CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKES, A perfect dessert for any occasion

COCONUT WATER ENERGY DRINK

REVITALIZE YOURSELF WITH THE GOODNESS OF VITAMINS

Energy drinks are known to give you the boost you need to remain active, alert, awake, and energetic during the most critical times, but they are not exactly the healthiest thirst quenchers. However, there is already such a thing as coconut water energy drink for times when you want to revitalize yourself with a healthy alternative to conventional energy-boosting beverages. Coconut water, especially the organic kind, is free of artificial sweeteners and other additives. It is low in calories, so you get the all-natural goodness of the super fruit that is naturally cholesterol and fat free. It is high in potassium, too, which your body needs to stay hydrated.

Coconut water contains carbohydrates in the form of electrolytes and sugar, and these are easier to digest and process in the body for energy. In its natural state, it is clear liquid that comes from the young, green coconuts. On its own, it has a nutty and sweet taste, but some manufacturers of coconut water drink add flavoring to make the drink more interesting and tastier for discerning consumers. Coconut water is naturally refreshing and more hydrating than conventional sports drinks, and best of all, it has less sugar than sodas, fruit juices, and sports drinks.

A good coconut water drink contains only 50 calories, but the serving is already high in antioxidants and a 100 percent recommended daily value of vitamin B and C to promote better health. For added taste, consider a product that has a fruity flavor, like pineapple. Some products contain yerba mate and green tea to help with your metabolism. Rest assured, the product is free of artificial sweeteners and chemicals, and uses only natural sweeteners from coconut sugar and organic sugar cane.

Go organic when choosing coconut water drink, so you can be sure that it does not contain any genetically modified and potentially harmful ingredients. Make sure that all ingredients are non-GMO verified, so you can confidently drink and enjoy the beverage. Consider buying a highquality coconut water energy drink from a reputable manufacturer of organic energy drinks.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKES

A PERFECT DESSERT FOR ANY OCCASION

Cakes play an important role in any happy occasion. Whether there is a birthday, anniversary, Valentine’s Day, mother’s day, father’s day, friendships day or any other significant holidays. Cakes are also an integral part during festivals like Holi, Diwali, Raksha Bandhan, Christmas, New Years and so.. Today, people like to commence their happy occasions or celebration by cutting cake.

As cake brings love, happiness, fortune and sweetness in the life. It is also one of the most favorite foods in the world. From kids to senior citizens, everyone enjoys cake.

Today there are thousands of flavors in cake. Out of which chocolate truffle cakes have always been a hit shot! Its taste, its aroma, its texture can melt anyone and everyone’s heart.

Chocolate truffle cakes are a great idea for desserts on any special occasions. Like for instance:

BIRTHDAYS: If you have your brothers birthday, who is a chocoholic, then chocolate truffle cake will be the best gift for him. Similarly, if it’s your favorite cousins birthday or your sisters birthday or even your spouse. Chocolate truffle cake will not fail to impress them and be the highlight of the occasion.

ANNIVERSARIES: Whoa! This is a day of love, romance and celebration. Chocolate is synonym with all the prior mentioned words. Its sweet & bitter combination of taste can easily win the hearts of the recipient. It will be a blissful surprise for your spouse, fiancé, girlfriend or boyfriend who is a serious chocolate lover and loves anything and everything which is made up of chocolate. Just gift him or her the moist dark chocolate truffle cake and hit the right chord on this momentous day of your anniversary!

FRIENDSHIPS DAY: This is also one of the occasions where a chocolate truffle cake can do wonders. Chocolate are pretty popular amongst the youth. That their hot favorite pick for any occasions. Woo your best of best friends with chocolate truffle cakes and just capture the beautiful smile on their smile!

VALENTINE’S DAY: This is a day of love and romance. Chocolate truffle cake will add that extra breeze of love in the air.. Let your lover know that what he or she means to you and you are thankful of their presence in your life. Let the chocolate truffle cake send out this message to your partner and increase your love. It is a sure reason to strength your love bond on Valentine’s Day.

Surprising Uses For AGED BALSAMIC VINEGAR

If you’re a big fan of good food and killer ingredients, then you are very familiar with one of the great elixirs of the world — aged balsamic vinegar. This gorgeous nectar has tantalized taste buds for centuries, and while it hasn’t necessarily lost popularity in the culinary world, it has become one of the ingredients that’s been championed by the rise of foodies everywhere. Over the last few years, more people have become big fans of really enjoying the food they eat beyond just the yumminess. They appreciate the artistic presentation, the use of local ingredients, and above all else, they are enamored by the attention to detail when it comes to pairing flavors. This hyper-focus is the mark of the foodie, but it has also made its way into the everyday kitchen. Take a look around, and people have started taking a greater interest in making the kitchen the central hub of the home.

Home kitchens feature commercial-grade equipment, and there is a desire to use highquality ingredients even if they are at a bit of a premium. Enter aged balsamic vinegar. The multi-barrel, multi-year process of creating this amazing ingredient is what has cast an almost mythical aura over it, but in recent years, people have started finding widely available bottles of the stuff for a few bucks on grocery store shelves. Clearly, this is not the fine Italian product that can sell at a couple hundred dollars per ounce.

Let us assume that we’re working with an aged balsamic that’s somewhere in the middle of these two price extremes. The question still remains — what do you do with it? If you’re one of the folks that’s looking to make a splash in the culinary arts with some nice aged balsamic vinegar, here are a few uses that you may not have thought of:

SALADS – A drizzle is all you need, and while some may venture into emulsification, that would entail adding more stuff to what’s already a great product. Let it speak for itself.

MARINADES – If you’re intent on combining flavors with the balsamic vinegar, use it to marinade pork, chicken, and beef. A little will go a long way, but the flavor profile you’ll create will be something else.

