Lent Day 10: Recipe

Ok so it's been a very long week for me. Friday night does not find be brimming with writing ideas. So I have decided to close my eyes and pick a random picture from my photo reel and regardless of what picture I chose I have to use it as inspiration for today's blog post.

Obviously it would be a screen shot of a recipe.

No rad pictures of me being a poster woman for motherhood, or pictures of my kids living their best lives 1672km away from the nearest screen or a candid photo taken of me by my doting husband as I gaze out across some exotic landscape. 

It's not even a whole recipe. It's just the recipe for the dressing that goes on that 90s classic of cabbage, roasted 2 minute noodles and seeds. But it's a great salad.

I remember the first time I ever had the salad. Kingspark Stadium sometime in the late 90s. My cool townie cousins had season tickets. They were at rugby basically every weekend and we probably watched a sum total of three games in that stadium for our whole lives. But this was one of those momentous games. 

We were having the ubiquitous braai on the neighboring field after the game. I was hanging out with my older cool girl cousins in the combi and they had just put makeup on me for the first time in my life. I don't think we were quite old enough for Rovers yet, and I dont think Rovers was ready for what my cousins had done to my face. My brother was sweating up a storm with the other myriads of small boys dreaming of tackling like Henry Honiball. My small sister was probably curled up on my mom's lap.  The men were knocking back a few Castles, braaing steaks and doing a post mortem of the game. 

I can still remember the moment I saw my aunt Marian mixing two minute noodles with cabbage. As someone raised on the staples of green salad, three bean salad, cole slaw and tinned creamed sweet corn this salad was very avant guard. And then she put a dressing on it that was a far cry from mayonnaise. And it had seeds in it! What was this woman thinking? The only good thing about raw cabbage is the mayonnaise. 

She informed us that asian cabbage salad was all the rage in Westville - much like basil pesto and ciabatta bread. 

I've always been fairly brave when it comes to culinary experiences - my uncle's road kill porcupine curry was exceptional - so I braved it and had a smidgen of salad.

It was in that moment that I opened up a whole new palate. I suppose its a bit similar to Joey's trifle moment-

Raw cabbage - good

Nuts - good

Noddles - good

Sweet - good

Salty - good

Zesty - good

I just couldn't fault the experience. And I couldn't believe that so few ingredients could turn cabbage into a super star. I became a fan for life. 

This year, some 30 years later, my aunt Marian brought out the good old asian cabbage salad for Christmas lunch. And I was suddenly back on that field with my cousins, happily munching away on raw cabbage with garish lipstick smudged across my face. 

Amazing what food memories can do for the soul. We need to go back to that field sometime family. As long as Marian brings her salad...