Lunch is served

I love da lunchtime! Gather the salad greens from the garden, roll em in a simple dressing while toasting some of my sourdough bread. Slap on some avocado  with a lemon squeeze and add a tiple of red wine.

I am inspired always by Salvo Montalbano: 

He [Montalbano] took his two courses, a bottle of wine, and some bread to the table, turned on the television, and sat down to dinner. He loved to eat alone, relishing every bite in silence. ... It occurred to him that in matters of taste he was closer to Maigret than to Pepe Carvalho, the protagonist of Montalban's novels, who stuffed himself with dishes that would have set a shark's belly on fire. (p. 42)

The point being that I am in pursuit of the Mediterranean diet with a low carb twist. In this regard I am very happy with what I put in my mouth. Eating the seafood comes at a price a  little beyond me  but I am making up for the shortfall by concentrating on what cuisine goodies I can snaffle from Spain and Sicily.

I've always eaten a Middle Eastern diet these last 40 years and know my way around the tucker from Morocco to Iran. My mezze table is very good indeed.  But once you cross the Mediterranean Sea the menu changes , becomes more acidic (despite the Arab penchant for lemon  juice) and reliant on olive oil and greens and less formatted by grains. The grape is a key factor in the change too -- vinegar, wine -- as is the olive  -- and the cuisine is freed from Islamic  dietary taboos. 

You also move away from the long cooking process required with the tagines and the like. The food becomes less stewy and quicker to prepare.

So freshness rules  more often than not.