The weather in Brussels has been spectacular. The sky has been without cloud for over a week, and the sun has all but chased the damp from my bones. I can only hope that the trend will continue as I prepare for a four day trip to Trier. If it was just myself and my physics geek, a rainy week in Germany wouldn't seem so daunting. But, the thought of trying to motivate 22 kids throughout rain soaked streets.......the idea is less than appetizing. Fingers crossed.

Good weather makes for good food. A big change in local produce this past week. The market is busting with peppers, rhurbarb, asparagus and carrots. But it is the growth on my terrace balcony that has me so excited. We planted some strawberries one rain-drenched March afternoon, and it appears that, ta-dah, we have a couple of flowers starting to pop.


And it is with a strawberry-heavy fruit salad that we go treking to a birthday picnic tonight. It is a joint creation, that we both agreed, thanks to the slippery mango, is the sexiest fruit salad we have ever seen. We are thinking that it might not fill us up before our concert trip tonight (I'm From Barcelona, Of Montreal, Blood Red Shoes, Two Gallants....) so we are also going to hit Dolma, a great Veg restauarant in the heart of hippy-Brussels that we haven't been to in ages.



I need some help!!! With prayers to the sun goddess, the weather will hold out for a bbq lunch we are going to in Waterloo on Sunday afternoon - suggestions for what I might want to bring would be mega appreciated. Send me recipes, links, ideas and I would be happy to give them a whirl and share the results.


Minty Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
-2 ripe mangoes - cubed
-2 quarts of strawberries - washed and cut
-1 melon - cubed
- juice of one lime
- mint - cut into ribbons

How To: How ever you like!

I had a great day! It was so wonderfilled! We met great people, had excellent food, discovered new parts of our city, bought some rockin' music, found EGG REPLACER (!!!!) and I even had the chance to use a new ingredient.

We headed off downtown with the intention of getting some shopping done and meet up with our vegetarian (vegan friendly) wedding caterer extraordinaire. Her restaurant is just a touch off the funky St. Katerine Square, and despite being off the beaten trail it was heaving by the time we finished our lunch. Annabelle can be found M-F (11 - 3) at Picnik, where she and a small number of folk whip up fresh and tasty vegetarian delights. K and I both had a small bowl of her lentil soup. I followed the scrumptious soup up with a roasted veg salad (that included the unusual, but really delicious, celery root), and K had a chinese noodle and tofu salad. The price was right, the food was great and Annabelle seems to share similar beliefs about food and life as this vegan cowgirl. So, although we haven't signed any contracts yet, I think she is the one!

After lunch we stumbled upon a great chinese shop where we had an amazing tea service performed for us, and met a really funky lady whose life seemed to be spread out all over the world.

After a workout I came home to tackle some sushi/maki. Still boosted from Anke's contest, I decided to try my hand at making, amoung other sorts, some squash sushi. After wrestling with some Nori, me and my favourite almost-vegan-boy had a nice little meal on the floor, complete with some atomic wasabi and Neko Case. Good Times. We are just waiting on our Strawberry and Coconut Agar Jelly........

Squash (and other sorts) Sushi and Many Veg Maki

Ingredients:
-Squash (sliced and baked)
-Sweet Potato (sliced and baked)
-Red Pepper slices
-Cucumber slices
-avocado slices
-tofu (sliced and baked)
-sushi rice (we actually used risotto rice and washed it off after boiling)
-rice vinegar
-sesame seeds
-wasabi
-soy sauce
-nori sheets

How To:
Maki - Cook the rice, cover with 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. I like to let it cool down for a small while. Lay a nori on the sushi mat and cover 3/4 of the nori with the rice, in the bottom 1/4 line up any combo of ingredients (it will take you a couple of trys before you become aware of how much 'stuffing' works best for your sushi), sprinkle with sesame seeds, rub cold water on the non-riced top 1/4 and roll. Some of the combos I used: Squash, red pepper and avocado. Tofu, Avocado, Cucumber.

Veg Sushi - (Squash and Asparagus in the photo). Use your hand to craft a little 'ball' or oval of rice and lay an appropriately shaped veg atop. Tie with a cut sliver of Nori.

