For the last few days of 2014 and the first days of 2015, I have wondered time and time again how I should construct my 2014 year in review post. I graduated from college and moved to a foreign country in 2014, so I couldn't just not write one - but how would I do it? I just made a list to describe my November, and a sentimental post obviously isn't happening, so what else could I do?
As I traded chocolates this afternoon with a teenager in O'Hare while we waited for our flights to Dublin and Addis Ababa (I will let you decide whether I am the first of those flights or, in a surprise turn of events, the second), I realized I must chronicle my year in terms of that which I love more than most/all things: food. Let us look back, then, friends, on the delicious and occasionally microwaveable things that Sarah ate and drank in 2014. It's still a list. But it's a much cooler, more specific list than normal.
1. Early January. An ice cream sundae the size of my head from an ice cream parlor on DisneyWorld's Main Street USA. I ate this instead of dinner one night, because I live on the edge. I also ate it outside at 7 PM in only a light sweater, despite there being a polar vortex raging in most parts of the country, because Florida.
2. January 27. A blackberry mojito from Rohr's on the eve of Notre Dame's famous double snow day. Snow-induced states of emergency call for but one thing, and that thing is nine-dollar cocktails.
3. February 16-22. My weight in Peach-O's and Smartfood white cheddar popcorn in the dressing rooms of Washington Hall during tech week of Legally Blonde. That's all I ate for that whole week, because it was free (thanks, secret buddy) and there is no such thing as lunch breaks during tech week.
4. Early March. Several slices of chocolate brownie ice cream pie from Logansport frozen-dessert legend Sycamore, because Sycamore expanded their ice cream pie range in 2014, and it was magical.
5. Forever. Many, many bowls of microwaveable soup, eaten in my dorm room and paired delectably with sweatpants and misery from the throes of Thesisland.
5B. April 4. Nothing. Because on the day your thesis is due, you are too busy for food.
5B. April 5. Roughly 25 mozzarella sticks, because thesis completers are officially licensed to eat as many mozzarella sticks as they darn well please.
6. May. My final bowl of the Southern Food Market's 4-Cheese Pasta as a Notre Dame student. Were tears shed? Maybe.
7. Also May. My final bowl of Au Bon Pain mac and cheese, which I didn't appreciate in the way I should have, I'm sorry I took you for granted, ABP, I didn't know what I had until I moved to Ireland and it was gone, I miss you, sweet, delicious mac and cheese, please take me back.
8. May 16. Steak and an entire cake to myself in the dining hall because Notre Dame goes a little overboard with graduation.
9. Early June. A surprisingly delicious steak dinner at the Old Style Inn in Logansport, including a delicious side helping of mac and cheese. A) Shop local. B) Do you think I like dishes involving pasta and cheese?
11. Mid-summer. Pizza and, more importantly, ricotta dumplings from Napolese in Indianapolis. Not tied to a life event. Just really good food. Would recommend. Would recommend driving to Indy just for this, actually. It was good stuff, y'all.
12. July. A lot of elephant ears, lemon shake-ups, and free popcorn of unknown origin in the show barn, because I was contractually obligated to be at the Cass County 4-H Fair every day to write pieces like the front-page hit, "A Pig Deal." I was a big-time journalist in 2014, and free popcorn of unknown origin is what big-time journalists eat.
13. August 24. My final plate of Bang Bang Shrimp for a long time. I love you, Bang Bang Shrimp.
14. August 28. Pretty excellent barbecue, pretty mediocre mac and cheese (SERIOUSLY GUYS I HAVE A PROBLEM), and ice cream from a DIY machine that I managed to accidentally destroy, all at Dublin's Pitt Bros.: my first meal in Ireland. The ice cream machine incident tells you a lot about how well I do with food that I have any role in preparing.
15. September 13. My first-ever helping of veal. In Sligo. I still feel morally iffy about this.
16. September. My first caprese ciabatta from the Black Apple Cafe in Harold's Cross, Dublin. This is my favorite meal. Someone gave me a gift card to the Black Apple Cafe for Christmas with enough money on it to buy, like, four caprese ciabattas, and I almost cried. My first meeting with this delicious sandwich needs to be chronicled.
17. October 10. My first-ever helping of lamb, in Clifden, thus continuing my fall-2014 theme of meats that I feel morally iffy about eating.
18. October 13. A gnocchi from Pichet in Dublin that changed my life.
19. October 18. Chocolate fondue delivered for free to my hotel room. Remember this? Yeah.
20. October 19. Scallops with hollandaise served in the half-shell on a bed of mashed potatoes (the potatoes for good measure because it's Ireland) at San Lorenzo's in Dublin, another dish that changed my life. October, my friends, was a very good month for food.
21. November 4. Sushi for the second time ever! Not my favorite. Also in this meal, though, a frozen mango mojito (mojitos are also a theme for 2014, apparently), which definitely was my favorite.
22. Mid-November. Another serving of ice cream from a pour-it-yourself machine, which this time managed to hit an air bubble and explode ice cream all over me. Do not make me control my own food. Just don't.
23. November 27. A pumpkin soup - course one of six at the world's fanciest Thanksgiving dinner, Merrion Hotel, Dublin - that (wait for it) changed my life.
24. November 29. A milkshake from an American diner in Oslo, Norway. #globalization
25. December 9. My first-ever helping of venison. How do we feel? Morally ambiguous!
26. December 24. A Senor Slim Delgado burrito from Pablo Picante, Baggot Street, Dublin. Because it was the tenth burrito on my punch card, it was free. Best. Christmas Eve. Dinner. Ever.
27. Late December. Home-cooked meals in the good ol' 46947. It was good to be home.
For my final meal in America before returning to Dublin for the next several months, I am about to forage in the international terminal of O'Hare. It was a good year, y'all. Here's to an even better one.
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