FINISH A MEAL – In the same way you can use a touch of extra virgin olive oil to top off a dish, aged balsamic can do the same but in much more complex manner.

DESSERT – Pair it with strawberries, figs, apricots, or even chocolate truffles, and you’ll never eat dessert the same way again.

SODA ALTERNATIVE – If you’re

giving up soft drinks but still want some fizzy goodness in your life, try aged balsamic vinegar with some sparkling water.

It’s important to note that aged balsamic vinegar is gaining momentum in terms of its domestic production, which means you can get really wellmade balsamic without the plane-ticket premium price that comes with the imported stuff. Moreover, this gives you a chance to buy as locally as possible, which supports small business, and you also get unique tastes that really capture beautiful areas of the country in a bottle.

SUKHVINDER SUNGER

DECONSTRUCTING BARRIERS

Sukhvinder Sunger was born in Matsqui, British Columbia (B.C.), and subsequently spent his formative childhood years in Victoria, B.C., alongside his parents and two sisters. Driven by the desire to assist those in need and give back to the community, he joined the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in 2002 at the age of 24, after completing his education in criminal justice.

In 2011, Sukhvinder was provided with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - the United Nations (U.N.) Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan. This opportunity presented itself while his wife was pregnant with their first child, despite this, she supported his lifelong dream of serving abroad. After an extensive national vetting process, Sukhvinder was selected by the U.N. and was deployed shortly thereafter in January 2012. For the next twelve months, Sukhvinder bore witness to the atrocities of the 22 year-long civil war on the South Sudanese population, while simultaneously training and mentoring the South Sudanese National Police Service.

Provided the difficult environment, Sukhvinder relied on listening to shabad during his tour of duty as a medium to restore equanimity and provide strength. Several years upon his return to Canada, Sukhvinder sought assistance for the PTSD he acquired as a result of his tour to South Sudan. With a deep appreciation of the stressors of policing, coupled with his personal journey, Sukhvinder presently supports fellow officers as a union representative and advocate.

In 2017, Sukhvinder joined the VPD Pipe Band. Following a year of practice and lessons on the tenor drum, he became the first member of the band since its inception in 1914, from a visible minority background. Incidentally, performing with the band coincided with a time in his life when Sukhvinder made the decision to adhere to the articles of the Sikh faith - keeping his hair unshorn and wearing a turban.

In 2019, the VPD pipe band participated in a cultural tour of India including several performances, as well as the commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. Sukhvinder vastly underestimated the significance of his presence within the band. Through interactions with Indian citizens, especially those who resided in Punjab, many expressed how meaningful it was for their children to see someone born abroad adhering to the principles of Sikhism. As a consequence of this deeply impactful trip, advancing the visibility of Sikhs - particularly from a historical perspective - has become increasingly important for Sukhvinder. A recent project championed by him is the WWII short film Promises - due for an upcoming release. The film aims to accurately portray the frequently overlooked contributions of Sikhs to the allied forces, a subject that continues to garner his interest.

Sukhvinder remains grateful for all of the South Asian police officers who helped pave the way before him and strives to deconstruct barriers for future generations of officers, by helping implement more inclusive policies within the VPD. With over 20 years of policing, Sukhvinder has learned that communication, kindness,

and simply treating people like human beings are often all that are needed to come to a resolution.

GULZAR CREATIONS

Payal Business Centre, 12899 80 Ave, Unit-155, Surrey BC V3W 0E6 Call: 604-503-0943

CULTURAL CHATS

Culture Chats BC Association is a not-for-profit association. We engage the community through free events and programs promoting multicultural arts. We offer a free writing program for newcomers with professional instructors. If you would like to participate in our free writing workshops please email culturechats@gmail.com for further details.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Orfan was dearest to everyone. He was a cute baby with lovely black eyes. Orfan was almost 10 months old when he said his first word ever, which was MAMA (uncle) and it was the happiest moment for all family members. We were asking him again and again to say MAMA, say MAMA…. Each of us was trying to teach him our own names, but he was laughing and calling everybody MAMA. Days passed and we noticed that now he is calling everybody MAMA Basit (my youngest brother). It was funny for us with a big question mark, why can’t he say mother, but he can say a harder word, which is Basit. We asked

Basit how is it possible? And he told us “I wanted that the first name baby Orfan learns, should be mine; so, I worked hard on him, and I spent lots of money on buying toys and baby food for him until he learned my name. By Bahishta Rahmani

JOURNEY TO CANADA

I was excited to come to Canada to join my husband after getting married in

November 2019. But Covid happened and my visa got delayed. I was so depressed in those two years. It changed my life. I reached Canada in Dec 2021. Started my new journey with my husband. I was so excited, as everyone is, when coming here.

I got my first ever job just after 25 days in American Eagle. But my experience with them was not good so far. One of my co-workers humiliated me because she was 17 and I am 31. According to her I was too old to work there. That embarrassed me. Every time I went there, I felt humiliated. I had to leave that job. After 4 months I got another job which I always wanted to do, a daycare job. I am now pursuing this job. I am happy and satisfied where I am and whatever I’ve achieved so far in this new country. By Harpreet Kaur

I WILL NEVER FORGET

As an amateur writer, who mostly writes for herself, I will never forget the moment when my stories were published. It didn’t matter whether the stories were published in a community newsletter or a book with a small publication volume. What mattered was that finally I could crack the cocoon of the fear of being rejected and misunderstood. I could tell people through my writing about my existence, feelings, emotions, attitude, challenges, ups and downs, highs and lows. When it happened, I felt as if I was at the top of the mountain. I wanted to cry out, I wanted to cease this moment. I will never forget it.

By Tanya Kan