[PotD] Dinner.

[moonvoice]

We ate simple tonight.
Just some individual bok choy plants (four)
and ramen noodles
with soy, chilli and oyster sauce and the packet flavouring.
It was nommy.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Have you ever tried cooking with lettuce? No, seriously! I have part Italian ancestry and in Umbria where that part of the family originated they get the little tiny sweetheart lettuces (those wee ones that are all heart?) leave them whole and simply roast them in a low oven for a short time- they become sweet and glorious and go with all sorts of things. It's also a great way to cook witloof (okay so I lived in Flemish Belgium for some years- you'd call them endives :o)

[moonvoice]

I love witloof, though I prefer lettuce raw on the rare occasions I do have it (I don't actually enjoy the taste of lettuce very much, raw or cooked, and about the only one I can tolerate is iceberg - though I will sometimes shred that and put it in a rice noodle soup in lieu of wombok or spring onions. :) )

Witloof is very hard to get here, which is frustrating!

[cmcmck]

Iceberg is no flavour and all water to me- I love Romaine (sometimes called cos) and the little sweetheart because they just have so much flavour. Lambs lettuce is fab too when I can get hold of it. My Italian ancestry often craves lollo rosso and lolla verde.

Witloof is easy here as we're right next door to Belgium where they grow rather a lot!

[moonvoice]

I can usually find witloof about once or twice a year (alas). Cos is one of the ones I can't have. I just find it extraordinarily bitter. I've read that some people find the bitter properties of lettuce too overwhelming (just as I've read that some people read certain chemicals in brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower as bitter, which means they can't ever taste the sweetness of it - so some people just genuinely cannot enjoy broccoli etc.) I know a lot of people find iceberg terribly bland, I do as well, we only get it about a handful of times a year.

I prefer the sweeter leafy greens - baby spinach and pretty much the majority range of Asian greens (bok choy, pak choy, wombok, gailan etc.) But I have a soft spot for celery too. :D

[cmcmck]

I know what you mean about taste/scent reaction. I have an egg allergy and even the smell of it when cooking can turn my stomach, or someone with an egg sandwich close to me. All I smell is sulphur, sulphur, sulphur! Horrible.

[moonvoice]

Oh man, that must be insufferable. A strong reaction like that actually reminds me of how I react to a certain brand of tinned fruit salad - had gastro / stomach virus one time and that was what I was sick on, and can't eat it or smell it at all. It's like the body has a way of hardwiring some of that stuff in! But I am quite fortunate, I don't see that brand often or encounter it - whereas eggs are just considered a staple for many at picnics and get-togethers and breakfasts and so forth, that must be awful.