Having repeatedly enjoyed traditionally prepared Bosnian cevapcici from Skela on 956 Merivale Road, I decided to try my hand at making my own. Besides, with the summer more than half over, I have to exploit my access to a gas barbecue as much as possible. I thus armed myself with a modified recipe from the Frugal Gourmet, some tips from a colleague, and some information from various websites and made an attempt.

My first encounter with these caseless sausages appeared on foodiePrints sometime ago. What ended up coming off the grill was visually acceptable. The grill marks made the suasages look authentic. However, the texture was very different. The cevapcici that I had had from Skela were moist and chewy on the inside. Mine were drier and more crumbly.

I served my failed cevapcici with skewered vegetables and mini-potatoes.


Cevapcici off the Barbecue

Plated Cevapcici

The recipe follows:

More after the jump...

An article from Reuters about PepsiCo Inc.'s decision to label bottled water has been picked up by international news organizations and has appeared on Yahoo.com and ctv.ca. Accordingly, PepsiCo will spell out on its labels that Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water. The new labeling, which will include the words "Public Water Source", is a concession to growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to spokespeople from PepsiCo, this will help to clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources.

Coca-Cola Co., on the other hand, has opted to start an online campaign to inform people about the source of its Dasani bottled water. The campaign will feature the quality control testing Coca-cola performs on Dasani.

Critics continue to accuse the corporations of privatizing a natural resource that is necessary for human survival in the hopes of boosting profits in light of falling sales of carbonated drinks. They further charge that the activity of bottling water adds plastic to land fills, unnecessarily expends energy by producing and shipping bottles world wide, and undermines public confidence in the safety and cleanliness of public water supplies.

Water supply issues aside, what currently concerns me is the plastic bottles that Coca-Cola Co. uses. I've noticed that the plastic used to make the bottles for Dasani bottled water (flavored or otherwise) is changing. It is much thinner and more malleable than before. It is also much more prone to condensation. Just take a look at the two bottles of flavored Dasani water that I purchased.


Thicker Plastic

Thinner Plastic

Happily a spot check of Dasani flavored water in the thinner plastic bottle shows the Recycle type 1 (PETE or PET) embossed label. This means that the bottle is made of recyclable polyethylene terephthalate.


PET Type 1 Plastic

According to Reuters, a 10 year old girl in Bhaktapur, Nepal has been named a "living goddess" or "kumari" according to Hindu tradition. The girl, named Sajani Shakya, was selected by priests to serve as an incarnation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of power. She will remain in this "divine" role until menstruation, after which, she retires and rejoins her family.

Sajani has been the subject of international headlines this month after she visited the United States to promote a British-made film about her life. Some religious authorities threatened to strip her of her "living goddess" title because she left Nepal. A final decision on her status is still being debated.

Nevertheless, Sajani lives a relatively normal life with her siblings and parents. An interview with her mother discovered that this little goddess, while forbidden to eat chicken, eggs, or pork, likes to eat biscuits and instant noodles.

The image of the cake of instant noodles comes from a "Cheesy Ramen Recipe" from eatsgame.com.

Instant noodles are a variety of Japanese ramen that are pre-cooked and deep fried before packing into the familiar shaped cakes and dried. They are prepared by soaking in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. They usually come with a flavor packet that is used to produce an accompanying soup.

Instant noodles are accordingly inexpensive and have near replaced Kraft dinner as a food staple for University and College students. In fact, instant noodles have developed into a pseudo-cuisine of its own with hundreds of recipes for preparing it.

Several years ago, Matt Fischer created what would become the instant noodle homepage under his domain name, mattfischer.com. On this site, he hosted almost 400 recipes for instant noodles. Currently, he runs a blog entitled "The Official Ramen Homepage."

Though, perhaps not food for the gods, here's my contribution to instant noodle cuisine: curried instant noodles with beef and Chinese greens. Like a lot of my recent recipes, I'm going to forward the technique for making this dish. Vary the ingredients according to your tastes.

Firstly, cook a pack of instant noodles according to the instructions, discarding the soup mix/flavor pack. This usually entails boiling the cake of noodles until they separate and are soft (approximately 5 minutes). Strain and set aside. Do not rinse with cold water. Take a non-stick frying pan and stir fry seasoned strips of beef in 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil at medium heat until coloured. Remove and set aside. Add chopped Chinese greens like yu choy to the pan and fry blanche the vegetables in 2 more tablespoons of vegetable oil at medium heat. Remove and set aside. Add the cooked instant into the pan. There should be enough oil remaining to lubricate the pan. Add back the beef and vegetables. Then, add 2 teaspoons of prepared curry sauce mixed with 1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch and 2 teaspoons of water. I use Lee Kum Kee brand Polynesian Curry Sauce. It adds a lovely coconut flavor. When the sauce thickens to coat everything, remove the mixture from the pan and serve. Sometimes, I also break an egg into the noodles and scramble them into the noodles before I add back the meat or vegetable. This step is completely optional.

Ottawa is a very multi-cultural city. As such, you will find numerous places selling ethnic snack foods from specialized take-out restaurants to convenience stores. Increasingly prevalent is the Indian samosa.

A samosa is a fried triangular pastry with a savory potato and pea filling. The filling is usually flavored with spices. Sometimes, the filling also includes onion, fresh cilantro, Paneer (Indian cottage cheese), and/or minced meat. A fusion version of the samosa has emerged. Instead of frying the pastry, it is baked instead.

This said, I decided to perform an experiment. Because a number of establishments on Wellington Street and adjoining Richmond Road sell vegetable samosas, I was interested in determining how far a mass-market variety of samosa can stray from samosas made from a dedicated Indian restaurant. The contenders were the Superstore (a local mega-mart) on Richmond and Kirkwood and the Indian Express take-out restaurant.

Firstly, let's start with the mass-market variety of samosa. To its credit, the Superstore sells a large variety of ethnic foods in its ready-meal section. This includes maki, cabbage rolls, potato latkas, and cornish pasties. I consider cornish pastry ethnic because they are specific to the British cooking tradition. Prominently displayed are also vegetable and meat samosas.

When I went to purchase a samosa for this experiment, I was served by a young student of high-school age. I distinctly asked for a vegetable samosa and purchased the samosa picked out for me. As you can probably determine from the cross section pictured, this most likely isn't a vegetable samosa. The pastry is thick, dense, and arguably compressed. The entire samosa looked deep fried and was mildly greasy to the touch. To make matters worse, the filling, which looked like beef, was dry and flavorless. What vegetables were present involved 5 peas and 2 slivers of carrot. There were no potatoes. Neither I nor my better half were impressed.

Let's move onto the samosa from Indian Express. Every time I visit Indian Express, there is always a line-up. At least 2/3 of the line up purchase samosas, usually 6 each.

Indian Express only sells deep fried vegetable samosas. They are rightfully popular. The pastry was thin, delicate, and flaky. The filling was a nice mixture of finely chopped herbs, coarsely chopped potatoes, and peas. It was flavored with a ground spice mixture that most likely included Garam Masala. When Jenn and I sampled this samosa, every bite sang with flavor and different textures. The herbs seemed to include some cilantro. A whole spice was also included that provided an almost sour note. I have yet to identify it.

I enjoy eating samosas. Like other ethnic pocket pies, such as Puerto-rican epenadas, Samosas are convenient vehicle for mobile nutrition. Besides, good samosas are flavorful and the filling provides different texture contrasts. Biting into a good samosa can fill the mouth and nose with the heady aroma of curry. Mixed with a flaky pastry, the experience is unusually satisfying. If you want to experience the same level of satisfaction don't visit a mega-mart.

To Indian Express, I wish you continued success. To the Superstore I ask you to better train your staff and better separate your vegetable and meat samosas in the display case. BTW, have you guys thought about outsourcing your samosa production to a specialty restaurant? You already purchase bagged bagels from the Ottawa Bagel shop. Why not do the same for your ethnic snack foods?

Interestingly, Indian Express seems to have purchased a company car. I found it parked outside of the establishment:

Indian Express Hyundai Accent Back

Indian Express Hyundai Accent Side

Particulars:
Real Canadian Superstore
190 Richmond Road
(613) 722-5890

Indian Express: Food and Sweets
1104 Somerset St. W
(613)761-0000

With more than a cup of pesto, my better half and I had to find ways to prepare more dishes with it, other than slather it on toast.

