I'm back! Back in the blogging groove!

It's been a long time. 

I've been eating and cooking and cooking and eating. I just haven't been blogging about it. In the past few months, my passion for ALL THE FOOD has been reignited. I figured it was time to start writing about it.

There is a new Asian market around the corner from my apartment. The signs went up on Friday and it was open on Saturday. They are still waiting for stock to arrive, but I was very happy to see chili in oil with peanuts. They carry ingredients I haven't seen since I left Asia, so I am excited to make some new dishes for my brave/foolish friends. I have a few new partners-in-crime who are fearless and have incredible palates. 

The wheels are gonna come off, folks. 

The Taste BROS. are a local company who have a tasty line of hot sauces, spice mixes, jellies, and marmalade. We're going to be working together to showcase their products. I made some salt with their Hellfire sauce, mixed it with a bit of their Greek spice, and used it on a pork tenderloin. I was really happy with the results, and it tasted great with the Apple Jalapeno Jam. I can't wait to play with more of their creations. You should check them out at the CB Farmers' Market on Saturdays.

I am putting together a list of eating establishments I hope to hit this summer. If you have any suggestions, let me know. If you want to join me, even better! I promise I will behave myself and wait until we get menus before I swear. You know, all ladylike and shit.

dinner ditty ~ Baby, Come Back - The Equals

Street Meat Friday

Street Meat Friday is the best day of the food week! Every Friday, I make a different meat dish from around the world. Today's dish was picadillo. It was very well received. Here's the recipe!

Picadillo

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

500 g lean ground beef

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ ground cumin

1 can Aylmer Accents Fire Roasted Tomatoes

1/3 cup raisins

¼ cup blanched almonds, toasted and chopped

¼ cup tomato paste

½ cup dry red wine

1½ tablespoons honey

1 bag Cavendish Farms Rustic Red Potatoes, cooked according to package directions.

1. On medium-high heat, heat oil in pan; add onions and garlic, cook, stirring, until onions are soft. Add ground beer, cook, stirring until changed in colour.

2. Stir in spices, tomato, raisins, and the almonds, cook, uncovered, three minutes. Add tomato paste, wine, and honey, simmer five minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated.

3. Add the cooked red potatoes to the beef mixture; stir to evenly incorporate ingredients, for about three minutes until evenly heated through. Enjoy!

dinner ditty ~ Rock Steady - Aretha Franklin

Feed the chef

Ham kobasa

I work in a supermarket. Much to my happiness, customers sometimes get confused and come to the store to give me food, instead of coming to the store to buy food. This has happened on more than one occasion.

Today was one of those occasions. One of my regular customers and fellow foodie was in Toronto on business. He came back with 100 kilograms of top grade ham kobasa. He brought me some to try. I thanked him profusely and tried to pay, but he'd hear none of it (note... foodies in Cape Breton are ridiculously generous). 

I took it home, snapped a photo and ate a piece with some cheese. I instantly realized two things. One ~ I need to buy fancier cheese. Two ~ I am going to give myself gout unless one of you comes over and helps me eat this glorious piece of kobasa.

My customer wasn't kidding. This is the best kielbasa/kobasa/kubasa/whatever name you know it by that I've ever eaten. It would make a few grown men I know (I'm looking at you both, Mr. Bear and Mr. MKT) weep great big man tears.

I'm going to make some marinated olives (I'll post the recipe and pictures when I do) and chutney, get some fancy crackers and cheese, and have a fabulous charcuterie board. Let me know if you would like to join me and we'll sort out something. Since this lovely kobassa was shared with me, I'd love to share it with you!

I also need to get some of this and make some banoffee pie. Yum!

dinner ditty ~ Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Maple chiffon pie and the obsession with staff meals

I am obsessed with staff meals. 

It is my dream to walk into a restaurant and be asked to join in the staff meal, as they sit around and eat delicious food not found on the menu. The picture above is of mohinga, a Burmese dish. 

There is a restaurant in Moncton, Delightfully Delicious, owned by a Burmese family. It's a Japanese restaurant that serves some of the best Thai food I've ever eaten. I used to go there with my coworkers. We all ordered the same things; I used to get the avocado salad and Pad Siew. YUM. 

I was talking to the owner one day and asked him if they ever served mohinga. Mohinga is a fish soup with rice noodles. It's pretty much Burma's national dish; they eat that tastiness for breakfast.

He told me they only have it as a staff meal, because he didn't think it would appeal to the fine folks of Moncton. He asked me to leave my number, and he promised me he would call me the next time they had it. A few weeks later, I got the phone call. I went down on a Sunday afternoon and they sorted me out with some mohinga.

It was fabulous! It tasted like I was back in Burma. I was very much happiness. They gave me some to take with me when I left, and refused to let me pay for any of it. 

I was the happiest girl in Moncton that day.

