I’m Actress and Writer Mara Wilson and I Eat Like That

Mara Wilson has been known for a long time. If you are a young woman from the millennial generation, you know who she is and were probably obsessed with one of her other films as a child. But Wilson doesn’t seem to be moved by the childhood star or her insanely large following on Twitter. She is down-to-earth and as adorable as you would expect. She is also a prolific baker, tea-set lover and a big fan of The Great British Bake Off, and she was kind enough to chat with me about how she eats, what she drinks and why the hodgepodge provides maximum comfort.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Current concert: Actress and writer.

What do you usually eat for breakfast?

I was really eating when you called. I usually have something like brunch – usually I make myself two eggs and a stew. I have a slice of avocado right now. I usually do variations on this theme. There are also many eateries and restaurants around me serving really good breakfasts and really good brunches. Not trendy brunch – not like mimosa brunch on weekends – just good brunch during the day. I have a couple of restaurants that I go to quite regularly. It got to the point that either I walk in, or they say “here she is!” or I will come with my sister and they will say “here they are!” I confess I’m not the best cook. I lit the spatulas on fire. I burned instant popcorn. I’m really not the best. What I really like is the baked goods. So usually, if I make my own breakfast, I do it quite simply.

I love the fact that you are a frequent visitor to the breakfast establishment. What do you usually order?

I’ll take two eggs, turkey bacon and maybe a green salad or fruit and rye toast. Lately, I really lean towards rye toast and more and more come to my Jewish origin. And my sister always orders the same, which, in my opinion, is rather strange to order. She gets BLT, it isn’t actually BLT. She just eats turkey bacon and avocado on bread. No mayonnaise. No tomatoes. Nothing else, just turkey bacon and avocado. And she loves it – this is her favorite pastime in the world. And then I always drink tea. Tea is very, very important to me.

So you like tea more than coffee?

Oh yes, definitely. I come from a family where every time something was wrong with us, physically or even emotionally, my father would say, “Okay, let’s have a cup of tea first.” You know? “Let’s have a cup of tea about this.” We could be in a critical situation, and the first thing my father would do after calling the emergency services is to make tea.

Is there a particular sheet that you like?

I can no longer eat caffeine due to the fact that I have health problems, and this is the worst. So I had to look for good decaf tea, both high and low, because herbal tea is good, but it doesn’t give me the same calming feeling as black tea. It’s not that good with things. I mean I love rooibos. I like peppermint. Chamomile is fine. But it doesn’t – it always seems like a second choice, like “Is Pepsi okay?” Such things. Although, to be honest, I don’t see much difference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and I haven’t.

Wow.

But I tried to get more British and Irish teas because decaf tea is still very tasty – it’s still pretty strong. I was disappointed with PG’s decaffeinated tea tips, although I really like their standard caffeinated tea. And I mostly drink – let’s see – Barry tea , Irish tea, and Yorkshire tea . Yorkshire tea is really good; their decaf is great. It’s hard to get them because they are British and Irish teas, but there are shops here that – you know, World Market and the like – will have imported teas and you can buy them there.

One of my favorite teas that I can’t eat anymore … there is a place in Pasadena called the Tea Rose Garden and they have black tea with rose petals which is absolutely delicious and I really love it. and I really miss him. This teahouse – I took all my friends – is kind of outdated. Soft piano covers of the Titanic theme will be played in the background, lace napkins everywhere. There are all these very old fashioned little cups, and it’s always someone’s grandma’s birthday, or someone’s baby shower, or a little girl’s birthday. I really love this. The food is so good. It is so charming and it was not accepted in a fashionable ironic manner. It’s just what it is. So while you will see these little kids having their birthdays and women taking baby showers and grandmothers celebrating birthdays, you will also see some gothic lolitas from time to time, but this is very sincere. This is stupid, but very sincere. It’s great. In general, I really love tea shops.

It looks like a very nice place.

This! It is very useful. And I’m always looking for those that – due to dietary restrictions and stuff right now – I’m always looking for teahouses in L.A. that offer good decaf options and also agree on non-dairy because I’ve recently become lactose intolerant. … There is a vegan establishment serving delicious tea. This is the best thing. I don’t know why for some reason either, but I have many vegan friends and have met many vegans. I’m a vegan magnet. I’m not a vegan myself, but vegans are my friends. It’s a strange thing. I end up eating a lot of vegan food.

