I'll Have Naan of That Pink Chicken

Ever since we moved into new offices, my ride home has been much more enjoyable. It takes me through some really interesting sections of town, including a stretch of Latin markets and restaurants, followed by a stretch of Indian markets.

We’ve been eating a lot of exotic foods recently … influenced in part by blogs like A Veggie Venture, Gliding Calm, Miss Tiffie and VeggieGirl, all of which have unique, open-minded approaches to food. Also by our commitment to eating healthy!

A few weeks ago, I stopped at the Latin market, and while I could kick myself for not taking any pictures, I spent more than an hour marveling at all the different vegetables, fruits, spices and more. Anything that looked unfamiliar, I picked up — and had fun figuring out what to do next!

One of my food finds there was frozen mashed fruit. It’s basically a puree that’s been frozen, but you can get all sorts of interesting things, like tamarind and lychee and even aloe! I bought mango, let it thaw, and had it for dessert the other night:

Then there was the night Lucas and I hit the Vietnamese market. We had a blast, trying all sorts of colorful combinations. They weren’t all tasty, but they were all adventurous, and much better than the same old chicken and starch.

So, this week, I knew it was time I stopped at the Indian market near my house. I mean, how could you go wrong at a place called House of Spices? The frozen section alone blew my mind … and I had to stop myself from buying one of everything. Then, the rows of rices … stacks of spices … and oh, the teas! Considering all the choices, I thought it was pretty good that I only ended up with this:

That includes frozen parantha (chosen over the naan, but next time I’ll probably get both!), beans, chai tea, baby purple eggplant, hot pickle relish, banana chips and lots of rice cracker snacks. That green veggie next to the eggplants? The woman working behind the counter said it was a beet, but I dunno …

Lucas has been my guinea pig here, and will let me know what he thinks of each of the items.

In the meantime, it was back to the chicken and starch but I decided to conduct an experiment. We love Diet Coke chicken and Diet Soda cake, so I decided to make Diet Cranberry garlic chicken. I just took boneless chicken, splashed some soda on top, threw in some minced garlic, salt and pepper, and let it bake for about a half hour.

It was delicious … but came out … well, take a look:

It’s PINK! I didn’t realize the soda would stand out so much! Really good, though, nice and moist. We had braised collard greens and citrus yautia on the side (from the Latin market!)

Isn’t it funny how much collards cook down? Take a look at the process:

Hate to make a post JUST about food, but it’s time to wind down and get ready for a rough workout tomorrow. Have a great weekend!