Hale-e-luia!
Who's that handsome man cutting the cake? Well it is the man of the hour, Mr. Hale!
Pics are from a celebration on the Hale farm for Robbie's 60th. Am getting details on who made the cake (as it looks like there are Smarties on it) and what they are carving up for the guests to eat. Look at the lovely land they live on, lush green fields and gentle rolling hills.

My NZ mother Pat, the best lemon pie maker, is also in the pic with her hubby below.

Birthday wishes and hugs from the UK xo

Easy sweet potato soupAn easy and quick soup to make for a cold winter's day. You only need to chop things very roughly as at the end you just blend it up with a hand blender or a food processor. Have a big batch in the fridge and just had a bowl - so delicious. I usually only make it with potato but adding sweet potato completely changes the taste.

• Leeks - 1-2 stalks depending on how thick they are
• Potatoes - 1-2 regular sized (I only used a tiny one in this recipe)
• Sweet potatoes - 1-2 regular sized (as they are usually larger than potatoes
• 2 Onions
• Chili pepper to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and chop up everything roughly (remember to peel the potatoes)
Throw into a pot cover it all with water and let boil.
After 20-30min test to see if your potatoes are cooked through to the core - if they are then voila your soup is ready.
Use a hand blender to blend it all together add salt, pepper and chili or other spices as you wish.
Serve with crusty bread.

So simple!

Pic of sweet potatoes, in NZ they call sweet potato Kumara (said Kumera) in the Excited States of America they call them yams.

Happy Saturday!

Edmonds & Dee's scones
Dee made these scones from a recipe from the biggest selling book ever in New Zealand, no not the Da Vinci Code or the Guide to Counting Sheep, but Edmonds cookbook. They were delicious! She made plain ones and ones with bacon and onion...yum! Everyone in New Zealand (and those Kiwis in London) have this cookbook.

Edmonds started in the early part of the 1900s by a retailer who decided to make a better quality baking powder as his customers complained about the various types he sold in his shop. From his better quality powder, the business blossomed from there into more cookery products and became a large Kiwi empire, which still continues today.
Way back then, when couples got engaged they received a free copy of the cookbook as a gift (this has stopped now).
The history of the company is very interesting, the intro to the cookbook is an interesting read. The book has the basic recipes to the main foods a 'housewife' back then should know how to cook for her working husband. Recipes are still relevant today and made by both male and females!

Scones

• 1 breakfastcup flour (piled up)
• 1½ teaspoons Edmonds' Baking Powder
• 1 oz. butter (or lard)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 egg

Rub butter (or lard) into flour, then add other dry ingredients, beat egg with little water, mix all into dough. Bake as usual, quick oven. If made without the egg, use milk in place of water.

Prova - ProvidoresTurkish eggs from changa restaurant in Istanbul - two poached eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter.
This is what I had for breakfast today at The Providores! It was divine and we were very pleased to get a table as the queue is always very long to get inside. Once inside it was lovely and the service was fabulous - you can tell Kiwis own it as customer service is a priority as opposed to some British establishments who put that very low on the list.

In Italian prova means - try - so - you must try this place - I will definitely go back for other menu items and to try some of their New Zealand wines - my brunch parter was kiwi and was admiring their wine collection.


The three owners of The Providores created a unique dining experience in the heart of London’s Marylebone Village - the union of an award winning relaxed fine dining restaurant, and an all-day cafe and wine bar with one of the best breakfast offerings in London and the most delicious coffee. (from their website - am still on a mini typing ban!)

Get there for some great food and great service and to hear a lot of kiwi accents around you!

Egg on top?Kaiaua Fisheries, located on Coast Road, Kaiaua - apparently the best fish and chips place in NZ. When Robbie and Pat took me there he ordered his with an egg on top! I have never seen that done before. Kaiaua is such a small, quaint place near Waikato and the farm. The service is great and the food is even better. It is apparently Buns' favorite place to eat fush and chups (as the Kiwis say).

I had a craving for fish and chips today and perhaps next time I order it I will ask for an egg on top. I wonder if that is a Kiwi thing or they will serve it to me like that at Chippy's on Queen Street W? That is the only fish and chips place I can think of in this city.