I have a lot of cookbooks on vegan baking and the like. As I said, I don’t know how to cook, but I’m a good baker. But my family has a lot of dietary restrictions. So I usually bake for my siblings and parents. Our family has lactose intolerance, gluten intolerance, diabetes. We have people who are not allowed to consume caffeine, chocolate or alcohol. We have a lot of different things. I think we have a vegan somewhere – between my siblings and my step cousins ​​and everyone else. So even before I baked the puff pie, I made sugar-free treats for my stepmother or whatever for my dad. I make gingerbreads for my father on his birthday and on Father’s Day because they are his favorites. I also experimented a bit with Filipino pastries because my stepmother is Filipino. I did a thing called Food for the Gods. I really want to do this thing called no rival , like no rival. This is something like nuts and meringues. It’s really rich, but so good.

I feel like my attitude towards food was determined by my mom and my stepmother because my dad is very straightforward; he is very pragmatic. He is an engineer. So food for him is not something super-trendy, although there was a lot of food made with love, you know, such macaroni and cheese with bread crumbs, but it always remained very simple. My mom wasn’t very good at cooking either, but she was a really good baker and always made us latkes, matz ball soup and the like on the holidays. And with my stepmother, I am much more familiar with Filipino food and desserts. This is why I love Jollibee , a fast food restaurant. Jollyby’s Fried Chicken is the best fried chicken, the best instant fried chicken. A couple of years ago I had a birthday picnic and one of my friends brought a bucket of Jollibey chicken and I had this Proust memory of my teenage years and I was horrified. It was in New York and I thought, “Oh my God, Jollibey! Where did you find Jollibey? I thought it was only in California! “And it was so good, and I told my stepmother that now every holiday that we celebrate with my stepfamily, they bring a chicken bucket just for me.

This is amazing. Let’s go back briefly to substitutions and baking. Do you have a favorite vegan baked goods or sugar-free substitute?

I baked … what is it called? Not erythritol because it tastes like mint and I put it in pumpkin bread and it was terrible. Lately I have been making stevia based baking mixes. I used to dislike stevia, but I kind of got used to it, and baked goods don’t have a strange aftertaste. I really like xylitol, but xylitol can cause stomach upset and is also very dangerous for cats and dogs, but I have used it too. Vegan muffins are one of the easiest things to make. Cupcakes don’t have to contain dairy, and I have this book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World , which is great.

Firstly, I am very poor at preparing icing. I’ve cooked it a couple of times, but I can never make a vegan frosting myself. I have to follow the recipe very strictly. Vegan muffins: You can simply curl up the soy milk by adding some apple cider vinegar and mixing some cocoa powder together … It’s pretty simple. You can’t go wrong with them. Vegan biscuits are also more difficult to make, but I made them and they turned out to be great. I have a really hard time with gluten-free foods because you don’t know if your kitchen is contaminated. So usually if I cook with friends who are gluten intolerant or celiac, I try to do it in their kitchen. I used to sit with children in a family where one of the parents had celiac disease, one of the parents had lactose intolerance, and the children were allergic to nuts, and we laughed at the fact that we can never dip the same knife in oil and how we had to keep everything separate. People like to make fun of food allergies and stuff, but I’m now at the age like I said that I have health problems that prevent me from eating certain things.

I remember people talking a couple of years ago about gluten intolerance, and I seem to have tweeted, “Your journey begins when you stop caring about non-celiac people by going gluten-free,” because you judge people for what they add to their bodies … I don’t know. I eat meat, but I don’t like fish, I don’t eat beef and pork, so I probably don’t eat mammals. One of my friends recently said that she doesn’t eat mammals and that often people in restaurants don’t quite understand what a mammal is. It may be difficult, but it is not their fault, it is the state of education in this country; don’t make me turn on. But I feel like I don’t really like predatory things like “I eat meat and I’m cool!” I do not understand this. And most vegans I know don’t really criticize you for it. Did I know one or two that belonged to PETA? Maybe, but most of my vegan friends say, “No, I’m vegan. I’m going to bring my food here. You keep having fun. I’m not going to judge you. They were very nice and very kind to it. But the smell of barbecue really brings me back because I grew up in southern California where we could barbecue all year round.

