All Entries Tagged With: "Drink"
Cantaloupe Drink
Blanca also prepared a drink for the Mexican feast. You wont believe what it’s made of.
It is made of the seeds and pulps of a cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is in season in late spring and summer in North America.
The following is extracted from wikipedia:
Cantaloupe originated in India and Africa. It was first introduced to North America by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494.
Cantaloupe are a source of Polyphenol antioxidant, chemicals which are known to provide certain health benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system. These chemicals are known to regulate the formation of nitric oxide, a key chemical in promoting health of the endothelium and prevention of heart attacks. Cantaloupes also are an excellent source of vitamin C and beta carotene.
The Cantaloupe Drink is a refreshing and fragrant Cantaloupe Drink. It is the perfect cooling drink for the hot summer. According to the Chinese, cantaloupe has a very cooling effect to the body.
Ingredients
- Seeds and pulp scrapped out of a cantaloupe
- water
- sugar to taste
Instructions
Cut open a cantaloupe and scoop out the seeds and pulp.
Just add water and blend.
Sweetened with sugar to taste.
Strain the blended cantaloupe drink to remove the seeds. Here you have a very refreshing drink using something that we normally tossed away. Brilliant.
Blanca, thank you so much for sharing your Mexican culinary skills in the South Arm Community Kitchen. The above Mexican feast is an exciting experience for many in the kitchen.
Open Teahouse Cocktail Night (by Pearl Drops Teahouse)
Hey All,
OK … not exactly “All” All but rather All in the Greater Vancouver Area.
What are you doing on Saturday night, February 7th? Specifically from 7PM to 10PM?
I just had an invite out of the blue to attend an Open Teahouse Cocktail Night hosted by Pearl Drops Teahouse. The beauty is that they are extending the invite to all readers of Chowtimes. Touted as “Afternoon Tea Meets Cocktail Hour”, the event will include free (virgin) cocktail samplings and in-house hor’ dourves. It is free, no admission. That’s right … Free with a capital F. As a bonus there will also door prizes to be won.
We had never been to Pearl Drops Teahouse before (neither do we know the owners). From what info we received and from their website, they describe themselves as a one-of-a-kind Asian teahouse by providing modern twists on ancient beverages. Like this one below:
The “Red Lychee” is one of their several signature Tea Cocktails. The range includes names like Golden Sunset and Solar Flare which really makes me want to check them out. These beverages are made with freshly steeped high quality tea, hand squeezed lemon-lime and a garnish of exotic fruits such as kiwi, guava and kumquats … all virgin too.
Suanne and I will be going for sure. If you’re planning on attending, you may RSVP to melody@pearldropstea.ca to let them know to expect the number of people attending. It would be great if you let us know too just so we can say hi to you. Our email is ben@chowtimes.com or suanne@chowtimes.com.
Here are the details again:
Pearl Drops Teahouse
422 Willingdon Ave, Burnaby
Saturday, February 7th
7PM to 10PM
RSVP to melody@pearldropstea.ca
PS: This is not a paid posting. Just thought we share the fun!
Taste BC 2009
You know, one of the things we enjoy a lot with food blogging is when we get invited to events. Suanne and I was invited as “media” to cover the Taste BC event which held on Thursday last week. Ooooo … “media”, fancy huh? LOL!
Angie (Sea Salt with Food) who is a wine enthusiast joined us. We like that because we are such babes when it came to wine and we wanted to learn from the event. I thought that we would only spend like 30-45 minutes but ended staying for almost 3 hours. We had a great time at the event.
Taste BC is more of a wine than fine food event. The event is presented by the Liberty Merchant Company in the effort to bring together the best of BC wines. All proceeds from the event went to the Oak Tree Clinic of the BC Children’s Hospital. I am afraid we did not take many photos of the wine although I did try quite a lot that night.
Our favourite was simply the Ice Lady ice wine from the Forbidden Fruit Winery. Surprisingly, almost all the food blogs that covered the event also picked this as a favourite. I want to say that no one pushed this to us to blog but for some reason it just stands out. It is made of Pink Lady Apple and is very sweet and fruity. It does not reek of alcohol at all. Suanne who does not drink loves this.
I also like the Victoria Gin. They first gave me a shot of Victoria Gin which was awful, like drinking jet fuel. Then they added Tonic Water which made it like a million times better. Nice.
We also had sake and learned a lot of flexibility of this brew … that how this is about the only liquor that can be served both hot or cold and its ability to be paired with any type of cuisines.
The Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale (from the Howe Sound Brewing Company) was another one I like … it was smooth and light with a hint of honey.
In all, there are over 60 wine and drink participants with an average of 5 types of wine showcased. It was impossible to try every one of them for sure … for us at least. On to food …
The Wild Sockeye Salmon on Artisan Bread was presented by a “baby” restaurant in Gastown. It is interestingly called “2 Chefs and a Table” which had just opened for 7 months.
We like the sushi from Miku Restaurant a lot. As a matter of fact, we went back for seconds … and thirds … and fourths. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Strawberry Juice with Bee Pollen
Polly shared with me a summer drink of her kids’ favourite. It’s strawberry juice sweetened with honey. It is a very refreshing drink for a hot day.
Polly also added some Bee Pollen into the juice. Her kids would not take the Bee Pollen by itself. By adding the Bee Pollen into the juice, the kids can enjoy the benefit of Bee Pollen with their favourite drink.
Bee Pollen is the pollen brushed from honeybee’s back leg. Plant pollen contains the male reproductive material of higher plants. It’s a source of protein which is fed to developing larvae by the bees.
Bee Pollen is a nutritional powerhouse!. It contains nearly all the nutrients required by the human body; including enzymes and all the necessary amino acids. It is especially rich in vitamin B5, B3 and B2. It also contains B-complex, vitamin C, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium and manganese and most importantly, photo-chemicals.
Bee Pollen is a detoxifier and it alleviates hay fever allergies, fatigue, high cholesterol, infertility, impotence, and varicose veins. Its healing properties promote recovery from sickness/surgery. Consuming enzyme-rich foods assist the body in preventing disease such as cancer and auto-immune disorders such as arthritis.
Caution: people who are allergic to pollen should NOT take Bee Pollen.
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Chinese New Year Series: Caesar (a.k.a. Bloody Caesar)
If you are not Canadian, you probably have never heard of Caesar. Caesar, sometimes also known as Bloody Caesar, is a very Canadian cocktail. It is based off the popular Bloody Mary with a slight difference. Caesar is invented in Alberta. I have never known why this is called Caesar … anyone knows?
The primary ingredients of the cocktail is Vodka and Clamato.
During the Chinese New Year gathering, I offered to be in charge of making the cocktail. It was an easy choice to decide on Caesar. Firstly, it is all Canadian and secondly the redness of the cocktail is just perfect for the occasion.
The color of the cocktail is Clamato, which is a blend of clam broth and tomato juice. It’s sounds like a weird combination but really, you taste more of the tomato juice than clam. Ironically, the biggest manufacturer of Clamato is Mott’s which is an American company. Another thingy you need is some Celery Salt Rimmer.
The other ingredients are some Worcestershire Sauce and some Tabasco.
Here is how I make it. I rim the glass with celery salt by first wetting the rim with a wedge of lime or lemon.
And next, I rim it with celery salt like below.
Some ice goes in first.
Pour one shot of vodka … more if you like it.
And fill the Clamato. Normally, 1 part of Vodka to 4 parts of Clamato.
A few dashes of Tabasco for the spiciness and end with a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.
Lastly, garnish with a stalk of celery. In all accounts, it is a great drink. It leaves a very intense spiciness lingering in your mouth for a few minutes. There is no hint of sugary sweetness.
Next time you’re in Canada, order a Caesar for your drink. I think you will like it.
Diet Coke and Mentos Geyser – Version 2
This is our second attempt to reach a 18 ft geyser. We had earlier only managed to get about 6 feet with 4 mentos in a 2 litre Diet Coke. This time we decided to use all 12 mentos in a pack.
We had to devise a paper funnel to make sure that all 12 tablets drops into the diet coke quickly. The reaction was instantaneous and we just can’t take our sweet time to do it. Nanzaro and Webster were too chicken to drop it — so Arkensen did it again; this time he was much more confident.
So how high does this look to you? Certainly more than 10 feet, maybe 12 feet I say. Amazing, it was great fun.
E Ben Brittle Plum Juice
We had a BBQ with Polly and family a couple of weeks ago. We brought some drinks and instead of just the normal pop, we also brought a non gassy one because not everyone enjoys carbonated drinks.
We chanced on a great deal in T&T. The E Ben Brittle Plum Juice (not sure what the name really meant!) costs only 99 cents for the 1.5 litre bottle. The original price was $3.29.
It’s a plum juice imported from Taiwan. It’s a good thirst quencher and light. The taste were sweet with a bit of plum sourness.
The ingredients were described as water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and brittle plum juice.
