Restaurants are Catching Up

Now that I’m sufficiently through with summer vegetables, I’ve been getting really excited for a new season of vegetables. But what really excites me is restaurants that are also embracing the idea. I went to bird watch at a neighborhood pizza place. What caught my attention was the blackboard sign: “$5 slice and draft beer.”

That shit just doesn’t exist in the District. Shit, sometimes you can buy a Miller Lite for as much as $4. Anyway, so a bunch of us went to Radius and all of a sudden my mouth hung open and I oggled the menu.  There was pumpkin ravioli and butternut squash soup and a pizza with kabocha pumpkin puree, ricotta, feta, caramelized mushrooms and red onions. Unfortunately I was too hungover to experiment and just grabbed a large slice of cheese. I just love that everyone from high-end restaurants to the local pizza place endorses the mantra of eating seasonally.

Back to my kitchen.

Sweet Potato, Arugula and Bulgur Wheat Salad

This is so crazy easy and fast. It’s amazing how much faster sweet potatoes cook than white potatoes. I just cut the peeled sweet potatoes into a tiny dice and sauteed them in herbs de provence, salt, pepper, butter and oil. After a few minutes (10 ish) I added diced caraway rye bread. I really should have properly baked them into croutons but I just added more butter and oil in the pan, shoved the potato to the side, and tried to let the bread have as much pan surface as possible. The croutons never got super crunchy, but did form a slight layer of friedness. Then I added in chopped arugula, cooked bulgur, feta cheese and dressed it with salt, pepper and lemon juice. With the sour of the bread and the sweetness of the apple cider-cooked bulgur and the tang of feta and lemon, this was a complete sensory meal.