Saying Goodbye to Sushi

March 30th, 2010 § 0

It’s been a long time since I have posted something here and before you say anything, no, it’s not because I’ve been knitting crazily.

Cartoon Credit: Hungry Bunyip's Blog

Although with many wintery days in Toronto, perhaps knitting would become a reason for not writing much. The real reason though, if you haven’t guessed it already, is that I have moved. I decided it was time for me to explore Toronto.

I’m excited about what this city will inspire me to eat. And will I miss my wild salmon sashimi? Maybe you know of some good sushi places in Toronto? For now I will continue exploring and write about new food inspirations. And if all else fails, I know I will always be able to write about knitting. Mayhap I will knit a lemon ball next.

Just Like How a Custard Forms

March 10th, 2010 § 0

Day 3 of Canada Reads debates ended with Coupland’s Generation X as the first casualty. The debates have been intense and so to calm my thoughts I decided to make some ice cream. Some nutmeg ice cream.

The thing I have enjoyed most about these debates can be explained through the making of the custard for my nutmeg ice cream. Have you ever noticed how you can stir and stir and stir your egg yolk, sugar, and milk combo until you can stir no more and without any advance notice all of a sudden it will get firm? I mean in a matter of seconds you start seeing a trail left behind your whisk in the custard. Your mixture will get firm and if you wait too long before recognizing this transformation it will be too late. The eggs will cook. And well… that’s just not cool.

Photo Credit: Flickr: Tom Higgins' Cooking Up The Custard to Make Ice Cream

I wanted the characters in Nikolski to continue their adventures. After finishing the book I was left yearning for more and in Day 1 of debates some of the panelists said that they found the book thin, confirming my thoughts. But just like when the custard forms, because it’s had some time to think, or because it’s had 10 minutes of constant stirring, or because all the elements finally mixed and mingled and declared the custard as ready, I started to see more in the book. In fact, I started re-reading the book.

Okay, truthfully, for me the transformation happened because I was so impressed by Michel Vezina’s defense of the book. Vezina talked of the complex interconnection of families that are split all across the world, about humanity, and about garbage. I started seeing things in the book that I hadn’t before.

As a participant in the Canada Reads Challenge my thoughts were:

Book to win: Good to a Fault
My favourite book: Fall on Your Knees

Now as I stir my ice cream mixture, I have no idea how the debate will go and which book will be left standing. But if it ends up being Nikolski I would be happy. I like the book more with each stir and just like my custard has thickened, this book is no longer thin.

Nikolski: Drinking Tea Provides Closure

March 8th, 2010 § 2

When asked, Nicolas Dickner said meal to pair with Canada Reads‘ Nikolski would be ceviche — making this recipe a natural recourse.

Photo Credit: Flickr: Red Snapper Ceviche by Sarah Sosiak

But that’s not how things went down in my kitchen. I agree that fish mentions and allusions were almost on every page of this book, making one wonder: why isn’t a fish telling the story like in Maelström? In this movie, the storyteller, a fish, hails from the aquatic magma present at the very beginning of the universe, and lets us see how the chacaters come to terms with their lives. In Nikolski, we also follow the story as the characters come to term with their lives. Except that I’m not sure they ever did! Or did they? The book, as whimsical as it was, did not provide me with closure. The ending left me yearning for more and wondering: what will happen to the characters?

With confusing thoughts around this book and my pick for Canada Reads, I thought about the chronicles of Joyce, one of the characters of Nikolski. What did Joyce do when she wanted to get away from it all? She would visit her grandfather, drink tea, and listen to pirate stories! Naturally I knew I had to make some tea.

There is nothing normal about Nikolski characters though and so I couldn’t bring myself to just brew some black tea. Plus, I’m feeling sick with a cold and need a big dose of anti-oxidants. Using Green Tea Matcha seemed perfect.

Photo Credit: Flickr: Matcha Tea by diff_sky

Green tea’s no-none-sense kick needed something extra. Something to make our hearts warm, because the Nikolski characters weren’t all confusing and frustrating. There were moments where I felt all warm and fuzzy for them. And here is the answer: white chocolate green tea matcha drink! The warm luxurious and smooth feel of white chocolate is the perfect addition to the ninja green tea.

Ingredients:

60 g good quality white chocolate
¼ tsp matcha green tea
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup whole milk (or water)

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk or water (depending on how rich you would like your drink to be) with matcha green tea and sugar. Whisk rigorously until mixture comes to a boil.

Reduce heat. Add white chocolate and continue to whisk until mixture just comes to a boil.

