Gourmet Chocolate Bars

I first came upon Vosges chocolate bars when I was in search of the Bacon Bar. Yes... it is what it sounds like -- a chocolate bar with bits of bacon sprinkled throughout. Some of you may think it is gross, but everyone who has tried thinks, "yum!". If you think about how good pancakes, syrup and bacon taste then you may be able to imagine the goodness that is the Bacon Bar.

Apparently they sell Vosges at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as one of my old professors likes to call it), but I found them at the same gourmet store in Copley, Gourmet Boutique, that I found the elusive Haribou Fruity Smarties at.

On a repeat visit I tried the following two bars:



Woolloomooloo Bar - Roasted and Salted Macadamia Nuts, Indonesia Coconut, Hemp Seeds,
Deep Milk Chocolate
I had a hard time tasting the hemp seeds, although I'm not sure what a hemp seed would taste like other than crunchy.



Barcelona Bar - Hickory Smoked Almonds, Grey Sea Salt and Deep Milk Chocolate
Of the two, I enjoyed this one much more. There is something about the taste of chocolate with a little hint of salt that brings out the flavour. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the bacon one so much.

At nearly 8 bucks a bar, it is a pretty pricey treat, but I definitely think the Bacon Bar is worth trying for the taste and for the novelty value.

Momma's Banh Xeo

Being up in North Bay, Ontario there isn't really much choice in terms of Vietnamese food (or many other types of ethnic food for that matter). Usually when I visit my brother there, my parents will bring various ingredients from Ottawa as there is a decent sized Chinatown there with lots of Asian grocery stores.

My inability to cook using measurements is both nature and nuture. Many will find this post frustrating for the low reproducibility of this dish known as the Vietnamese pancake or Vietnamese fajitas to some.

You can buy the packages of flour base for Banh Xeo that has some unfortunate "Engrish" instructions that may make things confusing for you... "one bowl of coconut milk"?! In case the print is too small for you to read (if you click on it you'll get the bigger version), you are also supposed to add 3 cups of water, some chopped green onions and a small packet of turmeric.



Once you're done the mixing it should look something like this.



We also cooked some mung beans for the filling and some other goodies for the filling too. The meat is usually shrimp and pork, but the only pork regionally available that day was about half a pig's worth so that was omitted.





Then you heat up a frying pan. My mom uses a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil to grease the bottom. Ladle in one spoonful of the batter and cook until crispy and a bit browned on the bottom.

You also need lots of greenery (cukes, lettuce, basil, mint), some carrots and some fish sauce for dipping. Fill, fold, eat and enjoy!

Fancy pants dining in Toronto - Fuzion

I was staying with a friend who is very conveniently located downtown. It's in close proximity to so many yummy restaurants. We took a little stroll up Church street, past the gay Baskin Robbins to Fuzion Resto-Lounge and Garden. We managed to snag a spot on the patio because our reservation was for 3 and there was only 2 of us.


I had the Grilled Quail. Mini birds but maxi on the flavour. It was really dark by the time we got our entrees, so I had trouble framing the shot. I also had side of garlic sesame rapini for the ruffage and the vitamins.





My dining companion went with the seafood risotto. The scallops were gigantesque!


We were both too full for dessert so we'll have to try that a different time.

Zoo Food

One of my favourite places to go on summer vacation used to be the Toronto Zoo. I still remember the "big foot" prints painted on the ground that marked one of the trails. They are still there, but are a little faded. I went with a friend who used to be a member of the "little foot" club which I think is now called "zoo kids". This kangaroo was disobeying the sign and the subsequent one could read. Oh wait, maybe the sign was for us human animals.




All that tromping around makes one hungry and thirsty. There are strategically placed vending machines along the pathways. Wanta Fanta??! Do I look like a Fantana?



Luckily, at every pavilion there is a "Harvey's" which is a tasty Canadian hamburger chain owned by Cara operations Ltd. They are also responsible for Swiss Chalet, Kelsey's, Milestone's and Montana's. A plethora of Canadian restaurant chains!

I had the Angus Burger combo and they also have a very tasty veggie burger that is not at all bean-like or suffering from the falling apart phenomenon. I have always been suspicious of the non-meatiness of the veggie burger, but have been assured that it is just texturized veggie protein.



