A Dollar a Day

There are no free lunches. Or are there? Yesterday was $1 Lunch Day in Washington, DC. For a buck, Living Social customers received $10-$15 for lunch at local eateries.

I chose Naan & Beyond and ordered a vegetarian samosa and sandwich. The latter was one big culinary faux pas: spiciness instead of flavor, iceberg lettuce and a watered down ranch-like dressing. Really?!?

But the samosa, oh, the samosa. Deep fried deliciousness. The wrapping was just crispy enough, the dough had its own distinct flavor, and the filling was soft, moist, and pungent. It was filled with potato mush and peas, and whole coriander seeds infused the entire samosa with amazing flavor. It was little on the oily side, but I'm willing to forgive.

Conclusion: There are no free lunches. But $1 lunches aren't too shabby. Without the coupon, this meal would have cost $8.45. Only in America.

Dahl and Rice

Pesach. Pre-pesach cleaning, pre-pesach reflection and most importantly the pre-pesech tradition of emptying out your kitchen food cabinets and eating through whatever is not considered ok to have around the house during the weeklong holiday. In one word - Oy. In five - it's time to get creative.

There is a week left, and we are getting close to the bottom. There are 4 veggie patties in the freezer, about 5 tortillas, a half bag of sliced bread, half a challah from shabbat, 3 crackers, 3 yogurts (assorted flavours), 2 tablespoons of granola, a cup and a half of rice, quarter bag of couscous, some dried fruit, instant soup in a bag, 6 cans of tuna, seaweed (assorted) and a jar of orange lentils. I came home from work with about 45 minutes to cook and I knew exactly what I was going to make. Hint - see title of this post.

The recipe is from the net, but as usual I didn't follow it exactly:
Fry up onion and ginger, add cubed potato and carrot, add lentils and water and garlic, cumin, black pepper and salt. It also calls for fresh coriander, a tomato and cumin seeds, but I used what I had, and what I had time for. Cook until everything is soft and the lentils are a general mush texture. And it's ready.

Everything , including a cup of white rice (all the brown is gone by now) was ready just in time for me to turn off the stove and go dancing.

So, to sum up: When the going gets tough, the tough starts cooking. And isn't that a wonderful thing.
Looking forward to restocking the kitchen very soon, but maybe tomorrow I will make couscous with dried fruit and a yogurt sauce...
Happy Pre-Pesach creations to all! R

D eating Indian, March `11

Here is a photo of D's latest Indian food excursion. I wasn't there, have no idea who is photographed with her and where they were eating, but from D's smile, I assume it was a good meal.

More details to come? Who knows.

Indian Food From Afar

While R plays Peeping Tom in Nahlaot, I've been waiting for an opportunity to blog. Tonight, an opportunity presented itself. Indian food without having to leave the house (what else could one want?!?). My housemade made saag paneer, albeit the vegan version. With tofu playing the role of paneer, the sauce was quite flavorful, although somewhat on the salty side. A little vegan cream mellowed that out, and rumors have it that nutritional yeast also did the trick. Enjoy!

Smells like curry

All of our Indian restaurant adventures are safe and sound in our non-digital notebook, however, I thought I would share an anecdote (with you, D...) and dust off the blog interior.

Last Friday night I was walking through the streets of Nachlaot, crossing paths with people coming and going, some carrying pots and boxes of food and some hurrying by car keys in hand.
Nachlaot recently became home to many foreign workers and has pockets of Aritraen, Sudani, Thai etc. culture in the midst of Hebrew U students and old time Nachalot residents. I was walking home from dinner with some friends and suddenly we smelled the wonderful smell of curry. In a little hole in the wall about 10 people were sitting around a table and it seemed that they were serving the most wonderful, fragrant dishes. If we weren't tired and a little embarrassed, I think we would all have joined them for a second Friday night dinner.

I think I will add "Nachlaot Hole in the Wall" to the list of Indian restaurants to visit when D and I are in the same country again...

From Falafel to Samosa

One day of spring 2010, R and D decided they needed a project. Something fun, interesting, adventurous and preferably tasty. They were on their way to the beach in a spiffy red car, throwing around ideas - let's travel around Israel and visit as many people we know! no, no, let's find as many PLACES with names of people we know... ICE CREAM! we should go to all the boutique ice-cream factories in the country. No, chocolate factories, home made chocolate. Bakeries, north, south, up, down... Indian food. Yes, Indian food. We will travel the breadth and the length of our small country in search of the best samosa, dahl and chapati. That will be our mission. We will find the places, visit them and write a blog.


Fast forward to summer 2010.
D is involved in creating a community of healthy, eco-loving young professionals in Washington DC (no neck tie please!) and R is... well, just is. And it's about time they started writing already.

This is a blog dedicated to travel, adventure and delicious food.

Beteavon.