Thai delights

I love, love, love, love Thai food! I am not joking when I say that I could eat at a Thai restaurant every day, twice a day. I'd eat Thai food for breakfast, if they were open then!

I've been less busy at work the last few weeks, so have been indulging myself by going out for lavish Thai lunches! 

Here are some of the mouthwatering treats I have enjoyed: 

Combo plate - Talay Thai on Bank St. Red curry, mango salad, chicken stir fry, spring roll! 

Pad thai at my very favourite Thai restaurant - Sukhothai in Bells Corners. Lovely service, delicious food. For lunch they also serve a small bowl of vegetable soup. It is like an embrace - soothing and healthy. 

Combo plate at Chez le Thai in Gatineau - green curry, stir fried noodles (with a delicious wok hei aroma), and 2 spring rolls. 

Stir fried noodles at Talay Thai - Pad kee maow. 

Shrimp stir fry at Talay Thai - tasty, but not quite as dreamy as some of their other dishes. And those dried chilies added no heat at all! Cute mould for the rice, though.

Lovely art on the walls at Talay Thai!

One reason I eat out at Thai restaurants so often is because I just can't reproduce the flavours at home. Good Thai cooking requires a seasoned wok that can get really, really hot. That requires a gas stove. I don't have a gas stove, so every Thai recipe I make is just a pale approximation of the restaurant stuff.

And, I must say, I am sure that there is some secret ingredient that Thai restaurants use...some ingredient deliberately left out of every Thai recipe on the internet and in print!

I think I may now know what it is...

The secret ingredient?

Any problem you have, any vexing question, any hobby, you can just turn to social media! I recently joined a Facebook group called 'Authentic Thai Cooking'. Now, the question of 'authenticity' is questioned by foodies (can any food be truly authentic? And if not, who cares?!), but the group has been really interesting, and I've learned a few tips. One member posted a photo of this sauce and I wondered if it was the secret ingredient I've been missing all these years... 

I've heard about it before, and searched for it at local Chinese grocery stores (Kowloon, T&T, etc), but never found it. This time, I hustled over to Amazon.com and ordered it. It was pricey - $15! - but that's less than a combo plate at Talay Thai! (for the record, the combo plate at Chez the Thai was the most expensive, and also the smallest - ahem!).

The sauce came asap, so I bought me some chicken breast and prepared a stir fry! Well, I didn't have any chilies or basil, but I still tried to make an approximation of chili-basil chicken. How did it come out? Well, I used too much chicken stock, so it came out far too salty, but I could detect a hint of that amazing aroma that I get at Thai restaurants. I'll experiment with proportions, but I may be on the way! 

Mī khwām s̄uk̄h kạb kār kin! 

Scandinavian Christmas party

Yes, it's been six years. But you won't hold that against me, right? 

Alrighty then, on to the post - let's talk about Christmas parties!

 

Christmas is a time to savour delicious treats and special flavours. I also take this time to try out new foods from different cultures. For the last few years (prior to the pandemic) I have hosted Christmas parties with different themes: Italian, Scottish, Greek, and, in 2019, Scandinavian! 

 

To prepare for the Scandinavian party, I researched the food and culture of Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. While each are distinct in important ways, there are also commonalities of flavour and ingredients. Chief among these is, of course, fish and shellfish - pickled and smoked, and various meats. I also associate pickled vegetables, cheeses, creamy sauces, and hearty breads with Scandinavian cuisine.

 

Then it was time to get eating! I went to the Danish Christmas Bazaar at the Ron Kolbus Centre in November 2019, and savoured delicious open face sandwiches, sweet breads and cookies. To my delight, at the white elephant sale I was able to buy vintage Danish tablecloths, a wall hanging map of the country, a wooden Danish flag, and children’s boardgames. 

                                                                Gaze upon the noble moose...and that fish mould!

Next it was time to visit that icon of Swedish food – Ikea! There I bought gingersnap cookies in a pretty red and white tin, candies, kalles fish caviar, lingonberry jam, and crackers.

I go all out for my parties, so I redecorated my dining room with Scandinavian themes. At Home Sense I picked up a large, framed photo print of a moose in a winter scene. How iconic! I also bought stark white branches, and put them in a tall, galvanized steel vase, for that minimalist Scandi style. The Danish flag is red and white, so I hung red and white streamers and put up red and white balloons. For the children, I printed colouring pages with a map of Denmark, and images of Danish kids in traditional costumes. I also bought red felt and ribbons, so they could make a heart shaped craft. That was a little tricky, but the kids had fun.

                                Can't have too many sweets...or too many caribou!

