Nonetheless, my car which I am trying to sell seems to be a bit sicker than I imagined. I just need to move to the taiga. I wouldn't have a problem if I lived in a cooler biome... Right..
Anywho, I have been really frustrated mainly with the quality of the produce here over the last few months. You see, everything is imported to Dubai. The closest local produce one can obtain is from Oman and even then, you might get carrots, peppers and a few other products from there that are of mediocre quality. The next closest exporter for produce is India and let's just say, somehow, even though India has the geographical topography of the United States, 4 seasons in some parts of the country or at least all seasons at some point in one area or another; it still was difficult to find quality fruits and vegetables that stayed longer then 1-2 days.
3 weeks ago in Italy, I tried to eat salad everyday. I do love my greens but I also was basking in the fact that there was quality leaves of lettuce available. Salad in Dubai? Quite often, I will pick up something that declares itself Spinach and is some kind of hybrid or another leaf entirely. Other times, I pick up a head of romaine lettuce and literally take it out of the package and it turns brown like one of those technicolor shirts from the early 90s that changed color when heat hit it.
So, last night when I had this beautiful idea for butternut squash soup, I cooked it and was a little worried about the cantaloupe color of the vegetable before it was cooked. Yet, I have come to accept that things are not always what they seem in Dubai and that just might be part of the importation process/ change/ transformation that occurs. It didn't smell funky, there was no apparent mold. On top of that, the thing was ridiculously expensive about 8 dollars for a squash that was about 2 kgs...Say what? So, I prepared the soup, added a garlic/ herb stockcube and some cinnamon and it turned out okay. A bit salty, added some sour cream to counteract it, don't think it helped too much.
I know it's something to learn from but I rarely have cooking disasters. Baking disasters yes. This comes from my artistic flare and desire to feel out baking like I do with cooking. Baking is mathematical. As I learned from a few attempts at fudge when I was 13 and accidently stuck 1/3 cup of salt into the mix instead of 1/3 a tablespoon. Then, next time, with my rationale and unfamiliarity with baking, I overcompensated scared that the fudge would be too salty for no rhyme or reason and put too much sugar in just to make it sweet, which obviously didn't work.
Nonetheless, looking at all of this, inspires me and it also leads me to believe there are some areas in which pastries and sweets can be experimental. As I return to the US this summer, there are some amazing fruits that grow beautifully in American summers that are rare to the tropics and the desert, so I resolve to make rhubarb crumbles, peaches and cream trifles and berry treats galore, that can be cooking experiments at home this summer. Wonderful..
So, in my last few weeks in Dubai, I am going to stick to the not so wish washy produce and wish for some awesome lettuce to magically appear so I can recreate the smoked salmon, walnut, blue cheese, peach and red pepper salad from last May, that was so scrumptious dressing was not necessary due to all those sweet, savory and salty flavors swirling together.
Mmmm, dinner time.
Ciao! Ciao!
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