As was requested by a colleague, I have dug around to determine a recipe for Lotus salad.

The following is an recipe for a Vietamese salad, called Goi Sen or Goi Ngo Sen, which translates as "Lotus Stem Salad." According to what I can find, this salad consists of lotus stems (aka: young lotus rootlets), poached shrimp, poached pork or poached chicken, julienne carrots, cilantro and mint. It can be served with fried shrimp crackers and Nuoc Cham

A rough description of Goi Sen can be found on viet-cafe.com .

The reference pic comes from noodlepie.com, which hosted it on flickr.com.

Recipes for Goi Sen can be found on the following websites:

• seasite.niu.edu/Vietnamese
• recipehound.com
• vietnamese-recipes.com
• asianrecipesonline.com

Among the exotic ingredients in this recipe, the one that I had not yet been exposed to was the lotus stems. In fact, I could not find them in the Chinese supermarket that I visit most frequently, Kowloon Market (712 Somerset Street W). Instead, I had to goto a Vietnamese/Thai specialty supermarket, Man Phong (775 Somerset Street W), which was down the street. There, lotus stems in brine are sold in clear glass jars.

Though I have had Nuoc Cham before in a restaurant, I have previously never worked with fish sauce. As such, I did a little research and posted an earlier article about how to purchase fish sauce.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

Nuoc Cham is one of the key sauces in Vietnamese cuisine. It is a sweet chili sauce that is either served with dishes as a dipping sauce or used to dress a salad. If you visit a pho noodle house, a bowl of Nuoc Cham will accompany your deep fried spring rolls. Good Nuoc Cham is viscous enough to float chili pieces and garlic in it. I find that it actually takes on the colour of the chiles and becomes a beautiful translucent red.

The following experimental recipe is a modification of one that comes from taunton.com. The modifications come from applying the ratio of ingredients that is described in the entry for Nuoc Cham on wikipedia.net.

The image comes from taunton.com

Experimental Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

During the Victoria Day weekend, Ling, longtime friend of foodiePrints, got me interested in making a mango flavored cheesecake. She and her girlfriends found a recipe and decided to make it together. I decided to follow in her stead.

Now, I've made several cheesecakes over the years: New York-style cheesecakes (my favourite), sour cream cheesecakes, and a failed chocolate cheesecake. All were baked. I have yet to try my hand at the no-bake (aka: mix and refrigerate) variety. With my limited exposure to cheesecake-making, I realized that I have never flavored a cheesecake batter before. What do you add to ensure that the cake still comes out smooth? How do you keep the batter light? How do you infuse a fruit flavor into a batter? When it comes to fruit, I usually add it on top as a garnish. This said, I dug deeply into the "usual" sources (allrecipes.com, epicurious.com, and foodtv.com) for recipes and googled for ideas.

Here's what turned out and why this recipe was less than successful:

More after the jump...

According to an article from goodanimalnews.com, a biotechnology firm, called ViaLantia, has found several extra-ordinary cows in New Zealand that are genetically pre-disposed to producing skim milk. Scientists there plan to use this information to breed commercial herds of skim milk producing cows. The same researchers are also planning to breed commercial herds that produce milk that can be made into spreadable butter even when chilled.

The picture of the cow comes from desktopexchange.com. The picture of the milk droplet comes from agromilk.hu.

Skim milk is produced by a process called "skimming" which effectively removes butterfat (cream). Depending on what country you live in, skim milk is milk that contains either very little butterfat or almost no butterfat at all. According to wikipedia.net, in the UK, skim milk contains 0.1% butterfat. In Canada, very low fat milk contains less than 0.5% butterfat. Skim milk contains nearly no butterfat. In the US, skim milk has been renamed fat-free milk.

Leave it to humankind to actually encourage the development of herds of cows that produce milk that is nutritionally poor for calves. Ordinarily, natural selection would weed out this trait. Along the same lines, other UK scientists are discussing breeding cows that produce full fat milk that contains no saturated fats. This would address the waste issue when it comes to producing skim milk. Producers need to dispose of the unwanted fat.

Since brown cows, singing or otherwise, don't yet produce it, I'm waiting for someone to bio-engineer cows that produce chocolate milk :P

When asked what foods are picnic-able, the following is my typical answer. Go wander into an ethnic European deli and pickup some cold cuts, some paté, and some cheese. Then, visit a bakery and pickup a loaf of crusty French baguette. Purchase a couple fruits from a grocer. And a pickup a 1.5L bottle of water from a convenience store. Everything fits neatly in a picnic basket and the fare is suitable for either a romantic lunch at the beach or a warm summer day in France.

Can you really ask for more? Actually, you can. How about Southern Fried Chicken? Connoisseurs say that it is best eaten at room temperature. Fine!

Firstly, let me point out I have loved fried chicken ever since my parents picked up a bucket of KFC for dinner one day. That day happened to be the day my family moved into the house I would later grow up in. I was 4 or 5 years old. The day was ending. Everyone was tired and cooking in a new kitchen with everything still packed away in boxes was out of the question. Besides, at that age, finger licking was acceptable. Little did I know that KFC's claim to fame was because Colonel Sanders discovered that you could cook fried chicken in oil in a pressure cooker at the fraction of the time that it takes in a deep fryer. I was just happy to eat his patented chicken with its secret blend of herbs and spices.

Today, I am no less happy to eat fried chicken, but I visit the Colonel very seldomly. Armed with a seasoned cast iron skillet and a recipe, when I hanker for fried chicken, I make Southern Fried chicken.