When planning the food, a key challenge facing me was how to prepare a party spread with vegetarian foods. Most of my friends are vegetarian and Indo-Canadian, so I had to modify several foods, so they were vegetarian but still featured Scandinavian flavours. Pickled vegetables, bread, cheese and crackers were easy, but how to capture the other rich and robust flavours of the region? Happily, Ikea now produces vegetarian balls, so I picked those up. I associate caraway with Scandinavian cuisine, so I also made a beet salad with sour cream and caraway seeds. It looked very pretty, all pink and creamy, in a round white dish. 

But of course, I had to have fish! I had a shrimp ring, and, for the centrepiece of the table, made a large salmon and dill mousse, in a fish-shaped mould. Smoked salmon on potato patties, and slices of cooked sausage, rounded out the non-vegetarian items. 

It's nice to have finger foods, but I also like to serve a hearty dinner during the party. Again, this had to be vegetarian, so no meat stew! Instead, I fried up fennel, onions, potatoes, parsnips, and white beans, to make a vegetarian stew. I added red pepper strips for colour and, because my friends are Indian, it had to be flavourful! I put in lots of smoked paprika, pepper and, again, caraway seeds for that distinctive flavour. I served this with brown rice for a satisfying but simple dinner that was easy to eat while mingling and chatting.

What to drink? Glogg of course! When guests arrived, they were treated to the fragrant smell of red wine, cinnamon and cloves simmering in a crock pot. I couldn’t find Aquavit, but a friend showed up with a bottle. We toasted the holidays, the beauty and flavours of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway! 

An Italian Dinner

There have been major developments in Ms. Foodie's life, the main one being moving to a house. A big house! This is great in so many ways - mainly that now I can indulge my little heart in doing lots of entertaining. I quickly discovered, however, that lots of entertaining means...lots of cleaning up, cooking, shopping, and then cleaning up afterwards! Oh well, it's worth it! Accordingly, let me present the first of my long dreamed-of entertainments - an Italian dinner al fresco!

The long table was set. I have been reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, a wonderful book set in Italy that is nothing like the movie. In the movie, the romance is between two people - in the book, it is a three-way love affair between Mayes, her boyfriend, and a 200-year old villa. And what a passionate affair it is! I am so glad that Mayes renovated the villa, because now I never have to - like any love affair, it sounds exhausting!

She set up her long table under a linden tree. I have no linden tree, but thought this looked charming too.

This photo shows the magic of the whole affair rather better - I put up palm trees all around the lovely big patio, and a Moroccan carpet in the gazebo. I fancy it gives the whole place an exotic feel - all in the suburbs of Ottawa!

All well and good, but what did we eat?? Well, I went simple - a store-bought seafood lasagna, baguette, asparagus, and mussels in white wine and garlic. Simple and yum. The appetizers featured smoked salmon, so we truly ate the ocean that night.

Dining alfresco was so lovely. Truly, Italians do it better! 

Buon proveccio! 

More cake!

What, you want even more cake?

Well, all right.

My children's school had a carnival lately, and there was a silent cake auction! We had glorious plans of making a mermaid-themed cake, complete with an island and pirate ship. The children argued over it for quite some time. In the end, it remained just a beautiful dream. Oh well. At least I donated some books (with underlining - eek!)

I did, however, head over to the carnival with a fist full of money, ready to spend!

First priority, of course, was COTTON CANDY!

Heheh, no. Sorry kids, the line up was too long. First priority was the book sale! I got lots of great books and some fun toys.

After that it was on to the bake sale! I ogled the cakes in the silent auction:

I love these parents! So colourful and inventive! 

Last year there was a "dirt cake", complete with gummy worms!

My favourite was this purple flower sparkle cake. So beautiful!  

Beside it is a basketball cake!

Shopkins cake - adorable! (but is her face supposed to be SO squished?)

Ah, lovely, lovely cakes. I bid on a few but, alas, was outbid. I suppose it's okay, as I had no party planned, and getting through a cake on our own would have been a bit of a chore. (Silent auction cakes look good, but invariably are made with hydrogenated oil frosting, which has less charm than people seem to think).

I did, however, get some Chinese turkey dumplings and an ice cream cone cupcake. 

And, later on, the kids did get their cotton candy (phewf!)

Keep on munching! 

Cassata

In India, cassata is a layered ice cream treat with fruit and even nuts. This is all I ever knew of cassata - a cool treat on a hot day.

One day, reminiscing about cassata on Facebook, an Indian friend said that this was her favourite treat. So, of course, I had to get one for her! But when I googled it, lo and behold, I discovered that it is actually, and also, an Italian cake! Who knew? And not just any cake, it is a gorgeous cake! Green marzipan fancifully decorated with candied fruit, swirls and whirls of frosting.

The interior sounded a little less enticing - ricotta cheese! Well, you know I have to try anything new I hear about, so a-cassataing I went!

