Cool, crisp...
It's been awhile since I've written here, not because I've not been eating (ha!) but because I've not had anything that really inspired me. While on a recent trip to Vancouver BC I had some wonderful food - a great bowl of Chinese noodle soup, wonderful cod and salmon, so on and and so forth - but it didn't inspire me to write. I'm not sure why. Since coming home I've cooked a little of this and a little of that, all good, but not stunning.
It's taken a cucumber to inspire me to write.
I had leftover hot and sour soup for dinner. It was takeout from a local Chinese place, one I've written about before, so it was pretty good, but I found myself still munchie. I looked in the pantry and considered popcorn. I thought about heating other leftovers, maybe the chicken mushroom stew from last night. And then I remembered I had a cucumber in the crisper and all my prayers were answered. Or at least some of them, the prayers of the moment.
Peeled, sliced (I love the feel of the knife moving through the cucumber, the resistance as it hits the seeds), and arranged on the plate, then sprinkled with salt, it was everything I wanted.
Cucumbers are a fruit, contrary to common expectation. They have a nice array of nutrients though aren't really a nutritional powerhouse. You probably know that slices of cucumbers placed on the eyes can reduce swelling (though honestly I think that's a waste of a yummy cuke) and it's said that sleeping on a bed of cukes will cure fever. You can guess that they're a fertility symbol.
All of this and they answered my craving for something cool and comforting this evening. Rarely do I have a craving met so thoroughly and with such ease.
(c) 2008 Laura S. Packer
It's taken a cucumber to inspire me to write.
I had leftover hot and sour soup for dinner. It was takeout from a local Chinese place, one I've written about before, so it was pretty good, but I found myself still munchie. I looked in the pantry and considered popcorn. I thought about heating other leftovers, maybe the chicken mushroom stew from last night. And then I remembered I had a cucumber in the crisper and all my prayers were answered. Or at least some of them, the prayers of the moment.
Peeled, sliced (I love the feel of the knife moving through the cucumber, the resistance as it hits the seeds), and arranged on the plate, then sprinkled with salt, it was everything I wanted.
Cucumbers are a fruit, contrary to common expectation. They have a nice array of nutrients though aren't really a nutritional powerhouse. You probably know that slices of cucumbers placed on the eyes can reduce swelling (though honestly I think that's a waste of a yummy cuke) and it's said that sleeping on a bed of cukes will cure fever. You can guess that they're a fertility symbol.
All of this and they answered my craving for something cool and comforting this evening. Rarely do I have a craving met so thoroughly and with such ease.
(c) 2008 Laura S. Packer
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