BTW, this posting and recipe is dedicated to Abby, whose offline message about picnic food went unanswered because I only use open source tools for instant messaging. One of these tools, called Pidgin, doesn't process offline messages. Sorry :(

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

If you are like me and only use the microwave oven to do things like heat fully cooked food, melt chocolate, or dissolve butter, you may think little about how this kitchen appliance has anti-bacterial properties. That is, as is commonly held, heating or cooking food in the microwave oven kills bacteria. Apparently, this is a complete misconception and it can be dangerous because heating food in a microwave oven in fact may not kill all bacteria.

The image above comes from makenmold.com.

According to an article from nytimes.com the journal of Epidemiological Infections found that Salmonella bacteria could in fact survive in food that was heated in a 500 W microwave oven for 5 minutes. Another journal article from the the American Journal of Epidemiology looked at a salmonella outbreak where dozens of people ate reheated roast pork. Of 30 people studied, the 10 who used a microwave oven became sick. How can this be?

If you cook food in the microwave oven, you are most likely familiar with how unevenly food cooks or heats. According to wikipedia.net and howstuffworks.com, microwaves oven in fact don't generate heat to cook food from the outside in. Instead, they generate electro-magnetic waves in the frequency range of approximately 2.5 ghz (called microwaves) and irradiate the food. Radiation in this range are absorbed by molecules water, fats, and sugars, causing them to excite. This molecular excitation translates into heat. Plastics, glass, or ceramics however do not absorb this radiation. Your microwave-safe containers can absorb heat given off by the food itself, which is why they can be warm to touch. Metal reflects this radiation, which is the reason metal containers are not microwave safe.

Since microwaves cook food from the inside out and food is far from uniform, you will get hot and cold spots, resulting in uneven cooking. Bacteria can survive in the cold spots. To guard against bacterial contamination, rotate food for even cooking. If the food can be stirred, stir it.

When it comes to methods to cook chicken on the barbecue grill, recipes abound. One that became popular in recent years is "beer can chicken", which is also affectionately referred to as "beer in the butt chicken." This recipe most likely came about when someone determined that a whole chicken can be roasted upright on the grill by inserting a half-filled beer can into its abdominal cavity and using its legs to form a trivet. According to folklore, the heat from the grill is supposed to cause the liquid in the can to steam, thus basting the chicken from the inside out. Though I am skeptical, I have always liked the idea of roasting a chicken upright.

Last week, Canadian Tire had a sale on a rig to facilitate cooking this particular preparation of chicken. At $3.99, I thought it was a steal, so I purchased one. Little did I know, Walmart sells a wire-frame rig, called the "Chick Can", for the same price. The rig I purchased, consists of three stainless steel ribs/stems and a drip pan. A 355 ml aluminium can fits under the ribs/stems which are fixed together with a heavy-duty rivet. The ribs/stems then hook into the drip pan, which holds the rig together quite securely. A whole chicken fits over top.

Since I didn't have a 355 ml beer can available, I used a pop can and ginger-ale to put together an oven-based recipe. Though I'm still not sure about the significance of the liquid inside of the can, the chicken came out juicy and succulent. I don't think any of the ginger-ale really evaporated.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

Like the many people in this world who are stricken with a peanut allergy, there are several ethnic cuisines that I need to be very careful with. Among them are Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and, of course, Thai. Thai cuisine with its fresh herb-based curries and coconut imbued sauces is unfortunately one of my preferred South Asian styles of cooking. Even more unfortunate is my experience with some Ottawa Thai restaurants who are less than straight-forward about whether their dishes contain or are cooked with peanuts. This is why I have to travel with both a bottle of anti-histamine and an epi-pin when I try anything Thai.

ThaiExpress, a fast Thai-oriented food outlet, on the other hand, goes so far as to place chopped peanuts outside of the kitchen. You can garnish your food with peanuts after it is served. Otherwise, the dishes come peanut free. ThaiExpress' cooks don't actually cook with them. This is why my first Pad Thai came from a ThaiExpress franchisee at the Rideau Centre food court in Downtown Ottawa.

Authentic Pad Thai is a rice noodle dish with beaten eggs, tofu, bean sprouts, and chicken or shrimp. It is flavoured with fish sauce, tamarind, rice wine vinegar, red chili pepper, scallions, and cilantro. It is typically garnished with chopped roasted peanuts. I've seen preparations of Pad Thai that employ both thick or thin rice noodles. I've also seen a vegetarian version. According to Wikipeida and the dailygluttony blog, there are two styles of pad thai: the traditional Thai street food and the western innovation with red oil. Accordingly, the former is dry, light, and very spicy. It has a stronger tamarind flavor and usually comes with a piece of banana flower. The latter comes covered in a red oil. It is dominant in Western countries. It also happens to be the version served at the ThaiExpress.

More follows:

More after the jump...

I recently discovered that a google bot has been wandering around my little blog. Happily, it has absolutely no idea how the content is organized and how quickly it changes. However, this does mean that certain articles have been google-fied. During my test to see how much of foodiePrints has been indexed, I found the breakfastblogger.com blog.

The breakfastblogger's blog features articles from multiple authors (azureus, muffin, peabody, and spanky) on breakfast-oriented eateries. There are even breakfast-oriented recipes from the various authors. What had me include this site in the foodlinks is the Ottawa/Hull connection. A total of 59 entries on Ottawa breakfast eateries is present. We have local content here ladies and gentlemen!

Everyone loves breakfast. Go have a look.

Why do the websites like chowhound and chowtimes.com resonate ever so well with me? No matter! I just dug into the latter site because it sports a lovely pork bulgogi recipe. Bulgogi is a Korean dish.

My first encounter with bulgogi was actually a beef and chicken preparation. I was a lucky test subject for a recipe of bulgogi that would later be used at a Queen's Asian Cooking Club event. Later, I would try beef bulgogi at a Korean restaurant. Let me tell you, my first taste was the best. It may have something to do with the a certain someone tenderizing the meat with a wine bottle. Providing I can get permission, I will post that bulgogi recipe on foodiePrints.

