---

A lovely way to taste all the summer fruit is in a fresh fruit salad. In Italy, they call this particular concoction macedonia. Peel and cut fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes) into the same bite-sized pieces (berries are a natural for this, they just have to come as they are). Mix the fruit together with some lemon juice and let sit for 1/2 hour to an hour until all the juices and flavors get familiar with each other. If you want to Americanize this, add a sprinkling of sugar, or a dollop of whipped cream. But the simpler the better. The taste of the fruit is dazzling enough.

So the next time you're dining out, and the waiter carts over the dessert tray after you've just finished a long, luxurious meal, be a discriminating diner. Remember (or imagine) strolling through the country field, stopping to pick a wild strawberry, glancing at an abundant blueberry bush, gaping at the loveliness of blackberries ripening on their vine.

Then look over the restaurant's double chocolate cake covered by white mousse topping, and their famous butterscotch quadruple yolk creme brulee, and that tartuffo filled with pistachio, chocolate chip cookie dough, and double walnut surprise ice cream. But notice, there, hidden toward the back of the tray, under the shadow of the waiter's gesturing arm. There stands an elegant, unheralded stemmed glass filled with assorted berries. Unadorned, they exude glamorous confidence. They know who they are.

Of course, it's the berries you choose, turning your nose up at all of those other nonorganic, not-as-imaginative-as-nature concoctions, and dip your spoon into the colorful assemblage of pure bliss. (Ahem...I know there are maybe one or two of you that went for the Tartuffo. What can I say? There's no accounting for taste!)

Back / Recipes

---

© Copyright 1996 Urban Desires