I'm a native and resident of Santa Fe New Mexico. So it's more than unfortunate that I'm allergic to peppers and tomatoes of all sorts, including Chile, which is The staple food of New Mexican cuisine. It's only complicated by the fact that I've been vegetarian for most of my life. But, having to cook for such a picky eater as myself has made me very adaptable and creative in my recipes. No one will make tamales without chile, so I'll have to do it myself. My favorite food: Chocolate. No Question. Potatoes come in second though, and absolutely everything savory MUST have garlic in it, and garlic on its own is good too. Particularly though, I like challenging food. I lead a rather bohemian life, and so do most of my friends. Going out to nice restaurants isn't generally an option. Instead, I cook what would be expensive food for myself and others, in exchange for ingredients and cleaning up. It beats fast food every night. "'Cause I like to eat." -With a look as though the question shouldn't need to be asked and what's wrong with you anyway? This was my father's answer when someone asked him why he liked to cook. I stick by it. My whole family enjoys cooking, and we often fought over space in the kitchen. My father and I cooked savory things, the older of my brothers is the confectioner, my mother gets really confused if there are no cookies in the house and has to make some right away, and my youngest brother understands that if he's hungry, well, he'd better do something about it. Homefries were the first thing that I really and truly made better than my father. He's still in denial that I didn't use curry at all. Other than potatoes though, I take particular pride in my stranger and more creative dishes (i.e. locus flower tempura), and my simple foods made gourmet (i.e. grilled cheese and lemonade). I haven't really had a "tragedy" for quite some time. My last Bad dish was when I tried to bread and grill zucchini with rice-bran flour. The flavor was good, but the texture was all wrong. More recently, I wasn't all that happy with my Honey Dijon Potatoes.