Q&A

I got this acknowledgement from  Paula of Veikeä verso. Thank you, Paula!

The rules of the challenge:

1. Thank the person who gave you this challenge.
2. Answer the 11 questions proposed for you.
3. Make up 11 questions. (All don't have to concern food like this one.)
4. Share the acknowledgement for11 blogs with under 200 readers.

1. Your favourite dish/ingredient?

This keeps changing a lot. As you may have noticed, the first green wild veggies were like a small  heaven for me after the long, dark winter, when there wasn't much crunchy and tasty things available. Perhaps at the moment it's tomatoes, new potatoes, nettle and zucchini. Also, I'm very eager to sink my teeth into those first strawberries.

2. Your least favourite dish/ingredient?

I've pretty much taught myself to like all the things I didn't, first of all because it makes life easier and second of all, because I have a low tolerance for grown-ups being picky. But I do sneer at bland food that hasn't been made with love and respect for the ingredients. Examples include "pea soup" where peas are the only ingredient, those mayonnaise breads you can get from every kiosk, a bag of frozen vegetables just thrown on a pan without any seasonings that gets called a meal and "vegetarian pastas" in chain restaurants without a single source of protein besides tons of cheese. You know, the stuff that's more like feed than food and which makes a bag of potato chips seem like a tempting choice.

3. What kitchen equipment you wouldn't give up?

This question seems to be on the line "how primitive are you ready to go". Though the first things that pop into my mind are a stove and a refrigerator, perhaps a good, sharp kitchen knife as well as a dishwasher are really closer to the answer it's looking for.

4. A kitchen inutility?

Guess this is only a matter of what you actually use. But can't say I fully understand the idea of a separate rice cooker that seems to make more trouble than just boiling the damn rice in a kettle. I assume it's useful if you're keeping a Thai restaurant but in a normal home kitchen? Also, I find the habit of my spouse wanting to wrap all leftovers in plastic a bit icky but try to bear it.

5. Your fast food tip for workdays?

During summer there's nothing easier than a filling salad. In wintertime I tend to favour chopping everything from the fridge on a frying pan with some spices.

6. Your best party/feast dish?

They change depending on the nature of the given feast. Besides, I rarely like to prepare the same thing twice for the same people. But I think my dip sauces have always done rather well.

7. What kind of kitchen philosophy or food principles do you follow?

I hope most of my philosophy is apparent in this blog. I favour food made from the scratch, choosing best ingredients of the season and preparing them in a way that brings out their own aroma and couldn't have been the same on the other side of the planet. I respect resourcefulness and fresh ideas, but resurrecting traditions is also valuable. If you're interested in my ethical concerns, I just wrote about them with a bit more depth.

8. Your favourite restaurant?

I don't go to restaurants that often but when I do, I usually prefer good-quality Asian places since they tend to have real vegetarian choices and offer a different taste world from most my own cooking. For a tourist in Tampere I'd recommend Plevna because of the historical atmosphere and perhaps the best beer in all Finland.

9. Your favourite café?

I'm more of a pub person, but Kahvilla right next to me is an adorably cozy and hippie place with a lot of options and a sincere attempt to make their customers just hang out there, playing games, meeting friends and listening to music.

10. To who's dinner table would you like to get to?

My friend Päivi Lehtonen just released her first cook book Kotipuutarhan keittokirja, which concentrates on finding use for things that people often get from their gardens more than they can handle. She's a biology doctor who decided to change her research career for becoming a cook specialised in local food. So far I've only had a change to taste some of her individual dishes, so it would be interesting to get to savour through a whole dinner planned by Päivi.

11. What would you want to learn to cook?

Oh I could just write a neverending list here. I haven't really found the sparkle for raw cooking yet, I'd like to become a decent confectioner someday, molecular cuisine presents tons of tempting ideas and haute cuisine still seems like only a matter of arranging the items nicely on the plate to me. Little by little I think I've finally built up enough of confidence to host some dinner parties for friends, so that's something I'm sure I'm going to do more. Another thing I'd definitely like to become an expert is cooking for children, since we're waiting for our first baby at the moment and I have really no idea what those things should be fed with after the initial breast feeding period, beyond the fact that it shouldn't contain salt. Yikes!

My questions:
1. Who are your greatest kitchen heroes besides mom?
2. Best alcohol drink for cooking?
3. What kind of a food-centered feast would you like to take part in?
4. If I was coming over for a dinner, what would you cook?
5. How much time do you normally use for cooking?
6. Do you plan your weekly menus in advance?
7. Your most horrible restaurant experience?
9. At the moment, what kind of ingredients are the easiest to acquire where you live?
8. What would you cook while trekking in wilderness?
10. In what country have you got the best food so far?
11. What country would you like to visit just for the sake of food?

I challenge:
Greek vegetarian
Green Gourmet Giraffe
Czech Vegan (in America)
Life Up North
While Chasing Kids
K-kos
Reissausta ja ruokaa
Eläimetöntä
Noidankoto
Villikataja
Eräjormailua