I first interested after reading my Winnipeger's foodie buddy, Zollipop. Back when she posted about it, I somehow forgot about this place. Then, two days ago at the urbanspoon, I found people posted some pictures of this cafe. One of them was a picture of different hot sauces on this cafe's table.

You might be curious why I was so fascinated just because a picture of hot sauces. Well let me tell you. I grew up at a place where all restaurants have a bottle or bowl of chili sauce or sambal on the table. I came to the country where I have to ask for hot sauce at some restaurants unless I go to the Asian ones. Sriracha, tabasco and chili oil are pretty common to be offered here, but this cafe offers sambal ABC sauce or labeled as tropical chili sauce in Canada and Thai sweet chili sauce. Now, you got what I meant. Yes, I grew up with this kinds of sambal sauce (preferably jempol and belibis brand), but since sambal ABC is the easiest to get in Winnipeg, I like buying it.





The Sherbrook area, the one that is closed to Misericodia hospital has some places to dine in for vegetarians such as Stella's Cafe, Cousins Deli & Lounge and Charisma Indian restaurant. In my honest opinion, with a great concept and settled in the right neighbourhood, Boon Burger Cafe will do considerably. Plus, it is owned by conscientious people.

Take a look what this place has promised...


The place is not that big yet very efficient. It has two communal tables inside and two small round tables at the patio. The communal table really reminds me of traditional warungs (read: small restaurants) in Indonesia where you can have a chat with the strangers next to or in front of you. Strangers are just friends you don�t yet know. Don't you think?

As an omnivore who often makes vegetarian foods for the better half, I enjoyed my Salsa Burger from Boon. Salsa Burger contains grilled mushroom-rice patty, chunky salsa, avocado, a slice of daiya vegan cheese, red onion and lettuce. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the salsa. I don't find the salsa is perfect balance for this burger. However, I took a bit of my husband's Buddha Burger and loved it! Buddha Burger has curried chickpea patty, mayo, creamy cucumber sauce, peach chutney, sliced cucumber, tomato, red onion and lettuce.


In fact, I didn't eat in. I just recreated how Boon serves the burgers for the sake of picture; serve on a square wood plate. Thanks goodness for my food props at home! I have almost the same as Boon has, so I can take a picture of my meal. Plus, I have my own sambal ABC sauce too

Boon's baked sesame fries was tasty too. Yummmm.

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These pictures have been long overdue. Seven months ago when I still stayed in Boissevain, I was kinda craving for Ethiopian food. But, no Ethiopian restaurants in the province except in Winnipeg. Then, I read on the Brandon local newspaper that there would be the 7th Annual Lieutenant Governor's Winter Festival in Brandon. The distance between Brandon and Boissevain is about an hour driving.

The festival's concept was pretty much similar to Folklorama in Winnipeg. Just for your information, Folklorama is the largest and longest running multicultural event of its kind in the world!

Today, I just realized that I have had these pictures (make sure you see all the pictures below) when I went back to my old photo stocks on Flickr.

I was first got to know Ethiopian cuisine in 2008 when my husband and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant in our neighbourhood. Then, we felt in love with the food right away.

Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no pork of any kind, as most Ethiopians are either Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Muslims or Jews, and are thus prohibited from eating pork.

Look how pretty the Massobs are! Massob/Mesob is an Ethiopian communal serving basket and made from woven grass.




When I entered the room and breathed in, the aroma rang a bell right away. Smell just like dupa in Indonesian or kemenyan in Javanese. It was incense that burned inside Kirkira (sorry if I misspelled).



This was my portion of Injera, Wat and Tibs. Injera is an Ethiopian large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour; Wat is meat Stew, it can be chicken, lamb and/or beef; Tibs is sauteed vegetables.


Teff flour is a gluten-free flour substitute that you can use in any of your recipes calling for all-purpose flour. It has nutty flavor and adds a pleasant sweetness to any recipe.

First time, I had a goat stew at the Ethiopian restaurant, I was stunned. It did remind me of goat curry in Indonesia. For those who love South East Asian curries, you won't have a hard time to like Ethiopian dishes.

Since I got to know Ethiopian tradition, I found similarity between Ethiopians and Indonesians. Traditionally, we eat the food with the right hand, no cutlery. Honestly, I sometimes do eat by hand at home :-P. The difference, the Ethiopians use injeera to pick up food. They also have small bowl with water and a slice of lime for washing the hand.


Stay tune for my next post, Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony.

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Please find 3 more pictures below that have been in my file since early January and April this year. I went to this place about 3 times already.

I first came to try this restaurant with a friend and chose Ohjinguh Bokkeum meal. It came with onjinguh bokkeum (Stir Fried Spicy Squid with Vegetables), stew potatoes, kimchi, stir fry bean sprouts and rice.



