Ham Sandwich Indicted!

(Is that a fractal I see?) Cauliflower, I think, was for a long time an underrated vegetable.  It's to be expected, I suppose, when your entire existence pretty much revolves around being placed on a raw credite platter to balance out all those other colors.  I'm fairly confident that the only time I saw cauliflower in my house growing up was when it was slowly oxidizing on a vegetable plate with a bowl of Ranch dressing. In the last few years, however, it seems like cauliflower is experiencing a sort of Renaissance. Elevated from its raw and odiferous existence by a good roast or a hot sear in a pan, cauliflower becomes tender and sweetly nuanced.  "Rediscovery" might be a strong word, but it definitely seems to be experiencing an increase in popularity: Michael Ruhlman is roasting whole heads  of it and basting it with brown butter, it's showing up in "steak" form as a vegetarian main dish, back in 2010, Michael Symon engaged in a cauliflower...

Dal bhat tarkari .  It's essentially the national dish of Nepal, and if you're a nerdy food dork, you might refer to it as DBT. (NB: I am a nerdy food dork.)  If you ever journey to Nepal, you'll eat a lot of DBT...possibly for breakfast, and most likely for dinner.  It's comprised of three parts: dal , a lentil soup that can be curried and seasoned in a variety of ways, bhat , or rice, and tarkari , an assorted mix of seasonal vegetables.  It's usually accompanied by a side of pickled vegetables, or chutney (called achar ). DBT really is a staple, and for good reason...it's healthy, filling, and delicious.  Ginger, garlic, garam masala, fenugreek, cumin, chili peppers, coriander, cinnamon, and a safoetida all make appearances in dal and tarkari, with varying degrees of spicyness based on the number and variety of chili peppers used . Sidebar : asafoetida (which I sadly did not have on hand this time around) is a spice derived from the dried latex gu...

A few nights ago, the family and I enjoyed a fantastic meal at the newly re-opened Whole World Natural Bakery Restaurant in Clintonville. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible blogger (sorry friends), and forgot to take pictures of any of the actual dishes--just two cookies that I saved and ate the next day for lunch. (Which, for the record, were delicious!) Did you know that Whole World is Columbus' oldest vegetarian restaurant (founded in 1978)? Their lengthy menu includes appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, and pizza, all made with fresh veggies in small batches. The daily soup options for the evening I was there included African Peanut, Gazpacho, Unstuffed Green Pepper (a rice-stuffed green pepper, deconstructed into soup form), and Verde (chunks of tender potatoes in a puree of five green veggies.) Among their daily entree items were Truffled Penne & Cheese, a Potato & Brie Quesadilla, and a Red Lentil Burger. I went with the Verde soup--dark green (MUST be healthy...