My first attempt, of course, involved Pasticceria Gelateria, the famed Ottawa Italian bakery. I am not overly fond of their treats; the last few times I went there the pastries were a bit....ahem, stale! But if I ordered a cake fresh, surely it would be okay. So I ordered a cassata cake for my birthday party (which my friend was attending). On a hot July day I headed over to Preston St. to pick it up. But what to my horrified eyes should appear but an ice cream cake coated in chocolate!

"What is this?" I asked.

"Cassata".

"But this isn't what I wanted! It's supposed to be green, with fruit and frosting!

"Oh no, that's a cassata Siciliana. This is a cassata Milanese!"

There is more than one kind of cassata! Who knew?

Fortunately, they were willing to keep the cake and sell it to someone else who knew what she was looking for! I headed off to my trusty Swiss Pastries and got an "Elegant Black Forest Cake". So don't cry for me, friends, because Ms. Foodie always gets her cake!

Recently, for mother's day, I decided to try again. I had actually called Pasticceria Gelateria to ask if they sold torta della nonna, a mouthwatering-sounding Tuscan pie that I had read about in a Frances Mayes book (yes, I am on an Italian kick lately). It occurred to me that I should ask about cassata Siciliana again.

"Yes, we can make it."

"With green marzipan and candied fruits? Very fancy?"

"Yes."

I sent them the photos of the fancy cakes I had seen. No, they wouldn't make it that way. They had one style of cassata Siciliana, and that's what I was going to get. Could they at least use the shiny maraschino cherries, I asked? Yes, they could do that.

Ooh, now this was exciting. I decided to order it. After all, mama deserves the best on Mother's day!

My first cassata Siciliana, shiny cherries and all

And how did it taste? Umm..not bad! The cake was moist and very, very fresh. The ricotta filling was sweet but not too sweet. My husband said it reminded him of cakes in India, which I think is a compliment. 

I found it a little bland, to be honest. The marzipan didn't have the rich almondy flavour of the Marzipan Bombe cake at Swiss Pastries (my very favourite) and the moist layers, while very pleasing, lacked something. The following day (okay, for breakfast, if you must ask) I ate another piece with some of the candied ginger. That gave it more of a punch. I think nuts and candied fruit in the layers would augment the flavours. 

Luscious layers of ricotta and cake

So there you go! My cassata cravings were answered, but that was just the beginning of my cassata adventure. Someday I will try making it myself, and will add in orange blossom water, candied fruits, nuts...all the flavours of Southern Italy!

Buon proveccio! 

Pool party

Well, summer is winding down (boo hoo!) but we sure have made use of our building's pool! We hosted a few parties, and I invariably went all out and made a heap of delectable food. Alas, this meant less time lounging by the pool in the beautiful, beautiful sun (yes, I was irked). But, food by the pool! I do love to eat food by the pool, and somehow this summer was all about Korean noodles and meat kebabs by the pool.

A caveat, I don't have a bbq, and cooking kebabs in the oven is tricky. So often my kebabs were overbaked and dry. Sniff. Oh well, they still tasted good - I just doused more sauce on them! And the Korean noodles (chapchae), once I figured out that I just had to use LOTS and LOTS of soy sauce (oh the sodium of them!) were sublime! Check them out:

To make chapchae you need sweet potato starch noodles - beautiful slippery glass noodles with a hint of chew. Sublime! To date, I have only been able to find them at the Loblaws at College Square. I am sure T & T Asian Superstore also has them! Here is the recipe I used: http://rasamalaysia.com/japchae-chap-chae-recipe/  Very easy, especially if you buy carrots that are already julienned (no, I don't own a fancy slicer that would do it for me, alas).

The other vital part of the dish is....shiitake mushrooms! Oh, how I do love thee, shiitake mushrooms! Chewy, exotic tasting (to my Western palate) and delightfully furled, I have been using them with stellar results in various East Asian dishes over the last few weeks. How have I lived so much of my life without shiitake mushrooms? And, I am also enjoying the chance to use up a full packet of spinach all at once. I frequently buy the healthful green, only to have it quietly rot away on me. No more, I will chapchae it all!

And, of course, we can't forget about dessert! The very easy and much beloved treat from my childhood - Busy Day Lemon Cheesecake!! My mother made it often and I always loved its light, lemony taste. This one was artfully decorated with local raspberries by my 4-yr old daughter.

The ultra simple recipe can be found here: http://clickamericana.com/eras/1950s/busy-day-lemon-cheesecake-1959

But do just make the graham cracker crust yourself, eh? Also super easy and tastes much fresher than premade.

Oh, you want to see a photo of my pool? Of course!

Happy Sunday!