Pour the hot mixture in mug. Enjoy.

At last, will I be defending Nikolski? As delicious as the green tea matcha drink was, I think not. I wanted more from Nikolski.

With the debates starting shortly, I’m very confused as to which book I will be defending. But based on the panelists, I think that Good to a Fault has a good shot at winning.

In the mean time, I will drink some tea while I await the start of debates.

What My City Inspires Me to Eat

March 5th, 2010 § 3

A recent post for Tenth to the Fraser got me thinking: what does the city where I spend most of my time, Port Moody, inspire me to eat?

For some reason the first thing that I want to reach for when I think of Port Moody is some Vitamin Water! People are always running on the sidewalks. And if you think that’s not hard enough, I see people trail running in the mountains, cycling uphill, and doing things that make me feel sporty just watching. Needless to say fruits, vegetables, seafood, and anything “healthy” is abound in this city. Which makes me wonder: why am I living here given my love for chocolate, ice cream, and everything opposite of healthy? Must find a city that considers cookies an essential food group.

Sigh.

So living in Port Moody I feel inspired to go to the farmer’s market weekly and eat my salad daily. Plus, the stream of Port Moody tweets regarding locally sourced foods, gardening, and composting seems never ending. Which reminds me, I need to go take care of my sourdough starter now.

What are your thoughts? How does your city inspire your food choices?

Also, if you live in a city that inspires chocolate as lunch of choice, please let me know.

My Necklace and Blueberry Pie

March 5th, 2010 § 2

It is not often you purchase a necklace that makes you feel strongly compelled to make some pie!

Photo Credit: Pretty Betty Designs

This Pretty Betty vintage gold broach inspired necklace was exactly that purchase — the prettiest shade of blue underneath a golden bow-shaped crust. The off-centred bow is very Gossip Girl, no? And we know that Blair Waldorf must pie! Naturally I had to mix some flour, butter, and water and get started on making a blueberry pie.

For some reason, Blonde Redhead has become my pie making music (and not because they have an album called The Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons — honest). Today I listen to Misery is a Butterfly; its music and vocals eerily resembling my fear of the crust.

They say that temperature is key to making that perfect pie crust. Ingredients MUST be cold. Ice cold. I try to keep this in mind as I make my way through this recipe.

I put the butter in the freezer, refrigerated the bowl that I’m going to use for mixing my ingredients, and made sure I have ice cubes ready — they are going to be floating in my water to make sure that it’s COLD water. Just to be sure, I decided to put my hands over some ice to even cool my hands. Everything is now cold. I’m ready.

My favourite part of making pie is rolling out the dough. It’s been chilling in the fridge while I went through another round of Blonde Redhead on repeat and is now ready to be worked. I roll and roll and roll. Pie dish is now covered.

As for the filling: thanks to my Mary Boulton aspirations, I had saved a bag of blueberries from the summer farmer’s market.

Photo Credit: Flickr: Joana Hard

Filling instructions per Edible Vancouver:

Toss 4–5 cups blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp cornstarch, 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp. vanilla in a bowl. Cover your lower crust with finely crushed cookies (Nilla wafers work well) or nuts to soak up excess moisture, add the blueberry mixture and the top crust.

Some oven time, and done!

Next time you’re wondering what to bake, mayhap take a look at your necklace collection?

Photo Credit: Pretty Betty Designs

Stirring Hot Cocoa Helps Make Sense of It All

February 22nd, 2010 § 2

Turned the last page. Finished Fall on Your Knees. Closed the book. Mixed some cocoa and made cinnamon toast.

Because that’s what one does after babies drown in a river. Cinnamon toast and hot cocoa is what one has after a series of tragic events hit one another and end your day in tears. Or at least this is what the characters in Fall on Your Knees do. This is what the Piper family does.

They eat cinnamon toast and drink hot cocoa — making all their troubles vanish. It seemed to be their ultimate comfort food.

So naturally, after finishing this book, after all the sadness, I had to mix in some cocoa and make cinnamon toast!

Photo Credit: Flickr: Mixing in the Cocoa Powder by Lisa Brewster

This Ann-Marie MacDonald novel – a saga spanning five generations of an Island family – is riddled with ghosts and saints and governed by a splice of Roman Catholic and Jungian magic: alchemical transformation, fertility quests, and shadow presences function as crafty plot devices. So much has happened to the Piper family that I find the rhythm of stirring cocoa powder into my milk, soothing. It helps me think about the tying theme of the book and make sense of it all.