Chowtimes' owner started blogging in January 2006. Since then, Chowtimes has experienced some explosive growth and for good reason. This blog is incredibly picture rich. The person blogging is also more blog-happy than I am.

Go take a peak at Chow Times.

Recently, I attended a week long course that was given in one of the conference facilities at the RA Center in Ottawa South. Because the RA Center happens to be situated next door to the Billings Bridge Plaza, a local shopping mall, I lunched at an eatery in its food court called Stuart's Place. What attracted me there were the meat columns from which shavings were cut to make shawarma sandwiches. For $6.95, I ordered a large chicken shawarma with some of the "usual" fixings: garlic sauce, tomato, lettuce, pickled turnip, pickled cucumber, onions, and hot peppers.

What impressed me about this particular shawarma sandwich were the onions. They were fresh and seasoned with sumac. Sumac is a middle-eastern spice that is made from a dried berry. It is sometimes used as a lemon substitute and is often used in salads. Unfortunately, compared to the chicken shawarma sandwiches that I have had in other places like Les Grillades (in the Wellington Village) and La Joie (in Gatineau), my sandwich was sub-par. Though the sandwich itself was extremely neatly made, the chicken was overcooked. It was was dry and relatively flavorless. This is most likely because the operators of Stuart's Place pre-cut a bowlful of chicken from the meat column and store it under a heat lamp so they can maintain fast sandwich production during the lunch time rush. Fortunately, the pita bread and vegetables were fresh.

By the time noon came around, business was brisk at Stuart's place. Given that every other eatery in the food court represented large western chains like McDonald's and Subway, there was little choice if you wanted anything ethnic. As for me, Stuart's Place had me longing for the shawarma platters from my favourite Lebanese fast food restaurant, Shawarma Palace.

To the operators of Stuart's Place, perhaps you should start pre-cutting less meat and visit the meat columns more often. This way, the meat will spend less time under the heat lamp and you still keep your sandwich-making brisk.

Particulars:
Stuart's Place
2323 Riverside Drive
(613) 733-2833

After walking by this establishment nearly every week for the past 2.5 years, we finally decided to venture into it for a meal. Located in the heart of the Wellington village, John?s is reputed to be a fantastic place for lunch. It is well regarded to serve excellent club sandwiches, genuine fish and chips, and thick delicious milkshakes. Don and I have always been curious about this place, but since I love to sleep in on the weekends, the place is always closed by the time our chores have us walk by.

Apparently, this small, family-owned, restaurant only serves breakfast and lunch, which explains why it?s usually closed by 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

With the exception of one side of the building that sports a HUGE mural of its owner, John, the restaurant looks simple on the outside. As soon as you walk into the restaurant, you are greeted by the many smiling faces of happy patrons; most are adult, some, children. What is striking about the restaurant?s interior, besides the many families that dine there, are its warm shades of brown and its big ceiling fans. The atmosphere is cozy and homey. You know that you?re going to have a home-cooked meal.

The service was friendly, attentive, and fast. Despite it being packed, we received our meal less than 10 minutes after the waitress took our order.

More follows:

More after the jump...

I found several bags of plantain chips on a shelf in the "ethnic section" of the snack aisle of the Superstore at the corner of Kirkwood and Richmond road. Being quite fond of banana chips, I purchased a bag.

Plantains resemble bananas in their general shape, but are much higher in starch, contain less sugar, and are covered in a much thicker skin. They can be cooked at any stage of ripeness.

Since the local mega-marts in Ottawa only seem to sell them green, most people buy these plantains for cooking. Green plantains are firm and, when cooked, actually resemble the equally starchy potato in taste.

Like the potato, unripe plantains can be skinned, sliced paper thin, and deep fried in oil to produce chips. According to wikipedia, this preparation of plantains is called "tostones" in Central and South American countries. However, another preparation of tostones exists in the Dominican Republic where plantains are actually twice fried. I believe Alton Brown made this variety of tostones in his "Going Bananas" episode of Good Eats. In it, he pan fries 1 inch slices of plantains, smushes (technical term) them down into patties, and pan fries the patties.

The preparation of fried plantain that comes from the good people at golden banana are singly fried. They are much thinner than banana chips, more starchy, are far less sweet. Though the plantain chips lefty my fingers slightly oily, they faired well on the "paper window" test from an episode of the Simpson's. What is the paper window test? Essentially, if you place one portion of a fried food on a regular piece of paper (24 lb) the relative greasiness of the food can be determined by seeing how translucent the paper becomes from contact with the food. If, after the fried food is removed, you can actually see through the paper as if it were a pane of glass, then your food is very greasy. Regular commercial potato chips leave quite the grease stain on paper. The plantain chips left no stain.

I will most likely not be buying another bag of these plantain chips for a while. Since plantain flesh is actually white when raw, I felt that the chips may have been over fried. Each chip was quite dark and brittle.

That said, I have now tried plantain chips. The next chip I want to try comes from Jamaica, where breadfruit is "chipified." :)

Wiki-how.com just posted an entry on how to make Open Cola. The entry includes various tips, tricks, and warnings for those adventurous enough to make your own soft drinks at home. For those of you, like me, who heard of open source cola and filed it on the "to Google" list, allow me to give you some background.

OpenCola is a brand of cola, like Pepsi or Coke. However, unlike Pepsi or Coke, the instructions for making it and its ingredient list are far from secret. They are freely available under a GNU General Public License. As such, anybody can make the drink, make modifications, and improve the formula, so long as they respect the license.

According Wikipedia, OpenCola was originally intended as a promotional tool to explain and demonstrate the benefits of open source software. However, the drink would later take on a life of its own when the Toronto-based OpenCola company actually sold 150,000 cans. The OpenCola company was founded by now famous Grad Conn, Cory Doctorow and John Henson.

