February 28, 2017 · 7:05 am

Eating #India with @AlbertaFoodTour – a @CityPalate article by Catherine Van Brunschot

Alberta Food Tours annual cuisine and culture trips to India with Karen Anderson

Cooking with Sumeet Nair in New Delhi – photo credit – Karen Anderson

Huge thanks to writer Catherine Van Brunschot for the City Palate magazine piece she wrote about the 2014 cuisine and culture trip to India I organized. I’ve been leading these tours with my company Alberta Food Tours and our business partner Indus Travels since 2012.

Catherine’s a writer’s writer. She quietly observes, scribbles notes and jots details. Her camera is always close at hand. She’s able to capture a moment and it’s feeling to share a sense of the traveller’s journey. I hope you enjoy reading her piece from the source: Eating India with Alberta Food Tours

I’m pleased to report that my 2017 trip to India is sold out and that Catherine is returning. When you get to the end of her article, you’ll see I’ve shared with you the answer to the question she poses.

For my 2018 trip to India we’ll return to some places I love – Delhi, Agra, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur – and also venture to a place I’m longing to visit – Kolkata. Please comment below if you’d like more information about that trip and I’ll be happy to email you an itinerary.

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February 19, 2017 · 5:27 am

#FEASTthebook – a great way to #eatCanada150 and @feast_on upcoming book tour dates

Dana Vanveller and Lindsay Anderson - authors of FEAST - savour it all blog by Karen Anderson

Dana Vanveller and Lindsay Anderson – photo courtesy of the subjects

Four years in the making and it’s almost here!  FEAST: recipes and stories from a Canadian road trip is the perfect way for Canadian food lovers to celebrate our country’s sesquicentennial 150th birthday. No longer will you be stumped when someone asks you “What is Canadian food?”

Turns out the answer is as diverse as our country and often as quirky as our Canadian sense of humour. Authors Lindsay Anderson (no relation – rats!) and Dana Vanveller spent five months touring all 10 provinces and three territories in their tiny Yaris during the summer of 2013. They blogged their hearts out at Edible Road Trip and won Saveur magazine’s Best Travel Blog award for their efforts. They captured the stories of our people and places and they shared the joy of eating the food that came with each day’s adventure. Now they are sharing the recipes that go with the stories they served up.

Next week, these fresh voices begin travelling Canada again and it’s your chance to meet them and get a copy of what will surely become an iconic Canadian book. Tour dates, recipes and a chance for a bonus gift from the authors follows. Continue reading →

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February 11, 2017 · 6:15 am

#ArtInstallation No. 22 – @michaelkiwanuka – Love and Hate

Sometimes a record, a song, a voice,  just creep into your soul. Michael Kiwanuka’s album and single both entitled Love and Hate are filled with enough sorrow to reach me there.

The Guardian’s review of the album spoke of authenticity. I hear the authentic sorrow for the deep contrast of how far we are from the dream of how we could be. This is an artist rising to the challenge of sharing his feelings in a time when we need a reminder of the common thread holding us together.

Surely that thread is our humanity. Though masked in an infinite expression of genetic code that unseen oneness exists. If our our every act is guided by what is humane, no one will take us down, no one will break us down. Choosing what’s humane, that is the something wonderful Kiwanuka is asking for, I believe. The lyrics follow.

Continue reading →

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February 5, 2017 · 10:10 pm

Chef Jinhee Lee – @Geenie52 – wins Gold at Canadian Culinary Championships #CCC2017

#CCC2017 - Jinhee Lee - Gold medal plates - Savour it All

Chef Jinhee Lee of Calgary (Gold) with Chef Eric Hanson of Edmonton (Bronze) and Chef Joe Thottungal of Ottawa (Silver) – photo courtesy of #CCC2017

I am thrilled for my friend chef Jinhee Lee. She just won the Gold Medal at Gold Medal Plates – the Canadian Culinary Championships.

I’ve known Jinhee a few years now. She was Executive Chef at Raw Bar by Duncan Ly at The Hotel Arts in Calgary and has moved with chef Ly to be his Executive Chef at the first restaurant where he is chef/owner.  Continue reading →

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February 3, 2017 · 6:41 am

10 Hot Chocolates To Try During This Year’s @YYCHotChocolate Fest via @AvenueMagazine

One of the best things about Calgary in February is a month long Hot Chocolate Festival that supports Calgary Meals on Wheels. Here’s an article from Avenue Magazine’s Karin Olafson with the details. There’s only 28 days and 103 locations. Let’s start savouring them all.

. . .

A hot chocolate inspired by a vintage board game, another that has a doughnut and Pop Rocks, and another that is really Christmas-y are just a few of the hot chocolates to sample this year.

From the Source: 10 Hot Chocolates To Try During This Year’s YYC Hot Chocolate Fest

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January 5, 2017 · 6:32 am

Have a #lionheart and #nevergiveup – good themes for 2017

I don’t go to many movies. I find most of them too violent or crass for my well being but, I went to Lion recently and it moved me and motivated me to write this blog.

The main character in Lion, a small boy named Saroo, gets stuck on an empty deadheading train and ends up 1500 kilometres from his home. He survives a few months on the streets of Kolkata before being sheltered and then adopted. The story thus far is a true one but it is not a rare one. I won’t give away the ending.

In India the story of children ending up on the streets happens – for one reason or another – about 80,000 times each year with a cummulative 11 million children currently enduring their existence on the streets instead of having a childhood and chance at thriving not just surviving.

Last year I had the chance to take a City Walk of the Paharganj neighbourhood in Delhi with a guide who was rescued from a life on the streets by a Non-Profit Organization called  Salaam Balaak Trust. Perhaps if I tell you what I learned on that walk, you might like to join the #lionheart movement launched by the movie producers to support a few of the organizations in India working to improve the lives of India’s street children. Continue reading →

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December 21, 2016 · 4:27 pm

5 #Lentil #recipes to say goodbye to the International Year of Pulses #IYP2016 @pulsecanada @LovePulses @CdnLentils

Well deserved kudos to the United Nations for designating 2016 and the International Year of Pulses. Canada is the top grower of pulses in the world. Pulses are the dried seeds of peas, beans, chickpeas and lentils. They are nutritional powerhouses.

The recipes in this little five video series above are beautifully presented by Canadian Lentils. Take a look and you’ll be inspired to intersperse a few of these recipes in your holiday meal-planning. While most Canadians gain six pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years Day you can pause, take your pulses, avoid the “holiday six” and spring into 2017 eating healthfully and supporting thousands of Canadian pulse farmers as you do so.

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