Swedish delights

So I've been thinking about Sweden lately. Why? Well, because Ottawa and Sweden have one big thing in common - long, cold, dark, winters. And did I mention they are cold? My husband hates this aspect of Ottawa, so I have been prognosticating about how to improve winter for him. One way, clearly (could you guess?) is through food! Thinking about winter I naturally started wondering how Swedish people cope; they have longer hours of darkness than us, and their winter is long and cold. So I googled "Swedish food" and came up with this brilliant site: https://sweden.se/collection/classic-swedish-food/

Now the first thing that came to mind is, of course, fish! I must cook fish for my husband during the long, cold winter! Healthy fats, raise the spirit, etc. So I will herring away. I don't personally like pickled herring (though my mother does) but I will try. The fish dish on this page that does make me drool is "Jansson's Temptation". I need to get my hands on some Swedish anchovies! I have a lead - the Russian store on Carling (bien sur!).

The other thing that I thought of was, of course, meatballs!! I don't eat meatballs outside of the home as they are invariably made with beef (boo, Ikea!) but I can of course make them at home with any meat I like. So, a pound of pork and a container of sour cream and I was ready to go! Here is a photo of my delectable creation:

Swedish meatballs in cream sauce (I got the recipe from here: http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/21/swedish-meatballs/), mashed potatoes, leftover broccoli, and sliced cucumbers in a vinegar dill dressing. Droolicious!

Next up? Raggmunk! (no, it does not involve cute little nut-eating rodents - just some shredded potatoes and a heap of lingonberries!)

Keep on munching! 

Happy Mother's Day!

A beautiful little lemon and buttercream cake from the Loblaws on Richmond Rd. Bought by me and consumed by me! (I was pregannt, so it's allowed!) However, I still have the pounds from this and other delectable treats around my middle. Oh well!

Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful mothers out there! And you are ALL beautiful!

xoxo

A Healthy Breakfast

Have spent the last two years on a blissful maternity/parental leave. Each day my main concern in life was feeding, clothing, and brushing teeth for two sweet little kiddies. Well, not so sweet when I had to brush their teeth! Ugh!

Anyway, I love cold cereal with milk, fruit and tea for breakfast. My son (4.5) likes cereal and milk (Mini Wheats are good - he insists on arranging them all so the frosted side is up and gets very angry when they flip over). My daughter (22 months) isn't interested in cereal and likes boiled eggs, bananas, rice..savoury things mostly! Walnuts are to sharpen their little brains!

A good start to the day!

Hi world! Are you still out there? I am - just been a little busy with life, babies, university courses, daffodils, and the like. Just to show that I do still care about you, am posting an image. Not as interesting as other ones, but still notable as it's made of convenience items I bought on Carling Ave. Mattar paneer made with ready made tikka masala sauce from Loblaws, rice pilaf (raisins and pistachios from Damas, recipe from the Bayshore community kitchen), and chicken curry (curry powder from Vaishali). Beautiful tablecloth is from India, given to me by my cousin. I had friends over to dinner.

Now back to work!

Plantains

Produce Depot at Carling and Maitland is my new favourite store. I find that when I shop there, I buy less processed food (because there is less of it available, évidemment!). Furthermore, because there is so much gorgeous produce to gorge upon, I tend to buy more fruits and vegetables than when I am at Loblaws (supermarket chain). This plethora of fruits and vegetables means I am forced to cook "from scratch", which is healthier, and cheaper. Wonderful!

As I mentioned in a previous post, they also have lots of exotic fruits and vegetables to titillate my thrill seeking palate. On a recent foray, I came upon some exciting looking "Hawaiian Plantains". Now, they often have plantains, green, deep yellow and even blackish ones, but somehow they never pushed my buttons. But the shape of these Hawaiian ones was so unusual that I had to try them. The shape reminds me of banana blossoms, which is something else I want to try cooking sometime soon.

These plantains were a nice yellow colour, which meant they were ripe for cooking. Further research on the internet suggested waiting until they got really black, as then they are even tastier, but I wanted to cook up my Hawaiian plantains ASAP. I have a (somewhat warranted) reputation for letting produce rot in my household (at least, so my husband claims), and that charge is doubled when it is something exotic I haven't cooked before. I bought these on a Saturday so, the very next day, I readied my apron and my pans for a cooking spree.

I haven't eaten plantains often - just twice in fact! The first time was at university, when a fellow student from Jamaica made them at her home. The next time was at Yre's Exotic Chicken BBQ on Charlotte St, just off Rideau (another major street in Ottawa). Both times the plantains were deep fried oily, sticky and sweet. So I decided my plantains had to be the same. Plantains are the usual accompaniment to African and Caribbean foods like jerk chicken and other grilled meats. It may seem odd to have a sweet side dish for these foods, but somehow the flavour combination works, and is eminently delicious.

