Mexico Celebrates

Every year, citizens of Mexico remember loved ones that have died through a special celebration called "Dia de los Muertos" or "Day of the Dead".  On November 2nd people gather together in homes and cemeteries, they pray, make offerings and celebrate with a big party that involves lots of eating and drinking. 

Day of the Dead banners decorate the streets of Puerto Vallarta.

Similar to All Saints Day, which Catholics celebrate on November 1st, Dia de los Muertos is much more festive.  People will dress up in fancy clothing, some even in costumes.  Villages and homes are decorated with images of brightly coloured skeletons and skulls.  You can see these decorations for sale in Mexico all year round, they have become a symbol of the country and Mexican culture.

Day of the Dead figurines can be bought at most souvenir shops.

Photo from travelpod.com

Unfortunately I wasn't able to experience Dia de los Muertos firsthand as I arrived in Mexico at the end of November, but maybe we can have our own Day of the Dead celebration in our Canadian classrooms?  Any excuse for a party is a good idea by me!

Ox Eyes For Dessert

Boys and Girls,

You know that I have never been one to walk away from a sweet treat, so when I came across a bakery in Mexico I just had to walk in and buy something to eat. 

It is overwhelming when you are staring at racks full of baked goods, all of them covered in frosting and sprinkles, and each one looking more tasty than the next, but when I saw the "ojos de buey" I knew I just had to try it.

It looked so disgusting, I just had to try it!

"Ojos de buey" means ox eyes in Spanish, but if you ask me I think the dessert looks more like ox brains! 

Boy oh boy, was it ever sweet.  Two semi-spherical vanilla doughnuts with chocolate icing holding them together, wrapped in a sugary sweet red paste and then coated in sweetened coconut, my teeth are hurting just thinking about it.  I had one bite of the "ojos de buey" and had to save the rest for later...it was just too sweet.

Something tells me this isn't a healthy snack.

What happens to you when you eat too much sugar?

I hope I can find some more tasty treats to eat in Mexico!

Mr. P

All Aboard the Pineapple Express

On my way to the North Shore today to watch some professional surfers take to the waves, I decided to visit the Dole Plantation (which is home to the largest maze in the world!  And get this, the maze is shaped like a pineapple).  A company started by Mr. James Drummond Dole in the early 1900's, Dole is responsible for making pineapple popular not only in Hawaii, but across the world. 

The very challenging maze left me scratching my head.  It was impossible!

Mr. Dole showed the world how sweet and delicious pineapple could be.  He would pick the pineapples when they were perfectly ripe, peel and cut them up into pieces and then preserve them in cans.  When these cans arrived in homes across the world the pineapple tasted just as fresh as the day it was picked.

All aboard the Pineapple Express!

I took a tour around the Dole Plantation on the “Pineapple Express” and on my ride I learned a lot of information about the plants that grow in Hawaii.  An interesting fact about pineapples is that they don’t get any riper after they have been picked.  They get all their sweetness from the plant’s stem so once they are picked they stop ripening.  That means when you bring a pineapple home from the supermarket it is best to eat it right away because it won’t get any sweeter on your kitchen counter, it will just start to rot.  If you want to keep it a few days you should put it in your refrigerator.

Pineapples growing on plants very close to the ground.

Another interesting fact is that pineapple isn’t indigenous to Hawaii (it hasn’t always grown in Hawaii).  It is a plant that was brought in by visitors a long time ago.  Most likely brought to Hawaii from South America by Europeans, the tropical climate in Hawaii made it a perfect place to start growing pineapples.  Pineapples grow very low to the ground, so they can keep safe from the harsh winds that blow over Hawaii.  They also benefit from the soil in Hawaii that is rich in iron (that is why it is red), a mineral that helps the pineapples grow and ripen.

Delicious DoleWhip (pineapple flavoured ice cream) covered in fresh pineapple.

You can find just about any pineapple flavoured food or candy in Hawaii, but the best way to enjoy pineapple is simply to eat it fresh.  Do you like eating pineapple?  The next time you are in the supermarket look at where the pineapples come from.  Are they from the Dole plantation in Hawaii?

Oh, no!  I ate so much pineapple, I turned into one.

