But before I get into the kitchen I have some very exciting news. I [...]]]>

Yep! Coca-Cola recipes. Actually another great title for this post would have been What to do with Leftover Coke. I needed a 2 liter bottle…future post! But I thought I would be “environmental” and “recycle” the Coke ???!!!???

But before I get into the kitchen I have some very exciting news. I think this is just the most AWESOME thing since slice bread…well for me. I feel so cool right now! Cheap Ethnic Eatz has now gone mobile! Go to http://www.noticeorange.com/r/CheapEthnicEatz to get an app for your phone. IPhone, Smartphone, Blackberry, Android – I have  got a download for you all.

It’s free and it has alerts so that you’ll know whenever Cheap Ethnic Eatz has anything new. What could be better?

So back to pop stories. I have never been a big fan of sodas but I felt bad at the thought of pouring 2 liters of Coke down the drain. I was too curious and went hunting for recipes that had Coca-Cola as an ingredient. There was not a whole lot out there but imagine my surprise when I came across two South American recipes! Not only do I get to use up the Coke….I am doing Ethnic Eatz with it!

The first recipe I made was an apparently very popular Colombian coastal dish. If you are Colombian and are reading my blog please hit me and let me know what is up with that? It is not the prettiest dish but it was good. I took it to a potluck BBQ and it had some success. I did a half portion of this recipe from Colombian born Food Network starlet Ingrid Hoffmann.

Ξ Colombian Coca-Cola Rice Ξ

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cups long-grain white rice (I had brown rice at home)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3-1/2 cups Coca-Cola
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3 tbsp sliced or slivered almonds, lightly toasted (I had shredded coconut on hand)

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Add the rice and cook until it is opaque, about 2 minutes, stirring often.Add the salt to the cola and stir until dissolved (the salt helps to release some of the carbonation) and then add it to the rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium- low, cooking until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, about 15 minutes. Stir in the raisins and the almonds and reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cover and cook until the rice is tender, about 25 minutes. Uncover, fluff with a fork and serve.

If you are doing your liquid math, I had about 2 cups left of soda since I halved the rice recipe. Trying the Brazilian Iced Chocolate Drink was a no brainer decision. A super sweet chocolate iced drink! It was soooooooooo decadent.

Ξ Brazilian Iced Chocolate Ξ

Ingredients

• 2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup double strength hot coffee
• 2 ½ cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups Coca-Cola
• Whipped cream or ice cream

Preparation

Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over hot water. Stir in sugar. Gradually stir in hot coffee, mixing thoroughly. Add milk and continue cooking until all particles of chocolate are dissolved and mixture is smooth, about 10 minutes. Pour into jar, cover and chill. When ready to serve, stir in chilled Coca-Cola. Serve over ice cubes in tall glasses. For a beverage, top with whipped cream. For a dessert, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Makes 5 cups.

An old friend of mine gave me this recipe at least 10 years ago. I had this soup at her place and requested the recipe. I made [...]]]>

Hello and yes I am alive. I sorta fell off the planet for a week for no real good reason. But I am back, I hope lol.

An old friend of mine gave me this recipe at least 10 years ago. I had this soup at her place and requested the recipe. I made it once, scarfed it down because it is so good….and never made it again till now. I have no idea why but I won’t let another 10 years go by again for sure.

Pappa al pomodoro is a traditional recipe from Tuscany and it is a wonderful summery soup that can help make the autumnal blues go away. It is incredibly satisfying and full of flavor. You can enjoy it hot or chilled. It is very consistent and with some tofu this makes a great vegetarian meal, just add a block of cubed tofu at the same time then the bread. This is a main course soup for sure (Dana this one is for you).

Pappa al pomodoro translates to bread and tomato soup. I know it sounds weird but I promise it will be in your top 5 favorite soups of all time. And there is nothing fancy in here: tomatoes, bread, basil, olive oil are the corner stones of this recipe….all very affordable ingredients. This is the quintessential (so far) Cheap Ethnic Eatz!

There are so many versions of this recipe but basically the main difference between them is the bread to liquid ratio. If you want it very think use less broth an tomatoes, if you want it much soupier add broth and tomatoes. Also the grated hard cheese is not part of the traditional recipe…but it is so awesome! Experiment!

Ξ Pappa al Pomodoro Soup Ξ

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 loaf day-old rustic Italian bread (about 4 cups), torn into 1 inch cube pieces
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup fresh basil, torn
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)
• block of tofu, cubed (optional)

Directions

Is Your Coffee Cup Half Full or [...]]]>

I am not one to usually just publish all the press releases I get but when I feel there is truly a good message then I am happy to share good worthy info. This is the case with the latest PR from Maxwell House Coffee….

Now if you expected a gourmet blog post on Niagara [...]]]>

Here is one of 2 food posts dedicated to the food we enjoyed on our New Year’s escapade. This one will cover most of what we ate but the second post will be a restaurant review….and just you wait and see this place ha!

