The Byward Market is one of my favourite places to wander. Amongst its stalls, I always find interesting seasonal products be it produce or ethnic delectable. During the summers, it is an absolute must visit location for guests. Firstly, the Byward Market shows off the sheer variety of agricultural products available in the National Capital Region. Secondly, no guest of mine leaves Ottawa without ever having tried a beaver tail. It's tantamount to going to Paris and thumbing your nose at authentic patisserie.

During autumn, the ByWard Market bristles with activity until the first.

Here are pictures from a walk my better half and I took September 16th.

Apple Season is Open!

Apples and other autumn produce

Tomatoes

Tomatoes
Believe me, you've not had tomatoes until you've tried locally grown ones from neighbouring farms. Megamart tomatoes smell as good as they taste. When fall comes, it is almost blissful to follow the heady scent of truly vine-ripened tomatoes to the proud produce-people who sell them. One piece of advice: speak to them in French, you'll be handed a better basket.

Pumpkins

Pumpkins

Painted Mini-Pumpkins
What is fall without pumpkins? Be it pumpkins to carve or pumpkins to decorate with.

Cabbage

Cabbage Flowers
Here is something odd that we found at a stall. Yes, these are cabbages. From their leaves, I'd say savoy, but they seem to have been coaxed to grow layers like a blooming rose. I've never seen anything like it before. Unfortunately, we never purchased any as both Jenn and I had some rather unfortunate experiences with cabbage rolls as children. Until we find a good Polish or German woman to make us some properly, we refuse to purchase the vegetable.

Byward Fruit Market

Dragon Fruit and Bananas
From time to time, we like to peek into the Byward Fruit Market by the Byward Market Square. There, I like to peruse their exotic fruit, their gourmet products, and their fine European goods. Besides, the owners have a fine sense of humor as their following sign demonstrates:

Expresso and a Puppy
In their defense, the Byward Fruit Market is more of a fine food store than a green grocer. Kids are not necessarily unwelcome, but they need to be supervised.

As we strolled through the market I kept remarking to my Jenn, "Everyone mush be rushing to enjoy what's left of summer. It's difficult to appreciate autumn's bounty when you're in a rush..."

This just in: I was wandering a ginormous thread (+500 posts) in an online forum on the subject of humorous images. I found a colour version of the sign posted at the Byward Fruit Market.

Expresso and a Pupply, Now in Colour

Particulars:
Byward Fruit Market
36 Byward Market Square
(613) 241-6542

The burger is an icon of the North American fast food world. It is to American fast food what the pizza is to Italian fast food; iconic and unflinching. Burger joints are also equally as venerable as pizzerias. However, unlike large chain fast food pizzerias, authentic Italian pizzerias usually offer much more than process cheese topped pieces of frozen and thawed dough. For instance, consider the classic Neapolitan pizza, the common ancestor of all pizza traditions.

Authentic Neapolitan pizza is made with hand rolled yeast dough and topped with local ingredients like vine-ripened San Marzano tomatoes, soft buffalo milk mozzarella, and fresh basil. Consider also that Neapolitan pizzas are baked for no more than 2 minutes in large wood ovens that top 905°F. This is what I call convenience without compromising in quality.

That said, this entry will not delve into the cultural disparities between old world and new world convenience foods. It is food for thought. However, I would like to point out two seeming contradictions that I found concerning two American burger chains.

Health-Conscious Kids Menu from Burger King
Firstly, like McDonald's before it, Burger King decreed on September 9, 2007 that it will offer healthier choices to children and unveiled a revamped kid's menu. The new menu features flame-broiled Chicken Tenders, organic unsweetened apple sauce, low-fat milk, and apples, cut to resemble thick-cut fries. In turn, advertising, targeting children under 12, will contain combos (Kids Meals) that follow strict nutritional guidelines: no more that 560 calories per combo, less than 30 percent of the calories will come from fat, and no more than 10 percent of calories will come from added sugars.

The apple fries present a healthy alternative to French fries. Both traditional French fries and apple fries will be served in the same containers. Apple fries, however, will be served cold, and contain only 25 calories. Regular fries have 230 calories and 13 grams of fat.

Flame-broiled chicken tenders, on the other hand, are a slightly "healthier" alternative. They differ with traditional deep fried chicken tenders by only 24 less calories and 4 grams less fat.

