First Time

For the past three days, I've been drowning myself in carbs. White carbs, to be specific, in the form of pizza, pasta and a delightful little loaf of sun dried tomato bread from Ace Bakery (a bit of butter and salt, to die for). I was a little concerned about this pattern though, considering I had just skimmed that popular book "The 4 Hour Body" that basically says "if you want to get fat, eat carbs." Yikes.

Determined not to feel bad about it (though I have a very complicated relationship with food, I try my best not to have that kind of complicated relationship), I decided to google some articles that would assure me that carbs aren't so bad. I actually googled "defense of carbs", a la "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.

Where I ended up was at The Foodie Diaries, a blog run by a Chinese Jewish girl named Sarah. Because of her, I suddenly have the urge to go to the supermarket and buy Laughing Cow Cheese. More importantly, however, she made me happy because she seems to have the same insane zest for food that I do, as well as an appreciation for whole foods. I only tend to feel bad about food when it's been overly processed or fried.

As a young woman trying who needs to manage a financially sound lifestyle, it can be hard finding the balance between the economical and the enjoyable. I can usually curb the shopping and the drinking-- it's the eating out that I can never control. It's not just about the food though. Breaking bread, or bonding over food is just an experience that I can't replicate over a coffee/tea. Sigh, first world problems, am I right?

I've tried blogging a few times before and have never been able to commit to it. I have no high hopes now, but this endeavor shall be for my own amusement.

Let's start with something visceral:



A pork chop spaghetti casserole from a Hong Kong style cafe in Toronto. There's just something so comforting about that ketchupy goodness/abomination (at least to the Italians). I love authentic Italian pasta (my mother once dated a European man who was obsessed with Italy, and one of my good friends is Sicilian), but there's something alluring about Asian interpretations of pasta. They all tend to have a bit of sweetness to them. When I'm at T&T or J-Town I'm always tempted to buy a package of Japanese pasta sauce-- but become deterred by the presence of MSG, etc. Still, one of my favorite nostalgic dishes is curly pasta with MUJI (for those who don't know, imagine if IKEA and Club Monaco had a baby) tomato cream crab pasta sauce.

Next! I work part time at Starbucks (I make deliciously dense foam) and after helping a customer toast a Santa Fe panini, one of my co-workers asked "Did you save that as a snack?" I look up and see two innocent strips of chicken breast sitting awkwardly on the edge of the oven door.



My bad. It would be something I'd do though, haha. Not actually.

Last: My boyfriend's currently in Romania, but it was his birthday today so I stopped by his house so that his family and I could wish him happy birthday as a collective on Skype. Afterwards, his mom and dad showed me all the strawberries they had growing in the backyard. They had small Ontario strawberries, but also the most adorable, tiny little wild strawberries as well.



His surly older brother wasn't as enthusiastic as I was about them. But I think they're irresistible with the tiny white flowers growing nearby.

Well, that's all for now.