Then, I recommended to my husband and he agreed to try. Even though this Japanese and Korean restaurant isn't big, it has accommodated my husband who loves Japanese food and myself, the Korean food junkie. As usual, he went for the sashimi and I picked the spicy dishes. So, it was my second visit; I chose Gae Jang Baek Ban due to my high curiosity of raw crab taste. It was really really spicy, but good; a mix sweetness and spicy of gochujang. The blue crab tasted fresh no fishy or unpleasant odour. The sashimi was good too (no picture for that as you know how it looks already).



With medium range prices, friendly service and efficient, you can see why I came back to this restaurant for 3 times. However, for myself, I'd rather stick to their sashimi and Korean dishes.

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If you follow my flickr, you may see this picture before. I have posted on there and kinda didn't feel to post on my blog at that time. But, I changed my mind.   I should tell you that I love this shot. Not only the shot, I do love the taste of this chocolate, fill with the goodness of A�ai and Blueberry.

Before I continue telling you what A�ai is. In the US, the products have a slightly different name. In Canada, the company sells under a name Dark Chocolate A�ai & Blueberry while in the US, it's Dark Chocolate A�ai with Blueberry.

You may not familiar with the name of A�ai. A�ai (ah-sigh-ee) berries are the fruit of the a�ai palm tree.

According to wikipedia, eight species are native to Central and South America, from Belize southward to Brazil and Peru, growing mainly in swamps and floodplains. A�a� palms are tall, slender palms growing to 15�30 meters, with pinnate leaves up to 3 meters long. The berry has been harvested for hundreds of years as a staple in the local diet.

In Canada, A�a� can be found in the forms of frozen pulp for smoothie mix and juice. It's one of suprefruits and has the high antioxidant property. Two times more than Pomegranates, three times more than blueberries and ten times more than red grapes. Also, it has a fatty acid ratio resembling olive oil and the same protein profile of an egg.

I found this product on sale at that time at the Shoppers Drug Mart.

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Yummy Gravlax

The Stella's Cafe and Bakery serves all day breakfast menu.   I never ordered the same food whenever I went there.

The first time I felt in love with this cafe was about 3 years ago. I adored their homemade jam. With a perfect sweetness, I meant for a person who doesn't like too much sweet things like me; their jam is so perfect. Also, I still could find the strawberry chunks in it. You can dunk your toast into the jam.

Last Wednesday, my husband (PB) and I went there for the sixth time. I saw the cafe has new choices. While PB ordered a fish burger with a cup of carrot coriander soup, I chose an Open Face Gravlax Salmon with the same soup as he had.

Surely, he loved the fish burger which was made from pickerel. As Stella's style, it always had a sprinkle of fried shallots inside the burger. What about me? It was my first time to have Gravlax. I do love it. I am a sashimi lover, so I didn't refuse Gravlax at all. Gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill. If you still wonder about Gravlax, here is a good link to inform you more.

My Canadian husband has a very little mix with Icelandic.  However, he didn't know about Gravlax before.:)

He also enjoyed the bottled tea that we only found at Stella's so far. Perfect sweetness and acidity! Not too sweet nor too sour.  To wake me up, I needed a bit caffeine for my beverage. I picked a cup of Caff� Latte.





The ambient is very relax, even though most of the time are busy.

I'm doing this review not because I get paid.  Hence, this is my personal opinion. When you are in Winnipeg, try to visit this local cafe.  The Stella's has 3 locations in town.  The one that I used to go is at 166 Osborne Street.

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When I was 13 years old, our family moved to a residential area that had more Chinese descendants. My dad decided to move there since his work was remote to Surabaya.

In that area, I had more opportunity to know their culture, including the food. Take a look Tuty's blog, she mentioned all the goodies that I used to get from my neighbours when they celebrated Chinese New Year.

After graduating from high school, I moved to Bogor to continue my education where I met my good friend who has mixed blood of Chinese, Javanese and Sundanese. I recalled we loved to collect Chinese accessories and see barongsai (Lion's dance). Not only that, we love to eat noodle, Sundanese food and fish head.

Ohh well, time goes by so fast. I miss that old time! Not to mention that I got the day off because Chinese New Year is a public holiday in Indonesia. I know I am to late to say "Gong Xi Fa Chai" or "Selamat Tahun Baru Imlek" or Happy Chinese New Year.

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I am totally confused with the weather. It was been so nice the past weeks, almost like spring, then suddenly snow's storm this weekend. I didn't go back to Winnipeg since it is to dangerous for driving on highways, especially snow and the temperature just above 0 degrees Celsius.

