The Yum Yum Factor

Oddly enough, Filipino food is quite new to me. Just when I thought I was pretty familiar with every sort of Asian or Southeast Asian food that's out there, I got my first real taste of Filipino food this year and I am on a mission ever since. Because it's a mix of Malaysian, Chinese, Spanish and Indian you would think that I would have come to this party a lot sooner, but better late than never, right? Crispy Pata now runs neck and neck with Chinese roast pork when I need my fix of crispy pork skin and I could take a bath in a big bowl of Arroz Caldo if I could find one big enough. Because of my new found love of Filipino food, I jumped at the chance to snag a box of sauces and marinades from Pulo  , hoping that I could come up with some fresh recipes built around them. I know, I know, you think that I don't generally use bottled sauces and marinades but that is not true. If the product is not full of preservatives and other things that make my dark litt...

In conjunction with my Misura giveaway , I was given the task of coming up with a recipe featuring some of their products. As soon as I saw this sedani pasta, I knew what I wanted to make immediately and so they sent me some pasta and a bag of whole wheat rusks, which are perfect for bread crumb making. Back when I first started blogging, one of my first dishes was a chili verde lasagna . One  of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was to participate in my friend's month long lasagna challenge. Jen, from Piccante Dolce , was hosting this challenge and she encouraged me to start food blogging so I took that opportunity to try the whole thing out back in November of 2010. Clearly, it worked out well because here I am, carrying the torch, although Jen has taken some time off to start a family. The other dish I made for this challenge was pastitsio , which is kind of like Greek lasagna. For years I have been toying with the idea of doing a bunch of fusion style pastit...

This month's challenge in the  Great Canadian Food Experience  is called Canadian Love Affair. Hmmmm We have covered so many aspects of what constitutes Canadian cuisine. We have talked about regional specialities and food traditions from our families and our childhood and I just keep coming back to the fact that Toronto is a melting pot of every type of international cuisine imaginable. This is the city that introduced me to pho and to Ethiopian food. I learned the difference between a Punjabi butter chicken (the most common regional cuisine served here in North America) and the dosa, a staple of Southern India right here in the city. You can get authentic Iranian food at the Persian Plaza for lunch and then pop over to J Town on for some imported Japanese groceries and grab some bibimbap at The Galleria on your way home.  We also have a huge Italian community which means we have an endless array of authentic Italian restaurants and grocers serving the commun...

I was invited to an event at beautiful The St Lawrence Market Kitchen (upstairs at the market) to introduce me to Fresh Canteen  , a new dinner prep concept launched earlier this summer here in Toronto. It's a service that caters to people who want to cook fresh, delicious dinners in their own kitchens but are often just too busy to shop for all the ingredients they need. They are quite committed to using locally sourced products whenever possible and that appeals to me very much. I have used Supperworks in the past to stock up for those times that I am too busy to shop but you still have to put aside time to drive down there, put all of the stuff together and get it back home. You also have to remember to take those damned bags out of the freezer the night before so it will be thawed by dinner time so you can actually cook it which doesn't come easily to me.  I love the idea of everything for a dish being brought to my house for me by a handsome stranger. Okay, I just li...