Life in BG

You know we are spoiled over there in the land of milk and honey. We can get milk and honey, and all manner of fruits and vegetables all year long. So…if I feel like having a nectarine in the dead of winter, I can get one. It will cost more, but I can get one.

That is not so true over here. Actually, not true at all. There are times I want a certain ingredient for dinner, and try as I might, I will not be able to find it. Take, for example, the bell pepper.

This item was a staple here all summer long, even into the fall. Hardly a dish was made without it. But when we came back after Thanksgiving, they had all vanished. Not a pepper in sight. There was a skinny looking cousin of the bell pepper—perhaps a chile of some sort???—but NO peppers.

And so I am learning to eat by what is in season. For example, now is the time here for mandarins/tangerines (though we are starting to come to the end of it). Every few days, I march over to my favorite market lady and buy a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of tangerines and eat them all.day.long. (As a matter of fact, I am munching on one as I write this.) Until they are gone. And then I march back. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

But here is my newest dilemma. Once the tangerines go away, what then? Because what I am seeing frightens me—a lot! I see radishes. Kids–you know what radishes are. You grow them for the Del Mar Fair in the summer. Tons and tons of radishes.

And who can eat a kilo of radishes? Not I! Can you imagine the heartburn? I get heartburn off one radish. A few, or even a kilo would make my chest burn with the fire of a thousand white hot suns. Oh, the anguish.

So…all you Julia Childs out there…help a sister out. 1. How can I make a radish not cause such heartburn? 2. What else can be done with the radish besides slice them into a salad or eat them with salt?