Category Archives: Food
Summer and Kitchen Dreams
It’s getting hotter here in Dubai. I’m less likely to go and sit outside on the balcony during the day, and the amount of time we spend inside increases by the week. Flu season is upon us, thanks to everyone herding themselves indoors, and it’s about that time when our teensy-weensy studio apartment starts to […]
Attack of the Green Monster (not the green-eyed one)
Sometimes they’re called green smoothies, and sometimes ‘green monsters.’ Whatever you might call them, or whatever you punch into Google, they seem to be all the rage at the moment. With the recent turn towards veganism and raw eating in the media and dietary trends, they’ve become far more popular as a way to boost […]
A few of my favourite things…
Recently, my mother in law asked for a recipe or two that she could use to host a New Year’s party in New Zealand. First, I thought it was totally awesome that I don’t have a mother in law who scorns my cooking like all those ones in the movies, and then I was super […]
Lunch with the local nuns
I peered into the rice soup, looking past the scattering of coriander to its thick texture. I spied sweet corn among the grains and spooned through, glancing at what I thought were the egg threads so commonly used to bind Asian soups. I waved-slash-flapped to my guide, calling him in for the fifty-billionth time to […]
Monday Moment: Spot the Accent
Coming from Australia, I have heard many an Australian-Vietnamese accent. A good number of Vietnamese citizens settle in Australia looking for a different, new and possibly better life, and so it was not unusual to hear that familiar twang. Even as our guide introduced himself, I had a feeling that much of his language development, […]
Sticky rice and happy photos
The woman started signalling wildly at me soon after I’d passed by her table, where I’d been briefly gawping at the massive mound of purple sticky rice that graced her serving dish. There are not a lot of foods out there that are purple. There is cabbage, purple carrots (surprisingly fun to eat) and you […]
Eating Local
You may have noticed from my last post on eating my way around South East Asia that I quite enjoyed the food. Most wonderful delicacies and delicious things graced my palate and I ate and drank to my heart’s content, but I couldn’t help but notice a few curious things that began to happen as […]
But I just wanted some falafel…
There’s an infamous song in Dubai by my good friend Kris Fade where he opines in musical tones of what one can buy with a dirham in your pocket… “A Falafel with a Dirham.. A Falafel with a Dirham in your pocket” repeats the chorus. Up until recently, one could actually buy a falafel with […]
Sugarfree September {The Progress Report}
So I came unstuck with my Sugarfree September. It was bound to happen – it’s a hard thing to do. I suppose I was setting myself up for that with the three-part “sugarfree-ness” that I set for myself. Removing all sugars, fruit AND grains all at once is pretty intense. I’ve been keeping a food […]
Monday Moment: Barbecue with a Twist
The air around us appeared to be heavy with smoke, and yet, it didn’t actually feel as heavy in my lungs as I had expected. Industrial fans mounted to the edges of the Warehouse-esque, pseudo-outdoor, semi-shaded building spewed forth their breeze along with a continuous spray of mist lit up by the glaring fluorescent bars […]
Sugarfree September
Sugarfree September, a convenient term I coined this morning, has begun. I’ve spent the last week or so phasing out the last of the fruit from the fridge and freezer, replacing full-sugar temporarily with sweeteners and finished off the delicious buckwheat granola. I took part in some chocolate eating and I had a glass of […]
Nacho Salad “Two Ways”
So I’m embarking on my food experimentation journey this year, continuing to play with homemade recipes and adaptations and opening up my world to new ingredients. But that alone would be exhausting and we always need our kitchen staples to get us through. I don’t know why I haven’t shared this before – I think […]
