Valentine to a Golden Birdie

February 13, 2015March 12, 2015 / Kake2Kale | Culinary Travel Adventures

It wasn’t love at first sight, not even second sight. My “date” was quite verbose, but I was seduced by his vulnerability, the ease with which he stripped his….heart bare (clothes stayed on). Once I fell into his grasp, I fell hard for him. My husband knew of this love affair, and was fine with it because the object of my affection is a book, The Goldfinch. I devoured it for hours at a time, good thing I don’t have kids, otherwise I would surely have Child Services knocking on my door. I was swept away by the raw beauty of Donna Tartt’s writing, and how the main character wooed me into his inner life. The story unwound itself page by page and wrapped itself around me in sensurround. The Goldfinch in the title of the book refers to an actual painting that became very dear to the main character, but please go read it for yourself if you haven’t already.

I wanted to make an edible Valentine to The Goldfinch, and thought something lemony would be fitting. I decided to create golden cupcakes that are tart and sweet, which is one of the book’s messages, that is – even though your life may be sour, sweetness can still be found. Because the book is so substantial in content and length I wanted my cupcakes to be dense and substantial, almost like a pound cake quality. For the love of The Goldfinch, below is my Valentine cupcake recipe.

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Good Things Come in Small Packages

February 6, 2015March 12, 2015 / Kake2Kale | Culinary Travel Adventures

People love eating me all around the world. I am like a warm, cozy blanket for your taste buds and tummy. You can fill me with all sorts of goodies, meat, and veggies. What am I? No, I am not a calzone. Go smaller and Asian….you got it – Dumplings! Kale and I can eat them every day if we could. We aren’t sure if it’s in our blood, but there is just something in those small puffy pillows of savoury meat and veggies that calls to us. A few years ago, Kale and I took a dumpling making class and loved it. Ironically, it was taught by a very knowledgeable non-Asian guy. Making dumplings at home is ideally a social activity; therefore, Kale and I took off to the Granville Island Public Market to shop for the ingredients, then headed back to her place to make them.

But before we dove into making the dumplings, we fortified ourselves with a late breakfast of tea and scones. It felt like we had stepped back in time to when we were kids playing with our tea sets. Although now, we drank fragrant lavender rooibos tea and nibbled on blueberry-lemon-oat scones using Kale’s sophisticated fine china.

Superfoods in our dumplings:
Turkey – This meat is lean, high in protein and has a good amount of iron, phosphorous, zinc , potassium and vitamin B’s. We selected the free-run and non-medicated turkey.
Prawns – Good protein with Omega-3’s, B vitamins, and is also high in iron, as well as zinc, selenium, copper, magnesium and phosphorous.
Shitake mushrooms – Has a particularly high amount of copper, which may be beneficial to heart health. These mushrooms are also high in B vitamins and selenium. It contains lentinan which has anti-fungal properties and can also protect against cancer.
Chives – A good source of vitamin K which is important for the production of osteocalcin, a bone protein.
Ginger – An anti-inflammatory and is full of antioxidants to support its antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-parasitic properties.

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Gastown Grazing

January 30, 2015March 12, 2015 / Kake2Kale | Culinary Travel Adventures

One of Kale’s favourite foodie activities in Vancouver is hanging out in Gastown for a progressive dinner with friends. They hop from restaurant to restaurant for different courses throughout the evening. It can be called a dine-around or dinner crawl, depending on their mood; but the places are spontaneously selected and no two evenings are the same. That’s the fun part! For those of you less familiar with Vancouver, Gastown is a stylish, historic neighbourhood in the city centre and considered a hub for unique dining. Since most of Kale’s gastronomic experience of Gastown is nocturnally-driven, she thought a progressive lunch would be a good Kake2Kale challenge. And, to up the ante, Kale wanted to find comfort dishes, with superfoods, that can be eaten in a bowl. At first, I was skeptical and thought we could only eat pasta and soup. But Kale convinced me to be open and surprised by what we might find. I’m glad she did, and without any plans, here is how we grazed our way through Gastown on a rainy January afternoon!

Flying Pig
The Truffled Cauliflower Gratin with 4 cheeses on the menu of the Flying Pig restaurant peeked our interest. Kale and I knew we HAD to have it. As we were giving our order, the server suggested we order the brussel sprouts as well. They were served in boats, which was bowl-like enough for us. Wow, the brussel sprouts were outstanding. They were roasted with capers, which brought a brightness to the earthy flavor of the sprouts. The cauliflower, however, was a little underwhelming as they were under cooked. Please bear in mind I am not a restaurant reviewer, but I do know what I like. The cheeses were yummy though – white cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan. Cauliflower and brussel sprouts are both cruciferous vegetables which have indole-3-carbinol and promotes a healthy balance of good estrogen. They also have anti-tumour properties and are high in fibre. So we were off to a good start!

Jules Bistro
For a romantic meal where you feel like you’ve been whisked away to an intimate, pretty, little jewel (pun intended) of a restaurant in France, Jules Bistro is the place for you. More importantly, the food is delicious as well! We ordered a bowl of mussels with a leek cream sauce, which turned out to be light and flavourful. The sauce was sooo delicious, and I couldn’t stop dipping chunks of baguette into it. We went in search of our next course after being fortified with protein, Omega 3’s as well as minerals – like calcium, zinc and iron – from the mussels. Continue reading →

I Want to Be a Spice Girl

January 23, 2015March 12, 2015 / Kake2Kale | Culinary Travel Adventures

I don’t really do resolutions anymore, because I realize something about myself (which is probably true of a lot of people) and that is – I have no trouble starting something, but sticking with it is a whole other matter. This doesn’t stop me from trying something new!

“Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want” I want to be a Spcie Girl! It’s because I want to use more spices in my cooking and which one to start experimenting with? In the last few years, turmeric has been gaining popularity in the supplement world because of its powerful active compound curcumin, which is actually a golden orange hued pigment. It has antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory properties and may even be instrumental in slowing down the effects of Alzhiemer’s disease. It has also supports the liver as a detoxifier.