Though Jenn had prepared a single serving of it the day before, we decided to make a couple's-sized serving of pesto spaghetti for dinner. The preparation was quick and easy.

Cook up enough pasta for two to the super "al dente" stage. That is don't cook the pasta all the way through. It should be soft on the outside and pliable, but relatively under cooked on the inside. Drain, but do not rinse with cold water. Meanwhile, finely chop one red onion. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a metal skillet, add the chopped onions, and place it on medium heat. Sprinkle the onions with salt and cook them until they colour. Remove the skillet from the heat, keeping the burner on. Add 4-5 heaping tablespoons of pesto to the pan. Swirl to heat. Add the pasta to the pan. Mix until combined. Return the skillet to the heat, pasta and all. Turn the burner down to medium-low and heat the mixture until the pasta reaches the desired doneness. Plate and enjoy. The herbal and nutty flavors are amazing on pasta.

Update:
The next evening, we made pesto pizza. All we did was brush a pre-baked pizza shell with olive oil and spread on a layer of pesto. Afterwards, we sprinkled on some processed mozzarella cheese. I added shredded Parmesan to my half. We baked the pizza at 400°F until the cheese browned and the crust crisped. Again, the herbal and nutty flavors made a wonderful base for a pizza.


Pesto Pizza before baking

Pesto Pizza after Baking

Delicious!

In preparation for writing this entry, I googled the word pizza. When the web page rendered, Google's coveted first entry leads to the Pizza Pizza website. The third, forth and fifth entries belong to Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza, and Boston Pizza respectively. I find this somewhat appalling. Though I like Pizza Pizza pizza and frequent an establishment in my neighborhood, I must say that the best slices that I've had were at small mom and pop restaurants. The reasons that my better half and I order Pizza Pizza pizza are because their pies aren't greasy and they use processed cheese. Processed cheese agrees with my better half's stomach better. Pizza Pizza thus bakes up good everyday fair. However, when I crave real pizza, I prefer the single establishment or very small chain pizzerias that specialize in making pizza. That is, they don't advertise poutine with shoe string fries. They don't have onion rings on the menu and if you order fried chicken, you will be politely referred to another restaurant.

For me, good pizza must be made to order. It has to have a crisp crust, not thick, but not paper thin. It must be made with real cheese that is shredded not sliced. The cheese should be gently browned and stringy when you are served you your first slice. The sauce must smack of dark fruity flavors from cooked tomatoes. At the same time, the sauce must also include some spice and feature oregano above any other herb. The toppings should be conservative. If I order a combination pizza, and I usually do, I don't want to be served slices that are literally teaming with 14 meats and 25 vegetables. Perhaps most important, the pizza should be served steaming hot from the oven. As such, the best way to eat pizza is sitting in a pizzeria.

I have to admit that I have been known to visit specialty restaurants for gourmet thin crust pizza that is baked in wood ovens, but I consider this type of pizza more polite date food than the soul food. For soul food, I like to visit establishments like Naples Pizza in Gatineau. Located approximately a block or two from Les Terrasses de la Chaudière (70 Rue Montcalm), Naples Pizza comes highly recommended by my colleagues.

Naples Pizza is well loved for good reason. Firstly, the restaurant itself specializes in making pizza. Secondly, just look at the pictures of the pizza that is served. All of the requirements for good pizza are met; near pizza perfection.

When I visited, two people ordered personal pizzas; one was pepperoni; the other was a thin crust vegetarian. I split a medium sized combination pizza with someone else.

The crust on my combination pizza was distinctly crunchy but did not weigh heavily on the tongue. The cheese was evenly distributed and gently browned at the high points. The sauce was flavorful; subtly spicy and rich in tomato. The pizza was conservatively topped with fresh green peppers, thinly sliced mushrooms, and sliced pepperoni. Every bite provided a balanced medley of flavors and a variety of texture contrasts. The pepperoni provided a salty bite. The mushrooms provided earthy undertones. The green peppers were gently roasted, providing a nice crunch. Best of all, when the waitress served the pizza, it was steaming hot and and the cheese pulled apart in strings. This, my friends, is what a soul-satisfying pizza looks like and tastes like.

BTW, what I really appreciated about this pizzeria itself is the cups they use. They are short enough that they fit under the pizza stand. This saves valuable real estate on the tables. Table real estate is a detail that a lot of restaurants overlook.

The vegetarian pizza looked and smelled outstanding. I will have to try that next.

Here's a picture of the menu for future visitors.

Menu

Particulars:
Naples Pizza
70 Rue Montcalm
Gatineau, Quebec
(819) 777-8457

According to the "Researcher develops allergy-free peanuts" article by Jennifer Guevin of news.com, researchers from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University have developed allergen free whole, roasted peanuts. Tests with blood serum from people with severe peanut allergies did not react to the processed nuts. The process, however, is not documented in the publication from the university, but the technique for producing these peanuts claims to inactivate allergens without affecting the taste or quality of treated peanuts. The researchers are now looking for ways to commercialize allergy-free peanuts.

The image comes from a UK website, called StreetEndFeeds. The website specializes in selling bird feed.

For those of us who are allergic to peanuts, this is welcomed news. Until researchers develops a commercially viable process that produces allergen-free peanuts that are financially attractive to the restaurant industry, Alton Brown's television show, Good Eats, recently aired a recipe for a faux peanut dipping sauce. To mimic peanuts, the recipe employs a red miso past, cashew butter, and tahini (sesame paste). The recipe is available on the foodtv website.

To the researchers at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, I would like to express my gratitude for researching this area. Thank-you all.

In 2004, a company called Tempra was profiled in a London, UK newspaper as having developed a self-chilling can for beverages like beer or soda. The technology, called I.C. Can, is marketed as a self-contained refrigeration device that, when activated, cools a beverage by 30 degrees Fahrenheit in three minutes. A 2005 press release from Tempra, further explains that the technology operates using a desiccant gel contained within a vacuum. When activated, the gel draws heat from the beverage through an evaporator into an insulated heat-sink container, leaving the beverage inside the container "cool and refreshing." According to a profile from the June 2006 issue of Business 2.0, the mechanism is activated by twisting the can's base to pierce a foil seal separating the gel from the vacuum chamber.

For a less technical solution to cool a can of beer or soda in an approximately equal amount of time, wander to the dumblittleman.com blog. There, you will find a description of how you can employ a method similar to making ice cream to quick chill a beverage. Accordingly, place several canned beverages into a large steel pot. Add enough crushed ice to cover the beverages and fill the pot with water. Add 2 cups of table salt, mix until dissolved, and place the mixture into a freezer for 3 minutes. The beverages will emerge thoroughly chilled.

Some time ago, I caught an episode of celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian that focused on pesto. What surprised me was the sheer variety of pestos that could be made. The episode, aptly entitled "the Power of Pesto" included a spinach and pine nut pesto, a sun-dried tomato pesto, and a mushroom pesto.

The reason this episode's preparations surprised me was because I always thought that pesto had to be made with pine nuts, basil, garlic, olive oil, and parmesano reggiano. In other words, It had to be green. This is clearly not true. According to Wikipedia, while the sauce may have originated in the city of Genoa, Italy, pesto's etymology has more to do with the action of pounding or crushing herbs and garlic. As such, pesto can be made with just about everything from roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes to mint and spinach. Alton Brown even made a pesto, replacing the expensive pine nuts with pistachios. It was high time that I made a pesto!

Given that it's now mid-summer and my herb trays are teaming with abundance, I figured the neighborhood Herb & Spice (1273 Wellington Street W) store would have the necessary ingredients for me to take an inaugural run. Before we go any further, let me point out that, to my knowledge, there are two Herb & Spice stores in Ottawa. One is in my neck of the woods, the Wellington Village. The other is in downtown Ottawa, at 375 Bank Street. Both stores specialize in selling organic produce. Their displays are lush with variety.

