I got lettuce.

You know, I really haven't found the local diet to really be all that difficult, food craving-wise. At the beginning, I thought that giving up bananas, avocados and mangoes may just might be the death of me. I made my last mango salsa before the diet with the grave seriousness one might give to the preparation of a last meal. That being said, I haven't really missed them as much as I thought. We picked enough berries from Lewis Farms to replace the bananas, and got some peaches from friends who stopped on their way from Charlotte (there haven't been any here due to the crap weather that froze them all), which have taken the place of mangoes in salsa. The one thing that I have been craving lately though, is lettuce.

Pretty much all variety of lettuce went out of season here by the end of May, so I really haven't had a good salad since then. Swiss chard is still available from Hanchey's right now, but it doesn't really give me the salady deliciousness I'm craving. I should admit, at this point, to twice having a salad outside of lettuce season. I've accompanied colleagues to lunch several times and have taken advantage of the opportunity to get my green fix.

Today I actually came into a lot of lettuce by taking advantage of the leftovers at a luncheon I attended for work. The lunch fare consisted of salad, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables, rolls and cake. At the end of the event there was a ton of food left over. I'm talking full pans. So my colleagues and I asked if there were any bags or take out boxes so we could take the leftovers home...and we were told no. Apparently health code rules prevent this establishment from allowing any heated food to leave their premises. Their solution to the mass amounts of leftovers? Throw them out. Ridiculous. We begged, cajoled and bargained, but they wouldn't budge, though finally they agreed that salad was not a heated item, and that we could take as much as we wanted. So we did, and when they weren't looking, stuffed our boxes with turkey as well. So there. I'm really hoping that they don't actually throw the stuff away, and that all the staff secretly takes it home afterward, but I doubt it. It made me physically ill just thinking about it.

Anyway, we're eating salad and turkey, two non-local luxuries, for lunch for the next few days, and if anyone wants to go dumpster diving, you might hit the jackpot behind the Madeline Suite at UNCW.