TinAndalucia

So maybe it's not just the ingredients you have...

2006-05-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

After my gobi manchurian cooking disaster, I decided to invest in some corn starch. It changed my life! I made a stirfry (following a recipe from the internet) and for once my stirfry sauce was thick and delicious.

Last weeked I moved into a new apartment. Because I waited so long to call Rogers to switch my internet to the new apartment, I was unable to get a technician to come and set it up until the Wednesday after the move. Because I was so busy moving, I ended up eating out a lot, and by Monday I was determined to eat a home-cooked meal. I decided stirfry would be the quickest and easiest thing to make for my first meal in my new apartment. Unfortunately I could not look up the recipe that had turned out so well last time since my internet was not hooked up. But I have a good memory, so I decided to go on that. When it came time to add the corn starch, I could not for the life of me remember how much I should add. I decided that a cup should be enough. Oops!!!!!!!! Talk about the thickest stirfry of all time! As it cooked, a jelly-like substance began to form in between the vegetables. By the end it was this gigantic vegetable pie that I ended up cutting into slices! I later found out that 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch is plenty for a stirfry. Who knew!

Cooking is fun... when you have the right ingredients

2006-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

My cooking obsession continued well into last week. One day, I had an intense craving for gobi Manchurian, which is an Indian-style Chinese appetizer. Since there are no good Indian Chinese restaurants near my place, I decided to try and make it myself from scratch. I searched the internet for recipes and found some good ones. The only problem was that I didn’t have all the ingredients, and I was feeling too lazy to walk the 10 minutes to get to Sobey’s to pick up the stuff I was missing. So I decided to improvise. Some of the ingredients I didn’t have included corn starch and wheat flour. Not a problem – I did have pancake mix. The second ingredient on the pancake mix box was “corn flour” – since it contained the words “corn” and “flour”, it seemed like a perfect substitute to me! I cut up the veggies, and dipped them in the pancake mix and water paste (instead of a corn starch, flour, and water paste). Then I put the coated veggies into my wok along with garlic, olive oil (instead of peanut oil), teriyaki sauce (instead of chilli sauce), soy sauce, and salt. I was missing ginger and coriander, but I figured the teriyaki sauce would add the additional flavour I might be missing. And voila! Gobi Manchurian, Tina style! Hetan came over as soon as I was finished cooking, and it smelled so delicious that he wanted to try it right away. That excitement didn’t last long though. “Tina, what is this crumbly brown thing all over the vegetables?” “Oh, it’s my secret ingredient,” I responded nervously. He cautiously tasted one vegetable, as did I. It actually didn’t taste too bad! We ate some more, but Hetan grew increasingly suspicious of my “secret ingredient”. Despite the good taste, the more I ate, the more I started to feel sick. I decided that now would probably be the best time to tell Hetan what the secret ingredient was. I cringed, waiting for his reaction. “YOU USED PANCAKE MIX, SOY SAUCE AND GARLIC IN THE SAME DISH! YOU FREAK!!!” And so ended my attempt at creating exotic new dishes.

Cooking is Fun!

2006-03-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

The other day I was at work and all of a sudden I got this urge to cook Indian food. I don't know where it came from! I felt inspired to make some kind of Gujarati sabzi. That has never in my life happened to me before... I cook often enough, but this was the first time that I felt the desire to cook run through my veins! So I googled "Gujarati recipes" on the internet, and came across a lovely website with a variety of recipes. The aloo baingan (potato eggplant) sabzi sounded particularly appetizing. I printed off the recipe and zipped to the grocery store after work. What fun! I painstakingly sifted through a pile of eggplant before choosing the most beautiful of purple vegetables in the lot. I also bought 2 lovely red tomatoes and 2 flawless potatoes. This was going to be delicious!!! I took my purchases home and whipped out the recipe from my backpack. I followed the recipe to a tee, and my only mistake was cooking the sabzi in a pot that was way too small, so that I had to transfer the contents into a bigger pot halfway through. My apartment finally had that Indian spices smell that everyone longs to get rid of, but that I so badly wanted to have in my hair, clothes, and sofa. It was all very exciting! The highlight was when my sabzi was at last ready. The results? Well, if you want to know, you'll have to attend my housewarming party when I move in May. It's finally time to meet Tina the Hostess!