Photo Credit: Flickr: Cinnamon is Good For You by Cinnema Addict

I followed this recipe to make the cinnamon toast, and as I was fooled by thoughts of simiplicity, thinking that cinnamon toast won’t really need a recipe, I’m glad I followed the recipe. It was methodical and didn’t disturb my thoughts of the book. Fall on Your Knees was a very intense book that I had to think about it and think about it and think about it some more. And of course, think about it while devouring cinnamon toast and hot cocoa.

At the end, this book was about motives for me. The characters in this book, even those outside of the Piper family, all dreamed. They dreamed of a future where they would be educated and successful and happily married. They dreamed of a future free of the bounds of where they were living. And a future where they would be able to show them. These characters all strove to rise about it all — driven to evil doings in the process. The book definitely showed that none of these characters were truly good, except for… well maybe Lily. Every other character had an evil side, masked by these dreams.

So.

At last, what will be my decision? Will I move forward with defending this book for Canada Reads 2010? Well, I still have Nikolski to finish (my final book). And, I still need to think about the emotions of Fall on Your Knees more. Perhaps I should make some kibbeh and tabooleh, in memory of Materia.

Side note:

I listened to many songs while going through this book and am thinking that maybe putting a soundtrack together will help put my emotions in check.

You can listen to the full soundtrack HERE.

1. Royksopp / What Else Is There?

This song made me think of Materia (the mother of the Piper family), who was ghost-like, walking by the edge of a cliff, looking for answers and salvation. She only had one wish too, to protect her daughter.

2. Bonobo / Ketto

For some reason the melody of this song makes me think of Frances. The singer’s whispers. The water dripping sound. It makes me think of the time when Frances was pregnant — the prayers and the baths that Mercedes would give her.

3. Llorca / Expectations

Evil is a necessity. It is the food of the genius. And the artist must know that art is ambiguous. And music the most ambiguous of the arts.

Oh, Kathleen!

4. Gabriel / Lamb

This book wasn’t all about sadness. There was love too. And momentary happiness.

5. Sibylle Baier / Tonight

Is this what they all wanted James to be like?

6. Mi and Lau / Older

Okay, so this one is out of place, disconnecting the flow of song to song. But in a way it reminded me of Frances’ plot, which also seemed out of place. No?

7. Mohair / Stranded

James was stranded in No Mans Land, in limbo, and so was Materia before the births of Mercedes and Frances, and so was Frances after the assumed death of her son, and so was, and so was, and it seemed like being stranded, being all ghost-like was what you just grew into.

8. Camera Obscura / Razzle Dazzle Rose

How serendipitous that I found this song? And it has Rose in it.
The salvation for the Piper family. The book ends with Rose. It ends with hope.

Rose, I’m feeling older
I was lucky like a four-leaved clover
tried to be happy but it wasn’t easy
When I choose my colour be Razzle Dazzle Rose

Oh, I’m feeling older
Courage my love will make me bolder
Expecting softness can lead to foolishness
When I choose my colour be Razzle Dazzle Rose

A C sharp explosion in the oven

February 17th, 2010 § 1

Materia yearns to make sense of life, searching for answers at the edge of a cliff. And as I finish Book 3 of Fall on Your Knees, I can’t help but listen to this Royskopp song on repeat. 

It’s a song about life. About its meaning. About where we come from and where we go afterwards. Mercedes (twelve and going on forty where I finally decide to put the book down) tries to capture her history in a family tree, knowing that it still doesn’t answer questions about her future. “It tells us where we came from. But it doesn’t tell us where we’re going. Only God knows that”, says Mercedes. 

It was me on that road
But you couldn’t see me
Too many lights on, but nowhere near here

The Piper family struggles with loneliness. With wanting nothing more than being seen, being recognized, and yet, remaining unseen. They inch towards answers on separate roads, muddied by flash lights and the C sharp explosion all those years ago that started all the nightmares.

In this song, the singer also yearns for someone who can give her answers. Who can explain her being. Who can grant her just one wish. 

It’s about you and the sun
A morning run
The story of my maker
What I have and what I ache for

Needless to say: this song has become my soundtrack for this Canada Reads book. The singer’s one wish to be with the love of her life was granted. And all it took was just the one right wish to be granted for her to be truly happy.

Will the characters in Fall on Your Knees find happiness? I hope so. And someone please stop Frances from squishing my heart into a piece of black and white candy! To be able to continue reading through this sadness, I made Mac and Cheese. Then ate two slices of almond cake.

Almost As Good As Chocolate?

