To quote Alton Brown, who in turn quotes Ferris Bueller, "'Life moves pretty fast.' As a result, those of us living type-A lives end up choking down a lot of type-D chow."

Now, I'm not entirely sure what constitutes a "type-A" life, but, disposable time has become quite the limited commodity and, due to global financial factors, "healthy food" in particular and food in general are getting more expensive. So, when time is short and there are multiple chairs around the dinner table, people turn to incorporating prepared foods into their meals or outsourcing their meals altogether (i.e. dining out at the local fast food joint). Home cooked meals are relegated to Sundays. Scratch recipes are forgotten. Such explains the popularity of Hamburger Helper. It is a decades-old "prepared food compromise" that has been used by many a family to quickly put a meal on the table.

According to Wikipedia, Hamburger Helper is essentially a meal kit that consists of an "instant" starch (pasta, rice or potatoes) and specially measured dried sauce packets. All you need to do is brown some ground meat (typically beef); add water, starch, milk and the seasoning packet; simmer; and the dish is complete. It is sold by General Mills under its Betty Crocker Brand and represents a prepared food compromise, because it is not a microwave dinner. Some cooking is required.

Enter curried macaroni. Since, I outright refuse to purchase anything containing dried "sauce" packets, Hamburger Helper hasn't yet made it on my shopping lists. However, like everyone else, I also fancy quick and easy meals on hectic days. Hence, I put together this quick an easy recipe.

Here are the steps:

1. Brown about a 1/2 lb of ground beef in a pan. It can be lean ground beef, but I prefer medium.
2. Add one recipe of Bengali Curry sauce.
3. Simmer the mixture together for 5-10 minutes until the beef cooks through.
4. Set the mixture in its pan aside.
5. Cook up 1/2 to 3/4 cups of dried pasta (macaroni preferred) in boiling salted water until al dente
6. Drain the pasta, but do NOT rinse it.
7. Bring the curried meat sauce back up to a simmer and add the pasta.
8. Stir until the sauce thickens and the noodles are well coated.
9. Remove and serve hot.

Faithful readers of foodieprints will know that I often use the same Bengali curry sauce with many dishes. This includes curried hash, braised beef tendons, braised ox tail, braised pork hocks, chicken curry, and beef curry. As such, I can whip up a recipe of this sauce rather quickly.

Regarding the curried macaroni recipe, a prepared curry sauce can be used. However, the "from scratch" Bengali curry sauce recipe ensures a level of nutrition. This is because its ingredient include real vegetables. Furthermore, a recipe of the curry sauce sits quite happily in a glass jar in the fridge for a week, so it can be prepared well ahead of time. If chopping carrots, celery, or onion isn't your forté, a food processor can be used. Just remember to pulse until chopped and not run until liquefied.

Hmm...Ferris Bueller...It's been a while since I've seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I think I'm going to visit the local Future Shop and pick up a copy. Cheers!

My better half and I found the following flier tacked to the bulletin board near the entrance to the parking garage of our condo building. It advertised a new cafe that offers a variety of goods from sandwiches to yogurt.

Top of Flier

Bottom of Flier
Best of all, it was nearby, located on a quiet side street, 78 Hinton, which is parallel from Holland Avenue. We've a soft spot for hideaway eateries (aka: off the beaten track) so we went there to fetch something for breakfast.

I picked up a savory pastry from the front counter display that was filled with ground lamb and finely chopped red bell pepper. The filling was seasoned with sumac, which gave the lamb some pleasant sour notes.

Savory

Filling
The shell seemed more of a bread or biscuit than pastry. All in all, the pastry was tasty and filling.

I have seen the same pastries sold in the food court of my office building in Hull. I always assumed that the purveyors bought them for resale from a local bakery. Conversely, Allo Allo's were not individually wrapped in plastic and the one I purchased tasted fresh.

Jenn picked up a Lemon Square.

Lemon Square
It was dense, sweet, and tart. As well, it seemed to have been made with real lemons and coconut.

Apparently, the square was also made with a good deal of butter or margarine. This became evident after we returned home when we observed that the lemon square had soaked almost completely through the parchment paper bag it was served in.

Parchment Bag from Lemon Square

The Allo Allo Cafe is a quaint little restaurant that seems to bake its own bakery, which makes sense. Both its front door and business card state that the restaurant is affiliated with the Westboro Bakery. According to the We Love Westboro blog, the Westboro bakery was originally located somewhere on Richmond road, but was forced to relocate because of a rent dispute with its landlord. The Allo Allo Cafe seems to be the result.

