Issa Cooks: Kale and Corn Salad

For approximately $5 at the farmers' market you can make a delicious lunch, or several! kale-corn-salad


1 bunch kale 2 tbs olive oil 2 ears of corn salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in hot frying pan.  Cut kale into one-inch slices.  Add to pan and saute until leaves begin to wilt.  Remove from heat and slice kernels off the corn cob and add to greens. Toss and season to taste.  Yum!

Salad lasts up to three days in the fridge and is delicious cold or room temperature.

From Paris, With Louvre

Friday morning I finally made it to the Louvre! I waited in line for only twenty minutes (it can take hours!) before I entered the pyramid and descended into the museum itself.

The Louvre is huge!  While I was once intimidated by the size of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, frequent visits have made it manageable.  But the Louvre is like the Met’s giant older sibling. Looking at a map, it seemed like I could navigate my way through all of the galleries by early afternoon.  But after passing through various crowded galleries, I realized that a full run of the Louvre in a single day would be impossible or at least highly unpleasant.

I started with the Napoleon III apartments, lushly decorated rooms that could easily fit two or three of my four-bedroom East Village apartment inside.

From there, I wandered through the European paintings, recognizing various artists and artworks from art history classes.

Throughout my time at the museum, I constantly heard visitors ask guards in a variety of different accents, “Where is the Mona Lisa?”  While I know this is one of the artworks the Louvre is known for, it was almost unbelievable that a person could be surrounded by such wonderful, skilled, detailed artwork from all over the world and had their sights set completely on visiting a single portrait.

At the Mona Lisa, crowds of tourists elbow each other for a chance to capture Da Vinci’s painting on their iPhones.  It’s totally overwhelming: especially considering the painting is covered by a thick layer of glass and protected by a wooden railing that prevents viewers from walking within four feet of the painting.

After seeing the highlights of the museum, I headed out to the Jardin de Tuileries, mainly to check out La Fête Foraine, or the summer carnival.

There’s nothing sadder than walking around a carnival by yourself.  The friends I was supposed to meet were missing. Only later did I learn that Orange, the main cell service provider for Paris, was down for the day.  It took hours before I figured this out.  After hours of not receiving texts, I’d just assumed I was extremely unpopular and doomed to carry out a lonely existence. In New York, if cell service went down for an hour, the city would be frantic, and it certainly wouldn’t be a secret.  Maybe it’s just my lack of understanding of French, but I was shocked to learn that a major city was without cell service for a day and I had no idea.

Similar to every other day in Paris, it started to pour, so I made myself comfortable at Jour, a fresh salad bar reminiscent of the USA, where I wrote the afternoon away…