February 14th, 2010 § 0

Love. Is it almost as good as chocolate?
Hugh MacLeod goes on to say that “love is the easiest thing in the world to do, until it isn’t. Until we get overwhelmed by stuff.” I say, thank goodness for chocolate! Because it is this cocoa soother that gets me through ‘stuff’. For me, chocolate is the ultimate guilty pleasure, whether in ice cream, a torte, cookies, or even in Ragù!

Photo Credit: www.gapingvoid.com

It’s really sad when you realize that you’ve eaten an entire box or block of chocolate in one seating though. Or that in fact you’ve had a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast followed by a mid-afternoon hot chocolate and a late night cocoa snack. But at the end, I guess it’s all good. Because you will have love and because like Freshly Ground says: a pot belly, still gives good loving! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Fall on Your Knees and Comfort Food

February 12th, 2010 § 1

I am starting Fall on Your Knees, and all the tweets about the sadness that is this book is making me think: I better have some comfort food handy to get me through it! 

Thankfully a friend has introduced me to her potato crack — fleshy potatoes glistening with olive oil and the tang of rosemary and sea salt on your tongue. How did I miss the comfort of potatoes all these years? Naturally, I put some potatoes in the oven, created my reading atmosphere of blanket, candles, and of course, Fall on Your Knees, and awaited the roasting of potato crack.

Photo Credit: http://julesjulesjules.wordpress.com/

So far the reading has been okay, but I have a feeling that more sadness is awaiting to be read. Why is Canadian literature so full of teardrops and hardship?

Luckily I have my potatoes to get me through it.

So where is the bacon in all of this?

February 10th, 2010 § 3

The Jade Peony read like a love affair between the old and new — the Old China, the Old China ways, and the Old One, aka Poh-Poh or simply grandmother, versus the new traded secrets of Chinatown in Vancouver. This love affair with China weaved through stories told from the perspective of three siblings, only sister Jook-Liang, second brother Jung-Sum, and third brother Sek-Lung. Though these stories are about the struggles of Chinese immigrants I think all people can relate to the internal conflict of honoring traditions while dreaming of dancing like Shirley Temple and being modern.

For me, Two Gallants’ The Deader was the soundtrack of Jade Peony, explaining this love for China with lyrics alluding to the raging sea, which was what metaphorically and geographically separated these characters from the Old China, from war, and from their dreams of heroism and lost relationships, specially after the departure of the Old One. 

Though told from different perspectives, one constant remains in each story: the Old One, who passes down the jade peony as an inheritance to her grandchildren, but also confers them a more valuable inheritance — their cultural heritage as a people and the necessity and importance of holding on to a measure of “old way” attitude. After finishing the Jade Peony I was reminded of My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk which also depicted a battle between the old and new. The only difference here was that this battle was about art! 

In My Name is Red, miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire set to solve a murder by studying a set of paintings. These paintings are rebels amongst the 2-dimensional miniature designs of the time. They are 3-dimensional, almost abstract. Modern. Wickedly painted.

But as much as these novels set the battleground for East versus West, old versus new, and  herbs versus modern medicine, they are about relationships and unlikely friendships. I really enjoyed reading about only sister Jook-Liang’s friendship with an elderly “monkey man” who believes in Liang and encourages her Shirley Temple-like performances; tough guy Frank Yuen, second brother Jung-Sum’s mentor and surprising crush; and third brother Sek-Lung’s babysitter, the beautiful Meiying who commits the unpardonable sin of falling in love with a Japanese boy. It is through these seemingly unlikely friendships and the union of the opposing ideals that I got thinking: where is the bacon in all of this?

I’ve been contemplating bacon ice cream for awhile and being afraid of committing the unthinkable. Can bacon really be savoured in frozen form with cream, sugar, and eggs (umm… lots of eggs)?

So naturally I put The Deader on repeat and inspired by the Jade Peony started to candy some bacon! Following this David Lebovitz recipe I simply used some brown sugar over strips of bacon and with just 15 minutes in the oven I had perfect candied bacon. 

Photo Credit: DavidLebovitz.com

And 24 hours later, after the ice cream custard was chilled and ready for the ice cream maker, I realized: the old and new don’t need to be battling each other. I think through friendships and story telling (a theme that I’m beginning to notice in this year’s Canada Reads with Generation X’s omelet of stories) the old ways can complement new, modern, and wickedly painted ideas.  

At last, I absolutely enjoyed reading The Jade Peony and was grateful that it finally got me to make some bacon ice cream!

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