Zesty & Spicy

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Thoughts and photography tale of a foodie.

Arcade Piquante

September 21, 2018 by Ariel 2 Comments

This is going to be even more hilarious if you speak French but even if you don’t… the looks on my face should be enough to make you laugh.  Enjoy the video of my time on the podcast of Arcade Piquante which is basically everything that happened before the event I wrote about in this article XD

Filed Under: #FoodieLife Tagged With: Arcade, Arcade Piquante, Foodie Life, funny, Podcast, Video

The day I almost died

September 12, 2018 by Ariel 4 Comments

It had been a fun ride, I said to myself as my life flashed in front of my eyes.

The room was spinning and my heart was racing.  As my entire body was covering itself with sweat and the tip of my fingers became numb, I started to wonder why I had put myself in this crazy situation.  A part of me loved the experience but would have never thought it would have ended like this…

Truth to be told, I thought I was going to die laying half naked in the back seat of my car while holding one of Spunky’s poop bag in hope to expel what ever demon I had inside of me.  Not my proudest moment I’ll say but, even through the insane pain that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy, I kept laughing (and crying) at my childish decision.

All this began when I first accepted an invitation to appear on a podcast which could remind you of the same concept as “Hot Ones” on youtube but with the added twist of playing a video game.  Quite a daunting task to concentrate on playing while answering interview questions as the Scoville rating keep going up and your mouth starts to salivate like Niagara falls.

Spicy food doesn’t scare me, I thought… handling a little heat is totally something I can achieve, I thought.

From as far as I can remember, eating spicy food has always been something enjoyable but in all honesty… I’ve never encounter a heat more intense than the Da Bomb – ground zerohot sauce.  Not only it rates at 234 000 Scoville, it’s not even tasty.  It’s apparently made with pineapple but you surely cannot taste their delicious sweetness over the complete overbearing heat of the fire in your mouth.  I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re an adrenaline junkie with a foodie side and a slight death wish.

The few minutes after eating it, I felt fine but, it’s as we went down the parking garage of our building that everything went south.  Even after chugging a HUGE glass of cow milk (which is something I usually find super gross – surprisingly enough, at that time, it was the most delicious glass of milk I had drank in a long time) and a ton of water, the burn kept intensifying and felt like I had ingested a pound of lava.  Kneed on the side of the car, unable to stand up and holding my stomach, I kept laughing while wondering how come Kevin Strahle isn’t dead yet for ingesting so many hot peppers for the Guinness world record.  Some people are made much stronger than others and his stomach must be made of stainless steel.  After that day, I see him as a super human.

It took a lot of power to stand up quick and move my carcasse in the back seat of our Mazda thinking laying down would relieve some pain but, when I got there, it only made things worst.  Instead of the sweet relief I expected, the lava coated my entire stomach lining and it gave me no other choice than to sit up and “hold” my weight on the head rest of the front seat.  Things were not looking good and even with the worst nauseous feeling, my stomach kept on wanting to keep the lava in… So I took the matter in to my own hands… or finger to be precise.

A few second after expelling this burning non sense, the future started to look a little brighter.  Luckily, Max had read that drinking something acidic also help relieve the burn of hot pepper and made me chugged a bottle of lemon juice mixed with a bit of water.

Days after, my stomach still isn’t 100% back to it’s normal self but my mind has a new funny memory and life lesson she wont forget for the next thousand years.  Beside this incident, I had a blast recording the podcast and will notice you the second it’s uploaded on youtube so you can get a good laugh.  You’ll probably find me less eloquent than usual but I did my real best considering.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this very graphic article lol!

Filed Under: #FoodieLife Tagged With: Arcade MTL, Canada, diary, funny, interview, Montreal

My first experience making Labneh

March 22, 2018 by Ariel Leave a Comment

Labneh01

Most of the time, you’ll find it sold in little balls rolled in spices (like zaatar) and drenched in oil.  It is the perfect LOW FAT cream cheese replacement and, you can use it as you would with regular cream cheese.

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, cheese making Tagged With: cheese making, easy, fun, greek yogurt, Labneh, no bake, quick, recipe, strained yogurt, versatile, yogurt, yogurt cheese

Vegetable Broth

February 10, 2018 by Ariel Leave a Comment

I keep a lot of food scraps in my freezer.

