sam1148  Cherry Tomato Tequila Butter Salsa with Fried Fish

Gotta love a guy who knows how to make his own Fritos. No, really. Sam1148 has long been a Hotline All-Star (way back to the days of ye olde Foodpickle). But since our recent facelift, he's stepped up to the plate time and time again with rocking good, honest answers over which we've had plenty a good chuckle. Like that time he served rocky beans.

If there's one corner of the site in which the tricky and resourceful do reside it's the Food52 Hotline. And, by jingo, is this cook ever helpful. He often appears to the rescue with so much more than the answer -- creativity, unusual experience, and a sense of humor pepper all of his responses. How do you clean a pizza stone? Oh, but it's so much more than a stone! Often weaving his family history in with his kitchen know-how, it's not all talk -- the dude took home silver in our Cherry Tomato Contest with his Cherry Tomato Tequila Butter Salsa with Fried Fish. Thanks, Sam1148, for teaching us to fish all over the site.

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Read a Q&A with Sam1148 below:

  • 1. Describe an early food experience that has influenced the way you think about food and/or cooking.
  • Julia Child. The first thing I ever made that involved cooking was her French Onion Soup.
  • 2. What's your least favorite food?
  • That green Jello stuff with carrots.
  • 3. What is the best thing you've made so far this year?
  • Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri Sauce
  • 4. Describe your most spectacular kitchen disaster.
  • I broke a blade on a Vitamix trying to grind a dried out parmesan cheese rind. Apparently they can turn wood into saw dust, but not cheese.
  • 5. What is your idea of comfort food?
  • Miso Soup
  • 6. Apron or no apron?
  • No apron.
  • 7. What's your favorite food-related scene in a movie?
  • The feast from a Christmas Carol. Alistair Sim version.
  • 8. If you could make a show-stopping dinner for one person, living or dead, who would it be?
  • My Uncle Jullian.

 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • ashleychasesdinner
    ashleychasesdinner
  • Burnt Offerings
    Burnt Offerings
  • Sam1148
    Sam1148
  • Summer of Eggplant
    Summer of Eggplant
  • creamtea
    creamtea
I am a cook / eater / writer living in San Francisco.

24 Comments

ashleychasesdinner November 16, 2011
Hello Sam, congrats on your spotlight! I loved your Q & A, How funny you are! Love your name, that is my son's name too.
 
Burnt O. October 25, 2011
So glad to see this! I learn so much from you and enjoy your responses enormously! Well done and congrats.
 
Sam1148 October 25, 2011
To add another personal story here: My partner doesn't care for fish much. So the cat fish recipe is one of the few he likes. (tho he prefers it with chicken cutlets)
I'm not wild about catfish either, but do make it occasionally. My parents had a cat fish pond in my youth...and occasionally we'd get a 'fish kill'. Nothing can put off your cat fish than going out in row boat and skimming off dead floating cat fish from the surface of the pond. Yet somehow I survived..and like catfish now..it took awhile tho.
 
Summer O. October 24, 2011
Congratulations Sam! I always enjoy your advice!
 
creamtea October 22, 2011
N i c e ! I always learn something new from Sam1148!
 
Midge October 21, 2011
Great to see you in the spotlight Sam1148. Always love reading your pickle answers.
 
BlueKaleRoad October 21, 2011
Congratulations, Sam! Great to see you in the spotlight.
 
susan G. October 21, 2011
What I find so admirable about Sam, in addition to all the virtues already mentioned is this -- you have a stunning intuitive grasp of food that takes you beyond recipes, to bringing out the very nature of the food and showing us how.
 
Niknud October 21, 2011
I second everyone's congratulations and also want to acknowledge my appreciation for your awesome food-pickling skills! Well-deserved!
 
healthierkitchen October 21, 2011
I always love reading your responses! Congrats!
 
healthierkitchen October 21, 2011
I always love reading your responses! Congrats!
 
boulangere October 21, 2011
Congratulations, sam1148. Lovely to see you here. Most well deserved.
 
TSGarp October 21, 2011
Congrats on a well-deserved spotlight! Your catfish recipe is amazing. I'm looking forward to making it again soon.
 
hardlikearmour October 20, 2011
Congrats, Sam! Your food-pickling is fabulous and you definitely deserve a spotlight. Thanks for helping so many folks in need.
 
drbabs October 20, 2011
Hey, Sam, It's so good to see you in the spotlight!
 
AntoniaJames October 20, 2011
P.S. Your catfish is the best. Ever. ;o)
 
AntoniaJames October 20, 2011
So well deserved! You are so knowledgeable, so helpful and always so wonderfully practical. You make this community such a better place. Thank you for everything!! ;o)
 
Bevi October 20, 2011
Congrats on the spotlight! You have helped me out in a pinch several times!
 
SKK October 20, 2011
Sam, you are the best! Learn so much from you - good on you for being in the spotlight.
 
inpatskitchen October 20, 2011
Congratulations Sam!! Soooo well deserved!
 
Panfusine October 20, 2011
Your foodpickle answers were (are) always so informative. Congratulations on the spotlight. Second Sdebrango's comment on the 'superhero' ! (Thanks for refreshing my memory about my own blender disaster (of today!!)
 
mrslarkin October 20, 2011
hooray sam! so nice to see you in the spotlight!
 
Sam1148 October 20, 2011
Thanks for the Honor! I'm blushing. I really to get a kit and repair my old vita mix. I need some new gaskets for it as I transplanted the blade from the other stainless container (with the spigot) to the broken one..and it leaks. Powerful circa 70's model...the lights dim when the motor turns on.
 
wssmom October 20, 2011
Nice to "meet" you Sam, love how you man the hotline!!