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February 13th - 2 pm
In Store - Free
Enjoy food samples from Guelph
author's new world cuisine cookbook as Tim presents
Having a Riot with Roti,
is an incredibly easy Indian cooking class on how to
do a variety of Indian breads. Have a riot and come
out and make some roti...over a billion people a day
do all over Asia!
Waterloo Chronicle Article
about What a Wonderful World:
It was ten years ago this
Christmas, my wife and I — after growing
increasingly concerned about the ethical treatment
of animals and the environmental effects of meat
production — became vegetarian. We were also
inspired by the long list of great vegetarian minds
that include Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Mark
Twain, Paul McCartney, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi
and Leonardo da Vinci.
This past week, I added one more
name to that list: Tim Tentcher. A local food
historian and self-proclaimed “globe roaming gypsy
monk,” Tentcher is the author of a new vegetarian
cookbook called What a Wonderful World! I
discovered his Crossing Cultures Cuisine kiosk
across from Shoppers Drug Mart in Conestoga Mall,
where he’s promoting not only his book, but selling
a wide variety of coffee, teas, fat free dips, and
ready-to-make authentic Indian, Thai and Asian
dishes.
Tentcher’s book tells the story
of his journey: “Once upon a time, Tim, a wayward
monk, and Nancy, a lost cultural anthropologist, met
by chance on the edge of a monastery wall. They had
tea together and discovered that they share a love
of Thai, Indian and Asian food. It was love at first
meal and soon they were wed. Not long after, they
received a Ray of sunshine, their daughter Rachel.
As Ray’s sunbeam grew, Tim and Nancy’s longing for
adventure was rekindled in their hearts and off they
went across the globe searching for adventure and
the unique flavours of this wonderful world.”
And travel the world they did,
for 14 years, as the book is packed with over 100
authentic and delicious recipes (over 80 are gluten
free) that are quick and easy to make, with
ingredients Tentcher said can be found at your local
grocer. Their daughter, Rachel Lee took the
photographs.
Also included with some of the
recipes are fascinating tales of family adventure,
like the time they took an eight-hour off-road trip
through the plains of Africa to find the last
hunter-gatherer tribe of Tanzania, the Hadzapi or
Tindiga. “As their guests we were expected to go
hunting. Being vegetarian, this was very difficult,
however, we did not want to offend them or lose out
on the opportunity to spend time with this
fascinating tribe,” wrote Tentcher.
“After bagging a Guinea fowl,
they made fire with flint and had that bird
barbecuing faster than a modern gas stove. In their
fascinating click language, one of the men told us
that Ray had stolen his heart and offered us four
baboons to marry her. We tried to explain we did not
eat meat and he became very upset — he stood with
his poison spear and stated he was very serious and
upped his offer to six baboons. Again, we said we
did not eat meat. He slyly looked at us and it was
translated that he would sweeten the deal and
offered us four gallons of honey as well. Ray turned
the tribesman down, and he (left) wishing he had
bagged more than the bird!”
Indeed, the lengths Tim Tentcher
and his family went to share their culinary and
spiritual wisdom is both extraordinary and
inspiring, reminding vegetarians like me that the
best way to lead others to a more plant-based diet,
is by example.
To learn more about Crossing
Cultures Cuisine go to:
www.crossingculturescuisine.com Marshall Ward
is a visual artist and independent filmmaker and the
writer of this article for the Waterloo Chronicle.
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