Unclassy is my middle name

2006-02-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

Fine dining and Tina just don't mix. This past Tuesday we decided to do something different and go for dinner at Toula, on the 38th floor of Westin Harbour Castle. It's a very classy place, and not the type of place I usually frequent. For starters, I had a caprese salad, which consisted of 3 tomato slices, 3 slices of buffalo mozarella (don't even get me started on how gross that was!), a piece of lettuce, a leaf of "spinach", and the petals of some kind of wildflower as a garnish. Yeah. So anyway, the only thing I liked from that entire plate was the spinach. I opened my mouth and popped the entire thing inside in one shot (very ungraceful, I know!). All of a sudden I realized that it was not spinach... it was mint! Yuck!!! I ended up spitting it out into my napkin, while the people sitting around us stared in amusement. They were all clad in suits and ties, sitting with perfect posture, and saying things like, "The atmosphere in this restaurant is just splendid," and "It's very clear that only the finest grapes were selected for inclusion in this delightful wine." I, on the other hand, was comfortably slouched with my shoes off and my legs swinging back and forth as they dangled from the chair. After the mint incident, all eyes continued to remain on me, as I ended up being the source of entertainment on our side of the restaurant (the piano player, unfortunately, could only be clearly heard on the other side). Dessert provided the best show of all. I had a poached pear dipped in Lindt chocolate. In the centre of the pear was a particularly firm column of solid chocolate. It was a large piece, and though I really wanted to try to fit the entire thing into my mouth, I knew that I should attempt to break it into at least 2 pieces. I tried, using my spoon, to cut through the chocolate. But the darn thing was so hard! At last I made progress and... the entire thing went flying up into the air, landed on the table, and skidded across the white linen tablecloth. Smear. The waiter immediately came running over. "Are you okay!" This was approximately the 5th time he had to do that. "Yes, I'm fine!" I gasped, as I wiped away tears of laughter. And so ended my experience with fine dining. Will I continue to dine? Fine! But no more fine dine! (Sorry, that last sentence was too much, I know. My deepest apologies to my sister who probably has a headache from rolling her eyes too hard).

More about samples

2006-02-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

So as you can see from my previous entry, I love samples. This is one of the reasons that I love going to Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL). You can go there for a whole day and not spend a penny because the samples are so plentiful. I have shared my "sample tour" with people from all over the world, including visitors from Finland, Germany, Japan, Colombia, India, US, and Singapore. Practically every continent has had my tour! I still need to give this tour to representatives from Australia and Africa, so if you fit into one of these categories, drop me a line.

Last Saturday it was absolutely beautiful outside - sunny and +10!
Good weather (GW) + free samples (FS) = life's ultimate combination (LUC)

I phoned up H and told him that I absolutely had to take him on the sample tour. He had heard so much about this tour and now was the time for him to experience LUC. So I picked him up and off we went to NOTL. We made our first stop at the Fudge Store - but to my great dismay, there were no free fudge samples. Can you believe it? It was the first time in my LIFE that I had to leave the store fudge-free. I started to feel a tiny pang of worry building up inside me, for I realized that I had never been to NOTL at the end of January. I always went there either in the summer or just before Christmas, both of which are popular times for tourists to visit. Nonetheless, we continued on the sample tour in search of jam and crackers (the equivalent to a sample "lunch"). We entered 3 stores that normally have mountains of crackers and homemade jam available for your tasting pleasure. And that day - NOT EVEN ONE CRACKER CRUMB WAS TO BE FOUND!!! I was mortified. After all my raving about samples in NOTL, after that long 2-hour drive just to have our "meals" on-the-house, and there was nothing. But all was not lost for I suddenly remembered a candy store off one of the side streets that always had plenty of free chocolate and other goodies. By this time H was mocking me like there was no tomorrow. "Oh wow, this place is amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! Look at all the samples! Wow, we are going to save sooooooooooo much money just eating all the free food! How exciting! This is the best place on earth!!!" I had to find that candy store to salvage the day. We approached the side street and turned right and... that was it. I could no longer face H. The candy store was CLOSED. And so for the first time in my life, my sample tour was not a sample tour, but rather a non-sample tour. Because I had not allowed either of us to eat all day in anticipation of all the samples, we were rather famished by the time we discovered that my tour was a failure. We ended up PAYING for tea and biscotti. I do have to admit that the biscotti was rather delicious, and much tastier than any of the samples we could have had... but please don't tell H!