Winkles* and Recipes

I found a new bio-winkle and restaurant in downtown Brussels yesterday. I suppose, I didn't find it. It has been around for quite some time - a little fact that is betrayed by the rickitiness of the shelving units and the well -layered information walls, which if you are into yoga, meditation or learning Russian rhythm dancing, are quite helpful. The selection was as good, if not better, than Shanti and Tsampa, and offered me an atmosphere that allowed me to continue kidding myself (chant: I am not a yuppie, I am not a yuppie...buying dried mushrooms, miso soup and extra firm tofu does not make me a yuppie).

The shop, before lunch, was just crammed - a line snaked all the way back to their well stocked walk in fridge. I was hungry, and I hate queuing. So, we dropped the basket and headed for the staircase.

Den Teepot, the restaurant, is perched above the shop and feels more like the inside of a tropical bird store than any restaurant in Brussels I have ever been to. Bright yellow and green walls, with a couple of hokie murals, were less than soothing to my eyes, and the sarried and abrupt hostess only added to the intense entrance into our lunch stop. The menu, found on each wooden table, is inside a plastic insert and warns guests that they, essentially, have no choice. They offer: Miso Soup, The Plate of the Day, Rice, Bread, and a couple of beers, teas and juices. I was unsure about the whole thing (to how many wacky places can you take your patient-but-non-vegan boyfriend?) but K was up for the challenge.

The plate of the day was macrobiotic, consisting of: a mini mound of brown rice which was encircled by a tasting of various other foods: broiled Belgian Endive, black beans, carrots, boiled cabbage, and a couple of other not so memorable dishes. I could have stayed for a vegan desert (cakes, tarts etc), but the idea of hitting the road was much more enticing. On the upside - the meal cost us 19 euro, and that included the beer and tea that we ordered with our 'meal'. Overall - Den TeePot is a great idea, but lacks something (taste). I will head back to the shop though - I was impressed with the selection of soy products, bulk goods and eco-friendly cleaning products (they even make a car wash)....

The day was hardly over - I started writing (rewriting) a paper I have to give at a presentation and then re-give at a conference, we went for mojitos at Roxy, I found a wooden watch at DeDees, I found a great clothing shop downtown, and....MediaMarkt informed us that the oven was still no where near complete.
Bastards.

Still lacking in proper appliances, I did manage to make up for the wonky Thursday night meal with a DIY dish that impressed me!

Ingredients:

Tempeh (cut into 1 inch by 4 inch slivers)
Olive oil
Spring Onions
Mushrooms
Onion
cumin
basil
paprika
Chipotle Sauce

Tortilla shells
Hummus

How To:

In one heavy bottomed and non-stick pan I heated the mushrooms and onions until they were quite soft.
I added all of the spices to the onions and mushrooms (recreating the smokey flavour of the other night's dishes).

In the second pan I cooked the tempeh, browning it on both sides - I added a little bit of tomato chutney to it. I think, next time, I would try and make (or buy) a salsa instead. The spring onion went into this pan as well - though more as a garnish then an essential ingredient.

The tortilla shells were smeared with hummus and an extra dollop of the chipotle sauce. This was followed by a generous filling of the mushrooms and tempeh. They were folded up and down they went.

It was a fantastic dish. Next time I would add some chopped black olives to the tempeh. I really recommend it to anyone looking to do something a little different from the regular vegan staples. The flavours at first glance might not add up (hummus and chipotle sauce), but it was well worth the gamble. We enjoyed the wraps accompanied by a good bottle of wine and the new Mountain Goats C.D. - all so good.

We thought the fun was over....but no way. We had made a quick stop at the Asian Grocery shop (KY) to pick up some coconut milk. That wasn't the only thing we picked up. We were in a wacky mood and wanted to try something really...unusual....so we opted for the NEON green and pink Thai Desert, otherwise known as: Suong Sa Hot Luu. The packet informed us that we needed to Chauffer le Hot luu for one minute - but we decided to be daring and eat our Hot LuLu (as it immediately became known as) without warming it up (mostly because we don't own a microwave). The excessive packaging included: a packet of funny agar agar noodles (neon green), tapioca pearls (hot lulu), coconut milk, and sugar water. It was actually really yummy - and super fun to eat.The night ended with a whole lot of Wallace and Grommit
*A winkle is a store in Flemish