After a couple minutes' shopping, my better half and I picked up a bag of pistachios, a large bunch of fresh curly leaf parsley, and a basil plant. That's no typo. Herb and Spice was actually selling entire basil plants that looked like they were about to flower - roots and all. The cost: $1.79 each. In total, I paid approximately $6-$7 for the ingredients.

What came next was me playing with reckless abandon with the ingredients and my all-metal Hamilton Beach blender. After some rough chopping, poking, scraping, and pulsing, I somehow managed to produce a pesto. Later that evening, Jenn and I sat down to dinner with a fresh bowl of basil pesto and some toasted bread. It was wonderful.

Here's what ended up going into the pesto: juice of one orange, juice of one lemon, approximately 2 cups of packed basil leaves (aka: one plant's worth), approximately 3/4 cup of curly leaf parsley (aka: half of a large bunch), approximately 1/2 cup of olive oil, approximately 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, almost 2/3 cup of shelled pistachios, and two pinches of salt and pepper. The nuts and herbs contributed lovely textures and flavors. The acidic notes from the citrus juice topped everything off perfectly.

The next day, Jenn made herself a bowl of spaghetti with the pesto and proceeded to e-mail me about how incredible it tasted. Were it not for the fact that I was craving pastrami, I would have prepared the same thing for dinner...Oh well...

I guess I'll have to add cheese and garlic next time. There will definitely be a next time!

On a somewhat related note, according to Dr. Andrew Weil from Yahoo.com, pistachios can be a component of a heart healthy diet.

While wandering around the "Everyday Life" sub-forum of a popular online forum, I came across a posting, complete with picture, from someone who works in the restaurant industry. In his posting, the poster lists the contents of his "Working Cook's Kit." According to the posting, the starred (*) items are more for elaborate presentations and/or frequent entertaining.

Here is an itemized list:

• 8" Chef's Knife
• Offset spatula
• Wave Edge Slicer
• Spatula
• Serrated Knife
• Spiral veggie cutter*
• Crinkle Cut Veggie cutter*
• Fish Spatula
• Channel Knife*
• 10" Chef's knife
• 7" Santoku Knife*
• Candy Thermometer*
• Parisian Scoop*
• Microplane Zester
• Star Tips in assorted sizes*
• Sharpening steel

Not pictured but equally essential is a parring Knife, digital thermometer, spoon for portioning and saucing.

During the short discussion that followed, the list was amended to include a rubber or silicone spatula, boning knife, wooden spoon, balloon whisk, vegetable peeler, spring loaded metal tongs, sharpies, and a pastry brush.

Another professional in the field also pointed out that cooks should also have a pocket knife and a small jar of painkillers handy because "you never know."

Several months ago, my better half's younger sister, Jasmine, dropped by and we discovered that we all had cravings for rice crispy squares. After much discussion, consensus arose that those Kellog's rice crispy bars in the blue foil wrap at the convenience counter just wouldn't do, so we set about making rice crispy squares the old-fashioned way - butter, marshmallows, and puffed rice cereal. Snap, crackle, and pop indeed!

The people at Kellog's probably won't appreciate my posting their recipe given their trademarks and patents. But, I'll bet good money that you know the recipe already. It's the recipe that my better half's mom used. It's the recipe that my mom used. The recipe does however very closely resemble this one from cooks.com.

I'm also not about to post a entry about how to form rice crispy squares. Why make squares when the sticky rice crispy mixture is much more versatile? Instead, I'm posting about how Jenn and her sister relived their childhoods and produced some very interesting shapes.

All they did was add a step into the recipe after the melted butter, melted marshmallows and cereal were mixed together. Once the mixture is cool enough to handle and the rice crispy mixture is still malleable, oil your hands and treat it like modeling clay. Jasmine even molded the Chinese character for her last name.

This all goes to show that there are times when you need to play with your food :)

I recently attended a wedding that was held at the Metcalfe Golf and Country Club, located on 8th Line Road in rural Metcalfe, Ontario. The venue was literally spectacular. The lush greens, mature trees, and bright sun provided a picturesque backdrop for both the outdoor ceremony and reception. The ceremony was performed under the club's spectacular 400 year old oak tree. It provided a natural and scenic setting for some beautiful pictures. The reception was held in an adjacent screened patio, where guests dined and celebrated with the newlyweds. Fun was had by all from afternoon to well into the evening and night.

According to its website, the Metcalfe Golf and Country Club has been specializing in providing "friendly service and family atmosphere" for events like weddings since 1976. The club is approximately 20 minutes from downtown Ottawa and has facilities that can accommodate events from 60 to 150 people. Most importantly, its in-house restaurant, Hickories, cooks up a variety of appetizers, entrées, and desserts.

Waiters served platters of hors d'oeuvres and champagne shortly after the ceremony as the guests met and mingled. The platters included prosciutto wrapped melon (honeydew and cantaloupe), battered bacon stuffed shrimp, vegetable crudité and dip, and some cheeses. When everyone settled to their tables on the patio, the meal was served. First came freshly baked white and whole wheat rolls with butter. Then came the salad course, a chef's micro-green salad that showcased radicchio and a raspberry vinaigrette. The entrée followed, consisting of béchemel chicken with braised baby carrots and roasted mini potatoes. Last, but by no means last, dessert arrived. Given that the bride and her bridesmaid are self-declared chocoholics, dessert consisted of something extremely chocolate.

The champagne was bubbly and complemented well the delectable appetizers. Though, everyone finished their glasses quickly and moved onto various wines from the bar. The gathering of people, my better half, and I chatted with sipped Yellow Tail chardonnay in the summer warmth.

Regarding the meal, serving approximately 80 guests is no easy task. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals. The rolls were fresh and were served at just the right temperature. Appropriately heated rolls are an interesting balancing act. The rolls need to carry enough thermal capacity to almost liquefy butter, but be cool enough to eat.

The chicken was tender and moist. When asked, my table had a resident amateur chef and self-declared foodie. We correctly identified the white sauce as a béchemel. However, I personally felt the sauce more resembled a distinctively French white butter sauce or beurre blanc. It was thinner in consistency than a traditional béchemel and much more buttery. Potatoes and carrots were tender and flavorful. The former, savory. The latter, almost honey sweet.

The dessert was literally an exercise in excess. I've still yet to identify the dish. So far, forensics has only been able to piece together an idea of what the sides, base, and topping consisted of. Its sides consisted of solidified dark chocolate. Its crust consisted of a centimeter of chocolate cookie crumbs. It was topped with whipped cream and a dark chocolate curl. The dense filling is still somewhat a mystery, though I am ninety-percent sure that a lot of chocolate was involved. Either way, I could only finish a third of the serving before my body decided enough was enough.

Particulars:
Metcalfe Golf and Country Club
8th Line Road
613-821-3673 (FORE) or toll-free 1-800-496-2338

This week, one of the specials in the fish case at the Superstore at the corner of Richmond and Kirkwood is shark steak. However, when I arrived, the shark steak was sold out, so I settled on a nice red tilapia fillet. At $6.99/lb or $15.41/kg, it wasn't a bad deal. Don't get me wrong. I adore tilapia. In fact, with its mild gentle flavor and firm flesh, tilapia figures prominently on my list of favourite white fish to cook.

While I usually employ tilapia for fish and chips, I had but one fillet at hand and I was fresh out of Stella (Artois) for the beer batter. Happily, I left a stainless steel skillet on the stove, so I decided to pan fry the fish.

Pan frying fish is an easy skill to learn. It is also quick and requires next to no prep. Besides, the skill comes in handy if your day is hectic and you stop by the mega-mart on the way home. If you pickup a fillet for pan frying, you can have dinner on the table in the time it takes to make frozen fish sticks. Firstly, it's healthier. Secondly, it's tastier. If you like a thicker fillet or fish steak, do as the pros do, crust the fish in a pan and finish it in the oven.

