Around here, most foods are sold by the kilo. I (Misha) can buy big yellow lentils (dal) at our local market, which gives us a little variety of how to get protein in our meals. I like making spicy Indian dishes with the lentils, which go nicely with rice, which we can get in abundance here!
However, eating lentils can be very dangerous to your health in these parts. What looks like a lentil on your plate is not always a lentil - watch out for rocks! Before coming here, I never realized just how similar rocks and lentils can look. But to the poor tooth that bites down on one, they are most definitely NOT the same.
So, before doing any sort of cooking with lentils, I spread them out on a cookie sheet, one little handful at a time. I peer down and pick through them, plucking out little rocks left and right. In the picture, you can see my findings - that little pile of refuse is comprised of rocks, little green beans (I think they were being sold in the basket next to the lentils, because quite a few of them seem to have gotten mixed into the lentils I bought), and a few pieces of dried lentil "husks". I guess lentils have some kind of brownish skin covering them when they are growing or something like that.
These lentils ended up in a very tasty, although slight too-spicy for me (Andrew loved it) dish. Take out the rocks, add some spices, and cook them for a long time, and lentils make a great meal!
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