Hopefully, word of mouth will drive business its way! The cafe is pretty badly secluded.

Here is the cafe's business cards.

Front of Card

Back of Card

Good luck on the new location. Jenn and I will be back for lunch.

This just in:
Allo Allo has a Facebook page.

Particulars:
Allo Allo Cafe
78 Hinton Avenue W
(613)729-1919

Like a lot of techy boys, I love gadgets. Like a lot of amateur cooks, I love gadgets. Normally, gadgets from one world don't fit in the other. "Never the twain shall meet", so to speak. Imagine my surprise when engadget (endgadget.com) and gizmodo (gizmodo.com), both giants in the blogosphere for their coverage of bleeding-edge tech gadgets, picked up on the "spice gun."

While not yet a product, three dimensional renders of the spice gun showed up on the designboom.com website as part of contest. There, its design is accredited to a Zhu Fei of China. How does it work? Place three different seasonings in canisters that load into the revolving barrel of a gun-type dispenser. Pull the trigger to compress the air in the airbag in the handle. This in turn activates the "handspike", which pushes the bottom of the seasoning bottle to make the nozzle in the turntable retract and dispenses the respective seasoning. Whether or not the design is sound, the idea is pretty innovative. Imagine rigging the gun to dispense a sequence of seasoning by having the barrel turn with every press of the trigger.

If a novel way to dispense dry seasoning doesn't tickle your fancy, how about a condiment gun?

Again, the design involves a revolving barrel and canisters (called cartridges in this case) of payload. This time, however, the product exists. It is being sold on firebox.com for £14.95 and is currently out of stock. Unlike the spice gun, the condiment gun seems to employ compressible cartridges, instead of a pressurized air reservoir, to dispense condiments. While the canisters come in yellow and red, I presume that any viscous sauce-type condiment can be dispensed by the condiment gun. I also came across the condiment "pistol" on gizmodo.com. A gadget is a gadget is a gadget.

I guess packing heat means loading up with dried cayenne for the spice gun and hot sauce for the condiment gun. Either would be fun additions for the upcoming barbecue season!

Considering the fact that I spend my spare time either maintaining a food blog or playing in the kitchen, I guess I'm making up for the "C" I got in Family Studies back in junior high school. Yup! That's right. I was one of those troubled boys who goofed around in class and largely ignored the teacher. Suffice it to say, I was an awkward student and I was trying to fit in with the more popular kids.

To Mrs. Col Mcelroy, my former Family Studies teacher, I apologize. Please note however that I did learn something and it still serves me well: Quick and Easy English Muffin Pizza.

All you need is a couple of halved English muffins, some sort of sliced meat, some tomato sauce, and shredded cheese.

Here's one batch I made when my better half was out one evening and I was left to my devices for dinner:

Prepped and ready for the Toaster Oven

Crusted to Perfection

Really simple directions:

1. Halve a couple english muffins
2. Place them on an oven-ready tray
3. Smear on some tomato sauce
4. Add your toppings
5. Sprinkle with cheese
6. Bake at 350°F or broil until the cheese melts and bubbles a little.

Regarding the batch pictured, I used slivered pepperoni sandwich meat, a 3:1 mix of freshly shredded mozzarella:Parmesan, and some left over tomato sauce. Regarding the shredded cheese, pre-shredded mozzarella tastes like the anti-clumping agent that's added and canned Parmesan tastes like the can. Choice of ingredients always impacts a dish.

These days, I use a toaster oven as I don't feel that a couple of English muffins necessitates turning on the real oven.

English Muffin Pizzas goodness...mmmmmmmmmm....

When you hit anyone of Ottawa's many shawarma establishments near lunchtime, watch closely what the patrons tend to order. Most walk away with expertly shaved shawarma chicken in a pita-sandwich; a plate of herb sprinkled potatoes with garlic sauce; and a canned drink. This combo of sandwich, side, and drink is called the "special" or "trio" and, for people with short lunches and long days ahead of them, it makes a lot of sense. Everything is easily portable. The sandwich can be eaten with the hands. The drink comes with a straw. The potatoes can be gobbled up quickly with a plastic fork. So long as you ask for some vegetables in the pita, the "special" is a somewhat balanced meal. It's a little carb. heavy though...

Last November, Jenn and I stopped by Mom's Shawarma and Donair in Kanata's Centrum for a couple specials. We were on our way to Walmart one Sunday afternoon to look for something household-related. I don't remember what, but we discovered that we had skipped breakfast and it was nearly 3:00 pm. Given that the Mom's Shawarma comes somewhat well recommended (i.e. "decent") by Kanata residents, we decided to try out the establishment.