Chippy's have a great website (look at the pic below - it makes your mouth water, non?) and the menu looks good too, will have to take the Brit when she gets here as am sure she is missing some Brit-style food on her travels. Review of Chippy's to come...

Pineapple Lumps
A NZ treat! It smells like pineapple, has pineapple flavour but I don't think there is any pineapple in this candy bar (from what I recall when reading the ingredients' list).

My sis and I have a new favourite show -Flight of the Conchords - about two Kiwis who move to NYC to get their folk band into the limelight. It is hilarious and is getting quite the cult following. My friends in NY love it and my friends in TO are also keenly watching each week as Jermaine and Brett go through some interesting experiences in NY. It doesn't seem to be showing in NZ which is a shame as it is truly a gem of a show.

They make a lot of funny NZ references and perhaps one day they will be eating Pineapple Lumps sent to them from their family back home. One thing they do not do on the show is call each other by a nickname as every Kiwi I know is not called their real name e.g. Bug, Bun, Bobs, Coops, Hunty, Heinzy, Madz etc... Seriously, these are some of the Kiwi people whom I have met and for months did not know their real names. Some of them I still cannot recall their real names?!

On the site Homesick-Kiwi.com Pineapple Lumps are, 'the single best-seller among homesick Kiwis. Chewy and satisfying.'

Taro and rou rou

If you are not sick of Fiji posts then read on. If you are sick of them here's a diversion...go to this website and read interesting stuff about career and personal coaching at my friend Daryl's site called Dynamic Life Creations.

So readers that have stayed on here is info about the food in the photo which was a typical dish served in Fiji.

I have never eaten taro (white triangular shape at centre of the plate) or rou rou which is the local spinach (green stuff on the plate) but we had plenty of it while in paradise (a.k.a Fiji).

Taro is like a harder potato with a starchy texture but tastes like a dry mixture of pumpkin and potato and the rou rou is the local spinach. It was so nice to eat as it was always served in a coconut milk sauce. I think I will try cooking our local spinach, which is leafy rather than the Fijian one which is ong and stringy, in coconut sauce as it was delicious.

Taro was served to us every day while we were on the Yasawa Islands and it seems that the vegetable has been a staple of the indigenous Fijian diet for centuries. Locals call it taro root but it is not really a root but a corm.

Corms are short, vertical, swollen underground plant stems that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat. Interesting factoid, non?

In 1993 Samoa had a problem with their taro crops and Fiji stepped in to fill the gap. They then became the main supplier for New Zealand, Australia, and Los Angeles in the United States (there are a lot of Californian's in Fiji as it is an overnight 11hr flight to the islands).

Am not sure if you can buy it in Toronto but will have a look next time I am at the market and will try and make taro and rou rou for the Dolce's. Will need to call Grace of Pig 'N Pancake fame, in Oregon for a recipe.

taro corms

Travel for Green-lipped
I love traveling places as it is always interesting to see other countries' supermarkets, what they eat and how their food is packaged, cooked and displayed. It was a such a surprise to see these green lipped mussels at the Woolworth's supermarket on Waiheke Island in New Zealand. They were emitting such a bright green color I just had to take a few pics and we had to buy some for dinner as they looked so fresh.

I wasn't sure if we had them in Canada so Googled them and read on Wikipedia that they are only native to New Zealand. I was loving the vivid green color of them, it reminded me of the colors that we saw each day snorkeling in the South Pacific Ocean.

We bought a few kilograms and made them back at the bach - this is what New Zealanders call their cottages. Not sure where the origin of the word bach (referring to a holiday home) comes from is but it would be good to find out.

I usually sautée mussels in a broth of butter, lots of onions, white wine and garlic from a recipe that Ms. Dunnigan my Quebecois friend taught me. That night the chef made the Perna canaliculus steamed with garlic and a little white wine and they were delicious and extremely fresh. We had been enjoying fresh fish for a whole month and it was delightful! Back home I am not eating as much fish and seem to be eating a lot of pasta, no surprise there, non?Am going to have to get back onto more fish and fresh fruit.

