My mother is the best cook I’ve ever met and this post is really all hers. I had no hand in this meal at all, except for choosing Dr. Konstantin Franks Dry Riesling to go with it. However, it was so delicious and beautiful that I wanted everyone to hear about it!
You can take a look at the original recipe here. The ingredients and steps below reflect what my mum actually did to put it all together. (And honestly, it’s a salad. Measurement are merely suggestions.)
What You Need
For the salad:
1 small watermelon
2 Romaine lettuce hearts
12 grape tomatoes (different colors), halved
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 large spoonfuls feta cheese
2 tsp sumac
For the dressing:
2 tbsp whole-grain Dijon mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
Fresh parsley, chopped
Salt
What to Do
1. Slice watermelon into 1/2-inch rounds and put each slice on a plate
2. Top each watermelon slice with lettuce, tomatoes, chickpeas, and cheese
3. Whisk together all dressing ingredients and drizzle over topped watermelon
4. Finish with a sprinkle of sumac
When I was flying back from Siem Reap, Cambodia in March I read an article in JetStar’s inflight magazine about vegetarian hawker food in Singapore. My go-to at the hawker is mixed rice because you just point to the dishes you want, grab a pair of chopsticks, and enjoy. Eating at a vegetarian hawker, however, would open up a whole world of culinary flavors that I have been unable to try here!
Lucky for me, I have kind and adventurous friends who have actively responded to my pledge to make every day count as I wrap up my time here in the Little Red Dot (sob!).
With that JetStar article as a guide, Josh and I headed out to the Aljunied MRT, where we were promised delicious bowls of laksa at the oldest vegetarian eatery in Singapore. One restaurant near where I lived in Malaysia served delicious vegetarian laksa and I miss it. I also miss my bowl of hot, spicy curry mee at 10am for morning break at school!
Mmmm food. My palate has expanded in the most delightful ways.
We knew we were getting close to our destination when we passed multiple shops that smelled of incense and sold Buddhist artifacts and books. Kwan Inn Vegetarian Food turned out to be a hawker stand serving mixed rice, made-to-order dishes, and several soups.
For our first course, Josh and I each ordered a bowl of laksa in a fantastic, fragrant coconut broth. I picked out a few items from the mixed rice counter for us to share – spicy fake fish (this used to be school lunch sometimes at school in Malaysia), tofu and green beans (a classic), and two kinds of mushrooms. We have the best mushrooms in Asia. Lime juice was our beverage of choice.
Total cost: $10.80. Eating can be cheap in Singapore if you know where to go!
Of course, with so many opportunities to experience real Peranakan food, we had to get more! Josh ordered peanut fritters (normally prawn fritters) and spinach noodles (yes, actually green). These were served with two types of tofu, mushrooms, and sprouts. Normally the meat is char siew, which is pork, and the noodles are plain egg noodles. We tucked in before I could get a picture, but I promise it was all delicious!
Thank you to Josh for a really fun meal and thank you to JetStar for its inspiration!
And what makes me even happier is cooking, especially cooking for others. Maybe that’s because I’m Jewish and grew up in a household in which food was at the center of everything, always. (And yes, my mum’s matzah balls and hamataschen are better than your mum’s matzah balls and hamataschen.)
For Chanukah this year I received a wonderful new cookbook devoted entirely to vegetables. This is an amazing thing. While I’m not a vegetarian, I don’t eat red meat and only rarely eat poultry, so a whole cookbook devoted to things I eat was very exciting. Even better, this cookbook is by a British chef raised in Israel, so his food takes me back to my favorite place on Earth.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty turns vegetables into works of art, has encouraged me to use spices I’ve never heard of, and makes it incredibly easy to make delicious, restaurant-caliber food at home.
I know I sound like I’m advertising . . . sorry about that. I just happen to be eating dinner, which features a saffron cauliflower dish from Plenty. You can take a look at the cookbook here. Happy cooking, and happy eating!
Photos, travels, musings, and ideas on education by someone trying to make the world a better and more peaceful place
By Rebecca Michelle 