I googled a few plantain recipes, and decided to fry mine in a little more oil than I usually use, then to douse them in honey. They got all soft and goldeny. With the honey they got sweet and gooey, with a bit of a caramelized crust. Tasted incredible out of the pan. Had to exercise immense self control not to eat all of them before dinner was ready.

After this I made Chinese fried rice, then lamb meatballs. Had some chili-garlic sauce as an accompaniment. Was nervous the flavours of these eclectic items wouldn't go well together, but my husband liked it and enthusiastically dug in.

Later, he declared that he doesn't like fruit that has "had things done to it" and, after a few pieces of plantain, wouldn't eat any more. I pointed out that plantains are not eaten like a fruit, but as a starch. I didn't protest too strongly, though, as I was more than happy to appropriate his plantains. My kid didn't like them either, which made me sad. But hey, that meant more plantains for me! Yum!!

Hot Dog

It's springtime at Carling Avenue, and you know what that means - hot dogs!

Yes! For me, summer and hot dogs are inextricably linked. And back in April we had some really hot, sunny weather that it made my mouth water for a hot dog! I don't know where this craving came from - growing up we didn't eat hot dogs too often, and never from those enticing street carts (mystery meat doesn't go over well with Hindus); all I can say is that when the weather reaches a certain pitch, and the sun is at its zenith, I'm quite delighted if I can dig up some weiners, a bun, and some not-too-aged relish. Then I sit on the balcony, the sun in my face, and dig in.

I'm a mustard and relish kind of gal. I need ketchup, bien sur, but there must be lots of mustard and relish. Over the years I've perfected the art of distributing the ketchup, mustard and relish so that I get a bit of each condiment in every juicy bite.

My meal, above, is notable not just for its condiment perfection, but also for being entirely gleaned from the shops around Carling Avenue! The vegetarian hot dog, bun, salad fixings and fruit (papaya and kiwi) are from Produce Depot (my new favourite store), and the soda is from Shopper's Drug Mart. It looked quite enticing - "European Soda frizzante", flavoured with blood oranges. Who could resist? Alas, it tasted just like Orange Crush, albeit a bit less sugary.

No matter, it tasted just right with the hot dog, the accompanying fruits and vegetables made me feel virtuous, and with the warm sun on my face, it made for the perfect early summer meal.

Easter

The egg-stra special Easter egg hunt!

Now, as I mentioned in my last post, I find Easter to be a fairly stressful holiday. Easter dinner requires cleaning up, lots of cooking, etc etc. So this year I vowed it would be low stress. No hosting dinner - we'd go out to a restaurant with my mother. And no Easter egg hunt for my son, as he would then be nagging me for chocolate for weeks afterwards (this is what happened after Valentine's Day!)

But...but...as the stores filled up with candy, and I recovered from my V-day chocolate rush, I couldn't help but be tempted by those cute little choco eggs and bunnies. And it would be so much fun to have an Easter egg with my son...and some other little kiddies...and to make a party out of it...in our party room (so I didn't have to clean up the apartment!).

And then another thing - the Thursday before Easter my husband and I went for a dee-licious gourmet meal at Burger King with our son. Sounds guaranteed to be fun, right? Um, well, no. My little son, who usually loves french fries and soda, decided he wasn't interested in eating food, and instead amused himself climbing over the benches and tables. Perilous and eminently unsuitable for a restaurant. So my husband declared "no restaurant for Easter dinner!" Hmm...this put a wrench in my Easter dinner plans.

And then I came across a recipe for lamb. Leg of lamb! And then one for some tasty looking soup made out of leeks and young turnips. Now, I've never cooked leg of lamb before, but that's never stopped me from trying something fancy, so I decided, not only to host an Easter egg party, but to also host Easter dinner!

I don't recommend to other pregnant women that they try this.

Anyway, the Easter egg party was loads of fun (and loads of work!). The weather was warm and sunny that day so we had the egg hunt on the rooftop. My friend sent me photos and labelled it "The Sky High Easter Egg Hunt." So cute!

The spread for the Easter egg party - teacakes, mini samosas, crudités, hummus...

Easter dinner was also fun, though I hated having to clean up and cook food! (my husband did most of the cleaning, though). I made simple dishes: turnip and leek soup, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, leg of lamb, and crème caramel for dessert, but it was a lot of work!

The lovely crème caramel, garnished with cape gooseberries

But having Easter dinner at home, with my mother and a good friend, was more special than going out to a restaurant. And then I had lovely leftovers for several days!

Hope your Easter was egg-stra special too!

