Carrot and orange salad

Really easy and simple, but completely exotic. My housemate Mike scarfed it down. Definitely nice and refreshing -- perfect match for a spicy main dish.

Turnip and orange salad

From "The new book of Middle Eastern food".

Strictly speaking, this doesn't fall within the "Northeast Mediterranean" theme. Mike brought some turnips in from the garden though, and we needed a way to use them up. This is a North African dish -- with a intensely unfamiliar flavor. In a way, it reminded us of Korean kimchi or some other Asian pickled item.

Zucchini salad (sautéed) with raisins and pine nuts

From Roden's "The new book of Middle Eastern food".

This dish really grew on me after a couple of days of eating the leftovers. I discovered that the lemon juice garnish it is absolutely essential -- otherwise it feels heavy and oily. Even still, it felt like the zucchini slices were dripping in Olive oil. But heh, that's how they like it in the Middle East/Mediterranean, right?

Sardines, broiled

I've been wanting to try fresh sardines for a long time and I saw them at whole foods the other day. Only $4 per pound! Also, the fishmonger there guts each sardine for you on the spot if you want.

We roughly followed the instructions from a Gordon Ramsay recipe in "Fast Food". We rubbed the sardines with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled fresh lemon juice over the top, and strew several sprigs of rosemary over the top and then broiled at high temperature for about 6 minutes total.