Considering the less than convenient ingredients, it will be a while before I'm restless enough to attempt this recipe. Also, if Coke or Pepsi's recipe resemble this ingredient list, one has to wonder how healthy cola really is. Cheers?

Apparently, many of the implements in common kitchens are toxic. This is according to an article from Yahoo.com's Dr. Mao. He recommends using cookware with a porcelain enamel coating or cookware made of glass, cast iron, or terra-cotta clay.

While I try to minimize use of teflon coated pans in my kitchen (I'm down to only 1 flat bottomed skillet) and I only purchase stainless steel-coated aluminium pots, I really don't want to cook eggs, make pancakes, or pan-fry fish without a non-stick surface.

This is where tried, tested, and true cast iron pots and pans come to play. Please note that I am not referring to ceramic-coated (enamel) cast iron cookware that is popular in French cuisine (e.g. creusot). I am referring to the stuff that "that hefty black skillet that fries chicken like no other pan can" is made of. Currently, my kitchen arsenal includes two pieces of cast iron cookware: an 8" skillet and a 18" wok. The skillet comes from Loblaws and cost me $8.99 before taxes. The wok comes from an Asian grocery store in Markahm and cost me $23.00 before taxes. I'm in the market for a traditional cast-iron dutch oven as well.

Cast iron cookware is typically made by melting pig iron with scrap iron and scrap steel. This mixture is then heated and various steps are taken to remove contaminants like phosphorus and sulfur. It is then cast (hence cast iron) into cookware and finished. The process for making cast iron does not coat it in any way. This means that the cookware is essentially unprotected and will corrode (rust) quite easily. The surface of new cast iron cookware is also far from non-stick. So where is the magic? What made cast iron cookware popular in times gone by?

Answer: Cast iron cookware is extremely dense so it retains heat well. Providing you care for it, cast iron cookware is extremely durable, so each piece will last a lifetime. Cast iron cookware is very easy to clean. Cast iron cookware can also be moved from the stove top to the oven without difficulty. Cast iron cookware even sits very happily in a camp fire. And, last but not least, seasoning cast iron cookware results in a non-stick coating.

More follows:

More after the jump...

Found in Chinese barbecue houses (aka: Chinese delis according to Martin Yan), this sticky sweet roasted pork is an iconic meat in Chinese cuisine. Sliced, char-siu is served with steamed white rice and in sandwiches. Chopped, char-siu is mixed into omelettes, fried rice and dumpling fillings. Shredded, char-siu even ends up in spring rolls, my baked spring rolls for one. Of course, char-siu also shows up in baked char-siu buns, which are favorites from any Chinese bakery. A steamed version of the char-siu bun is served with dim sum.

The picture above comes from Wikipedia.com.

Char-siu literally means "fork roasted" in Cantonese. Its etymological source most likely has to do with the fork-shaped hooks that the strips of pork hang off of in the vertical roaster.

Besides Chinese barbecue houses, which are few and far between, char siu is also available at some Asian grocery stores. You will find it hanging with soy sauce chicken, salt baked chicken, whole roasted pig, and roasted duck. Like other Chinese take-away meats, char-siu is purchased by weight and is typically sliced for you in the store.

In Ottawa, you can find Char-siu at the Kowloon Market (720 Somerset Street West) or Uni Mart (on Montreal Road, across from the Rideau bridge).

The following recipe is one you can make at home:

More after the jump...

My better half and I drove by Sushi Kan at 1280 Baseline Road about a month ago. I found the pic I took of its sign-age while I was sorting through my digital images for another post.

Sushi Kan's reviews on restaurantthing.com are getting rather "interesting." I've heard of similar restaurants in Toronto, but this has to be one of Ottawa's first "all you can eat" sushi restaurants. Given the negative reviews, I think I'll wait until I visit Toronto to try an all you can eat sushi restaurant...

If you followed the baked spring roll recipe from a while back, you'll know where to find spring roll wrappers. If not, wander down to the refrigerator case where tofu, meatless cheese, and other natural food products are sold. Once you pickup a stack of wrappers, you're are going to ask yourself, "What else can you do with these wrappers besides making spring rolls?" How about wrapping individual whole shrimp, deep frying them, and making finger food that would make any seafood-lover drool? It's crunchy, shrimpy, and oily. Can you really ask for more?

Personally, I've seen these edibles served on the carts at a Chinese restaurant during dim sum and on a coffee table as hor d'oeuvres during a dinner party. Many thanks to my better half's mom for showing me how to make these spring rolls. It so happened that she put a pile of wrappers and a bowl of tail-on shrimps in front of me when I looked a little bored one night.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

This cool new USB device is more cube equipment than kitchen essential. However, it is drink-related, so I am happy to include it. Essentially, the device is designed to cool any beverage, so long as that beverage comes in 12 oz cans. According to specifications, this 5V refrigerator can cool a drink down to 8.5°C in 5 minutes.

The picture on the left comes from usb.brando.com.hk. I found the device on endgadget.com.

Please note that more than one USB-powered drink cooler has been released in the marketplace. Such includes one from thinkgeek.com, which resembles a hot plate. According to endgadget.com, a similar "cold"-plate model is claimed to be able to chill a beverage to 13°C in 10 minutes.

Be it to steam mussels or to add "just that something extra" to a stew, Stella Artois has never failed to provide the flavour I'm looking for when I add beer to my cooking. You'll always find at least one can in my fridge. It's not meant for drinking.

Needless to say, I find Stella to be a great ingredient. Though, it is a somewhat expensive choice. However, like wine, you really shouldn't cook with something you wouldn't ordinarily drink on its own. Save for honey browns or dark ales, I honestly don't like beer, but, for some odd reason, I can stomach Stella. Besides, never cook with a dark ale, like Guinness. It turns very bitter when heated.

