A Mindful Mediterranean Meal

All day long my timing was off because of daylight savings, even though we "sprang forward" an hour, I felt as if we really had "fallen back" one instead.  At 6:30 I arrived for my dinner reservation with my uncle at Aldar Bistro on Montgomery Ave in Bala Cynwyd.  I couldn't wait to eat, my stomach was grumbling.  The style of the restaurant is Mediterranean, so we chose a hummus platter for an appetizer.  About 10 minutes after we placed the order, out came a heaping bowl of hummus with fresh chickpeas, a bowl of char-grilled pita triangles and a handful of sliced cucumbers.  I dipped a crisp cucumber in the bowl of hummus.  The flavors tingled in my mouth, the crunch of the cucumber was complimented by the creaminess of the hummus.  I decided tonight at dinner I was going to practice the art of mindful eating, a skill I am learning about in this new book I am reading called Savor by world renown Buddhist, Thict Nhat Hanh.  I ate slowly, taking in every flavor, concentrating on every bite, letting myself enjoy the food I was eating, rather than being distracted by the surrounding tables and loud conversations.  For dinner, my entree came out bright with color.  The bright colors resembled the weather outside, the warmth from the yellow sun as the seasons change from winter to spring.  I ordered a dish with a simple name, "Chicken and Vegetables", but the dish was anything but simple.  A large deep-dish plate filled with a bed of couscous (a wheat grain, similar to rice or pasta) and other ingredients - grilled slices of chicken, flat orange carrot chunks, slices of thin white onion, "c" shaped cuts of yellow summer squash and green zucchini; as I dug further into the deep surface of the plate, I discovered more - sliced mangoes and pineapple chunks, with a couple raisins that were hidden throughout the dish.  The entire meal was drizzled in a light cinnamon curry sauce.  The cinnamon flavor came through in each bite.  The chicken was tender, the carrots were soft, the zucchini and squash were juicy, the onions provided an even balance from the pungent flavor.  The couscous was the perfect grain as it picked up all the flavors from the dish.  The meal was delicious and filled with flavor, I cannot wait to go back again.