Samosas are beautiful little flour dough dumplings that originated in medieval Persia and spread throughout the Middle East into India and Southeast Asian. The Indian version is by far the most famous, often stuffed with a vegetarian-friendly mixture of potatoes, chilies and peas but there’s a gang of regional variations including beef, mutton, nuts, sweet pastes and whatever else you got. Read More
Summer breeze. Green leaves part. Glowing droplets of sunlight.
I was on my way home from work a couple days ago and I’d stopped to pick some Salmonberries. As I stretched up my go-go-gadget arms towards the gently swaying gems it occurred to me that I had no idea why they were called “Salmon”-berries. Was it the reddish colour? Kind of looks like salmon flesh, I guess. Early summer Sockeye runs are starting soon and the berries are ripening… Maybe that’s it. I wonder if they taste good with grilled salmon?
Then I noticed some of the berries had been really clumsily torn from their pedicels, or roughly smashed and left dangling from the stalk. As if someone with thick awkward fingers and long gnashing teeth had gone to work on ‘em. But that’s nuts, these bushes are massive. Whoever did it would have to be, like seven feet tall… And what’s with the smell?
Like a tanker passing close to shore, a massive black bear glided through the forest scrub thirty feet from where I stood… Whoa.
Wait, bears eat salmon, and they really seem to dig these berries. Maybe that’s why they’re called Salmonberries! What else do bears eat? Hmmmmm… It was definitely time for me to get on home. Read More
Just in time to follow the turkey to the table is… ahhhh who am I kidding, Canadian Thanksgiving was a week ago. No problem, a golden not-to-sweet potato pie is a welcome finish to any meal during these rapidly darkening days of October. Read More