from both and :

What’s the last thing you ate? beefburgers, beans, peas and reheated pasta with pesto
What’s your favourite cheese? dolce latte
What’s your favourite fish? tuna – not tinned but in decent-sized steaks
What’s your favourite fruit? do lychees count?
When, if ever, did you start liking olives? when I was an undergraduate and started getting into pizzas
When, if ever, did you start liking beer? when I was a teenager and going to school discos
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? very early – scampi always a delicacy
What was the best thing your mum/dad/guardian used to make? garlic potatoes in milk
What’s the native specialty of your home town? the infamous Ulster Fry, breakfast with fried egg, fried bacon, fried sausage, fried tomato, fried mushrooms, fried bread, fried soda bread, fried potato bread, and if you’re lucky black and white puddings
What’s your comfort food? pizza
What’s your favourite type of chocolate? dark chocolate
How do you like your steak? medium
How do you like your burger? well done
How do you like your eggs? varies. I do like the American eggs florentine habit but have never dared try it at home.
How do you like your potatoes? mashed with loads of butte and milk and perhaps extra vegetable ingredients as well
How do you take your coffee? white, two sugars
How do you take your tea? normally milk, occasionally sugar – unless it’s herbal in which case always sugar and never milk
What’s your favourite mug? a Midvale School for the Gifted mug which my staff gave me as a birthday present while I was Deputy President of Cambridge University Students Union
What’s your biscuit or cookie of choice? Petit Beurre
What’s your ideal breakfast? I do like Eggs Florentine but couldn’t do it every day. Egg on toast (scrambled, fried or poached) will do fine.
What’s your ideal sandwich? Salmon and mozzarella
What’s your ideal pizza (topping and base)? anchovies
What’s your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? Pecan, with loads of ice cream
What’s your ideal salad? Greek. (Though in the Balkans you sometimes have to be careful about the terminology.)
What food do you always like to have in the fridge? mushrooms; I would say beer but we have a cellar.
What food do you always like to have in the freezer? peas
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? tinned tuna
What spices can you not live without? garlic, sage, tarragon, basil, oregano, mint, parsley, coriander, cumin, rosemary, thyme, dill – in roughly that order.
What sauces can you not live without? None.
Where do you buy most of your food? supermarket. (And restaurants near work for lunch.)
How often do you go food shopping? at least once a month.
What’s the most you’ve spent on a single food item? €15 for our Christmas chunk of wild boar
What’s the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own (excluding ‘white goods’)? We had the whole kitchen redone six months ago so the cost of anything else had faded into distant memory
What’s the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? saucepans
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? one small knife
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? two or three times a week
What’s the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? See above: beefburgers, beans, peas and reheated pasta with pesto
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig and poultry? venison, bison, lamb, rabbit, snails, goat, duck, kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, bear. But not yet horse.
What’s the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? Weekend.
What’s the last time you ate something you’d picked in the wild? Last month – sage from the garden (if that counts)
Place in order of preference (greatest to least): Indian,Chinese, Thai, Sushi, French, Italian
Place in order of preference: whiskey (single malts), brandy, gin (the only one I really drink), vodka, dark rum, light rum, tequila
Place in order of preference: Garlic, Mint, Basil, Aniseed, Caramel, Lime, Ginger
Place in order of preference: watermelon, strawberry, pineapple, banana, orange, cherry, apple
Place in order of preference: Sex, Food, the Internet, Movies, Sport, Fashion
Bread and spread: heavy brown bread, and creamy butter
What’s your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? Pizza Hut, Super Supreme
Pick a city. What are the three best dining experiences you’ve had in that city? Brussels, where I work: La Maison du CygneChez Marius, good for political conspiring.
What’s your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? Either a heavy Belgian beer or a chilled glass of Luxemburgish white wine. This evening it’s a Hoegaarden Grand Cru beer.
What’s the next thing you’ll eat? A pain au chocolat from the tea-lady in the office, for my breakfast tomorrow morning.