Bruschetta using mint

A quick lunch was the goal, and luckily we had just gone grocery shopping yesterday. General consensus was for bruschetta to be made for a while, so we finally got to it today! Here's how:

1. chop garlic, mix with olive oil and salt
2. spread on defrosted or fresh bread
3. bake until you can smell the garlic (or eyeball it like I usually do...)
4. for topping: chop tomatoes, onions, and mint
5. season with salt
6. plate
7. eat

Super simple, it may look like a lot of steps but it really isn't when you cook :) 

And what to do with all the mint we bought? Tea!

Food in Oman!

So I've arrived in Oman and working for AIESEC here for a year, here's some of the food I've been eating :P 

The first two meals was McDonald's unfortunately...I was at a conference the first two days and didn't have much choice... I actually had McDonald's three times in the first 5 meals -.-

Cooking at home has been fun, pizza was our first accomplishment. Chicken bacon ranch minus the bacon because it's not available here...

Eggs benedict challenge! It was a team building event where some of us where blindfolded or had arms tied to each other but we made it :P With guidance.

Similar ingredients to the pizza, but in the form of nachos. Toasted pitas topped with green onions, cheddar, mozza, red onions, tomatoes, a little fennel.

Made some noodles at home, threw in pulled chicken, what I thought was dill (but turned out to be fennel), onions, and marinated it with oyster sauce. 

Chips Oman! They put it in hot dogs sometimes. Seasoned, a little spicy :)

Shawarma! With chicken. And a 2 minute walk from our villa hehehe...

Cocktail drink (basically different blended fruit) at a Lebanese restaurant called Automatic

Falafel, cheese samosas, and complimentary veggie platter (arugula, pickled stuff, olives, carrots)

Shish tauok (chicken) with garlic and lemon. French fries were a surprise.

African breakfast item: I think there's banana involved...

Burger today, I think it's chicken?

Coca-cola in arabic (and it's value...29 cents Canadian!)

Cultural dinner tonight: I made lettuce wraps (that usually come after Peking duck at restaurants), but I didn't really know the recipe so I improv-ed with chicken, celery, mushrooms, onions, ginger, and soy sauce. It worked :P

African dinner items: chapati and I'll have to get back to you on the one with beans. Sorry =/

Russian New Year's salad with deli, pickles, eggs, etc.

Peach cobbler after taking it out of the oven.

Peach cobbler with ice cream.

Stay tuned, lots more to come!

Sushi Time!

So my last dinner in Canada before my year abroad was sushi buffet! We went to a place called Yang's sushi in Mississauga (http://goo.gl/maps/4rbr). I'll let the photos speak for themselves :P

Enoki beef mushroom roll

Grilled eel on a pita (with what looks like bonito, aka shaved dried fish, on top)

Grilled salmon

Salmon belly

Mango salad

An overview :)

Salmon teriyaki roll, with crab, cheese, and avocado

Sashimi

Chicken wings and popcorn chicken

Finished off with green tea ice cream!

Food Photodump

So I was getting hungry after eating early at 6 pm, and finished my leftover ingredients in the fridge. This salad is tossed with balsamic and rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper. However...I am getting hungry now and may succumb to Nutella with crackers...

Early today I had the remaining half of this salmon steak I cooked yesterday. Seasoned with only salt in the pan and soy sauce afterwards. 

The following pictures are a collection of the past month's food adventures, though biased towards all the nice photos. I'll post unsuccessful meals another time :P

- Chinese dessert, rice flour filled with sweet chestnut paste

- smoked salmon, a favourite

- a turkey roast with garlic and green onions stuffed inside, baked in the toaster oven :P

- and the inside

- a Korean dumpling from this great restaurant in Mississauga

- with the rest of the meal: pork bone soup, beef ribs, and the soup noodle with the dumplings

- bacon-rimmed caesar from Barque Smokehouse in Toronto

- Sunday family meal with ribs, roast chicken, sausage, roasted garlic potatoes and fennel

- AMAZING (look, taste, and textured) shortbread cookies from Moulin de Provence bakery in Ottawa's Byward Market

- rosemary and garlic lamb chops with baked yam and garlic green beans

- and the nice medium inside

- fruit prepped for chocolate fondue

- I had way too much chocolate that week...

Barque Smokehouse

So we went to Barque Smokehouse tonight (barque.ca) for some good 'ol BBQ. Sunday is family night there, so there's a set dinner for $25/person. Today's was:

• celery root and bacon soup
• sloppy joe brisket sliders
• pulled pork on tortilla chips
• mixed green salad
• roasted fennel
• roasted potatoes with bacon
• herbed smoked chicken, ribs, and sausage
• caramelized banana and frozen yogourt

So basically, a lot of food. We started it off with a caesar (with a bacon rim...mm...)

The appetizers and salad were eaten too quickly before I could get photos

But the main course was pretty impressive

Finished with a nice dessert :)

A quick breakfast to start off the day

So I'm running short on time and whipped up some quick Canadian bacon, tomato salad with green onions and olive bread.

I had the bacon already defrosted from 2 nights before thinking I would have consumed yesterday, so I threw it in an unheated pan with some oil and turned the heat to medium-high (you don't always need the pan to be hot beforehand).

For the salad I quickly diced a tomato (I cross hatch it 3/4 of the way down and slice from there), a green onion, and topped it off with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

The olive bread I quickly baked in the toaster oven (the toast setting is not working :( ) and voila! A quick breakfast where I can dip my bread in leftover vinegar, Italian-style.