The rumblings of my stomach have been silent for too long. Don’t worry. I have been eating well for the past month … just far from home. I went camping with my family, played bridesmaid in an Atlanta wedding and went apartment hunting in NYC—yep, William and I are moving from tropical South Florida back to the Big Apple where William (and hopefully I) will start work in the fall. We returned home for a few days then dashed to Apalachicola, Florida, to visit William’s parents and then Baxley, Georgia, to see mine.
Our best meals along the way were at Cascabel Taqueria, Bhojan (kosher, vegetarian Indian) and Zoma (Ethiopian) in New York; Natalia’s (Italian) in Macon, Georgia; Elements (American) in teeny Lyons, Georgia; B & J’s (fried seafood—get the shrimp basket) in coastal Darien, Georgia; and my Grandma’s house for fried frog legs in Delray Beach, Florida.
Also, with the help of my forester Father, I foraged for edible plant life in the mountains of western North Carolina. We found poke weed, dandelion greens, blackberries, buck berries, sassafras, thistle, mint, and wild apples. To collect the apples, Dad and I trudged through an overgrown field where we disturbed a colony of yellow jackets. I exchanged five stings for eight small apples—a not-so-friendly reminder that I am an urban condo dweller and not a woman of the woods. If Dad humors my locavore longings in the future, I’ll wear boots and long pants.
Our bounty yielded a few oddities and two great appetizers. I made sweet bruschetta by stewing blackberries with a bit of sugar and red wine vinegar. I tossed the syrupy mixture with wilted dandelion greens and placed the topping on toasted and buttered ciabatta. I cooked my prized apples with lemon zest and sugar, spooned the warm apples onto hunks of sharp cheddar and garnished the bites with sprigs of mint. The dishes were simple and spot on delicious.
William and I have been home for less than a week now, packing (and packing) and making meals out of remnants from our fridge. But we leave again tomorrow for San Francisco and Napa (to celebrate the end of William’s law school), and then we’re off to our new home with an unimaginably small kitchen. I’ll keep you posted!
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Oh, no! We’ll miss you in South Florida.