Samples are the world

2006-02-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE free stuff. If there are samples within 10 feet of me, my heart starts racing and I can't think about anything else aside from getting that sample. It actually causes me a great deal of stress to think that the samples will run out and I won't get one. This happened a few months ago when I was at the Whole Foods Market. It was just before Thanksgiving, and Hetan and I were having a jolly old time sampling cakes and cookies in the bakery department. We reached the produce section where they were giving away free chocolates. Without delay I ran by the lettuce and went to grab a chocolate sample. While we were savouring our samples, I spotted a different kind of chocolate on the next table. I was about to jump and grab one when Hetan said, "It'll look bad to have a second chocolate before we finish the first one!" He convinced me to walk around the produce section and "digest the first chocolate" before taking another one. We did a loop around the mangoes and bananas, and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to try the other kind of chocolate. I ran back to the table and - you might want to take a seat - they were GONE! I could not believe my eyes. I had missed an opportunity for free chocolate! I was so disheartened, I didn't even know what to do. With a dejected look on my face, I sadly wailed, "They're gone! And I didn't even get to try one!" Hetan told me not to worry, that we could buy some chocolate to try. Buy it? WHAT?! Now that was going too far! I took a deep breath and shakily explained that having the chocolate was not the point. Having the chocolate FOR FREE was what made the experience so special, and by buying the chocolate we would be ruining the sanctity of free samples. He did his best to console me, though I'm pretty sure I caught him rolling his eyes somewhere in there. We've gone back to Whole Foods several times, and not once has there been free chocolate since that fateful day before Thanksgiving 2005. You'll know where to find me as the Thanksgiving of 2006 approaches...

Sheena the Hostess

2006-02-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my sister had a dinner party. I was so impressed with her hostess skills! She is 2.5 years younger than me, but it really seems like she's 10 years older. I arrived at her condo and the table was already full with appetizers - salad (topped with shredded beet, tomatoes, and toasted almonds), baguette with spinach dip, and 7-layer bean dip with nachos. Appetizers?! I would never have even considered those if I ever decided to have a dinner party in my tiny bachelor apartment!!! The main course was make-your-own pita pizzas, complete with about 20 choices for toppings. WOW! My main course would have been cereal and skim milk. There was also diet pop, regular pop, lemonade, and strawberry kiwi juice. What would I have served? Tap water. Maybe Gatorade if people were desperate for some flavour!!! Dessert was even more exciting than the rest of the meal. There was chocolate bobka, Dairy milk, mini rolos, cherry blasters, cookies, chocolate brownie cheesecake, Guylian chocolates, peanut smarties, and canolis. Dessert... I would have served my usual bananas and strawberry yogurt. Or maybe dried apricots if I was feeling particularly generous. This just goes to show that the ability to throw a good dinner party has nothing to do with age, like I had originally thought back when I was 21. I guess I'll have to keep learning from my baby sister until the day someone writes a blog entry praising my latest dinner party. It'll be a long wait!

Last entry about the weather...

2006-01-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

I know, I talk too much about the weather. But I can't help it! I need to unleash the excitement that builds up inside when the weather is good. Saturday it reached +10, and today was +9... unbelievable for the end of January. OK, that is my last weather comment for this month. Luckily tomorrow is the last day of the month, phew!

The other day I went out for dinner with Sujitha and Jenni. I have had a cough for a month now, and at one point in the evening, Jenni asked me, "Would you like a vitamin?" I don't know why, but I just could not register her comment. I said, "Huh?" as if she had spoken to me in Vietnamese. She repeated, "Would you like a vitamin?" I still wasn't paying attention, so I again I had to ask, "Huh?" This time, she said extreeeeeeemely slowly, "W-o-u-l-d y-o-u l-i-k-e a v-i-t-a-m-i-n?" That brought on at least 30 minutes worth of giggling. Be thankful that you were not there at the time!!! And then I went to the Bon Jovi concert.