Besides brazing, Stella has found its way into another recipe: beer bread. Beer bread is typically a quick rising bread, which means that it uses a chemical leavener and not yeast to raise the batter. It is also a nice delivery mechanism for all those bits of cheese that you have no idea what to do with.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

What do you do with some cheap lamb chops on an unusually warm weekday and dinnertime is fast approaching? Season and toss on the grill of course! This is what I ended up doing with four rather meaty looking lamb shoulder shops I picked up from the local mega-mart. I did them up in the "spirit" of steak au poivre: little bit of kosher salt and LOTS of freshly ground pepper. I know, I know, you're supposed to use cracked and not ground black pepper. You're also supposed to use a black steel pan to sear up the steaks and finish them in a pre-heated oven too. Given that one act of cooking usually precipitates one act of cleaning, I decided to forgo the pan sear and cook the chops on the barbecue.

More after the jump...

It seems like I'm not the only one experimenting in the kitchen this Victoria day weekend. A frequent contributor and good friend of foodiePrints, Mademoiselle Ling, asked me for some "tried and true" recipes for cheese cake. She is looking to bake a mango cheesecake. Unfortunately, the only recipe for cheese cake I know is for a traditional New York-style cheese cake - the ultimate in rich and dense satisfaction. Ling is looking for something much lighter. Now, the idea of balancing the richness of the cream cheese with the sweetness and tang of mango has caught my curiosity. As such, I'm out to try and understand sour cream cheese cake batters. In my research, I just ran headlong into the bake4me.com blog.

Created by Sally and David of New York, bake4me.com is a boon for us novice foodies. The founders of the site aim to share their enjoyment of creating sugary and fattening treats by creating very visual recipes. On this site is a recipe for a Mango Pineapple Cheesecake sans crumb crust. It has given me some good ideas.

Go visit this site. It's always nice to have visual recipes that demonstrate step-by-step how to mix ordinary ingredients and create some extra-ordinary confections. Cheers!!!

Oh, btw, when it comes to cream cheese, 8 oz = 250 g. Hey! I'm an amateur cook. This stuff is new to me. According to Anthony Bourdain, baking, especially bread making, is a calling. I'm just trying not to set the kitchen on fire.

Apple pie is an all-American dish that I rarely purchase from a store. My reluctance has something to do with how apple pies are mass produced. With store-bought apple pies, atop the some very soggy pastry, I usually find either under-cooked apples or overly sweet apple pie filling that most likely started life in an aluminium can. Neither appropriately features the primary investment: apples.

In Ottawa, apples are most abundant in the fall months of September and October. This is when the farmers' markets' once bountiful displays of local produce are replaced by basket upon basket of just about every variety of orchard-grown apple available. Apples represent the very last harvest before the markets close for the Winter.

What better time to think about scratch apple pie? How about an apple galette that uses apple cider as a sweetener? This is just such recipe that I pilfered from the October 1996 edition of Bon Appétit. When apple cider cannot be purchased fresh, I have even been known to use lowly apple juice.

The picture comes from taunton.com.

Partially Experimental Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

A reader of foodiePrints requested a recipe for "lotus salad." The recipes that I found thus far are primarily Vietnamese, so that means my pantry is sadly lacking of a necessary ingredient: fish sauce.

The picture on the left comes from flickr.com.

Fish sauce is a characteristic condiment of Thai, Malaysian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese cuisine. Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cuisine as soy sauce is to Chinese cuisine. According to Kasma Loha-unchit, a Thai cooking instructor and author, genuine fish sauce is the water, or juice, in the flesh of fish that is extracted in the process of prolonged salting and fermentation. It is made using small fish that would otherwise have little nutritive value.

Interestingly, this parallels the classical roman fish sauce, garum, which was made from fermenting fish entrails. Some historians say that Worcestershire sauce is an evolved form of garum.

More follows:

More after the jump...

Just as experienced adventurers wouldn't wander unprepared into a dessert, people shouldn't outfit their kitchens without some basic gear. Between finding versatile equipment that has multiple uses and balancing quality and price, this is no easy task.

A food columnist for the New York Times, Mark Bittman, wrote a piece outlining what he feels a "minimalist kitchen" should be equipped with. The list is rather interesting. Accordingly, a minimalist kitchen can be well equipped for approximately $300 USD.

Quite frankly, I don't agree with many of the choices, so I will be making my own list. I will also include my rationale, some tips I've picked up, and see if I can price the list at CA Paradis, the restaurant supply house I visited most often when I moved out.

Stay Tuned!

I just caught the Boston, Massachusetts ep. of The Hungry Detective with Chris Cognac. For those of you Alton Brown fans, you'll recognize Chris as the detective Alton toured Los Angeles with during his last stop on the first season of Feasting on Asphalt. I'm guessing Foodtv execs figured that they could make a show around Chris and his talent for finding "off the beaten path" eateries in whatever city he visits. They figured right. The Hungry Detective is both fun to watch and quite informative.

In Boston, Chris meets up with "Andrew", the author of the Gentleman Gourmand blog, who takes him to a Chinese restaurant called Mary Chung. Andrew's site is spectacular. Talk about food porn. There are pictures of just about anything food-related. From his fiddling in the kitchen as a teaching assistant at Boston University's culinary program to his visiting eateries around Boston itself, he sure takes a lot of great pictures.

Go visit. I sure plan on returning and often!

Unlike the mutant sweet peppers from the weekend, these oddities are advertised in this week's Loblaws flyer. Step right up ladies and gentlemen. Take a gander at strawberry tomatoes. You've heard of grape tomatoes. You've heard of cherry tomatoes. Now, you have tomatoes that grow like and resemble strawberries. It's a product of Canada too.

Here's the last box from the College Square Loblaws in Nepean.

