what I ate last: lunch: left-over Malay okra curry; dinner: chicken tacos and guacamole
As I was writing to my good friend Ben today, I think the main reason for starting this food blog right now is that I am so starved of good food. From London, England to Greensboro [very very small town], Alabama is a long way from decent food shops and plentiful restaurants catering to all price ranges, to the joys of Piggly Wiggly. Basically, I can't stop fantasising about my former local Turkish supermarket, Brick Lane Beigel Bake, Spitalfields and Borough Markets, St John, etc etc...
When I manage to find good food here, it comes in a glut. For instance, last week I cooked a mound of organic okra from Willie Nell, a local farmer. The week before, it was aubergines and sweet potato from the vegetable garden at the local girls detention centre where I help out sometimes. It's autumn (sorry, fall) here, but the wonderful bounty that I associate with the season (apples, quinces, pumpkins, squash, the last of the salads, wet walnuts) in England seems strangely absent here, maybe due to the monocultural farming practices. The farmers markets have closed down for the winter and the vegetables I managed to find are the last remnants of this years harvest.
And then, my parents back in Suffolk send me beautiful pictures of picking fruit in the orchard, in that wonderful slanting October light...and I long for apple and blackberry crumble.
Instead, what I ate today was left-over Malay okra curry (note to self: doesn't freeze well, turns to sloppy mush) and, as it's Taco Tuesday, two chicken tacos from the local Mexican where the students gather every Tuesday night for cut-price tacos and margaritas.
When I manage to find good food here, it comes in a glut. For instance, last week I cooked a mound of organic okra from Willie Nell, a local farmer. The week before, it was aubergines and sweet potato from the vegetable garden at the local girls detention centre where I help out sometimes. It's autumn (sorry, fall) here, but the wonderful bounty that I associate with the season (apples, quinces, pumpkins, squash, the last of the salads, wet walnuts) in England seems strangely absent here, maybe due to the monocultural farming practices. The farmers markets have closed down for the winter and the vegetables I managed to find are the last remnants of this years harvest.
And then, my parents back in Suffolk send me beautiful pictures of picking fruit in the orchard, in that wonderful slanting October light...and I long for apple and blackberry crumble.
Instead, what I ate today was left-over Malay okra curry (note to self: doesn't freeze well, turns to sloppy mush) and, as it's Taco Tuesday, two chicken tacos from the local Mexican where the students gather every Tuesday night for cut-price tacos and margaritas.
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