Buds Traveling or Not

We flew with our taste buds to Spain, France, Italy and Germany by thawing a Costco duck we had in our freezer. Sweetie de-boned it, made duck stock and we cooked up duck paella made with calasparra paella rice and saffron from the pantry, Italian beans, sweet peppers and indigo tomatoes from the Farmers market, thyme fom the garden, and spices and onions from grocery store. Then the following day, we had the duck breasts with a flavorful shallot wine sauce, potato pancakes, sauteed  baby (Shanghai) bok choy and braised carrots in an orange liquor sauce.

We had wine with our European style foods. The 2017 Zumata Tempranillo (from Spain) paired beautifully with the duck paella. Surprisingly, the 2004 Torii Mor Temperance Hill Pinot Noir (from Oregon) was well structured, balanced, with tea, tobacco and touch of herbs which went well with the duck breast meal. Mmmmm...

It is fun to travel through food to various cuisines. During the growing season, the produce from local farms guide us to eat simply or conjure up dishes from places afar. Off the top of my head, here are some foods enjoyed influenced by our local farms....

For breakfast - raspberries or peaches with cereal, blueberry muffins and peach cobbler.
For lunch - tomatoes for a BLT or sandwich or tomato beef chow mein.
For munching - red and Rainier cherries, strawberries on ice cream.
First course - salad (sometimes with nice microgreens) with roasted beets, sweet corn on the cob, our home canned pickled asparagus, quick pickled cucumbers and roasted peppers.
Dinner - sauteed French type green beans, sauteed Italian green beans, grilled summer squash, sauteed beet greens, roasted purple globe eggplant dip, Thai red curry pork with small Thai eggplant, roasted sunchokes, tomatoes, delicata squash.
Dessert - rhubarb galette, plum olive oil cake apple tart.

Eat well! Eat local! Remember...

 “Variety is the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

from William Cowper's poem, “TheTask” (1785).