Monday, January 29, 2007

Meme - Gotta Have My Sauce

Welcome to another installment of, "Come ON -- tell me the WHOLE story!" AKA "I love to talk about myself", or "Me-Me Monday" for short. The object of the game is to refer to your 101 Things About Me list, pick one of your "things" and tell the whole sordid tale.


66. I've gotta have my sauce.

Every since I was a young lad, I've always had a thing for ketchup. Consider these startling facts from my youth:

a) My mother used to buy ketchup by the case.
b) Whenever we went to weddings or dinner out, my mother used to keep a small container of ketchup in her purse because I had to have it whenever I ate.
c) I used to put so much ketchup on my eggs that my uncle used to say you could put a plate of ketchup down in front of me and I'd eat the whole thing without realizing there were no eggs on the plate.
d) I once put ketchup in my soup (but I never did that again, because it wasn't very good) I sometimes think it's because the soup wasn't good to begin with and not the ketchup's fault.
e) I almost orgasmed last year when I was visiting Pittsburgh and I realized that it was the home of Heinz ketchup.
f) On the night that I proposed to Francine, she'd made a wonderful dinner, including a home-made meatball recipe that used ketchup and beer (is it any wonder I fell in love with this woman?)

I've also always been a fan of merging ketchup with other things, like gravy, egg yoke and things like that. Yummmm. But as I got older, I was able to modify my obsession from ketchup to a general obsession with sauces in general. I like to think that I'm pretty liberal in the adaptation of new sauces into my life. I mean, now, sometimes entire days pass where I haven't used ketchup. (Just some other fun sauce)

For example, when I was in University, a friend of mine from the U.S. introduced me to the act of dipping french fries in mayonnaise. I loved it. Of course, that led to a dilemma whenever I had french fries, because I couldn't decide what to have them with: ketchup or mayo.

The dilemma is now over, of course, since having recently read about fry sauce. Thanks to the good people of Utah (which is apparently home to this marvelous creation) for inventing it.

Fry sauce is basically a mixture of two parts mayo and one part ketchup. Now I have tried that mixture myself, and have to admit that it's a sauce marriage made in heaven.

Of course, I haven't yet tried the real thing, because when I search out more information about fry sauce, I can see that different restaurants from Utah apparently include different ingredients in the mix. (Such as on Arctic Circle's website)

So while I will continue to experiment with my own mixture of this magical recipe, I'm considering seeing if I can do a mail order of the sauce from a Utah area restaurant.

8 comments:

lime said...

i seriously almost bust a gut laughing at letter 'e'

now for my own ketchup story. mr lime nearly divorced me just a week into our marriage when i dared to buy a ketchup other than heinz. he told me in no uncertain terms that even if we became so poor we had to subsist on ketchup sandwiches it was to be a heinz ketchup sandwich. i learned quickly. my next mistake was when the ketchup bottle was nearly empty and i put a dribble of water in the bottle to swish it around and get that last little bit. such heresy to his way of thinking!

i consider myself enlightened now.

Mark Leslie said...

Lime!!! How COULD YOU? You put water into the ketchup bottle? Okay, I need some time now to think about whether or not we can still be friends . . . I think I'll send a sympathy card over to Mr. Lime. LOL

(Actually, the only liquid allowed into a Heinz bottle is when you're having french fries, you're allowed to put in a small bit of vinegar to get those last bits of ketchup clinging to the sides of the inside of the near empty bottle)

Anonymous said...

When rooming together, I once made Apple Pie and Mark wondered if it would taste good with Ketchup. I said, that I would never give you Apple Pie again if you put Ketchup on the piece of Apple Pie, I'm giving you. Long story short, I will never give Apple Pie to Mark again. Side note: My Japanese Grandmother is exactly the same way, except she puts soy sauce on everything. Mark thinks that would be more gross but I disagree, they're equally gross to me.

WestDoor said...

Alright, I was eating with my gf last week at Midtown's (mid Toronto) and they served mussels...with frites...yes......fries. We were given a choice selection of....no sauce..so instead. We actually took the melted butter for the crusty bread...and the chipotle (spelling) sauce from the crusty bread and used those as fries dipping sauce. Not that bad. Then we used the special "MAYO" from the crab cakes.....yum...I think I must've put back on a few lbs there though....

Mark Leslie said...

OMG, Taki, I remember that day. LOL! Damn you, for denying me any more apple pie. However, your wife doesn't know about this, so she might still sneak me a slice . . . tee hee hee

BTExpress said...

Ketchup is a blessing from the gods! There is nothing better, except, well, Miracle Whip. Now that is some really good stuff.

Anonymous said...

I'm not into the whole mayo and ketchup on fries thing...I like gravy and ketchup. I remember in highschool that if you wanted to keep people from eating your fries, you had to come up with some less than appetizing ways of eating them....like mixing mayo, ketchup, gravy, vinegar, salt and pepper...

ah the things we did to keep our fries...

(and I agree with Mark, Lime...nothing but Heinz...and no water in the bottle..)

(and Mark, ketchup on APPLE PIE!??!?! taki was right to deny you...) :P

Rainypete said...

I have yet to find a sauce I couldn't consume. When I was young my brother swore he'd eat only Heinz ketchup, no other brand. So my Mom bought it once and then refilled the bottle with generic stuff. He never knew the difference and she saved a bundle. Priceless indeed.