I like this approach. I’m a big fan of taking care of my plate. Moving on to the day: what do you usually eat for lunch?

I usually do it pretty straightforward for lunch. Sometimes, if I wake up late, if I woke up late the night before, I just have one big lunch, which is not good. I usually eat quite a bit of food in the middle of the day. I usually have a larger breakfast and a larger dinner. My diet has changed a lot in the last few months due to the fact that I have a condition called ” dysautonomy “. This is due to the vegetative system. The autonomous system is what controls many of the body’s automatic systems. Mine is related to blood pressure. In particular, there is a subset of dysautonomy called “POTS,” which stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and I am currently being tested to see if I have such dysautonomy. Basically, it’s as if you get up and your heart rate is quickening because you have low blood pressure and your heart rate is accelerating to compensate.

I’ve had it for a couple of years now. It has been especially bad over the past year and a half. It is caused by things like caffeine. I went to this lovely tea parlor with a friend of mine a couple of years ago in a western village and as soon as I got out on the street I could no longer walk and eventually passed out. I had to go to the hospital. It really sucks. But this is a really common thing and is often misunderstood. And it is also very common in young women. I have had a personal experience, and many of my friends have shared anecdotal experiences when they were young women whose health is not taken seriously. So it took them years to finally figure out what was going on. But they advise getting rid of caffeine and alcohol and eating low-carb foods. It can tire you out and provoke things like mine … A couple of months ago I went to Disneyland and there was a Dole Whip, and that was the best thing, but then I got sick and I got dizzy. I feel good because there was too much sugar.

Oh no!

I know! it’s Dole Whip! This is a classic. This is a classic Disneyland. Oddly enough, what seems to help with this, and you can eat almost as much as you like, is salt. One of the cures for a handful is to make sure you’re not dehydrated, so you drink a ton of water, but you can also eat salt. So I’ll be in a restaurant, grab a salt shaker and put salt in the water, and that’s allowed by cardiologists. My doctors are like, “Yeah, add salt. That’s okay. ”And nutritionists and cardiologists will say,“ Yeah, salt. ”It’s really weird, but yes, I can eat as much salt as I want, so salty snacks are something I eat a lot, and I have a lot of them in day – usually things like pumpkin seeds and the like Salty pumpkin seeds – salty seeds are probably best because they have less carbs I love the Bamba which are like peanut butter puffs These are my favorites.

There is one more thing I have to take every morning – they help me get out of bed – called nuun pills. I have to drink this if I want to get out of bed in the morning because my blood pressure has dropped so much. It sucks, but you can live in it. The lifestyle changes helped a lot and I don’t take it as seriously as other people do. But I do think that if someone is reading this and has symptoms that they cannot explain, they should look into POTS and dysautonomy, because it is often a symptom of a more serious problem, like many people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome have. which I don’t have, too, or a lot of people who have had Lyme disease or Epstein-Barr virus or something like that, they will eventually get sick too. This is probably a fairly common occurrence, but people don’t know about it. Many doctors seem to be unaware of this.

But usually I eat something small but very salty. One thing I really love is edamame or miso soup. The miso soup is great. I used to dislike seaweed at all, and still don’t like raw seaweed, but miso soup is a lifesaver. It’s salty and good. My sister also looks like a complete hippy flower-grower and she prepares herbal infusions; she uses oat straw a lot and it really moisturizes, very nice and helps when you are sick. It’s not like alternative medicine, it’s just a drink to drink in addition to things, and I find that I always feel better when I drink it. And you can go to juice shops in Los Angeles and New York, but it’ll be about $ 8 a glass, while Anna just finds some and does it overnight and it really helps. It soothes the stomach, helps with headaches and the like. And it’s not nearly as strong as many other herbal supplements.

My sister is really good at cooking and we spend a lot of time together. So she will cook soup, vegetables and cook really amazing things. I feel like there is a kind of rift between people who are more artistic and people who are more analytical, which oversimplifies things, but she is a visual artist, she just experiments with food and does all these great things when she cooks and will just be like, “I think I’ll do it today!” Meanwhile, I have a lot of problems – I burn things when I cook. It’s just a big mess. So I usually let her cook. And she doesn’t like baked goods, so she can make dinner and I can make dessert.