Most of them are vegetables, fresh herbs and egg shells because there’s so much you can do with those and it’s almost a blasphemy to throw them out when you spent your hard earned money buying them.  It also goes with my “no waste” and “everything should be make from scratch” mentality because it’s very rewarding to create basic staple foods instead of buying them at the grocery.  This vegetable broth is a great example of “food recycling” and I really hope you’ll get the chance to try it and make it your own.

Plus, who doesn’t like to know that every pennies spent on veggies will go that much further and you’ll end up having a delicious and personalized broth ready to use in your future creations.

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: bay leaves, broth, carrots, celery, cloves, corn husk, corn silk, easy, food recycling, garlic, ginger, green beans, green cabbage, morel mushrooms, onions, scraps, sea salt, shallots, star anise, stock, vegetable, veggies scraps, zucchini

My first Ramen noodles

June 19, 2017 by Ariel 5 Comments

After spending a decent part of my day learning about these alkaline noodles and why the use of kansui and/or sodium carbonate is so important in the process, I was eager to apply my new findings to make my own ramen noodles.  This is my first attempt, after being inspired by other online at making these delicious noodles.  As you’ll be able to tell, it’s very simple to make them and so much more rewarding than buying them at the store… although it’s a little more labor intensive.

Ready for a quick kitchen work out?

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, Eggs, Pasta, Pasta Dough, Proteins, Recipes, Soup Tagged With: all purpose flour, easy, high gluten, homemade, noodles, pasta, ramen, ramen bowl, vita wheat gluten

Spending the day at Intermiel

December 16, 2016 by Ariel 3 Comments

As I look through my window, I notice the snowstorm.  The cold and grey weather has officially settled itself over the city of Montreal, plunging it in to a deep sleep.  Although the sunshine is hiding more and more each day, it doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to reminisce about the incredible time Max and I had the chance to spent at Intermiel, at the beginning of November, when the sky was still blue.

Situated about an hour by car off the island of Montreal, in a region call Mirabel, this gem is must see and well known institution in the area.  Founded in 1976 by a passionate French couple, newly moved in Quebec, they created what is today the biggest bee keeping company in north America, who recently won the price for the best bee keeping company in the world by World’s Greatest and, with a brand new awesome website where they ship their products worldwide.

Open all year long with more than enough allowed space to sit inside and outside where you may go to enjoy the breathtaking view, taste their vast selection of artisanal products, learn about bee keeping or just enjoy yourself in nature.  One of the main aspect that triggered something inside of me was the palpable passion of each individuals working there.

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, Reviews, Romantic ideas Tagged With: Bee Keeping, Bees, Canada, Country side, Intermiel, Mirabel, Montreal, Quebec

My first post on HonestCooking.com!

March 3, 2013 by Ariel Leave a Comment

I’ve been approved to be a regular poster on the famous website HonestCooking.com, a few months ago, but never got around to post anything because of my busy schedule.  Recently they created a bot that goes in each of their columnist’s blog to grab some posts for their site and I’m glad my Cajun Roasted Almonds were the first recipe they grabbed.  I’m super proud to be able to contribute to such famous site as honest cooking and I’m looking forward to add more post and hopefully one day maybe do an interview for them? 😛  Ok maybe I think too far already but everybody can dream right? 🙂

Filed Under: #FoodieLife Tagged With: accomplishment, almond, announcement, arielrebel, blog, cajun, cooking, feature, Honest Cooking, HonestCooking.com, magazine, recipe, roasted

Why I decided to drink Matcha Tea everyday

January 15, 2013 by Ariel 8 Comments

Have you ever heard of Matcha tea?  It’s a cancer-fighter, fat-burner, Cholesterol reducer and much more amazing tea!  The “magic” power of the delicately selected and grown matcha leaves other green teas FAR behind and if you’re not already drinking some every day yet, you have to start now!

Since I started drinking matcha tea everyday (and sometime more than once a day) I have noticed how much I’m feeling much more energetic, I also sleep better, feel happier and I’m doing a lot more goodness to my inside body that you couldn’t imagine.  If you’re not convinced after reading all the arguments and facts about matcha that I will be listing in this post, you’re a lost cause… 😛

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, Tea Tagged With: cancer fighting, health, life, lower cholesterol, matcha, tea

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