Tastes for Hot and Cold

When the weather gets warm, and the sweet cucumbers show up at the Farmer's Market in the Civic Center, you can't help but want to make Palestinian Salad. Chopped cukes, tomatoes, parsley, lime juice and olive oil, nothing else. Add a few pine nuts and you've got Lebanese Salad. Add fresh mint and you've got Israeli Salad. It's all good.

Of course, we're talking about Saint Plotniko here, the City by the Bay, where it's freaking COLD right now. No tank tops, just zip up jackets and sweat shirts. So you also need something hot like this delicious Madras Cauliflower. The key is browning the cauliflower in a hot wok with the ginger, cumin seeds and chopped up serrano chiles, so that the spice sears into the white flesh. Then you add coriander, turmeric, salt and tomatoes. If your backyard still has snap and snow peas on the vine, you pick 'em and toss 'em into the pot at the last moment too (otherwise use frozen peas).

Where is Global Warming when you need it? Only a few miles across the Bay from The Great Plotnik World Headquarters and Meatball Kitchen, people are sunning themselves, drinking iced tea, playing badminton, wiping sweat off their foreheads, thinking about a double fudge ripple in a sugar cone.

But Plotnik does not have time for such idle thoughts. He must head out on the ice flow to harpoon a polar bear and cut off a few chops so the meal can be complete. Tarragon. Tarragon will be good.