I really think people tend to gravitate towards one thing or the other.

They say that cooking is an art and baking is a science, and despite the fact that I have worked in the “creative field” from a young age, I have always been an analyst, left hemisphere – again, the dichotomy of the left and right hemispheres of the brain does not answer. doesn’t really exist, but for the sake of metaphor – I’ve always been like that. The way I think is very similar to my father and my father is an engineer. I am very pragmatic and analytical, and it really helps me think, because I have been a perfectionist for a very long time, but engineering thinking is basically like “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Just make sure it’s nice, functional, pragmatic, and I think it gave me a lot of peace of mind.

It’s funny that you’re into baking because one of my most vivid childhood food culture memories is the iconic chocolate cake in Matilda.

Yes! Oh my gosh people have been telling me for years! There is actually a book that I think is called Roald Dahl ‘s Wonderful Recipes [ Roald Dahl ‘s Disgusting Recipes ], and there is a recipe for chocolate cake. I don’t think I’ve ever done this. I need to find him. It’s somewhere. This is probably at my parents’ house, but I feel like I have to bake a chocolate cake. Kind of like Comic Relief baked. The Great British Bake Off is similar to my religion. I have so many cookbooks. For my sister’s birthday last year, I baked – she doesn’t like cakes – so I made her a cookie dough cake from Nadia who won The Great British Bake Off a couple of years ago – I did it from her book. It is very good. And it was a really big success. They will never let me in because I am not British. And if I were, I’m still not a good baker to bake with celebrities. We had an American version, but it was not like that. It’s funny because the British version has so many things like “Please make this 16th century Cornish brownie that nobody has made in hundreds of years” and then in American or Australian baked goods it would be something like, “Please, make cupcakes. “The Great British Bake-Off has helped me through breakups, sickness and more, and this is absolutely the best result.

This is a very soothing show.

It is very calming. I love that they hug each time at the end. Many of my celebrity fans are people I follow from The Great British Bake Off . I don’t know if I should say who because I think some of them might follow me on Twitter and I don’t want to make things weird.

I think they’ll be flattered, but if you don’t want this to be printed, I won’t. How did you feel about the change of owner?

I was sad. I love Mel and Sue very much, but it doesn’t scare me, I just say, “Okay, it’s okay.” And I’m used to baking with substitutes. So it was a bit like “Oh, it’s like when I couldn’t bake with sugar, so I baked with xylitol.” I find they are funny and interesting in and of themselves. However, I realized one thing: I am very similar to Noel Fielding, and this is kind of intimidating. One day I looked at him and thought, “Oh my God, on a bad day I look like Noel Fielding.” I have the same big nose. I have blue-green eyes and dark hair. I look like a smaller version of it. We even dress the same because it has British glam rock features. This is what I say when I want to make fun of myself in British.

To be honest, I really love the whole Noel Fielding case. He has a lot of looks, but he wears it very well. Coming back to the topic of salt: are you addicted to fantastic salt or something else?

I definitely have a lot of Himalayan rock salt. And I was very addicted to dark chocolate. It’s funny because when I lived in New York I always wanted milk chocolate and New York is a city of dark chocolate. I kind of had to get used to dark chocolate. I still don’t like it. Well, that’s not true, I think I like it now, but it took me a long time – probably just last year – to get to the place where I really love dark chocolate. And a little dark chocolate is too dark for me. But I love salty chocolate and you can actually find chocolate that is good in sodium, especially if it has nuts in it, so I’ll do that and have less sugar in them too, which is good because I can ” I have too a lot of sugar. I really like pink Himalayan rock salt, but I’m worried because I know there is iodine in the salt and it worries me a lot. Sometimes I take a can of sea salt and iodized salt and mix them.

I really love rock salt, and one of mine – I’ve been doing this for years – but I sprinkle some sea or pink rock salt on a chocolate chip cookie when I bake it. And I make really good chocolate chip cookies, if I say so. I have a great recipe and can tweak it a bit for allergy sufferers, but I’ve been told over and over that I make the best chocolate chip cookies. And I always sprinkle them with a little salt before they go to the oven and that really makes the chocolate stand out. I usually try to use two or three different types of chocolate there. I will add dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and milk chocolate, so there is something for everyone.

Sounds amazing. Are those chocolate chip gummies?

