Look at all the Yerba Mate's here! This is a specialty South American grocery store in Kensington Market which I love to go to. I wanted to check out the Yerba but also the different dried chilies available here, lots!So, I went out on an artists date today. My artists dates these days (year(s)) seem to revolve around food. & thats ok, food is very artistic and it works for me. Artists dates are a concept from Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, which I read several years ago. I used to do the journalling like she suggests every morning but dont anymore.. but hey, I have a blog : ) But every once in awhile I take myself out on an artist's date.
The artist's date is a weekly block of two hours spent observing, experiencing, and sensing.
This morning I went out to a beautiful Kitchen store, to the World's Biggest Bookstore (recipebook section, of course) & then to Kensington Market.
Amazon.com Review of the Artist's Way: With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.
Lots of fresh and dried herbs.. and great produce. Lots native to South American. See the box of Mamay Sapote.. the big seed in this is ground up & used in my favorite chocolate - Tehate!!
Tomatillos - Salsa Verde! )
Sooo many peppers!
Then we went to my favorite store in Kensington Market - 4Life.. This is such a great store, this is where you go to get great organic produce! & spices and so much more.. It's beautiful here!!
He always has the best dried figs and Medjool dates etc..
This is Diggs, the owner..
he found the way to my heart by offering me chocolate.. and not just any chocolate, but Chocosol, and yes, it was raw!!! my fav kind! I was so happy to find out that he carries their chocolate now! excellent!!!
This is 4 Life Foods, at Augusta and Nassau. Come here! : )
& then my final stop was to the House of Spice.. I picked up lots of spices and interesting things here. The owner makes his own Ras El Hanout, which is a Moroccan spice blend that can have up to 50 ingredients, such as ginger, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, peppercons, cloves, cardamom, dried lavender, dried rose petals, nigella, mace, galangal and turmeric.
These are some of the dried chiles I brought home to experiment with. Fun.
What a wonderful market! Thanks for sharing such a great place! I'm jealous of all those pepper choices!
ReplyDeleteDried chilis are wonderful to experiment with. I love chipotles - they add great flavor to sauces, some recipes are in I AM GRATEFUL.
ReplyDeleteOMG! Thank you much for reminding me about Kensington Market and introducing me to 4 Life Foods. I'll definitely have to check it out. I went to the Big Carrot yesterday to see how they were doing with raw items and organic items and they were out of a lot of stuff. I was specifically looking for chiles. It's so amazing that you mention them.
ReplyDeleteHi Organic Gardener! Nice to meet you - I posted that just for you! Kensington market is so fun.. great to get a good soul vibe going. : ) & Fun!
ReplyDeleteHi KombuchaChic, Hi Winona, great to hear from you. Yes, chiles are lots of fun. They are still sitting in paper bags waiting tho.. working lots on other raw creations right now.. anxious to start experimenting with them. I will def check out I am grateful! I have lots of ideas already tho.. and some written down. Go to the heart first, then the books. : ) Hugs!! xo, R