Oh, Boy, What do I do with this?

Yesterday, I had lunch with my dear grandparents at their house.

Lunch at the grandparents' is always a source of joy. Beyond the pleasure of hanging out with them, my grandma is a fabulous cook. Her cooking influences hail from Russia and from Egypt - two places where the family had been before being in Israel. Accordingly, we get some traditional stuff like gefilte fish (carp balls, which, as opposed to the Polish version, are spicy rather than sweet) side by side with spicy exotic vegetable stuff. However, decades of cooking with the same ingredients have made my grandparents completely ignore the world of whole grains.

Ahhhh, don't I like all those "traditional foods" advocates, who say that whatever your grandma cooks is good for you! Don't these people know that white rice and flour, and refined grains, have been available for a long, long time, and enjoyed a reputation of being more palatable? While the grandparents know the benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables, and cook wonderful, creative dishes with them, they are a little bit afraid of whole grains.

So yesterday, my grandma took the plunge, and cooked quinoa from a packet that included some raisins and almonds and nuts. It came out very good, but she was very hesitant about doing other things with quinoa.

"You can buy this in bulk, like rice", I said.
"Really?" she said increduously. "But then how do I know about the fruit?"
"You don't have to have fruit", I said. "You can cook this with vegetables".
I got strange looks.
"Yeah", I said with lots of conviction. "All those amazing dishes you make with white rice? You can make all of them with quinoa".
"Wow", my grandpa joined the conversation. "This is really good."
"Like your mejeddera", I said. "You can make your mejeddera just the same, with the lentils and onion, except use quinoa instead of the rice".
"You know", said my grandma corageously, "I went to the store and almost bought brown rice. Except, with those rough peels, how can it cook at all?"
"C'mon", I argued, "if it wasn't cookable, why would people sell it an eat it? Of course you can cook it. It takes a little more time".
"But it probably has a different flavor", said my grandpa.
"Yeah, it does", I replied. "It tends to be a bit of an acquired taste for folks who are used to refined grains. But it's really good once you get used to it".

A short discussion revealed that the grandparents do eat barley and buckwheat and quite a variety of beans. "There", I said, "you do eat beans and whole grains. So you can just add a couple more to your repertoire".

My grandma promised she'd do some experimenting, and we'll see the results next week when I come back for lunch. Hurrah!

In the meantime, for your sakes and for posterity, I'll try and collect her traditional wonderful Russian and Egyptian recipes, and come up with healthier versions for them whenever needed.

Quinoa Tabouli

Extremely easy recipe, and a good substitute for burgul, or, as Americans call it, "bulgur". True, not the traditional main ingredient, so probably not for purists; but very tasty nevertheless. Simply mix the following ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 fresh cucumber, chopped into teeny-tiny pieces
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
juice from 1 lemon

optional:
1/2 chopped tomato
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds and/or pine nuts

Then, put salad in fridge and let marinate for a while.

Travelling and Eating Healthy

Hiya all,

We're en route to Berkeley, California, where we'll spend the next two weeks - mostly working, but also meeting old and new friends. We're very happy about the trip, but also somewhat concerned - my health still is far from perfect and the last thing I need is the jetlag.

And the food.

Say what you may about Israeli politics, behavior, whatever - it wins the food competition with America, hands down. When I moved to Berkeley in 2001, I could hardly bring myself to shop for anything that wasn't vegetables or fruit - everything seemed processed, fatty, and strange. Getting used to foreign food is always a challenge, but apparently American food is particularly problematic. Many Israelis who have lived abroad (my sample includes lots of grad school students, who also sit and study a lot and therefore have somewhat sedentary lives) find that they gain a lot of weight in America.



Is it possible to live and eat in America without feeling bad and gaining a lot of weight? I maintain it is - at least in California. If you stick to the following principles.

1) Go slow at first. It's hard enough to adjust to a new place, whether you're visiting or staying to live there. Get a few familiar foods, just so your stomach doesn't get as homesick as the rest of you. Being so food-obsessed, I remember how I almost cried with joy when I bought a bag of small, deep green "mediterranean" cucumbers at the overpriced yuppie store. Not all of us can afford shopping at places like that on a regular basis, but sometimes it's important.

2) At the same time, pay attention to the quality of stuff. What is generally good in one place, doesn't necessarily have a good equivalent elsewhere. For example, in my second year in America I finally realized that the low fat cheese market was a disappointment in comparison to the stuff in Israel, and shifted to tofu, which was much better. On the other hand, good luck finding a decent veggie burrito in Tel Aviv (and if you have found one, please, let us all know!).

