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Pumpkin pie brulee please!

The scariest food I've had was turtle soup in China. The soup itself wasn't scary, but it was served inside the turtle's shell. I had to lift the carapace off like the top of a bowl.

My father-in-law's turkey stuffing along with my in-laws' Thanksgiving dinnner. Perfect Midwestern heaven.

One of my favorite childhood food memories is when my parents would pour diner coffee over my scoop of vanilla ice cream. And I'm embarrassed to admit, my nostalgic dish to go with diner coffee is french fries and Camel Lights.

Arrgh, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. I do make up others' short tips by slipping extra money under a plate or some other way, but believe me, I resent it. I used to go out quite a bit with a good friend when we were still in school. I enjoyed spending time with her, until the check would come. She always managed to avoid the check by being extra engrossed in conversation, going to the bathroom, etc. If directly confronted with her share of the bill, she would pay the bare minimum tip, which someone else would make up. She was a great person, but exceedingly cheap. It's been years and I still resent the fact that she always managed to get someone to cover for her. This is another issue, but she also managed to get fabulous dinners out quite a bit during dates. Essentially, I think people who don't leave a fair tip (taking into consideration egregiously bad service, etc) are cheap and taking advantage of their friends by either expecting them to make up the difference or stiffing the server. If you can't afford the tip, order something cheaper or another option.

When I was 18, I once tried to make my now-husband a cake in the shape of the Operation board game using multiple cake pans. Of course, I didn't know how to get cakes out of the pan without tearing them apart, so I ended up with piles and piles of broken cake pieces. I ended up buying an ice cream cake.

What a great article! Although my mother has tried to teach me how to make her dumplings numerous times, I can't seem to do it right without her supervision. So, I cheat and buy frozen dumplings for a quick fix. My question is, can I just steam the frozen dumplings directly? I could just experiment, but I'd rather hear about what others have done!

I have fond memories of octogon-shaped "fiestado" pizza and chili with Fritos and cheese, but the hands-down item I still crave is the frosted cinnamon rolls. An entire generation of kids from my hometown remembers these flaky, gooey, buttery frosted cinnamon rolls that were handmade by a single lunch lady for the entire school system (I lived in a really small town). She passed away about ten years ago, and the town is poorer for it.

I'm not a whisperer, but I'm still pretty ridiculous about my orders. I order everything that sounds good to me (which means extra appetizers and desserts for the table, and sometimes an extra entree). My friends sometimes looks shocked and embarrassed, but have gotten used to it -- after all, they're expected to share the dish with me (but not the check, of course).

I remember spending afternoons with my aunts picking and cleaning greens for stir fry. Delicious! My mother was always mortified because family friends would ask me what I liked to eat (I was about 7 years old) and I always said stir fried bean sprouts or hollow stemmed greens (I don't know the name of this -- kong shing tsai?). Her friends would sigh because those two things took so much time to prepare. This series is really helping me recreate food I'd forgotten I loved.

Ginger tea (grate some ginger into hot water, add lemon and honey), applesauce, and toast. For really bad hangover, pho or hot sour soup used to work wonders for me (along with lots and lots of water, if you can keep it down).

@ chisai, I feel terrible hearing about your friend in need. I haven't done this in a while, but I used to take the chance and prebake THC-laced goodies and mail them to an ailing friend (at a PO Box without a return address) frequently without any trouble. It's not something I do now, so I don't know all the legal ramifications, but it worked a couple years ago.