There were two miracles in Tyler tonight.
1. There was avocado in the salad bar. Proper avocado. The actual from-the-fruit green-stuff sliced in a little salad bar section. What did I do to deserve this?!
2. Kitty corner to the avocado was Goat Cheese. Proper goat cheese. The creamy yummy white stuff that goes perfectly on a salad with avocado. My friends and I were so excited we made goat noises at each other throughout dinner.
After water polo practice tonight, I felt the sun shining on me (despite the hybrid rainy misty grossness of Spring fighting to become a reality) as I compiled a spinach salad with the two miracles from above (both literally and, possibly, symbolically). How happy for my tummy to have a spinach salad with goat cheese, beans, avocado and cucumbers with a little olive oil and balsamic! But this post is not about the salad.
Side Note: Water Polo Club meets 3:30-5pm on Sundays and 6-7pm on Tuesdays if there is any interest out there!
No, the true epiphany of the night was through a seemingly improper combination.
There were fortune cookies at dinner, and midway through our meal, my partners in crime and I opened a cookie to the fortune "You will soon achieve perfection". I think we came close...
Follow me here:
Cinnamon Rasin bagel
Goat Cheese
Nutella
Yes, my friends, a gold mine. The tart creaminess of the goat cheese was instant friends with the nutella. Chocolate and cheese in general–need I say more? The bagel need not be cinnamon rasin, but have you ever had goat cheese and cranberries together? Tart and sweet but not nutella sweet. There was true complexity in that darned bagel as it was passed around the table without a care for sharing germs. I only managed to get a snapshot of the final bite, surrounded by its constituents. The picture itself is far from perfect (someone should teach me how to focus a cameraphone) but this was a dining hall creation for the books.
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| Nutella (upper left), Delicious Bagel Creation (middle), Goat Cheese (behind fortune) and fortune (front and center) |
The lesson here is a good one: always look in the salad bar. There are surprises, and sometimes it's goat cheese, and sometimes excessive goat cheese is eaten and brilliant ideas materialize.
How did I miss this night?!! Also, genius move with nutella and goat cheese. I hope to one day have flavor instincts that lead me to combinations like this.
ReplyDeleteI love this post- I think we often forget how creative we can be in our own dining halls if we look hard enough or are blessed by a rare treat. The goat cheese-cinnamon raisin bagel combo was brilliant.
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