Restaurant food at home: 2 of 2

I really enjoy eating out. Yesterday’s pasta was a dish ordered out of desperation, on vacation. When I find a good restaurant, I love love love eating out. I’m not quite ready to say that my favorite dish is whatever someone else cooks*, but I still love not having to cook - on occasion. I go out usually once a week, sometimes twice. I’ve found a generous handful of local restaurants I like, and there are more I’m eager to try. So tonight, I share with you something I’ve enjoyed when eating out but have never made for myself. It turned out pretty well.

I have eaten wheatberries only two times before this. That is inexplicable, because although I enjoyed them, I had not eaten them again until just now. My first time was at Third Avenue Cafe in Louisville, and the second was at Myra’s Dionysus here in Cincinnati.

So I buckled down and halfway recreated something I had at two restaurants at home.

My home version isn’t quite as chock-full of goodness and the Third Avenue version that included celery, onion, and carrots, or the Myra’s version with black eyed peas, dried cranberries, onion, garlic, mint, and lemon tahini dressing. Mine, though, was still absolutely delicious.

I didn’t measure, but here’s the ingredients:

• Cooked wheatberries
• Cooked edamame
• Apple
• Dried cranberries

This is dressed with lots of apple cider vinegar and a little olive oil. It was delicious. I actually didn’t look back at the previous salad ingredients until I was composing this post. This salad is best enjoyed at room temperature, but it’s okay chilled as well. I know I couldn’t wait to eat my leftovers and it was pretty good straight from the fridge.

*I heard Mario Batali say this on The Splendid Table. I understand the sentiment, but I don’t agree.