Principles of bistromathics

My parents weren't big on making us try new foods. My father could hardly demand that we try new and exotic foods when he was nearly as unwilling. My father's unsophisticated palate extended to the rest of our family. He was very meat and potatoes with occasional forays into macaroni and cheese. Our vegetables were corn, green beans and canned carrots. My mom would occasionally get fancy, like adding fennel to the christmas pork roast, but often with disastrous effects. My father didn't respond well to alterations. This is a man that eats the same breakfast nearly every day.

Only when I started hanging out with my Korean friends, eating kimche and bean curd, did I start to realize there was this whole other world of food out there that I hadn't tried. When I moved to New York to be a nanny, I was dismayed to find my 5-year-old charge was more adventurous than I was. Since then, I have been working hard to broaden the ol' horizons. It's easier than it would have been 15 years ago. The internet and the food network have made it easier for aspiring foodies like me.

Hence my project.

Save for the brussels sprouts, which I've eaten a few times, all of the vegetables I have cooked with in this project I had never eaten. My opinion of parsnips, chard, and turnips hinged my ability to cook them. This week, I went with beets. Like most children, beets always seemed strange to me.

I was going to save all the salads for the summer, but the idea of eating a roasted root vegetable with a protein and a green or starch just seemed too boring for words this week. Oddly, I was in a bistro food mood. I just wanted soup, salad, and wine with crusty bread. Maybe it's the onset of spring that's making me wish I was eating outside on a little table under an awning, maybe with a view of the Seine?

Instead, I roasted and cooled some beets, sliced them and served them with blue cheese over an arugula salad with balsamic vinegar. Add some crusty bread and my new favorite under $10 wine (an organic, sustainably grown Argentinian Malbec called Vida Organica), and I had my happy little bistro meal. Last night, I made a big pot of onion soup and used up the rest of the baguette for the croutons. My gourmet cheese budget is as high as it's ever been. I used cave-aged emmentaler with my onion soup. Aspiring foody, indeed!



On the chance I may run out of new vegetables, I've decided to add grains (quinoa and bulgar come to mind) and chilis to my list. This allows me to try more Mediterranean and African cuisines, an area I have ignored for most of my life.