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Apple butter. I had a beautiful jar of apple butter that had been given to me as a gift in my carry-on about 4 months ago when I was returning from a trip, not even thinking about the liquid ban. It was confiscated and I wanted to cry. But really, is apple butter a liquid? I think it's a gray area...

This is really funny because I just had black beans and rice (from home) for lunch at work today. I did Cuban food for my little Oscar party last night, which of course included black beans and rice. I had enough left over for several days of lunches this week. I topped it with a little whole milk Fage yogurt (totally not authentic, but good) and diced avocado.

I love to have a latte and chocolate croissant for breakfast on the weekend.

Fun question. I am happy to have inherited many of my parents' food habits as they eat fairly balanced, healthy meals. My mom is a great cook, and I mostly learned to cook from her. I probably eat more fruits and veggies, whole grains, and legumes than my parents (I was vegetarian for a while and still don't eat tons of meat). I don't use many mixes, but one I cannot give up is Jiffy cornbread mix - it was an essential food of my childhood - for cornbread muffins and pancakes. I definitely feel like that is a family inheritance!

I know that Pain Quotidien, which has locations around NYC, carried gateau des rois around the time of epiphany in early January. Although I'm assuming you're referring to the New Orleans version. Is it different than the French?

The secret is to eat them absolutely fresh. They start to get stale when they are even a day old, and then will start to break. Fresh corn tortillas are one of the things I miss the most from living in the Southwest (much harder to find here in NYC). I also lived in Mexico, where people buy them fresh literally every day from their neighborhood tortilleria. After a day they start to dry out, then it is best to use them in enchiladas, fry them, or use them to make chilaquiles.

In Arlington, Restaurant Three and Liberty Tavern are pretty good. Both serve new American cuisine and are located the Clarendon area.

In DC, Zaytinya (Mediterranean mezze) is a favorite; also Jaleo (Spanish tapas), owned by the same chef/owner. They are about two blocks apart in the Penn Quarter area.

Sushi and olives are two things I only started to like when I was in my early twenties and my taste matured. I think those are the most recent things I've learned to love. There are lots of vegetables I thought I didn't like because I just had never eaten them growing up - brussels sprouts, beets, kale, lima beans. Since trying them, I like all these veggies.

I love pretty much all vegetables except okra and raw green peppers.

Chili, of course! I've also been wanting to make some old-fashioned baked beans, which I think corn bread would go nicely with.

I've been searching for the perfect corn bread recipe for some years and always find myself coming back to the Jiffy boxed mix - it's my platonic ideal of cornbread.

I am so glad to see this confession, Ed! I too have never liked pumpkin pie and wonder how people can like it. I don't feel much attachment to it, since no one in my family likes it so we have rarely had it on Thanksgiving. We stick to apple (my favorite!) and pecan. Apple pie is the pie I could not imagine Thanksgiving without.

I actually like Amanda Hesser. I enjoy her food writing and found the Mr. Latte series to be endearing. David Leite did a great interview with her, partly to dispel some of the anti-Amanda Hesser sentiment among the food world. I highly recommend it.