Lately I have been experimenting with types of salads that are quick to prepare and use some not so usual ingredients. The recipe here creates a "clean" salad for summer that can be a meal in itself or served as a side. Note that the beans in this salad do require soaking, but if planning ahead is a problem, you can substitutute dried beans for canned.

2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked in cold water overnight
2 cloves garlic
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
1/2 spanish onion sliced thinly into rings
2 tablespoons of parsley (chopped roughly)
2 tablespoons of cilantro (chopped roughly)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (balsamic will also do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

To soak beans, rinse dried beans under cold running water, removing any old, split or blackened beans. Place in large bowl and cover with at least 1 inch with cold water. Leave out overnight. You will find that the beans will absorb a lot of the water. Periodically, drain and refill bowl with clean water - especially in warmer weather.

Cook the drained beans with split garlic cloves in large saucepan of water for about 30-45 minutes or until beans are tender. Drain well and set aside to cool.

While beans are cooking/cooling, layer the onion slices in a bowl, sprinkling each layer with salt and set aside until ready to combine all ingredients.

Dice cucumber and tomatoes into 1/2 inch squares and roughly chop the parsley and cilantro. There's no need to peel or seed the cucumber as the green skin provides a color contrast to the white beans.

When ready to serve salad, rinse onion rings under cold running water to remove salt. Squeeze out any remaining liquid. Combine all ingredients into bowl - beans, cucumber, tomotoes, onion, parsley, cilantro. Drizzle combined olive oil, vinegar and juice of the lemon over salad and toss gently. Season to taste.

If the salad is a meal in itself. Spread some baby spinach leaves around a flat plate and pile salad in the middle. Garnish with spring of cilantro.

Shanghai Cuisine was recommended by Hong Kong Chinese Canadian friend of mine. He claimed it's the one of the most authentic Hong Kongese place around. I never doubt the boy's food recommendations, especially his asian picks. He's a great cook and has never led me astray before.

However, this time, we found the menu uninspiring. It read like your standard on the corner "We deliver" Chinese. The Chef's Specials raised our hopes somewhat of finding something unique but the list was even more mainstream American Chinese than the regular one.

Did we order incorrectly? Maybe. Although I doubt it. A quick glance at other people's dishes seemed to suggest our experience was the norm. Meat dishes were covered with familiar sauces, and the noodles thick and sloppy without any real discernable taste. To be fair, Joe's vegetable noodle soup was good and full flavored (albeit a little salty). Probably a result of the chicken, which despite the "vegetable" label, had been added to the soup.

If you go, make sure you try...

The soup douplings maybe the only thing worth the trip and definitely better than Joe's Shanghai to be sure. The iced espresso coffee with condensed milk was authentic - strong like true italian espresso with enough condensed milk to cut the bitterness. Just be patient watching the cup fill drip by drip.

Shanghai Cuisine
89 Bayard Street
SW cnr Bayard & Mulberry

Around since 1985 Florent has seen the meat packing district pack meat. The pink neon sign glowing in the huge pane of glass defines Florent as simple and unpretentious.

A Joan Allen like hostess presides over seating arrangements and glides as effortless as the movie star herself between the close knit tables. The food is good French bistro fare served American diner style in equal parts. People watching is its own past time in New York and Florent is as vibrant as you will get. Especially if you come early in the morning as the crowds from the nearby not-so-main-stream bars and clubs roll in. Everyone's checking everyone out.

Sitting along the wall looking at the pressed tin over the bar I want to believe that in the pre-Guiliani years, Florent was a hedonist's hangout. Only visited by those in the know and a clientele willing to risk the trip west into a dimly lit, smelly, seedy, cobblestone district. Perhaps I got glipse of the of what this might have been like after the Gay Pride parade last year. Drag queens swilling beer on the sidewalk. Gay men and lesbians in leather outfits best described as costumes. Sweaty Chelsea boys in hot pants and tank tops. And of course the requesite number of trendy straight wanna be's perched on bar stools trying to recognize faces in the crowd while waiting for tables.

If you go, don't go without trying...

Almost everything is good. Joe swears by the mussels, even after reading Bourdain's warning in Kitchen Confidential. For me, the Nicoise is one of the better ones in the city. It's served with a decent peice of gently grilled tuna lying on the lightly dressed greens. The burgers aren't bad either.

Ok, so I stole the Sir Lunchalot title from a fellow Australian John Burns a 20 year radio personality on Melbourne's 3AW, a talk radio station that lies somewhere between 1010 Wins and NPR.

I couldn't resist. I am not witty enough to have thought of such a clever phrase by myself. Left to my own devices my site would have been labelled some long literal phrase, betraying my business background and leaving no illusion of my lack of creativity. So I did what any good business person does, I stole the concept. Sir Lunchalot is mine and I am Sir Lunchalot!

I think the self bestowed title is apt. I am constanly thinking about food 24/7/365. I can't help it. I am obsessed. It's how I fill in the spare minutes in my day. Even at the gym, ten minutes into spinning class, my heart pounding at 180 bmp, sweat dripping off my nose, the instructor breathing into his head set "Focus on your goals. You can achieve them." and all I can think of is "What am I going to eat tonight?; What's in the fridge?; Can I get what I need at Gourmet Garage or will I have to shlep the 4 extra blocks to Dean & Deluca and pay $15/lb for out of season peaches?".

The obsession doesn't go unnoticed. At my birthday party this year, the gifts I received were all cooking related - magazine subscriptions, kitchen gadgets, and cookbooks. Not that I mind. It only gets embarrassing if there's ever an uncomfortable lapse in conversation and I notice the other person get excited because they have found a question that can keep conversation alive with me, "So how's the cooking going?" This in itself wouldn't be bad, but juxtaposed silence is only second best to talking about the weather.

Of the two types of people in this world - those that eat to live versus those that live to eat - I definitely fall into the latter category. Having realized this, I no longer make apologies for it and blame my southern Italian heritage.

Now that my conscience is clear - I can continue obsessing.