Am I the only one who uses Google's search suggestions as a form of entertainment? You know how when you start typing in Google's search box, their system shows similar searches by other Google users..yep that can be a pretty entertaining feature. For example, I type in "aren't you relieved" and I see a search suggestion "aren't you relieved you're not a golem?" Wait, what? Why would there be people out there searching for that? Or you start typing "sometimes I like to" and the Google search suggestion shows up "sometimes I like to pretend I am a carrot meme". I guess I could be into that, I haven't tried! Well similarly, I know a lot of women out there are searching on how to get their … [Read more...]

Before I started taking my health and the food I eat seriously, eating was like Facebooking - I would click the like button or just ignore the food completely. All my eating habits were developed around me liking the taste, without any thought to the time of day, the nutrient values, or challenging my taste buds to new tastes. This meant I was eating simple carbs paired with salty and spice meats - pizza, burgers, tacos. I was basically eating the same food every day presented differently. Eating healthy meant I was using seasonal ingredients either in raw form, or cooked lightly. This started the process of mindful eating. Instead of just saying I don't like the taste, now I was trying … [Read more...]

"You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day. Unless you are too busy. Then you should sit for an hour." - Old Zen Adage It has been sunny for the past few weeks which is unusual because it tends to rain here so much all year round. It was a beautiful summer morning in Vancouver today, we woke up to the sound of two pigeons cooing on our patio! Anup is a morning person and he generally is the first one to get out of bed and make our morning tea. What a sweet hubby! I am not the princess type, but if you saw us in the morning you would think I was the queen! I have to be coaxed out of the bed. The aromas of mint and ginger tea on the stove definitely helps. So we had … [Read more...]

I was at the supermarket earlier today and I noticed these attention-grabbing magazines next to the checkout line. One look at the covers of these magazines, and you know why we are struggling to be a healthier society: "Drink this extract and lose belly fat, while you sleep!" "10 superfoods to lose 14 pounds in two weeks!" "8 reasons why you don't have six-pack abs!" "10 minute workouts to look your best, guaranteed!" "Look sexy this summer, just follow our 6 step plan!" In all this noise of quick fixes, the focus on long-term healthy habits is completely lost. Why is it important to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks, would it be better if you took more time to create better habits? What will … [Read more...]

It has been almost two weeks since I have posted on the blog! Ever since I started the blog last September, it has been a big part of my regular routine. The way I cook for myself and my lover is worlds apart from the way I cook for the blog. Oh, did I just call him my lover? Well okay then, we will go with that! So yes, cooking for the blog involves getting inspired by something or someone to create a new recipe, researching and gathering the ingredients, taking about 100 photos to select the final 4, and then creating the blog post to glue it all together! Once I post a recipe on the blog, the real work begins - submitting the recipe to a bunch of sites and promoting the post on social … [Read more...]

I still remember how excited I was on my first day at culinary school. Me and 19 others just like me were wearing our new white coats, white hats, with the new knife sets we had just bought on our shoulders. Surely, we were all subconsciously feeling like the contestants on Top Chef, ready to amaze everyone else with our skills! So our instructor walked into the kitchen, gave us all a smile, and asked us a question: How many players are there on a football team? A couple of enthusiastic students answered in unison: 11 players on each team, Chef! The instructor continued: So out of the 22 players on the football field, how many handle the ball at any given time? One player, Chef! So what … [Read more...]

There was a movie released a couple of years ago - The Grey. A plane-carrying team of oil workers crashes in Alaska in the middle of nowhere. Some days, I feel like I am in that movie because "The Grey" is how I would describe Vancouver in these winter days! For us Canadians in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year, is this Saturday, December 21st. It has been snowing in Vancouver for the past week and it has been getting darker sooner each day. Some days, we don't even see the Sun at all! There are two things that keep me upbeat during the winter days - green tea with lemon and warm hearty soups! While the cold winter days scream meat and potatoes … [Read more...]

There is a guy who is a regular at the gym I go to. I have noticed that all the exercises he does at the gym are for his chest - bench presses, push-ups, flies - day in and day out. I have never seen him do any deadlifts, or lunges, or pull-ups. He knows chest workouts, and he is really good at it. In hindsight, my diet back when I ate out more than I cooked meals myself, was similar to this guy's workout routine. A significant portion of my meals consisted of carbohydrates and meats - pizzas, pasta, burgers. Lack of fruits and vegetables in my diet meant an absence of sour, bitter and astringent tastes. My liking for sweet and mellow flavor profiles along with the lack of other tastes in … [Read more...]

Even before I attended culinary school, I was an adventurous home cook. I read a lot of food magazines, watched every episode of top chef, and drooled over amazing pictures on my favorite food blogs. I like to think that everything I have read about food, every picture, and recipe I have come across has contributed to the cook I am today. Nothing has changed me more as a cook than my training at the culinary school. If I had to describe my style of cooking before culinary school in one phrase, it would be "more is better". If I had to enhance a dish, I always looked to do more. More ingredients, more sauces, more spices - I thought these things made my dishes "more awesome". My … [Read more...]