Top Ten Things I Ate in 2024 @LucyBurdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: you know how much I love to eat and to talk about food and write about it and read about it. I decided this was the year. I should make my top 10 list for the best things I’ve eaten. Turns out none of these were dishes I made, that would have to be a separate list! Here you go, in a rough though not definite order...

*Clemente’s pizza, Key West. This is my favorite pizza place in Key West—it’s New Haven style pizza, which we adore. Being creatures of habit, we almost always order the same thing—pepperoni and peppers on the pizza, along with Baby’s House Salad.

*Eggplant tower at Cafe Routier in Westbrook, CT. (This reminded me of Hayley Snow’s leaning tower of eggplant.) I would have shown you their house-made frites with homemade dipping sauce but apparently I didn’t take a photo. We order those every single time we go. 

*Waffles with fish roe and sour cream in Copenhagen. We had this dish twice in two Copenhagen restaurants. Usually neither of us would order lumpfish roe but the combination was amazing. 

*Mexican chicken soup  This was the chicken soup from our daughter and son-in-law’s favorite restaurant in Encinitas, La Especial Norte. The broth was to die for, with big hunks of succulent chicken and avocado. I need to try to recreate it!

*Greek salad in NYC, Pylos. We eat at this Greek restaurant at least once a year—it’s off the beaten track in the east Village. Everything is good, but we always kick off with their farmer’s Greek salad.

*Fried chicken with waffles at Louie’s Backyard, Key West. Brunch on the porch overlooking the water with the most decadent and delicious waffle dish imaginable? Sausage gravy? Put me in, Coach! 

*Hot dog in Copenhagen. We ate these more than once at an organic hot dog stand in downtown Copenhagen, served with mustard, ketchup, remoulade, fried onions, pickles. I try not to eat pork, but this was unbelievable!

*Pork chop fried rice at Din Tai Fung in New York City. This chain opened in the fall in New York, and I managed to snag a table. So what if we ate dinner at 3:30? They are known for soup dumplings, but don’t skip the pork chop fried rice. (See above, I try not to eat pork, but sometimes I fail.)

*Gnocchi bolognese in Oslo. I always order gnocchi when I see them on a menu, and these were so good. But the real star was the quaint Italian setting and the owner crooning while we ate.

*Lobster roll with potato chips. This was served as an hors d’oeuvre at our nephew Rusty’s wedding to Lauren in Maine. Can you see the potato chips embedded in the rolls? OMG I wish I’d eaten another one or two and skipped the dinner. (Although that was good as well.) I will dream of these lobster rolls forever…

How about you Reds, what have you enjoyed eating this year?

Our bucket lists, our bodies

ROBERTA: Last week we had great fun chatting about our bucket lists. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm a little worried about keeping my mind and body chugging along so I can keep checking items off my list. To that end (and because my dad suffers from the disease,) I've become a fan of Vincent Fortanasce's THE ANTI-ALZHEIMER'S PRESCRIPTION. He maintains that while you can't control your genetics, there is much you can control--diet, exercise, stress, sleep, social support, brain boosters... Doesn't this all sound familiar? Anyway, I'm chipping away at my bad habits and adding these: pilates or yoga three times a week, walking as often as I can make myself do it, blueberries and flax seed on my cereal, a mostly Mediterranean diet. And my hub and I have been trying to work on our faded memories--practicing phone numbers from memory rather than hitting redial and so on.

HALLIE: (who didn't have much time to ponder as she's off on one of her dream trips!)Eat well but not too much. Exercise. Spend lots of time with friends and loved ones (nourishment for the soul). And have extraordinarily good luck.

JAN: Roberta, I'm a big fan of both Pilates and Yoga - which work on brain and importantly, posture. I also meditate every day, eat well, walk a lot, weight train, and play way too much tennis. But I lost a friend this week to a massive heart attack, and he did all the right things, so I can't help but think that the real benefit of any of this stuff is to calm yourself by THINKING you have control. The lesson I've learned is: have fun NOW.

RO: I try to exercise - hiking and kayaking when weather permits and weight training, rowing machine and boxing when it doesn't. Just as important I try to sing, dance, laugh, see friends, play with my dog, work in my garden, and not take it all so seriously.

More specifically...calcium, flaxseed, lots of fruits and veggies, not much red meat (except for pepperoni pizza which I indulged in at Mystery Lovers Bookshop!)

ROBERTA: Okay, Ro you've hit upon a real weakness for me: Pepperoni pizza. My stepdaughter now lives in Wooster Square (New Haven, CT), home of Peppi's Pizza, home of the most amazing pepperoni pie ever. Irresistible!

HANK: What was the question again? There was a hilarious button some people were wearing at the Malice Domestic convention--it said something like: "Don't worry, I don't remember your name, either." I wish I could wear that every day. I can NEVER remember names, and no matter what tricks I try, they don't work. SO, so much for that.
But as for self-preservation: I try to keep moving. I don't eat white food. And I try not to agonize over things--most things we worry about don't actually happen, right? SO I try not to worry in the first place.
Sometimes it works.

ROBERTA: Now it's your turn to dish special secrets about keeping mind and body in top form! Or as Jan put it more succinctly, how to have fun now... And then, don't forget to check back in on Wednesday and Friday, because it's guest "hunk" week on Jungle Red! (And thanks to diamondmountain and the pizza review for the photos)