Here is what we were served:

Two Chicken Specials

Chicken Shawarama Sandwich

Shawarma Sandwich Contents
And yes, that's potatoes topped with hummus. Jenn requested the topping. I shook my head and acquiesced.

The potatoes were cold and dry. The shawarma chicken in the sandwich was dry and tough. The pickled turnips were actually soggy, which I didn't think possible. And, both the hummus and garlic sauce tasted old (translated: thick, crusty, and strong-tasting). On the bright side the lettuce and tomato inside the sandwich tasted fresh.

Thinking back, I guess we ignored the warning signs. There weren't any customers in the establishment. The meat on the column wasn't spinning.

Given that it was Sunday, we hope that our food was leftover from the lunch rush and not leftover from the day before.

At $5.99 before taxes, a special isn't a bad deal. Just try to get one when Mom's Shawarma is busy. Else, you're going to be less than impressed.

Particulars:
Mom's Shawarma and Donair
570 Kanata Avenue
(613) 270-0500

Scans of Mom's Take Out Menu follow:

More after the jump...

Last January, I spent approximately a week in downtown Toronto, enjoying many of the culinary attractions that Yonge Street had to offer. Actually, I was sent to Toronto to attend a course on the financial software SAP, called SAPTEC. After doing my nightly review of the day's material, I spent the evenings wandering around. During one of my many outings, I stopped by the storefront of "Kitchen Stuff Plus" at the intersection of Yonge & Eglinton. While I favour restaurant supply houses to purchase my kitchen gear, specialty kitchen ware stores catch my attention as well. This is especially true for well stocked stores with lots of variety, such as the Kitchen Stuff Plus on Yonge Street.

According to the Kitchen Stuff Plus website, there are 9 outlets inside of the greater Toronto area (GTA). There is even a Clarance Outlet in Orfus Road, but there are no outlets in Ottawa. This became apparent Friday afternoon, when I came across Kitchen Stuff Plus' "Easter sale" on items from its "EggHead" collection.

EggHead products are adorable egg-inspired kitchen gadgets that include everything from timers, single egg fry pans, egg slicers, pancake flippers, toast tongs, whisks, and measuring spoons. There is even an EggHead potato masher.


Piercy the Egg Piercer

Egg Slicer

Egg Masher

Egg Timer

My favourite is the potato masher. I think I'll pester the owner of my favourite restaurant supply house to think about carrying the line. Alternatively, I'll have to make a trip up to Toronto this Easter.

Click here to see the promotion's online advertisement from Kitchen Supply Plus.

More after the jump...

Founded in August of 2001, by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere is a troupe of geographically dispersed volunteer actors, singers, and dancers who cause spontaneous "scenes of chaos and joy" in public places. By spontaneous scenes, Improv Everywhere does not play pranks. Imrpov Everywhere aims to impress and entertain. The organization is based in New York City.

Their latest mission involved creating a "spontaneous musical" (sitcom style) out of nowhere.

It involved 16 "agents", professional dance choreography, and, most impressively, original music. According to Impov Everywhere's blog entry, the musical score, was composed and arranged by the writers of the off-broadway show, GutenBerg! The Musical!.

Unlike other productions, Improv Everywhere actually sought permission from the location to better integrate agents and improve the experience for food court patrons. The mall involved, the Baldwin Hills Mall (Los Angeles, CA), worked with vendors to supply uniforms and provided access to much of the physical premises. They even allowed the troupe to rehearse the night before.

Here's a video of the production:


Here's a partial credit list from Improv Everywhere's website:
Agents: Campbell, Cowan, Brister, Caldwell, Sutton, Ahn, Park, Nwaeze, Jervier, Thorn, Fair, Costelo, Grimm, Perube, LaBarr, Appel, Todd
Digital Video: Agent Carbone
Choreography: Agent Tallaksen

Kudos to Improv Everywhere. This was a stunning production!

Click here for Improv Everywhere's YouTube channel.

If you're in downtown Ottawa, you're going to find a row of very large restaurants along York Street. We're talking 80-100 seater eateries that represent larger commercial chains: The Hard Rock Cafe, The Keg Steakhouse and Tucker's Marketplace.

Ottawa's Tucker's Marketplace is a corporate favourite for office outings: going away parties, welcome back parties, "dear-god we're still here" parties, and, of course, "you survived till retirement" parties. This is most likely due to the restaurant hosting one of Ottawa's only high selection hot buffet lines. Another is Richtree in the Rideau Center.