You know you're getting old when you're at a Bon Jovi concert with your friends, and you have a conversation such as the following:
Tina: Bon Jovi is 45 years old.
Liora: Wow, he looks really good for his age.

I can't get over it...

2006-01-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

This is too good to be true! At 7 a.m. this morning, it was +6. This afternoon it's going up to 11!!! The normal high for this time of year is below zero. How did we get so lucky??????? Enjoy today - it's going to be the best day of the year!!!!!!!!!!

The Weather

2006-01-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, this is cool - now I don't have to email everyone to talk about the weather! I can just post it here, and you can choose to ignore it if you wish (which I'm sure 99% of you will! I know my sister will be the first to roll her eyes when she sees the title...)

Anyway, the weather is too good to be true. +8 in January! How lucky are we here in southern Ontario?! I wonder how warm it is in tropical St. Catharines? Definitely a few degrees warmer than Toronto like usual... pack your sandals if you're headed there!

It's so nice to be able to run outside without having to wear a hat that covers my eyes (in order to cover my ears, I have to pull the hat down low and I have a very small forehead. I'm telling you - having a small forehead is a fate I do not wish upon my biggest enemy). +8 degrees!!! Life is good! It's amazing what a few extra degrees on the thermometer can do to the mood of an entire city. Everyone seems to be walking around and whistling today. Only the skiiers and snowboarders are in a sour mood. I do apologize on behalf of the Arctic Flow for not making an appearance yet this January. But please! Do not get mad that I am enjoying this heat wave! I cannot control the weather (though believe me, I have tried).

Alright, that's enough weather talk for today. Enjoy the southerly flow!

The Blog That Never Was

2006-01-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I did not update my blog when I was in Spain. The whole purpose of this blog was to describe all the "incidents" that would happen on my trip. Well, the blog didn't happen. The incidents, on the other hand, were plentiful! And so, even though I am not writing this blog in a Spanish cafe while sipping a frothy cafe con leche, I am going to write about my adventures in Andalucia from the confines of my bachelor apartment in dowtown Toronto while I sip on a glass of tap water.

For starters, on my first flight from Toronto to Madrid, I had this really nice couple beside me who were going to Lahore with their 2 kids. The younger child was 1.5 years old, and therefore did not require her own seat. She sat on her father's lap the entire time. At night, she stretched out and slept on not only her father's lap, but on my lap as well. So her body was on her dad's lap, but her head on mine. This went on for 4 hours. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep! I was absolutely exhausted when I arrived in London. I managed to stay awake for my 4 hour layover, and then boarded my flight to Madrid. I slept the entire time, but it was only a 2-hour flight, so I didn't exactly feel well-rested upon arrival in Madrid. In any case, I was excited to be in Spain, so all was good. I took the subway straight to the train station to catch the 4 p.m. fast train to Sevilla. Getting to the train station was no problem. But... I could not get a train until 9 p.m.!!! I was sooooooooo tired, and it was raining outside. I had no choice but to sit in the super smoky (and I mean, SMOKY!) train station for 5 hours. It was torture! My eyes kept closing while I hugged my bags tightly for fear of being pickpocketed (or rather pick-bagged to be more precise). I don't know how I managed to pass those 5 hours... to make matters worse, while the train station was actually a gigantic greenhouse and therefore very beautiful, there were also birds flying all around! Now you know how I feel about birds... let's just say that it wasn't too pretty of a picture. Put that together with my glasses that are so crooked that everything appears sideways to me, and you've got... well, let's just change the subject now, shall we.

At last I boarded my train, zoomed off to Sevilla, and arrived close to midnight. On the train I met a really nice girl named Tiffany from the States who was spending a year teaching in Prague. She had suffered the exact same ordeal as me (minus the overseas flight and fear of birds), and it was nice to share my experiences with someone. We were ecstatic to arrive in Sevilla. We shared a cab to our hostels and at last I met up with Amy, who had arrived earlier that evening from Geneva. It was so nice to see her!!! We had a private room in our hostel. Unfortunately our room only had one bed (known as a "matrimonial bed") and even worse, just one long pillow! How ridiculous is that?! Amy asked for an extra pillow, but the hostel guy said, "You're both girls, what's the big deal? I could understand if you were guys, but this is no problem!" Well! We endured it for one night, and were able to switch rooms for the second night. We got TWO beds and TWO pillows, how exciting!

