Is there any cuisine more synonymous with summer eating than so-called “Mediterranean food”? Probably not, I think. There’s something about the abundance of eggplant, tomato, zucchini – everything accented with lemon – that really makes you feel like popping open a bottle of cold and bracing white wine and enjoying the sunshine. Also- grilled everything. Nothing says summer like char, right?
The tail end of winter is always tough. Daylight savings has kicked in (and I’m not going to complain about sunlight at 7pm) but the temperatures are still hovering in the 40s and I see a few snowflakes in the forecast. It’s been about four months of root vegetables on heavy rotation, soups galore and a LOT of lentils. So many lentil salads- three of them have made it onto this blog so far and I’m embarrassed to admit there’s another coming in the next week or so! But with the arrival of March, all I can think about is asparagus season, dining al fresco and taking the water-logged cover off the grill.
If this past weekend – featuring sunshine, bursting farmers’ markets and buckets of rose on the terrace – is any indication, we’re officially out of root vegetable season and into salad season. It’s music to my ears and I spent Saturday late afternoon and evening perched on my terrace with a wine glass in hand dreaming of all the seasonal dishes I can’t wait to prepare this summer. And while I’m not one to rely on a recipe to put together a salad, this soba noodle dish from Saveur is such a keeper that I couldn’t not share it with you.
Well, I’ve been gone from this space longer than expected (and without warning, I know). I’ve just returned from a trip to southern Africa (amazing) which was preceded by a last-minute work trip to the midwest (not amazing). For the past 10 days, I’ve been lucky enough to explore Johannesburg, Cape Town, and both coastal and desert Namibia, and it would not be an overstatement to say it was the trip of a lifetime. In the near-ish future, I’ll have all of this on the travel section for your perusal, but in the meantime, just believe that I have been eating like an absolute king (looking at you, Cape Town) and have discovered the best oysters on earth (hello, Swakopmund). But after trips like this, when I finally resign myself to getting back on a plane to go home, I’m always inspired to get back into my own kitchen, and that’s just what I intend to do.
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