As I came to this country, checking the weather network has been my habit. This is not included checking the highway's condition before traveling. Opps the weather watch has updated about "Winter Storm Warning : R.M. of Morton including Boissevain and Turtle Mtn Prov. Park." It was said, "A massive winter storm continues to envelop most of Southern Manitoba this evening. As of 10 PM snowfall amounts in general range from 10 to 20 cm." Damnnn.... I sound like a weather man woman.

C'mon. Stay positive and try not to waste your energy by being grumpy. Well, I almost forgot that I got two different awards from Lia Chen of Bentolicious  and Tata of Bonito's Cooking Wonderland

Thank you Lia and Tata for the awards

I'm passing these awards to all my foodie buddies!

Here is a great treat for you! Creamy Cauliflower Cheddar Soup.

Disclaimer: I didn't make this soup. It was made by a lady who owns the house, where I stay during my work in Boissevain.

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While people in the US celebrated Thanksgiving on November 26, in Indonesia and all Muslims around the world celebrate the holy sacrifice day, Eid ul Adha or Hajj Eid on November 27. No special dishes that I made or am going to make as I'm staying in Boissevain. Pretty jealous with my brother's girl friend who put her status "I'm eating Iyuk's opor". Opor is a Javanese braised chicken in coconut milk.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrate it.

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It was the day when we had to look for goat feta cheese. We went to one of cheese specialty store on Corydon avenue. That store doesn't have it. I told to my husband, we should check Greek Market which is located on Corydon ave too. I used to this store to get my tiramisu on a cup. Love tiramisu, but I don't want to make it by myself since my tempation is only for a small piece.

Yes!! I am right this store has 3 kinds of feta cheese, cow, goat and sheep. I felt like bringing my husband to toy's store. It has most everything he likes, not many meat products are sold.

See what we got beside feta cheese.

Greek Market
1440 Corydon Ave
Winnipeg, MB
Canada R3N 0J3
Phone: 1-204-488-6161
E-mail: info@greekmarket.ca

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The picture is my submission for Click-Agust 2009 with a theme Allium.

Idea of the picture? Why the heck did I put red onion on top of the jar with water in it? Here is the clue, by utilizing the green parts for cooking and leave the red bulb in a jar with water, the greens will grow back and you can use them again, as long as you keep the bulb under water. This method can apply for green onions or scallions as well.

In Indonesian culinary, allium has been used widely, especially shallot which is often in one recipe it is called more than 3 pieces of shallot. The specialty Indonesian nasi goreng also uses shallot, not garlic.

A part of my work�s schedule every Friday is to visit the local farmers� market (FM). On that day, I will bring home a big bag of organic fresh salad mix which is so cheap only $ 2.50. The salad mix frequently contains edible flowers.

About a month ago, I realized that I couldn�t get the usual shallot that I used to get whenever I am in Winnipeg. Instead, I bought a bunch of fresh red onion from the FM and the onions still had the green stalks attached. Anyway, I only keep one bulb of the red since I used the bulb for cooking, my shallot�s substitution for the time being. :)

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It was like my ambition to have a cute picture of blueberry since two years ago. Hence, I never got the best shot until last week. I wish I had time to go for blueberry's picking at the Manitoba's local farm. Anyhow, I got a pack of British Columbia's grown blueberry from the store, it's still Canada's producer, eh!

Set up my blueberries on the patio's table, also a small white napkin with blue strip that I got from the local store in Boissevain, The Station.

Lidia told me about the Click July 2009 edition's theme "Bi-Colour" that was perfect for my blueberry's picture. Blue and White is my submission for Click.

I do love taking pictures, but I am pissed off lately as I found two pictures of mine have been stolen by a blog, asiarecipestips dot blogspot dot com. To whoever take food pictures from another blog, use them without telling the owner and eventually you are making money from your blog. You are convicted of stealing.

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Have you ever had berries cheese snack before? The product was pretty innovative by combining mozzarella cheese and Saskatoon berries. To create a packaging for the product, my friend asked me a favour to take few shots of the product as his team group who were developed for their class project. Shots were taken a place at the Food Science's kitchen of my university.

For those who are interested to develop this product, you may contact my friend by sending me an email.

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Homemade Vegetarian Stock is easy to make, especially if you are really concerned about your diet. By making your own stock, at least you know what the ingredients are. A number of store-bought stocks contain MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) which I have problem with.

I have followed this recipe twice. Just throw the vegetable you have in a roast pot. As you notice, most of my recipes are barely used store-bought stock or broth, I usually make my own stock and keep it the freezer.

This vegetarian stock is modified from Canadian Living magazine issued on October 2006. Great stock for your mushroom cream soup.

