Who are you?
I am a chick living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
That's not very useful.
Sorry. You're right. My name is Lisa Leutheuser. I used to not share that so much, but it's getting out there. So there you have it.
Where did you get that chick picture?
The "chick" is a taroroot dimsum. I took this picture at Lai Wah Heen restaurant in Toronto and then photoshopped it to remove the plate and background. Lai Wah Heen has amazing avant-guarde dimsum.
Your tag line sounds familiar...
It's a take on my favorite opening line for a novel: "He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad." Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. Wonderful book, but whatever you do, don't watch the movie. Ugh. Yuck.
So what's your relationship with food?
Polyamorous. :-) I like just about every cuisine. I was a very picky eater as a child. My mother despaired of ever getting me to try something new. But something happened in college... I can't say what triggered it. Maybe the dorm food made me desperate enough to try new things. In any event I'll eat just about anything now. If I don't like it the first time, chances are by the third time it'll be my newest favorite food.
Anything?
Okay, I won't eat natto. I smelled it. That was enough. I really don't want to try it three times and discover that I do like it. That would be just gross.
How many cookbooks do you have?
Between me and my husband, we have around 200 cookbooks and counting. Whew. More recipes than we can cook in our lifetimes. That doesn't seem to stop us from acquiring new cookbooks, but our diminishing shelf space has had some affect on our rate of acquisition. Now it has to be a really good must-have cookbook. The definition of "really good must-have" changes frequently, though books about hard-to-find cuisines frequently top the list. (How many published Indonesian cookbooks are there available in the U.S. compared to, say, Chinese or Italian?)
What's your favorite cuisine?
Whatever I'm cooking at the moment. I'm most comfortable cooking Asian (especially Thai and Chinese), Indian, or North African. But I think my favorite cuisine may be Ethiopian, though I'm not very good at cooking Ethiopian. I can get the ingredients, but the dishes never taste the same as they do at Red Sea, a local and very good Ethiopian restaurant. (I guess the favorite is always the one I can't duplicate at home.)