Buffets tend to attract office parties because they can accomodate wildly varying tastes and preferences better than menu-driven sit-down restaurants. Unfortunately, having food made en masse and then placing heaping mounds of it under heat lamps for any period of time tends to deaden flavors and destroys textures. However, something must be said about making a necessary compromise between convenience in serving large numbers hungry customers and providing quality dishes. Tucker's Marketplace's offerings are tasty.

Before we begin, I want to point out that dinner at Tucker's Market Place is pricey. A standard 2 adult dinner will set you back $31.98 CAD (after taxes, before tip). Two soft drinks will add another $4.48 CAD. This isn't a discount buffet joint.

The following are typical plates that my better half and I tend to get from the buffet line:

A Slice of Baked Ham on Sliced Baguette

Muscles in a marinara sauce, muscles in white wine, scalloped potatoes, chick pea salad, quinoa, and French fried onions

Medium rare roast beef, mashed potatoes, French fried onions, General Tao's Fish, and Barbecue Chicken

Braised Carrots, Barbecue Chicken, Roast beef, Sausage, French fried onions, quinoa, and Ham Casserole

Is the food spectacular? No
Is the food tasty and do you get access to carve-to-order roast beast? Yes
Are you spoiled for choice? Yes

Two out of three isn't bad when you're trying to accommodate large parties of eaters with differing food allergies, food-related phobias, and general food squeamishness. Everything served is readily identifiable and warm.

Tucker's Market place is also not a bad alternative when it's Thursday, it's too warm to cook, and you're wandering the Market for an open air restaurant with an appetite.

Particulars:
Tucker's Marketplace Restaurant
61 York Street
(613) 241-6525
Really annoying website (Note to Webmaster: Cheesy Music Numbers are VERY Passé on Websites!)

Founded in 1948 by Dick and Mac McDonald, McDonald's is arguably the king of the fast food restaurant chains. According to Yahoo Finance's profile of McDonald's Corp., as of December 31, 2007, there were 31 377 McDonald's restaurants in 118 countries, of which 20 505 were operated by franchisees; 3 966 were operated by affiliates; and 6 906 were operated directly by the company. With such a global operation, McDonalds is the largest chain of fast food restaurants in the world.

McDonald's successful product offer includes beef burgers, fries, breakfast sandwiches, soft drinks, milkshakes and chicken sandwiches. It's line of chicken sandwiches is led by the McChicken, McDonald's standard chicken sandwich offer. Following it are the Junior Chicken, the Chicken McGrill, and Crispy Chicken.

McChicken
According to the McDonald's website, the McChicken consists of a "McChicken Patty", "Regular" Bun, Mayonnaise Dressing and shredded iceberg lettuce. The McChicken patty I was served seemed to consist of processed dark and light chicken meat that was molded into a patty shape, battered, and then deep fried in vegetable oil. This is evident from the rather spongy texture of the patty and the darker colour of the meat. The crispy batter tastes distinctly of paprika, salt, and garlic powder.

According to its ingredient list, the batter is a combination of flour, bread crumbs, and egg whites.

According to its ingredient list, the mayonnaise dressing looks like a standard egg yolk-based mayonnaise that's flavoured with vinegar and lemon juice (from concentrate). Interestingly, it uses soybean oil and some commercial emulsifiers and stabilizers (xanthan gum).

According to calorilab.com, the McChicken Sandwich packs an impressive 380 calories, which is only 115 calories less than McDonald's flagship BigMac Sandwich.

Bacon Ranch McChicken
For a limited time, McDonald's offered an alternative McChicken sandwich, featuring bacon, ranch dressing, and a sesame seed studded bun. I chanced on a Bacon Ranch McChicken last December (2007). The McChicken pattie was identical to the standard McChicken sandwich, so the added texture and flavor from the bacon was a welcome addition. The Ranch dressing, however, was very runny and very salty, leaving quite the mess on my fingers and my throat parched.

I believe that the ranch dressing is the "Creamy Ranch Sauce" that is listed on the McDonald's website. Its ingredient list looks very much like that of other mass-produced bottled salad dressings, which are likewise mayonnaise-based. Though, unlike the mayonnaise dressing that's characteristic of the standard McChicken sandwich, the ranch sauce includes buttermilk and is flavoured with parsely and onion.

