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[flowery_twat]

The OED word of the day almost always cracks me up. The word today is whelk. Already kind of funny, right? I mean it's hard to think of a situation where you'd really need to be able to talk about whelks. But then I scroll down to the various adjunct entries (obsolete uses, compounds and the like) and find: to be unable to run a whelk stall: an

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[darling_effect]

I have no fic. I am fic-less.

Salads, though, I can do. I had the most perfect salad in Boston on Friday night: bibb lettuce, fresh cherry tomatoes, fresh cilantro and chive, light dijon vinaigrette and tiny dollops of perfect Blue Castello. OMG. Divine.

My favorite summer salad to make at home: finely chopped red onion, white corn kernels, chopped cherry tomatoes, diced avocado. Toss with a little Dijon, a dash of Worcestshire, a little balsammic and oil. Add some fresh herbs and toss. Get some nice crusty bread and it's a lovely lunch.

I also suspect that pomegranate seeds are lovely in summer salads, although I haven't tried that yet.

Wow, I'm really hungry now.

[flowery_twat]

Herbs! Yes. You're right, I need to start thinking about herbs. I love the idea of Worcestershire in a salad dressing other than Caesar as well - I hadn't thought of that before.

I just need to find a source for real garden fresh tomatoes to make those ideas really pop.

Pomegranate seeds are brilliant in salads - I've had them in combo with something like Min's orange/bitter green/nut salad and in Leiden I once had this absolutely brilliant salad that combined very thin slices of tuna tartare, pomegranate seeds, mixed greens, pine nuts and some kind of very frothy, complex lemon juice based dressing that I've never been able to replicate.

I've just had lunch, but now I'm hungry again. :-)

[arundhathi]

1. Hmm. Probably I have recced you everything good I have read. Maybe check Min's memories for stuff she's posted when you've not been reading LJ?

2. I can suggest you two for one food & history with Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, The First Celebrity Chef. It was only published last year, so you probably wouldn't find it used, although maybe in a library.

3. Chickpeas with chopped red onion, red bell pepper and fresh coriander dressed with olive oil, lime juice and garlic and left to marinade for at least a couple of hours, although it actually tastes best as leftovers the next day.

And now I'm hungry!

Happy Monday, kitten.

[flowery_twat]

ooh, good call on checking Min's archives. I bet there's some stuff there.

And the book sounds great too. I was just thinking that French cooking is one of the cuisines I know least well and that I should do something about that. I'll have a look for it. Thanks.

I was also just thinking (in this case literally *just*, as in 5 minutes ago) that my favourite summer salads are all marinated - in the winter I quite like just a light dressing on some leafy greens, but in the summer I want the strength and complexity of flavours left to soak into each other for hours. I used to eat chick peas all the time as a vegetarion, but I haven't done in ages. Thanks for reminding me that they can be really lovely.

I love that icon! Who is that?

[arundhathi]

I have a real thing for food that is better the next day. Especially in summer, when everything is cold food anyway and knowing that there's leftovers and I won't have to cook and it will probably taste even better than it did in the first place. Heaven.

The icon is Random Model Eating Peach. I have no idea! It's a stock image from Getty, and even the pre-crop version didn't have any more of the face than that. But I just love the stickiness and the juice and the way it says summer to me.

[zandra_x]

I have an older history book I've reread numerous times. The Bonapartes by David Stacton, about Napoleon's avarious, uncontainable relatives. Oh so funny.

[flowery_twat]

Oh, fun. Thanks, that sounds interesting and totally not something I might have thought to search for myself.

[snarkhunter]

Food writing! I don't care for it myself, really, not being all that into food, but I just got an e-mail from my former roommate, Keebler, which included a brief discussion of food books. I can ask her for recs, if you'd like.

Here's *my* rec: Aphrodite, by Isabel Allende. It's a book about aphrodisiacs, and it's completely brilliant. It's witty, clever, and completely engrossing.

K. is reading The Man Who Ate Everything, and she gave to bear a book about lobsters...I can't remember what it's called, but Bear can tell you.

