As Canada’s most popular handmade market, One Of A Kind Show, came to the end last weekend, I have to review my experience as a vendor in 2019. In this 2nd part of our gift guides, I would like to share our personal picks of the food & drink in the handmade goodies.
Nowadays, we all have different kinds of diet and the trends are always changing. Keto(genic), mediterranean, low-carbohydrate, low-sodium are on the table. However, to be frank, we all need to eat. For me, preparation of a meal/dish should bring joy or delight if you enjoy it. To be able to satisfy our taste buds, we just have to be conscious on what we eat. Without further ado, let me present our picks in the food& drink category.
Flavoury, Sweet, and Indulgences
Abokichi’s Okazu condiment, Abokichi.ca
Abokichi’s Okazu condiment – Chippli Miso, Curry Miso, and Spicy Chili
This is my all-time favorite sauce. I use it on my white rice, fried rice, plain noodles, and any Asian dishes that go well with sesame flavour.
Hot Chocolate Bomb – The trendiest hot drink of 2020
Hot Chocolate Bombs from MVM’s Delicacies.
I first discovered this trend on social media last year. As someone who used to work in a chocolate shop, the idea seemed to be great to me. A beautiful decorated chocolate ball dissolved in a pool of hot milk. POUFF! The flavour and marshmallow just floated around in your mug of hot chocolate! Basically it’s two hemisphere of chocolate shells with stuff inside which takes some delicate handworks to perfect the creation. They should be available at your local chocolaterie (chocolate shop).
Tea – How do you like your tea? I genuinely like loose tea, any kind, black, green, oolong, Pu Ehr and Matcha. I would drink 3 and more cup of tea sometimes. To save myself some time and trouble to clean up, I use tea bags as well. The one I am recommending here is the sachet.
Regular tea bags are flat and the content inside are usually fragments of tea leaves. When I first discovered the tea sachet, I was amazed by how the tea leaves actually opened up in the sachet as it contained more space. The taste of the tea did come out much better as the tea leaves were not grounded to pieces but in a well-preserved form. Here are some highlights of handcrafted tea sachets.
Maple Syrup of Quebec and more
The extreme weather of the French territory is proud and creative about their gift of the nature. Maple syrup is produced from the water reserved in the trunk of the maple tree, after long hours of vaporizing to reduce the water content. The natural sweetness makes it the best replacement of refined sugar for daily consumption.
A big variety of extended products such as maple butter, maple spread, maple jelly, and maple candy can be seen in most of the gift shops in Canada’s international airports. Here are some other interesting creations related to or extended from the golden liquid, candles, hot sauces, even ornaments.
Maple Syrup from Nos Cabanes
Images from Etsy.com
SPECIAL MENTION! Maple Whisky ** 18+
Adults only / Please drink responsibly
image from wine-searcher.com
Canadians are proud of their heritage and their booze! No wonder liquor stores were categorized as ‘essential services’ during the pandemic. The first maple whisky I discovered years back was Sortilège. For the past 20 years of my adult years, I slowly experienced more holiday drinks than egg nog and sherry. In this year’s Christmas Soaps, I designed a ‘Canadian Bourbon’ with maple sugar and bourbon scent.
‘Canadian Bourbon’, Christmas Soaps of 2021, MeiJi & co.
Here are some conceptions that may make to your bar menu this year, if ever available wherever you are.
Maple Liquor Cream, SAQ.com
Crown Royal Maple, crownroyal.com
Wayne Gretzky, thewineshops.com
Cheers,
Macy Xxx