In the vegetable world, zucchini is a lot like Olivia Newton-John’s character “Sandy” from the 50’s era movie, Grease. On its own it can be a little boring, stable and nutritious, but give it some black spandex pants, and a perm, and Va-Va-Voom! What I’m saying, is that everything needs a little bit of care to be brought from boring to sublime.
Now don’t get me wrong, zucchini is fine. Cut into rounds, steamed, and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese is, eeh. Sliced into batons, sauteed with garlic, and a bit of red chili flake, now that’s getting better. But it’s still a bit insipid… How about grated? Now that’s what I’m talking about. Grating the vegetable brings a whole other texture to the mix– delicate, creamy, yet crunchy if you choose. It’s versatile: sauteed until crisp and browned, stirred into a batter [...]

Usually I tend to be a rather shy person, quiet until I really get to know a person. But take me to a grocery store, and I get positively verbose. I love to chat with strangers in the check-out line about what they are buying. It is very voyeuristic. For those moments you get a glimpse as to what type of person they are. Do they have pets, children? Are they health nuts, junk food junkies? And occasionally someone has something in their cart with which I am unfamiliar. In those cases I have to ask them what it is they’re buying; and what they plan on doing with it.
Last week I was waiting in an endless line at Berkeley Bowl (a ginormous grocery store with an unbelievable ethnic and produce section). I noticed the woman ahead of me in line with a large bag of tightly clustered, tiny, grape-like [...]