Aside from the pillow fiasco, we had a fabulous time in Sevilla. What a cute town! I totally totally loved it. I would go back there in a second. It was definitely my favourite city of all those that we visited. We did a ton of stuff, including visiting a palace, the church, bullfighting ring, going tapas bar hopping, and sipping cafe con leche on cool patios.

One day in Sevilla we decided to try out this place that the Lonely Planet recommended for its fabulous hot chocolate. Spanish hot chocolate is very different from Canadian hot chocolate as it contains corn starch and is very thick. We ended up walking for over an hour just to get to the hot chocolate place. We were exhausted when we got there, and drank up our hot chocolate and a bun right away. Then we sat around and read the Spanish version of the Metro. That was so cool! Note: The Metro in Spain has no crossword. Anyway, after reading for a while and helping each other translate all the words we didn't know, we left the cafe. We were more than halfway back to our hostel when I suddenly did a quick calculation in my head as to how much money we had spent that day. I was about to add the cost of the hot chocolate to my total when I realized that I could not because... we did not pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it? Anyway, we were too exhausted to go back, but we are planning to mail them a cheque to cover the expenses for our hot chocolates and the bun we shared. My first crime in life! I'm sure you will see me and Amy on a Most Wanted poster back in Sevilla...

Earlier that day, while we were at the palace where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they visit Sevilla, we were at this one particularly peaceful section overlooking the gardens. Everyone would whisper when they spoke, and all you could hear was the sound of the fountains gently spewing out water. It was so tranquil and soothing. I was going up a staircase, when all of a sudden, TRIP! TRIP! TRIP! CRASH!!!!!!!!! I tripped up 3 stairs at the top of the flight and then crashed down a 4th step that I had not noticed. 300 heads turned to see what all the commotion was. It was so embarrassing, though not highly untypical for me!!!

We also met this really strange couple from Wisconsin who were living in London studying Arabic because of an interest in Islamic culture. They were particularly interested in Islamic architecture, which brought them to Andalucia. They were nice enough, but I just did not understand them. On the one hand, the guy told us that they had been in a really cool area the previous evening that he knew about because he "did his research". He even knew from his research what bus went to that area (Bus 27 in case you are interested!). Then... I told him we were planning to go to Alcazar after we finished our tea. He asked, "What is Alcazar?" It is the most famous building in Sevilla and one of the most famous examples of Islamic architecture in Europe!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't have been so astounded under normal circumstances, but this was the guy who "did his research" in London to find out that Bus 27 went to all the cool tapas bars, was stuying Arabic, and came to Andalucia to see the famous Islamic architecture!

After 3 days in Sevilla, we took the bus to Cordoba. The bus ride was absolutely beautiful, with stunning views of the Spanish countryside. We only spent the rest of that day in Cordoba and slept there for one night. It was pretty uneventful. I thought the city was really cute, but I missed Sevilla, where we had had countless adventures! Our hostel in Cordoba was super nice though. Whereas in Sevilla we shared one pillow our first night, in Cordoba we had a 4-bed room all to ourselves! That was pretty cool.

After Cordoba we headed by bus to Granada. When we first boarded the bus, it was fairly loud. I put on my headphones and listened to music for a while. The views became more and more breathtaking as we approached Granada. At one point, with my headphones still on, I screamed to Amy, "WOW! THE SCENERY IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!" Amy frantically motioned for me to keep it down. I took off my headphones and the bus was absolutely SILENT! Of course I could not stop laughing after that, so I further disturbed the peace...

Our last 2 days together were spent in Granada. Unfortunately I was really sick the entire time in Granada. I loved the city though. We saw La Alhambra, a 9th century Islamic fortress, the gypsy caves, and saw some fabulous views. While hiking up to La Alhambra, we ran into the couple from Wisconsin! Our friends! They had provided us with hours of nonstop conversation questioning their research methods, and this encounter furthered our need to converse about them. It was quite hilarious!

