I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned the following fact, but: I don’t work very much. As a consequence of this, I don’t have a lot of extra money. I buy books, food and tea. That’s it. I could work more than I do, I choose to work only part-time, and treasure this wealth of free time that I have. I’m well-aware that I won’t have the luxury of living this way forever, but for the time being, I’m enjoying it.
I suppose that a lot of the reason I began writing a blog was because of all this free time I have at my disposal. I spend a lot of my time cooking and reading, and I document some of that here in this space. With the rest of my time, I wander around the city, mostly. I’ve posted about trips to Montreal’s Botanical Gardens before, and it is one of the places in this city that I really love to visit. Another favorite wandering spot is Jean-Talon Market, and yet another is Chinatown. I go to Chinatown at least once a week, and I don’t really do much of anything there. When the weather is nice I sometimes read and drink some iced tea in a courtyard, or browse the imported food in one of many Chinese grocery stores.
These were some snacks I picked up in one of the big grocery stores on Saint-Laurent in Chinatown. I apologize for the glare on the photo… I try to use natural light, which means being beside the window since it’s too cold to be outdoor photo shoots! It was a bad angle. Anyway, the package on the left is a treat made of haw, which is a Chinese fruit that looks like a cross between an apple and a rosehip, sort of. The snack on the right is cod jerky. Yes, you read that correctly. It is sweet, a little spicy and surprisingly delicious!
I found a little more information on haw here on Red Cook. The haw snack that I tried looks like a solid cylinder, but it’s really more like a little fruit roll-up. It’s really good… tastes like the fruit leather my grandmother and I used to make together when I was a kid!
I will definitely buy both of these snacks again. The haw fruit leather is sweet, but still has a tart fresh-fruit taste, and the cod jerky is a great movie snack! I was excited to find these, because I don’t always have such good luck with unusual snack foods that I try… many of them are way too sweet or just not very yummy.
What treats are you enjoying these days?
the first dry fruit roll is great, I like that’s not so sweet and a touch of salt in it. it helps digestion too!
I’m enjoying my new discovery: aduki coconut mousse!
Coco, your aduki-coconut mousse sounds delicious!
[...] especially one part where she describes wandering through Boston’s Chinatown. I have written before about my walks through Chinatown, and some of the snacks I pick up there. Similarly, I feel very [...]