Eating seasonally

One of the things that one learns to do here, is eat seasonally. Grab what is fresh and enjoy, for it may be gone tomorrow.

It is May here in Cairo. (It is probably May elsewhere, as well)

The days are almost hot, the nights are very comfortable and tomatoes
are ripe and beautiful. And the garlic is coming in, in force.

Driving on the ring road through agricultural areas is a treat for
the eyes and nose.

Large trucks full of the reddest, firmest tomatoes imaginable.

Trucks full of garlic.

Trucks full of onions and leeks.

On a good day, the smell of garlic and onions on the ring road is
enough to overpower the smell of burning garbage.
(It is an unfortunate juxtaposition of farming land and garbage dumps)

I was riding out to Giza the other day and was watching the trucks of
tomatoes etc go by and thought

“Hmm, I would love some of that mexican soup…”

So I dug out the
“Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home”
cookbook and flipped to the
Mexican Tomato Lime Soup
recipe.

see http://wetleather.com/recipes/show-858 for details.

A yummy soup, hot or cold.

Great with a rose or white Rioja.

[digression]
Yes, yes I know: “a rose? ick”.
We used to think the same thing. Then we attended a wine tasting
at The Spanish Table in Seattle (http://www.spanishtable.com).

They were pouring a rose.
We turned up our noses, but the nice woman doing the tasting
insisted we try it. It was only a small taste, and we weren’t paying for
it. She assured us she would not be offended if we tasted and dumped
it in the bucket.

It was quite nice. A perfect summer afternoon or evening wine, lightly
chilled.

If only we had some here in Egypt 🙁

Alas.
[/digression]

Anyway, I know that the tomatoes probably are not in season yet where you are, nor is it likely to be warm enough for a cold soup, but tuck this one away for future reference.