Source for the Bacon Ranch McChicken menu picture: ameblo.jp

Junior Chicken
For some very odd reason, I can't seem to find an advertised picture of Junior Chicken sandwich on the McDonald's website or World Wide Web. Nevertheless, the product does exist. It is a snack-classed sandwich whose battered pattie and bun are much smaller than that of the standard McChicken sandwich. However, like the McChicken sandwich, the Jr. Chicken Pattie looks to be made of processed light and dark chicken meat and it is likewise sauced with the mayonnaise dressing. The Jr. Chicken sandwich is also much cheaper than the McChicken sandwich, selling at $1.79 CAD/sandwich.

According to calorielab.com, the diminutive Jr. Chicken Sandwich contains 330 calories, which is only 50 calories less than the standard McChicken Sandwich.

Stay tuned for future entries on the Chicken McGrill, and Crispy Chicken.

BTW, the reason the fastFood postings on foodiePrints tend to include "As Advertised" and "As Served" pictures is because I am trying to further the work of Jeff Kay's West Virginia Surf Report blog, which sports an ongoing "Pulitzer-caliber" project that compares Fast Food Ads to Fast Food Reality. Keep up the good work Jeff!

There's nothing better than wasting time on YouTube when you're bored.

Here are 2 very odd burger king commercials that I came across. One originates in Japan. The other looks American.

Burger King - Eat like snake


Darius Rucker (aka: Hootie) Burger King Commercial (circa 2005)


Here are the lyrics to Hootie's whimsical song

When my belly starts a-rumblin', and I'm jonesin' for a treat. I close my eyes for a big surprise, the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch. I love the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch, the breasts they grow on trees. And streams of bacon ranch dressing, flow right up to your knees. Tumbleweeds of bacon, and cheddar paves the streets. Folks don't hate ya cause ya got the juice, there's a train of ladies comin' with a nice caboose. Never get in trouble, never need an excuse, the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch. I love the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch no one tells ya to behave. Your wildest fantasies come true, Dallas cheerleaders give you shaves. Red onions make you laugh instead, and french fries grow like weeds. Ya get to veg all day, all the lotto tickets pay. The king who wants you to have it your way, that's the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch.

Source: populationstatistic.com

With only months leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, efforts are well underway to clean up "chinglish" or, as Jon Rahoi of Rahoi.com calls it, "manglish", in Beijing. Chinglish is the term that was coined for mis-translations or "mangled"-translations of Chinese into English. It graces retail signs, street signs, billboards, packaging, clothing, and menus.

Here are some humorous food-related examples of Chinglish from the divinecaroline.com blog.

Pizza Hut...I mean Roof

Chocolate Flavoured Biscuits

Stupid Iced Tea

1x11

More food-related examples of "Manglish" from Rahoi.com follow:

More after the jump...

Last November, the yeinjee.com website showed up on digg.com for its posting on potentially the world's smallest teapot. Crafted by Chinese master potter potter Wu Ruishen, the tiny ceramic teapot weighs just 1.4 grams. According to the site, Wu is a renowned pottery artist in China who specializes in creating teapots. His artworks can be found in various museums in China.


World's Smallest Tea Pot?

Close-up

Pay close attention to the close-up image. Just look at the craftsman ship. While the ridges of the model's finger are quite visible, the pot itself is seamless.

Click here for the Chinese-language webpage that originated the pictures of the tea pot.

Click here for the posting in the "Asian pop" section of the yeinjee.com website.

Several weeks ago, I came across an discussion in an online forum entitled "you know what a churro is?" A churro is a fried-dough pastry that originated in Spain and Latin America and has been imported into North America. It is sometimes referred to as a Spanish or Mexican doughnut. While a good number of participants in the online discussion were familiar with churros, one participant identified other fried dough pastries: French beignets, Italian zeppole, American elephant ears and Canadian beavertails.

What is a beavertail? The following what a Montreal native has to say:

Man, a Beaver tail is a Canadian food staple.
It's a piece of fried dough that comes with a wide array of toppings. Such as (but not limited to): The classic cinnamon-sugar, cinnamon-sugar with lemon, Nutella, chocolate banana and so forth.
It's kind of a winter time thing.

According to wikipedia, beavertails bear the name of the Canadian trademark for the chain of eateries that specialize in making them. The eateries were founded in Ottawa in 1978. Beavertails' success may be due to the winter festival time with which they are so often associated: Winterlude.

Winterlude is a winter festival that is celebrated in the National Capital Region, Ottawa and Gatineau, for three weeks every February. It was started in 1979 by the National Capital Commission and, according to Wikipedia, it attracted an estimated 1.6 million visits in 2007. Winterlude attractions include an ice sculpture competition, a playground made of snow, and, of course, the largest (formerly longest) skating rink in the world: an iced over Rideau canal.

