Tahleia's Last Meal

For my last meal, I would absolutely love to just have a variation of pastas, and sugary desserts. 

Pasta has always been my one of my favourites, and if I had to go, I would love to do so with a belly stuffed with pasta. I would have my sister be the dinner chef, because she makes the best pastas and lasagnas, and then have my mom make all the deserts.

I would like to have Beef Italia which is a cheesy beef lasagna and I would have to say the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. 

I think this must be a family recipe because it is made with a special orange sauce that my sister makes from scratch, and I have tried to find the recipe in books and online, but I have never had any success. This is the dish I always ask my sister to make when I come home from school, and I consider myself lucky that I don’t know how to make it or I would be a very fat woman. 

Following that, I would like to have a vegetable lasagna. As it is my special day, I would ask for extra corn! People always say its bad for you, but to me, the corn is what really makes a vegetable lasagna so good. 

Finally, I would finish up with the classic spaghetti and meat sauce. An oldy but goody that I would be more than pleased to eat on my final day. 

My mother makes great chocolates as a part of her business, so on my final day, I would like an assortment of all the chocolates and flavour fillings that she has made over the years. 

To top it all off, I would finish with a strawberry crepe with extra cool whip, and a chocolate milkshake on the side. 

Thus completes my perfect final meal. Far from luxurious, but its everything I would need to die happy. 

The Last Meal

When asked about what I want to eat, the answer usually comes immediately to mind.  However, The Last Meal has a certain sense of gravity to it that makes me hesitant to even start.  As a college student, deprived of a full kitchen and limited only to foods that fit on a meal plan (which is surprisingly varied, and looking less and less appetizing by the day) home-cooking would be the way I'd want to go out.  I have no particular meal in mind, as long as my mom makes it I'd die happy.  It's not just the physical food that I crave, but the process before it.  The sounds of NPR which are almost guaranteed to be on at all points of time in the house, the occasional blaring of the smoke alarm and the ensuing chaos to just dear god make it stop.  The smells of sauteing onions, grilled vegetables, even the very particular scent of boiling pasta have a very homey feel for me.  The scents that would fill up the house made the wait agonizing but it was so much more fulfilling when we finally sat down and ate.  I think it is the sense of fulfillment that I miss the most and I think that would make for the perfect last meal.  

Last meal

My last meal as a topic was quite interesting one to think about as I had never thought there would be such a finality to food. I would have to say that my last meal would be a porterhouse steak medium and a lobster tail, there's just something about the combo of land and sea that has always resonated with me. All in all this last class signifies the end of a interesting experiment that brought me some new experience and as the Romans believed experience was tantamount to life itself.

The Black Dinner

In the early fifteenth century, the Clan Douglas was consolidating power in the Kingdom of Scotland.  They carried a lot of clout in the kingdom; so much so that the crown saw them as a threat to the stability of the realm.  In 1440, the conflict between the crown and the Douglases came to a head over the control of King James II, who was only ten years old and therefore able to be controlled.  Sir William Crichton, the Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom of Scotland and Sir Alexander Livingstone conspired to come up with a solution to the problem of the Douglases' rise to power.  They invited William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas, and his younger brother David Douglas to a dinner with the boy king James II.  When the food was to be brought out, they brought out instead the head of a black bull, a symbol of death.  The Earl and his brother were dragged out to Castle Hill and given a mock trial.  They were found guilty of treason and summarily beheaded there and then.  This last meal for William and David Douglas became known as the Black Dinner.

What would I want for my last meal?

Most people eat to live, I would say I live to eat. Nothing brings me the pure joy that food does so imagining my last meal is incredibly hard. What would I probably want served in my last meal? Some of everything, a bite of my favorite meal from each of my favorite cuisines. However, that would probably end up giving me a severe stomach ache and I wouldn't like to go out like that. For my last meal I would want an endless supply of fruits, I can eat fruits all day. Some of my favorites are mangoes, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, oranges, grapes, and papaya. I can just imagine eating an entire bowl of thinly sliced mangoes covered in salt and chili powder. Actually now that I think about it that is exactly what I would want for my last meal: A bowl of thinly sliced mangoes covered in salt and chili powder. At the beginning of this blog post I was not sure of what I would want for my last meal because I would not wanna give up any meal that I like. However, it has helped me identify exactly what my favorite thing to eat is. Now that I think about it every time I visit home during break before I leave my mom makes sure to buy a green mango and prepare it just the way i like with salt and chili powder. If you haven't tried it and you like spice and fruits you should definitely try it!