They are very chewy. My mom always made really good chocolate chip cookies when I was little. I don’t know what recipe she’ll use – probably only the Nestle Tollhouse recipe – but they were always the best. And I remember that I went to my cousin’s house or a friend’s house, and their mom made cookies, or their dad made cookies, but these cookies came out really fluffy and crumbly, and on top it was just chocolate chips. And I hate it; they taste like pancakes. I mean, they’re fine. One of my friends makes a really very good version of them. But neither are they – I don’t know if they have a lot of baking soda or what, but it’s like if I wanted cake, I would just eat cake, or if I wanted pancakes – and I like pancakes – but if I wanted pancakes I would just have pancakes.

So I try to make mine as chewy as possible. And one of the secrets – I mean, there are many secrets of making chocolate chip cookies, but at the moment they are all pretty open secrets – put them in the freezer or refrigerator for a while. This will ensure that they do not disperse too far. If you want them to be large, you can tap the baking sheet lightly or drop it a little, and it will make them nice and flat, but I like them to be smaller and more chewy, so I usually put them in the refrigerator or even in refrigerator. freezer. I have cookie dough in the freezer right now if my sister hasn’t eaten all of it yet. She prefers cookies to cookies. But I’ll do it and then sprinkle them with a little salt and put them in. And sometimes I bring them to a party and they will still be warm. It’s like everyone’s favorite work.

Yes, this is a really good party move. It’s better than taking alcohol with you.

Exactly. And I don’t know if I have a Jewish mother in me or what, but I definitely have a desire to feed people and treat them. And people will be like, “Oh, you don’t have to bring food here,” and I’ll bring food anyway.

I totally relate to this. Slightly separating from the salt. Do you have a favorite hot sauce or condiment?

I’m weak when it comes to spicy food. I think I have my dad’s Irish-English taste buds. Lately, I can add cayenne pepper to things. As one of my favorite foods is Spanish rice, or “Mexican rice” I suppose, and when I’m trying to be healthy, I can cook it with cauliflower rice. And that’s one of the things I love about going back to Los Angeles; how even my carnivore friends have this desire to be healthy – the desire to be better. One of my boyfriend friends, who always grills steaks, said, “Oh yeah, I love cauliflower fried rice,” which is a lot of fun in my opinion. There is nothing more Californian than constantly striving for self-improvement. I thought I was supremely New York for years, and in a way I … Oh! So my cat is trying to steal my food. I was eating when I answered that call, I put the food aside for a second and covered it with a lid, and now one of my kittens is trying to eat it. He’s an adorable kitten, but right now he’s in a stage where he’s testing his limits, and a lot of that includes trying to eat my food, especially when it’s something he likes, like avocados and eggs.

Is this what you eat? Avocados and eggs?

Yeah. I have avocado, eggs, and herb stew. And I will drink a large cup of tea and usually Kedem tea biscuits. I love them – they are so simple and soft. Someone said that these are salty cookies, but I like salty ones. I was always nauseous and always had stomach flu when I was growing up, so hydrochloric acids mean comfort to me. So yeah, of course, I also love super-baked cookies that you can dip in tea; they are my favorites. Sorry. I got distracted. What was the question again?

Do you have any “must have” condiments that you use with everything? It doesn’t have to be sharp.

I mean, lately I’ve started to consume more soy sauce because it has a lot of sodium. I remember going to a restaurant with a friend of mine at an Asian fusion restaurant. And when we arrived, I felt dizzy and tired, then I ate something with soy sauce, and immediately felt better. I mean it might just be a placebo effect, but I’m definitely using it more these days. I really love turmeric. Turmeric latte … they taste good. I don’t know if it has any of the benefits that are being talked about, but they taste good! So I definitely cook a lot.

As for seasonings and other things, not really. My stepmother loves banana sauce. Which, you know, sounds funny, but mostly it’s just ketchup. My taste buds have expanded since I got older, and they will probably continue to do so. When I was younger, I thought I might have that super taster when you taste more than most people. Because I definitely have cilantro that tastes like soap and I can’t eat things that are too sweet or too bitter. You know, I hated dark chocolate. I couldn’t eat artificial sweeteners. I am very picky, but now I am smaller. And now I’m asking, “Have I just killed some of my extra taste buds?” I’m only 31 years old, but when I turn 40, will I just eat everything? And I kind of hope so, because I don’t like to show people off. I don’t like to say, “Oh, I don’t eat this.”