Boxed Set

More follows:

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For those of you in the know, the Ottawa magazine is semi-dedicated to providing good insight into the culinary landscape of the National Capital Region. This includes Ottawa and parts of Gatineau. It reports on the newest happenings, restaurant openings, restaurant closings, and any other events that could tickle the curiosity of a resident foodie. It also prints some very good reviews by some very knowledgeable people.

Every so often, the Ottawa Magazine produces an issue that lists the best restaurants to dine in in the region, best upcoming restaurants, and restaurants with the best wine lists. This year, it was the November 2006 issue that contained these lists. Such is why the pictured copy is slightly worn. Budget depending, I plan on hitting everyone of the highlights before the next issue is published.

BTW, as I discovered recently, the Ottawa magazine is quite different from the Ottawa Life magazine. I do not believe they are at all affiliated. Like Frank's Energy Drink that's featured on the cover of the issue that I had the misfortune of appropriating, the Ottawa Life magazine has little culinary value. Actually, I highly doubt that Frank's Energy drink has much nutritional value either.

On my way down Somerset this weekend, I noticed that the second last dedicated Chinese bakery has closed its doors. The Golden Horse bakery, a former staple of Ottawa's little Chinatown is no more. In its place is yet another Vietnamese pho noodle house: Pho Bo Ga La. This only leaves the St-Honore bakery, which is located at 363 Booth Street.

Most people only know of St-Honore because it sells Chinese buns. However, it also sells Chinese-style birthday cakes as well. These cakes are both light and airy. They consist of 3 layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, canned cocktail fruit, and fresh cut fruit to garnish. Though they are decorated with the same pastry bag tips and cake combs as western cakes, make no mistake, these cakes resemble very little their western equivalents. There is no frosting, save for writing icing, only whipped cream. The whipped cream is only lightly sweetened. There is fruit between the layers of cake and the cake itself is far from dense. A slice of this cake won't leave you with a heavy feeling.

Because of its constitution, I find that this type of cake can also be served at almost any occasion. You only need to ask the fine people at St. Honore to leave the cake blank. For instance, the cake pictured was served at a dinner party last weekend to celebrate Mother's day.

Particulars:
St. Honore Bakery
359-363 Booth Street
Ottawa, Ontario
(613)563-0943

I found this interesting piece of dish ware posted on digg.com. Does anyone else find it "convenient" that the value of pi is written on the lip of a circular bowl? Does this mean that someone is going to start marketing other geometrically shaped bowls with other things written on their lips? I wonder how well educational cereal bowls that teach children how to calculate the area and perimeter of the bowl as they eat would sell.

Of course, if you look at the digg comments, people made the inevitable "pie plate" cracks.

Personally, I feel that nachos-making is a required skill. When the chips (pun intended) are down and you have a crowd to feed, nachos can be a very versatile dish. It is just one step beyond chips and salsa. It can incorporate meat to become a hearty meal. It can be served in a large communal dish on a coffee or picnic table. It can even be an a posh appetizer if you go so far as to separate, top, bake, and serve individual tortilla chips.

More importantly, with some fresh ingredients, nachos can be an effective vehicle for delivering what the body needs when it comes to vegetables.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

The Holland Avenue NiHao Tea House had its grand opening this weekend. They couldn't of picked a more beautiful weekend. Here are the lunch specials and the rather darling place settings that were on the tables in NiHao's brand new outdoor patio. Here's a link to an earlier posting on this tea house. To date, I've tried its bubble tea. Next will be NiHao's dumplings. A good teahouse should serve good dumplings.

Particulars:
Nihao Tea House
81 Holland Avenue
(613)722-0088

In 2004, what once was considered an urban legend was proven to be fact. People were indeed deep frying Mars bars. The confection was particularly popular in Scotland. Anthony Bordain even dedicated part an episode of Cooks' Tour to the phenomenon. In the episode, he stopped by a Scottish fry shack for some deep fried pizza, a deep fried Mars bar and even a deep fried pickled egg before moving onto more traditional Scottish cuisine, haggis. It was a good episode.

Now, a recent article from Yahoo News reports that Wisconsin natives have adopted the same deep fry everything concept, but they have taken it one step further: deep fried livestock testicles. Accoridngly, approximately 300 people took part in an all-you-can-eat deep-fried lamb, goat and bull testicles event yesterday (May 12, 2007). It's 9th annual as well. The attached picture comes from shamelesscarnivore.com. The blog's owner, Scott, took part in the festival last year.

According to Alton Brown's website, he's currently filming new episodes of Feasting on Asphalt. I'm wondering if Wisconsin is on the itinerary this year. After all, during one of last year's episodes, Alton tried a fried pig brain sandwich, which is a delicacy in Evansville, Indiana.

Sweet peppers (capsicums) are elemental ingredients to many summery recipes. As such, I decided to load up on peppers this week. I ended up using multiple coloured sweet peppers for a fried rice recipe that I will post soon.

When my better half and I went grocery shopping on Saturday morning, we found the following slightly misshapen peppers in the bin. One has a tail. The other looks like it had a hard life. Though, they're not really teenage or mutant, they sure stood out. They also gave several other shoppers a good laugh too. Thankfully, the produce people didn't take issue with my photographing the peppers. They gave me an odd look though. :P

This just in: While the mutated peppers above are of the sweet bell variety, here's a slightly misshapen chile pepper.

Slightly Misshapen Chile Pepper
I'm not sure if the image is authentic or the product of some photoshop manipulation.

I just dug up a pic of the sign-age from the Danforth Dragon restaurant in Toronto. The image came from a cbc.ca web-page when the CBC decided to dedicate a section of its site to Chinese New Year. Its sign-age isn't the only thing brazen about how this restaurant runs its business. If you goto its website, you'll actually find recipes of menu items on the main page. If anyone's been to this establishment, drop me an e-mail. I'm thinking of visiting this establishment in the near future.

