22
votes
What's your favorite "treat yourself" meal?
What I mean by "treat yourself" is something which makes you happy, not just something which satisfies an urge. We all get days where we just want to gulp down a nice plate of spaghetti but what meal do you prepare/buy for yourself when you really want to eat something special?
I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again: pizza. Not the frozen pizzas or the ones from popular delivery chains, but a good homemade pizza. The smell of the yeast from freshly rolled dough when you're prepping it; the taste of the dough, combined with the natural sweetness of a good tomato sauce brought into balance with the saltiness of a good blend of cheeses, all brought together with the right blend of herbs and spices; and the pleasant gradient of textures makes all of the effort worthwhile.
I enjoy a lot of food, but nothing compares to the quality of a good pizza :)
I agree, that sounds delicious!
Hey, this is a bit off-topic, but I wanted to thank you for your qualitative contributions to the site. They are always a pleasure to read. I will try to follow your footsteps and be a bit more active.
When I was growing up we used to do grilled pizzas on the grill.
Make a bunch of dough, roll it out, vote on what toppings then throw it on the grill.
Then while you wait for that pizza to be done you start making the next one, it's a good family dinner.
Plus the crust gets nice and crisp with some blacked bits around the edge, good stuff.
For me it's a toss-up between pan-searing a large steak for myself, accompanied with some potatoes and a good beer. Otherwise I'll spring for some Indonesian chicken (Ajam Paniki, for those in the know)
Good beer, you say? Now you're speaking my language... I am currently in "summer beer" mode which means lots of Shandies/Radlers (50/50 beer+fruit juice), spiced Abbey Blondes and unfiltered/flavored Wheat beers, all for their refreshing tastes that are drinkable even in the heat. But come fall/winter I usually switch over to darker, more robust beers like stouts and red ales.
What are your favorites?
I'm a beer babby. Still on the commercially available beers. Since it's summertime I drink some Amstel Radlers sometimes, they're pretty affordable. When I want a cheaper but drinkable beer I go for some standard Hertog Jan, or maybe Hoegaarden. I've done Leffe for a while, but now that I can reliable buy some Duvel or Tripel Karmeliet that's become the "special beer".
In general I tend towards lighter, blonde beers, sometimes spiced. Love me some Belgian brews or local Dutch brews.
Sounds like we have very similar tastes... Hoegaarden is my go-to affordable summer beer as well. And yeah I am mostly a commercial brewery beer drinker too, especially since my father worked for Labatt for several decades and my Godfather was the CTO/Brewmaster for Interbrew/InBev which means I can usually get all their beers on the cheap.
I do dabble in the occasional micro-brew, brewpub and craft beer though, so long as they're not one of those God-awful tasting, over-hopped IPAs that are so popular these days. But my general rule is so long as it tastes good and is reasonably affordable, I will drink it and don't care who produced it. ;)
Sushi is the right level of classy and tasty, I love it. Seafood in general is very nice and at the same time quite delicious and not "everyday good", like a burger or pizza for example. Though I'm a big fan of those two, too.
All you can eat sushi is my rare treat. I can eat it endlessly, and always get value well over the cost (I usually get well over $100 worth on a $30 ticket). There's something really awesome about sitting at the bar and getting the food straight from the chef.
Unagi for days
There's this place in downtown Chicago called sushi sai and it's made to order all you can eat for 20 bucks and the all you can eat menu is 80% the same as the regular meal! I always walk back to the train station so full of sushi I could burst, but I love it so much😂
I was with you until you mentioned Brussels sprouts, years later and I still can't stand the things.
If you haven't tried roasting them, I highly recommend it. I can't stand Brussels cooked with wet heat, but high and dry heat does great things to them. Kenji's take on them pretty well sums up my feelings:
I'll have to try this sometime, thanks for sharing.
My favorite way to prepare brussel sprouts is to throw them on the grill in one of those grill baskets. Toss em in olive oil,salt,pepper,garlic powder, maybe a dash of cayenne. Then top with a light grating of parm. Summer perfection.
Super super basic, but I love me a good grilled cheese.
