Fruit is one of the most important food components in our diet, Wiki define fruits as ‘In botany, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) formed from the ovary after flowering.'(Wiki, 2018) It was one of the earliest food we have for our ancestor, in general, it’s a term for the food we are eating every day. Personally, my favorite is gala apple, not only because I believe old saying ‘an apple a day, keep doctors away’, but also this fruit has the crisp texture and fresh aroma, also it is perfect to mix with many kinds of salad. 

TNT Supermarket

People always have one of their favorite local markets where they shop every day for fresh ingredients whether it has the freshest seafood or various of meat choice. The market in my neighborhood is the famous T&T Supermarket, the largest Asian food market in Canada which has more than 20 stores all over the country. Since its target customer is Asians, basically I can find anything I used to eat back to my hometown. The shelf full of hundreds of ingredients directly imports from Asia, it’s so fresh and that’s important for Canada’s winter. In addition, it also played an important role as Asian culture ambassador to introduce local food and unique tradition to local customers. It is a nice approach to combine different culture together and that’s the beauty of Canada. 

Pitaya (Dragon Fruit)

The Pitaya is one of nature’s most unique plants, it looks like an explosion of flame and a fruit like a pink rosebud. It is widely known as dragon fruit, its originally from Central America but is also grown and exported from several Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Vietnam. The dragon fruit is actually one of several cactus species and, just like its relatives, has a succulent stem that provides a uniquely delicious fruit with moisture in the arid climates where it typically grows.

The French introduced the fruit into Vietnam over a hundred years ago. According to some accounts, the French took the fruit from Nicaragua and Colombia, while others say the French brought it with them from Guyana in 1870 as an ornamental plant. Today, Vietnam is the world’s leading exporter of dragon fruit, with revenues from dragon fruit making up 55 percent of the country’s fruit export turnover. (Food Facts, 2016)

The plant is a climbing cactus vine that grows well in dry areas. Because of its epiphytic nature, it grows best in soil with a high level of organic materials. Its flowers bloom only at night, hence the plant is sometimes also called the “moonflower” or “Lady of the Night”. The flowers, which bloom for only one night, are white and large, measuring 30 cm long or more. They are bell-shaped and produce a sweet fragrance when in bloom. Pitahaya plants can have between four to six fruiting cycles in one year. It can be propagated by seed or by stem cuttings. (Naidu, 2016)

Dragon fruit bears fruits for five months every year, usually from early summer through mid-fall. It begins flowering in early summer, typically in June, with fruit formation occurring shortly afterward. In general, summer is the best season to tasting this special fruit. My favorite is Thai red-fleshed pitahaya but it is rare to see in the market and have a higher price $7-$10 for each, the one I bought today is regular white-fleshed pitaya . 

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The flavor of Dragon fruit is a mixture of sweet and sour, depends on the origin and maturity. The texture of bite is soft, but the seeds inside make it also taste tender. It will last for more than two weeks if you don’t peeled it off, but you better finish it ASAP if you opened it already.  

This fruit is good with most of the fruit salad, such as the famous Thai mango salad.

Recipe

• 1 white-fleshed dragon fruit
• 2 firm green mangoes – peeled, pitted, and cut into matchsticks
• 1/4 purple onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 sprigs cilantro, or more to taste, leaves removed and stems discarded
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon crushed peanuts

Steps

• Mix dragon fruit, mangoes, onion, red bell pepper, and cilantro leaves together in a bowl.
• Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, and brown sugar together in a separate bowl until the sugar is dissolved; pour over the mango mixture and toss to coat. Top salad with peanuts.

This is an easy quick dish, but you apply it to a summer party’s appetizer it could be a boom! In addition, you can also add yogurt with it, and increased the layer of texture. 

By shopping fruit from the market and adding to your recipe, it gives you a direct experience how to adapt ingredients from worldwide to composite your recipe. Local flavor always stays with the local ingredients, cooking is much more than process food when you start to combine multicultural elements inside generating fusion dishes, it’s a communication with culture.

Reference

• Fruits.(n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved Nov 30, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit
• T&T Supermarket Figure 1 [digital image]. Retrieved from  https://www.tnt-supermarket.com/on/
• Naidu, S. (2016) Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved from http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_768_2005-01-11.html
• Food Facts. (2016). Retrieved from https://foodfacts.mercola.com/dragon-fruit.html

Carbohydrate is one of the most important food components we are eating every single day because it is so important for our health we better be familiar with some basic fact which could help us step away from some misleading ‘trap’.

1. Intro

So, the first thing I want to talk about is the differences between food high in carbohydrates and high in added sugar. Before that, we should be clear what is carbohydrate and the relationship with sugar.

2. Adding some sugar? NO!

As you can see from the picture, sugar is a general term for one part of the carbohydrate. If you want to shop something with high carbohydrate in a market, there will be a countless option for you, but normally food with starch ingredients (Bread, Pasta, Rice), dairy products (Milk, Cheese), and fiber (Vegetable, Fruit) should be a good choice for you. On the other side, added sugar is more common in packaged foods which mostly provide sweet flavor for the customer. Not like carbohydrate, food high in added sugar food has less nutrition and lack of fiber, phytochemicals etc.

For example, Pepsi Cola has 41g sugar per drink, Red Bull has 27g sugar per drink, and 100g sugar has 387 calories. Basically, they are just water plus sugar.  The daily intake for sugar is only 100g per day recommended by CFIA. 