Winterlude's mascots are called the "Ice Hogs." Its traditional food is the beavertail. Other food-related events include a food and wine tastings in several restaurants, which act as 'official restaurants.' This year (2008), Winterlude held a Walkabout Winter Feast, which consisted of a five-course, wine-paired, meal at five Ottawa restaurants with a sommelier guide

The Rideau Canal Skateway hosts several food catering kiosks on the ice. They are usually situated next to skate changing shacks and ice sled rentals. Here are pics from my better half, one of her former roommates, and my visiting this year's Winterlude.


Beaver Tail Purvery at Winterlude

Beavertails Trademark

Beaver Tail Goodness

The Genuine Article

Indeed beaver tails come in several flavours, but my favourite is the classic cinnamon and sugar. I don't know what it is about this sugar crusted fried dough pastry, but the beaver tail is to me the perfect winter snack. Maybe it's the grains of sugar that you crunch with your back teeth after every bite. Maybe it's the thickeness and crispy texture. Whatever the case, the best way to enjoy beaver tails is to eat them outdoors preferably on the Rideau Skateway and after a couple hours skating.

Since I'm a city boy, born and bread, I rarely spend time looking at camping gear. Recently, however, I've taken an interest in a specific category of camping gear, camping cookware. Whether you're a indoor or outdoors cook, cast iron and carbon steel tend to be the materials of choice for cookware. Regarding the former, carbon steel is dense. It absorbs and radiates heat equally well on an electric element or in a camp fire. Regarding the latter, carbon steel gives you a non-stick surface without the drawbacks of teflon or a plastic handle.

When it comes to cutlery, it is more practical to travel light, but purchase durable. Six-piece silverware sets don't make much sense when you're roughing it. Titanium cutlery from Brunton's MyTi line are another issue altogether:

Let's tart with a 3 piece interlocking set of titanium knife, fork, and spoon.

MyTi Titanium Flatware
Source: Brunton.com
Price: $18.75 USD (amazon.com)

Too many pieces? Enter the one-piece spork!

MyTi Spork
Source: Brunton.com
Price: $11.32 USD (Amazon.com)

Still not compact enough? Enter the folding spork.

MyTi Folding Spork
Source: Brunton.com
Price: $11.32 USD (Amazon.com)

How about folding chopsticks?

Flipsticks
Source: Brunton.com
Price: $21.83 USD (amazon.com)

Quite frankly the folding chopsticks are chic enough for the urban jungle and has been the subject of many a blog entry, including cnet.com and trailspace.com.

If folding chopsticks don't peak your fancy, perhaps you may want to look at Rakuten's sauce-dispensing ones. They are meant for the particularly rushed who can't take the time to move portions of food from plate to sauce and from sauce to mouth.

Sauce Dispensing Chopsticks
Source: Engadget.com
Price: Probably as Ridiculous as the Concept...

This just in: Battery Operated Chopstick Add-on Device for Ramen Noodles

Ramen Fan
Source: technews.cc
Price: I really don't want to know...

Here are some amazing pics that take a closer look at food. They come from a web page on the fresh99.com site. The page itself is entitled "zoomed in food...look closer."


Laborers Seeding a Water Melon

Surveyor for the Water Melon Seeding

Mowing a Kiwi Lawn

Yard Work on a Kiwi

Moon Walking on Creme Brulée

More follows:

More after the jump...

Sometime last fall, around Thanksgiving, the Trillium Bakery at 1311 Wellington Street West closed its doors to customers. The bakery specialized in making bakery and deserts that were free of wheat, sugar, or dairy. It catered to people with specific dietary restrictions and was highly recommended by various health-related associations. This includes the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association.

According to a review in the Ottawa Xpress, Trillium made a "mean" Chelsea Bun. Unfortunately, when my better half chanced by the bakery during its last days, there were no Chelsea Buns left. Happily she was able to purchase a honey ginger cake to serve with Thanksgiving dinner.


Honey Ginger Cake

Served

The cake was very dense, owing to it being gluten-free. However, it was very flavorful, tasting distinctly sweet and gingery. We split each slice into three and served the squares individually.

With the seemingly growing number of people suffering allergies, there should be more establishments like this one. On the bright side, the Trillium Bakery on Wellington was the second bakery owned by Trillium Bakery Limited. The original Trillium Bakery is located in Ottawa South, at 209 Belmont Avenue (near the corner of Bank Street and Sunnyside Avenue). According to the Ottawa Xpress review, that location was open during the summer. We at foodiePrints are not certain if it survives today.