In terms of funny, fluffy, fun fiction (ph34r my alliterative ski11z!), if you want any of that, I highly recommend Meg Cabot's chick lit novels (Every Boy's Got One enraptured bear so much that she couldn't put it down) and Donna Andrews's Murder With Peacocks, which isn't much of a challenge as mystery novels go, but is completely hilarious and delightful.

Also? There should be more discussion of whelks. Whelks are very important. T someone. Somewhere.

[flowery_twat]

not being all that into food

??? i don't even know how to begin to parse that phrase! :-)

That's two Allende recs, so I shall definitely give that a shot. Sounds excellent. Thanks. The lobsters one sound awesome too.

I have to say I pretty much loathe chick lit. 'Bridget's Jones Diary' made me want to wallop both Bridget and Helen Fielding, repeatedly, with a large carp. I've never found an example of the genre in which the characters weren't stupid, whingy bints. Oddly, I have no problem with chick flicks, which are just as inane. Which surely goes to show something, but don't ask me what.

[snarkhunter]

I completely agree with you on most chick lit, actually...even though I still read it. I have no idea why these books, which are supposed to, like, reflect the empowered, capable, capable modern woman, feature so many total idiots and escaped lunatics.

I mean, really. Are we supposed to identify with Bridget's helplessness and delusions? Are we meant to find her relentless quest for a man charming? Are we really supposed to emulate the utter incompetence of these adult women? I recently read Confessions of a Shopaholic, and I was utterly appalled by the whole damn book. It actually made me feel physically ill at some points. In what world is this a GOOD thing?

This is why I liked MC's book. The main character was a successful woman who knew what she wanted and what she liked. She was happy with herself. She wasn't the one who needed to be Taught A Lesson. Sure, she's quirky, but not in the Bridget-Jones-why-is-she-exhibiting-signs-of-psychosis way. :)

not being all that into foodHee. Food is a tool. It helps me keep going, and

[flowery_twat]

OK, I will totally give the MC book a try. You've sold me.

Food wise, see, I too have a very fast metabolism and become a total loony monster without food, but I don't resent this in the slightest. I don't just love cooking and eating (both of which I approach as a combo of science experiment and art project), but I also love thinking about food - what we eat, with whom we eat, how we eat, how all those things have changed over time, the immense economic impact of food choices, the neurobiology of hunger and taste, etc. Food, sleep & death - the three constants for all biological organisms. Understand how a species or culture or person deals with those three things and you come pretty close to understanding everything. There's a reason Eve was given an apple, not a comfy chair, or a beautiful necklace, or what ever other 'tempting' thing one can imagine.

*waffles on until your ears fall off*

[swmbo]

Re: Salads - this just showed up on my flist! Although for me a summer salad has to have lots of ripe tomatoes. And red onions a plus. Anything else is extra - although a spinach salad with red onion and tomatoes and mandarin oranges and a vinagrette is yummy!

http://www.livejournal.com/community/food_porn/1297146.html?style=mine

[flowery_twat]

Oh, brilliant! As I was saying to Arrie, I'm particularly interested in marinated salads - things that are even better the second day. so that tends not to be the leafy greem type. But there are still some neat ideas on that list.

And I was saying to Darling, the problem with tomatoes is getting a hold of real ones. Even the 'vine rippened' jobbies they sell for $3/lb at most grocery stores tend to barely smell of tomato at all. I wish I knew where to find a farmer's market.

[swmbo]

Oh, yeah, they *have* to be homegrown!

Hmmm...there should be something.

Google shows an 'East Lansing FM' at the Division St parking ramp May-Oct on Thursdays and Sundays (evening though, which is weird), and a Lansing City Market on N Cedar year-round several mornings a week. Are either of those bikeable?

Tomato and onion and cucumber (or pickles)!!

[flowery_twat]

I just bought a cucumber. I haven't had one in ages. I think I might just eat it by itself with a little salt, pepper and cider vinegar.

The Division St lot is just north of campus - totally in walking distance. I'll try to remember to go by on Thursday and see what it's like. Getting real tomatoes would be nice. I want to grow some, but I don't have enough of a front porch for a pot.