This said, I'm going to forgo the recipe format for this post. Pan frying fish is more of a technique than a recipe. I am going to list the general steps though. They follow:

1. Season your fillet on both sides with salt and or pepper. I use kosher salt. Though, any type of salt works equally well.
2. Take the fillet and coat it in something that's going to develop a nice crust in oil. For me, this is equal parts corn starch and all purpose flour. Remember, knock off excess flour.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter with 2-3 tablespoons canola oil (or other high smoke point oil) on medium heat in a metal skillet. The mixture of fats ensures that there are other fats in the pan that don't smoke quickly. Butter has a low smoke point, which means that it breaks down at a lower temperature than other fats. Higher smoke point oils like canola, sunflower, or safflower oil do not have this problem. They also don't impart the same flavor as butter and they don't browns foods as nicely. Hence, we employ a mixture.
4. Once everything melts and the butter sizzles a little, add the fish to the skillet. If it still has its skin attached, lay it skin side down.
5. Now, here's the secret to ensuring the fish doesn't permanently adhere to the bottom of the pan. Gently "rock" the fish back and forth in the oil for a 10 count. Be careful not to splash oil on you or the burner. This "gentle rocking" allows the fish to develop a layer of fried flour between it and the rest of the oil.
6. Fry the fish until the side against the pan develops a nice golden crust.
7. Flip, and repeat.

If the fish is thicker, like my tilapia fillet, toss the fish in an oven that is pre-heated to 200°F until it reaches the desired doneness. For the tilapia fillet, this took 5 minutes. If your skillet is oven safe, pop the fish, skillet, and all into the oven. Otherwise, place the fish in some other oven safe vessel, and pop it into the oven. Hold onto the skillet though...

Most pan fried fish come with a nice pan sauce. For white fish, I flavour the sauce with capors and deglaze with a little dry white wine. To make the pan sauce, remove the fish from the skillet that you fried it in and discard the remaining fat. Add 2 fresh tablespoons of butter and place the pan back onto medium heat. When the butter sizzles add 1 tablespoon of capers and gently fry them up. Then, add 2-3 tbsp of dry white wine. Be sure to scrape at any brown bits, so they dissolve in the liquid. These brown bits are called fond and will flavor the sauce. Cook the sauce until you don't smell anymore alcohol and pour the sauce over the fish. Serve immediately.

BTW, for those of you who don't like the "fishy" flavor of fish, I have encountered a number of methods for preparing clean tasting fish. One of them even involves shallow boiling a fillet in water and then pan frying. Here are some tips that will preserve the texture of the fish. Some even add to its flavor.

• Purchase fresh skinless fillets. Sometimes the fishy taste that people often decry comes from the the skin and dark flesh just below it. I find that skinless fillets come with both the skin and dark flesh removed.
• Sauce the fish with something containing alcohol or acid. For the latter, vinegar or citric juices are commonly used.
• Don't purchase oily fish like mackerel. The oil imparts a particularly fishy taste.
• Cook the fish with ginger and/or garlic. This is very oriental and masks fishy tastes.

I also hear that an ice water bath helps for both fish and shellfish like shrimp, but I have never tried it.

A complete picture sequence of me pan frying the tilapia follows:

More after the jump...

One of the most beloved preparations of hot dogs is the chili dog. It consists of a dog (prepared in your favourite way), a bun (more than likely steamed), and some hot dog chili, all topped with melted shredded cheese. Hot dog chili by no means refers to the iconic chili con carne that takes hours to make in an old-fashioned cast iron dutch oven and is the subject of dispute by professional chili makers. By hot dog chili, I am referring to the easy to make ground beef-based sauce that is made specifically for slathering onto a wiener, thereby elevating the hot dog to new flavor heights and texture contrasts.

Unfortunately, as of Wednesday, a well recognized American brand of canned hot dog chili sauce has been implicated as a potential vector for botulism and has been recalled. Four people, two each from Texas and Indiana, have contracted the muscle paralyzing disease from tainted cans and have been hospitalized. As a result, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Disease Control (CDC), have released formal warnings on 10 oz cans of Castleberry's, Austex, and Kroger brands of hot dog chili sauce with "best by" date from April 30, 2009 and May 22, 2009. The products are manufactured by the Castleberry's Food Co., which is owned by Bumble Bee Seafoods LLC. According to the cbsnews.com website, this is the first case of botulism in commercially canned foods in decades. For more details and the products' specific UPC codes, refer to the Castleberry's Food Co. website.

The image comes from the hometownfavourites.com website. I'm not sure this sauce is available in Canada. The recall is not listed on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's Food Recall and Allergy Alerts List.

Now that people are thinking twice about opening a can of hot dog chili sauce, they need to realize that it's not really that difficult to make a hot dog chili from scratch. Take for instance, Chef Tyler Florence's recipe for "Ultimate Chili Dogs." Originally featured on an episode of "Tyler's Ultimate" on FoodTv, the hot dog chili portion of the recipe has only 8 or 9 ingredients, most of which you likely already have in the kitchen. Two of them are sauces that almost every refrigerator stocks: tomato ketchup and yellow mustard. Three of the others are salt, pepper, and chili powder.

The recipe follows:

More after the jump...

According to the Chances R website, the restaurant, in its various forms, has been serving Ottawa residents since 1976. It also states that the establishment has received 4 consecutive "Consumer's Choice" awards for "Ottawa's Best Family Restaurant."

That said, picture this. It's Sunday evening. A friend of yours is flying to Boston the next day, but wants to chit-chat over a beer before calling it a night. You're in the Wellington Village. He's in Nepean. Chances R is located at College Square, smack in between. Why not grab a booth, order some drinks, and snack on something unhealthy. The restaurant has a liquor license. Its menu has a combination platter. Why not?

The Result: A dinner-sized plate with 3 stubby chicken fingers, 10 over breaded and greasy zucchini sticks, and handful of tortilla chips with a dollop of red sauce and some melted cheese.
The Price: $14.13 (including taxes and excluding drinks)

Suffice it to say, I wasn't impressed. There was more sour cream and plum sauce than there were edibles to dip. How precisely can you deliver value if your combination platter has more condiments than things to eat on it? Don't families appreciate value?

Fortunately, the waitress we had was wonderfully pleasant. She was easy to talk to, always smiling, and happily checked on us from time to time.

With portions this ridiculous for prices that are clearly unreasonable, chances are (intential pun) that I'm NOT returning to this establishment anytime soon!

Particulars:
Chances R
1365 Woodroffe Avenue
(613) 225-6887

The summer is in full force. As such, Ottawa's typical summer weather does not really lend to cooking indoors. Instead, Ottawans tend to light up the barbecue. The following are some of the barbecue activities that I've been up to:

Spatchcocked Chicken:
Spatchcocking is a method for cooking whole poultry that lends very well to grilling and/or broiling. It involves turning a bird breast side down and removing its back by cutting through its rib cage on each side. The bird is then is turned breast side up and weight is applied to break the breast bone, causing the bird to lay flat. The wings are folded back and the bird is skewered through the thighs and bottom of the breast to make the chicken manipulable. Essentially, the bird is flattened so that it can cook quickly and evenly.

The preparation pictured involved me me spatchcocking a broiler/fryer chicken, sprinkling liberally with kosher salt, and drizzling on some olive oil. It then went unceremoniously onto the grill for several minutes on each side until a thermometer in the thickest part of the chicken breast read 160°F. The result, really juicy chicken that's ridiculously easy to carve. The next time I attempt this recipe, I'll be marinating the bird in a chili/lime marinade and grilling it on charcoal - my version of piri-piri chicken.

Salt Crusted Potatoes:
My better half and I found these mini-white potatoes at the Superstore on Kirkwood and Richmond. They being so young, we decided not to peel them. Instead, we par-boiled them, drizzled some mustard-based vinaigrette onto them, salted them, and sprinkled them with chopped chives. We then, placed them onto the grill until they coloured a bit. Easy!

Grilled Plantains:
I noticed that the Superstore also sold ripe plantains. I couldn't resist purchasing a couple. Because it was too warm to play with a dutch oven and deep fry the plantains, I halved them lengthwise and threw them onto the grill. Because the plantains never saw the inside of the refrigerator and they were thoroughly yellow, there was sufficient sugar in them to produce some lovely grill marks. Don't leave them on too long. You just want them to soften. Too much and they will fall apart.

One of the preeminent food fairs in the National Capital Region is the "Rendez-vous des saveurs de l'Outaouais." Its goal is to showcase the culinary wealth of the Outaouais and surrounding regions. It features leading chefs from high end restaurants, up and coming students from several culinary schools, and, of course, marketers from various food and drink producers.