What better way is there to celebrate a glorious pseudo-summer day, than to sit in an outdoor café with nachos and beer? Such was not the case when a bunch of cube-dwellers and I decided to lunch at Le Bop to celebrate Friday's coming. Though our original intention was to consume good pub fare, I had already decided quite some time earlier to order the "Bagel Au Samon Fumé." Don't get me wrong, Le Bop has arguably the best nachos in the National Capital Region. They consist of a generous amount of corn tortilla chips, fresh salsa, grilled chicken or ground beef, shredded mozerella cheese, slivered black olives, and chopped green onions, all baked together and served warm. Even so, I craved something more deli-ish than pub-ish.

Speaking of which, patrons of any New York deli would find the same dish listed on the menu as "Nova Lox on a Bagel." New Yorkers are connoisseurs when it comes to bagels and bagel sandwiches, each having their specific ideas about what goes on which kind of bagel. Like a good number of New Yorkers, I adore "Nova" on a plain bagel. Nova is a colloquial term for smoked salmon, the best of which originally came from Nova Scotia. Le Bop's version of Nova Lox on a Bagel consists of a a split plain bagel, two shmears (New York term) of cream cheese, several slices of smoked salmon, thinly sliced red onion, and capers. A New York deli would include tomato. With its balance of smoky salmon and salty capers to fatty cream cheese and sweet red onion, I don't really miss the tomato. It's literally heaven on first bite. I have one recommendation/warning if you want to partake of this New York institution at Le Bop. Ask the waiter to substitute the fries for a salad. Le bop is also very generous with fries on its platters. You'll be napping the afternoon away if you don't lighten the meal.

As for the restaurant itself, Le Bop is a an eatery-by-day and club-by-night. It caters to two disperate clientèles: public servants from the next-door government complex during and after the workday and students from the nearby university during the evening and night. During pay week, if the weather is nice, you'd best make reservations. Otherwise, you won't get a table for lunch. I'm not the only public servant who thinks this establishment is well worth the visit.

Particulars:
Le Bop
5 Aubry
Hull, QC
(819) 777-3700

If ever you wondered what good food photography looks like, visit the food section on Toan Thai(?)'s website, toanthai.com. I stumbled onto his site, while I was researching Napoleon Cake and Russian Eateries in Ottawa. There happens to be a picture of a Napoleon cake in the food section. Toan's site also has a blog, a guest book, and a gallery of his travels. The pictures are all stunning. Talk about mad skills!!!

This is what I hope foodiePrints will mature to become. Though, I would prefer everything be under one roof and everything has one common look and feel. I'll ponder more about FoodPrint's web-architecture later. I'm going back to looking for Russian Deli's and Bakeries.

Hummus is essentially a puree of chickpeas, tahini, and olive oil. It is typically seasoned with lemon juice and garlic. Served alone, it can be a spread or dip. In recipes, it can actually be used as a thickener.

Though hummus in various forms can be found in many Mediterranean cuisines, it most likely has middle eastern origins. For me, I associate this versatile sauce with Lebanese food, where I most often see it served as a dip, garnished with olive oil and sumac. Authentic recipes usually start by purchasing dried chickpeas, the larger and lighter in colour the better. The chick peas are then soaked overnight with a scant amount of baking soda. The next morning, the soaked beans are washed and cooked in unsalted water until they fall apart (at least 2 hours). The peas are then sieved, placed into a food processor, and blended with good quality tahini.

Since, I have yet to find a reliable source of Lebanese tahini, the following recipe substitutes it with cashew butter. Yes, this is heresy, but nowhere in the following recipe do I refer to the resultant hummus as authentic. The recipe probably fits in a similar category as egg rolls and chicken balls in Chinese cuisine: western innovations.

Besides, I usually have a 300 g tin of cashews or cashew pieces and a can of chickpease in the pantry, so when friends drop by, this is the dip I usually serve on a crudités platter with plenty of baked triangles of pita bread on the side.

Recipe Follows:

More after the jump...

Source: Yahoo News
Title: "Buy your milk in the dark for flavour"
Picture: Wonderful picture of a lion and a jaguar cub.
Caption: "Reuters Photo: A two-month-old lion dozes on the back of a jaguar cub of the same age..."
Correlation: As a rule, I don't pick on Yahoo News because it behaves more like a news organization than Google News. However, the pairing of picture to article is so ludicrous that I had to point it out. What makes this worse is that the article is extremely useful. If you purchase your milk in translucent containers, either buy homo milk or reach for the ones at the back of the dairy case where fluorescent lights don't shine. Apparently, fluorescent light oxidizes the milk, causing an "off flavour." Ironically, the fat in homo milk blocks the damaging wavelengths of light.

I stumbled upon unclutterer.com because an article from this site showed up on digg.com. When I visited that article, my keen eye spotted a link to "more kitchen tips." Low and behold, this site has a bunch of solutions to "unclutter" the kitchen.

What resonated well with me is this entry:

"'Discard unused recipes yearly...' It takes only minutes to do this. 'Special cookbooks can be kept in your library or displayed,' she said. She keeps a couple ethnic cookbooks on a coffee table as a conversation piece."

This is especially necessary if you do not want your fridge to fall down because of the sheer weight of the magazine cut outs, photocopies, or scribbled scrap that are tacked onto it. Imagine the newspaper headlines, "Man dies because paper heavy fridge tips over."

My personal solution is to digitize my exploits for future use, stick an article on foodiePrints, and recycle the paper. Each to their own. :)

I'm actually in the market for a new knife block. One of the worst things you could do with a fine edged knife is to put it in a drawer with other knives. The same goes for dumping knives unceremoniously in a sink with other dishes. Not only is this unsafe for an unsuspecting dishwasher or someone rooting around in a drawer, but a knife's edge can easily become damaged by contact with other utensils or other knives. No amount of honing will be able to bring the knife's edge back.

