It’s such a fun concept to sit at a table with a barbecue grill in the center, and be served a plate of raw meat. Hotpot is similar. Food served uncooked, and finished at the table to your liking.
My wife isn’t a fan of meat platters for dinner, but my daughters are. So, off to the restaurant I want with my youngest daughter, and we devoured a meal for two that could easily have fed 3 people… but we were both hungry and devoured everything. Simply delicious!
The next time you buy yogurt, take a look at how much sugar it has in it. Do the same when you are buying ‘healthy’ cereals like the ones high in fibre. If you don’t normally pay attention to labels, you will be shocked.
It takes a tremendous amount of effort to eat healthy these days. Almost every packaged item has more sugar than you’d expect. I remember being at a roadside grocery while on holidays a few summers ago. I was thirsty and ended up choosing a lemonade rather than a can of pop. I thought I’d avoid a sugary soda. I got back to my car and that’s when I looked at the label. My lemonade had over 30 grams of sugar, (about 10 times more than a can of Coca Cola).
I don’t mind indulging in a sugary, tasty treat every now and then, but I make a concerted effort not to eat a lot of sugar as part of my regular diet… and it’s hard. It shouldn’t be, but so much food in our grocery stores have high doses of sugar.
I try to get most of my sugars in fruit. I will occasionally order a sugar free Diet Coke when I’m having fast food. And I read labels and make smart choices at the grocery store. But it’s not easy, it seems like there is sugar and more sugar everywhere I look.
I’ve had a few opportunities to have lunch with, to break bread with, colleagues in the past several weeks. Having a meal together, outside of the usual staffroom with its comfortable banter is a treat. It is a good reminder of the fact that we all have lives outside of this thing called work.
I find that my connections to people can become fixed in a place-based kind of experience, and we all play the roles we are supposed to play… to leave that environment and break bread is an opportunity to find new connections, to be ourselves and not just our roles.
It was a different kind of Thanksgiving this year, the first one where both of our daughters were not with us. We went to my sister and brother in-laws, who were also without kids, and we had paella. It was delicious, I can honestly say that I didn’t miss having turkey.
I want to take a moment and be thankful. Thankful for family and friends. Thankful for good health. Thankful to be living in a prosperous country by global standards, and thankful that it is a democracy. Thankful to live in a beautiful country that is very green and very clean. Thankful for a great job where I can contribute my services to a meaningful cause for a good wage. Thankful for access to delicious food any time that I’m hungry.
It’s when we don’t have these things that we miss them most. The fact that I do have them should not go without appreciation and thanks. I have much gratitude for the life I live, and the people I get to spend it with. 🙏
For me blackberry season is bitter sweet. I love the taste, and enjoy picking and eating them, but they are also a reminder that summer is coming to an end. Blackberries, or blackblellies as my oldest daughter first called them, are so unique.
I’ve already shared that,
“Blackberries are a unique fruit. I can eat a handful of raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries, and it doesn’t matter how many I put in my mouth, I enjoy them all the same. That’s not the case for blackberries. Blackberries taste better when you have one at a time. Two blackberries in your mouth are not as enjoyable as just one.”
So, carefully, watching for thorns, I search for ripe berries. I pick them and place them one-at-a-time in my mouth… and I savour every one. Yes, summer is coming to an end, but I have the joy of blackberries to help soften the blow.
My wife’s family from England came to Canada and one of the things they complained about was the cost of everything. It wasn’t just the taxes and tip at the till that they struggled with, it was the overall cost of everything. This completely surprised me because on trips to England I have consistently found that country to be one of the most expensive places to visit after converting from Canadian to Pounds (or Euros).
However, I’m not surprised. I’ve been shocked by prices too. A pack of chicken that used to cost $12-$13 pre-Covid is now $18-$20. Two bags of groceries that used to cost $50-$70 now routinely costs $100-$120. I can’t remember the last time I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items and didn’t spend $100?
Hearing them complain about the cost of food made me realize just how acclimatized I’ve become to the new prices. We mostly shop at No Frills, which is a Loblaw Company.
Their stock price has more than doubled since 2021. Stock dividends are up. And a quick look shows profits in retail up 4.4% on 3.4% growth this quarter… so maybe it’s just my non-economic math brain but that looks to me like they’ve bled consumers of an extra 1% profit.