3) Do not eat weird processed fake foods (and I don't mean these, though they certainly are entertaining). The nature of a globalized, large scale capitalist food market is that it offers a load of new, pre-packaged products for our consumption. There is no need to eat stuff that has an unappetizing, artificial list of ingredients.

4) Exit the supermarket and head to the nearest farmers' market. The markets have much better and fresher - and often cheaper - produce.

5) Do not be afraid of new vegetables. Before coming to America, I didn't know of mustard greens, bitter melon, jicama, bok choy, and other wonderful things. In my first year in California, I played a game that you may find fun: Vegetable of the Week. Each week I bought a vegetable I didn't know, and tried to cook it in various ways. My diet got richer, and my palate was certainly happier!

6) Make use of the advantages of immigration countries! In America, try Asian and Mexican restaurants - it's best to avoid the sanitized chain versions, and go for the real thing.

7) And, finally, find a way in which, when you're sad or lonely or homesick, you can have and enjoy an old favorite... a small bag of Bamba does wonders for Israeli kids and kids-at-heart, anywhere in the world...

Safe travels!

(images for this post from: www.shcp.edu/ftp/American%20Food-David%20Foro and www.israelimages.com/medium/17126.jpg)

Squash Challenge

It's Wednesday! Hurrah!

In a house that receives its weekly quota of fresh vegetables and fruit from Chubeza on Mondays, Wednesday is an interesting day. Gone is the excitement of Monday, when the box of new edible toys made its way to our living room, and when we had the freshest salad ever and had a few ideas what to do. Gone is also the laboriousness of Tuesday, when we executed one of those ideas (soba soup with greens - this time, not too exciting. Shame, shame, shame, amazing spinach and carrots gone to waste). What now? What now?

Well, as Chad points out, we do have squash.

Squash is a strange vegetable, to me, at least. It's stringy, and it has a very tough skin, and it has a wonderful color. While Americans eat their squashes on a regular basis and make all sorts of wonderful things out of them, Israeli squash is often too watery-juicy (and not very "buttery") and therefore, isn't too good to mash. When baked, its consistency is more like zucchini. Thing is, it's tasty.

So, I have a large piece of organic squash in my fridge, and while I *could* make some soup or stir fry, I'm not inspired. So I decided to open this up for discussion: What do you suggest I do with the squash?

The Very Best Bowl of Oatmeal

One of the reasons for the big break I took from posting was feeling exhausted after spending a month and a half flying back and forth between Israel and the US. The constant jetlag, the lack of adequate food, and the stress of travel, took their toll, and the doctor has officially pronounced me exhausted.

In Chinese medicine, exhaustion can be the manifestation of several different conditions, depending on the person involved and the symptoms he or she experiences. But in many of these variations, the issue has to do with a depletion of the body's reserve of qi, the energy of life. In my case, the exhaustion manifests itself in (of course!) various annoying digestive issues, headaches, tiredness and moodiness, muddled thinking, and a very strained set of back muscles.

One of the doctor's recommendations for this situation was a bowl of oatmeal every day. Oatmeal is a pleasantly warming and healthy grain, that provides energy, vitamins (particularly B vitamins), minerals (particularly manganese) and an abundance of fiber. Apparently, there are many people who are allergic to wheat but not to oats, despite the fact that both grains contain gluten. Oatmeal with cinnamon and dried prunes and raisins is truly excellent; cinnamon is a very warming spice in Chinese medicine, and if you add a vanilla pod of a drop of natural vanilla extract, your oatmeal will truly rise to unprecedented levels of yumminess.

Now, please give this a try: I know you're all busy in the morning, but I find that making oatmeal out of steel-cut oats (as opposed to the quick-cooking rolled oats) doesn't take up a large chunk of time, especially if you lower the heat after a while and let it happily simmer while you take your morning shower. So, here 'tis, and it's really worth it.

Oatmeal - 1 serving (more can be made by simply multiplying the amounts!).

1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp vanilla
20 organic raisins
3 organic dried prunes, chopped up into raisin-size pieces
a drop of vanilla extract, or 1/2 vanilla pod

Place all ingredients in a small pot and heat up. Do not wait for it to boil - when things start getting warm, lower the heat. Go about your business, stopping by the stove to mix up your oatmeal every 5 minutes or so, so it doesn't stick. At some point, the oats will change their consistency and the whole thing will be a lot more porridge-like. Spoon into bowl and enjoy.