Roasted chestnuts

[pegkerr]

I stopped by the grocery store yesterday, and along the ingredients I bought for yesterday's disastrous dinner, I bought a few chestnuts. I roasted them under the broiler after dinner and offered them to the girls. Fiona tried one and rejected them (of course) but Delia was pleased by the taste and had several.

They reminded me so powerfully, as they always do, of being back in England, where I tasted them for the first time. I remember buying roast chestnuts from the vendors at the street corners, who would pull them out from steel drums where they roasted them and hand them to you in a paper cone. They kept the hands warm as you walked around that grand old city, and the taste was so warm, so welcome, so sweet and filling and perfect.

Tell me about a food that when you eat it brings back a powerful memory.

Edited to add: since people have asked: Roasting chestnuts is extremely easy. Just make a criss-cross cut on the flat side of the chestnut with the point of a sharp knife and then throw them on a broiler pan and put them under the broiler for five to ten minutes. Yum.

Comments

[madlori.livejournal.com]

In Wisconsin, at every county and state fair, they have deep-fried cheese curds. They are greasy and cholesterol-laden and AWESOME. The outside is crunchy and the cheese is ooey-gooey and pulls away from your mouth in big long strings.

I've had them a few times out here (Culver's has them) and every time I eat them, I'm instantly back at the Rock County 4-H fair.