My favourite rest-stops are the combo Tim Horton's, Wendy's, Harvey's. Heaven by the roadside.

My hometown has diversified

I grew up in a sleepy suburb of Ottawa called Blackburn Hamlet. I haven't lived there since 1998 but I still visit every once in a while since my parents still live in the house that they moved into when I was 2 and some of my high school pals are there too.



It was a great place to grow up -- lots of places to dig in the dirt and collect crayfish and tadpoles. However, variety was never it's strong point. I was one of the only non-White kids in the school (aside from Brian Cheng the Chinese kid) and at that time the restaurant options consisted of a selection of fast food chains. It's a good thing my mom is such a good cook.

So two of my friends from high school took me to a new chain establishment, Moxie's, that apparently the entire eastern suburb of Ottawa also decided to frequent on a Thursday night. It may have been due to the scantily clad hostesses and servers, but the food was decent. The extremely loud 80s and 90s music playing overhead was a little odd. I think their goal was to bring a bit of the "big city" feel to the 'burbs.

I tried the Beef Tandoori, which the server warned me was very very spicy. It was spicy, but I don't think that it warranted the very very for me since most of my taste buds have been burned off by previous cooking experimentation. It was very pretty.



Even prettier was my tea bag that I had with my dessert. Soooo silky!

Cilantro cupcakes?? Sous-titre: Cleaning out the fridge before vacay

Summer means fresh produce and fragrant fresh herbs. But it also means planning when shopping because I don't want to over buy and then have things rot in my fridge if I go away for several days.

From my next several posts you will see that I am taking an Ontario tour to see my friends and family. What that means is that my man friend will have to fend for himself in terms of meals. I tried to pump him full of vegetables before I left, but didn't get the chance to use all the yummy veggies that I bought from Russo's (a great family-owned and operated market in Watertown). Knowing that all the remaining vegetables would be left to increase the ethylene concentration in my fridge and thus begin the decomposition process, I thought I would experiment with freezing herbs!

Doing a quick google search gave me varying opinions on the tastiness of frozen cilantro. Many people said that it works well but others said that the herb is best served fresh and gets black and yucky if frozen. Seeing as the cilantro left in my fridge would be going to waste anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot and deal with the consequences later. I figured it couldn't be terrible because most sources said that the frozen cilantro would be mushy but could be used in sauces. This sounded not unlike the Recaito, which is a Goya product, that I've added to many stewy type meals.

Here is my cilantro washed and happy on the chopping board prior to pulverization.



I put the herbs in a bowl, snipped coarsely with my kitchen shears. Then I added the juice of a fresh lime, some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then, the mixture went into a silicone mini cupcake tray that I purchased at my beloved store, Target! Popped them in the freezer and when I get back from my Canadian holiday I'll let you know how it turns out!

Let's "cook with a book" - cooking with kids!

Here goes some shameless family promotion. (For significantly more, see "My bro's page" in sites that make me hungry on the right hand side.) My niece, Fionna is both extremely cute and extremely smart. I'm saying this not only from a biased auntie's perspective, but from a professional perspective. I've seen a lot of kids in my line of work and Fionna and Abby (my younger niece) rank in the top 99th percentile of cute and smart. Yes, the confounding factor is the reporting by a family member, but I've already fully disclosed that conflict of interest.

Contributing to their cuteness/smartness factor, may be the fact that Fionna attends Montessori school where "play" is "work" and they are taught from the beginning that finding their own stuff to be interested in is key. This is clearly demonstrated by the phase that Fionna went through of shining silverware. She had a little toothbrush that she would use to clean some sort of candelabra at school so this translated into a lot of clean, shiny things at home as well.

So recently, she saw her mom cooking in the kitchen and so demanded that she also be allowed to "cook with a book". Only thing is she picked this book! Apparently to a young thing, all books can be cookbooks despite the lack of cooking instructions in this picture board book.



The following kitchen fun ensued and thus she will have a higher likelihood of being in the kitchen when she is a teenager than standing in the line at McDonald's? Is this how we should be addressing childhood obesity? Maybe, if only we could encourage her to make vegetables instead of cupcakes in a 10:1 ratio then we'd be successful!








If our vegetables containers had cute silicon feet like this cupcake holder, I bet it would be easier. Also of note, is the way our genetics cause us to "house" food in the same manner.