Restaurant meals can be flashy and lavish.
Desire stirred up by artful exuberance,
The palate expecting only brilliance,
Though too salty, I wanted to love this.
My stunning hunk, you were a surprise.
You were merely adequate, not divine.
I was too hungry to realize in time.
Pleasure was to be only for my eyes.
Homecooking is humble but a sure bet.
You’re simple ingredients cooked with love,
Dependably you are a cut above.
Add friends for good times that you won’t forget.
Extravagance once in a while is nice,
But a home cooked meal with friends has no price.
On a road trip with girlfriends through the mountains, we had a meal at one of my favourite restaurants. I have had utterly delightful meals there, but this time around I had a disappointing meal. Strangely, it took a long time to come to the realization that the food quality was not measuring up to the dramatic plating. I recognized my conditioning to eat what is given to you and to not waste food and after a day of hiking, I was just plain hungry. Also, I tried really hard to like it, and then finally realized I shouldn’t have to try so hard to like something. Although my timing was poor, I spoke to the staff and explained my experience of being stunned senseless and let them know the shortcomings of the dish. I don’t think I’ll try so hard to like something next time, should it happen again.
One of our last meals of our trip was one we prepared at our condo. It was simple but truly one of our best meals in every regard. We all took part in the preparation. We had corn on the cob, braised carrots, leftover vegetables soup, smoked candied salmon, and Yuka made her go to guacamole recipe. She gave me the go ahead to share it here. She says her recipe was inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow’s guacamole recipe. I like the green onions in Yuka’s version. With all that lime juice, it’s refreshingly tart and bright and it stays really green. As always, adjust to your own liking.
Yuka and Steve’s Guacamole
Ingredients:
- 2x ripe Hot house tomatoes seeds removed and diced
- 4 ripe avocado fork mashed (Steve prefers chunky vs. whipped)
- Chopped cilantro 1/2 cup
- Chopped green onions 1 bunch chopped finely (it may seem seem like a lot of onions but the acidity adds a nice balance to the avocado)
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- Lime rind grated, juice of two sweet limes
- 1 x chopped jalapeño pepper (no seeds)
- Olive oil (to emulsify the guacamole)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and serve with warm bread or taco chips.
Love this post!! So inflective! So creative! So June!! You inspire others to want to be better!
Thanks Yuka! I made the guacamole today.
Wanting to try this recipe ……….. but what are sweet limes?
I just used limes. I think any kind would work.