My Last Meal

I picture my last meal with my close family members in my grandparents home in the mountainous hills of the Dominican Republic. We would have a four course meal full of some of my favorite foods I enjoyed throughout my childhood. For as long as I can remember the best feasts in my home were for thanksgiving day so I also imagine this meal taking place at the end of November. Some of the dishes would be prepared in this old school brick oven in the backyard of my grandparents home. The dinner table would have a tacky table cover with hideous floral patterns, as is typical in my home. However, the most important part of my last meal would be an endless appetite so that I could try every item on the menu.

The Grand Meal Menu - 

Appetizers: french fries, hot dogs, and pepperoni pizza

Salad: Dominican potato salad or Caesar Salad

Entree: A platter of tostones (Thick plantain chips), sweet potato fries, yucca, mangu (mashed plantains), and a protein choice of either roasted chicken or turkey

Dessert: Bananas foster with Haagen-Dazs ice cream

The most memorable meal I have ever had was surprisingly not at home but at my favorite uncles house in New Jersey. This meal took place during Christmas eve sometime during my adolescence but it was really more of a house warming party. My uncles wife made roast chicken with white rice and although this is something I ate way too often in the past, this was the best version of the dish I have had to date. When thinking about this blog entry what triggered my memory was a bowl of walnuts and a batch of delicious earthy cookies that were present that day items that were never present in any family meals that I can remember. 

A Greek Last Meal

It seems very odd to me to be thinking of what I would want my last meal to be. In high school, we would joke around about what we would want our last meals to be, but now that I'm older I feel like it's more of a serious question. I think I would rather have my last meal be somewhat unexpected like the Romans at Pompeii, rather than knowing when I would have my last meal.

In high school when I was asked what my last meal to be I would respond by saying pizza, lasagna, cannolis, and usually Italian food. Since then my response has changed and now I would say all Greek food. If I were to have one last meal, then I would want to have my favorite food, which is Mediterranean food.

I had one more last night then, it would go as so...

After a history filled day of looking at archaeological sites and museums in Athens, I would go back to my hostel and put on best outfit, which would probably be a long dress.

Next, all of my family, friends, and myself would go out for a roof top dinner looking over the Akropolis that played live music. The restaurant would be playing live music and would be filled lots of traditional dancing. We would order lots of food, that would include pita, tzatziki, hummus, saganoki, meat platters with lamb, spanikopita, moussaka, dolmades, octopus, and horiatiki salad. There would also be a gyro meat spinning around on a metal spit on the roof top, so anyone could go up and cut pieces of meat off to make a gyro. To go along with the meal traditional drinks, such as ouzo and wine from Santorini, would be served. Not very Greek like, but I would be drinking mead. I really enjoy the sweetness of the honey wine.

Once dinner is finished, everyone would get up and form a circle to dance. We would all dance traditionally to the beautifully music. After enjoying the music for a bit, we would sit back down and for dessert. For dessert, delicious specialties, such as baklava, loukamades, loukoumi, galaktoboureko, and yogurt with honey and nuts, would be served. All of the desserts, except the loukoumi, would be covered in lots of honey. After dessert, everyone would continue to enjoy the company and stunning scenery.

So if I had only one more meal left, I would want to enjoy it with my family and friends while eating Mediterranean food in a historical atmosphere. It would definitely be a night to remember.

