It Looked Like The World Was Covered In A Cobbler Crust Of Brown Sugar And Cinnamon.

2 ripe bananas
2 free-range eggs
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup broken walnut pieces
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 180oC
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, pour into a silicon muffin tray, and top with some sesame seeds (for extra pizzaz). Bake until nice and golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Makes 12 littlies. (Mom’s recipe BTW)

What is it they say? Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life! HASHTAGblessed. 

Playing pizza pretend at work.
For my next DYKWTI (Do You Know What This Is?) Savvy Tokyo article: kinako smoothie bowl – stay tuned! 
Every guy thinks that every girl’s dream is to find a perfect man…WRONG, every girl’s dream is to eat anything she wants without getting fat!


Guess what? Mandy says vegan waffles coming to Utopia Hot (Christchurch Farmer’s Market) very soon! Though these regular organic waffles were the shizz as well – served with Black Boy peach and blueberry compote, whipped coconut cream, caramelized walnuts, and melted dark chocolate – yes, I may or may not have requested everythang.

Mona Vale is so beautiful. Thanks to my amazing brother-in-law for suggesting we walk it after the market. So lovely. So autumnal. So romantic.

Speaking of Autumnal, here’s a super easy seasonal activity for your little munchkins: collect leaves, decorate! 
And for Mother’s Day? An easy peasy tea-riffic (see what I did there?) 3D tea cup card made from a corner piece of a round egg carton and a curled pipe-cleaner. 
“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” (Washington Irving)

The Best Ice-cream in Christchurch!

Mandy’s baby: roasted plum (from their garden) and cinnamon oat crumble. 
Belgium milk chocolate and marshmallow.

Dark chocolate and sea-salt sorbet. Vegan and delishasssss!

Coconut and black sesame seed. It’s vegan everybody! And my new favorite. Life is so sweet.

I was so good you guys! Just look at these teeny tiny scoops. Plus, I think me eating the ice-cream is great advertisement, don’t you think? Here we have three vegan coconut-cream based ice-creams: coconut, blueberry and vanilla, coconut and dark chocolate, and coconut and black sesame seed. Send help!

Recent Work

Hey guys! Here’s my recent stuff. You know, in case you missed my spams on various social media:

10 Tips for Buying Organic in Japan

Do You Know What This Is? Mukago 

And for good measure, a pinch of Japan nostalgia:

I Heart American Healthfood Stores

The other day, Soroosh asked me, of all the places we’ve been together, where would I like to go again before leaving nashville. So I screamed, WHOLEFOODS. Also, Trader Joe’s. American health/organic supermarkets are SO much better than any I’ve ever visited ever. From NZ to Australia to Japan to Europe, Merica is the best. The best. I want to live in their (the supermarkets’) shelves. Right next to the turmeric coconut water. Or the Nigerian cacao nibs.

Wholefoods has this amazing buffet section where you can fill a plate or box with a HUGE assortment of hot and cold healthy, organic, vegetarian and vegan dishes. They also sell pre-made stuff like brown-rice sushi and quinoa rolls etc. It truly is heaven. If I needed a reason to live in America, this would be it. I could eat healthy and organic everyday and I could do it without a single effort.

Unlike Wholefoods, Trader Joe’s isn’t entirely organic but it’s still a really fun and upbeat healthfoods market. Gosh, sometimes (haha) I love Americans!

All of the over-Instagrammed protein bars. Yep, all of em.
Mmmm sunflower seed butter!

Every Supermarket Should Look Like This

In the words of my auntie Pouneh: “every supermarket should look like this.” I’m well aware of how expensive these stores can be but I still love scanning their isles and oohing and aaahing over everything. Here’s an inside look at a European bio organic supermarket:

No chemicals! No spray!
Passionfruit, pomegranate and prickly pear – that children, is A L L I T E R A T I O N.

Better be orgasmic for those prices!
No more bent-back-over-the-stove-top-homemade-muesli-labouring for me!  
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. (Hippocrates)

Whoever You Are, No Matter How Lonely, The World Offers Itself To Your Imagination.

Dreams come true and imagination is key. I want to introduce you to my new family: Jose, Bea, Hector (6) and Sara (4). I will be staying with them in Redes a port-town in Galicia (Northern Spain) this September, teaching the children English. I am so incredibly lucky because Jose is a seafood chef, he cares much about food quality and organics, their house is literally a palace and their town, absolute paradise – a place I have imagined visiting since I was a little girl. Believe me when I say it’s breathtaking. But don’t worry, you can live vicariously through me (hehe).

And for those interested, I found Jose and family through workaway.info. It’s an organisation with hosts and volunteers from anywhere and everywhere and it’s relatively safe. I Skyped Jose and his family several times before coming here. Also, do you remember my friends Hiromi and Olivier (the yoga instructor/baker)? They are also hosts on Workaway. Actually, why don’t you go and stay with them? They live in a completely different paradise and they have fresh bread!