Shopping notes: the mini samosas, baklava, hummus and pita bread were bought from Damas Grocery on Carling Ave. (on Good Friday, no less, when all the other shops were closed. Another benefit of living in a multicultural society!). Damas also saved my crème caramel on Easter Sunday, when I ran out of sugar! I bought soda and candy for the party at Rexall Drugs on Carling Ave. (also, inexplicably, open on Good Friday).

The young turnips, leeks, asparagus and cape gooseberries were from Produce Depot on Carling Ave, while the lamb, juicy and tender, was from the Butchery in Bells Corners. The choco eggs, chicks and bunnies were from Dollarama (I love that place!), also in Bells Corners. Shopping for Easter food is fun!

Valentine's day

Well, my favourite holiday has come and gone and, as you can see, I celebrated it in style! Yes, as I have previously mentioned, I love pink, and Valentine's day is the best time to celebrate pink - in all its gooey, fluffy, plush & tinselled glory. Plus it's also about chocolate, and flowers, and cards covered with little hearts...I love it all!

I especially like Valentine's day because, unlike other holidays, there's no pressure. If you want to go all out with candy, flowers, a romantic dinner, expensive jewelry, etc, you can. But if you just want to grab a box of cheap chocos on the way home from work and order a pizza with your loved one, that's all right too. And if you want to fall in line with the legions of Valentine's haters and be mean to everyone that day, nobody will begrudge you that right (as long as you give them some Easter eggs later, to make up for it!).

This is in sharp contrast to holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter where one has to get together with family, clean the house, produce a big meal, observe piles of traditions, play nice, etc, etc. Now that's work!

So as you can tell, I'm a big fan of Valentine's day.

This year I started my Valentine's day preparations early. This was in part because Valentine's stuff started seeping into the shops around mid-January, just as the tired Christmas merchandise was being slashed to half-price, and in part because my son is in daycare and I wanted him to have Valentines to hand out to his little cohorts. It would have been horrifying to me had he received Valentines, with none to hand back (yes, you can see Valentine's is important to me!).

I wanted (somewhat) non gendered Valentines, so I passed over the superhero and the fairy ones, and instead got some Disney themed ones with cars, fish, and mice on them. Then, at Loblaws on Richmond Rd, I got a box of little cherry créme hearts covered in pink foil (they had to be pink!). I taped these to the Valentines. So cute! My son got a fair share of them to gobble, too. On Valentine's Day I used them to decorate the table, to delightful effect, I think.

A table full of pink prettiness

My next stop, and where I really went crazy on the chocos, was at Carlingwood Mall. This nondescript mall, smack dab on Carling Ave, is populated mostly by senior citizens (you really have to watch them in the parking lot!). They like to wander around and smile at people's babies. There's even a senior's mall walking club! When I was fifteen I worked there in a shoe store and would sell the ugliest (but expensive!) orthopaedic shoes to them.

Now I go there to drool over the most delectable, scrumptious, prettiest cakes in Ottawa - at Swiss Pastries! This store, "Home of the original Black Forest Cake" is iconic for me. Growing up, we would always get a Black Forest Cake for family birthdays. A future post will dwell on this wonderful store at greater length...for now suffice it to say that, after three consecutive parties where I was forced to eat cheap, hydrogenated oil icing cakes, I was desperate for some good cake! So I went to Swiss Pastries looking for a small Black Forest Cake to enjoy for the pre-Valentine's day weekend. Well, they only had a medium sized one so...

But at least it was 10% off!

With the money I saved (a full $2.30) I decided to buy some of the beautiful European chocolates they also had for sale. Well, $40 later I had a box of Mirabell Mozart praliné chocolate balls from Austria, Heidel Praline hearts from Germany, and pink multicolour Maison Pécou chocolate hearts from France (my son picked these out - it was none of my doing!) So droolworthy...

The Heidel chocos actually touched a chord with me, because I bought one of their plain chocolate bars in Frankfurt airport when I was on my way to India. It was tasty, so I wanted to see how their pralines were too. That's a good reason to buy something, right?

And as for that cute little mousey you see in the photo below...well, a few days later, I found myself at Café Délice on Kent St., in downtown Ottawa, where they sell the most delicious Leonidas Belgian chocolates (gee, how'd I manage to wander in here??). While blissing out on some of their fresh cream filled pralines, I fell in love with this little mouse lollipop for my son. I was sure that when I gave it to him he'd say "oooh, t'ank you!" in that adorable little voice of his (he more or less did).


What else would make a Valentine's day smorgasbord complete? A plush toy, of course, and a bottle of bubbly!

But this bubbly, unlike what most enjoy on Valentine's day, was non-alcoholic. Can any of you guess why? That's right, Ms. Foodie is pregnant! Yay!

