This roasted eggplant salsa, with a notable Asian flavor, can be used as a dip or as a topping on grilled salmon or chicken. Larry Crowe/AP

There’s more to salsa than just tomatoes, chilies and onions.

While the tomato variety has given ketchup a run as top condiment, there’s no end to the combinations of vegetables, fruits and chilies that can make a great salsa.
Salsas can be cooked or uncooked, used as a topping, side dish or dip, and are a delicious, low-fat way to add lots of nutrients and fiber to your diet.

Combine rinsed, canned black, pinto and kidney beans with chopped red onion, chopped jalapeño, corn kernels, fresh lime juice and a dusting of chili powder to make a zesty three-bean salsa.
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I first heard about Wickles pickles on the Chowhound website . In Publix, they are tucked in a top refrigerated shelf at the back of the store near eggs and horseradish. I’d never have found them if I hadn’t been searching.

They are much like what Southerners call fire and ice pickles: sweet, hot, garlicky and coldly dilly, all at the same time. Addictive.

The Wickles folks make other products too, including banana pepper rings, relish and pickled pepper strips. You can see more on their website.

Wickles are a classic success story. Using a 70-year-old recipe, they began to make Wickles as gifts for friends. Word spread, and so did demand, until Wickles became a hot business.

You can buy Wickles  at speciality gourmet stores, and locally at Publix. They sell gift packs on their website.

My sweetie loves these with ham, or barbecue (or just standing up, in front of the refrigerator). I keep a few jars on hand as little hostess gifts and to take to picnics, too.

When it comes to restaurants that serve organic, vegetarian or all-natural fare, the image that leaps to mind is a café where alfalfa sprouts and wheatgrass juice are always on the menu and the staff seems forever lost in the ’60s.

In other words, the very opposite of what you’ll find at Da Francesco.

The stylish new Palm Beach eatery (251 Sunrise Ave., 561-659-8320,
dafrancesco.us) is Italian done with a healthy twist, as in whole-wheat pasta and grass-fed beef. It’s the brainchild of restaurant entrepreneurs Frank Cilione (formerly of Tsunami in West Palm Beach’s CityPlace) and Nick Oberhuber. But chef Seth Kirschbaum, a New York native who trained at the French Culinary Institute, is the true creative force at work.
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