The retail space left by the Trillium Bakery was filled several months later by Amate Food and Gifts.

Amate Food and Gifts
This new store sells Latin-inspired goods and snacks. Unfortunately, Jenn and I have not yet found the time to try its wares. Nevertheless, it seems to be enjoying a steady stream of business for the time being.

Particulars:
Trillium Bakery
209 Belmont Avenue
(613) 730-1316

Amate Food and Gifts
1311 Wellington Street W.
(613) 728-6822

Sometimes I wonder if it's my subconscious surreptitiously having me wander into so much pizza-related content on the web. Alternatively, there may be just as many people out there who adore pizza, in its many forms, as I do. And, like me, they blog about their favourite food.

Pizza Ready in 90 seconds
Now this is what I call a practical technological innovation with multiple applications. At the very least, it furthers the frontiers of pizza science. Please allow me to introduce the double decker proprietary pizza oven that can cook two 12" fresh pizzas in 1.5 minutes. It is made and sold by New Yorks' Hammacher Schlemmer, an equipment maker and retailer that hails back to 19th century, before the American civil war. The "1 1/2 Minute Dual Pizza Oven" comes with 2 roof mounted 1440 W coils that can heat unsuspecting toppings to 797°F and enough real-estate to accommodate 2 ceramic pizza stones on its stainless steel oven racks. According to the Hamacher Schlemmer website, the oven reaches temperatures 150°F higher than most professional pizza ovens. At the same time, each oven is independently adjustable from 200°F to 797°F. The housing is made of stainless steel. The doors have tempered glass windows to allow monitoring of the cooking progress. The unit is also equipped with 30 minute timers. Most amazing is the dimensions: 16 3/4"x15"x 16". Weighing only 33 lbs, the unit is designed to sit on a counter top or bar. The cost for the convenience of being able to cook fresh pizzas in 90 seconds is $249.95 USD. While no information was made available about the time needed for the ovens taking frozen pizzas to bubbly and delicious, it can be assumed that the oven can make short work of them too.

Source: zapnat.com.

Extreme Pizza from Korea
If you thought Pizza Hut's foray into extreme fast food was excessive, a Korean pizzeria stepped into the fray with asymmetric flavours: cheese, pepperoni, salami, sausage, ham, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, corn, apple slices, hot dog slices, onions, and sweet potatoes. Not stopping there, the crust is filled with vanilla pudding and coated with frosting on one side and grape jam sprinkled with sugar on the other. The pie is served drizzled in mayonnaise. Oh my.

Source: wierdasiannews.com.

A treatise on the many regional variations of pizza
If ever you're wondering what foods you should try when you visit different cities in the world, you may want to consider pizza. Whether authentic from Naples (Italy) or regional within the continental United States, pizza seems to vary in its preparation and ingredients depending where you are. There is thick crust, thin crust, deep dish, round crust, rectangular crust, grilled, wood baked, gas baked, and we haven't even started on sauces or cheese blends. This said, AS1979, from the Serious Eats website, started a comprehensive list of "regional pizza styles" in the pizza section. Lucky for him, growing up in the New England region of the United States, he actually had the good fortune of trying a good number of the varieties he lists. Click here to see the list. Because I feel that this information is too important to be lost on the information super highway, click here for a local .pdf version.

Source: seriouseats.com

Sometimes, I really wonder what goes through the minds of product managers and marketing executives when I come across products like Mr. Goudas' canned "Potatoes Roasted With Lemon and Dill."

Please don't get me wrong. I think Mr. Goudas' is a good brand both for its sheer variety of product offers and its economical prices. My own pantry is replete with Mr. Goodas branded staples: one bag of dried green split peas, one bottle of dried red chilies, one bag of long grain white rice, two cans of chick peas, one can of kidney beans, and one can of cannelloni beans. I generally purchase Mr. Goodas products from Food Basics or Zellers, where entire aisles are seemingly dedicated to Mr. Goodas.

Mr. Goudas also runs a website called flyermall.com, which hosts scans of the week's store flyers. It includes flyers from many of the large chain grocery and department stores and several of the smaller ethnic chains. I visit the site often as prefer not to receive flyers by mail.

