Rocket Salad Overload

It was yet another busy day for me that I have refrained from  munching some food for the past three toxic hours of my kitchen life that led my stomach to grumble. Yes, orders that day flooded so swiftly that I got lost  by messing up some of my customer's orders, which I did unintentionally of course. Blame it on insufficient manpower maybe. What the heck, after cooking, I just had the quickest desire to eat some  real good food . So I decided to make myself a quick salad. A quick yet heavy one.

Among the edible leaves which I really dislike before, rocket leaves or arugula as it is popularly known, would be first. I don't really know if you are really familiar with these leaves, but to give you an idea about how it tastes and looked like, I would compare it with those of the bitter gourd leaves except that arugula's are a bit bigger. It has  a nutty and bitter  taste to it but  is marvelous especially when paired with tomatoes. It is not  a staple in the Philippines except when you  look for it in supermarkets which are a bit pricey.

So to enjoy my remaining days abroad, I might as well enjoy the comfort of the food that I serve my guests. To be honest, I haven't actually tasted half of what I usually prepare from the menu. So right now, I would give in to my first attempt to experience the taste of arugula.

I decided to mix a combination of lettuces with the rocket leaves. A perfect partner for arugula would be sundried tomatoes in olive oil. It happened that there was a delivery of really good quality sundried tomatoes that day,  so I took the liberty of taking  three pieces of this gorgeous tomatoes and add it to my greens. I also prepared some cucumber slices, thick slices of grilled chicken breast, strips of turkey ham and some croutons. To my dismay, I photographed my salad without realizing that I missed an important ingredient which are shaves of parmesan cheese. The sharpness of the parmesan cheese, the oily and sweet and sour taste of the sundried tomatoes and the nuttiness of the arugula creates a perfect flavor combination. Imagine the flavor  contrast each of these ingredients bring and your mouth will be in utter amazement.At last, I finally started to like arugula leaves. It tasted just perfect with the balsamic and olive oil dressing. Not only is it refreshing ,it is healthy too. I would love to find some of these leaves when I get home next week. Wish me a safe trip! :)