So that's why I've been AWOL for such a long time on this blog. The exigencies of work, combined with the inability to stay awake past 9:30 pm, have all combined to make blog writing impossible (I used to do all my blog writing late at night, after my son fell asleep).

So in the short term, blog posts will be like hen's teeth for you, my dear readers. But stay faithful and check back every now and then. In a few short months I'll be off work and I can resume both my foodie ramblings and my food shop forays.

Hooray for babies!!

(and hope you had a fun Valentine's day too!)

xoxo Ms. Foodie (plus one)

Pesto

The Produce Depot on Carling Avenue (near Maitland) is a fabulous place. When you walk in you can just inhale all the fresh fruits and vegetables, waiting limpidly to be picked up by the diverse peoples walking around inside. And by diverse, I mean really diverse - Chinese folk picking over the bok choy with hawk eyes, Indian grannies selecting the finest methi leaves (fenugreek), and Eastern European couples with big-eyed babies picking out green peppers and eggplants. Different languages and accents speckle the air as everybody comes to buy the freshest, cheapest produce this side of Bronson Ave.

I really do think that immigrants are more attracted to this place than to big box stores like Loblaws, which purport to offer everything, but have limp zucchini and tired strawberries. Places like Produce Depot are more like the way one buys fruits and vegetables back home - fresh, fresh, fresh.

How fresh? Well, when I was in India this August, each morning vegetable sellers would bring their carts up and down the street, selling their just-picked wares. My mother in law tells me that many people insist on buying new vegetables each day and refuse to eat anything that has been stored in the fridge for a few days. "They don't like to eat "stale" vegetables," she said.

Oh boy, let's hope they never get a look at the withered specimens in the vegetable bin of my fridge!

Here in the West we have fewer compunctions about this kind of thing. "Convenience", a lack of greengrocers in close proximity to our houses, and our busy, busy schedules mean that most of us buy groceries once a week. And if we manage to use up the lettuce before it rots, we give ourselves a collective pat on the back (at least I do).

Okay, so that's the appeal of Produce Depot. Now what about the pesto I've got up there in the photo? Right, I'm getting to that.

So I was wandering around Produce Depot one day, ogling the wares, and trying to decide if I should buy lychees, rambutans, or longans in addition to the Cape gooseberries, Chilean cherries, and figs that I had in my cart (that's another reason I love this place - exotic fruit!). I passed by the fresh herbs cooler (dill, methi, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms...and a whole buncha other stuff I couldn't identify) when my eye fell upon the pretty pesto pack you see pictured above. Now, my son loves pesto pasta, so I often buy the bottled kind (being too lazy to make my own). But here was fresh pesto (oh boy, I should have labelled this post "Fresh") and it was "tradizionel"! I had to try it.

A few days later (as my longans slowly went stale in the fridge) I pulled out the pesto and added it to some boiled shell pasta. Some boiled broccoli for colour, some sautéed shrimps for protein, and voila - quasi-tradizionel pesto pasta!

This is a classic recipe I have devised on my own, with no help from anybody (except a nameless website which had a long and complicated recipe that inspired this one, but was actually no good at all).

Like a closer look?

Yummy...now go check out Produce Depot and say hi to the chayotes for me.

Happy munching!

Lunch box

Now here's something you don't see every day - a stylish pink lunch box! Building on the pink theme of my previous post (I must be getting excited for Valentine's Day!) I now present "Exhibit B" - a zippered lunch box, adorned with florid pink blossoms, enclosing an assortment of inventive pink food containers. Brilliant!

For my birthday this summer, a friend gave me a gift certificate to Chapters bookstore. Looking to spend it one summer day, I visited the Chapters at Pinecrest (which intersects with Carling Ave!). I planned to buy something for my son (virtuous mother that I am), but instead my eye bespied this cute bag.

This delightful invention goes by the moniker of "Laptop Lunches" (their website can be found here ). The point of the Laptop Lunch is to reduce garbage resulting from packed/bought lunches. Think about it - little plastic baggies, plastic wrap, paper napkins, plastic yoghurt cups, spoons, etc - and that's just from a packed lunch! And then consider the garbage associated with bought fast food lunches: styrofoam containers, glass/plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, paper bags and wrap...the list just goes on and on. And so, in my sporadic attempt to be a responsible consumer, I decided to try this fancy lunch box (okay, I wanted to show off at work too!).

Why "Laptop" lunch? Well, that comes from the nifty zippered case. It's insulated, has a rubber label (in the shape a flower, naturally) and a carrying strap, so it looks like a slim computer carrying case.

Check it out packed with food, in all its glory:

A gourmet summer's lunch: vegetable briyani, salad with yellow tomatoes, watermelon cubes, apple compote. Lucky me!

