Lunching Out

With Grandma in rehab (that's physical therapy, for those of you who don't know her), the last few days we have fallen into a pattern: we visit her in the morning and take her the paper; we visit her in the afternoon; and in between we go out to lunch. This will have to stop. Thursday we had trendy Italian; yesterday we had Greek (a grilled eggplant sandwich for me--Eva, we must find out how they do their grilled eggplant!); and today a Guatemalan restaurant called Maya Quetzal.

The place is completely uninspiring when you look in the cash register, linoleum floor, and plastic chairs. But if you go through to the back patio, it's pleasant. We were with Mary Ellen, so we could order three different things. She had pork in an amazing pipian sauce, Dad had chiles rellenos containing spinach, walnuts, and more, and I had the divine vegetarian plate. There was a turnover made of a thick corn tortilla stuffed with cheese, walnuts, and spinach; black beans; and then instead of the "Spanish" rice the others had, my plate had a side of white rice cooked with corn, sour cream, and cheese. It was really the best rice dish any of us have ever had.

Now I am going to drag you to that restaurant when you visit, and I'm also going to try to find that recipe.

We went to the local street fair two days in a row, once to look at woodworking vendors with David, and once on a Christmas shopping expedition. The Greek and Guatemalan restaurants were in that district, so we walked to lunch both of those days. It's been in the 70's at midday, with clouds and sunsets in the evening.

Fancy Spam Sandwich for Obama

The Republican attempt to smear Barack Obama as an effete, arugula-eating liberal is totally not working on me. Every time some McCain surrogate trots out this meme, my brain drifts away, Homer Simpson-like, to actual arugula. Mmmm...arugula. (Besides which, is it not obvious that Obama was joking? Poking fun at himself for being citified?)

I think this is why I've been buying a lot of arugula lately and putting it in everything. It's subconscious. Maybe the Republicans are actually in the pocket of the K Street arugula lobby.

Anyway, here is a sandwich I ate last week. At the time, I just wanted to try some Spam. I half-jokingly bought Lawson a Spam Single last year, and it's been sitting in the pantry, and I thought it would make a tasty, humorous lunch.

But today I realized it was a nice tribute to the candidate. And since this is convention week, here you are, Mr. Senator.

1. Obama, like me, grew up in Hawai'i, where Spam is the unofficial state food. I sauteed the slice of Spam in a little olive oil until it was a nice golden color on both sides.
2. If the notoriously healthy Obama were to actually eat a Spam sandwich, it would be on whole wheat bread with fresh garden tomatoes. Plus, it's August. Garden tomatoes are in season.
3. Butter, rather than guns, was applied to the toast.
4. On top of the butter was a layer of mustard, because mustard goes well with things like baloney, hot dogs, and Spam. Sorry, I got nothing.
   
5. Arugula goes surprisingly well with mustard and Spam. And its weakness as a political tag gives me hope that Karl Rove is way, way off his game.
   

The sandwich was delicious. Delicious like respect for the Constitutional separation of powers, decision-making based on careful consideration of facts and consequences, and the end of torture as an instrument of empire. Mmm!

Sesame Broccoli

Grandma took us to lunch today at a new place called Bistro Phillippe. We've been to the same spot before, and this is at least the third restaurant inhabiting the space. It has a fairly well-known chef from a nearby resort, doing French regional/country.

There were several lovely salads to order: Grandma had Salade Nicoise and I had Scottish salmon salad, but Dad had Muscovy Duck Confit with a white wine sauce over his pasta (oof--I want to take a cholesterol pill just writing about it.) The salads were served in steep glass bowls, like mixing bowls, layered beautifully. A very good lunch.

Understandably we were less enthusiastic about dinner (me, anyway, especially after teaching afternoon piano lessons). I served a frittata using nearly the last of Dad's garden spinach, gluten-free cornbread, and Sesame Broccoli. This broccoli recipe has served me well over years. Even kids like it.

Sesame Broccoli

1 large bunch broccoli, broken into florets

Cook broccoli until crisp-tender and still bright green. Cool.

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted

1/4 cup dry vermouth or white wine

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 teaspoons honey

Mix remaining ingredients to make dressing. Toss with broccoli just before serving. Best at room temperature, not chilled.

Leftovers for Lunch

I love cold leftovers. So for lunch I ate cold collard greens and a sandwich made of a homemade wheat roll, cold flank steak, Dijon mustard, horseradish, lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, and black pepper.

It's been a good week for food but a bad one for photos. I'll post soon about last night's amazing green fish curry with cucumbers.

Egg in a Frame

Proof that you can make anything look pretentious by serving it with arugula:

I know I keep making posts about lunches, especially ones that require very little cooking, which is not exactly the point here. I guess I'm enjoying the scale of the meal -- small plates, short prep time, lighter ingredients. Lunch is a summer meal.

Summer Weekend Lunch

I wish I could eat lunch at home every day. For one thing, food on a real plate is so much more appealing than food in a plastic container, even though I like leftovers. For another, I'm a very utilitarian morning person -- I take about 20 minutes from bed to shower to car -- and don't much want to think about food at 7:30 A.M. And it's more fun to have an array of fresh foods to choose from. So lunch is just one more reason to treasure weekends.

Anyway, this post is mostly a note to let people know we have an RSS feed, which is handy since we update often but not on a set schedule. We also have a new About page and a dedicated email address for the site. If there's anything else you'd like to see, let me know!