Today, I went into Zana's Diner to try some of their maple chiffon pie. They had none left, which doesn't surprise me because it sounds amazing and I should have gotten there sooner to try some. I mean, it's pie! I knew they were making it; Zana told me the other day!

I didn't have any time to be upset about the lack of maple chiffon pie, because I was invited to sit down to have some of the staff meal with Zana, her mom (also Zana!), Heather (the pie maker and server extraordinaire), and a regular customer. I had homemade cheese and homemade flatbread. I had Swiss chard (from Zana's garden!) lentil soup with garlic and noodles. We talked about food and Syria and cooking and other stuff that makes me happy. It was lovely. 

I will be going back for some kibbe and maple chiffon pie as soon as I can. 

I tell you, this move to Sydney was a good one.

dinner ditty ~ A Quick One, While He's Away - The Who

Gyoza for the win!

Gyoza! Whenever I get homesick for Japan, I pick up some Japanese pork dumplings from Bento, the sushi shop at work.

This is what they look like when you buy them ~ 

You could heat them up in the microwave, but then they would taste like sadness. I don't own a microwave, so it's not an option. Here's how I heat them up so they taste just like they do in Japan.

I heat up a dry frying pan ~ 

I heat them for a minute or two, just until they brown and crisp up on the bottom. 

After I check them, I make sure they're sitting up properly. Please ignore the burn on the back of my hand. Stoopid oven rack.

I add a splash of water and return the pan to the burner.

I cover the pan and let the dumplings steam for another minute or two, just until they're a bit soft. They take very little time to heat up.

I throw them on my $1.86 koi plate and eat them with chopsticks. When I heat them up this way, they taste just like they did when I would buy them under the train tracks in Japan. Bliss!

You need to try this at home. You won't be disappointed! Please don't heat them in a microwave. Please. 

dinner ditty ~ Let's Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire

Fiddlers and pierogies and cabbage rolls, oh my!

It's been quite a weekend. 

My friends/coworkers, Ruby and Sadie, and I had heaps of fun. Along with two of our other coworkers, we had a table at the Fiddlers Run Fitness Expo. Ruby and Sadie talked me into registering for the event; I decided to walk it with Ruby. She's seven months full of baby awesome, so she got lots of hoorays and applause. I had a lovely time walking with her, and we got to cheer on Sadie as she cruised her way through the course. 

After we drank chocolate milk and ate bananas, we waited at the finish line to clap and whistle for the half marathon and marathon participants. The route for half marathon was lovely; I wish I had kept up the half marathon training I had started last year. Oh well... it's still on the list of things to do...

This afternoon, we went to the Polish Festival at the St. Mary's Polish Parish in Whitney Pier. I was so excited to see a sign for a Polish Festival, that I didn't really check to see where it was in the Pier. Eep. 

Anyhow, we found our way there, bought our dinner tickets, and patiently waited in line. We were warned to get in right away so we'd get there before they ran out of food. I had back-up plans if that had happened; I would have shaken down some dancers for the pierogies their mothers had made them for lunch, and/or I would have sat down at one of the tables and shamelessly eaten off someone's plate.

Here are some of the pictures from today ~

Dancers who got to keep their pierogies... this time.

The front of the church.

Some of the beautiful stained glass inside the church.

The food. The lovely, lovely food.

Pierogies and cabbage rolls and other deliciousness! The cabbage rolls were as good as my non-Polish-100%-Scottish father's cabbage rolls, so I was happy. And the pierogies were fabulous. 

I'm not entirely sure what this is; we paid extra for it and shared it. Sadie pretty much scraped the container clean, it was that good.

The best rye bread ever, partially devoured.

Me, unable to contain my happiness in getting Polish food. In fact,  I dialed back my excitement for this shot, which still terrified Ruby. Only the servers seemed unfazed; I'm sure this is a common look among people getting Polish food.

I'll be back to this beautiful church. The food was amazing, the people were lovely, and the music was infectious. I don't even know how to say hello in Polish, but I'll become fluent in the language if it means I can eat like this at least once a month.

It was the happiest Sydney Sunday ever!

dinner ditty ~ Biloxi - The Skydiggers

Ethnic food meltdown and fatayers for the win!

It finally happened. I knew it was coming, but I didn't think it would happen just past the six-month mark. 

And I thought it would be Thai or Vietnamese.

Instead, the imminent ethnic food meltdown we all knew was coming had me ready to set the city on fire if I didn't get a samosa, naan bread, and chana masala.  Seriously, I didn't think it would be Indian food that would lead to the first meltdown.

I needed Indian food right away, so I bought frozen Amy's Kitchen Mattar Paneer and some frozen samosas. It was enough to prevent the situation from going into Level 5 meltdown territory. I also picked up the ingredients to make chana masala. Tomorrow. I'm going to make enough chana to never, ever go without again. 

