Breakfast: January 2004 Archives
It's amazing how good food can make up for a host of ills. After our meal at Divane last night I made a trip to the restroom. It turned out to be nicely designed, with one stall and three women squeezed into the tiny room in front of me. Plus it was about 30 degrees warmer than the dining room. The sauna-like temperature and the good meal made all the women talkative, so we chatted and laughed as we waited, complaining about the cold dining room and the scatty service (two different waitresses were trying to take our orders, and they were a little too aggressive about drinks and starters, which there were only four of, including salad, hummus, spicy lamb pita and something else).
The bad: the aformentioned service, the cold (which they couldn't do much about, it was 10 below outside), the vinegary-tasting shiraz that was their house red.
The good: the donor kebab with yogurt. There were three piles on a huge platter. To the left was a salad of sliced onion, cilantro and peppers. To the right, a shredded carrot salad that was really good, with a hint of something acidic but not enough for me to identify it (lemon juice?), and big round slices of some kind of watery-tasting radish. In the center was a huge pile of thinly sliced lamb with hot sauce and yogurt. Under the lamb, swimming in the yogurt and sauce, were these spongy, chewy squares that I couldn't identify until Todd said they were toasted pita, and then it was obvious (a great texture).
About $45 for two main courses and two drinks, but you could almost get away with just a starter and one main for two (I took home more of my dinner than I ate at the restaurant). I thought I didn't really like lamb until I tried this; it had a hint of that lamby-gamey taste, but just enough to be nice. Good stuff.
Using a recipe from Molly Katzen's Sunlight Cafe as inspiration, I made Chai-spiced oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I had bought cardamom pods to make Chai tea this winter and forgot all about them, so that's next, but here's an interesting spin on the plain old bowl of oatmeal (I loved it):
Combine 1 cup milk, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 2 crushed cardamom pods, 4 cloves, a pinch of salt and a grating of fresh nutmeg in a small saucepan and heat almost to a boil, until steam is coming off it, the edges are getting bubbly and the center kind of starts to undulate. Turn off the heat and steep for 15 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to strain out the big spices. Then add about a tablespoon of honey (I used strong buckwheat honey, which I love, although Katzen's recipe called for light honey) and turn the heat back on medium-low. Sprinkle in 3/4 cup oats and stir. Cook for 8 minutes or until the oatmeal is a consistency you like. I added more honey at this point because it wasn't quite sweet enough for me. It makes 2 kind of small servings. The taste is almost the way perfume or flowers smell, warm and spicy, and there's a nice rough and creamy texture, since I used a higher ratio of oats to liquid than is usually recommended (thanks, Lael, for the tip).
