food for the soul

I've been feeling a bit depressed lately, for personal reasons that i won't get into on this blog, but with the warm days and nice weather, i've been inclined to get up early and enjoy the morning light. i've just finished preparing my tax info (whew!) and had a breakfast that reminded me of a cherished nyc sunday morning. instead of my usual fruit yogurt smoothie or bowl of muesli, i was inspired to take a few extra minutes and prepare a pot of moroccan mint tea sweetened with organic agave nectar and a fresh omega3 (free range?) poached egg on top of a toasted slice of bread and sauteed spinach leftover from last night's dinner (my husband won't touch spinach - but i'm pregnant, so i need my veggies!). i made a quick lemon butter pan sauce (no patience to make hollandaise at 8:30am) and a couple of grindings of black pepper & sea salt & it was heaven!
with a slice of cool melon on the side, it was a healthy breakfast and one that nourished my soul and lifted my spirits. i've been trying follow a super healthy pregnancy diet, but sometimes I need to eat things that I truly enjoy or else i will end up binging in revenge on sugary desserts or simits to satisfy my carb cravings (which i did yesterday) and never had until i moved here.
usually we have Turkish breakfast on my husband's weekly day off, and i will prepare sigara boregi and the usual beyaz peynir, cucumber, tomato, etc. and last week i finally convinced him i could make menemen - which turned out wonderful & he loved (the trick was to have him help, since there are a myriad of ways to prepare it, and i needed to know how he likes it made). when i did a search on the internet, i saw pictures ranging from big slices of peppers & onions or chunky tomatoes to finely minced ingredients, or scrambled/shirred eggs to whole sunny side up ones mixed in. so i knew i needed to find out what his "version" was to get him to enjoy it.
my husband is so funny - i guess since he has no interest in the kitchen, he thinks Turkish cuisine is so difficult. he told me once, "oh, Turkish food is very difficult to make." where he got this opinion, i have no idea, because outside of some very special and arcane Ottoman dishes and maybe baklava, Turkish food is simple to prepare, having its roots firmly entrenched in the home kitchens of this country, with a base of onions, salca (tomato paste) & olive or sunflower oil, dry grilled meats, pilav and yogurt. the dolmas or stuffed rice dishes can be a bit labor intensive, and borek is a bit tricky at first, but none of it is as difficult to master as a french souffle nor require any exotic ingredients. the zeytinyagli vegetable dishes can be delicious, but i prefer my vegetables less cooked to retain their nutrients. i've also noticed that the vegetable varieties here need to be cooked long & slow with the trilogy of onions, salca & oil, because frankly, then just don't taste good fresh. i tried at first to slightly undercook fasulye (Turkish green beans) and the were inedible.
which is one of the reasons that make me homesick. i try to savor the amazing strawberries and fresh apricots when they are in season during the summer, but it just doesn't make up for the rest of the year.
I've heard American expats praising the wonderful fresh vegetables of Turkey, and I'm sorry, but i have to disagree. Unless they are comparing it to Russia or a small town in the middle of the US, I miss the greenmarket in NYC and farm stands on LI with tiny berries, ramps, fingerling potatoes, sweet baby corn you can eat straight off the cobb, and the amazing variety of vegetables you can find in chinatown, such as long beans, all varieties of bok choi, fresh lychee and rambutan, etc.
my soul yearns for broccoli raab, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, halibut, skatefish, blueberries and haricot verts. I also miss good ethnic food, like thai, vietnamese, malaysian, even good italian & mexican.
i have to stop now, or else i will undue the euphoria that my western breakfast created. back to my mint tea & melon!