I resisted trying these cookies until curiosity got the best of me. I had to understand them.

These are tiny bite size round shaped “cookies”. I use the term cookies in quotes because they don’t really taste like cookies.

I’ve been seeing an assortment of these “cookies” on store shelves lately; The Italian store has a variety that comes in an unlabeled plain plastic tub. I don’t know why but I always assumed they were some sort of almond treats.

I got the Lucca brand cookies at London Drugs, there were on sale so I figured it was a good time to try them. I got two kinds, apple cinnamon and lemon almond. They were both crunchy and light with just a little softness in the middle. Again, these don’t taste anything like cookies; each ball is coated in white sugary powder – sugar is the prominent taste.

I have this condition where too much sugar in my system makes me lightheaded, after five pieces of those balls I started feeling awful. I preferred the apple cinnamon over the lemon almond because the flavours seemed more natural. The lemon almond had a strange unnatural aftertaste.

I had a much pleasant experience when I tried it with tea – I brewed a strong cup of unsweetened black tea, and drank it with a few pieces of the cookies, it was quite complementary. I guess it’ll go well with coffee too.

It took me a while to finish the two cans, no one else liked them in my house; my mom said it tasted like “people with ample supplies of sugar and time on their hands”

My friend E. sent me a box of Kingsbite chocolate bars last month. He brought these back from his visit to Ghana last year. He’s gone back again vacationing and I hope he brings more and this time, they get to me sooner.

Kingsbite is manufactured by the mostly state owned Cocoa Processing Company under the Goldentree brand name. Ghana is one of the leading producers and exporters of cocoa and thousands of its citizens are cocoa farmers. My grandmother had a cocoa tree in her yard when I was a kid and what I remember most about it was that each bean was encased in a sweet pulpy substance.

I haven’t had Goldentree chocolate in a while but I’ve had other bars produced from Ghanaian cocoa beans. Divine Chocolate uses Fair Trade Ghanaian beans and makes pretty good chocolate too, I highly recommend their products.

There were three varieties of chocolate in the Kingsbite box; dark chocolate and two milk – I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two milk chocolates except for the wrapper colours.

The texture is matte, not shiny or glossy like other bars. It doesn’t melt in your mouth easily; it melts slowly. The consistency is slightly coarse, a little hard – you can’t break a piece off easily.

It has a uniquely strong cocoa-y taste and a wonderful sweet aroma of cocoa and something else – light and sweet but not vanilla.

I really enjoyed the bars because they were a little different in flavour and texture. A friend called them exotic; I like to think of them as unique.

The start of the farmers’ market in Vancouver’s West End is a delightful event that signals the start of summer. It’s held every Saturday, starting early June through October – this year’s market opened on Saturday, June 6^th.

Going to the market on Saturday mornings has become a lovely summer ritual for me, and a great way to start the weekend. I’ve been going for as long as I’ve lived in the West End and I notice that the crowd gets bigger each year and the vendors too. The trend towards buying local, eating fresh, supporting the local farmer, and knowing our food source are among the many reasons why people are patronizing local farmer’s markets.

The West End Market takes place in Mole Hill on Comox Street in front of the quaint heritage houses and overlooks Nelson Park. It actually makes for a pleasant walk even if you don’t want to buy anything. Last Saturday had a nice assortment of vendors; there were seasonal vegetables, flowers, herbs, homemade pastries, fish, cheese, meat and handmade jewellery.

Bad Girl Chocolates have been at the market for as long as I’ve been going, these delicious treats are handmade and contains no preservative. They’re quite tasty and I took that bag home with me.

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Jean-Pierre Cote makes these amazing spices, seasoning and oil, he’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet. He has incredible tips and recipes – things you never thought you could do with your spices. I took home a bottle of vanilla beans from Papua New Guinea.

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And of course, there was entertainment!

