rich and subtle taste. It's also low in acidity, making it easier on your stomach. "A pound of Papua!" is what I always request. (If they're sold out of it I usually buy Sumatran. Sometimes Brazilian.)

1) tuna melt "seems more like its own thing"

2) ice cream sandwich please. an absolute luxury when i was a kid.

3) salad as a main dish loaded up with meats/avocado/whatever.

4) i never eat oatmeal now but when i did i got sick of making it so i'd just throw it in a blender with soymilk and a banana. pretty good!

5) chili powder is all i have.

Just going to do herbs and spices as my answers to the others are the same as Nakh.

I use Indian names for some things so will be a mixture:

Aniseed
Hing
Cardamom
Black cardamom
White pepper
Black pepper
Szechuan pepper
Pink pepper
Grains of paradise
Jeera
Haldi
Bay leaves
Indian curry leaves
Singaporean curry leaves
Cinnamon sticks
Allspice
Cinnamon powder
Cassia bark
Dhania
Cloves
Star anise
Saffron
Methi
Fennel
Garam masala
Indian curry powder
Chinese curry powder
Singaporean curry powder
Citric acid
Garlic powder
Garlic granules
Garlic pepper
Ginger
Black salt
Pink salt
Smoked salt
Chilli salt
Red salt
Amchoor
Nigella
Mustard
Mustard seeds
Nutmeg
Nutmeg
Caraway
Juniper
Mace
Sweet paprika
Smoked hot paprika
Vanilla pods
Panch phoran
Ajwain
Tamarind powder
Java pepper
Kaffir lime leaves
Four different kinds of Turkish chili
Chili powder
Sumac
All the herbs you would expect to find in a well stocked supermarket
Trinidadian season-all
Cajun seasoning
Khmeli suneli
Jerk seasoning
Advieh
Zhug
Zatar

There are probably more I have forgotten to label.

Important update: have just found ras el-hanout, kharcho and something I bought in Danish luxury poundshop Tiger last week that smells Moroccan.

Shari I would love to cook from your spice rack! T-minus one month until I am back in my house and get to stock the entire kitchen from SCRATCH. Gonna do as much spice shopping as possible at Indian markets, because the prices are soooooo much better than McCormick's and Penzey's.

1) Depends on who's cooking. Tuna melt at home, patty melt at a diner.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by standard ice cream sandwich chocolate cookies, but I'll pick that one because I love ice cream.

3) Main dish. Cobb salad uber alles.

4) I eat oatmeal two or three times/week either with cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar, and a little cream or savory oatmeal with a soft-boiled egg, parmesan cheese, and salt/pepper.

5) All the basics as far as spices/herbs go, plus some random weird things like orange flower water and smoked salt. I have two of these "spice grinders" that I bought on sale a couple of years (I know, I know) ago and those are the only blends. Oh and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, which I don't actually like.