The event takes place at le Maison du Citoyen (Gatineau's City Hall). While admission is free, tasting tickets are $0.50. The cost for tastings varies on the foods and drink. They can range from 50 cents to $5 per item. However, the variety is unsurpassed and, for cost of a lunch at any restaurant, festival goers can enjoy everything from dressed scallops on the half shell to properly cured fois gras.

I visited the event, for the first time, during the fall of 2006. The focus seemed to be on local organic foods. However, ice cider (similar to ice wine), gourmet chocolate, and game meats were also prominent. The event was memorable because it was the first time I sampled fois gras and kobe beef. The preparation of fois gras came from the booth that was run by the Cordon Bleu, an internationally recognized culinary school. It was heavenly rich and its texture was indescribable. The preparation of kobe beef was essentially a tartar. While the flavor from the intense marbling was immediately evident, I felt somewhat cheated because a tartar doesn't impart a good idea of kobe beef's prized texture.

The following are pictures from the 10th annual event, last year (2006). It was a feast for the eyes and palate.

Proud Chocolatier

Chocolate-covered Strawberries - Always a must!

Just look at the intricate detail...

Kobe Beef Booth

Gratuitous shots of the watermelon carvings

Chocolate Fountain Goodness


According to its recently updated website, this year's event takes place on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of September.

Particulars:
Le 10e Rendez-vous des saveurs de l'Outaouais
Maison du Citoyen
25, rue Laurier, Hull
Gatineau, Quebec

Alright, older students will remember the cereal box bridge from a while back. Well, Robert McDonald, his son, and approximately 5000 school children just accomplished a feat of recycling that tops it. They put together a full-size Viking ship replica, named "Thor", using 5 million ice cream (aka: popsicle) sticks. The ship was launched yesterday and has set sail across the Netherlands' IJsselmeer lake. The ship builder, wants to cross the Atlantic Ocean later this fall, aiming to set sail from the port city of Lelystad. He is looking for an able-bodied crew.

The image comes from Reuters and was included in an article on canada.com.

This story has been picked up by international news agencies. So far I have found coverage from the Montreal Gazette and United Press International. There are wonderful pictures of the ship being built at makezine.com.

Update: Almost a year after Thor made its first appearance in online news, newsprint, and television, the viking ship ship that is made from popsicle sticks set sail for England from the Netherlands last Tuesday (April 8, 2008). At its helm is Robert McDonald, who apparently makes a living as a stuntman. According to Yahoo News, together with his able bodied crew and a cargo of plush toys, he aims to visit London's sick kids in hospitals. Then, he hopes to cross the Atlantic on an ancient Viking root via Iceland and Greenland.

Today's Metro has a brief article in the local news section that provides some information about the Lebanese Fun Festival that begins today. However, the article is lacking in some seminal information: location, time, place, and events. Firstly, the festival is in its 17th year and is being held on the grounds of th St. Elias Cathedral, which is located across from Mooney's Bay at 700 Ridgewood Drive. It starts today (July 18th) and runs until July 22nd. For today and Thursday, the grounds open at 4:00pm and close at 11:00pm. For Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the grounds open at 11:00am and close 11:00pm.

The image comes from the S. Elias Cathedral website and features performers in traditional dress on the main stage from last year's (2006) festival.

According to its organizers, this festival is meant to promote and expose Lebanese culture. It features a main stage with live entertainment and several tents, including one dedicated to Lebanese food. The "Arguily" tent features a traditional lounge where festival goers can enjoy shisha, flavoured tobacco. The food tent features Shish Taouk, Beef Kafta, Falafel and various sides. Sides include, Lebneh (Lebanese yoghurt cheese), Tabouleh, Hommous, Kebbi Balls, and French Fries. Of course, a wide variety of Lebanese sweets will be available as well. Prices range from $5 for sandwiches to 9$ for platters and $3 for sides.

The festival donates a portion of its proceeds to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Over 40 000 people attended last year. Let's add to the number this year.

More information can be found at the St. Elias Cathedral website.

On Monday, proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, included an article from researchers who isolated the active component of turmeric that could help in fighting Alzheimers. Accordingly, Dr. Milan Fiala of the University of California Los Angeles demonstrated that turmeric, a common ingredient of curries and curry powder, contains bisdemethoxy-curcumin. They demonstrated that bisdemethoxycurcumin can increase the number of immune cells called macrophages. The macrophages in turn clear a protein called amyloid beta, which clogs the brains of Alzheimer's patients and kills brain cells. This furthers research from that Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science that demonstrated that curcumin has anti-amyloidogenic effects in-vitro.

The image of the turmeric powder comes from Alibaba.com, which is an online retailer for everything from spices to apparel.

Researchers, however, warn that the required dose for humans to achieve an appreciable level of activity is not known. That is, though the components has been identified, the research does not identify how much turmeric a patient needs to consume before benefits can be realized.

Bisdemethoxy-curcumin belongs to a group of compounds called polyphenol curcumin (or curcuminoids). Other research has shown that related curcuminoids also have antioxidant properties as well. It has been demonstrated to help prevent tumors from forming in the laboratory and in rats.

The discovery is heralded as a breakthrough, because it could change the treatment for Alzheimer's. It could be used to develop treatment approaches to stimulate increased natural immune response against amyloid beta. Effectively, it presents new therapeutic opportunities.

During a shopping excursion to the Rideau Centre this weekend, I picked up a flier advertising Ottawa's first annual Turkish Festival. The event is scheduled to begin 9:00 am on Saturday July 28, 2007 and festivities will last the day. It will take place at Confederation Park. Admission is free to the general public.

According to the related website, the festival will feature Turkish food, live music, and folk dances. Things to see and do follow:

• Turkish folk dances, Rumi's Whirling Dervishes, and authentic Turkish music
• Ebru, water marbling, demonstration
• Turkish decorative pillows, traditional jewelery, bed embroidery, and other decorative home accessories
• Sample Turkish cuisine: doner kebabs, feta or beef stuffed pastry, stuffed grape leaves (dolma), Turkish dumplings (Mangi), baklava, Pancake (Gozleme), Turkish delight, dried apricots, figs, and hazelnuts
• Sample Turkish coffee

The event is sponsored by various businesses in Ottawa, including various ethnic Turkish eateries and the Alladin Bakery, whose meat pies are sheer delight. The event is organized by Northern Lights: Early Learning Center.

Interestingly, there's a discrepancy between the flier I have in front of me and the website. According to the flier, the festival begins at 10:00 am and lasts till 10:00 pm on July 28, 2007.

Whatever the case, I'll be dropping by to sample the fare.

During the same week a colleague introduced me to Bosnian cevapcici, another colleague, my better half, and I decided to try Haitian cuisine. The closest we could find was barbecued chicken from Yre's. Yre's is a take-out restaurant, located in downtown Ottawa at the intersection of Charlotte and Rideau (168 Charlotte Street). Unfortunately, it happens to be in a building that is slated to be demolished in lieu of another condo building. The same building also houses a shawarama place and what once was a barber shop.

When you enter the establishment, you will be taken aback by the sheer simplicity of it. There is a wooden bar with a cash and till (which only takes cash), a paper menu tacked to the wall nearby, a television mounted at one corner, and just enough seating along the walls for a half dozen people. What most likely will hit you first is Yre's colours. The walls are painted bright green and orange. With its white door, these happen to be the colours of the national flag for the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.

Between its colours, the faint smell of charcoal, and the friendly owner (presumably Yre?), Yre's is an inviting little location that's reminiscent of how one would picture a road-side eatery in Africa: informal and warm. This maybe purposeful because the only dishes on Yre's menu is West African Barbecued chicken and several sides. The sides include fried plantains, rice, and couscous.

According to a review from the Ottawa XPress, Yre's serves piri-piri chicken. Both wikipedia and congocookbook.com state that the word piri-piri is common to the Portuguese and several African languages and refers to African bird's eye chili. Piri-piri chicken is thus chicken that is marinated in a chili pepper marinade and grilled. The marinade also usually contains an acidic ingredient such as vinegar or lime juice. At Yre's the chicken is grilled over wood charcoal.

