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- Fresh pita bread from the natural foods store, toasted, spread with quark* and sprinkled with zaatar. The bread looks very doughy and unassuming in its untoasted state, just a white squashy oblong with no character to speak of. But in the toaster oven it puffs magnificently and turns a perfect golden brown. Then it's crispy and chewy and tender all at once, and so very, very good. I only wish it were cheaper. Obviously what I need to do is to learn to make my own. The key would be to catch them at the right point of underdoneness to replicate the effect, and so they don't dry out in toasting. I may make this a project for the next time I am desperately looking to avoid work.
- Ochazuke, which is rice with green tea poured over top (usually with savory seasonings, as well) to make a kind of thick rice soup. It sounds not so good, but after reading enough people's plaudits, I decided to give it a try, and it makes a very tasty soothing snack, perfect, as one site says, for late evening. The seasoning I've been using is a pretty basic sprinkle with wakame and little rice crackers. But there are many more elaborate packaged ochazuke mixes, many of which include powdered tea, so that you only need to add rice and boiling water. There's even (of course) a Hello Kitty ochazuke mix, with little kitty-face nori. I wanted to link to a picture for you, but I guess the site where I saw it has sold out, because it doesn't seem to be there anymore. OH WELL. Trust me when I tell you that it was remarkable.
*There was a nice article about quark in last week's New York Times food section, but it's no longer publicly available. I'm very frustrated with how rapidly the Times moves its articles to the pay-only archives these days. This is churlish of me, I suppose, but arrgh!
Posted by redfox at November 21, 2003 10:35 AM (etcetera) | Comments (3)
Comments
What a tasty idea. I'll have to try that, for sure.
Posted by redfox at November 23, 2003 08:08 PMall breads | breakfast | dinner reports | drink | eating out | essays | etcetera | lunch | news | recipes | salads | snacks | soups | sweets | tips | travel | vegetables | weekly meals |
for a low-carb high-protein snack, I've been using japanese sprinkles on hard boiled eggs lately. mmm! I've tried gomasio with seaweed so far; I need to visit Uwajimaya to find other varieties, I think.
Posted by Anita Rowland at November 22, 2003 08:42 PM