The things I eat

Kale and Quinoa Salad, not to the taste of teenagers.

2012-11-13T19:30:00.002-05:00

I recently held a meeting for my cooking club, at a nearby restaurant, to decide what our menu would be this week. A couple of my students mentioned they couldn’t come to the restaurant because they were on a health food kick. Inquiry into what they were eating resulted in no answers so in response to this, I decided to help them expand their knowledge of healthy food in this unhealthy world.Kale

The 2nd Annual Great Greely Fishcake Throwdown

2012-10-27T22:45:00.004-04:00

The gloves were off at the second Annual Great Greely Fishcake Throwdown and these multitude of bare hands were moulding together delicious fish patties. This year there were eight entrants, about half of which were returning competitors along with the reigning champion. As the guests came round, I greeted the two judges from last year and we proceeded to sit down at the bar to begin our

Teaching students how not to bake...

2012-10-21T19:27:00.000-04:00

Look, I'm still alive but barely! This year I’m teaching a full load of classes and I decided to take on a few more extra curriculars than before which isn’t the most logical step. Get more work, make more work, right? One of the clubs that I’ve been begged to start was the school cooking club. Most of these pictures will be brought to you by some of the great students I have the pleasure of

NeverSeconds: More kids should think like this.

2012-06-15T21:28:00.000-04:00

Awesome student food blogger banned from blogging. Being awesome gets her unbanned. Inspires me to enact my plan for cafeteria food revolution. Despite never reading the news, I sometimes manage to stumble across links that take me to websites that have news on them. Recently, a food blogger, VEG, was banned from continuing her blog, NeverSeconds. This food blogger is a nine year old girl

Ninja Cupcakes Recipe by Eunji

2012-05-09T23:12:00.000-04:00

She's done it again. She did it before. The suspense... So what did she make this time? It all began with our student council deciding to have a Kells' Kitchen Dessert bake off. It actually all began when I decided to put a twist on one of the suggestions for a new 'Kraft Dinner eating competition' (ugh) which was spun into a cooking competition. Students would submit their bestest desserts

Red Lentil Burger Recipe with Cilantro Yogurt Dressing

2012-05-08T23:04:00.000-04:00

A few years ago while undertaking my Education degree, I lived in a small bachelor apartment with a mini-fridge, a little hot plate, my toaster oven and no stove. Needless to say this slightly limited the food I cooked although it was more so the fact that I lived alone and I'm not terribly interested in cooking for myself. Lucky for me, I had a lot of family living in the same city and

My favourite little Mexican Kitchen: Amaranto

2012-04-17T22:49:00.002-04:00

Restaurant Amaranto 5974 De Monkland Av. Montreal, QC H4A 1G8 (514) 510-1225 Tacos al Pastor It is time for a long overdue mention of one of my favourite restaurants ever. EVER. Restaurant Amaranto is a lovely Mexican restaurant just down the street from where I live. It is a small, cute restaurant with five tables, an open kitchen and a friendly, lovely couple that run the whole show.

The Joy of Baking Nanaimo Bars

2012-04-17T22:04:00.001-04:00

I've been baking a lot. What does that mean? Maybe it's because I keep looking at the pictures on www.joyofbaking.com and I get inspired. My wife's favourite dessert EVER is the Nanaimo Bar. I saw a recipe on joyofbaking.com and figured that they couldn't be that hard to make and it turns out they merely require a lot of waiting in between steps which makes the process seem longer.

Vietnamese Beef Stew (Thịt Bò Kho)

2012-04-16T20:56:00.000-04:00

My family recently compiled a digital cookbook with some of their very best recipes, some of which are Vietnamese dishes (surprise!). We are fairly open-minded when it comes to food and I think the book actually features more non-Vietnamese dishes but they all look quite good. Of course I submitted a few recipes, most of which I've written about here. Speaking of family, one of my aunts asked me

White Chocolate Brownies = Hot Blondies?

2012-04-04T22:34:00.001-04:00

A few years ago when I dabbled in baking, I somehow managed to make a batch of white chocolate brownies (or blondies) that tasted really, really good. The recipe I found online used hazelnuts and had a raspberry sauce that I never bothered to try and make. I'm fairly certain I undercooked the blondies and they ended up being amazing. It happened twice! Recently I decided to make them again

Blogaversary?

2012-03-03T12:55:00.001-05:00

I am off for ten days on a school trip to Europe! Hopefully I will survive to regale with tales of food I may have eaten? More importantly, we are nearing the anniversary of when I started this journey of food. I did not do as much as I had hoped to have done by the end of a year but it was fun and relevating all in the same! Here's to another good year!

Eunji bakes Chocolate Crinkles

2012-02-28T22:45:00.003-05:00

The baking rivalry heated up at school when my baking rival, Eunji, threatened to bring baked goods in for student council to finally prove that she is the better baker. She had me try one early on in the day before the meeting and then e-mailed me three pictures of the cookies. What can I say? They were delicious! A kind of perfect amount of sweetness, a little crunch on the outside, nice

February 14th Baking: Cherry Chocolate Hugs

2012-02-15T22:23:00.001-05:00

Valentine's has never been a big deal for my wife and I. There has never been any pressure to do, or more importantly buy, anything. However, during my daily skim of my Facebook newsfeed, I saw an intriguing post from one of my friends. Before we confirm the obvious fact that this post is indeed the recipe for today, I must tell you about my friend! She's a fantastic cook and baker (not to

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (In theory) and Chocolate chip cookies with no butter!

