Some Updates

Guys, I bought a ticket. After what seems like forever I am returning to my favourite place on earth this December. I am so excited for a NZ summer! Road-trips, Kapiti ice-cream, hikes, waterfalls, P.Y.O berries… ah, the list is endless. I also can’t wait to simply kiss my family to death. I told my mom, I said, I’m just gonna take the first three months to sit next to you in some beautiful park on some probably-graffitied bench and just breathe and enjoy the moments.

So, I’ll be home in December. And that’s all I know of my future at this stage. And I don’t mind it. I don’t mind it one bit because I like the possibilities such openness of plans brings. I’m grateful and I’m excited. If travelling has taught me anything, it’s that the world has SO much to offer and that I am by far in the top top top wealthy and fortunate. So, not only is it my dire obligation to really live but my calling to make the most of it.

Some updates: 

These cuties recently arrived back from their epic holiday in Israel to their mountain-side home in Japan, but here are some of the pics Lifa sent me last. Sabich is an Iraqi and Israeli sandwich, consisting of a pita bread stuffed with deep-fried eggplant, hard boiled eggs, salad, tahini, amba (mango pickle) and spice. Lifa says this is healthy street food at its best. Oh man. What a tease. Me want now.

Pics from Jose (father of the munchkins I looked after in Spain) of the kids and their mother making brownies and biscuits. I miss Spain and I miss Jose’s delicious and healthy dishes. Of course I miss you too, Bea! Are you still eating my homemade muesli for breakfast?

Yasu, my unexpected friend is still making healthy smoothies like I taught her and spending me pictures of them. I can’t wait to see her again. Also, her middle sister recently got married and oh my, the pics are gorgeous!

As for me, I was recently taken to a really fun and delicious Mexican restaurant, one like I’ve never experienced and I LOVED it. I can’t say enough. I wish NZ had something like this. First off, everyone is given complimentary chips and dip. Then throughout the night, if you wish, your chips are topped up again and again by the wait-staff walking around with literal shovelfuls of chips – in the same manner coffee cups are refilled here. Anyways these chips, they’re not like your regular over-salted thick Dorito crips. Instead, they’re really thin and light and crispy and unsalted. So good. Okay and the food, cheap as chips (as Kiwi’s say and of course, suitable in this context) fresh, and flavoursome. I had vegetarian enchiladas and he had something called a Chicka Chicka Bang Bang. Or was it Boom Boom (hehe)? I can’t remember.

Last but not least, don’t forget to check out my latest Savvy Article featuring baby potatoes and I use “baby” in the strongest sense of the word here, by clicking THIS.

Love Has You Covered Love Has You

I haven’t forgotten my attempt at eating more savory foods. I am trying. I bought more muesli but that’s just because I cannot, for the life of me, love anything else as much as I love my muesli bowls. They bring light to my heart. Also because, every single morning (7 days a week) an incredibly loud and highly inappropriate siren sounds in my village to announce 6 o’clock. It is inappropriate because after living in Iran and Israel, it always freaks me out. I instinctively think of missiles. Though the next village wakes up to musical chimes. When I first arrived and knew nothing about countryside Japan life, each time I heard the loud siren I stressed so much. Eventually I realized it happened every day and at the same time. When my parents came to visit and the siren went off, my panic-stricken mother woke my father and I up. These days, I intentionally get up before 6 when it’s usually dark. And it is when I am making coffee or decorating my muesli bowl when the siren sounds and the sun comes out.

PS that’s not my bike. It is some old lady’s bike. The salad is made of vegetable “noodles” using this little hand rolling device. It is yellow zucchini and cucumber dressed in apple cider vinegar and olive oil. It was my contribution to a home-cooked Japanese dinner I was invited to. The dahl/dal or dhal however you spell it is made of adzuki beans – my humble attempt at marrying the flavors of Japan and India.

Cake By The Mountain

Cake by the mountain. Amongst other things. Like little hands and big hearts. And Homemade pizza (Anthony I’m thinking of you!) and delicious soups and fresh salads (not pictured) and organic dates from the holiest of Holy Lands (Israel).

Love, Cake and Gyoza

Far from my “home”, family and friends in a country where I cannot manage a simple errand without succumbing to a pathetic pool of tears, I was, and I am, simultaenously surrounded by an infinite source of 愛 (LOVE). Last night, that love came from an Israeli (the country I was taught to hate by my Iranian primary school), a loving Japanese and their adorable son, a global citizen, Oz-kun. How incredibly lucky am I? And what did I do to deserve all this? Thank you Lydon family and thank you, God!

Aki prepared vegetarian curry, one spinach-based, one tomato and yet ANOTHER amazing salad, this one had hemp-seeds and raisins. Oz-kun, Aki and I (but really, mostly Aki) made completely home-made naan and vegan gyoza filled with onion, spinach and quinoa. Last, I made a gluten, dairy and refined-sugar free chocolate raspberry cake adapted from the Petite Kitchen website (recipe after the pictures).

Cake
3 free-range eggs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/3 cup runny honey
1/2 cup of thawed frozen raspberries (fresh even better)
1 1/2 cups of ground almonds
1/2 cup of raw cacao powder
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
1 tsp baking soda

Glaze:
1 block of good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
the creamy top from a can of full-fat coconut milk

Preheat oven to 170C

Place cake ingredients in a food processor and blitz to combine

Pour batter into a greased cake tin and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until done

Let cool completely before glazing.

To prepare the ganache, add the chopped chocolate and coconut cream in to a small saucepan over extremely low heat. Whisk continuously until melted together then immediately remove from heat

Let cool slightly (1-2 min)

Using a spatula, spread deliciousness evenly on  cake, allowing it to drizzle over the edges

Last but not least, decorate with berries and fresh flowers

Persian stuffed peppers (dolmeh felfel)

As promised, more Middle Eastern style food.

Last night we ate Middle Eastern food. I made (anticlockwise), Persian stuffed peppers, curried couscous salad, hummus, babaganoush, and a garden salad with avocado and artichoke. Chips. Artichoke chips, sliced thin, rubbed between paper towels to drain excess liquid and baked, on high (no oil no seasoning just as is) in my toaster oven. So delicious! The small orange bowl is Indian-style pickled/chutnied yuzu (a Japanese citrus) made by Shogo-san.

Also, Lifa, my Israeli friend said my hummus was world-class which means I don’t need any more compliments for at least a year. Okay, go ahead, one more won’t hurt. For dessert, we had Persian Wife Cake. Which is basically a baklavaesque cake that I assigned a silly name.

The original Persian dolmeh is made by stuffing grape leaves but we also make them by filling eggplants, tomatoes, pumpkins and bell peppers. Dolmeh is delicious because it’s packed with so much flavor. As in literally. Packed to the rim with herbs and spices. Here is the recipe I used. If you’re vegetarian or vegan all you have to do is swap the mince for lentils and you’re all set. Enjoy!

Idiot-proof falafels

1 tin of mixed beans
1 tin of all natural chickpeas
zest of one lemon
1 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 heaped tbsp flour
1 bunch of fresh parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Place everything in a food processor.

Blitz together for about a minute – I resist from blitzing until completely smooth, I think a little texture (a bean here or there) gives the falafels more flavor. You may need to stop once or twice to scrape down the sides and that’s perfectly okay.

Using your hands, shape mixture into small patties and fry in cooking oil on medium heat- a little oil to be healthy, a lotta oil for extra YUM. Turn when crisp and golden.

We served ours in a warm pita with avocado, gherkin, lettuce and a simple yogurt dressing (1 cup yoghurt, 1/2 cup tahini, squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper in a blender).