Bigger is better from In 'N Out
During my visit to Vancouver last summer, I spent some time in the Telus World of Science, where I encountered an enormous burger at the "Burger Works" exhibit.


Burger Works

Enormous Burger

Leave it to an In 'N Out franchisee to produce a burger that is actually en par:

100x100 In-n-out Burger

Dubbed the 100x100, this feet of fast food insanity was actually attempted on January 23, 2006 by blogger and former Vancouverite Willy. The "dimension-like" reference is actually In 'N Out lingo and means 1 burger with 100 meat patties and 100 slices of cheese. Cost: $97.66. Total estimated calories: 19490. People eating: 8. Time to finish: 2 hours.

Regarding the In 'N Out-speak, refer to the link for more lingo and other "secret" menu choices. Based on the "secret" menu, the specific order for the 100x100 was 1 Dbl/Dbl + 98 extra patties.

And there stands the contradiction. While some burger joints practice some restraint, others practice excess.

As a genuine foodie, kudos to both! :)

The weekend before Jenn and I boarded a plane for our culinary adventures in Vancouver, Abby, one of Jenn's former housemates and a friend of foodiePrints, joined us for our first ever outing to the Ottawa GreekFest. It was a spectacular event.

We spent a glorious afternoon on the grounds of the Hellenic Community Centre, enjoying the music, the dancers, and, of course, the Greek food.

I am of the opinion that there is no better way to immerse yourself in a foreign culture than partaking in its traditional cuisine. Besides, I love food and I have always wanted to taste foods from one of the oldest Mediterranean cultures.

Firstly, here is a picture of one of the entertainers:

Guitarist and Singer
I dun think he was too amused at my taking his picture...

Here are pictures of the food tend and main food counter:

Food Tent

Extremely Popular Food Counter
It was crowded.

Genuine Greek Gyros (pronounced "Year-Oh") Baby! :

Lamb Gyros Columns

Gyros Platter (cost: $10)

Gyros Pita (cost: $5.75)
Arguably, the origins of the modern kebab (shawarma and donair kebab) can be linked to the Greek Gyros. Unlike the Turkish or Middle Eastern variants, however, gyros meat consists shaved slices of a spiced and processed lamb loaf that is shaped into a column and rotisseried. Shawarma and donair meat usually consist of shaved slices of whole meat that is layered into a column and rotisseried. What I found amazing were the mechanical shavers servers used to shave slices of meat for gyros.

This being my first exposure to gyros, I ordered a platter. It consisted of a mountain of thinly sliced gyros meat, a small salad with feta, some olives, and a nice container of garlic sauce. The meat was gently spiced, savory, moist and fine textured. It was amazing.

My better half opted for a chicken souvlaki platter:

Chicken Souvlaki Platter (cost: $8.00)
Souvlaki is a popular Greek fast food consisting of piece of seasoned meat that is grilled on a skewer and typically served in a pita sandwich.

Greek Desserts from the Dessert Table!:

Dessert Table

Walnut Baklava

Apple Pie

Loukoumades follow:

More after the jump...

In the wake of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs making yet another keynote speech, the blogosphere is yet again ablaze with discussions about new products: rounded classic iPods, video iPod Nano's, and the new iPod touch. This time, some negative sentiment has emerged about the announced $200 USD price cut to Apple's iPhone product offering. In response Apple has announced a rebate for recently purchased iPhones and a $100 in-store credit for first-adopters. Whether or not this was a marketing faux-pas or an elaborate long-standing campaign to increase customer retention, i-devices are yet again on the tips of everybodies the tongues.

What does this have to do with a food-related blog? Enter the "iDrink." I found this remarkable device on gizmodo.com just before I left my cubicle for the weekend. The device is a plastic handled bottle openner that resembles the instantly recognizable iPod.

Gizmodo poster Jesus Diaz made quite the interesting comment about this device. Perhaps the makers of iDrink are trying to associate enjoyment of alcoholic beverages with Apple devices. After all, what else do you normally use a bottle opener for? Like the poster observed, the only time most people reach for a bottle opener is for non-twist-off bottles of beer.

Tunes, suds, and a good time eh? Sounds like a recipe for a good relaxing weekend.

