The World in your Kitchen 2010 – Gambia and Senegal – Mafé
After taking a hiatus on my international cooking (my time has been consumed by knitting and dancing believe it or not) I finally came back to my good ole trusty 2010 calendar, I did skip the March recipe for now because it was a litte too simple and more of a “snacky” type food but I will definitely come back to it at a later time. And even though it’s already May I wanted to share the recipe for April. It’s called Mafé and it’s a peanut stew from Gambia and Senegal. It’s a vegetarian dish, like all of the recipes from the calendar, and it looked so good on paper that I was very much excited to finally try it out…
Read more
Tea Time in Vancouver… a short review
I just got back from a short vacation in Vancouver. My reason for going this time around was to celebrate my sister’s 30th birthday but of course I took the oportunity to visit some (not all, there are too many!) of my favourite eateries and to try a couple of new ones in between the celebrations. For me there is no such thing as a trip to Vancouver without trying at least one of the tea houses or tea services that the city has to offer. There is one tea house that I love called The Secret Garden Tea Company but this time I tried two other tea services, one of them was quite good and another one not so much but still worth mentioning. Read more
A favourite treat
I am excited to go see my sisters in Vancouver next week. Not only to see them and the beautiful city that I love but also to eat some of my favourite foods. From the Bandara Salad from The Cactus Club Cafe to the best sushi I have ever tasted (keep in mind that I’ve never been to Japan… yet!) but one of the most unusual and really simple things that I love in Vancouver is the Japadog. Think a hotdog+japanese ingredients. This is something so brilliant that I’m amazed that someone didn’t think of fusing the tastes together a long time ago! 
Impatient as I am I’ve been counting the days until I can go visit a Japadog stand and, as I was telling my brilliant friend, Jess, about it she decided that she could make her own version of it and share her results with me.
The version that we made was with wasabi mayo (word to the wise, use a very little bit of wasabi powder if you’re making your own wasabi mayonaise) and Nori Komi Furikake (which is sesame seeds and seaweed). Just well cooked veggie weiners and fried onions made this a very good idea indeed. A great way to spend a saturday afternoon:
I have the bestest friend in the world don’t I? Thanks Jess for a delicious treat!
The World in Your Kitchen 2010 Calendar – China
Wow, it’s been a busy time. Everytime I wanted to make this dish there was something that came up. Either dinner plans, studying or just plain lazyness. 
So today I decided to not put it off any longer. This is supposed to be the February recipe from my calendar…. oh well, better late than never I guess.
This recipe is for Bei gu su or Tofu with vegetables. It’s a super easy stir fry! Literally, took about 20 minutes to prep and then about 10 minutes to cook, I think if you prep ahead of time you can have dinner ready in 10 minutes. And who doesn’t love that? Read more
Tea and more tea!
Having a love of tea makes it difficult for me to control myself arond anything tea related. I guess it’s not a bad addiction to have, tea is, after all, very healthy! And it’s the best thing to have around when company shows up. Like the great quote from Gladstone goes: ”If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.” So, when I came across the tea review blog’s tea swap (http://www.teareviewblog.com/?page_id=1706) I jumped at the chance to share my tea love with others around the world. This was a great idea! Read more
The World in Your Kitchen 2010 – Ethiopia
I wanted to share the recipes from my lovely 2010 calendar. All of the recipes are vegetarian and most of the ingredients are very easy to find. If the recipe calls for something unusual it also gives you a simple substitution. I love it! Here’s the recipe for January… Ethiopia.
Nepalese Chicken
Nepal is the one other place that my dad wanted to go and never got to. It is definitely one of the places to visit on my bucket list.
Nepal is officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a country is South Asia and the world’s youngest republic. It is ordered to the north by the People’s Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Kathmandu is the nation’s capital and the country’s largest metropolitan city. Read more
My Tea Escape
It’s no secret, I love tea! I would be a bonafide TEA NUT if my place (an my funds) weren’t so small. But whenever I get a chance to I like to look up new tea reviews and articles and try new, or old favourite, types of teas. Most of my loose tea comes from on-line or catalogue orders but I do venture out once in a while to one of the only 3 places in this city that have loose tea in bulk. When I lived in Vancouver I had my favourite teas from different stores so now I sometimes have my sisters send me some or I pick some up when I visit. I can never have too much tea! So when I found out about a company that has tea parties (think Tupperware parties) I jumped at the oportunity. I quickly had my own tea party to start and am now waiting for my starter kit, I became a consultant for Steeped Loose Tea and Accesories. I’m very excited to start on this venture and to share my love of tea with others in my area (and around the world of course!), I will try to write about any interesting tea parties that I attend, especially if these parties include global tea traditions or tea treat recipes. 
I have found that tea lovers all have their favourite tea cup, tea pot and other tea accesories that they use and are quick to give their opinions on so I also have a small collection of tea accesories that have moved around with me for years. I’m always interested in how different cultures drink their tea, or what types of tea they drink. Read more
The World in Your Kitchen Calendar
I think my favourite part about ringing in a new year is choosing my new calendar. No, I don’t think, I know! Yes, there’s always the sense of “possibility” that comes with the start of new year, but for me the best way to see those possibilites is with a new calendar. I used to go a little overboard: 2 for home, 2 for work and sometimes 2 daytimers. Of course I really didn’t use them all but it was nice to look at the pictures every month. 
Now I look around for the ones that really catch my eye. This year I played it smart, I scoped out my choices before Christmas and went on Boxing day (December 26) to buy them at 50% off. So I was able to get 2 calendars for the price of one! Last year I tried going te 2nd week of January, when they were at 75% off, but all the good choices were gone. 
So… I did good this time around. I got a nice Tea calendar from Brush Fire for work and found THE BEST EVER calendar for home… it’s called “The World in Your Kitchen”.
It’s like someone read my mind! The calendar is published by New Internationalist Publications, it features a beautiful full colour illustration of a different country each month AND, the best part, a vegetarian recipe from that country.
Isn’t it pretty? The illustrator is Alana McCarthy and every single picture represents the colours and the “essence” of the country she’s depicting. I can almost feel the country from he illustration, she does and amazing job at bringing you into the culture. I absolutely adore it! AND it gives me another international recipe to try each month Yay! So, now I know that this year will definitely bring deliciousness, that’s one possibility that just became a reality!
A New Year, A New Decade
It’s now 2010! This past year felt like a short moment to me, and New Year’s Eve was like a blur. I usually get nostalgic on New Year’s, right after midnight hits. I think of times gone by and times yet to come and about all of the things I miss most. I was surprised that this year I didn’t feel like that at all, even though I didn’t have any family around me and I went out to a *gasp* bar to celebrate with friends. Maybe the reason why those nostalgic feelings didn’t come to me this year was because it didn’t really feel like New Year’s, or maybe it’s because I was too busy trying not to get pummeled to the ground by the drunk chick partying it up at the table next to us, but the point is that I felt “normal”. It’s a new year, and a start of a new decade people! And I feel optimistic. I don’t make resolutions anymore but I make life choices… I want to cook more and write more, I want to dance it up as much as I can and learn new dances, I want to meet new people, hopefully meet that special someone as well, I want to study yoga, maybe even teach it someday. In a nutshell… I want to LIVE! I don’t want to be stuck in the what ifs and the what-could-have-beens. I want to be alive, and that’s what I inted to do. Read more