Now if you expected a gourmet blog post on Niagara here, well sorry to say you will be sorely disappointed. As I have mentioned before Niagara Falls has the Falls and then a fake tourist trap town filled with cheesy attractions. Now don’t get me wrong….go with the right attitude and you will have a blast. We played a round of glow in the dark mini golf, did a haunted house, went on a moving theater ride, played amusement park type games to win tickets in exchange for trinkets.

Food was tricky though: either you get fast food or you pay an arm an a leg. The middle ground is almost non existent and forget finding a quaint little family run restaurant, it is mostly chains. But we managed pretty well and ate well enough with a few awesome surprises. From the falling apart decor and rickety tables to the nice sophisticated places with modern dining room furniture here is my photo essay on some of what we ate.

First place I MUST mention is Tim Hortons. It is in fact the quintessential road trip food. In Canada this is where you get your coffee and sugar rush. They also serve the cheapest lunch I can think of if you take the chicken salad sandwich combo with coffee and a doughnut…like $5.02 tax in. BUT they are everywhere. They plague the scenery I could not handle seeing one more Tim Horton sign. OK its a chip on my shoulder lol.

Our first dinner was at Tony Romas. Nice place, super friendly staff, house wine is from the Niagara region. We had the all you can eat Beef short ribs for $15.99, a rather unbeatable price in Niagara for the meal we had. I did find the short ribs dry but they are short ribs so hard to keep moist.

Remember how gaudy I said Niagara Falls can be on my vineyard touring post? We here is quite the ultimate expression of it. Next to Burger King is the Frankenstein Haunted house….and the birth of a perfect marketing ploy. I LOVE it!

At the Fudge Factory you can watch the guy prepare the fudge before it is packed into molds. Yes (sorry for this bad joke a head of time) he is a fudge packer! We tried a piece of the Bailey’s fudge, yumm!

And now for the breakfast of champions! I insisted kindly not to be dragged to a chain place for breakfast. We eventually stopped at the Continental Pancake House. This is an unpretentious family style restaurant where everything is made from scratch. The pancakes are HUGE and fluffy, Stef loved the sausages. We we very pleased and the service was so friendly. Though there is a limited all you can eat breakfast for like 7$ since we ordered à la carte it somehow ended up costing about $40 for breakfast. A bit steep!

Our second night here was our fancy dinner. I was not told where we were going as it was a surprise. Where did we go? Red Lobster. Wait I know what you are thinking, but remember this is a tourist town and this is a middle ground price restaurant. I mean our main plates were still like $25 each. We are traveling on a budget here. Red Lobsters left Quebec a while back so for us this is a treat. We each had a triple seafood combo plate, coconut shrimp appetizer, and a MASSIVE pina colada for 2. The shrimps were all excellent but my lobster tale, meh, OK.

Our last morning in Niagara was a late departure and we decided on coffee and a doughnut and just have lunch later. Today we would drive to Toronto for New Year’s Eve to my friend’s place. Of wineries were part of the expedition. But back to breakfast. So we ended up stopping at a place called Country Fresh Donuts on the outskirts of town. A really odd ball place apparently specialized in donuts and Asian sop bowls…and popular and run by Asians. Apparently this is a real local gem. And the doughnuts…the BEST EVER. This was a cinnamon twist I shot in the car. So light and so good. I wish we had bought like a dozen.

Ah, finally made it to my friend Susan’s place were we would welcome the New Year over a home meal. She and her roomie prepared a great cheese themed dinner with homemade macaroni and cheese, a lovely phyllo cup filled with goat cheese, garlic shrimps and a cheese cake. Let me tell you around 3 or 4 am the macaroni and cheese came were back out for second helpings!

And we had lots to drink! Some bubbly with the meal, some bubbly at midnight, a bit of wine and a few cocktails. The last shot on the right is bubbly with a strawberry and a Lindt Chocolate. Sounds weird but is was good. Want to try a new cocktail? This is my new fave:

RedHeaded Slut (I swear it’s the official name)

Mix in a glass 1 ounce of Peach Schnapps, 1 ounce of Jagermeister and top off with cranberry juice.

On our final night we all went for a last dinner before our return home the next day. Toronto’s Chinatown was our destination. Our host would not stop talking about Kom Jug Yuen on Spadina as the best place for Chinese with incredible BBQ pork. Very low key decor and simple place. You MUST have the BBQ Pork. This was the best Chinese food I have ever eaten and it cost 60$ with the tip and tax for 5 people.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of some of the food I enjoyed over the holiday trip. I will have one more Toronto food post coming, a restaurant review, that you will not want to miss so come back soon. A hint: this place has been called Toronto’s least healthy restaurant.

It [...]]]>

Now you all know how I love ADORE trying unknown foods. My favorite activity in Chinatown is to scout out a food I am unfamiliar with – sometimes I don’t even have the name since the tag was in Mandarin or something – and take it home, research it and eat devour it.

It really started this summer after reading a book called The Fruit Hunters by Adam Leith Gollner. Just so happens he is a Montrealer. Driest read ever but I learned so much about exotic fruits, most I will never see or taste. But I was determined to hunt out a few in my local ethnic grocery stores.

