Last night I made lamb chops in a curryish fennugreek sauce and at the last minute switched from rice to bulgur wheat for my side dish. The rice would have been fairly plain but not entirely naked--cooked with olive oil, water, garlic and kala jheera seed, a combination that is my go-to "plain" rice for Indian and middle eastern dishes, but the switch to bulgur wheat meant wheat prepared with a whole sliced shallot and a robust chicken stock. It has been so long since I've had a bulgur wheat dish that I happily limited myself to just one lamb chop in favor of a rather unladylike helping of pilaf. Oh my was it GOOOOOOOOD.
It's been too long. And there's no excuse: there is always a tall jar of bulgur wheat on my grain shelf.
In discussing our meal, Bob offered that he'd never had wheat served this way anywhere else. Only tabouli, which is of course a cold dish. But any hot wheat dishes? Never. I have, but only by friends who were Armenian. From other ethnicities? Never.
Nor is it ever mentioned here, which begs the question: why not?
Even lack of familiarity isn't a very good excuse, for anyone curious those little white boxes of wheat pilaf mix have been supermarket staples for eons (that was my first excursion).
(I'm okay with chopped Italian parsley cooked in things, though.)