I have a new love and it's unlike a love I've had before. I can't wipe the smile off my face. For the last hour, nothing else was on my mind and no one could have distracted me because I was in complete awe. The Union Square Greenmarket has swept me off my feet.
It's kind of absurd how much I love markets. I feel intoxicated by the variety of fresh, colorful, and crisp produce. I've been going to a farmers market since my high school days in Salina and more recently in Lawrence where I went to college. The Union Square Greenmarket is a farmers market cornucopia. Asian pears, fresh lima beans, local ricotta cheese, rabbit meat, ostrich eggs, and various shades of habanero peppers were just a few items beneath the shaded tents. Never in my life have I had so many fresh items readily available to take home.
My homework currently consists of knife work. The first few weeks of school have been spent hunched over my cutting board with my tongue pressed between my teeth in concentration. Two classes ago I spent two hours craving potatoes, carrots, and turnips into 5 centimeter football shapes called cocottes. Cooks with practice and precision are able to give these shapes seven symmetrical sides. It may sound easy, but let me tell ya, it sure isn't! I have small scrapes across my thumbs to prove it and a handsome blister on my index finger that will eventually form into a callus. I'm probably developing premature arthritis as I write this sentence. Craving root vegetables hours on end reminds me of quizzing myself on multiplication tables when I was in grade school. It's a necessary evil.
When I was at the market I found the largest carrots available, still dusted with soil. The carrots will be my homework, along with a few potatoes, and a few turnips. I also bought some wax peppers to use in some salsa, tomatoes, tomatillos, bell peppers, a bundle of cilantro with roots in tact, and some pipicha, which is a herb that is sometimes used in Mexican cooking. One of the bus boys from work, who is fresh from the border, suggested I use pipicha in place of cilantro for pico de gallo. I'm planning on making some chipotle chicken tacos with cilantro lime slaw, fresh guacamole and salsa, and some margaritas for friends tomorrow night.
After the week I've had, a margarita is definitely in order. Salud!
