In my childhood home we ate couscous only in one way. Hand made and steamed over a pot of soup. It was almost impossible to enter our small kitchen when mom would make couscous. In one bowl there was the semolina that mom would wet slowly while stirring so that no clumps would form.
Do you know those cookies that have already been eaten before they could even make it from the oven to the cooling net? Those that if one is not in the area when they are ready, there is a slim chance of getting any? At our home these were the Ma’amoul.
When we go on vacation, especially in places we never been before, we love to experience and taste local dishes. Usually, we skip the “tourist restaurants” and look for small restaurants that locals dine at. Fortunately, all of us like to experience new flavors. The way my young son choose from the menu is by finding a dish he has never had before.
"What’s for dinner?” asks my teenager as he throws his bag at the corner of the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. “I don’t know yet” I answer. “I’m starving” he adds. As a family, one of the traditions that we try to keep is to eat dinner together every night, which means cooking daily. I have a few basic rules for day to day cooking.
"What will we have for lunch?” I asked as I was standing in front of the open refrigerator, enjoying the cool breeze that it provided. “I really feel like salad” answered my better half as she sat right across from the air conditioner. “Salad? We eat salad every evening” i said. “Not that kind of salad” she replied, “you know what I mean”.
If you keep Kosher, or don’t really like what the sea has to offer, you might want to skip this post. Full disclosure: Back in the day, I didn’t connect with seafood. I grew up in a home that was strictly kosher, in a country where seafood was uncommon. My first encounter with seafood was in my early 20’s.
To my joy, everybody in my home is a foodie. One of the things we like to do most as a family is to try new dishes. The feeling that I am about to taste something I’ve never had before gives me a thrill of pleasure as well as to my wife and two of my worst critics, my teenager and my millennial.