The best thing about coming home from a trip is eating home cooked food, especially when you don't have to cook it. When I arrived in Ottawa, I called my in-laws and they invited me over for dinner and to look at my pictures from New Zealand.I happily agreed because my mom in-law makes the best Persian food. Nine out of 10 times, she is cooking Persian food. I would have to say that Persian is in my top 3 for favourite cuisines. It is delicious, full of taste, natural, and very healthy. I can't rave enough about Persian food and I'm sure you will see many more posts about it.
When I arrived for dinner, I was even more excited because she had made my favourite, zereshk polow or barberry rice. Along with the barberries and saffron rice, she usually adds slivered almonds, pistachios, and carrots.
Barberries are not sweet at all. They are tart and sour, and when added to rice, it gives it a real kick.
The zereshk polow was served with saffron chicken with tomatoes and onions, and tah-deeg. What you see below on the right is potato tah-deeg. It basically tastes like fresh potato chips with a hint of saffron.
It didn't end there. For dessert, we had an awesome apple and almond yogourt cake. It was super moist and not too sweet, just the way I like it.
The cake was served with a strawberry and mango fruit salad...yum!!
Mmm...home sweet home! Although I was quite jet-lagged, I stayed late to show them my pictures over hot tea.
Naam
My order was somewhat of a sad story. I meant to order the gold dragon bowl, but what I got was the regular Naam dragon bowl. It was totally my fault since I ordered the wrong thing. The gold dragon bowl (what I did not order) sounded really neat. It sounded like it was a poutine served with miso gravy, steamed veggies, and deep fried tofu.
K had the chilaquiles enchilada, an enchilada served with grilled veggies, salsa, chili, jalapenos, and yogourt, layered with organic corn tortillas and topped with cheese. He was so stuffed he didn't have room for his salad.
The line up was a bit long, but the food was worth waiting for. Like I said, the menu looks a little plain, but the food absolutely makes up for it.
CK and I had a very simple yet satisfying meal here. Our water was served in these cool little silver cups that I thought were pretty neat.
We started it off with two chicken satay skewers, and had the green curry with tomato eggplant, and pad siew for mains (I opted for pad siew instead of the pad kee mao in the end).
They are known for their great desserts but we just didn't have the room. The food was really good, and although we were hoping to save time, we just didn't with the long lineup. Our waiting time was about an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was worth it. 
The quail breast was prepared medium rare and was cooked perfectly. This was a really rich dish that included Joselito Iberico Jamon de bellota, hazelnuts, chinese artichokes, chestnut mushrooms, black pudding, and milk skin. There was a lot going on in this dish and the richness filled my stomach up quickly.
My second course was a very tender roasted veal fillet. It was served with grains and a truffle custard that tasted amazing together.
We ended our meal with a green apple snow egg. The inside of the egg was an apple meringue and the outside was a caramelized sugar coating. The apple flavoured shaved ice was a little sweet for me. I would have liked it to be a bit more refreshing with the warm weather but CK thought it was perfect.
All in all, I thought the food was amazing, and I would definitely go back. If 
The way to cook a traditional hangi meal is in an earthen pit, called the hangi pit. Food is cooked underground using natural steam from geothermals or from the steam of hot stones heated by fire.
We had a feast of meat, potato, pumpkin, and corn. Because all of the food was cooked together at once on top of ashes, the aroma of the meat, vegetables, and smoke intertwined and created a really authentic taste. 
After the meal, we went out into the dark night to watch a geyser shoot boiling hot water 30 metres into the air. Cozy fleece blankets, soothing hot chocolate and dried fruit chips were provided.
After the spa, I decided to take a short nap. An hour later, I woke up to New Zealand news, and this monkey servant story was the first thing I saw. I thought it was pretty hilarious so I wanted to share it with you.
Kayaking was a blast!! The water was incredibly blue, and Abel Tasman was beautiful. We didn't get to see any penguins, but the birds and seals were great to watch.
After kayaking, our guide took us on a 2 hour hike where we learned all about New Zealand plant and wildlife. If we are ever stranded on our own, we now know which plants to eat, what to use for toilet paper, and how to make a coffee like drink.
The owner is super friendly, and I highly recommend this place for its burgers. I had a bite of CK's beef burger, and it was just as good as my mussel burger.
In terms of climate, New Zealand reminds me of Canada, but densely compacted. You can basically experience all types of weather in a very short period of time. During our drive to Milford Sound, it started out nice and sunny, 2 hours later it was wet and foggy, and then an hour later, we were in the middle of a snow fall. It was really bizarre. 
Where are you from: Waihi, New Zealand
For ideas, we looked up places to eat in our Frommers New Zealand guide book. There were a few restaurants we liked, but we finally narrowed it down to a restaurant that was marked as a special find.
The atmosphere is cozy and intimate. There are leather couches to lounge in, and a hot fireplace to keep warm from the cold weather.
For starters, I had the Fiordland crayfish gnocchi with chives in a creamy bisque. This had a fishy taste to it, but that didn't bother me at all.
For mains, we had the trio of hare and fish.
The fish was pan seared groper with a medley of New Zealand green lipped mussels, potato and leek with saffron foam. 
Frommers said that this place would burn a hole through our wallet, but when you take the exchange rate into account, the price was quite reasonable. 
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