Late Lunch Getting You Down?
Haven't got some Vitameatavegamin on hand? Have some vitamin-enriched vegetables without the meat or alcohol! It's starting to become a habit with me! And I notice that I'm eating lunch or supper or whatever the heck you want to call it at 1500 or 1600 hrs but of late, I'm nearly eating vegetarian-style! I'm not a veggie, not that there's anything wrong with them at all (healthiest people around) but I do so love the smell and taste of meat fresh off the grill. Can't give that up. Wouldn't be American. Or Israeli ;)
Israelis love to BBQ nearly as much as Americans, though they do have much better produce and get into the habit of eating "salatim" - salads, which like the one pictured here (made today and am eating even as I write this!!) do NOT contain lettuce. Not even one single leafy green to be seen. Nope, that habit of eating "rabbit food" and calling it "salad" is a purely American fallacy.
This Salat is the basic Israeli salad: diced tomatoes...and cucumbers...and red peppers (on sale this week at Schnucks!) and a little minced fresh onion, all tossed together with Shemen Zai'it (that's Olive Oil for you anglophobes) and decorated with a bit of oregano (that's...um, oregano). Oh! and the secret ingredient is a few spoonfulls of sweet corn, "fresh" out of the can. Yeah, there's one canned item in there. Oh well.
Then, because we are in America, Land of Watered Down & Flavorless Produce, it is embellished with bit of crumbled feta cheese but not the good stuff they have in Israel because Americans also don't have a clue that cheese is supposed to have a STRONG flavor, not come in pre-pressed plastic slices inside cellophane which won't even change consistency when you melt them--the cheese, not the cellophane, though maybe some Americans actually try melting their cheese slices with the cellophane wraps, who knows?
All in all, my Israeli Salat is lacking in lustre simply because the source materials are below-grade but we do what we can with what we have. Speaking of which, I've gotta get back to OST (that's the book I'm trying to get out the door for those one or two of you who might not have heard YET) and see about finishing up that synopsis which is not a summary nor an outline but does explain the story in great detail with all spoilers revealed. Argh. I hate this. Now I know why I never submit partials--easier to just send the whole damn manuscript. Either they want the book or they don't--and they should know in the first 1-3 pages. Never mind a synopsis or partial. Just read the first page or reject the damn book.
Yeah, not in a Good Humor today, am I? Need more chocolate! Either that or red meat. Or maybe....some fresh meat *grin*
Israelis love to BBQ nearly as much as Americans, though they do have much better produce and get into the habit of eating "salatim" - salads, which like the one pictured here (made today and am eating even as I write this!!) do NOT contain lettuce. Not even one single leafy green to be seen. Nope, that habit of eating "rabbit food" and calling it "salad" is a purely American fallacy.
This Salat is the basic Israeli salad: diced tomatoes...and cucumbers...and red peppers (on sale this week at Schnucks!) and a little minced fresh onion, all tossed together with Shemen Zai'it (that's Olive Oil for you anglophobes) and decorated with a bit of oregano (that's...um, oregano). Oh! and the secret ingredient is a few spoonfulls of sweet corn, "fresh" out of the can. Yeah, there's one canned item in there. Oh well.
Then, because we are in America, Land of Watered Down & Flavorless Produce, it is embellished with bit of crumbled feta cheese but not the good stuff they have in Israel because Americans also don't have a clue that cheese is supposed to have a STRONG flavor, not come in pre-pressed plastic slices inside cellophane which won't even change consistency when you melt them--the cheese, not the cellophane, though maybe some Americans actually try melting their cheese slices with the cellophane wraps, who knows?
All in all, my Israeli Salat is lacking in lustre simply because the source materials are below-grade but we do what we can with what we have. Speaking of which, I've gotta get back to OST (that's the book I'm trying to get out the door for those one or two of you who might not have heard YET) and see about finishing up that synopsis which is not a summary nor an outline but does explain the story in great detail with all spoilers revealed. Argh. I hate this. Now I know why I never submit partials--easier to just send the whole damn manuscript. Either they want the book or they don't--and they should know in the first 1-3 pages. Never mind a synopsis or partial. Just read the first page or reject the damn book.
Yeah, not in a Good Humor today, am I? Need more chocolate! Either that or red meat. Or maybe....some fresh meat *grin*
5 Comments:
Well, I like your salad, and good ingredients aren't impossble to find, just expensive, but considering that they are going into *your* salad they are well worth the investment.
Next time you want to make a really good salad do tell, and -b will bring them, that is of course if you'll share.
Is that you, Mister Anderson? And what are you doing slumming at my blog during work hours? I'm going to have to report you to the Oracle :-D
Yeah, you know me, cheap, cheap, cheap - notice: the red peppers are on sale for a dollar each! but darn if those fancy vine-grown tomatoes ain't expensive.
EEEeeewwwww!!!! Sick! Sick, I say! To ruin a good salad by adding corn!!!
Dincher Mum tell you that a healthy diet is plum full of leafy green veggies???
Of course, we here in Amerika have chosen to forget all we learned at our Sainted Mothers' knees and now solely devour the Evil Green Plant Bent Upon Dominating the World - AKA Iceberg Lettuce.
Yep. I loathe Iceberg Lettuce. Which is why I grow various leafy green salad fixings in my back yard.
And don't knock pre-pressed plastic protein in a packet until you've tried the vegetarian version - Soy Cheese Food, it's what's corrupting dinner! YEEECHHH!!!
I go for those nice blocks of cheese, you know, the ones which have holes in them or which are nicely marbled with green or blue mold? Okay. I admit my deepest, darkest secret. Limburger - it's the best cheese out there.
Derek
the best cheese for salad is feta. IMO. although I have to admit that a touch of roquefort or chevre can be good too. Especially with bacon bits (lardons) as well. Here in France a salade paysan is probably an instant heart attack despite the presence of much green leafyness (and red leafyness and all sorts of other veggie stuff) because of the lardons and cheese on the top.
One other thing I really like as a salad ingredient is a touch of cous-cous / taboule. Alternatively look at it as a taboule with an excess of other ingredients.
Francis, my good sir, tabouleh is 90% chopped leafy and 10% couscous, all of it drowned in spices and oil (olive oil, OF COURSE!!! I am soooo jealous of your olive trees, mister!)
How do you add tabouleh as an "ingredient" to salad? Gonna have to find/post a photo of tabouleh and see if we are having a language/translation problem here *grin* I make couscous, but not tabouleh. Don't like the mint (and mint leaves are an essential ingredient in authentic tabouleh).
Adding couscous is always good--makes any salat a meal. Hey, couscous with cooked veggies is nearly a meal without the salat.
-sry
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