Recipe: Kushari/Kosherie (Middle Eastern Pasta, Lentils, and Rice) 13 September 2007 1:27 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cooking, eating, friends, recipes, restaurants, tea, vegan, vegetarian , 4 commentsMmm, kushari. I promised y’all comfort food suitable for enjoying after a test, and I’m happy to deliver this recipe, oh yes indeed. I first tasted this dish at a family style dinner at Iraila Mediterranean Rustica. Their theme that month was Mediterranean fast food, and they translated a whole host of delicious street foods into classy but not snooty sit-down dining, and it was absolutely brilliant on more levels than I can really express. Months later, I stumbled across a recipe for “Middle Eastern Lentils & Pasta” in my beloved Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, and realized that it was that thing I hadn’t been able to stop eating at Iraila, only they’d spelled it kushari then and Moosewood spelled it kosherie. (more…)
No real post today! 12 September 2007 6:45 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cheese, friends, garden, local food, school , 2 commentsInstead, I have been busy eating the most delicious huevos rancheros ever (Cook’s Illustrated, January-February 2006 issue), watching movies and riding Pepe with Peter, and picking another few pounds of gorgeous ripe tomatoes from my garden, because at this point it might actually be easier than falling off a log. After I post this I’ll be taking one more practice GRE and getting a good night’s sleep and suchforth (having a really excellent day beforehand is an entirely appropriate way to get psyched up, right?) Everybody think good thoughts for me tomorrow morning from 9:30 AM Pacific time onwards, okay? Thanks.
Meanwhile, if you’re really starved for something delicious to read, check out Ella’s fantastic response to last week’s mac ‘n cheese challenge (so awesome!) Also I enjoyed New York magazine’s recent takes on the locavore phenomenon: My Empire of Dirt, an experiment in Brooklyn-style subsistence farming and Local Shmocal: Our critic weighs in on the latest wave of foodie correctness. If you’re still bored after that, please consider taking my pop quiz, and I’ll be back tomorrow, no doubt with some sort of comfort food recipe suitable for assisting in my recovery from freaking computer-based standardized test (urrrgh).
P.S. I solemnly promise I will not remember 7-11 with a Slurpee again until next year.
Restaurant remembrance: Mitae Ramen, Costa Mesa, CA 11 September 2007 9:29 pm
Posted by Tracy in : eating, restaurants, reviews , add a commentOver dinner last night Peter told me some sad news: Mitae Ramen has closed. According to his sources, the lady who owned it died a few years ago, and the food and business had suffered ever since. I am glad I missed its decline and fall, and happy to remember Mitae as one of our favorite places to eat in Orange County. The following is a slight reworking of my old Everything2 writeup on the subject. (more…)
Monkey Monday: pop quiz edition 10 September 2007 9:33 am
Posted by Tracy in : CSA, books, monkeys, seasonality , 2 commentsDear readers: If I had a recipe for delicious beet salad, and a story about how learning that recipe got me in big trouble, which would you rather read first: the recipe or the story? What if the story had monkeys in it? Just wondering. In other monkey news for this week, I had a bad fruit day on Saturday, How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons gets a mixed review, and (more…)
Backcountry Flavor 7 September 2007 7:45 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cheese, convenience, eating, friends, travel , add a commentThis entry borrowed from an old Everything2 writeup of mine in honor of Peter, who has no doubt been experiencing this phenomenon for several days now.
* * * * *
Backcountry flavor, in short, is a clever little phrase to describe the phenomenon that everything tastes better on trail (i.e. while hiking, camping or especially backpacking). (more…)