One of the first finds, mentioned many times in the book, I came across was the mangosteen. I even have a picture of the first bunch I saw in Toronto’s Chinatown. I was completely mesmerized by these stunning purple orbs. What could they taste like? Needless to say I bought a few.

The mangosteen grows on small evergreen trees in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and southern India. The inedible  rind of the fruit is deep reddish purple when ripe. The fruit is about the size of a tangerine and the edible part has segments just like any citrus fruit. The flesh is white. It is really hard to describe the taste as nothing else really compares, but the best I can say is the taste is sweet and tangy, citrusy with notes of caramel and butter, also peach like. Confused but curious yet lol?

Well it is one of the most refined fruits I have ever tasted and I was happy to learn I was far from being the first person to be so enamored with the mangosteen fruit. There is a legend about Queen Victoria offering a reward of 100 pounds sterling to anyone who could deliver to her the fresh fruit. This legend has earned the Mangosteen the nickname “Queen of Fruit”. If you want to taste it your best bet is to go to your nearest Chinatown when the fruit is in season because you will not find it in your local grocery store. If it is not in season Asian grocery stores usually sell canned or frozen mangosteens.

Now the fruit has also been used for centuries as a medicinal tool. Humans have claimed the fruit can cure or aid everything from dysentery, eczema, diarrhea, cystitis, gonorrhea and urinary disorders. In our modern age inventors and investors have taken the mangosteen to the science lab. It turns out the fruit, mostly the rind,  is full of antioxidants and over 40 xanthones which are under study for potential disease amelioration effects. Honestly at this point nothing has been proven and the potential health benefits of fruit are now at the center of a debate. Only 6 xanthones have been studied yet and no actual clinical trials have been done yet. This potential ‘ cure-all rejuvenation’ fruit remains speculative.

But if it tastes good and it may keep you healthy why not have some! Most mangosteen juice products contain whole fruit purée, including some healthful extracts from the inedible rind. One such company is XanGo and the people at Xango were kind enough to send me a bottle of Mangosteen juice for me to try out.

I believe they are the first to bring mangosteen juice to an international level. I just love the elegant bottle and the gorgeous burgundy color. The taste of the juice is not comparable to the fruit I have to say because of the tartness of the rind…but that is where the health benefits are. It is still a lovely juice to enjoy for sure.

Now this is not the kind of juice you want to guzzle back from a large glass. I was actually a little surprised when I saw the daily recommended dose of 2 to 6 tablespoons per day! Almost sounds like medicine. Now I understand why they say a bottle can be good for over a week per person.

Now you won’t find this juice in a store either, it is sold through private distributors, mostly online. And it has the price of medicine too. A bottle averages around $37 (or around $120 for a 4-pack). I was sent some recipes for XanGo juice that included Xango Turkey Meatballs, Xango Cream Cheese and Berry Pie and a Xango Tropical Salsa. But I decided to hoard my bottle for the daily usage and see if I feel any healthier in a week or so. I did try the juice out on a bit of homemade fig ice cream and the tartness was a perfect contrast to the sweet iced treat.

Obviously it is not a product, at least for now, that can suit every budget but in time and with popularity the price may go down and it will become more accessible. If you can afford it then why not try it once and see what you think.

I have my daily shot in hand and I send a toast to your health!

I saw this box of ‘stuff’ for sale at 2,99/lb outside [...]]]>

Visiting Chinatown is becoming a very dangerous affair for me. Every time I go I come back with a bag of food discoveries I don’t technically need…or even know what it is. Here is one one of those unknown discoveries, it’s a doozie.

I saw this box of ‘stuff’ for sale at 2,99/lb outside an Asian grocery store…

These things looked like bull heads, or devil heads, or even evil demon bunny heads. The sign said Water Calton…at least that is what I was able to read. From past experience English names in Chinatown are not reliable. I bought a handful and could not wait to get home and research my devilish find.

OK so googling Water Calton brought nothing up except a suggestion of Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air!!! Ah, pretty sure that is wrong. After playing with word combination I finally found out what these were: water caltrops.

And a whole series of nicknames: Black Horn Nut, Bat Nut, Devil Pod, Buffalo Nut. They are the seed pod of an Oriental aquatic plant. China and India have been cultivating them for over 3,000 years but can be found also in Asia and Africa. They are toxic if uncooked. There is a fury tuff at the top of the bull’s head and they do have a bit of a strange odor.

Cover them in water and some salt, bring to a boil and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Let them rest another 20 min. Then crack them open (very bad but as I read the easiest is with your teeth) and enjoy their chestnut like taste and texture. They taste like a cross between chestnuts and water chestnuts, maybe even a bit like Brazil nuts, but with a starchy texture. They can be added when cooked to rice and vegetable dishes.

They are in season in Fall and are a traditional food of the Chinese mid-autumn festival. I think they would also make awesome Halloween food props. One article I read said some people believe nailing a caltrop above your door while it is looking out will protect your home from evil spirits.