Warm roasted sugar pie pumpkin filled with salad.

I have been on a big winter squash binge the last couple weeks. I think it’s David’s least favorite food, so I have been roasting them up, halved, and eating them for lunch. I’ve gone through a few acorn squashes, a few butternuts and delicatas, but at the farmers market last Wednesday (Civic Center, SF) they had sugar pie pumpkins for a buck each, so here’s one of those.

The hot and cold thing started when I had some curtido (vinegary Salvadoran slaw) leftover (From the Alemany Farmers market) and was looking for something to stick inside my squash-hole after roasting up a butternut one day. It was so tasty! The almost pickley slaw, cold and crunchy, mixed with the hot roasted squash. After that, I went actively filling my squash-holes with salad.

The one above is arugula and red butter lettuce dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. There’s a shallot in it, which I let sit in the vinegar a few minutes before I tossed the oiled greens into the bowl. I used a carrot peeler to shave some comte into it. I had planned to use parm, but alas, the parm larder was bare.

After my first few hot-cold squash dishes, I went to Serpentine (a great restaurant in Dogpatch) and saw a salad that was maple-cooked pumpkin with arugula, pumpkin seeds and ricotta salata. In their version, the pumpkin (actually kabocha, I think) was served warm under the bed of greens with the ricotta salata microplaned into a fluffy topping. It was one of the best salads I’ve had in a restaurant ever. The squash was not overly mapley, just a hint of sweetness.

Anyway, go forth and fill your hot squash-hole with cold stuff.

We started the Canadian leg of our vacation today, driving an inland route from Bangor, ME to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick. We’re staying at the Fundy Park Motel, and Doug Stewart, the owner, said to go into town (Alma) and get some take-out from a seafood shack.

He suggested the scallop dinner and a large order of fried clams, and we almost followed that. A small order of fried clams seemed like enough for us. Scallops are the shellfish around these parts, and it was the fried scallops that I hadn’t seen at tons of similar New England seafood shacks. (Okay, they also had poutine on the menu.)

Anyway the scallops were amazing! Cooked perfectly inside, crispy and browned on the outside. Pre-frozen fries, I think, and the ketchup only came in little packets– not ideal for the slatherer. But: all totally worth it for the scallops.

We have a couple more days in this region and I hope to have them again somewhere. The fried clams were fine. The beers we bought at the Alma General Store and smuggled into the picnic area of the take-out joint were also just right. Followed the whole fried-food and contraband beer dinner with yet another soft-serve cone. Choc-van swirl.