Since I recently developed lactose intolerance, I started ordering vegan pizza to take to parties. And in Los Angeles, someone is likely to be vegan too. But honestly, I wouldn’t wish a vegan pizza on anyone, because there are very few good vegan pizzas. Cheese tends to absorb all the moisture from the tomato sauce. Sometimes I make them at home. Kite Hill has some really good ricotta that I use. It may sound blasphemous, but I’ve never been a huge fan of cheese. It’s funny when I tell people that I can’t eat cheese anymore, they look at me like I told them that someone just died. But the truth is, I’ve always only liked soft cheeses. I liked Bree. I liked Ricotta. Liked the mozzarella. You know, softer, medium cheese. I don’t like parmesan. Not a big fan of cheddar. So I’ll just use the fake one and everything will be fine. There just isn’t a lot of good mozzarella that melts well. So I make something like basil, ricotta and tomato pizza if I make it at home and it’s really easy to make and it’s really good.

I didn’t find a good vegan mozzarella either. I love a lot of fermented cashew foods.

Yes, they are really good. Trader Joe is not bad. But I was disappointed with many of the big brands that make mozzarella.

Speaking of Trader Joe’s, do you have any favorite Trader Joe’s snacks?

Oh dude. They don’t have peanut butter – I come back all the time – and I like chia seed butter and stuff. I don’t know if this is really healthier for you, but it really tastes good. I feel so bad with people who are allergic to peanuts. I dated a man who had been allergic to peanuts for several years and it was really tough. I thought, “Can I kiss you after eating peanut butter?” Bamba, as I said, is one of my favorite things, which is why I love Trader Joe’s bamboo. Their chocolate chip cookies, little round ones, so delicious. Trader Joe’s is a fun place, like I’m never more tested than Trader Joe’s. Always like a dad with his child, and dad in a Pixies T-shirt. And he will see me in my boots and leather jacket, and I don’t know if I remind him of the girl he saw at the Bikini Kill concert, but yes. I never feel more desirable than when I am with Trader Joe’s.

Do you usually have a big dinner?

It kind of depends. My sister and I sometimes go out for lunch or cook something ourselves. I usually hang out with her. I am very close to my brothers and sisters – I have always been. There are many good restaurants near where I live and I will go to them often. I have four of my favorite restaurants that I go to and spin in circles. I try not to eat too large meals and usually end up with dinner quite late. I remember when I was in Spain as a child, and they went to bed late and ate very late, I thought to myself: “This is how to live.” Don’t eat at six, eat at ten.

What four restaurants do you usually go to?

There is a vegan restaurant that I go to often. I love Thai food; I often go to Thai food establishments. I have been to a Mediterranean place a lot, but my sister got poisoned by it, so we probably won’t go there again. I noticed one difference between living in New York and Los Angeles: people in New York will say, “Yes, I got food poisoning from this place, but I’m going to go there anyway.” Health ratings don’t matter at all, where, like in Los Angeles, people will be like, “Oh no, they have a B, I don’t know if I can go there anymore.”

I go to one restaurant because they have a good breakfast and a really good chicken dinner. Many celebrities come here. This is an interesting place for people and I personally felt embarrassed in front of John Hamm about five times at this restaurant. Maybe just three or four, but it was several times. It got to the point that if I did something awkward or I got spinach in my teeth, my sister would say, “Where is John Hamm?” and start looking for it. He’s just always there when I put my full ass out of me.

Oh, Kantera ! Canter’s is one of my favorite places. I love Jewish delicacies so much, and I really miss the opportunity to get matzo soup at any time of the day or night. I also miss bagels. There are no good bagels here. When we were kids, my brothers played in Little League nearby, so I have a lot of happy memories of going to Canter’s and getting their rainbow biscuits, sprinkles, grandma and the like. For me, matzo ball soup is a pleasant meal. It is still one of my favorite things in the world.

Speaking of comfortable food in general, do you have a habitual “can’t even” or “sad lunch”?