Let's start with diacetyl (aka: 2,3-butanedione) and the horrifying case of 53 year-old man named Wayne Watson who developed a fatal lung disease (bronchiolitis obliterans) from regular exposure to fumes from artificially flavored microwave popcorn. The buttery taste of microwave popcorn comes from high concentrations of diacetyl.

Factory workers who package and test hundreds of bags of artificially flavored popcorn a day have been known to contract the disease. Wayne Watson, however, is the first consumer to exhibit lung damage from exposure to diacetyl. As such, Dr. Cecile Rose, pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center, made headlines when she warned American federal agencies and regulators about the effects of exposure to diacetyl from popcorn.

According to WebMD Medical News, while the FDC, the CDC, and the EPA have yet to issue a public health alert, leading makers of microwave popcorn have acted. Con Agra, General Mills, American Pop Corn Company, and Pop Weaver have stated that they will stop using diacetyl in their products. Their brands include Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Pop Secret, Jolly Time and Pop Weaver.

The picture of the grocery store shelf comes from the crativism blog.

Next, let's move onto sodium benzoate and food colouring. According to today's Globe and Mail, the Lancet medical journal released findings that demonstrate that two common food additives, sodium benzoate and food colouring, are linked to hyperactivity in children.

Sodium benzoate, an anti-microbial preservative, and food colourings can be found in many popular grocery products from fruit drinks to jam. The study involved 153 preschool children and 144 children aged 8 or 9. Accordingly, increased combined consumption of this preservative and various food colourings causes "adverse" effects on the three-year-olds and increased hyperactivity in the eight- and nine-year-olds.

Shortly after the study on hyperactivity was published, the British government released an advisory, recommending that parents avoid giving products containing multiple additives to children who show signs of hyperactivity.

The picture of the fruit drinks comes from a paper on fao.org. The paper is entitled "Principles and practices of small - and medium - scale fruit juice processing" and was authored by scientists from the University of Florida's Food Science and Human Nutrition Department.

For more information on additives to foods, refer to the "ingredients" web page from sci-toys.com. It specializes in providing some basic understanding of what the multi-syllabic substances in ingredient lists mean.

It's been a while since I put anything in the kitchen gear category. Such may be the result of my instituting a temporary moratorium on kitchen expenditures before heading out West for a vacation. The moratorium will remain until I replenish some of my funds. Happily, I think I have found another way to save money in the kitchen: Ikea Hacking (aka: re-purposing Ikea products)!

I ran across the phenomenon in today's online issue of the New York Times. The article linked to Ms. Mei Mei Yap's "ikeahacker" blog. There, I found some innovative ways of furnishing the kitchen with some low cost Ikea products. Most of the solutions are simple and elegant. Some are outright ingenious. The blog is a wonderful compilation of human ingenuity.

For instance, one entry involves taking a pair of Ikea cabinet base units, attaching them together and creating a tall pantry unit that butts up against the fridge. How about creating a bar from an Ikea high cabinet and an Ikea counter top? Best of all, everything fits into a shoestring budget.

Here are two of my favourites from ikeahacker:
Long Overhead Cabinets

Made from Ikea Book Cases

Brilliant Kitchen Tool Wall

Made from Non-Ikea Stainless Steel Canisters, some Metal Wire, and Ikea Grundtal bars

Not bad for "unboring" Ikea stuff eh?

Cheers to Ms. Yap. Love the blog. Will visit often!

As some of my faithful readers have noticed, postings on the blog have been few and far between during the past 3 weeks. The reason has to do with my taking my first ever vacation.

My better half and I spent 2 and a half glorious weeks in Vancouver, British Columbia. We spent our time visiting her relatives, touring the sites, and, of course, eating. I spent a lot of my time gawking dumbfounded at the majestic splendor of the Canadian West Coast.

In preparation for my trip, I created a dev sandbox on my meager Ubuntu Thinkpad (IBM original!) and copied over a whole slew of pictures from backlogged articles. I found some time to deal with the backlog, but, with no stable access to the Internet and so many things to do in Vancouver, it became difficult.

Fear not! I have 1555 digital images banked from my vacation. A good number of them regard foods and restaurants that are specific to Vancouver. I will be sorting, editing, and drafting postings about my culinary adventures.

Cheers!