Breakfast at the Market

The market is a busy place where you can find local goods for sale.  Everything from fruit to flowers.

Every Saturday morning in Honolulu there is a Farmer’s Market that attracts visitors from all across the island of Oahu.  You can buy coffee, chocolate, fruit, vegetables, baked goods and just about any other delicious food you can think of.  It was a great place to start the day. 

I had a truly organic Hawaiian breakfast, an açai bowl.  Açai is a berry native to Brazil, but it grows beautifully in the tropical Hawaiian climate.  An açai bowl is when you take açai pulp and freeze it making a yummy berry sorbet.  You top this with granola, flax seed, and bananas (all organic and all local) and call it a breakfast.

A fresh breakfast I would love to have everyday.

Also exciting were the K­alua pork sliders on hand made by the students from the Culinary Institute of the Pacific.  I just had to support the students and their stall so I bought two sandwiches.  I could have spent all day eating my way through the market, but there was a beach calling my name.

The purple taro bun makes this Kalua pork slider extra special.

All About Sushi

Sushi has become a popular dish all around the world and you can find sushi restaurants in Europe and North America, but there is something special about having a sushi dinner in Japan, the country where sushi was invented.

Originally a dish that involved fermenting fish in vinegar (making the fish sour) before eating it, sushi as we know it today was only invented in the early 1800's as a form of fast food.  Japanese people wanted a food that could be eaten quickly on the street or in a theatre, and that is when raw fish started being used instead of fermented fish.

A chef in Tokyo hard at work preparing a sushi set.

Sushi can come in many different variations.  Nigirizushi is when the raw fish lies across a ball of rice, makizushi is when a cylinder wrapped in nori (a sea algae) is cut into small discs of sushi yumminess and another popular kind of sushi is sashimi, when the raw fish is served as is with no rice.

Done all my sushi, I am using my chopsticks to dig for more meat
in these lobster heads from my lobster miso soup.

Unlike sashimi, most sushi is meant to be eaten with your hands.  Made to be bite sized by the sushi chef, you carefully pick up the nigirizushi, lightly dunk it in soy sauce fish side down, and then pop the whole thing into your mouth.  Chopsticks can be used to eat the pickled ginger provided to clear your palate and help you digest the meal, but trust me you are allowed to use your fingers to eat the rest of it.  Now when do you ever hear that?

Plastic Food: Not Just For Playing House

Eating in Tokyo has been an adventure.  With most menus being in Japanese, ordering can be challenging and usually involves playing a game of Charades with a very helpful waiter (who I am sure wishes I had just learned some more Japanese before I arrived in Tokyo).  Having a mini-dictionary with you is also helpful, but sometimes the writing is so small it is hard for the waiters to see the tiny Japanese characters in the dim restaurant light.  That is when a Japanese trend comes in handy.  What trend am I talking about?  Plastic food.

Plastic food on display outside of a Thai restaurant in Tokyo.

It is pretty common to see huge display cases outside of restaurants with full meals made of plastic on display.  These models are meant to entice customers and get them interested in the food the restaurant is serving.  The only problem is that the plastic food usually looks disgusting, and is nothing like the real food that is available inside. 

Sometimes the plastic food leaves you quite confused about what items are available inside the restaurant.

Sometimes the fake food does look real, and there can be a great amount of detail put into the plastic items.  There will be times when the plastic food looks so good, it definitely makes you want to check out what the real meal looks like.

Even desserts will be on display in plastic.  I think they look the most real and delicious!

Do you think restaurants in your city should start using plastic food to advertise their meals to customers?

Malaysian Tiffin

Malaysians love food. They love food so much that they don't only enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner, but they will also enjoy tiffin (a snack) maybe once or twice (or three times) a day.  So while in Kuala Lumpur I had to try out one of the best "tiffin" restaurants in the city.

Restoran Yusoof, serving up tiffin all day and all night.

Restoran Yusoof is famous for their roti canai, thin bread like crepe that is served with curry sauce, and their teh tarek, hot tea with condensed milk.  I ordered both and enjoyed washing down the spicy curry soaked roti with the sugary sweet tea.  The only problem was I got so full I had to skip dinner!

It might not look fancy, by my roti canai and teh tarek were delicious.

