Finale!

I treated my boyfriend to a delicious chocolate extravaganza birthday dessert at Finale in Boston. If any of you don't know Finale, you are missing out. It is a great dessert restaurant with just about the most decadent sweet things you can imagine. We had molten chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream accompanied by a flight of 3 decades of port. I know how to get to a man's heart!

Okonomiyaki in London

On my way back from Turkey, I stopped by London for the day and had a most unusual but thoroughly satisfying meal of Okonomiyaki. This is really great Japanese food which is kind of an omelette based primarily on cabbage and other foods. The restaurant, Abeno, prepares it right in front of you so you can see all the goodness happening before you. I love that! As I was traveling alone, I pretended that I was some sort of food critic or food writer taking notes and tons of pics. The meal itself was really filling and oh, so good! Highly recommended.

Good Turkish food

So, I've been out and about for a while, hence the lack of posts. I was away on vacation in Turkey, which meant lots of amazingly tasty and fresh foods.

To describe Turkish food in one online post represents a gross under-representation of the decadence, freshness, goodness, and bliss of Turkish food. So, I apologize to all Turkish food lovers out there. I will NOT do Turkish food justice. I do not intend to do so. I will simply describe what I ate and the sensations I experienced.
I traveled with my best-friend for our 30th birthday celebrations. All we wanted to do throughout the trip was talk, connect, hug, dance and...EAT!

Here's a sampling of my favorite foods/drinks we had during the trip
Breakfast: We found a little family-owned place that offered typical Turkish breakfast. The funny thing about the whole experience was that we always had to point and nod because we didn't speak Turkish and our hosts didn't speak a lick of English. I loved the fact that breakfast is a leisurely exercise in Turkey. We typically started breakfast at 10 am and didn't leave the place until 11:30 am. I also enjoyed the fact that we had fresh tomatoes and cucumber for breakfast. Such an amazing deviation from the sugar-laden, refined carb, American breakfast of our day. The other indulgence in the breakfast was this amazing creamy cheese, drowned in honey.









Cafe food. A simple tuna sandwich and soup was made so well. The lentil soup was very mild and soothing to our tired bodies after a morning of sightseeing











Spices at the spice market. It was amazing just to see all of them out in the open.














And then there was this deadly stuff, Raki. I only had one sip. Enough. Really.


Though I didn't get to photograph this, we had a whole bunch of mezze throughout our stay. These small plates are a delicious mix of flavors.

A post on London and West Virginia.

If you are ever going to eat a burger

My friend Candace and I had a dinner date last night. Since the economy is imploding on itself lately, we decided that we would want to spend about 10 bucks each on dinner. Not a bad decision for single lasses like us. I found this wonderful place in my neighborhood called Good Stuff Eatery. And can I tell you, it is such good stuff. What I like most about the place is

1) They make their food from really fresh ingredients. Or at least that's what they claim

2) They have this killer burger flavored with cilantro and carrots. My philosophy about food is to take the bad calories with some good. So, if I'm going to eat a burger, I better eat some other good calories to cancel the bad. My nutritionist readers are probably going to crucify me for saying that!

3) They have pretty good turkey burgers. I don't like beef all that much. And ground beef is actually even worse because not only is it beef but then one never knows whether they are eating a cow's leg, finger or nose. I'll stick with the turkey.

4) They grill their meet right in front of you. It is not deep fried (well, except the fries). Pretty good for an obsessive lard-avoider

5) They serve salads. Ok, on the salads I actually was disappointed. First, they make all their salads are made with lettuce. I consider lettuce as good as a potato as a vegetable. It's pretty much water and a little bit of fibre. Not much more in terms of nutrients. The other no-no they did is that they added so much of this nasty parmesan on top! Another ingredient they added in it was tortilla chips! Really, Good Stuff, Really? Do you have to have chips in a salad? Totally destroyed the salad for me. Though I typically ask for olive oil and lemon at restaurants, I thought I should try their mystery dressing with the salad. It tasted pretty light and flavorful. The salad also had some corn and tomatoes in it. Not many but a few to see that I wasn't just eating lettuce, chips and parmesan. I think they should stick to the burgers if that's their specialty.

6) As I was leaving, I saw their shake menu. No way! I am not going to destroy my health with a shake. Though I was incredibly tempted, I decided, no way, Jose!

I probably eat "bad food" like burgers once a month. And since I have a permanent embargo against McDo and the like, I am happy to find decent burgers that won't send me to my grave too quickly

Mighty Kale

So, I'm going out of town for about a week and a half and have been trying to clear my fridge in preparation. Today I decided to work for home, which means...*drumroll*...I get to make my own lunch! However, there's very little in my fridge at the moment. All I could find was a pack of tofu, a few weak carrots, some potatoes. Mhhh...not very appetizing, right? I actually almost walked down the street to my neighborhood Cosi for an overpriced salad. Glad I didn't. I would have regretted it a ton. Well, I remembered also that I had frozen a bunch of kale a few weeks ago for fear of it going to waste. I love kale! I also found some chopped onion and ginger in my freezer for extra flavor. So, I decided to make myself some tofu and kale shindig.

Here's what I used:
1 packet (500 g) of very firm tofu cut into large cubes- I really like it hard- can't stand the texture of the silken kind
3 carrots peeled and cut into strips
a bunch of kale, chopped finely
1/2 onion (I had some frozen)
a little bit of ginger (mine was frozen so might have lost some flavor)
5-6 baby potatoes
canola oil to fry
a shake of red peppers
soy sauce
a few drops of sesame oil

Put potatoes to boil in a small pot.
Pour some canola oil in a wok. Add cubed tofu and fry for about 3 mins until slightly brown. Add carrots and cook for another minute. Add onion, ginger and the kale. Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, and red peppers. Cook with the lid open until the kale is wilted. By this time the potatoes should be cooked. Serve stir fry and potatoes together hot. Enjoy. Return to laptop and work :)

Ok, here are a few reasons I love kale
1) It's probably just as good as spinach but doesn't give you that nasty heartburn.
2) I grew up eating lots of greens in Southern Africa, and kale has the best texture and I believe tastes the best.
3) It is probably one of the cheapest veggies in American supermarkets (I think cabbage is the cheapest)
4) It doesn't spoil easily
5) It will give you more than you ever would need in Vitamin A, K and C. >1000% of Vit K daily value! I still need to figure out what vitamin K does, but hey, I'm sure it doesn't hurt.
6) It's chock full of fibre- an itsy bit will give you about 20% of your daily allowance
If you want to know more about Kale, go here
Oh, also, as you can see,

What I just had for lunch today!

So, I decided to start a blog about healthy food because I care deeply about food and eating. Friends have noticed that I eat healthily, fanatically and they often ask for recipes about what to make. Well, this is it! I'll post my own recipes (I rarely follow others' recipes well), interesting articles and tidbits about eating well. Enjoy!

This salad was literally mixing up
1 cup corn ( warm up frozen)
1 can on tuna
1 cup green peppers (chopped finely)
a handful of salad greens
1 lemon
a handful of dried cranberries
salt and pepper to taste
I just opened the can of tuna and added the lemon. then added all other ingredients. The corn was a bit warm, which was nice because it is kinda cool today. Delicious!