Tag Archives: zespri kiwi

Beating the Heat

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I think today is our 38th consecutive day of triple degree weather and according to weather.com, it’s not ending anytime soon. At least not within the next 10 days…

So all I’ve been thinking about lately is how to beat the heat.

Lots of smoothies, iced teas and coffees, and water consumed lately. Gotta stay hydrated!

And now that I finally have ice (!), I tried a new [iced] roasted green tea.

Perfectly refreshing. You know what else is refreshing and a great way to beat the heat?

Popsicles!

And you know what’s better than popsicles?

Homemade popsicles.

Two days ago I received this gift for my birthday…

Obviously, I absolutely loved it! I mean, who doesn’t love popsicles?? :)

It required 24 hours in the freezer before use so I waited patiently all throughout yesterday and was more than ready to make some pops today.

Today I just pour in my flavor and fillings of choice…

And bam! In under 10 mins I got these tasty pops.

Apparently this pop maker works best with natural liquids and fillers which is perfect since I like to keep things less sweet and more natural. I chose to make mine with orange juice, almond milk, chocolate almond milk, yogurt, and fresh fruit.

Since it was my first time making these pops I kept it pretty simple with some faux fudgesicles.

And faux orange creamsicles

The outside is just orange juice and the filling inside is plain yogurt mixed with a splash or two of almond milk.

This zoku pop maker has to be one of the easiest ways to make a quick, refreshing, and healthy treat!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to finish off this creamy chocolaty pop before the heat gets to it first.

What’s your favorite popsicle flavor?

What flavor popsicle would you create?


Raging Sweet Teeth

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So I’m pretty sure anyone who’s read a couple of my posts kinda figured out I have a raging sweet tooth. Actually, I should probably say sweet teeth, since I love sweets so much. And Hong Kong is no exception. I probably eat more sweets here than I actually do back home.

Good thing I consider fruits to be sweets because they satisfy my sweet cravings and are aplenty here.

Gold Kiwi

Jackfruit

But nothing makes me happier than a whole box of delicious sweet treats…

Pastries from Tony Wong

Mixed-berry Napoleons, Mango Napoleon, Blueberry Cheesecake, Fig tart, Mango Delight, Pinky – aka Almond cake with raspberry jam, and Hazelnut & Chocolate Crunchy Cake

The fig tart was so pretty!

and lastly, a cuppa goodness – a Mango Parfait.

I love how pastries here are usually super light and less sweet. I don’t ever get that sickening feeling from too much sugar.

Tony Wong also has beautiful full sized cakes you can specially order.


They’re shaped like roses! I wish I had a better photo…but aren’t they gorgeous?? My birthdays just around the corner and I’m hoping to be blowing out candles on one of these. Just kidding. That’d be pretty darn awesome though!

I’m proud to say I had a taste of every single one of those pastries in that box :) That should be plenty, but I didn’t stop there…

I’ve also been eating mooncakes!

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is sometime during the end of September or early November, depending on when the moon is at its fullest.

People celebrate in different ways, but lighting lanterns and sending floating lanterns to the sky is what I remember the most. Technically these mooncakes are eaten while admiring the full mid-autum moon with friends and family, but they’re sold months in advance, so we can practically eat them almost all year round.

A mooncake is actually a little hard to describe. It’s basically a pastry-type sweet that has a tender crust surrounding a dense sweet lotus paste that may or may not contain up to three salted eggs yolks in the center. The egg yolks symbolize the full moon. It’s kinda got that sweet and salty thing goin on, which I love.

I highly doubt my description was all that enticing, but I promise they are absolutely delicious. If you don’t eat eggs, there are mooncakes with no egg yolks and just lotus paste. Those are delicious too :P  The most important aspect though is that you have to buy the RIGHT brand of mooncakes. Otherwise, it’s it’s not so delicious…

So mooncakes and pastries should be enough, right? Wrong.

