The Yum Yum Factor

Artichokes presented like bouquets of beautiful flowers were everywhere, including IN my belly I know I might be making enemies when I say that the restaurant food in Paris was, on the whole, often underwhelming, but I also know I am not alone in that opinion. Although we did enjoy a few great meals, the fact that my restaurant list from our three day side trip to Rome is longer than the list I shared after 7 days in Paris is telling. Where, in Paris, I felt we had to work to find a great meal and really travel to specific restaurants, in Rome we would have had to work to find bad food. In Rome, we did not eat ANYTHING that was not, at the very least, very good. From the more formal dinners right down to the sandwiches shared from little shops along the street, we ate with gusto for three solid days. The gelato made my heart sing, all three plates of my pasta vongole ranged from really good to OMG, the pizzas were thin crusted, fresh and delicious, the wine was generous (see m...

this version was topped with a bit of red onion and more sesame seeds  It is no secret that we love ceviche around here but I only have a couple of actual recipes on the blog because, for the most part, I make straight up, Mexican style ceviche and the only thing that usually changes is the type of seafood I use. I always use raw fish, scallops or shrimp and let it "cook" in lime juice and although none of us have any issues about eating seafood prepared this way, many people still view it as raw and don't want to try it.

Say that ten times fast. A rich, creamy matcha no bake cheesecake with a crust made out of Matcha Pocky granola is the dessert you need. Like, right now. Last week, I hosted a pop up night at The Kingston Social House , the place where I have been cheffing since last fall and hosting supperclubs and cooking classes for the last couple of years. It's like my home kitchen away from home but better, because my actual home kitchen is about 2 square feet. I decided on a Korean inspired comfort food menu consisting of a Kimchi Meatloaf Melt, Spicy Miso Soup with Korean rice cakes for the vegetarians and a variety of banchan style sides. Korean's aren't really known for their desserts so it took me longer than usual to come up with something until I bought a few packs of Matcha Pocky. If you aren't familiar with Pocky, you need to do something about that. Pocky are a biscuit stick with a coating of "cream" that is usually chocolate flavoured but th...