It was pricey - $45 - but I rationalized it by thinking of all the money I'd save by not buying my lunch (I can rationalize buying anything, especially if it's pink!). Plus, by packing lots of fruits and vegetables in, I'd lose weight and become so healthy!

Uh, well, that last bit didn't happen, and I do keep buying lunches often, so the first bit didn't exactly either, but I'm sure I made my lunch a few more times than I would have ordinarily, so I'm sure I've got my money back, at least.

Plus it's so cute!

Salt

No, this isn't an entry about Angelina's new movie, which apparently just wrapped up filming in New York. This is about that much more plebeian substance, essential for life, overused in food processing, and elevated to an art by the Victoria Gourmet company of Woburn, Massachusetts. What did Woburn ever contribute to fine dining? Well, this salt apparently!

Sourced from the Murry River, "fed by the Australian Alps,", I must say this is the first pink salt I have ever seen! I love pink in all forms (mainly clothes and cupcakes) but never thought I'd be able to enjoy my predilection for pink via a jar of salt. Wrong!

I came across this pretty morsel at Winner's, a high end discount clothing store that sells gourmet odds and ends as well. "Finishing salt" I mused, when I saw it. I didn't know what that meant, but one can always use salt (the same can't be said for some of my other foodie finds) and it was, after all, pink, so I felt I couldn't go wrong.

Well, I was right!

The stuff can't be used the same as regular salt. No, it really is best sprinkled on foods, for a "subtle, fleeting crunch" as the label boasts. My favourite way to use it is on pan-fried Rainbow trout (from Loblaws on Richmond Rd, which intersects with Carling Ave, so there's the tie in to my blog's theme!). The tender flesh of the trout, the "subtle fleeting crunch" of the salt, offset by some meaty mushrooms in the rice pilaf and a few juicy asparagus spears...mm, there's a lunch worthy of a queen. Victoria would be proud!

Idlis

Yes, it's true - I am a recalcitrant blogger. It's been ages since I last wrote, but I can assure you I have been thinking lots about posting. So, on that vein, here are the pics I've been wanting to post for months!

Here we have some banana leaf plates - the usual thing used for a plate in South India. Following the lavish wedding in Bangalore, we had a "Homa Puja" at my inlaw's house in Mysore. I was, of course, most interested in breakfast; meals are a perpetual worry for me when travelling, as mealtimes rarely coincide with the rumblings of my tummy. I usually carry a surfeit of granola bars, but on this trip, for some reason, they eluded me (once I was back in Canada I found a stash of them, carefully placed in the outer pocket of one of the suitcases - I could have sworn I looked everywhere!)

The meal was catered - here is a photo of the caterer.

What, you expected him to wear a tuxedo and carry a little white towel? This is India, people! A Brahmin priest, he was quite bemused to have me taking his photo.

The idlis were tasty...but everytime I bit into one, ravenous, my husband called me back to the puja....sigh.

Scrumptious halvah finished off my hasty meal.

Lunch, served later in the day, was lavish. I, however, had to gulp it down too, as we had to get ready for our trip back to Bangalore. So much lovely food - so very little time!

Bananas

The best thing about visiting a tropical country? Tropical fruit, of course! On this trip I had, alas, missed the peak of the mango season, but there were still plenty of fruits available for me to savour.

One of my favourites is tiny bananas. I am sure there is some proper name for them, and one of these days I will find out what it is, but until then I will call the cute things "tiny bananas" cuz that's what they are.

Tiny bananas are quite unlike the large bananas we get in the grocery store back home. the flavour is tangy and the texture denser. Because they're small, I need to eat 3 or 4 to get my fill and feel like I've properly "had a banana". Luckily they come in big bunches so that's not hard to do.

If you want to try them in Ottawa, visit Sree Fresh Grocery near Carling (of course!) or Thana Grocers on Bank St. Both are Sri Lankan groceries and carry fruit imported from India.

Note the mehndi on my hand - this is left over from the wedding, as is the bouquet of flowers

Back here in Bangalore we are staying with my husband's aunt. She has a sizeable retinue of servants so, one morning when we were out of bananas, I had my husband ask the servant to go get some more. For some reason my husband gave him 100 rupees (about $2.50 Cdn, a sizeable sum) which was far more than the bananas were likely to cost. I thought the servant might make off with the change so I urged my husband to give him a smaller bill. However, he brushed me off.

As I expected, things did go wrong, but not quite in the direction I had anticipated: the servant, honest soul that he was, did use the money for its intended purpose, buying about two kilograms of bananas! Now, much as I love bananas, that's more than even I could eat. Plus, we were leaving that night for Hyderabad. But I guess somehow the bananas got eaten, as when we came back there were only two withered specimens left.

That reminds me, I'm hungry...time for dinner and a post dinnertime banana snack!