Yes, probably something with a lot of toast. Something like that. I usually order or make burritos. When I grew up in Southern California, my favorite food was Ashkenazi Jews, like my family, or tacos and burritos. I still complain about Mexican food every time I return to [New York]. Aloo gobi, I really like it – it really comforts me. Salt, tea – in fact, perhaps the most consoling food for me is tea drinking, such as a bun and sandwiches. When someone has a really tough day, I take them to the teahouse or something, and that always cheers them up. Or, if I’m hungry, I’ll order a burrito or a bowl of burritos.

I think, probably, and a diner, like pancakes. I’m from Burbank, and in Burbank you must have an affection for one diner patron or another — you must choose one. There are three big eateries here: Coral Cafe, Tallyrand, and Lancers. And you have to pick one as your favorite, and we always chose the Lancers, but later I realized that the Lancers were probably the worst of the three. Tallirand is the best in quality. And there is nothing better than going to a diner when you are unhappy.

Oh yeah, or a hangover.

Or a hangover, yes, that’s right. Or late at night – 24/7 eateries – I was a regular in New York, I lived across the street from one. And I still haven’t found a diner here in my Los Angeles area that I really like. So, visitors, lend your hand! Perhaps you can convince me.

Do you have an order at the diner?

I usually eat a turkey burger; this is one of my favorite things. If they have matzo soup, I’ll get it. If I try to eat healthy foods, I’ll take chicken salad – like a salad with chicken on it. I’m not the biggest fan of salads. I liked the prepared herbs. But if you add some cranberries and nuts to it, I will definitely eat this. If you do this with more than just iceberg lettuce and tomatoes – if you really put in a little effort, I will eat this.

My friend Max Ash wrote an article for Reductress a couple of years ago called ” A Woman Can Make a Salad Better Than This .” And now, every time I am in some place, and they give me, as you know, soup and salad, and the salad is just not good, I will take a picture of it and send it and say: “A local woman could make a better salad than this”. This is what I really like, cranberry nut salad and the like. I also really like fried zucchini or vegetables, so I often take something with eggplant. I love good nightshade. These are pretty much my favorite things. Chicken tortilla soup.

Do you want a bite to eat at the cinema?

I love popcorn. Sometimes the smell of popcorn just takes me somewhere else. When I was a teenager, I always had Icee when I went to the movies, but now if I have Icee, I’ll crash and fall asleep very badly, and I don’t want to fall asleep in the movies. I usually make popcorn now, sometimes M&M. Again, I love anything with peanut butter, so anything that contains peanuts or peanut butter, M&M peanuts have always been my favorites. But these days, I’ll see if they have anything with dark chocolate, or if I – don’t tell them – I’ll smuggle a bar of dark chocolate in there and eat a little of it. A bit of dark chocolate with popcorn – together they really taste good.

It is a great combination of salty and sweet.

Exactly. I remember probably ten years ago when salted caramel was a really big thing, we went to my roommate’s birthday party and they just brought this piece of salt, poured caramel over it and gave us a bunch of something to get us in plunged. , almost like a fondue. It was salted caramel and it was delicious. It felt so good.

I am really stunned to feel the lump of caramelized salt. Sounds life changing.

I feel like this is what you could do for a party.

This is my new goal, so thank you so much for that.

You are welcome.

If you could choose just one salt source, one fat source, and one acid source? What would you choose for each?

I do not know. That is, I love butter, but it doesn’t suit me. In terms of acidity, I love lemons and I love lemon juice. I used to have a lemon tree in my backyard, so it could be. Like the smell of lemon tree and lemon flowers, this is California childhood for me. For fat? I could say avocado. God, I sound so simple Californian now, but I love avocado so much. I live in an apartment, but the only reason I possibly want a home is because of the avocado tree. Because I know that there are so many problems and labor disputes associated with all this.

And what about salt? That is, I salted everything. Sol and I are best friends. I even have a shirt that I got from – there is a web comic I read in college called Married by the Sea, and one day they did it like Salt! Gluten Free! No high fructose corn syrup! Lactose free! It’s kosher! Mmm! Salt! “And I have it on my T-shirt, and I often wear this T-shirt, especially when I go to see my cardiologist. I think he likes it. I just started to study the use of salt. I would probably like salted chocolate the most. salted caramel I mean even peanut butter, peanut butter has a lot of salt In fact, I should probably say “salt marsh.” It’s kind of my brand.