Food Meme Post

So I was tagged by Sal to toss out 5 childhood food memories. This was no easy task because my life has, from a very early age, revolved around food. So the 5 listed are all from around age 6 or earlier. It was extremely difficult to keep this list down to 5 and I think I got the key ones, but a lot of things are being left off the list.

In no particular order:

• Beef and bacon roulades/involtini/meat-rolls ( just doesn't sound as tasty in English) with polenta- As long as I can remember eating solid food, this has been one of my favorite meals. My mom doesn't make it very often because of the health implications, but since I'm not around often I can usually convince her to make 'em when I'm in town. The dish consists of thin slices of beef rolled with bacon with a heavy sauce made from celery carrots tomato and ground pork, served on top of polenta. This dish is such a part of my life that I can't remember the first time I ate it, but it makes me salivate just to think about it.
• Japanese omlettes with nori and green beans- Because of my sister and my prediliction towards picnics, and the sorry state of Rochester weather, occasionally we would have indoor picnics in the winter. Of course, this called for finger food. One of the more common indoor picnic meals was simple but still really sticks with me today. My mom would make a simple omlette with soysauce, salt and sugar and we would eat it wrapped in seaweed with rice and green beans sitting on a blanket in the livingroom with the bitter rochester cold outside
  
• Smoked oysters- Before first grade( when I would still get out of school before lunch time), when the weather was good my mom and I would meet my dad at the U of R for a picnic lunch. We would go down to the Gennesee river and eat snacky picnic food which would often include smoked oysters on toast with onions. I liked them so much that during first grade I would occasionally insist that I take smoked oyster sandwiches to school for lunch. The smell of smoked oysters and onions made me extremely popular with my squeamish classmates and confused the hell out of my teachers
• Donut holes and hot apple cider- One of the classic upstate newyork fall snacks, no haloween party or autumn gathering was complete without sugar or cinnamon dusted donut and hot unfiltered unpasturized apple cider. From the post pumpkin patch snack, to the fall birthday at school these were unavoidable between september and the end of november.
• Keema( spiced ground beef with spinach and potatoes), rice, dal( lentils), and raita( yogurt sauce with cucumbers and fried mustard seeds)- This was a staple meal at our house and I would put everything in a bowl and mix it together. This is my basic "I'm home" comfort food. It's homestyle Indian food, and it just hit's the spot and gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside ( though that could be all the starch).

Others that almost made the list were: mom's tandoori chicken, mom's arribiata and rosemary chicken, barbeque pork/roast duck over rice, grandpa's koftas, katsudon, orange quarters after soccer games, friendly's watermellon shaped icecream deserts, bomb pops from the icecream truck, white-hots, gyro's from princess cafe or aladdin's, opera tortes from creme de la creme, greasy bbq chicken on butter covered soft rolls from swiss chalet, mussels in white wine, smoked eel, hollandse garnalen on soft white bread with onions, frenchfries with "saus andalus", etc.