Feta and watermelon salad

I often tell people that one of the reasons I like to take pictures and write about food is because I remember things through food. When I visit a place, I often remember the food better than anything else. This summer was no different. I explored far off places with dear friends and ate better than I have in a long time. I soaked in the espresso-scented landscape of mountains and water in the Pacific Northwest, gobbled up peanut butter by the sporkfuls while hiking the toughest miles on the Appalachian Trail, and cooked up fantastic meals with friends in the loveliest of kitchens.

My past summer food memories seem to be dominated by fruits. Summers in Beijing would not be complete without seeing big blue trucks parked along dirt roads with a huge pile of watermelons as their only cargo. My family and I would buy as many as we could stick in the fridge and take them out again as soon as they were chilled. If we had company, we'd cut them into slices, but if it was just us, we would just cut them into halves and dig in with big spoons. They were the best way to cool down. In New Delhi, the only good thing about walking around in 120F weather is coming home and finding cold mangos in the fridge. There is nothing in the world like ripe Indian mangoes.

Living in India has ruined me for mangoes anywhere else. But luckily, I still very much enjoy watermelons, which brings me to this salad. Seriously, this salad is amazing. I'm really sad to have discovered it so late in the summer (if it's still summer at all). I've only had it twice and it's already one of my favorites. It's so incredibly refreshing that I almost wish the oppressively hot weather with its air quality warnings would come back so I can enjoy the cooling effects of this salad to its maximum potential.



It's just watermelon, feta, and your choice of greens (I like spinach because its mildness doesn't take away from the other two main ingredients). The feta, which goes surprisingly well with watermelon, does a really good job of making the salad a little more substantial and adding another dimension of flavor. On top of everything, I used a simple and light vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, olive oil, shallots and salt.

Apartment cuisine: chana masala and stir-fried broccoli

This may look very similar to what I ate on one of my first nights at the apartment: something vaguely Indian and something green with rice.

But it's not! Instead of corn curry, it's chana masala, and instead of Trader Joe's Indian food, it's stir-fried broccoli.

Apartment Cuisine: Masaman curry

I've always loved Thai curries. In my mind, they're usually not as spicy or heavy as most North Indian curries and pack more flavor compared with Japanese curries. But I didn't know just how much I loved Thai curries until I actually went to Thailand in high school and ate at a hole in the wall shop in Ko Samui's main tourist drag. Before then, my parents and I would frequent at this place in Arlington that serves very creamy and mildly spicy curries with many pieces of chicken and very little of other ingredients. So when a huge bowl of potatoes, meat, and many vegetables swimming in a watery green curry arrived at our table in Thailand I was pretty surprised.

I can still remember my first reaction to that first spoonful of curry. It was SO flavorful and made me finally understand the phrase "party in my mouth." I paused, and just sat there, tasting all the different flavors. It was citrusy from the lemongrass, sweet and rich from the coconut milk, salty from the fish sauce, a little spicy, and so much more. Compared with really creamy curries, the lower fat content really allowed all the flavors (and trust me, there were many) to come through. The wateriness of the curry also made it a much lighter dish so you can eat more of it (another plus)!

Apartment cuisine: Boiled kale over rice

Not the most appetizing looking thing ever but it was exactly what I was looking for tonight: green, easy to make, and used up some leftover rice. I sauteed some onions and kale before adding some broth, let the whole thing simmer for a bit to soften the kale, put it over rice along with a fried egg. *edit* As per a reader's request (wait, I have readers??), I'm putting a rough recipe of this after the jump.

Apartment cuisine: corn curry

My eating habits have been changing almost as drastically as my living situation in the past few months. First, after coming home from college, I ate mostly fresh fruits and veggies which I felt so deprived of at Swarthmore. Then, on my trip to the Pacific Northwest, I ate almost constantly and the meals consisted of fewer green things. The backpacking trip after that involved more peanut butter and granola than I ate in months. And most recently, right after I started working and was doing that ridiculous 3 hour commute, I ate small breakfasts and lunches because I'd be in a rush and a large dinner (cooked by my parents, fortunately) because I was usually famished when I got home.


Now, having moved into a new apartment and reduced my commuting time by a factor of three, I have the time and energy to spend more time cooking when I get back from work. I can see myself making simple but filling meals for dinner when I get home each day and spending more time over the weekend making something big to bring for lunch over the week. For the past two dinners since I've moved in, I thought about what I wanted to eat during the day (and feasibly cook, of course!) and bought the ingredients at the conveniently located grocery store coming out of the metro stop.

Pasta with roasted vegetables

From Winter 2009

This is a great recipe for using up leftover pasta and lonely vegetables in your fridge. I threw this together for lunch yesterday and it took 30 minutes, 20 of which was me sitting by the cozy oven reading a book (for pleasure! Can you believe it?).