When ordering, you will be asked whether you'll have medium-spicy or hot-spicy. I've a feeling that Yre tones the spice down for people he thinks won't be enjoying it. That said, me and my fellow diners all had a medium-spicy quarter chicken with a side of fried plantains. Besides the chili pepper flavouring, the chicken seemed to be seasoned with salt and some other herbs and spices. Everything was so well flame grilled, that the herbs or spices weren't really discernible.

I found the chicken somewhat dry, but extremely flavorful and a little smokey. The golden brown plantains were cool-ish and very starchy. They were, however, sweet and a very welcomed change from fries. Since my colleague and I visited Yre's right after work (approximately 4:00-ish) and we found Yre sitting at one his stools eating, I think we were served what was leftover from the lunchtime rush. Yre also had run clean out of any couscous or rice.

If you're going to try the chicken from Yre's, I suggest you go at lunch or closer to dinner time, when there's a rush of people. The reviewer from OttawaXpress gave Yre's a really good review, but he seems to have visited Yre's at dinner time. I am assuming of course that "heading up to Starthcona Park....with a couple brewskies" isn't something you'd be doing during your lunch break. I also recommend that you go soon. Though it's been a year between the Ottawa XPress' review and my visiting Yre's, the rumours of the building coming down are more frequent these days.

Particulars:
Yre's
168 Charlotte Street
(613) 241-6060

During my latest visit to the Nihao Tea House, my better half and I noticed something delightfully whimsical on the menu, "Home Made Jam Jam Cookie." How could anyone say no to cookies this cute? We couldn't.

Though the menu sported pictures of heart-shaped Jam Jam cookies, the available Jam Jam's were flower shaped. They consist of two cookie-cutter shaped cookie pieces, a layer of strawberry jam sandwiched in between, and a dusting of powdered sugar on top. The cookie pieces were soft and buttery. The jam was sweet, but not cloyingly sweet. The powdered sugar was very carefully added so as not to land in the exposed jam. The powdered sugar that ended up in the jam in the pictures was the result of my handling the cookie. At $1.39 each, Jam Jam's make great, while slightly expensive, treats.

Little did I know, Jam Jam's are actually a Canadian tradition that originated in the maritime provinces. Not two days after I bit into my first Jam Jam, I ran across a piece by the CBC about Canadian regional cuisine. Accordingly, Jam Jams are distinctively Canadian, being manufactured in St. John's, Newfoundland by a company called Purity Factories Ltd. since 1924. Purity's recipe for Jam Jam's takes 3 days. The is because it takes this amount of time for the cookies to absorb moisture from the raspberry and apple jam filling and produce Purity's Jam Jam's characteristic moist texture.

If you want to make Jam Jam's at home, here is an untested recipe from the Domestic Goddess website. The recipe doesn't look too difficult. However, I've a feeling the "letting the cookies soften" part won't be easy.

Oh, here are updated pictures of Nihao Tea House's windowed lounge and menu.

Lounge

Menu

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

According to an article from BBC News, insects are a thriving agricultural industry in Thailand. They are farmed in a similar manner with which Western agriculture grows livestock. This includes breeding them and growing them to maturity.

Prized for their protein content, fried crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, water beetles, bamboo worms and ant eggs are popular snack foods with Asian and Middle Eastern tourists. The occasional, usually intoxicated, Western tourist will partake in them as well.

The author of the "In Pictures" article, Kate McGeown, sampled some fried grasshoppers from a street vendor in Bangkok. Her impression: "They did taste like chips, in the sense that they were covered with oil, but the problem was that they were like chips with legs."

Note: I think you're supposed to rip the legs off before you pop a fried grasshopper.

The only reason I even see MSN.com is because I need to visit hotmail.com (aka: Microsoft Live Mail) from time to time to keep my MSN Messenger account alive. However, Digg.com dug an interesting article from MSN Money that provides good insight when visiting restaurants. The title of the article is "10 things your restaurant won't tell you." I find the title somewhat deceptive. The title's connotation is far too negative. Restaurants are businesses. Most are not out to swindle you. Nevertheless, here are some highlights.

The picture is of the Foundation Restaurant on 18B York Street in Downtown Ottawa. I took the photo during a stroll through the Byward Market a year ago.

1. Don't fall prey to marketing ploys. Restaurants employ marketing psychology to entice high turnover and purchases of high profit foods. For instance, fast food restaurants employ carefully chosen colours, specific music, and seating arrangements to discourage dawdling. Menus are arranged in such a way that high profit items catch your attention. They are usually listed first. Highest cost items are listed in the middle
2. Visit the rest room before ordering and/or look for public health inspection certificates. If a rest room looks unsanitary, the kitchen may be also.
3. Look carefully at how dishes are priced. Restaurants employ high markups on food to pay for operating costs: overhead, payroll, etc. According to the article, restaurants keep on average 4 cents of every dollar spent by a customer. Often, a low cost but highly marked up dish will be listed with a high cost dish so that the low cost dish looks more enticing.
4. Smile at the cameras. Higher-end restaurants are beginning to install video surveillance. This can be for a variety of reasons from deterring employee theft to capturing valuable consumer data for marketing purposes. Several restaurant owners claim that the cameras are necessary for ensuring continued quality of service. I am somewhat less than convinced.
5. Be wary when you order seafood. Some restaurants are evasive about where seafood comes from. Others falsify information and employ cheaper substitutes. This issue is also featured in a recent Maclean's magazine article entitled "Where'd that salmon come from?." With fish stocks teetering and growing knowledge of PCB's in farmed salmon, wild Atlantic or Pacific salmon is difficult to come by. People often pay upwards of $30 CAD/lb for it. How then can an entrée featuring Wild Salmon only cost a couple bucks? If it seems too good to be true, order the steak...
6. Occasionally, you will have to wait for a table even if you have a reservation. Overbooking is almost a necessary evil at a good number of restaurants so reservations may not save you from a wait at the bar. If it's your first time at a restaurant and your reservation slips, inquire politely after a 15 minute wait. Slip the floor manager or maître'd $10 or $20 on the way out. It should ensure you will be promptly seated next time
7. Look out for specials that include yesterday's featured ingredients (ie: leftovers). Stews, pies, and soups containing expensive meats or seafood are suspect. Restaurants need to deal with ingredient surpluses quickly. Else, they risk losing money on the purchase. Unfortunately, this also includes dealing with "mistakes" in the kitchen. For instance, on my first date with my better half at former 47 York, we were served a suspicious soup entitled "beef Stroganoff." I've been wondering about that dish for a while now...
8. Don't bother asking, there will be butter in your dishes. Butter is that wonder ingredients that provide a wonderful finish to a lot of dishes. It is flavor, gloss, and a thickener all in one.
9. Be aware that your tip will not necessarily make it in its entirety to your waiter. Front of house staff employ tip pools that divide up a tip between the bartender, bus boy, and waiter. Where you fit on the hierarchy in a restaurant defines your share of the tip.
10. Try not to go out to eat on Monday. Firstly, distributors tend to take Sunday off, so the last set of deliveries will be made Saturday morning. Secondly, kitchens prepare food in a queue (first-in - first-out), which means that whatever is oldest gets served first. What does this mean? Because Mondays don't attract crowds, you're going to be served the weekend's leftovers.

If you're interested in the inner workings of a restaurant, here's a book I recommend: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by New York Chef Anthony Bordain. According to the MSN Money article, with American restaurant revenues exceeding $537 billion USD this year and about half of American food budgets dedicated to dining out, a lot of you should be. The book is brilliant and reads in the same satyrical tone that Chef Bordain speaks. In it, he extolls the truths about how restaurants operate and what it takes to make it in the restaurant world. Regarding the former, similar to item 10 in the list above, never visit restaurants on Mondays. Odds are the food is old and the head chef is not there. Regarding the latter, 2/3 of new restaurants fail within the first year. And, if you're applying to work in a restaurant, find out what their suppliers say about them first. The suppliers often know how long a restaurant will stay afloat.

The book image comes from amazon.ca.

Even if you're not interested in how restaurants work, the book is worth a read and re-read. It's an inspiring piece of work that will make you smile and/or laugh. My heavily dog eared copy sits proudly with my cook books.