TBH... Spaghetti. Getting/making some nice meatballs and tomato sauce. Fuck I love that shit. Especially with a little spiciness to it and some boiled buttered/salted broccoli. It's been one of my favorite meals since I was a kid, I still ask for it for every birthday dinner and my mom looks at me weird. I was REALLY happy when I first moved out I could have it almost every night for cheap cheap cheap.
Bruh, that's some next level shit. I'll try it
I won't lie, I often spring for a spaghetti meal myself. It's so easy to make, and so easy to introduce little variations to the recipe. Lately I've taken to adding balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce to the mix, it really adds a whole new set of flavors to the tomato sauce.
I'll have to try those! Thanks!
Try anchovy paste, they should have it with the tubes of tomato paste, it doesn't taste fishy but it sure as hell bumps up the umami! If you like adding worshestershire to your sauce im 99.9% positive you like a dab of anchovy paste in there as well!
I've considered it but for some reason they didn't have it at my usual store. Worcestershire is a good compromise because I can use it for Japanese pork cutlets and other Asian cuisine.
Even though I'm the world's worst vegetarian, I never refuse a plate of nice chicken tenders when I'm feeling down
For me the luxury is spending lots of time in the kitchen, not so much that the food isn't healthy or whatever.
So something like oven-baked eggplants filled with a pan-fried mushoom-base filling. Homemade pepper hummus and a sharp blue cheese sauce.
Then homemade sherbet of some sort and slow-caramelized pears for desert, for example.
Do you do anything in particular with the eggplants like spicing them or marinating them?
Low temperature over 2+ hours in the oven does the trick. The filling does all the marinating/spicing.
If you're doing eggplants at higher temperature, marinating or salting to get rid of excess liquid is a must. An alternative is to microwave t cut down on oven-time while getting rid of liquid too.
Whole heartedly agree, I dont have a special meal I cook, it's more about having 2+ hours at my disposal to cook (or grill, been grilling a lot) .
Lately I've been making "shawarma" wraps which is just chicken thighs or steak marinated in middle eastern spices, veggies slow cooked in middle eastern spices, diced tomatoes and cucumbers, home made Greek yogurt sauce, and either hummus or garlic spread on a wrap.
Last year it was a lot of curries, this year is apparently the year of the schwarma wrap.
Plus I got a smoker this Christmas so lots of smoked meats when I have a Saturday chilling.
Nothing too special. Just a ribeye, grilled with charcoal, seasoned with Tony Chachere's, medium rare. Maybe some tater tots and corn for a side. Just like my dad used to cook when I was a kid.
And on the woefully very rare occasion, boiled crawfish. This usually involves a group of people so not exactly personal, but still my favorite home cooked meal.
Risotto, cooked just right, with plenty of parmesan cheese mixed in. Really easy, really delicious.
Seafood rissoto is heavenly, done right. It's what I use to "test" any Italian restaurant.
There's a Vietnamese place near me that does a pho with an already unbelievable beef broth, but then they add some satay and lemongrass chicken into the mix. Its unbelievably good.
After this I head down the street for a coffee and a donut.
I do all of this alone with a good audiobook, and its one of my favorite things to do.
Damn that sounds like a good time
BBQ! Proper low and slow BBQ, usually brisket or pulled pork. Slow cooked for 14 hours on my smoker! OMG!!
It's more of an obsession at this point really.
A treat because it requires a bit of planning. My birthday dinner is on Saturday, I'll be putting the meat on the smoker for dinner around midnight Friday! Can. Not. Wait!
Mac and cheese with tuna, black pepper, and cayenne. Simple, easy, and really satisfying.
The other one is Penang Curry. I learned how to make it from a cooking class I took in Thailand and it's become one of my favorite things to make ever since, but I have to plan ahead for that one due to needing to get a lot of the ingredients from an Asian market.
A blue-cheese burger with steak fries. I like to mix onions into the meat (and sometimes breadcrumbs) or just mix in a packet of french-onion soup mix. Fry or grill the patty while judiciously pouring on Worcestershire sauce on it every few seconds. Once the burger is cooked, top with caramelized onions and blue cheese (Stilton or Roquefort are my faves). If you still need more acidity, top with a little bit of steak sauce, otherwise just serve with roasted fries (salt and pepper only) and dip the fries in the steak sauce while you eat.
It's surprisingly quick but soooooo damn awesome.