It’s so hard to pass up sweets here. Just this evening when I was walking home from dinner, I just had to stop at a food stand to buy this.

In that bag is…Egg waffles!

These puffs are warm and crunchy on the outside and hollow on the inside with the slightest chew. If you like waffles, you will LOVE these. There should actually be another row or two of puffs, but I kinda ate them before I got a chance to take this picture.

These have to be one of my absolute favorite foods here in Hong Kong. I’ve eaten them since I was little and they never get old. They’re sold on the streets and there are good ones and bad ones, but thank goodness I live close to a good stand :) I can never pass it up when I walk by because I can smell it a block away.

They actually started selling the egg waffle maker at William Sonoma this year along with an egg waffle mix.

 

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I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet, so I’m not sure how it compares to the ones in Hong Kong, but I’d love to find out!

I could probably go on and on about all the desserts and sweets I’ve been eating, but think I’ll just stick with my favorites so I don’t bore you all to death or give any of you a toothache…;)

What’re some of your favorite sweets? 

Steamed Dinner

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Ahhhhh…

That’s me breathing out a sign of relief.

I’m finally caught up (for the most part) with my summer school assignments and can relax a bit for a day or two :)

I spent the majority of yesterday working on a project and an assignment, which I completed a little earlier today.

It wasn’t all work though. I took a couple breaks in between.

During my mid-morning break, I went to buy a snack at my favorite bread shop downstairs. I needed to get my blood circulating in my legs ;)

After perusing a bit I decided on a sweet potato bread.

Doesn’t it actually look like a sweet potato from the side? I didn’t realize it until after I had snapped a photo of it.

The outside is soft bread, and inside is actually a sweet potato.

It’s definitely not the most attractive looking bread, but it’s a tasty one.

After I very slowly ate my snack it was back to work.

A while later I took my second break and had lunch. I ate the other item I had purchased during my mid-morning trip to La Creation de Gute.

Any guess what my lunch was?

How about now?

It’s a tuna sandwich! Well, I guess it doesn’t qualify as a true sandwich since it’s not between two slices of bread, but I don’t know what to call it. Tuna roll? eh..

Whatever it’s called, it was mighty tasty.

And I ate it all. After all, I am a member of the clean plates club ;)

I had some golden kiwi and watermelon on the side.

Anyone know if you can eat kiwi skin? I didn’t try it, but I feel like I should.

After lunch I finished up my assignment (finally!) and headed to they gym for 22 mins on the elliptical, 17 on the bike, 17 on the treadmill, and 10 mins of abs.

Then came my favorite part of my day today. A walk to the grocery store! :)

I have no food here and needed some veggies stat. Plus I really wanted to use the steamer in the kitchen here.

I’ve never used an actual steamer before and this thing is amazing! You can make anything in it from rice to de-crystalizing honey, or even make yogurt!

Since it was my first time using it, I kept it on the simpler side.

I decided on some chinese spinach, carrots, tofu, and half of a mini Japanese pumpkin.

During it’s 15 mins in the steamer, I showered off and had some salmon rolls as an appetizer.

Then, voilà! – Veggies were ready.

I think I may have overcooked the spinach slightly, but it was still good and not tough at all. Just a bit brown.

After I was about 2/3′s through, I realized I didn’t season any of the veggies before steaming them, but I don’t really think it needed anything. Fresh veggies are always best as is. The carrots gave the spinach a slightly sweet taste, and the pumpkin was delicious on its own.

I couldn’t read the label of the tofu to see whether it was firm or silken, since it was all in Chinese, so it was a surprise :) I usually eat firm, but luckily I like all tofu because it ended up being silken. Delicious and smoooooth.

This has to be one of the easiest dinners I’ve ever made! Aside from my instant noodles last night…

But that doesn’t count ;)

Now I’m off to find something to satisfy my sweet tooth :P

I’ll also be making something with these in a bit!

Any guesses what I’ll be doing with them?

Have a terrific tuesday!