There’s a perfectly good explanation for my absence & the belatedness of this Ma Belle Vie / A Day in the Life post: I was in Bogotá, Colombia for a gorgeous destination wedding. Those pictures may actually appear in the gallery before any of my previous photos from the holidays of 2014. DAVIDsTEA ran a really fun promotion on St. Patrick’s Day, which meant its downtown location was really packed. Can you guess what got so many people jammed into the store? Free tea if you’re wearing green. The line was out the door & people were stoked about getting free teas just for wearing a bit of green. It didn’t matter if the customers were homeless, foreigners, non-tea drinkers, long time customers, or randoms strangely demanding for “regular tea”–we carry over 150 teas, so what in the world is “regular” tea??–we served them all! Hot or iced, sweetened or unsweetened, free teas were served. The best part of my job is talking about tea & showing people that it can be for everyone, you just have to give it a chance.
Photography
Spring is just around the corner & that means a truckload full of seasonal spring vegetables are coming to grocery store near you! What can you expect in the spring? Apricots, asparagus, artichokes, endive, honeydew, lychee, mango, & so much more! I’m really excited for the new season–not only will there be less snow walls to climb, but more delicious recipes to be made! But, let’s not get carried away because it’s still winter in Boston, so let’s embrace a winter salad. Why would you eat a salad during the winter? Well, I guess you’d have to be craving it, eating healthy, have a really heated house, or because your salad is no ordinary salad, it’s a couscous salad. Yeah, it’s cold still, but it’s not just a bowl of leafy greens (that’s not a bad thing either).
See more photos & a link to the recipe after the jump!
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This Ma Belle Vie is a little different from others because I’m combining it with Georgina’s A Day in the Life Linkup. Well, to be honest, it’s really not that different. I captured photos from morning until night, however I couldn’t exactly document what happened after we returned to the hotel because that Hand Grenade knocked me out. I hadn’t felt that horrible in a long time, so lesson learned: don’t take on an entire Hand Grenade if you can barely handle more than 5 shots of hard liquor.
On February 19th, Josh attended the 56th Annual Convention of the International Studies held in New Orleans & flew me out for our 2 Year Anniversary. It was my first time in Louisiana & also my first time in New Orleans aka The Big Easy. This city has experienced a lot of tragedy & hardship in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina drowned 80% of the city, due to a major engineering mishap: the levees designed to protect the city against major hurricanes failed. Thousands of people were displaced, lost their homes, lives, businesses, & many were trapped in their own homes when the waters rushed in. Since then, the city has slowly, but surely recuperated. Tourism is very much alive & Mardi Gras is still a much celebrated event. Our trip to NOLA was a week after Mardi Gras, so most of the city still looked like the day after a frat party, but I chose not to photograph the trash. I don’t want to depict the city’s disheveled appearance, hoping to highlight the wonderful mixing of various cultures, food, & architecture. New Orleans is appropriately named America’s most unique city & while it might be a far cry from Paris, Amsterdam, London, or Bern, it is still such a worthy visit. There is no other city in all of the US like it & the culture & food is phenomenal. It’s a perfect blend of Southern comfort, Caribbean & Spanish flavors, & most notably, French influence. NOLA is a pescetarian’s dream come true: seafood for days. It’s also a great hub for meat eaters & veggie lovers alike.
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When I packed my bags & left for Boston last September, I reassured my very concerned parents that I would be just fine in a place where you can tell the Earth clearly revolves around the sun (ie there are seasons unlike California’s 2: hot/not hot). I’m not saying I was wrong, I’m just saying record breaking storms (six, you guys, SIX, & more snow in two days) hitting New England is incredibly irritating. As I write this, winter storm Neptune is raging outside with hurricane-like conditions. Sounds way worse than Moaning Myrtle, I tell ya whut. It stopped snowing midday yesterday, but the harsh winds portray the illusion of snow being flung at your face at 30 MPH since it’s picking up snow from the rooftops of houses.
It’s not that I’m ill prepared for the blizzard, I just didn’t think I would ever need to invest in a Ninja mask to deal with windy chills in my face. I also underestimated the amount of snow walls I’d have to climb to get around. The rest of my body is pretty darn warm when I walk to school, but man, my face feels like….well, honestly I can’t tell you what my face feels like because I can’t feel it when it’s below freezing. However, if you’re in the New England area–no, not New York because they’re experiencing diddly squat–a great way to warm up & avoid cabin fever is making a hearty pot of delicious clam chowder. Not Manhattan clam chowder, real New England clam chowder. I’m only hating on NYC because I’m jealous though; let’s call a spade a spade.
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Did you know that this year, January is National Hot Tea Month? Pretty spiffy, 2015, I like you already. I ended 2014 with a deliciously spicy, but totally not winter appropriate, noodle recipe & begun the year with a completely appropriate winter soup recipe. Since this month is extraordinary as it’s National Hot Tea Month, I thought what better way to combine the tail end of last year’s last recipe with this year’s first recipe? Well, what better way? I’ll tell you: put a bird on it! Couldn’t resist a Portlandia reference – let’s try this again: pour some tea on it! Using tea as soup broth is not some new invention, but it’s underrated & not trendy…yet. Depending on the quality of tea you’re using, green tea is packed with antixoxidants, light caffeine, & so darn healthy for you (lowers cholesterol!). Slurp it up with some noodles & you’ve got one great healthy meal recipe! No need to go on some strange Beyoncé lemonade detox! Drink more liquids (*cough* tea *cough*), eat fresh, seasonal whole foods, & avoid fast food! Boom, detox. & you thought shedding that holiday weight would be hard, pffffffpfpfpfpfpft. Now hit that “continue reading” button to get ahold of my new recipe celebrating National Hot Tea Month!