If ever anyone wondered how not to make baozi, please refer to a news article from yahoo.com. Accordingly, an undercover investigation by a Chinese TV crew found that baozi sold in a Beijing neighborhood include a rather unsavory ingredient: treated and flavoured cardboard. The investigation surreptitiously filmed workers taking squares of cardboard, soaking them to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), mincing the pulp with a cleaver, and flavoring the resultant mixture with fatty pork and powdered seasonings. This mixture was then used to make baozi. Happily, police closed down the paper baozi operation soon thereafter.

The image comes from yahoo.com.

Baozi, or steamed buns, are a popular snack food that is served in restaurants and from street vendors in China. They consist of a rice and wheat flour dough and a filling. Normally, the filling varies from a savory meat and vegetable mince to a sweet milk and egg yolk paste. They are steamed in bamboo steamers and are a staple on dim sum menus. Char-siu Bouzi, otherwise known as barbecued pork steamed buns, are probably the most recognizable preparation to North American palates.

If you want to know how to make the meat for a proper Char-siu Baozi filling, refer to the Barbecued Char-Siu Pork recipe I posted sometime ago.

To travelers to mainland China, take care what you eat.

Update:
According to a news article from CTV.ca, the report about the paper-filled baozi may have been faked. A free-lance reporter from the Beijing television station that released the allegedly "hidden" video of workers manufacturing the baozi has been detained by police. A Chinese newspaper, called the Beijing Youth Daily, has published an article, stating that the reporter, brought meat, flour, cardboard and other ingredients to a downtown Beijing neighbourhood and had four people make the buns for him while he filmed the process.

Chef Fergus Henderson is well known in foodie circles as the person who brought attention back to the nasty bits (aka: offal) that were coveted by our fore-parents and largely ignored by contemporary cooks and restaurateurs. Arguably, his first foray into foodie consciousness came from an old episode of Cook's Tour. During the episode, host, Chef Anthony Bordain, visits Chef Henderson's St. John Restaurant in London, England. There, he partakes of a three course meal that includes pig's head, trotters, marrow, and ox heart. Regarding the ox heart, Chef Bordain seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, exclaiming that it tastes of "meaty goodness." According to the foodologist, this may have something to do with heart muscle resembling skeletal muscle, which is the muscle generally associated with eating meat.

According to the BBC website, offal is no more difficult to cook than steak. It further insists that ox heart is lean, rich in vitamins and minerals, and easily lends itself to marinating, slicing thin, and grilling. Apparently, ox heart also costs £2.50/kg in the UK, which is half the price of a regular "braising steak."

To me, that sounds like a challenge, so I purchased an entire ox heart from the mega mart and proceeded to cook it according to the instructions from the BBC website. Besides, two renowned chefs and a foodologist (yup, he went to St. John too) thoroughly enjoyed eating ox heart. Who am I to question?

My strategy: slice the ox heart into bit sized pieces; marinate the pieces in something sweet, tangy, and spicy; skewer the pieces; and grill everything on a gas barbecue. It turned out great!

As I would find out later, the resultant dish just happens to match a dish served in South America, called anticuchos (singular: anticucho). According to wikipedia, anticuchos are a popular and inexpensive dish consisting of small pieces of grilled skewered meat. One specific preparation, called "anticuchos de corazon", actually employs ox heart. I guess I was channeling my inner Latin cook when I unwrapped my ox heart and fished around for marinade ingredients.

More after the jump...

According to yahoo.com , a 20 kg (41 lbs) white mushroom was picked in a forest near a coffee farm in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Mexico. Cheapas borders Guatamala. The mushroom, belonging to the macrocybe titans taxon, measures approximately 70 cm in height. Several other giant specimens of this recently accepted genus of mushroom have been found. These ginormous mushrooms are common to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Martinique.

The image comes from yahoo.com.

Anyone else thinking about having sauteed mushrooms as a side for dinner tonight? If you are, Alton Brown has a great recipe for sauteeing mushrooms. I've used this recipe many-a-time with all sorts of mushrooms. Just be aware that if you cook with the door to your apartment open as I once did, neighbors will visit remarking on that wonderful butter smell emanating from your kitchen.

As an aside, I guess mozilla will have to update the spelling dictionary to firefox. The word ginormous is now recognized my Merriam-Webster.

During my nightly meanders around the blogosphere, I stumbled upon a lovely blog by a husband and wife team from the UK, Paul and Freya. The blog is entitled "Writing at the Kitchen Table" and has been around since February 24, 2006. The majority of the posts I've read, and I've been at it for a couple hours now, were penned by Freya. She has a wonderful gift for writing, an enormous love of food, and quite the talent for preparing new dishes. The pictures from this blog are mouth watering. Each comes with recipes, interspersed with descriptions and introspections that give the reader that warm and cozy feeling that comes from talking with an old friend. The blog itself blends life with food, which is how I personally feel food should be described.

To Paul and Freya, thank-you for sharing with us your lives and your joy of cooking.

To everyone else, take a gander, it's worth the click.

Here's a recipe from "Writing at the Kitchen Table" that really interests me: deep fried risotto balls, aka: arcancini.

Another Chicken and Ribfest competition has come and gone, with dozens of Ottawa residents congregating downtown and consuming an enormous amount of real barbecue. The Sparks Street website has yet to post the winners, but last year's winner for Barbecue Chicken, Crabby's, ranks highly in my book. I was less than impressed by Bad Wolf, which placed second to Crabby's. I don't think any of 2006's winners for Barbecue Ribs, save for Billy Bones BBQ, showed up this year.

The following is a list of competitors from the nice people at ottawastart.com.

• Between O'Connor & Bank Street
  • Camp 31 Bar B Que - Brewton, Alabama
  • Uncle Sam's BBQ - New Mexico
  • Billy Bones - Red Keg, New Mexico
• Between Bank & Kent Street
  • Sticky Fingers - Providence Rhode Island
  • Bibb'ss BBQ - Naples, Florida
• Between Kent & Lyon Street
  • Crabby BBQ - London
  • Bad Wolf BBQ -
  • Texas Outlaws - Brandenburg, Kentucky
  • Gator BBQ - Florida

Because there is a physiological limit to how much barbecue a human being can consume before his/her pores start leaking hickory, my better half and I were only able to sample fare from 3 competitors this year: Bad Wolf BBQ, Texas Outlaws, and Crabby's BBQ. However, our barbecue still hailed from at least 3 desperate geographical regions.

Bad Wolf BBQ (does anyone else detect a Dr. Who reference?)
First off, there's Bad Wolf BBQ. I visited this establishment with 3 co-workers during the lunchtime rush on the Thursday of the Chicken and Ribfest Competition. Since I was waxing poetic about pulled pork, two of us purchased the pulled pork sandwich combo. It consisted of baked beans, corn bread, and a pulled pork sandwich. The other two tucked into chicken and ribs.

Verdict: The sides were phenomenal. The cornbread was light, moist, and flavorful. The baked beans smacked of dark sugars as if they were slow cooked with brown sugar and/or molasses. The pulled pork however was a mixed bag. While the pork butt had obviously been smoked until it was so tender that it could be pulled apart, for some odd reason the sauce had either been watered down or the meat was over sauced. The pork was literally wet. The bun it was served on dissolved quickly in the liquid, making the sandwich impossible to eat with the hands. The sauce was so watery that it fell from the meat. Its flavor was barely discernible. At least the pork shards tasted like they were slow cooked in a smoker.

Texas Outlaws
That Thursday evening, my better half and I discovered that one of the purveyors of barbecue goodness was serving brisket. Brisket is an oft-overlooked cut of the beef primal that is often slow cooked. It happens to be what pastrami is made from. To make pastrami, brisket is brined, dry rubbed, smoked, and steamed. At Texas Outlaws, the brisket was slow cooked in a smoker until it just about fell apart. Then it was sliced, sauced, and served on a bun.

