Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

We have major cheese love at my house—even my four-year-old has an extensive cheese knowledge (his favorite is manchego though some days he's partial to buttery Belgian Passendale). It's hard for me to narrow my choice down to one, but if I must, I'd pick the "family" of Alp-ish cheeses, TOMME. I can't resist those slightly stinky but totally approachable cheeses, from the nutty tomme de savoie to the soft tomme de crayeuse.

I also adore Cowgirl Creamery and ALL their cheeses, especially the Mt. Tam, and the local (within 100 miles of the Twin Cities) Love Tree Farmstead's Trade Lake Cedar.

Stuffed pig trotters are quite a treat, and I'll eat them whenever I see them on a menu. I also adore ama ebi (sweet raw shrimp and a deep-fried fish head, crispy and creamy) and salt-and-pepper prawns. Tripe, sweetbreads, kidneys (steak and kidney pie), and foie are all good, as is any form of raw fish.

My father lives to hunt. Instead of chicken, pork, and beef in the deep-freeze, my family was well stocked with game—pheasant, duck, elk, deer, grouse, quail, and mourning doves (there is exactly one bite of meat on each side of the breastbone).

And one of my favorite sandwiches: salami, cheddar, and raspberry jelly.

As a young adult, Laurie Colwin's "Gourmet" columns were my introduction to culinary writing. She's singular in her lack of pretension about food. I also liked the powerfully delicious and evocative pieces in Nigel Slater's "Toast."

More:
Mimi Sheraton's "The Bialy Eaters," a slim, beautiful book; Tony Bourdain's "Cooks Tour," especially the chapters on Arcachon and Japan; Jim Harrison's "The Raw and the Cooked"; and Mark Kurlansky's "The Big Oyster."

On my TBR pile for '07: Calvin Trillin, John Thorne, and Elizabeth David