2012-02-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

Back in November, the student council (of which I am one of the faculty advisors) at our school had a PJ & pancake day. They cooked up a couple hundred pancakes and had toppings of all kinds for students to pile on their pancakes. In the end, they sold a lot of pancakes and the cafeteria was a sticky mess. However, they raised a lot of money maybe for a charity, I can't remember but they are

Schooled by Gigi: Ginger Tofu

2012-01-30T23:30:00.002-05:00

I have survived exams week and finished all of my report card work. I must now tell you about my attempts at making Gigi's Ginger Tofu. Who's Gigi? No, she's not family but someone I took a cooking class from once. She is a flavourist, someone that experiments with flavours to make food taste amazing, which I will confirm that she's pretty darn good at. So if you have already browsed the

New Year's Cháo - Brown Rice Congee

2012-01-30T19:45:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! This is a dish that I have only eaten once a year, since moving out on my own. Once a year on New Year’s Eve, during our family’s party we have a late night snack of nibbles and a big pot of seafood congee or cháo. This happens only a few hours after we have dinner at an all you can eat buffet but it’s such a treat that we manage to somehow find room for it.

Cooking class: Gigi Cohen's Favourite recipes

2012-01-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

We attended an awesome cooking class in December. In part it was awesome because of the food there but the other half of awesome-ness comes from the fact that it was taught by the mom of the girl who runs a delicious vegan, kosher foods place, Cafe Juicy Lotus, that I like to frequent. Her mom, Gigi Cohen has her own Harvard Cafe that is equally as kosher, more so vegetarian and great, though

Bundling up the year with some Banh Bao for Delicious Vietnam!

2011-12-07T21:13:00.001-05:00

It doesn't feel right to end the year with an entry about lemon cake. Not that I have anything against lemon cake, but somehow it doesn't feel as meaningful as I would like it to be. I started really writing about cooking in March of 2011. I've always been into the whole food thing, I just never wrote about it. At the time I got super into it, cooking and writing about something Vietnamese

(Friday night) Baking: Glazed Lemon Cake

2011-12-05T19:34:00.001-05:00

Aside from spending very little time writing nowadays, I also hardly keep up with reading other blogs which means I miss out on reading awesome things like this: Hot Chocolate on a Stick! What is there to do when your wife is out on a Friday night? The only answer I could think of is sit at home with a glass of wine, a chocolate caramel bar and write about the late night cake baking that went on

Famjam/Guest Post: Gillian's IKEA cake absurdities

2011-12-04T15:36:00.001-05:00

Hi, I’m Gillian, Minh’s wife and co-taster of most of the things he eats. (Very) occasionally I get creative in the kitchen as well, and today I wanted to share a baking story with you all. This is a story about two failures. This entry was originally meant to 1) show you all how to make the ‘IKEA cake’ (as my friends call it), and 2) help Minh out by writing in his blog so that there

Famjam: Gillian's 'Best' Gingerbread Cookies

2011-11-24T20:36:00.001-05:00

My wife makes the best gingerbread cookies. As the legend goes, one day she googled 'best gingerbread cookies' and ever since then, anyone who has tried these cookies has asked for the recipe. I just tried this and it is in the top 20 of gingerbread cookies though I think they are in no particular order. The new school that I'm teaching at has a pretty great group of teachers and they do a

Cooking with the Fam: Bánh Bèo with Mẹ

2011-11-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

Near the end of August we made our way back home to Nova Scotia before school kicked into gear for both of us. Before we get on with the Bánh Bèo, let's talk about a little something special from Halifax, Nova Scotia. As soon as we got home from the airport, my Mẹ asked me if I was hungry and asked me if I wanted a donair. Understand that the only place to get a true donair is indeed in Halifax,

Something fishy at the 1st annual Great Greely Fish Cake Throwdown

2011-10-21T17:36:00.000-04:00

I could not have been more honoured when I was asked to judge the first ever "Great Greely Fish Cake Throwdown" first held on October 16th, 2011. Greely is a rural community in the southern part of our Canada's capitol. My Uncle Don and Aunt Cathey, were the hosts of this event and I came as the judge from Montréal. My qualifications? If you've read my blog, you've seen them. Wait, I did grow up

Cooking with the Fam: Di Van's Dhal

2011-09-12T22:23:00.000-04:00

Although the first day of school was less than 2 weeks ago on Sep 1st, it feels more like a year as I've been working to keep up with the bustle of changes that occur in the first month of school. It certainly hasn't kept me from cooking but it definitely has been a hindrance to writing and I have a backlog of recipes and stories to share. Many years ago when I lived with my family in the East

Foodboxing - Lentil Bacon Linguine

2011-08-25T00:08:00.001-04:00

There was a sudden need to use up all the food in our pantry, a reason that I will mysteriously not discuss. However, I had ideas for to use up some linguine we had lying around without the need of much from the grocery store. For some unknown reason, I had a can of lentils in my sights for a few days and set a course for some kind of lentil pasta. I pondered the idea of a simple olive oil and