Matcha Green Tea Waffles [Recipe]: Super easy!

I finally tried making waffles! Waffles are one of my favourites - either for breakfast, afternoon snack, or dessert! Recipe below!

Ingredients

I used the Hamilton Beach Waffle Maker. It's very easy to use, and extremely easy to clean as well. Put in batter, flip, wait, flip, done!

Matcha Green Tea Waffles

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk (I used Flax Delight)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp matcha powder
2 tbsp sugar
Topped with: Raspberries + Nestle Chocolate Syrup

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix together sifted flour, baking powder, matcha powder, and sugar thoroughly.

2. Make a hole in the middle and crack in the egg and pour in milk. Mix it until you get a smooth batter.

3. Depending on your waffle maker, you may want to butter the inside. Heat up the waffle maker and when ready, place 2 scoops of batter in the centre. Close the lid, wait for a minute, flip it over, and wait another 2 minutes. The waffle should be crispy on the outside, while soft in the inside.

4. Serve with chocolate syrup (or maple syrup) with fruits of your choice.

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Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder [Product Review]

Green tea is not only one of my favourite teas, but also one of my favourite flavours to go to when it comes to bubble tea, ice-cream, mochi, etc. Also, whenever there's the option of matcha, I'd always choose matcha because it has a much stronger and smoother green tea taste when compared to "green tea". This is because matcha is a finely grounded up powder of the leaf, so when you use matcha, you actually have the whole leaf, rather than just the brewed water. Believe it or not, there are many different grades of matcha, depending on the location of the leaves, the grounding technique, oxidation, etc. Today, I'm going to talk about a matcha green tea powder that I've tried - Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder.

Kiss Me Organic Matcha

Matcha green tea is said to 

• be high in antioxidants (specifically 137 times the antioxidants of brewed green tea for this one)
• detoxifies the body
• improve cholesterol (decreasing the "bad" LDL cholesterol)
• be a metabolism boost - believe to contain a thermogenic component
• increase energy and focus - yes, there is some caffeine in matcha, but apparently it also contains relaxing properties which counterbalances the caffeine effect (Buddhist monks drank it to remain focussed and calm during long hours of meditation!) 

And specifically this one, it is 

• USDA certified organic - leaves are lab-tested to ensure the purest form and that they're free from pesticides, herbicides, harmful fertilizers

Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder comes in resealable bags of 113g of matcha powder. In addition, you also get a downloadable recipe book that includes a variety of recipes including cocktails, smoothies, muffins, truffles, cookies, dips, curry, soups, and the list goes on! 

Now, I know some of you may be reading this and doubting all the benefits that I've listed. (I did too, because they sound too good to be true). However, do you really need all of them to be true or to have scientific evidence in order to love matcha? Personally, I think if just 1 of the above reasons is true, then that's already enough. With so many benefits, so many recipes, and the unique flavour, there is no reason to not love matcha. 

Here's the matcha latte I made, super easy!

matcha green tea latte

1 tablespoon of matcha green tea powder

melt the powder with hot water (~4 tbsp)

steam 3/4 cups of milk (hot!)

pour into your cup along with foam

sprinkle with powder

drizzle with honey (optional)

Kiss Me Organic Matcha green tea powder brought a rich, authentic taste into my cup of latte. The aroma from the powder is strong, yet pleasing. There is also a slight bitterness that comes along with it, so do add some honey if you don't like that. Personally, I like that slight taste of bitterness. This was so easy and so deliciously good! You can also easily customize the amount of matcha green tea powder to your liking. 

Since I couldn't do any fancy latte art......

I also made matcha green tea waffles from scratch! 

Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder is exclusively available on Amazon.ca ($29 CAD) and Amazon.com ($25USD). 

Disclaimer: I was provided with the product for the review purposes. The opinions and content of this post are entirely mine.

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Cafe de l'Orangerie: Japanese-style Spaghetti (Great First Date Location)

A hidden gem as it is located on West 73rd Ave in the residential areas, so I had not even heard of this French x Japanese cafe when my friend suggested it. French x Japanese reminds me of Moii Cafe, but that one specializes in crepes while this one features Japanese-style spaghetti, which is spaghetti with a much lighter sauce as compared to Italian sauces.

Creamy Tomato Spaghetti may look a bit plain as you can't even really tell if there's sauce or not, but trust me, it tasted very creamy (though not overwhelming). If you're a fan of creamy spaghetti like me, you'll enjoy this dish!