Homemade Vegetarian Stock
recipe by Canadian Living magazine, modified by me

Ingredients:
3 each carrots, onions and stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 cup (250 mL) sliced shittake mushroom stems or caps
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp (10 mL) vegetable oil
3 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
3 sprigs sage
10 peppercorns, cracked
2 Indonesian bay leaves (salam leaves)
8 cups (2 L) cold water
seasalt as desired


Rosemary and Wilted Sage

Directions:
In large roasting pan, stir together carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms, garlic and oil to coat. Roast in 450�F (230�C) oven, stirring halfway through , until softened and browned, about 40 minutes. Transfer to stockpot.

If you like, add 1 tsp (5 mL) crumbled dried mushrooms for even deeper flavour. Add thyme, sage, rosemary, peppercorns, Indonesian bay leaves, and all but 1 cup (250 mL) of the water to stockpot. Pour remaining water into roasting pan, stirring and scraping up any brown bits, over heat if necessary. Scrape into stockpot and bring to boil; skim off any foam. Reduce heat to medium; simmer for 40 minutes.

Strain through fine sieve, gently pressing vegetables. Stir in seasalt.


Notes:

• Servings: 5 cups (1.25 L)
• Make-ahead: Let cool for 30 minutes. Refrigerate, uncovered, in airtight container until cold. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 4 months.
• The original recipe used Bay Leaves which actually have different flavour with Indonesian Bay Leaves.
• Be Creative

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December 29.2008 or Muharram 1st.1430 Hijriyah is very important day for Muslim around the world. It is an Islamic New Year. As Islamic calender is a lunar calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. It is used to date events in many predominantly Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic holy days and festivals. This lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Islamic holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar. Islamic years are also called Hijriyah or Hijra years.

On the same date, it is also a Javanese New Year. The Javanese calendar is a calender that is still used by the Javanese people of Indonesia concurrently with two other important calendars, the Gregorian calendar and the Islamic calendar.

With this post, I would like to say Happy Islamic New Year 1430 Hijriyah. Also, being a 50 percent of Javanese descendant, I would like to say Sugeng Warsa Enggal 1942. This sentence means Happy New Year in Javanese.

Source: wikipedia and http://bambangpriantono.multiply.com/

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One day, I enjoyed a hot chili and spice chocolate from my mug. I put on my Facebook status at that time. Dita of Yummy!! commented that she had a chili chocolate cookies recipe. I told her that I also have a recipe of chocolate chili cookies from Canadian Living magazine, but I haven't tried to make it yet. I wondered if she ever tried chocolate chili and chocolate matcha bars as I had both of them before. She told me she hasn't found those chocolate bars for purchase.

I am a big fan of chocolate especially the dark one, and you also may know that I love chili. This combination goes well into the hot chili and spice chocolate beverage. In Canada, you may find this brand at health stores or any stores that sell organic food products. Camino also has chocolate bars product with few different flavour, such as chili and spice, and matcha.

Use you favourite milk to make this. I barely have milk in the fridge, but I always have soy beverage. Heat up soy beverage, add chocolate chili powder, stir and pour into your mug. Ready to serve. With combination of chili, ginger and cocoa powder, this beverage is perfect to warm up your body on winter season.

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Before you jump into conclusion, I'll tell you this is not my cooking. We ordered from Caribbean Spice Restaurant on Sunday evening. Since it was really damn cold - 43 degrees Celsius with windchil, both of us craved Caribbean food, we didn't feel to go out to get warm and hot spicy Caribbean food. Our Caribbean favourite restaurant, Tropikis doesn't deliver, we looked up on yellow pages and tried another Caribbean restaurant in the city.

I didn't aware about Caribbean food until I came to Canada. My husband who introduced me to Caribbean food and I felt in love right away. I do love their goat curry roti as well. It does taste spicy with chili but not too much other spices . I guess Caribbean food is closed to Indonesian culinary that has more chili added.

As you can see above picture, that hot sauce is real damn hot. It did made my lips "jontor" or burn. The oxtail stew was really tender and I can taste combination of allspice. Allspice is a small round fruit if you can see on these pictures, strongly aromatic, like cloves with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg; the taste is similar, but with some peppery heat. Allspice is also known as Jamaican pepper or Pimento. My order came with roti and garden salad. The thing that I like from Caribbean roti is stuffed with dhal puri. Dhal puri is a seasoned mushy split pea. If you wonder how to make that dhal puri roti from scratch, please visit Cynthia's blog, Tastes Like Home.

As my husband is a pesco vegetarian, he stuck to his favourite vegetarian roti. His lips did got burned by the hot sauce too :).

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