3. High sugar diet could result…

From the research on 2009, High intakes of dietary sugars in the setting of a worldwide pandemic of obesity and cardiovascular disease have heightened concerns about the adverse effects of excessive consumption of sugars. Excessive consumption of sugars has been linked with several metabolic abnormalities and adverse health conditions, as well as shortfalls of essential nutrients. (Johnson et al., 2009, p. 1015)

This research showing between 1970 and 2005, the average annual availability of sugars/added sugars increased by 19%, which added 76 calories to Americans’ average daily energy intake. Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the primary sources of added sugars in Americans’ diets.  In addition, during the past two decades, the prevalence of obesity in children has risen greatly worldwide. Obesity in childhood causes a wide range of serious complications, and increases the risk of premature illness and death later in life, raising public-health concerns. Fortunately, people already aware of the harm of high sugar diet and start to adopt a healthy diet which is low in sugar, fat, and sodium. 

4. What is whole grain 

Wholegrain is just as the name ‘whole’ saying, it includes a full component of the grain which provides more nutrients such as Fiber, Protein, Vitamin B, and trace mineral which you can’t find in refined grain. Nowadays, people also adding some nutrients back to the refined grains that lost during processes like thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, iron, and folic acid.

The benefits of eating whole grain often come from the elements you ate: Fiber, Protein, Vitamins etc. Soluble fiber helps with diarrhea, lower cholesterol and insoluble fiber help with constipation, blinds toxin.  Protein composited most of our cell in our body so you should take more of it. Vitamin B helps us with a good eyesight. Unfortunately, those nutritions are removed during the refining process, if you only eat refined grain could result in a lack of fiber and multiple vitamins. 

5. Packaged food of added sugar v.s whole grain 

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• The first ‘Sweet Biscuit’ is an added sugar food which has glucose syrup and dextrose.
• The second ‘Oat Cookies’ is a whole grain food also has sucrose.
• The third ‘Quick Oats’ is a whole grain food has no sugar added.

6. Home made fried black rice

I am not a big fan with whole grain food, but I still add it to my daily recipe because I need it to balance my dietary which I might consume too much sugar or fat. But there is one whole grain recipe, I cooked all the time. It’s easy to learn and also delicious. OK, let’s take a look.

A. Recipe

1. Black Rice                                                   300g
2. Carrot(Small Dice)                                    150g
3. Onion(Small Dice)                                    150g
   
4. Ham(Small  Dice)                                       50g     
5. Scallion(Cut on a bias)                              10g 
6. Salt                                                                   4g
7. Soy Sauce                                                       3g
8. Vegetable Oil                                              50ml

B. Steps

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• Cooked rice in rice cooker with a ratio of 1:1.5 for rice and water
• Cut the vegetables and ham
• Heating oil with medium heat and add onion first
• After onion getting crystal then add carrot 
• Adding ham and mixed rice
• Fried for 5 mins with high heat
• Adding salt and mix with soy sauce
• Adding scallions and ready to serve  

Black rice is a source of iron, vitamin E, and antioxidants. The bran of black rice contains one of the highest levels of anthocyanins found in food. The grain has a similar amount of fiber to brown rice and, like brown rice, has a mild, nutty taste. It’s not bad to add this to your whole grain recipe, you can always add some your personal favorite ingredients. I often put some scrambled egg in, and it tastes fantastic! 

Reference

• Jared, C. (2010). Figure 1 [digital image]. Retrieved from https://content.byui.edufilea236934c-3c60-4fe9-90aa-d343b3e3a6401module3readingscarbohydrates.html
• Johnson RK, Appel LJ, Brands M, Howard BV, Lefevre M, Lustig RH, … Wylie-Rosett J. (2009). Dietary sugars intake and cardiovascular health: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 120(11), 1011–1020. https://doi-org.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.192627
• Diana, Y. (2017). Figure 2 [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/sweetest-sodas-teas-coffees-energy-drinks-us-2017-7
• Jennifer, I. (2016). Figure 3 [digital image]. Retrieved from https://skinnychef.com/blog/whole-grains-for-kids

Szechwan’s Naturally Fermented Pickles is a traditional dish from Szechwan Province which located at South West of China, most families have their own secret recipe which inherited from their ancestors. I learned this recipe from my parents. I usually put sliced radish, ginger, hot pepper and garlic in the jar to ferment. 

My Recipe:

• Bâtonnet radish                  1 Piece(400g-500g)

• Ginger Sliced Julienne     200g

• Garlic  Raw                           100g

• Salt                                         30g

• Sugar                                     40g

• Szechuwan Pepper            20g

• Capsicum Frutescens       30g(Vary from how spicy you want)

• Chinese Aged Vinegar      200ml         

• Rice Vinegar                        200ml

• Boiled Cold Water              400ml

Steps:

1. Preparation

2. Rinse the fresh vegetables, and drained. Then cut all the vegetables.

3. Marinated radish with some salt, wait for 10 minutes, let water comes out

4. Use boiled water to melt sugar and salt, mix it well and wait til its cold

5. Put everything in the jar and use plastic wrap to cover it, then keep it in the refrigerator

Taste

After at least 48 hours, the fermented radish is ready to eat as a cold side dish, and it is very tasty and refreshing which mix the flavor of sour, sweet and spicy. The bait of radish is crispy which let the flavor comes out immediately. The fermented garlic and ginger take 20 days to ready as a seasoning spice, such as giving some chilly and sourness to pan-fried shredded potatoes and also the famous Szechuan Fish Flavoured Shredded Pork.

• Figure 1. Szechuan Fish Flavoured Shredded Pork. (2015). [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://www.win4000.com/mobile_detail_127696_8.html