I honestly don’t know how anyone working a low hourly wage job can support a family these days? This is why companies like Uber can get drivers, because so many people need a gig-economy second job to make ends meet. The cost of basic living has skyrocketed, and I can foresee quite a few people struggling who would not have just a few years ago.
When I was in England in 2018, I had to stop converting from Euros to Canada dollars because it was ruining my holiday thinking about the cost of everything. Hearing our English relatives complain about Canadian prices has been a wake up call as to just how expensive things have gotten here. While I can pretend a Euro is a dollar on a short vacation and just pay a bit more while vacationing, it’s really hard to accept these inflated prices on a day-to-day basis here at home.
I’m on holidays and I’ve had the privilege of watching a few sunrises over the ocean. Before the sun rises, but the day has brightened, and before the glare gets in the way, birds nose dive for small fish feeding on the turmoil of the ocean; as waves crash near the shore. I’m reminded of another privilege we all have: we don’t have to spend most of our day seeking food.
These diving birds must constantly be on the move, seeking their next meal. Food is life, and the quest for food makes up a significant part of most bird’s and mammal’s day. We don’t have to do that. We have the luxury of grocery stores, restaurants, refrigerators, and means to store food without it going bad. Much of our innovation and subsequent convenience comes from our ability to spend precious time not in the quest for food.
But it’s not just about innovation and convenience, it’s also about creativity. I think we are on the threshold of a new era of creativity. AI and robotics are going to move us into an era of greater innovation and convenience, and ultimately give us more precious time to design, create, and be artistically inspired.
The quest for food will be replaced by the quest for self-expression. A new chapter is about to be written… it will feel much more like fiction than reality.
We are in Mexico and tonight we went to a small restaurant with an octopus in their logo. I took that as a hint that this might be their specialty and so I ordered an Asian Octopus appetizer. Spicy and served in a mild soy sauce it was a mouthwatering treat. I also ordered the Octopus ceviche, which again was a real palate pleaser.
I was not disappointed! The meal was wonderful. And so was the service. And so was the company. There is more than just good food that makes a meal delicious, and tonight’s meal really had everything I could ask for.
Sometimes life can be just so delicious!
I don’t snack a lot. When I do, it’s usually chocolate or nuts, or better yet chocolate with nuts. Chocolate almonds are my Kryptonite, a weakness I can’t overcome. If we have a bag of chocolate almonds in the cupboard, I get drawn to them and I end up making several trips to ‘visit them’ in a night. “Last handful,” I repeatedly say to myself on my second and third time to the cupboard.
That said, most days I don’t treat myself. I have dinner and that’s the last food I have for the day. No desert, no treats.
However, every now and again I like to treat myself. I like to indulge in a little snack, or buy myself an apple fritter, or dig into a cinnamon bun. I don’t view it as a reward for anything, it’s not a special occasion, it’s just a simple indulgence.
As long as it’s not chocolate almonds, it’s something I don’t overdo. I think because I don’t do it often, it makes a simple treat seem special.
How do you treat yourself?
I grew up in a small Jewish community in Barbados. It seems like an odd place for Ashkenazi Jews to be located, but there is a Jewish cemetery on the island dating back to the 1400’s.
However we weren’t Jewish, we were Jew-ish. I shared this previously,
And as for being a Jew, I think most Jews would say that I am not Jewish. You see, Judiasim is a matriarchal religion and my Grandmother, my Mother’s Mother, is to this day a Catholic. She was happily married, a role model marriage like few I’ve seen, to my Jewish Grandfather until he died.
So my mom grew up with a Christmas tree and told my dad that having a Christmas tree was something she and her kids had to have. My dad, esoteric rather than religious, was fully on board. In my childhood there were a lot of jokes about our Hanukkah bush (Christmas tree), and my dad’s favourite joke, telling the more Jewish members of the family that they could eat the Christmas ham because the pig was circumcised.
No matter how I look at it, Christmas, Hanukkah, Pass-over, and Easter were no more religious than Thanksgiving. They were opportunities for family to gather and to celebrate each other’s company.
So no matter what your faith, or what holiday you celebrate this time of the year, have a wonderful time with family and friends.
Cheers to you!
