Saturday, December 4, 2010

Day 111

Tabouli: I ventured out this afternoon to maybe find something for lunch, and I ended up at the Whole Foods on Ponce. I rarely shop there due to the high prices, but occasionally there's something on the hot bar or salad bar that catches my eye. Today I saw something that I'd heard about for years, but never actually tried: tabouli. I knew it was some sort of wheat-based vegetarian dish, but past that, I knew nothing. Luckily, WF will let you sample before you commit, so I asked for one of the little sample cups so I could taste.
WF listed the ingredients as "bulgur wheat, brown rice, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, couscous, lemon juice, wild rice." I suspected that it would be a lot like cooked couscous, but I was slightly wrong. The texture of the bulgur was almost like half-cooked couscous, with a chewy, nutty feel. Not bad, but not that great, either. It reminded me a lot of the wheatberry salad I tried a few weeks ago, and the remaining ingredients definitely added a lot more flavor to the bland-ish bulgur and rice. A little too much onion in this version for me, but I doubt I'd eat it again anyway.

For the record, I'm not sure what the correct spelling of this dish is. I've seen several different versions, and this is the one that WF used.

3 comments:

  1. Before you completely write off Tabouli try it from a mediterranean/middle eastern joint like Ali baba's or buy the "Tabouli Box" it's maybe a dollar. Add your own parsley, lime juice, cucumbers etc.

    WF has probably the worst version of tabouli I've ever tried. Best part about Tabouli is it's like a good stew. It's even better on the second day.

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  2. Thanks for the comment - I really appreciate when readers give me more info. Since I've never had any of these foods before, I don't know if I've gotten a bad version or not. I'll def. try tabouli again somewhere else, based on what you said.

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  3. That doesn't even look like any tabouli that I have eaten. It is usually much much greener with lots of fresh herbs and parsely.

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