Some like it HOT

Tea afficionados, how do you know how hot to brew?

My Breville IQ Kettle is the most frequently used appliance in our household. There are days when I roll out of bed, stagger over to it zombie-style, and heat the water for tea (Yorkshire Gold, a single cube of turbinado sugar, 4 min steep, splash of 1% milk). More often, I awaken to its welcome chime and clattering of porcelain - and I know dear husband is truly the love of my life, and I've got four minutes of luxury left before the daily grind begins.

It's a variable temperature kettle. On the box, it states "Different teas need different temperaturatures to bring out their best." So, if you're serious about tea, you need this kettle. It has 5 temperature settings: for green, white, oolong, french press and black tea lovers. 

Since I was four, I've been drinking a cuppa each morning, but always black. Green teas were always bitter to me. A few years ago, in a tea apothecary of sorts, the owner gave me a tip - green tea needs to not oversteep, and it needs water that is not too hot. Then we traveled to Japan, and I came back wiht some beautiful roasted rice matcha. There was no way I was going to scald those delicate leaves with this kettle!

Truth be told, I had considered getting Breville's grand kahuna - the Tea Maker - for its motorized basket, clear glass jug, and programmable features, but for half the price, the ergonomic handle, soft open lid, cordless jug and aesthetic design of the IQ Kettle (re-branded from the 'Smart Kettle' to Aussies) won me over.

If we ever get into coffee, we'll go across the street and take advantage of the billion-dollar espresso machines at a local cafe. But hey, we could just as well use the 'french press' setting, right?

We've got the Breville toaster too. Can you tell we're drinking the Breville kool-aid? Okay, it's tea in my cup. Got me.

Fish on Friday

With Friday coming up, this morning I headed to the market to pick up a slab of salmon for tonight, and tilapia to curry tomorrow. Since I was almost late for my appointment with the lovely people at the Integrative Health Institute, instead of running home first, on arrival I asked Virginia at reception if I could leave my bag in their fridge. She obliged.

As I was leaving, Virginia handed me back my bag and exclaimed, "That's a lot of fish!" She is trying to eat fish more often, and was intrigued by the sheer weight of my shopping bag. From there we had a really nice conversation about seafood: sources, equitable fishery practices, and preparation. And, Virginia telling me I should write a blog! So here we are; I'll try to capture some highlights of our talk:

• If I ever meet anyone who wants to eat more fish, I highly recommend they read Four Fish by Paul Greenberg. This book covers the dwindling varieties of fish available to the general population in North America, sustainable fishing, and the importance of eating 'ocean-wise' whenever possible. It's available in audio form at the Toronto Public Library, and in paperback at my fishmonger of choice, Hooked.
  
• Shopping at Hooked is an educational experience in and of itself. The staff are incredibly knowledgeable, and they offer fun classes like called 'Shuck U' - one of my most fantastic solo evenings. The flagship is in Leslieville and a newer location in Kensington.
  
• Pearl Diver (formerly Starfish) has a great happy hour - called Zinc n Drink - if you love oysters.
  
• Diana's (in Scarborough) has huge boxes of oysters for amazing value - if you love oysters and can shuck 'em. Their motto is "Eat fish, live longer. Eat oysters, love longer." Love it.
  
• Yes, tilapia is a delicate fish. But my mother literally grew up on a beach, with sand in her hair and fish for breakfast each morning. She taught me the importance of playing nice with delicate fish. The base sauce is created first, boiled vigorously, and then just before serving, the filets are laid every so gently in the sauce, thicker pieces first. Enough water is added so it's skimming the top of the fish, and the lid is put on tight, so you're pretty much steaming the filets. Guests do not serve themselves. The cook herself places the fish on a piping hot bed of rice or greens.
  
• And the salmon? Hawaiian brown salt, or turbinado, sprinkled with a splash of ponzu, broiled in the oven. The citrusy-salty-sweet is perfect with a gorgeous slab of Irish organic. I doubt it's wild - you only get wild BC sockeye salmon once a year, it's prohibitively expensive, and the fat content is so low that the kids don't like it anyway.

Ah, if we could only get our foods fresh, local, organic, wild, equitable and sustainable - and at a good price point, of course. But something tells me we'd still argue about flavour. Sigh.

Eat like you're poor; eat like an athlete

Tarahumara runners, in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, eat mostly pinto beans, squash, chili peppers, wild greens, pinole, and lots of chia. Bone-strengthening calcium gets worked into tortillas and pinole with the limestone the women use to soften corn.

The beer - Tarahumara tesguino - is very lightly fermented, so it's low in alcohol and high in nutrients.

No access to brew-your-own corn beer? Wild geranium (geranium niveum) is as effective as red wine at neutralizing disease causing free radicals. It's anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, and antioxidant. Still, there's something kinda awesome about elite super-athletes getting crunk on corn beer before race day.

The author is instructed to eat more fruits and veg; specifically, eat fruit, beans, yams, whole grains, and salad for breakfast. Day 1 on the diet is kicked off with a salad containing: an apple, kidney beans, raw spinach, and broccoli slaw, topped with poppyseed dressing. Wow. Reminds me of the Celestine Prophecy - where they talk about our bodies needing to be woken up with raw vegetables in the morning.

Recently my cousin told me that an oncologist advised her exercise would reduce her odds of getting cancer. I found this shocking, since we all know that physical activity reduced the incidence of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other blood-related illness, but cancer too? Well, here's the missing link, right here in print in this book:

According to Dr Robert Weinberg, MIT cancer professor and discoverer of the first tumor-suppresor gene, 

one in seven cancer deaths is caused by excess body fat... 

cut the fat, and cut your cancer risk.

A little further down, Dr Weinberg postulates we need to build our diets around fruits and veg: When cancerous tumors are removed by surgery, they are 300 percent more likely to grow back in patients who eat a Western diet, as opposed to lots of fruits and veg.

To sum it up, Coach Joe Vigil says,

Eat like a poor person, and 

you'll only see your doctor on the golf course.