Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

If I've been downing beer, I like salty, crunchy junk food, like chips, pretzels, or especially Cheetos. Wine puts me in a fancier mood, I guess, so crave anything rich and decadent, like chocolate cake.

I love tomatoes in any form, raw or cooked. In fact, I've been known to eat whole tomatoes like apples and eat pre-made spaghetti sauce with a spoon right out of the jar.

In my opinion, here's the best way to enjoy tomato. Take two thick slices of good white bread and drizzle them with balsamic vinaigrette, sprinkle with oregano, then top with slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella. Mmmm...yummy sandwich.

Is there a such thing as a restaurant that just serves soup, aside from pho places? Soup is my absolute favorite thing to make. My specialty would be my sweet potato, kale, and white bean soup. I also make a delicious meatball soup. All my soups would be served with a thick, fresh slice of French bread drizzled with olive oil and kosher salt and toasted to golden brown over a hot griddle. I'd have freshly-baked, from-scratch chocolate chip cookies for dessert, made with all high-quality ingredients. No margarine or sugar substitutes...just the real thing.

Unfortunately, I'd probably experience a business downturn during the summer. Well, I guess I could learn to make gazpacho, although I admit that soup and cookies is probably not enough to open a restaurant.

I don't eat outside often, but if I were doing so at a restaurant and somebody near me had a dog under their chair, I wouldn't like that very much. I'm not a huge dog fan myself, but I understand that many people are very attached to their pets. I think that, if a restaurant decides to allow dogs, they should be clear about that (perhaps by a sign) from the moment a customer enters the patio area. Then, any customer can choose to dine inside instead if that policy bothers them.

I'm not anti-dog, I just feel that allowing dogs at a restaurant is unusual enough to the point where people should be notified about it.

@kitchenraid: I bet you're Italian! That's how my dad pronounces it.

Diet Dr Pepper is my beverage of choice. I love it so much, my boyfriend gave me a case of it for Valentine's Day last year. I don't see myself giving it up anytime soon.

According to my boss, an organic chemistry professor who used to perform research on artificial sweeteners, the FDA-established acceptable intake of aspartame is the amount you'd consume from drinking 2 gallons of diet soda every day for your entire life. That is, you could supposedly drink that much without it creating any health problems. I don't know that I'd ever drink that much diet soda, but I don't worry too much about 1-2 cans a day.

Gooey Decimal System is not only a hilarious pun of a name, but the flavor itself also sounds delicious. I would buy it!

I used to love pandas when I was a little kid. In fact, there are probably 50+ old stuffed pandas in my parents' attic that serve as a reminder of my youthful panda obsession. If I had any baking skills, I would totally make that!

I made this for dinner tonight, and I really liked it. My supermarket didn't have fregola, though, so I substituted Israeli couscous. The saffron really makes this delicious. It was expensive ($7 for .5 grams), but totally worth it.

That sandwich sounds good, and I think you're justified in ordering it semi-frequently. Although cooking your own breakfast is probably cheaper and healthier, sometimes you just don't feel like cooking, especially early in the morning. Nothing wrong with that.

My favorite fast-food guilty pleasure that isn't too terribly guilty is a junior combo with a Diet Dr. Pepper at Whataburger. As far as fast food meals go, I could do a lot worse calorie-wise. To make up for my nutritional disaster of a dinner on those days, I make sure to eat lots of veggies for lunch. That makes it okay, right?

I know this will sound overly dramatic, but learning how to cook changed my life. I was really depressed earlier this year, and a bunch of people suggested I take up a new hobby to make myself feel better. I thought about what I could do that would be both enjoyable and productive, and I soon realized that food is one of very few things about which I get genuinely excited. So, I decided to hone my cooking skills. I really enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I make something yummy, and I think that's helped my overall mood to improve.

I think more people should try cooking their own food, although I do realize that some people (like my mom) have tried and just don't enjoy it. It's like any other hobby, but in my opinion, all grown-ups should have at least basic kitchen knowledge.

During my first semester of college, I was enjoying (well, probably not enjoying, more like barely stomaching) a dinner in the dining hall by myself. I didn't know many people, so I was just enjoying a big plate of deep-fried mozzarella sticks and people watching to my heart's content. It was relaxing in a strange way. Anyway, this really sketchy guy sat down across from me and started talking to me and eating with me, even making a very lewd comment in the process. I hightailed it out of there, and as luck would have it, I ran into him one night a week later in a dark, deserted part of the campus. He tried to force me into giving him a hug, which I found quite creepy. All I could think was, of the 47,000 people who go to school here, I had to run into YOU??

Since that incident, I have avoided eating alone in public. I figure only weird things will result.