Verdict: The brisket was dry and barely palatable. Some pieces sported a thick black crust around a noticeable smoke ring (pink discoloration denoting smoke penetration). The sauce was vinegar-based and very tangy. However, the brisket was sauced conservatively, so the bun didn't fall apart. All in all, I was grateful for being able to try this form of barbecue for the first time. Though, the experience was bittersweet. I've heard about barbecue houses in Tennessee serving "burnt ends", which is a delicacy. Burnt ends are carefully cooked trimmings that are strategically cut and returned to the smoker to finish. They impart a heavily smoky flavor that are enjoyed by connoisseurs or used in other recipes. The pieces of brisket that were served did not look to impart smoky goodness, but an unhealthy serving of charcoal.

Crabby's BBQ
During lunch on the Thursday, another group of colleagues wandered further down Sparks street. They later informed me that the barbecue shack closer to Elgin had shorter lines and served bigger ribs. As such, my better half and I decided to put this tip to the test and tried the chicken and ribs at Crabby's BBQ. Crabby's happened to be the shack at the very end of Sparks on the Elgin side.

Verdict: The tip proved true. Not only did Crabby's serve great barbecue chicken and mouth watering ribs, but it served great pulled pork too. Ironically, the combo we ordered was called the "Vegetarian's Nightmare." It consisted of a quarter piece of chicken, a half rack of ribs (4 ribs), and a mound of pulled pork; meat, meat and more meat. To start off, the chicken was grilled to perfection on charcoal grates, both tender and juicy. The ribs were incredibly tender and flavorful. The meat literally fell off the bone. Both the chicken and ribs had been mopped with a sauce that balanced smoke, sweet, and tang. No one flavor overpowered the others.

What capped of the meal was the pile of pulled pork. This is the kind of pulled pork that keeps bringing me to the Chicken and Ribfest Competition each year. If you're this far north of the American border, pulled pork like this is few and far between. Firstly, the fine people at Crabby's had obviously slow cooked the pork butt perfectly. This is because the meat came apart in fine strands. Secondly, the pulled pork was sauced conservatively, neither too much, nor too little. Thirdly, the sauce complemented the long cooked pork. We tasted both meat and sauce. It was delicious.

Next year, when I come to the Chicken and Ribfest competition, I'll be visiting Crabby's first.

Of interest, the June 25, 2007 edition of the Ottawa Metro, a local newspaper, profiled George Kefalidis, the owner of Crabby's BBQ Shack. Crabby's doesn't smoke its ribs. Instead, they marinate it, cook it for hours in an oven, and finish it on the grill just before it is served. This "very French"-sounding method to cooking ribs, actually strays away from traditional barbecuing where smoke is king. This said, Kefalidis has racked up more than 300 awards and more than 10 years of staying power in the BBQ competition circuit, so he must be doing something right.

More after the jump...

When considerring candidates for a national dish of the United States, a natural choice would be the ubiquitous hot dog. Consisting essentially of a sausage, a bun, and various condiments, the hot dog neverless has developed regional specificities around North America and fanatic followings. They are punctuated by the characteristic New York, Chicago, and even Los Angeles hot dogs. New York dogs come with a papaya drink. Chicago dogs are served with tomatoes. Los Angeles dogs come in natural casings that produce a characteristic snap when bitten into.

Buns can be grilled or steamed. Toppings include everything from ketchup, mustard, and relish to kraut, guacamole, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, and chili. Wieners can be grilled roasted, pan fried, or deep fried. But wait, there's more!

Now, the evil mad scientist from evilmadscientist.com figured out how to cook a hot dog wiener by electrocution. All you need is a couple of forks, a computer power cable, some alligator clips, some raw electricity from a wall outlet, and a death wish. Interestingly, as the hot dog cooks, its resistance increases. This can be demonstrated by sticking LEDs into the hot dog and watching the LEDs get dimmer the longer the current runs through the weiner.

In other news, during this year's July 4th celebrations, spectators saw the crown for the 92nd annual hot dog eating contest, sponsored by Nathans, returned to an American. Californian Joey Chestnut defeated six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi from Japan, inhaling 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, a new world record. Takeru Kobayashi, who sufferred a well publicized sprained jaw, came close with 63 hot dogs. Coverage can be found at npr.org. The image comes from coverage at philly.com.

Recently, a friend of mine messaged me to inform me that the shawarma establishment next to his building was shutting down. Apparently, the land owner thinks it more profitable to force the businesses to close up shop, knock the buildings down, and put up a condo high-rise. Since my friend lives within several paces of my favourite shawarma restaurant in Ottawa, Shawarma Palace, I asked if this was the unfortunate establishment that was going to close. Thinking that I had not read what he wrote, he pointed out, rather indignantly, that all the shops were going out of business. He then added that it was the shawarma place with the "red sign" that was closing. My heart literally broke. Shawarma Palace has some red signage.

Happily, my friend was outright wrong. Though another shawarma restaurant will be closing, Shawarma Palace will continue to serve great food to grateful customers. There are many of us too. I have never seen the establishment with less than 75% of its available seats full. The lineups behind the counter are also long from morning to night. For instance, I once visited Shawarma Palace at 9:00 pm on a dreary and rainy Friday evening. Yet, the lines still extended from the counter down the length of the restaurant.

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern sandwich, composed of shaved lamb, beef, chicken, or combination thereof. It is topped with sauces, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and/or pickles. It is typically served on pita bread with side dishes. Sauces include this wonderful garlic mayonnaise, which I have yet to figure out how to reproduce. Side dishes include tabouli, hummus, salad, fried potatoes, and french fries. Shawarma is related to the Greek gyro and is essentially identical to the Turkish "Döner kebab."

Though a little off topic, during the 1970s, a variation of the Turkish "Döner kebab", called the "Donair" emerged in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A restaurant called "King of Donair" claims to have been the first to serve it in 1973. What sets the maritime donair apart is the characteristic sauce served with it. The sauce consists of 2/3 cup canned evaporated milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup white vinegar, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. A full recipe can be found here.

That said, the shawarma, gyro, and donair are all prepared the same way. Firstly, marinated strips of meat are piled onto a single skewer, forming a meat column. Animal fat, an onion, and a tomato are commonly placed on top. The meat is then vertical rotisserie roasted. This means that the meat rotates upright around a heat source, be it a wood fire or specialized electric element. The result is evenly cooking and self-basted meat. This is because the meat cooks both in its own juices and the juices from the added fat, onion and tomato.

Having been introduced to Shawarma Palace only 6 months ago, I have found that I literally crave its giant chicken Shawarma platters. They consist of generous amounts of shaved chicken, garlic sauce, hummus, potatoes, rice (white or brown), pickles, and salad. I dare say that no where else serves chicken shawarma this good.

Shawarma Palace achieves the "zen" of shawarma. Firstly, the garlic sauce is outstanding. It is rich, creamy, and garlicy, but not at all sour. Secondly, its side dishes are fresh, well prepared, and properly presented. The hummus is smooth and distinctively nutty from good tahini (sesame paste). It is served with a well of good olive oil and sprinkled with sumac. The potatoes are always crisp, hot, and never starchy. The rice is instant, but fluffy. You have a choice between fresh pickled turnips and/or pickled cucumbers. I never turn down pickled turnips. The salad is made with fresh romaine lettuce and tomatoes. It is conservatively dressed with a Mediterranean-inspired dressing. Ordinarily, this just means that the restaurant serves quality food.

It's the shaved chicken that elevates everything. Shawarma Palace has found a way to balance the cooking time of its meat columns with the rate with which it serves its customers. Every platter or individual shawarma sandwich comes with perfectly juicy and tender meat that is just crusted. The crust comes from the juices running down the giant meat columns and very careful roasting. It adds texture and flavor.

Regarding the platters themselves, they represent very generous helpings of food. One platter, two or three genuine Lebanese pitas, and two canned drinks will run you approxiatly $18.50 with tip and can easily serve two people. If you choose to eat a platter to yourself, you will not want to partake in any meals for the next day or two. Trust me on this one.

According to wikipedia, there are 91 shawarma restuarants in the National Capital Region. Shawarma Palace is easily my favourite. It is quite the trek down from Rideau Center, but it's worth it.

Actually, the friend who introduced me to Shawarma Palace now works in Boston. Everytime he comes back to Ottawa, he makes a pilgrimage to the establishment. Happily, I only live a couple minutes' bus ride from downtown Ottawa.

Particulars:
Shawarma Palace
464 Rideau Street
(613)789-9533