anthimeria

Via the Epi-Log on Epicurious – what ten food items do we require, most days, to really enjoy life?

And what a difficult list to compile!

This isn’t recipes, or favourite foods, or whole food groups (one person said “cheese”, another “fruit” — not so easy!) but single items that you turn to most days … the building blocks of your meals, the items that are dropped most often in your grocery basket, eaten or imbibed most frequently. An honest list of habits, if you will.

Here are mine:

1. earl grey tea
2. black Americanos
3. fleur de sel
4. fresh-ground black pepper
5. fruity olive oil (usually Greek or Spanish)
6. crusty bread with a good chew
7. extra-firm tofu
8. apples (my go-to crisper fruit)
9. greens (perhaps I’m cheating here, but spinach, lettuces, kale, chards)
10. crunchy almond butter (Nuts to You Nut Butter out of Paris, Ontario makes my go-to jar)

And some that were begrudgingly cut from the final list, for sake of ten, and because they are either seasonal, or not used every day:

• unsalted butter
• avocado
• grainy mustard (I haven’t met a Kozliks Mustard I didn’t want to eat by the spoonful, and they’re Toronto-based)
• oatmeal
• cooking onions
• cilantro
• basil
• eggs
• the ubiquitous hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano in my cheese drawer
• plain Greek yogurt
• squash of all kinds in the fall/winter
• asparagus in the late-spring
• tomatoes, peaches and green beans by the mound in the summer

It’s a good list, I think – or representative of how I like to cook, at least. Simple, uncomplicated, pared down food.

What does your list include?