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Food Diary

Wednesday Food Diary: Simple Starts and Happy Endings

October 23, 2008 · By Monica Shaw

I’ve been fascinated by this idea of keeping a food photo diary for a while now. After keeping tabs on Jenna’s prolific diary of her eating habits Eat, Live, Run, I’ve been inspired to do the same. We’ll see how long I can keep this up! I’m already a day behind.

Here’s a run-down of what was on my plate yesterday. It was a very good food day overall, made awesome by a trip to my favorite Indian restaurant: Rasa!

Breakfast was the same as usual: Bircher muesli with a cup of rooibos and a bit of the Time Out guide on the side (for some reason I like to read about all the things going on in London – and then not do any of them).

Bircher Muesli and Rooibos Tea

I forgot to add my mid-morning snack until all that was left of it was an empty mug that used to hold decaf coffee and the nasty brown core of an egrement russet apple. Yum!

Dribbled Coffee and Apple Core

Lunch… I made Delia’s red rice salad, subbing pan-fried tofu for the feta, with a bit of rocket and broccoli on the side (gotta eat my greens!). I actually remembered to marinated the tofu the night before in a bit of Bragg’s liquid aminos diluted with some water. A simple marinate, but enough to make it yummy.

Sauteed Tofu, Red Rice Salad, Rocket, Broccoli

Dinner was a real treat. Our friend, Zoe, invited us to Rasa, one of the best Indian restaurants in the world! Their cookbook (The New Tastes of India: Over 100 Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes from Southern India
) is one of my favorites, and I frequently make their savoy cabbage and cucumber and coconut salad. Even though Rasa is right around the corner from our flat, we don’t eat there very often (ah, the life of a couple of poor freelancers – but thanks to the Rasa cookbook, I am learning to cook their special treats at home). There are some dishes that are best left to the pro’s, like a masala dosa, a must-have whenever we go to Rasa. It was as good as ever.

Masa Dosa

I ordered some black eyed peas – don’t know why but I’ve been in the mood for black eyed peas lately. Their version is pretty simple, but very nice! That creamy stuff in the background is eggplant in the most amazing garlic / cashew / coconut sauce I’ve ever eaten. SO good. And the dish next to it is a tomato curry. All of this was awesome with chapati. I was in heaven.


Black Eyed Peas

This is Rasa’s savoy cabbage thoran. What can I say? For a cabbage-lover like me, this stuff is like a drug. Lots of onion and mustard seeds. That’s coconut on top.

Savoy Cabbage Thoran

A picture of the whole feast, and lots of empty beer glasses. It was an awesome meal. There were moments of silence where we all just stunned by how good everything was.

Indian Feast at Rasa

I somehow managed to not eat too much… my prior experiences with Indian buffets taught me a good lesson.

About Monica Shaw

Veg lover, dog owner, hill walker, wild camper, avocado addict, nerd. I write about how to be awesome through a "smarter fitter" approach to eating, drinking, living and working.
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  1. Sassy says

    October 23, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    Well whaddaya know…. I have to learn something today! ๐Ÿ™‚ I don’t know what rocket is. Gotta go look it up now….

    Oh, and now I want indian food. thanks. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
  2. Sassy says

    October 23, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    okay… for any other clueless americans. I would call rocket “Arugula”. Yummmm arugula.

    Reply
  3. monica says

    October 24, 2008 at 5:33 am

    Yes! Sassy is correct…. rocket = arugula. I have NO idea why they call it rocket here!

    Reply
  4. Elaine says

    October 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Thanks for this posting – I love keralan cooking and the book you recommended has now been added to my wishlist. I never thought I would get excited about green beans but bean thoran is just addictively gorgeous.

    Keralan restaurants are quite thin on the ground so it’s great to find out about more of them. Now if only they would open an Oxford branch, my cup would be full…

    Reply
  5. monica says

    October 26, 2008 at 4:16 pm

    Elaine, I have never made a recipe from the Rasa cookbook that I didn’t like. They have a nice green bean thoran in there, as well!

    Reply
  6. Elaine says

    November 12, 2008 at 9:40 am

    Amazon wishlist did it’s thing and I received a copy of this book for my birthday. I’ve tried out a savoy cabbage thoran and it was just as I remembered from Kerala. Delicious. Thanks again for mentioning this book. Can’t wait to try more.

    Reply
  7. Shamim Miah says

    June 16, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    I am feeling like eating all those foods. Lol the photos made me think of going to an Indian restaurant tonightl. May be not Rasa as they are bit far from me.

    Also just wanna say that its a very nice post.

    Reply
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