What's Your Madeline?

In last month's or this month's GQ, there's an article called My Sweet Life by Alan Richman. The article is a wee bit long. He goes through all of his top desserts like salt water taffy, the Pig's Dinner (humongous sundae), etc. The nitty gritty of the article talks about how sweets are a large part of our culinary identity. Most of us relate sweets with childhood. One way to chase down our nostalgic childhood is by hunting down our favorite sweets in original perfect form. Richman claims that everyone has a "madeline." You know, that one sweet that instantly brings you right back to your childhood. Of course, this article got me thinking, "What is my 'madeline'?" Me being the indecisive person that I am, I have 2.

1. Homemade Dessert of Choice - Gingerbread Cookies:

from flickr

My mom and I would make these cookies into shapes of stars, Christmas trees, hearts, and people. We even made trees when it wasn't ChristmasI remember her teaching me that I should push the cookie cutter as close to the edge as possible, so I can get the most out of the dough. Funny enough, we never really decorated the cookies. The shape always seemed entertaining enough for me.

2. Restaurant Dessert of Choice - Cheesecake:

from flickr

We never made cheesecake at home because my mom said it was too hard and we didn't have the right pan. Often, we would go on a cheesecake search to find the best cheesecake in town. I still love cheesecake in almost any flavor. My absolute favorite would be plain New York Cheesecake. For all these reasons, one of my favorite episodes of Friends included Chandler and Rachel and the stolen cheesecake. :)

p.s.

This is my 200th post. Yay!