Sadly, there weren’t that many fruits, I guess it’s not fruit season in BC yet – soon the market will be filled with cherries, peaches, strawberries, blackberries and the rest. Hmmmm… Okanagan cherries, I can’t wait, I ate so much my first year here that I the runs for days.

If you live in or are visiting the neighbourhood, be sure to visit the market on Saturday and tell them I said hi.

More pictures from Flickr

I tried this drink out of sheer curiosity after passing it a couple of times in the drinks aisle. The packaging and the bright red liquid is appealing; it’s simple yet manages to stand out.

This is the first hibiscus fizzy/pop/soda drink I’ve seen. With its health properties and natural red colour, I’ve always wondered why the hibiscus flower isn’t used more in food production.

I just became a fan of hibiscus myself quite recently – I have a bag of the dried flowers which I use for tea infusions and henna mixes.

As much as I love hibiscus, I didn’t hold out much hope for this drink, has anyone noticed how all these healthy-good-for-you drinks taste the same? They’re almost all bland, tastes watery with little or no flavour.

But this Ooba drink was different; it has a rich succulent taste, I liked that it didn’t taste flowery. I tried the orange flavour, it tastes nice and sweet, and you can tell it has sugar in it (no one’s trying to trick you). It tastes exactly like soda or how you wish soda tasted, except this is supposed to be good for you – it’s a good source of vitamin C and hibiscus has heart healthy benefits. It’s a great mixer in adult beverages too.

I bought my first bottle at Whole Foods then I found out that London Drugs carries it too. It retails for about $2.50CAD, but it does go on sale frequently at London Drugs. It comes in six flavours but I’ve only tried the original and orange so far.

I started Juicing about a month ago on weekends. This is my second attempt at juicing and I’m finally getting it right.

My first attempt was somewhat of a disaster which resulted in the juicer being banished to the farthermost unreachable corner of the kitchen cabinet.

I don’t think I was quite ready then, here’s what happened – one night during a bout of insomnia, my friend E. ordered a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer. It came; she used it, liked it, and couldn’t stop eulogizing Juicing. She had me convinced I was missing out on something great. So I too bought a juicer on a whim at Costco one Saturday afternoon, I juiced a couple of times and it was just ok, it wasn’t sensational and clean up was a hassle. A couple more times and I began resenting the juicer, I convinced myself it was a crappy juicer and put it away.

Cut to a couple of weeks ago, I started reading up on Juicing during my 48hr cleanse. I felt I was in a better frame of mind to try again. I was so impressed with the results of the 48hr cleanse that I decided to try raw foods on weekends.

Incorporating Juicing into my diet this time wasn’t the big to-do it was the last time. I think my problem the last time was that I didn’t have a game plan, I had no recipes or read up on anything. I just bought a bunch of fruits and veggies juiced them, no direction whatsoever.

This time, I found recipes online, read about the benefits on Juicing and was prepared.

I even decided to try my old dreaded juicer again.

I’ve been Juicing on weekends for almost a month now as part of my raw food diet. Even though I’m supposed to try different recipes (the books/internets say so), I’m stuck on one at the moment hoping that I don’t become allergic to it, I read somewhere that drinking the same juice recipe over and over might cause allergies, but I’m not too worried since I’m only drinking it on weekends. I also learnt that my juicer might not be the best (juice shouldn’t foam) but it’ll have to do for now.

So far, I’ve enjoyed Juicing, I actually look forward to it on weekends, I welcome the change in diet and I feel it’s a mini detox. It feels light and refreshing, and I find that I have more energy throughout the week. I normally drink a glass of juice in the morning, have a huge salad for lunch and do another glass of juice at night.

My tried and trusted recipe is what I call, ABC&G – Apples, Beets, Carrots & Ginger.

It’s simple, easy to make and tastes delicious, clean up is also straightforward (I can’t remember what I was doing wrong the first time) and I compost the juicer pulp to use in my “garden” – I’m growing a few veggies this summer again.

I’m going to try a new recipe this weekend!