I was on flyermall.com when I discovered the canned roasted potatoes product in an advertising banner. Curious, I clicked on the banner and came to a recipe page. The recipe involves taking 4 potatoes, cutting them into 1 inch pieces and baking them in an oven proof baking dish immersed in a mixture consisting of 1 cup of water, the juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, and 2 tbsp of fresh dill. Presumably, cooking the potatoes at 375 degrees F until tender will simultaneously cook off the majority of the moisture from the wet mixture, leaving the oil and the aromatics to crisp and flavor the potatoes. Afterwards, the recipe broils the potatoes until "coloured."

What does this recipe have to do with a canned product? Well, you can purchase the same dish "ready-to-eat" in a can. The only difference is that liquid was added to enable sterilization. Happily, "the liquid may be consumed or discarded." "The choice is yours."

If you're like me and you value your potatoes for the texture you get from cooking them in specific ways, the following recipe may interest you more than canned roasted potatoes. It originated from an online forum. I made some modifications, based on Alton Brown's Baked Potato recipe from the Food Network website. I've yet to try it, but the principles makes a lot of sense.

Recipe

Stuff You'll Need:

• 4 russet potatoes
• canola oil to coat
• large grained salt, like sea or kosher salt
• shredded cheese
• butter
• sour cream
• crumbled bacon pieces
• finely chopped green onions or chives

Method:

1. Preheat an oven to 350F
2. Wash the potatoes well, scrubbing under running water. However, leave the skins on.
3. Prick the skin of the potatoes with a fork 8-12 times. Be sure to distribute the holes evenly as this will allow steam to escape, during the baking process
4. Place each potato in a bowl and coat with oil and sprinkle with salt
5. Set the potatoes directly on the middle rack of the oven and bake for an hour or until the skins are crisp and the flesh is soft. During baking, you may want to place a sheet pan or baking dish directly below the potatoes to catch any drips
6. Switch the oven to broil
7. When baked, let cool for five minutes
8. Carefully split each potato in half and scoop out the flesh into another bowl, leaving a 1/8" layer of potato in the skins
9. Run the flesh through a ricer or mash gently with a fork
10. Add sensible amounts of the remaining ingredients to the potato mash and mix thoroughly. The original recipe was vague with measurements: 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp sour cream per potato.
11. Place the mixture back into the skins
12. Place the stuffed skins onto a baking sheet and broil until the cheese melts and the topping colours
13. Serve hot

Before Jenn and I embarked on our trip to Vancouver we had to purchase some luggage to accomodate packing several weeks' worth of clothes. When Sears advertised a "Super Saturday" sale, we made our way to the Rideau Centre early one Saturday morning. For those of you unfamiliar with Super Saturday sales, when Sears opens, a limited number of shoppers are given "scratch and save cards" for discounts between 10% and 30% off the regular price of merchandise. Since the Rideau Center opens before Sears opens, Jenn and I arrived at the shopping center at 7:00 am. Naturally, we wandered around the food court for breakfast.

The only place this early open was the Richtree Marché Frais, the bakery branch of the Richtree Restaurant. There, we couldn't resist purchasing a bagful of freshly baked rolls.


RichTree

Bag of Freshly Baked Rolls

Individual Roll

Roll Split in Two

Like a lot of bakery, Richtree's rolls are best fresh out of the oven, warm and delicate. With its fresh aroma, recently set texture, and flavorful crust, the rolls were delicious. I was really impressed with the rolls because of their three point shape, which formed because the rolls were slashed twice before their final rise during baking.

Particulars:
50 Rideau Street, Level 1
Rideau Centre Food Court
(613) 569-4934

Two Sundays ago, the Associated Press published an article about a restaurant owner, named Steve Mallie, who put a 61 kg (134 lb) burger on his Detroit restaurant's menu. Dubbed the "Absolutely Ridiculous Burger", it resembles a typical beef burger that is topped with bacon and cheese, only it is enormous. It requires three men and 2 steel sheets just to flip the burger and it comes on a 23 kg bun. Because of the resources and ingredients needed, orders for the burger at Mallie's Sports Bar and Grill require 24 hour's notice.

Now, while the Absolutely Ridiculous Burger maybe considered an American innovation, a German restaurant, called the WaldGeist Hofheim, has been known to serve rather large servings as well. The menu at the WaldGeist has some typical German fair such as wiener schnitzel, only they're enormous. There's even a Harry Potter plate that comes with presumably pork schnitzel and mini-potatoes. I have absolutely no grasp of German.

Here are some sample pics from the gallery on WaldGeist Hofheim's website:

Tada! It's Schnitzel

Eating Schnitzel in Traditional Garb?

More Schnitzel

Burger?

Since Schnitel is normally made from pork, I figure the little guy in this picture is fearing for his life...

Pre-Schnitzel?