Last Meal

            If I were to imagine what my last meal ever would be like, I would definitely have the people closet to me by my side.  Of course your last meal would be eating your most favorite foods, but sharing that moment with loved ones is more important in my opinion.  My favorite thing to eat is PASTA.  I love me some pasta.  What do you call a fake noodle?  An impasta.  A corny joke my friend once told me.  Just felt it was appropriate.  Don’t mind the improper English.  My favorite pasta dish would have to be penne ala vodka with shrimp and broccoli.  For my last meal I would also need to have sushi.  Spicy California hand rolls and spicy salmon avocado rolls are a must.  I love chipotle so I would definitely have a burrito bowl with brown rice, steak, sour cream, guacamole, corn, pico de gallo, cheese, lettuce and of course chipotle sauce.  My favorite Asian dish I would eat growing up is rice with spicy minced beef tofu.  It’s called mapu tofu in Mandarin; I would definitely have that dish.  In terms of vegetables I definitely want broccoli cooked with olive oil and garlic.  Mashed potatoes with gravy and Buffalo wings would be at my last meal as well.  In terms of drinks, I would have dr. pepper and a peanut butter banana smoothie from red mango.  For dessert I would have green tea and red bean ice cream.  Growing up I would always love when my grandma cooked for us.  So I would definitely want a few of her cooked meals as well, specifically a spicy fish dish.  As you can see from all the different kinds of meals I would want at my last meal ever, growing up as an Asian-American I was able to enjoy many different types of food.  I am very thankful to have had this opportunity.  I am also glad I was able to enroll in this course the day before when I decided to take a different seminar class.  A discovery seminar class about rural life didn’t seem that interesting to me.  Thank you. 

Last meal

For the Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Easter had just passed and like many knowledgeable of the bible and its scriptures, it celebrates Jesus' rebirth. Many people only think about Easter as a day meant for egg hunting and giant bunnies with baskets, and painting Easter Eggs. But the second most famous schema that reflect Easter was actually a last meal of Jesus. Jesus' final meal was illustrated and immortalized not only through the scriptures but from art as well; Leonardo Da Vinci, Italy's most famous painter, illustrates Jesus' final meal in one of his more known masterpieces: the Last Supper. Many can see that for his last meal before his crucifixion was composed almost entirely of grain products - specifically bread. This final supper shows much similarity with most of the food we've cooked. Roman diet was focused heavily on bread and grains; they had varieties of bread for all types of circumstances. The Romans used bread dipping to sandwich their meat, and for dessert - where bread is sweetened in milk and fried. In addition,a decent amount of evidence regarding the Roman diet is wheat. During the Pompeii eruption, the volcanic ash were able to create a cast of the some of the objects and people of the city. There were many casts of humans, pets, and other household utensils. Among this collection, a lot of the food that were preserved seem to be bread; many photos of Pompeii's remnants show that in the dining area, the ash were formed in shape of traditional roman bread eaten by commoners. However, the Romans still had other meals in their diet; unfortunately, the volcanic ash didn't shape itself into the form of other typical Roman meal/fast food in restaurants or fast food joints. Although the Romans of Pompeii weren't Christians, they did, however, enjoy bread for their last supper too.

Last Dinner!

The dinner that comes to mind when we talk about a final dinner is when my parents took the family out before my oldest sibling went to college. I was about 13 at the time and didn't think much of it, but my dad put a lot of thought into this dinner. We went to Adam's Rib on main street, which is the same place my grandfather brought my dad before he went to college. My dad made sure we had the same table, and the same crackers and cheese. I appreciate this dinner more now because I realize how much my father appreciated what his dad did for him and now my father was only trying to share an experience with everyone. This was also one of the last dinners my family had together, while we were all living under one roof. After this dinner my parents shipped off all four of us (their children) to college in the next five years. Since then both of my sisters come home sparingly and when they do it is for the holidays and sometimes they both don't make it home. Basically I have fond memories of this dinner, but more of the meaning of it than the actual food.

Last Meal

I few things come to mind when I think about a possible last meal.  First would be the macaroni and cheese my grandfather used to make.  We always asked for it on our birthdays and he always deliverd.  There would also have to be shawarma, but not any shawarma.  When I was in Israel there was a little hole in the wall stand in Tzfat that made the best shawarma. A bunch of friends and myself found it while we were exploring the city. Combine their shawarma with a lot of hummus, pickled turnips, regular pickles, lettuce and tomato.  There would also have to be shashouka, particularly from a hotel we stayed at in Jerusalem.  For dessert, probably a root beer float or frozen custard from Adrian's on Grand Island.  Wash that all down with a glass of 2010 Moscato from the Golan Heights Winery or the white russians that my sister makes. 

All of these foods have a great memory attached, from cooking with my grandfather and being in Israel to summer vacation in elementary and middle school.