Diverse Delicious Eats this Non-Cooking Weekend...

When you're cooking all the time, it's always a real treat NOT to cook and just have an open whim to all the delicious diverse foods and restaurants your city has to offer. My brother and his family were just back in town for good from being overseas a decade, so between being in the Scarborough area, picking up their welcome home gift and having the family reunion dinner, I was luckily filled with all these amazing foods which would rarely have been compacted into one weekend. Here were the tasty dibs:

Lahmajoun is a very thin Middle Eastern flat rolled bread spread with a ground beef, tomato, veggie and spice mixture. They are sold in packages of a half dozen 8 to 10-inch rounds. You can pick these up in the refrigerated section of Middle Eastern grocer stores. Bake them in the oven at 350F for ten minutes until heated through and eat right away.

My favourite way to eat these thin pizzas are with salad greens wrapped down the centre. My first time trying lahmajoun was at a Queen Street East restaurant way back when, called Arax which is no longer in operation. The Lebanese owner was a riot and he introduced my husband and I this dish. His specialty was to add lemony olive oil-dressed bitter dandelion greens as a topping to wrap up. The sweet, savoury and bitter flavours came at a surprise and got me instantly hooked! If dandelion greens are hard to find, I just use regular salad greens or to get a closer taste like Arax's, I would use chicory, kale or arugula leaves tossed with fresh lemon juice, EVOO and sea salt.

I was at George Brown College's The Chefs' House restaurant catching up with my Chef friend on Friday and thought I'd swing by St.Lawrence Market (my old 'hood), and pick up some tasty goodies to treat my brother and his wife. $200 later, I was walking out with foie gras terrine, aged balsamic vinegar, five-year aged smoked gouda and camembert cheeses from Alex Farms, and Spanish olives stuffed with anchovies and lemon.

Saturday morning began with eggs, ham and toast alongside some gourmand injections. Spanish olives, sausages, and the main event- nice slivers of foie gras, a sprinkling of fleur de sel salt served on water cracker thins ... mmm, it's like heaven melting on the tongue. 

$29.99 per 100g ain't cheap, but the quality in its taste is worth every cent and a must treat!

Like my son said, "I know why the foie is so expensive, because it's so-o good!"...

Saturday night was beyond awesome seeing my siblings' kids all intermingling swimmingly with each other! My brother's family has been living in Japan so we wanted to order in some food that he hasn't had in a while. Since we were in Scarborough, Middle Eastern food abound, and we easily landed on Afghan cuisine at Naan & Kabob. The delicious variety of grilled kabobs were hard to resist and we pretty much ordered every kind from ground beef shish kebabs to Tandoori chicken breasts and our spicy favourite Chaplee. My favourite place though for Afghan food is Bamiyan Kabob.

The combos came with slightly spiced basmati rice, spicy salsa and tangy yogurt to dip the meats and their irresistible
sesame-flecked flatbreads. Bolanee in the forefront is a lightly pan-fried naan, stuffed with potatoes, green onions
and herbs, served with a side of homemade yogurt.

The round chaplee kabobs are really bunless burgers made with coriander, red chili flakes and fresh chilies, sprinkled with tart red berry spice sumak! Really spicy, really delicious and savoury. This is one I will surely make, but seriously toned down for the family.

My brother Dan (alias Marten Go) is a wicked hand-crafted sculpture artist. Welcome home!

With work in progress Bruce Lee from the Way of the Dragon, Alabama from True Romance, and his first Bruce statue.

Our family of boys finally wound down in the late evening for this first cousin union pose...

Nothing beats Family! I'm looking forward to cooking for everyone!

And I went out to buy this extra large pot for this very reason...