Creamy Tomato Spaghetti $9.80

Ponzu is water-based citrus sauce, kind of like vinegar. I know that ponzu is often used in Japanese cuisine, so I wanted to try it with the pork on rice. The pork was tender and I really liked it. The sauce was very appetizing and I loved the citrusy tinge that it brought to every bite.

Onion ponzu pork: pork sauté on rice with onion ponzu sauce $9.95

A popular item on their menu is the masago de creamy spaghetti. Even though this one is a creamy pasta with the same spaghetti, it wasn't as creamy as their Creamy Tomato Spaghetti. It had bits of seafood and masago mixed within the noodles, which created a unique texture to it.

Masago de creamy Spaghetti $9.80

A common Japanese dish, but one that you won't get bored of as I would call it a classic - chicken teriyaki on rice. It came with some fries and greens.

Chicken teriyaki on rice $8.50

When I saw chocolate fondant on the menu, I really wanted it because of 3 main reasons: 1. I love cutting open a dessert and having chocolate flowing out, 2. it was really cold in the restaurant and I wanted something warm, and 3. I wanted to see if it'd actually take 15 minutes (as the menu stated). 

All their desserts are made in the house, so I guess I can understand why it'd take 15 minutes to make this one. However, I was hoping it'd just come in a plate instead of a cup so that I could see the chocolate flowing out. It was nicely baked, but not the best I've had. 

Chocolate Fondant $4.95

I love matcha and I just had to try the matcha green tea pudding parfait (what a mouthful!). It came with a big scoop of ice-cream, sweetened red beans, and also my favourite mochi. So, basically it consisted of many things that I liked.

Matcha green tea parfait pudding $6.95

Even though this picture doesn't look very appetizing, but it shows the green tea pudding, which was very tasty as there were two different layers! I thought all the elements (ice-cream, pudding, mochi, and red beans) all went very well together. I would definitely choose this dessert over the chocolate fondant.

As it isn't in a busy location, this place wasn't busy when we were there. We got to stay as long as we wanted and it's a really nice cafe to meet up with friends to chat. However, we couldn't stand the temperature in the cafe - it was really cold! I don't know why, but they really should have cranked up some heat. I think the room temperature is just as important to guests because we couldn't enjoy the food or ourselves fully as the coldness was constantly in our minds. Also, I can't think of why they're a French x Japanese cafe other than the French name. Nevertheless, I'd definitely like to  come back to have some more Japanese-style spaghetti. 

P.S. I think this is a great first date location! Nice, cute, quiet, and affordable yummy food! Did I mention the tempting dessert too? :)

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Moii Cafe Cambie: An artsy Japanese x French cafe

I re-docorated my home!

Just kidding! This is actually the interior of Moii Cafe, a spacious coffee/snack cafe located on Cambie & Broadway. At first, I thought it was weird that it's "Moii" with two i's and how it translates to "me cafe". It is actually quite interesting and here is their explanation: "Moii is a combination word from French "moi" (I) and Japanese "なつでもいい" (It is ok/whatever) forms an idea and spirit of "it's ok to be myself; this is who i am." How creative! 

The entire place is very nicely decorated. Relatively, it is large and spacious, yet it gives a cozy and homey feeling once you step inside. Turns out that the owner is a graduate from Emily Carr University and wanted a place for artists to showcase their work for others to enjoy. What a great idea that I'd totally support. Already liking this place. Now on to the food. 

This is the tuna and cheese crepe and a cup of green tea. Now I think I prefer sweet crepes over savoury crepes. Nonetheless, I always find myself ordering savoury ones - probably so that I don't feel like I'm having dessert. The crepe was pretty good but I cannot say it's the best I've had. Though I do love the fact that it's freshly made.  So, once in a while, the shop would be overflowed with a very nice smell that'll suck you into ordering a crepe. 

Tuna and cheese crepe

They also have a variety of drinks. I got the matcha green tea - I love matcha. This was very good - creamy and not too sweet. The only thing I'd change is to add less milk. 

matcha green tea latte

 School has been back for almost a month now and I'm sure coffee shops have gotten busier as well. When I was a student, I did not really like studying in coffee shops because I get distracted easily. However, I'd be up for catch up with a friend or for "people watching" anytime at a coffee shop! I think this is a perfect place for those who enjoy studying in cafes. Look at the space and they even have a study room for group meetings/projects. 

Study room/ group meeting

Thirsty? They have complimentary lemon water! Have I mentioned that it's perfect for studying? Homey feel, crepes to order, study room, spacious... it's the whole package.

If I knew about this place earlier, I'd probably love studying here. I wouldn't be too surprised if this place gets busy during exam periods. 

Moii Cafe Menu

Moii Cafe menu

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