Two Weeks of Food

I've been negligent, abandoning my food blog for the last few weeks. It's been the end of the semester, and I've been really busy. I'll try to play catch up now by posting a few pictures of food I've eaten recently.

I had a delicious lunch with Samina and her mother a couple of Fridays ago. Samina treated me to the buffet at India's Oven. They have a lot of yummy foods, including big samosas. I had two! I also enjoyed the salad with raita and the dal. Suraiya and Samina talked about their families and about Pakistan. I'm glad to be learning about an unfamiliar part of the world from them--and they are both so generous and warm. I'm lucky to have them in my life.

Within the last few weeks, I tried a recipe from an until-then-unused cookbook, World Vegetarian. The dish I made combined cauliflower, green beans, and mung bean sprouts, topped with a dressing which included red pepper, coconut, and lime juice. I liked the tender cauliflower--but the sweet taste was a little strange and eventually unsatisfying. Still, I was glad to have experimented with a new dish.

I also ate at Burma Superstar again last Sunday. We had the salad and pea shoots again--but we also tried a falafel soup and a yummy curry. The food was *as always* delicious. It was John and John's first time there, and they loved it, too. No pictures this time around.

Last night, my friend Toni made dinner for Bo, Sam, and I. Sam is visiting from Michigan, doing some research on educational policy. She was our colleague until a year ago. It's been really fun to get caught up with her and to hear about her life as a scholar at a research one university.

Sam really wanted to take advantage of California's agriculture, so Toni made a dinner that involved fresh fruit. I forgot to take pictures until after we were done eating, so here are some of the leftovers. We began the meal with chicken which Toni had marinated in cilantro, ginger, and lime juice.

She also made basmati rice and a fruit chutney with mango, pineapple, pine nuts (I think), and coconut to go with the chicken.

I made the spinach salad that I enjoyed at Lin's house a couple of weeks ago (with pear, toasted almonds, feta cheese, and poppy seed dressing). And we ended the meal with homemade cheesecake and fruit. Note the lovely presentation.

We ate our cheesecake mesmerized by Toni's enormous television with HD. HD makes everything look 3D. We watched the food channel for awhile and looked at BIG food.

So there you have it, some of the food I've eaten in early May. Since my semester is almost over, I hope I'll be back to blogging more regularly from here out.