Naan Sequitur

Alright, time for vacation slides!

This is me in Union Square, San Francisco:

(Have I sent you running to the next blog yet? Fear not: there is reason and recipe to this post. I promise this’ll be less painful than looking at Aunt What’sherface’s 5,000 shots of Uncle Hoochiedigger next to a cactus. …Unless you’re a cacti-phile, in which case, my deepest apologies. For every reason.)

I visited my parents at their new northern California home two weeks ago and was treated to a string of great days chock full of…

…helping supervising my nephews dying Easter eggs (“Aunt Diana is a total nut-job.”)…

…and dining (at?) Chez Panisse (!). OMG x infinity, I know.

We did an overnight in San Francisco…

…during which time we browsed the Ferry Building…

…and its Farmer’s Market…

…pausing briefly for the non-food-related pursuits of visiting the Disney Family Museum (awesome) and seeing Wicked.

Mom and I even spent a day in the Napa Valley. We had lunch at the Culinary Institute of America’s Wine Spectator Restaurant at Greystone…

…where we drank no wine.

But rest assured we made a special stop on the way home to make sure we’d gotten our vino on.

After myriad culinary and foodie experiences, you’d think that upon my return home to NYC I’d be whipping out a bit of this,

…but in fact, my return to the kitchen looked more like this:

That there specimen be what you’d call a naan-wich. And yes, there’s an explanation.

At the Ferry Building farmer’s market, there was a vendor called Sukhi’s Gourmet Indian Foods. Aside from a selection of yummy sounding spice packets and mixes, there was a variety of prepared foods that had my mouth completely watering. Of course, there were samosas, but there were also parathas (tortilla-ish breads) filled with pumpkin and other such deliciousness. They also had these curious little bundles called “naan-wiches.” They were simply pieces of naan folded in half and stuffed with various fillings: chicken, chickpeas, spinach, etc.

I wanted it, and how. Imagining how it would fare in my luggage, however, was a less delicious prospect. My hands were tied—perishability kept me from sampling the goods that day.

I took matters into my own hands once home, though. I had a can of chickpeas, so I thought some hummus was in order. Given that it was destined for a naan-wich, I chose Dreena Burton’s Curry Chickpea Hummus from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan.

This stuff is good. I substituted tahini for cashew butter, but otherwise followed the recipe, and it’s amazing. I love that it contains raisins!

I actually used the hummus as the, er, masseuse for my massaged kale salad…

…and, of course, slathered it onto a piece of Whole Foods whole wheat naan (really good for store-bought!). For filling, I took the lazy route and plopped on a Trader Joe’s veggie masala burger (also really good for store-bought!)…

…and noshed on the best meal I’d had since Chez Panisse. A restaurant that deserves it’s own post entirely, by the way. I know better than to squeeze it in with all the aforementioned naan-sense.