I’ll admit it, I have to eat for work. Sometimes it is a good thing, “dessert tasting at 3pm!” and sometimes it is not as fun, “this is my sixth burger now and everything tastes the same”. Trust me when I say that eating, and differentiating between your first bite and your tenth bite, can be difficult at times.
Over the years I’ve developed a “two bite” rule. I take my first two bites of any dish, just so that I can “taste” the food and think about the flavours. If it’s passable, then I stop eating and move onto the next one. Any more than a few bites and I would have moved from “tasting” to “eating”.
Once in a while though, when a dish is really good and has an addictive profile that keeps you wanting more, I take more than two bites and work towards finishing the whole thing.
The goat cheese and feta flatbread, was such an item.
I remember the first time I tried the flatbread. I could smell the warm ciabatta bread and hints of olive oil from the oven. I took an end piece, the first bite on the edge was warm and slightly crispy, and then it gave way to a soft and airy middle. The goat and feta cheeses were lightly caramelized and soft, so when you bite into it the cheeses sort of smear and play off the sweet and deeply caramelized onion. I love the grape tomatoes! Each one bursts in your mouth with concentrated roasted tomato flavour. I like my piece of flatbread piled on with lots of peppery arugula (if you haven’t tried arugula yet, I would highly recommend tossing it in a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and having some on top of a slice of pizza!). And if you’re lucky enough to get the right piece, you’ll have a crunchy bite of maldon sea salt to bring it all together.
And after I fully devoured my first piece of flatbread, I went to reach for another. And then another one..