I found these really neat plastic fiber knife blocks that have no specific knife inserts. They just cradle the blades. A friend of mine is pushing me towards installing a magnetic strip and saving some space on my counter.

All this thought about finding some place to stick my knives reminded me of "stabby", a formidable-looking knife holder that I once found on gizmodo.com

Here's a stabby siting in Ottawa!

Stabby In Ottawa
The picture is of the display window, belonging the kitchen store crooks on Bank Street. You know, the store with the misleading "Going Our For Business Sign."

Supermarkets are again selling these little lobsters. The advertisement on the left comes from this week's Superstore flyer and states that its catch is the first of the season. Living somewhat island on the seafood supply chain, lobster is rarely economical. However, canner lobsters (aka: canners) can provide a more reasonable quick fix. Canners are physically small, usually weighing less than 1 lb, and are harvested between 5 and 6 months of age. Unfortunately, they are also usually cooked and flash frozen before shipping. The ones under the glass in the fish department have been defrosted and can go south quick.

Since they arrive cooked, re-cooking is out of the question. Boiling can toughen the already cooked meat. Quick re-heating methods would be preferable: baking, grilling, steaming, or stir frying. However, baking or grilling can dry out the flesh. My better half stir fries canners to make a dish that highlights lobster flavors and doesn't overcook the meat.

Recipe follows after the jump:

More after the jump...

It's been a while since a weekend in Ottawa brought with it so much sunshine. During my many trips out to enjoy the mild weather, I snapped these pics of some very creative signage from several eateries - art of advertising indeed!!!

Harvest Loaf - Bakery Extra-ordinaire

Front Door

Front Steps

My better half and I discovered the Harvest Loaf bakery on our way to Il Negozio Nicastro. I bought 4 palm cookies, she, an apple turnover. They were delicious. Unfortunately, this bakery is rumoured to be closing because of somewhat unreasonable increases in rent. It happens to share the same building as the Wellington Gastro-pub.

The Garlic King

The Garlic King

If you think the King's chariot is funny, you should hear the music it was playing...I'm just hoping that's a kafta he's dueling with.

Particulars:
Harvest Loaf Bakery
1323 Wellington Street West
(613)722-7797
website

Alright, my inaugural run at the barbecue this year was with pork chops. Though, I prefer pork loin chops because there is mostly one muscle, I just picked up a couple thick (1" or so) shoulder chops from the local mega-mart. I know, I know, shoulder chops have a lot of connective tissue that won't dissolve with hot fast cooking like grilling. And, there's a lot of muscle groups connected together, but for $1.99/lb, I couldn't resist.

More after the jump...

For a kitchen appliance to resonate well with me, it would have to be something that combined aspects of the two worlds I play in: Food and Information Technology. A designer named Chris Dimino accomplished just that balance with his whimsical waffle iron. Though the waffle iron he designed was meant to reinvent an obsolete product, the typewriter, its new function happens to produce keyboards that look like modern computer keyboards, only edible.

Chris' waffle iron has also been making its way across the web. It has been sighted on theinquirer.net, the ever popular gizmodo.com, and hardocp.com. I found it on digg.com. Congrats to Chris and his product's new found fame. I want one!!!

With the first of May come and gone, barbecue season is now officially open. Two weekends ago, I concocted a pork tenderloin recipe that should work equally well in an oven or on the barbecue. However, if you decide to make this recipe on the barbecue, I strongly recommend you not brown the apple sauce on the tenderloins. The sauce may drip onto the grate and into the barbecue, causing one rightful mess.

Please note that this was a "necessity is the mother of invention recipe" that I cobbled together because a certain guest of mine had never really seen me make a quick meal. Both this posting and recipe are dedicated to Mademoiselle ling.

More after the jump...

The face of the Wellington Village continues to evolve. The converted two story house that once housed a Halal meat shop is now the location of the Nihao Tea House (81 Holland Avenue). It opened its doors sometime during the afternoon of April 20, 2007. It is actually the second tea house in Ottawa to sport the name Nihao. The first is located in the Gloucester Center (1980 Oglivie Road).

Customers shouldn't come looking for teabags at the Nihao Tea House. Though I have no doubt that tea bags can be purchased, it would be shame not to sample from this little tea house's wall and a half of jarred teas. Among the teas that sparked my interest is a vanilla chai blend, a rare and exotic rolled oolong, and several blooming teas. Whatever they don't have on hand, you can most likely order or purchase off their website, nihaoteahouse.com.

Last Wednesday (April 25, 2007), my better half and I visited the establishment to sample its assortment of bubble teas. I discovered bubble tea four years ago in a small family-owned Taiwanese tea house in Chinatown. It has long since closed its doors. Jenn's first bubble tea came from Toronto, where a glass of bubble tea is far less expensive than what Ottawa's popular Bubblicity tea houses charge. At either Bubblicity location (Byward Market or Chinatown), a small fruit juice bubble tea with pearls or lychee jelly can easily cost $6. At NiHao, my better half and I paid a whopping $8.50 for both a green tea bubble tea with pearls and a lychee fruit juice bubble slush with pearls. Actually, the bill came out to $7.50, but I've never paid less than $8 for anything bubble tea related, so I left a generous tip.

For those of you who don't know what bubble tea is, please visit Wikipedia's entry on the subject. However, I implore you to try your first bubble tea in Toronto where the tea houses are just as swanky as those in Taiwan or Hong Kong. At one location, I even saw waiters serving warm green tea samples to the patrons who were lined up outside their door. Given that it was September, this gesture was well appreciated.

More follows:

More after the jump...