About Vincci and "Ceci"

Photo by B.

Hi, my name is Vincci! I love delicious food that nourishes.

Ceci n'est pas un food blog started in late '06, after I invented a soup recipe. Since then, it has evolved based on the blogs I'm reading and where I am in life (Poor Student in Montreal vs. Intern in Hong Kong vs. Working Woman in Calgary). The unintentional ambiguity of the title has given me free reign to post on a variety of subjects and still somehow manage to stay on topic, which is always a welcome surprise :)

Outside of this blog and all its related activities (eating... cooking... taking photos... reading up on nutrition news), I enjoy kickboxing, seeking out songs with 3/4 time signatures, dancing to every other song in between, singing and bopping along in my blue Suzuki, proclaiming Skirt Days, sleeping in, staying up late, adventures great and small, learning and Microsoft Excel.

I'd like to believe that all of this has helped "Ceci" become what it is today.

I hope you relish every bite and don't be afraid to stir the pot (in the comments).

Bon Appétit!

Technical Jargon
Cameras I've shot with for this blog: Pentax Optio S40, Pentax Optio S10, Nikon D40, Canon Powershot A1000, Canon Powershot SX110 IS, Nikon D90, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1... Many thanks to my brother for teaching me the "rule of thirds". I learned everything else I know about taking good photos with a point-and-shoot from a series of posts by Kitchen Wench.

Drop-Down Menu: The code for the drop-down menu was obtained from BloggerStop, all I did was fiddle around with the colours in the style sheet so that they'd match my blog.

Maps: All maps open in a new window/tab. Maps are made using Map Channels v2 (for some reason I can't get v3 to work). The maps aren't perfect - they rely on GeoRSS and can only tag one location per entry. For entries covering multiple locations, I may have geotagged them with just the city name, thus the marker will be placed in the "centre" of the city, which may be nowhere near the actual locations covered. Also, many entries do not have the name of the restaurant in the title - you will find the name and contact info for the restaurant/shop at the bottom of the entry (displayed to the right) and a link to the entry on the blog as well. Tip: Click on "Tools" and you can search the entries by say, restaurant name or quadrant if you so choose.

Nutrition Information: Recipes are analyzed using MacGourmet, which uses the USDA Nutrient Database. Nutritional info does not account for losses in cooking. Optional ingredients (i.e. "salt and pepper to taste") are not included in calculation. Vitamin and Mineral claims (i.e. "An excellent source of..." and "A good source of...") are based on food labelling guidelines set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Special Diets: I have labelled some recipes that could fall under a category with a little tweak (i.e. using vegetable broth or water instead of chicken broth for a dish to be vegetarian) while with others I have erred on the side of caution and not labelled them (i.e. I assume that commercial broths contain gluten and soy). If you feel a certain recipe has been mislabelled please let me know and I will try to fix it - I'm new at this!