Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Make life sweeter

If you don't know already, I have a big sweet tooth. I love sweets and I always have. If I die one day is because of diabetes. But I have had a fascination for sweets since I was a child (of course, waht kind of kid doesn't like sweets). It's so serious that I have actually considered pastry chef as a career. The other day talking to my sister about food and stuff made me think of something. You know how people travel around the world tasting food from different countries? Well, I wanna travel around the world, tasting different countries' DESSERTS. Ah? How do you like that, eh, eh?! :D But since I don't plan to travel for a while, at least I can make a blog entry about desserts I already know from different countries.
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**WARNING**
The following content might make you extremely hungry or crave for sweets.
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COSTA RICA
Let's start with my home country, Costa Rica. I love desserts from Costa Rica because they are so sweet. One of my favourites are the "cajetas" which are like treats made with powdered milk, condensed milk, butter, and sometimes coconut flakes. They are rolled into little balls.

Another of my favourites is the "arroz con leche" or rice pudding. Made with cooked rice, condensed milk, cinnamon, and sometimes with clove and raisin.


Another classic, bread pudding. I tried making it once, didn't turn as good as the ones I have tried.



Hong Kong
Tracing back to my roots, I have to talk about chinese desserts - at least in Hong Kong. I like their desserts because they are sweet but not overly sweet...makes me feel "healthier". A lot of their desserts are made warm. One of the desserts I loved when I was younger were the egg custard tarts. I loved especially between the custard and the dough part because it wasn't too moist or too dry, still tasty.


Another of my favourites is the sponge cake because it's so soft, cushiony, just sweet enough, so light...makes me wanna shrink and jump on it. It's delicious too


This coming delicacy comes in a very sticky form, yet delicious! I used to order glutinous rice balls everytime me and my parents went to "yum cha" (drink tea). Sometimes they have sweet black sesame paste inside or even red beans, but I like it when they have sugar, coconut, and peanuts inside.


But for me, nothing tops off my all time favourite, tapioca in coconut milk. If I could eat something for the rest of my life, I'd be happy with this. I can jsut gobble them so quicly.


Aw man, those chinese have so many desserts. I still have a lot more to say, but I wanna move on to another countries.

CHILE
There is this particular cake that I like, however, I can't eat much of it because it is soo sweet and soo filling. The torta chilena is like a cake with various layers and have "dulce de leche" between every layer.


BRAZIL
I don't know much about brazilean desserts, but there this particular one that makes me drool so much. They call it brigadeiro which is kinda like the costa rican "cajeta" but they also put cocoa powder in it and roll it on chocolate sprinkles.

FRANCE
France is what I consider the capital of desserts. Their desserts are so delicious and so prefectly carved and so well designed. But one of their typical ones is the crème brûlée. One of my simple pleasures is to crack the creme brulee with my spoon - like Amelie.


How can we forget the famous Crêpes. Hmmm...especially with Nutella and strawberries inside. Topped off with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup. Oh la la!


ITALY
Can't talk about Italy if you don;t mention the tiramisu. The delicious cake made with coffee. And I love coffee.


CANADA
Oh, Canada, our home and maple land.... I can't remember when I first saw this tradition, either at Black Creek Pioneer Village or during my trip to Blue Mountain. I of course had to include the maple taffy.



Wow, writing this blog makes me drool for sugar. I better stop writing.
Are you from any of the countries I mentioned and forgot about your fav dessert?
Are you from another country with delicious desserts?
Do you love the desserts I des
Let me know through comments!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Soccer fever

To be honest, I was a lot more of a soccer fan in previous years than I have been ever since I came to Canada. But I have always been a World Cup soccer follower, ever since 1998 where France topped Brazil in the final (whaaaat!?) - and the next world cup they got eliminated in the first round (*sigh*).

But anyways, this year's World Cup is nothing like I expected. Of course, one might have an idea of the most popular teams to win the World Cup like Germany or Brazil. My favourites for this year are Spain and Portugal. Spain because I am loyal to their players I have known for a while: Casillas, Fermando Torres, Xavi, and former player Raul Gonzales. And Portugal because of good looking Cristiano Ronaldo :D But I also have other favourites like Argentina, England, and Germany. Jacob is cheering for Germany. I made a list of predictions of who gets classified in the first rounds:

GROUP A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France
Qualify: Mexico (A1) and South Africa (A2)

GROUP B
Argentina
Nigeria
Korea Republic
Greece
Qualify: Argentina (B1) and Nigeria (B2)

GROUP C
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia
Qualify: England (C1) and USA (C2)

GROUP D
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana
Qualify: Germany (D1) and Ghana (D2)

GROUP E
Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon
Qualify: Cameroon (E1) and Netherlands (E2)

GROUP F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia
Qualify: Italy (F1) and Paraguay (F2)

GROUP G
Brazil
Korea DPR
Cote d'Ivoire
Portugal
Qualify:Portugal (G1) and Brazil (G2)

GROUP H
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile
Qualify: Spain (H1) and Chile (H2)

But if there is anything we learned from the first round of matches, is that anything is possible and that you cannot relay on the big names. During the first round: England tied with the United States, Germany lost to Serbia, Italy has been tieing with other countries, Brazil won by slight difference, and Spain lost against Switzerland. Like, what's going on here? Disappointed about my fav teams.

The second round hasn't been as bad as the first round. What has been the most exciting was the game of Portugal versus Korea 7- 0. Holy cow! And I thought the 4 - 0 from Germany versus Australia was impressive.

And what's up with the vuvuzelas? Apparently they have a lot to say in this world cup. Are they really that annoying? Or are they just a justification on the poor play of some teams and they can have something to blame on? From a television point of view, I don't see what the whole deal about vuvuzelas is about. But I guess if I were at the game and there are tons of people blowing on the vuvuzela, I would probably kick every single vuvuzela in the face - if they had one. And apparently is a very african thing the vuvuzela. Hm, maybe find a substitute for it, or I don't really know. But it was funny to read that the selling of earplugs has increased tremendously since the start of the World Cup. Haha. Not surprised.

I am still wondering what would have happened if Costa Rica had made it for the World Cup. I think it will be in the same position as Honduras right now. Hopeless. There's even a commercial about it, putting our country to shame and it's funny for us, because we know we suck.


Argentinian: You have no idea of how excited I am to see my country playing in the world cup. Are you costarican? I feel so sorry for you. I have an advice for you, how bad it's to see other countries playing. It's depressing. Turn off the TV, go to the beach. You are so good at the beach. *sings* Go, go*
Voice: the joy that the costarican team didn't give to you, we'll give it to you.

Now I'm just waiting for a country like Switzerland or Paraguay or Slovenia to take the cup home. That'd be a shocker, but a good shocker. But I don't know, still hoping that Spain and Protugal make it till the end. Who's gonna win? I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.

Who are you going for?