I'll post pictures of the deliciousness tomorrow.

I still needed some ethnic food, so I met up with my coworker/friend, Ruby, and her friend, Lucy. We went to Zana's Diner for dinner.

The signage.

The decor. I felt like I was back in the Middle East!

Well, except for the fiddles. But still a great touch.

I wanted to try the fatayers because I had heard so many good things about them. Much to my sadness, there were no fatayers left. To be fair, we did get there at 6:30, and it was closed on Sunday and Monday, so I'm sure there were many fatayer lovers who had gotten there earlier.

Our server, Heather, was lovely. She was genuinely sad we wouldn't be able to try the fatayers. I told her it didn't matter; I would come in tomorrow to try them.

Ruby and Lucy split the sampler plate which looked fantastic. It had pita, hummus, baba ghannouj, grape leaves, kibbeh, kofta, cabbage rolls and rice. It came with a side salad.

The baba ghannouj was smoky, which was a bit surprising at first, but it didn't stop me from devouring it.

I had the baked kibbeh plate with fresh-cut fries. I would have gotten the rice, but I was still full of Indian food.

Oh, and Heather managed to find some fatayers for us. Hooray!

Growing up in the HRM, I thought Greek and Lebanese food was Canadian food. We always had pita bread in the house; my father would go to the Lebanese bakery and pick it up. We joke that it's harder to find a bad Greek or Lebanese restaurant in Halifax than it is to find a good one. I am really picky when it comes to Lebanese food.

So. What did I think of Zana's? It was FANTASTIC. Some of the best Middle Eastern food I've had in years. Ruby and Lucy both loved the sampler plate; it was the first time for Lucy to try some of the dishes. I'm almost jealous; I wish I could taste Middle Easstern food for the first time again. And the fatayers (which are really popular here) were delicious. Zana came out to meet us while we were eating, and both she and Heather managed to scare up even more fatayers. Ruby, Lucy, and I each took a paper brown bag filled with two fatayers home.

As I was paying, Heather let me know that she loves to bake. Pies. She loves to bake pie. She asked me if I liked pie and told me I'd have to come back to try some. I almost burst out laughing. I didn't know how to tell her about my pie, er, problem. So, I'll be going back for some strawberry cream pie. Soon.

Zana's Diner on George St..You really, really need to check it out. The food, the decor, the service, all of it made me incredibly happy. And, Ruby and Lucy are on board for joining in future eating adventures. Ruby and I will be seeking out some Korean food... and soon! I also plan hitting up Whitney Pier Deli, and the Dancing Goat in Margaree. I've heard nothing but good things.

dinner ditty ~ Here and Now - Del Amitri

Hot fudge fatayers

My old cellphone was in full shit-the-bed mode, so it was time for a new one. I went uptown and got a fancy new one that won't zip through all the screens when I'm trying to send a text, or randomly turn itself off, or lose memory on a daily basis. It'll also be easier for me to update this blog and post pics of food as they happen. How very exciting! I'm also proud of myself; the impossible has happened! The phone guy was a foxy fox, and I managed not to turn completely red, say something incredibly awkward and/or embarrassing, and stare at his shoes. It's almost like I'm a real adult!

While I was uptown, I went to the Tasty Treat for a hot fudge sundae. I wanted to get some action shots of the tastiest hot fudge sundaes in the world. 

I can't quite capture the deliciousness in pictures. You'll just have to head out to the Tasty Treat and try it for yourself. When I was little, my parents used to call the road by the Tasty Treat 'JL Drive', because a certain curly-haired girl would turn almost inside-out with giggly glee. I still smile every time I see the Tasty Treat sign.

Oh, and for the bears keeping score at home, they also sell hard ice cream... like Moon Mist!

Since I moved to Sydney. Aunt Margie has been telling me about her friend's fatayers. There are few places to buy fatayers around here, which are similar to a samosa. Seeing as I can't find samosas around here (I don't want to talk about it), I'm happy that fatayers are an acceptable substitute. 

When I lived in Halifax, I could get samosas at coffee shops and corner stores. When I lived in Japan, I could shamelessly hustle for them at work, then tackle my coworkers in the staff room if they tried to eat the last one. When I lived in Charlottetown, Mr. Bear and I used to ankle it to the North African food stall at the Farmers' Market for the samosas. When I lived in Moncton, I'd get them at the Indian stall on Saturday morning.

The fatayers of awesome.

Here, I will have to make my own samosas, or happily eat the aforepictured fatayers. They were delicious! The filling was very similar to the North African samosas from the Charlottetown Farmers' Market. This makes me insanely happy, because I really miss them. 

I'm trying not to focus on the food I can't find here. Besides, I'm chef, right? If I really, really, really want it, I can make it myself.

dinner ditty ~ Perfect Situation - Weezer