The gypsy caves were particularly fun to visit. We went to a museum that showed samples of what the inside of a cave would look like. There are almost 4000 gypsies in the province of Granada who still live in caves. That's unbelievable! We stopped at a cafe that was located in a cave, and had tea, bread and cheese. It was a really cool place to stop for a snack. Going to Second Cup for tea has definitely lost its charm!

Anyway, I have provided a selection of some of my favourite stories from this trip. And so my blog has now served its purpose.

I will continue to update my blog because a number of funny things have happened at work in recent days that must be written up!!!

More pre-trip babble

2005-12-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Blogging is fun! It's becoming an addiction!

I am leaving for Spain on Sunday, but tomorrow I am headed to another place that starts with an "S": St. Catharines. Not quite as exotic as Spain, but what can you do. My problem is that I need to have all my Spain packing done by tomorrow since I am going straight to the airport on Sunday from St. Catharines. Which means that I should be packing. And obviously I am not packing because I am blogging. I think I need help.

The world is so tiny. Now I am going to go off on a tangent, but how my story relates to the first sentence of this paragraph will become clear closer to the end of the paragraph. Tonight I met my friend Nimi for dinner. She is in Toronto for the holidays, and is visiting from Ottawa (which, I might add, is my absolute FAVOURITE city on this earth! I'll stop there because I could easily write 10 pages on why I love Ottawa and my tangent would become a super-tangent.). We went to a hi-fi Italian restaurant in Yorkville. The food was really good, though the staff were rather "interesting". During dinner, the waitress asked us, "Does the food taste excellent?" Interesting way to ask if we were doing ok... After we finished our pasta, we were about to dig into the rest of the bread when the waiter came along and cleared it away! It was very shocking. But we had no shame - Nimi told another waiter that we wanted to finish our bread, so the new waiter re-set the table for us and brought back our bread which made us really happy. And that's when we discovered The Drawer. Behind me was a drawer in which all the servers discarded the extra bread from the tables!!! We could not believe our eyes. After dinner I bid farewell to Nimi, and ran into my friend Sangita whom I have known since I was 8. Sangita was with her friend, and it turned out that her friend had lived in Granada, Spain for one year a few years back! Which brings me to my point that the world is tiny.

Pre-trip Babble

2005-12-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

Thursday, December 22

I am at work. I should be working, but I need a break. Actually, I need a break from taking a break. So I decided to create a blog. I am heading to Spain on Sunday for 10 days, and I thought it might be fun to create a blog to record all my incidents, rather than sending out 10-page mass emails like I did when I was in India earlier this year. I am already anticipating all the incidents that are going to happen. Strange things always seem to happen to me. I do believe that this holds true for every single person on this earth. However, the difference is that I love to tell stories, and also feel the need to find a story in even the most boring incident in life. This may be a weird trait, but it also provides hours of endless entertainment (mostly for myself!).

For example, yesterday we had a staff meeting at work. At one point, my boss said, "Word!" I had never heard this before. I thought she was talking about Microsoft Word. All of my co-workers started laughing when she made the comment. I laughed too because they were laughing, though I really had no idea what was so funny about Microsoft Word. I attributed it to adult humour, which I usually do not find funny. Later I asked my co-workers why they had laughed when she had said "Word!" They erupted into fits of hysterical laughter when they found out that I had thought she was referring to MS Word. There was the usual, "Tina, what planet are you FROM?!" (I hear that often.) It turns out that "Word" is an expression used by people in everyday language. Go figure! Now everytime my co-workers see me, they high-five each other and yell out, "Excel!" or "Visio!" or "Power Point!" So a routine staff meeting ended up creating hours of endless entertainment for a bunch of epidemiologists, business analysts, and a privacy guy.

Now where was I... oh yeah. So I am heading to Spain on Sunday, which is the reason for this blog in the first place. I am meeting my good friend Amy there. She is also from Toronto, but is currently doing an internship in Geneva with the International Organization for Migration. I am flying into Madrid, and she is flying into Malaga. Our plan is to meet up in Seville, hang out there for 3 days, and then check out Cordoba and Granada.

Let the adventures begin - OLE!