Sara has kindly lent me her room.

Having fun playing with Japanese magnets. Jose says I am a world citizen because I get to teach him and his family about Iran, Japan and New Zealand.

A typical breakfast: squished cherry tomatoes, salt and olive oil on bread. Jose tells me the best olive oil comes from Spain and that most of the olive oil advertised as coming from Italy is actually from here.

Spot the Japanese (hehe).

On my first day, the children had a birthday party so Jose and I hit up their town and its Friday market.


Just on the street! For free! Same with lemons, apples and oranges. In Japan, a small punnet of these is 800 yen! About 10 New Zealand dollars!

Baguette delivery is a thing and we all need it!

Isn’t Spain just gorgeous?!

Trying my best to photograph the locals.

My first view of the market :O





Spain is food heaven!

Jose made a phone call to order his fish. He said if we go early we will have to wait an hour for the old ladies of the town to finish their business. Sure enough, as we walked by, this was exactly the case! The locals here are priceless – such strong characters. I really hope my pictures can capture their brilliance – I’ll do my best.


Live Octopus.

This  frightening thing is a sea spider! I don’t know about you but I will never swim again.



As I said, their house is a palace.


Jose says the Spanish locals find it funny how people are so into kale as a “superfood” these days because its simply chicken food in Spain! Also, I posted this image on my Instagram and a regular follower commented this, which I found hilarious: “That chicken is peering into my soul and judging my ambitions.”B E A U T I F U L desu ne.

A Day In Central Madrid (Part Two)

Before I show you more pictures that’ll make you want to quit your day job and move to Madrid, I will just say that there are a lot of pigeons and homeless people here. Pigeons, I can deal with but the mass number of homeless people breaks my heart. Of course it also makes me further appreciate my freedom. Why do I get to travel and enjoy the world whilst others are so so unfortunate? It’s not fair. I must actively work for a change. Which is why I love my religion.

As Jose told me today and I myself first-handedly experienced, a lot of these homeless people are airport dwellers. This is because the airport is comfortably cool (in the summer) or warm (in the winter) and safe. Also, they can beg from travellers and/or eat from unfinished plates. When I was passing time in the food court, waiting for my flight to Santiago de Compostela, I was approached by three different beggars. What are you supposed to do in such a situation? Do you help? It’s so tricky. Anyways, I am telling you this because I think you should know the real Spain (or the real Japan) especially when such things are seldom talked about amongst travel bloggers. So as always, I will try my best to give you the whole picture.


Fresh carrot, apple and ginger.
A secret garden.
A secret door.
Is this real life?

How random! I bumped into an Iranian store filled with Persian goods ranging from Rumi books to handmade jewellery chests. The Iranian owner gave me gaz (persian nougat) and her website details. She hopes I will return.

All Happiness Depends On A Leisurely Breakfast

Damn right John Gunther.

Boys (and girls) and BBQ

At home, I eat mostly vegan/vegetarian. With my Japanese friends, I’m sorta obliged to eat meat because I don’t want to offend them when they have placed much care and time in either taking me to a favorite restaurant or preparing me a special dish. There, I suck it up like a big girl and wash it down with a kale smoothie, later. I’m serious. However; I don’t mind eating locally hunted deer. This is because, in the countryside, there are SO many of them and they often get themselves killed or kill people through severe road accidents. They just run everywhere. Venison is pretty lean and has very little fat to it. I enjoy the taste. Last night, the boys cooked the girls (Aki and I) a delicious BBQ and we loved it. I made a platter featuring hummus (recipe HERE) organic veggies, nuts, blue-cheese, olives, crackers, prosciutto wrapped bread-sticks and chia-seed corn-chips. My super talented friend, Lifa (the Israeli wood-worker) made his beautiful wife a gorgeous grocery box and for the our BBQ, a chimney coal starter.

For more of  his work check out his dope Instagram HERE. 

 

Christchurch Farmer’s Market

I don’t want to sound too anti-Japan. Honestly, it’s a great country and there’s endless beauty but there have been a lot of things that I have been missing. Like, organic vegetables! Ugly vegetables that actually taste amazing and that are not wrapped in mounds of plastic. Oh how I love the Riccarton Market. It’s the only thing anyone should be doing on a Saturday morning. And, Posh Porridge. So good. We got the banana and boysenberry. The latter, not found in Japan. No boysenberries! Nor beetroots. And fejoias are super rare to find. Fun first day, check. For lunch, mum made soupeh jo (Persian barley soup with melt-in-your-mouth NZ lamb) which we ate with the organic bread and walnuts from the market, goat’s feta and fresh cucumber, tomato and mint.

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett