1. For my last meal on earth I’d like to eat:
At my last meal I would like to eat the liver with cream and mushrooms prepared by Tzipi, the mother of my husband, Peter, God bless her. It’s so delicious that you can hear your arteries clogging as you eat.
2. An unforgettable childhood memory related to food or the kitchen:
One hot summer afternoon with my mother − I was in first or second grade at the time − I was so angry that I said I was leaving home for good. I took a kerchief and a stick, and collected food for the road that would keep me alive in imaginary snowstorms and endless deserts. A few candies and cookies. I wrapped them in the kerchief and tied it onto the stick. Just like a dwarf. And I went to Gan Bilu, a public park with dark and maze-like corners, near my house. I whined about the fact that I wouldn’t get to see my family again, ate the candies, and when I was defeated by the situation on the ground I returned home in embarrassment. It seemed like an eternity to me. When I arrived home it turned out I had been there for about 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes of excruciating loneliness.
3. An unforgettable food experience:
I had the good fortune to eat beef bourguignon prepared by the late Eli Mohar. Eli, in addition to his phenomenal ability to write lyrics and music that make their way straight to my heart, was also gifted with a rare talent for cooking. To see him eating and talking about food with that sparkle in his eyes would give me great pleasure. A rare pleasure.
4. An unfulfilled food fantasy:
The fantasy is apparently to keep eating food and sweets until I explode. As in the scene in the film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (based on the children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” by Roald Dahl), with the wonderful Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. To eat like a glutton and with tremendous enjoyment until the bitter end.
5. I will never touch:
About two years ago we went to the Shakespeare Festival in Shanghai with the Cameri Theater’s production of “Hamlet.” On every street corner there was a kind of kiosk where they sold, among other things, a kind of chicken’s foot candy that looked alive, with the nails and the skin − something everyone (except for the Chinese) would find disgusting. And on the wrapper was the logo of a child with his tongue sticking out, with an expression that said “Yummy.”
6. An unforgettable meal from books or movies:
The scene from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” in which he and Diane Keaton chase lobsters they’re trying to cook. A brilliant scene.
