Tagged!

Iska from ISKAndals has tagged me for this meme. At first sight it looks like fun, but you'll soon find out it is hard work! So thank you Iska...(just kidding). The thing was started by Dan at The Butterfly Effect and I think he explains it better than I can so:

Dan says: "My thought in this meme is food items or events that changed your foodie life. (--) A moment you can look back at and say “that was a defining moment”. (--) They don’t have to be big splashy things - sometimes it’s something very small and simple that changes the way we view the world (--). So, to those who want to participate, copy this and pass it on (and, if you’re so inclined, do a trackback to the originating post)".
Here are your categories:
1. An ingredient
2. A dish, a recipe
3. A meal (in a restaurant, a home, or elsewhere)
4. A cookbook or other written work
5. A food “personality” (chef, writer, etc.)
6. Another person in your life

An ingredient:
Fresh ginger root, it makes a dish sparkle.

A dish, a recipe:
This one is difficult because I tend to remember company, setting, conversation, atmosphere...and the food of course, but as a means not a goal. Come to think of it, I feel I enjoy cooking very very much but even more so I enjoy gathering people around my dining table to eat the food I cooked, look at them and feel lucky listening to high spirited conversations and the sound of clinking wine glasses. If that is what food does, I'm happy.


A meal:
White wine (in this case a very good Alsatian pinot blanc), ripe pears and green grapes. And yes, there's a little story behind. There were three of us, new-born mama's on a well-deserved break in a hotel in the eastern part of the Netherlands. We met on the pregnancy course almost every woman in Holland attends and continued to see each other after our babies had been born. Our babies left in the care of our husbands we spent a wonderful day together, chatting, relaxing, enjoying the beauty treatments in the hotel. In our room we had a complimentary tray of fresh fruit, and with the bottle of wine I had in my bags we toasted to our one and a half day of freedom. I know this is not exactly a meal, but this was the first time a combination of flavours made me think and when I really try I still remember how the flavours blended together beautifully.

A cookbook or other written work:
Farmgirl! Not a cookbook, not a "written work" in the true sense but hey it is written albeit not on paper! On a lazy Sunday afternoon in search of bread recipes I stumbled upon her blog and was captured. Reading her blog made me start one of my own.

A food personality:
Delia Smith. Although not as trendy, or as off-handly written as many chefs do nowadays, her recipes are spot on. She guides you along and stops here and there to assure you when you wonder you're still doing the right thing. She describes how things should look like during the recipe. So, not for the stylish recipes but for the way she writes it's Delia for me. (Lindy from Toast appreciates Ms. Dorie Greenspan for exact the same things, you can read her story here).

Another person in your life:
What can I say? I've said it before and I will say it here again: Oma, for obvious reasons.

I'm not really tagging anyone here but if you are up to the challenge, please be my guest! (Lien, Arden, Ashleigh and Sue? I think all of you have stories to share with us.