5 October Wednesday

At the behest of several busy friends, I will try only to post once a day. So, if I have remembered to do it correctly, you´ll be seeing this tomorrow. Unless I forget and you see it today. It´s hard to hold all this prose inside! So, continuing on the adventure voyage of wonder and discovery, the Civic Center Farmer´s Market.

Getting off the 49 Bus in front of the Opera House and walking across the green to the market: A typical San Francisco cacophony of live music, aerobics classes, pigeons swooping low from every direction, school children on field trips screaming, and the many folks who live on the green, looking for a little peace.

The market itself is genius. Swipe your card, get some tokens, trade the tokens for food. The tokens never expire, so I brought a few home for next time. There must have been thirty stalls, and judging by the produce on offer, it is still late summer here. I bought some really beautiful tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, lettuce, cilantro, ginger, limes, zucchini, and some amazing bell peppers. There are many great things to do with bell peppers. Stuffed peppers, either with meat or rice, a multi-colored bell pepper risotto courtesy of Marcella Hazan herself.

But my favorite is ¨cream¨ of red bell pepper soup. It has no dairy products in it. Boil a few tablespoon of rice until soft, put it in the soup right before you pureé it, sprinkle with finely minced thyme, and place a beautifully poached egg right in the center. Drizzle with olive oil. It can be made with stock, but water leaves the pepper flavor pure.

I left having spent twenty bucks on a week´s worth of vegetables. Tonight, a nice big salad, Seinfeld style.

A salad for dinner- one head of butter lettuce, one yellow bell pepper sliced paper thin, one large perfectly red tomato, one sweet cucumber, with a little shallot dressing. It was like tasting the sun, I imagine. Fresh tomatoes, and I have enjoyed many, are the best.