artful food

While I was in New York for the SCBWI conference, my lovely hubby went to his favourite American city, New Orleans, and brought me back this great cookbook from the chef of our favourite restaurant there, Bayona. There's this fantastic recipe I have to share with you because not only does it taste amazing, it also looks amazing... look at this!:



And it's so tasty, so fresh, so summery (and luckily it felt summery today for a 2-year-old's-birthday bbq and then a housewarming party, after wintry weather the last week). The interplay of tastes and colours is wonderful. It was inspired by a trip to Israel where it is quite common to pair melon with feta cheese. I tell you, it works!

Here's the recipe if you want to make it:
2 cups watermelon (pref seedless) diced
1 cucumber diced
2 cups arugula (aus: rocket) or spinach
1/2 red onion sliced very thinly
1/4 cup crumbled feta (bulgarian feta works well!)
dressing:
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsps fresh lime juice
2 tsps honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
pinch of cayenne
salt

mix it all together and yum!

and in other food news, we have been exploring our new surroundings and discovering all the best places to shop for things... good deli, good seafood place, cheap supermarket, etc. plus the BEST fruit and veg store which also has a fridge full of feta, haloumi, boccocini, etc. and a freezer full of paratha, naan, chapati, etc. and isles of lentils, nuts, dried fruit, etc. oh it's amazing! Plus it has THIS, my new favourite snack:



YUMMY turkish bread, with olive oil and dukka, it's the best.

ok, enough of food porn now, I think I've made myself hungry!