For those who are into the health benefits of eating certain foods, eating the green lipped mussel or taking tablets that they sell containing an extract from the shellfish is known to help with the treatment of arthritis; they have a high level of glycosaminoglycan which can assist in the repair of joint tissue damage.
You may be able to get these at the fish market (will check at the St. Lawrence Market) otherwise Air New Zealand now has daily, direct flights from Vancouver to Auckland so you'll have to just go there - remember you will get free tea or coffee at the airport ;)

Would you like tea with your baggage?After Fiji there was a wonderful week spent in Auckland, New Zealand. Upon arrival at Auckland International Airport I had quite a pleasant shock which at first I thought was a joke. A big sign was popping out from the custom's line which read 'free tea and coffee.'

I thought this was an offer if you buy something from duty free or if you signed up to some credit card or some tourism gimmick but it was none of the above. It was simply a warm welcome and free tea and coffee to passengers arriving from their worldly destinations.

It was served by the two friendliest ladies I met on my month-aventure. The tea counter is near the baggage claim area so while waiting for your bags to roll off the belt you can chat with the ladies and get a steaming cup of java or tea. After a few minutes I got the latest gossip on weather in NZ and who they were and all about how the free tea stand is the only one in any airport in the world (which I beleive to be true- I thought Canadians were hospitable).

We gossiped more on where I was from (they thought I was Brazilian from my now faded tan) and we chatted about Sicily and more about the coffe which was arabica. I didn't actually want coffee or tea at that moment but it was the whole interaction that made having the coffee so pleasant.

The free tea and the airport itself were all very civilized, not like the chaotic third world feel of the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) where you want to scream at how crowded and dark, disorganized and dirty it is.

I wrote down the ladies' names on a napkin and exchanged email addresses with them but I have since disposed of the napkin accidentally. Will try and get their address from J who will be traveling through the airpot on a ski weekend this coming weekend (for some people the holiday never ends!)

New Zealand is a beautiful country with some great food and people. More posts to come on Fijian and NZ adventures...

Bula!

Fijian foods
I am off to Fiji - the islands in the South Pacific Ocean for two weeks. I have been out of blog mode for a while with all these national holidays getting in the way.

Happy belated Canada Day to you all...hope you had a good one. Ours was filled with bbq and more bbq, pies, ice cream, cakes and more treats like brownies, fresh strawberries, cherries and more.

Needless to say it was a great weekend with lots of fresh Ontario produce.

This pic is of Kokoda, a Fijian food. It is made out of raw fish meat seasoned with lemon juice and coconut milk; can't wait to have some great fish meals.

While away, I am going to try and post if I can but not sure if I will be able to access the internet.

Am asking guest bloggers step forward -any takers? Or readers, I will be back in two short weeks. By then, I should have a wealth of stuff to post in regards to plane food (tip: always order a special meal as you get served first), Fijian delights and New Zealand treats - am going to Pat and Robbie's farm so will take pics of me milking the cows!! Am very excited. Maybe Pat will make her famous Pavlova....mmm!

Hot Kiwi?
Typical Kiwi country girl...hot!
With a lot of talk about the upcoming Anzac day festivities...which unless you have Kiwi (people from New Zealand) or Aussie friends you would not know about, we visited a pub which took us straight back to the wilds of New Zealand.

Everyone in there was a Kiwi, except me, everyone in there was wearing some sort of Kiwi rugby shirt or a t-shirt that referred to them being a Kiwi, or they were wearing a shark's tooth around their neck - which a large % of Kiwi's wear.

Australia and New Zealand commemorate the ANZAC Day holiday on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War 1.
So does this mean they worked together? It seems that Aussies and Kiwis have the same love/hate relationship as Canadians and Americans.

Anyhow, two drinks were served en masse at the Redback after a free bbq for patrons - snakebites and Speights beer. Speights was founded in 1876 in Dunedin, NZ and has been going strong ever since and is called the 'Pride of the South' (South Island of NZ, for those of you who don't know that it is made up of two islands)

And snakebites are - half lager, half cider and a shot of blackcurrant cordial. It looks purply and tastes sweet. Needless to say patrons at the Redback were happy, dancing and singing and well fed from the bbq...but it was a Sunday night so am sure there were some sore heads on Monday!

I felt like I was transported to NZ for a little while...
Thx Kiwi hosts.