A Passion for "Picoteando" and a Happy Thai New Year!

Above starting from bottom: The resultant fruit & cheese plate inspired by Village Pub, Carmen's take on Vicoise salad deconstructed to be more picotear-friendly, fast food quality pad thai and orange BBQ chicken, cute Thai iced teas, a stack of mango boxes at the booth that provided our amazing sticky rice- fresh mango combo. that the apartment is determined to recreate.

Picotear, a Spanish verb meaning to graze or nibble, perfectly describes the tradition of tapas, or small plates, that come free with a drink in Granada. This taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that and making it a meal is the philosophy behind the fruit and cheese plate that I posted in my last post. Subsequently, I made my own version the other night out of English Shropshire Blue cheese, fruit and nut crackers spread with blinberry jam, candied almonds and sliced organic Washington apples. Delicious! Last night I took a page out of Carmen's (the lady who I stayed with during my semester abroad) repertoire- a quick version of Nicoise salad. Usually she would mix up some lettuce, tuna, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes some potatoes for dinner. I added some green beans and omitted the lettuce and tomatoes, converting this salad into a kind of "picotear plate." It's easy and a nice change of pace from the usual version of meat-starch-vegetable dishes that populate my weekday rotations. On a busy day, these are the easily adaptable and customizable kind of dishes I turn to. 

On another note, my roommates and I found ourselves immersed in a crush of humanity down at the Thai New Year Festival on Sunset this afternoon. Within about 3 blocks, a plethora of booths with cooks in the back sweating over small temporary grills emanated glorious smells. A raised boxing ring and performance stage were the only interruptions to this makeshift line-up for a couple of blocks. We had been anticipating curry, and I had been hoping for something that seemed more authentic than the profusion of pad thai, orange chicken and teriyaki beef on offer. However, among the misses (my pad thai with an electric orange sauce was questionable and the lobster balls were most likely made with something other than lobster), we struck upon a few items that were worthy of gushing over, such as a plate of fresh mango with sticky rice and some Thai iced tea which was refreshing on an early summer day in L.A. In any case, it offered some of the best people watching I've seen in a long time and an excuse to visit Thai Town!