Favorite foods from childhood: Fried chicken, country ham, sweet corn, apple pie, homemade rootbeer floats (with homemade root beer and homemade ice cream)
Favorite foods today? If we go out to eat I'm partial to middle eastern and Thai fare. I tend not to try to make those foods at home because the spices are flavors are so hard to master. We don't have any really favorite family recipes that we always make.
Favorite family food traditions?
On my side? My favorite tradition is making homemade apple cider in the fall with a restored 100+ year old cider press that is in my basement. Every year I drive from the Portland area out to Hood River OR to the same family orchard owned by a 4th generation Japanese-American family (
https://mthoodfruit.com/) and load up the car with about 1000 lbs of cider apples and we have a big family and friends cider making party.
On my Chilean wife's side? We have a lot more and better food traditions, frankly. When in Chile, Empanadas de Pino (beef and onion), grilled sausage sandwiches called Choripán, lots of queso mantecoso, a traditional Chilean cheese. And for big events, giant paella's made over outdoor fires in 6' pans.
If I had to choose between spending the rest of my life eating Pennsylvania Dutch Menno food, or Chilean food, I'll take Chilean every single day.
