Lentils

I have a lot to say about lentils, actually.

I could write about the first time I remember liking them, in the little park in front of The Plaza Hotel, a sneaky, cheeky lunch break with my little sister when I was supposed to be meeting with a US Customs official: beluga lentils, vacuum-packed Trader Joe’s beets, arugula, feta, balsamic vinegar. I could write about that story I hear almost every time I got to Scotland, about how my in-laws once went to Puy and every dish at every restaurant had lentils in it and they were horrified. Or that time in the south of France with @alphajada , when I first had lentils and sausage (now a staple in our house), and I didn’t finish my dish, so I insisted on a doggy-bag to take it home because it was so delicious and expensive, and our waiter was flabbergasted, zut alors! I could tell you about those first few months post-partum when @turshen ‘s Small Victories’ lentils in coconut milk nourished and soothed a very broken, very exhausted me. Or about going to India for @travellingsaffron ‘s wedding and eating daal after daal after daal. And then another daal.

How about this? I just show you this— by far THE most glamorous and the most difficult WFH lunch in the history of WFH : Jordanian shorbat adas (aka lentil soup), from a recipe from @petrakitchen in Petra, where I had the first bowl of lentil soup I can recall ever truly enjoying.

Isn’t it just the absolute MOST BEAUTIFUL thing you’ve ever seen? True haute cuisine, as well.

Whatever: my blood oranges arrived today, I’m going to bake a cake, the sun is shining (well, at least it was earlier), and “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” just came on.

#lentils : today’s @thegfw prompt.