There are lots of other tiffin you can try when you are in Malaysia.  What are some of the tiffin (snacks) you like to have at school?

The tandoor oven (big red clay pot) where some of the bread and meats are cooked.

What Is It?

While staying in Thailand I came across this.

Have you ever seen something like it before?  Do you know what it is?  I'll give you a clue: you can eat it.

Train to the Jungle

Gettting to the jungle was quite an adventure in itself!  The first part of the trip is taking a 5 hour train ride.


Mr. P trying to get comfortable on his wooden seat.  Not the best place to take a nap.

Photo: Laura Muir

Taking the train in Thailand is different than taking a train back home.  The seats aren't always as comfortable, the train ride can be pretty bumpy and there are times when you think the train might come flying off the tracks (but don't worry, it never does!) 

The train floating up high above the trees.  Maybe not a good way
to travel if you are afraid of heights.

The great part about taking the train is all the delicious food that is served by vendors that walk up and down the cars.  You can get full meals, fresh fruit, meat skewers with sticky rice and even sweet treats too.  A long train ride can sure make you hungry, so it is nice having all that food available to buy.

My lunch on the train of rice with spicy pork and egg cost only $1.



A sugar covered "sala pao" these little timbits are sweet until you hit the middle where you
will find some BBQ pork.  If you like maple syrup on your bacon, then this treat is for you.

 Taking the train was a lot of fun.  It was the beginning of a magical adventure I will never forget.  I can't wait to tell you all about my time in the jungle.

Going Bananas in Bangkok

You can find bananas growing everywhere in Thailand.  You can see them in household gardens, temple gardens or out growing wild in fields.  There are around 28 different kinds of bananas that grow in Thailand.  Some of them are sweet and can be enjoyed raw, others are not as sweet and usually used only in cooking.



Bunches of bananas for sale in Bangkok.                                  Photo: Laura Muir



All around Bangkok you can find stalls selling fresh fruit shakes, and the banana shake is definitely my favourite.  They take a ripe banana, crush it up with some ice, mix in some sweet milk or yogurt, and there you have it, a fresh banana shake.  I have also enjoyed pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce, a great way to make eating bananas extra sweet and special.

Digging in.  I am enjoying my banana and chocolate pancake
with my banana shake.  Delicious.        Photo: Laura Muir

The people of Thailand are very good recyclers and re-users and they don’t only use the fruit from a banana plant, they also use the leaves, the stems and even the roots for different recipes and as cooking tools.  Banana leaves are used as cooking containers.  The water stored in the leaf comes out as you cook it and makes sure the food you wrap in it stays nice and moist.  A favourite of mine is sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf.  The stems from the plant are used as big mixing spoons, and the roots can be cooked and eaten too.  It is amazing how no part is wasted!

Bananas growing wild in the jungle.

Do you like bananas?  If you could, would you have a banana shake every day, or would you rather enjoy a banana and chocolate pancake?

An Egyptian Kid’s Breakfast

I believe that the best way to get a feel for how the local people of a city live is to visit one of their supermarkets.  It is fun exploring all the different foods that are available to buy, and to look at the neat packaging and how it is the same or different from the packaging where you live. 

While in an Egyptian supermarket I came across the cereal aisle and I was amazed by what I saw.  Take a look at the picture below and think about how this cereal aisle is the same, or different, than the one in your local supermarket.  Why do you think I was surprised by what I saw?

Do you see your favourite cereal here?

A London Establishment: The Wolseley

I was invited out for a fancy lunch with Jenny and Lewis, Arren’s mum and stepdad, and I couldn’t turn down the offer.   They treated me to a meal at The Wolseley, a great place to enjoy a long and leisurely lunch while looking around trying to catch a glimpse of celebrities and famous politicians.  The menu is very grown-up with things like chopped liver and steak tartare (basically raw meat) being items you can find on the list.  I enjoyed a goat cheese and tomato tart, followed by Wiener Schnitzel Holstein and then for dessert I had a Lemon Meringue Coupe, which is a special way of saying a Lemon Meringue Sundae.  It was a perfect afternoon.  Take a look at the menu and see if there are any items you would like to try?

Wiener Schnitzel Holstein - Breaded Veal, with an egg and anchoives ontop.