I looooooove it when other people cook for me, and not just for the obvious reason. It’s because I find it fascinating how differently they approach cooking to the way I do things. I’m not even taking about crazy new skills I haven’t mastered. I’m talking about things like putting red peppers in a salad–that is a real-life example of the sort of thing that wows me. It’s not that it’s inventive, but I don’t put them in my salad so when I get to have them in the salad you serve me at your house, I’m thrilled to be enjoying a new flavour combination.*
Another case in point: James’ magical new flavour sprinkles. He’s always grating and dusting Parmesan on his food any chance he gets, but just recently he started to grate a little lemon zest and mix that in with the Parmesan too. I still haven’t gotten over how good this tastes on tomato sauced-pasta, and I was so zealous about it that I even put it on olive oil doused-rice.
And you know what? That was gross. I wasn’t sure if it would be good but I have to say, little surprised at how bad it was. Really bad idea–so bad I got a little sad and started to second-guess my life choices for a moment. But then I got another idea: to add tamari. And that? That was good. Like really good. Like, it made me forget the bad olive oil + rice idea. It kind of makes sense, since a marriage of soy sauce and lemon is reminiscent of ponzu shoyu. In any case, I can safely recommend sprinkling lemon zest and Parmesan on your next tomato sauce and if you dare, try some with tamari on a bowl of plain rice. And let’s never speak of that other idea I had again.
*See how easy I am to please? You want to invite me over for dinner, don’t you? The answer is yes!