For a couple days in June, Sparks Street is lined with international barbecue professionals. Armed with enormous smokers and charcoal grills, they take some normally inedible cuts of meat and, through the careful application of smoke, flame, and sauce, turn them into tender and succulent delectables. The process requires skill, time, and care. With the air in the downtown core smelling of smoldering wood charcoal, it is no wonder that hundreds of workers emerge from their cubicles and pack the street to get a taste during lunch.

As 2007's Chicken and Ribfest leaflets state, it may be worth it to "skip work" and "eat ribs." In 2008, approximately 300 000 Ottawa residents agreed and attended the event during its five day run. This, according to Sharon McKenna, executive director of the Sparks Street Mall.

Here is what the turnout for 2008 looked like.

Barbecue-goers filling Sparks Street

View of a typical Line Up

View from a Line Up

Jenn and I actually ended up attending twice on the Saturday of the event. We went together for an early supper at 4:00 pm and again that same evening. The reason? Our new neighbor Vivien and her mom just arrived in Ottawa from Toronto and were famished. Together, we ran into Jenn's little sisters as well. Leave it to an international barbecue competition to bring together friends and family.

During our afternoon trip, we took a pass on Boss Hog's with its ground to sky signage

Tall Signage

Boss Hog

his Lady with a challenge

Grill Master

I stopped at Bibb's for some tangy sweet and super tender pulled pork.

More tall Signage

Bibb's Pulled Pork

She stopped at the highly decorated Silver Bullet for a wonderful rack of smoke ringed pork ribs.

Still More tall Signage

Silver Bullet's Trophies

Grill Master

Silver Bullet Rack of Ribs

Silver Bullet Ribs

We washed it all down with an enormous glass of sweet yet tart Alabama Lemonade

Alabama Lemonade Stand

Alabama Lemonade
The brightness of the lemonade cut through the savory excess that comes from eating too much barbecue.

That evening, I went to Blazing BBQ for some beef ribs.

Side Signage

Blazin Pork Ribs, Beef Ribs, and Chicken..oh my

Slow cooked and deeply savory beef ribs

Dry Rubbed Chicken

Interestingly, Blazing BBQ gave out tour cards with each serving.

Tour Card

According to the Ottawa Metro (a free commuter newspaper), the 17th Annual Chicken and Ribfest ended with Blazing BBQ winning an award for best chicken, Camp 31 winning for best ribs, and Billy Bones winning for best sauce.

I think Ottawa residents are the winners to be able to experience great barbecue this far north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I'm definitely looking forward to Spark Street's next installment. Drool...

A little over a year ago, the Foolish Chicken opened, adding a chicken and rib eatery to the row of higher-end (Allium and Canvas) and ethnic (Pho Van Van and the Nihao Teahouse) restaurants on Holland Avenue. My better half and I watched in anticipation as what was a failed Indian/Canadian buffet house transformed into a two story family-oriented restaurant. Every now and then, I actually marveled at the sheer convenience of having rotisserie chicken nearby.

Here is what the Foolish Chicken looked like during its opening week, on June 25, 2007.

Building Signage

Hanging Signage

Street Signage

Menu

The artwork on the signage comes from Allison Fowler and the AliCat Art Studio on Wellington Street W (1395B), located above the Sweet Pea Children's Boutique. This, from server, bartender, and co-owner Natalie Aucoin.

Regarding its menu, at $8.99 or $9.99 for a quarter chicken dinner (leg or breast with wing respectively) with coleslaw and fresh cut fries, Foolish Chicken's prices are comparable to those from the larger chain Swiss Chalet restaurants. An equivalent dinner at Swiss Chalet, according to its online ordering website, runs you $9.09 and $11.39, respectively. According to Swiss Chalet's pre-Christmas promotion, 2 quarter chicken (leg portions) dinners with drinks and dessert cost $19.99.

Canadian Swiss Chalet Special, expired December 24, 2008
Source: smartcancuks.ca

At Foolish chicken, a glass of pop runs you a whopping $2.25 each. Desserts are purportedly homemade and cost anywhere from $4.99 for a scoop of ice cream to $6.99 for phyllo-wrapped banana. Considering that phyllo can be purchased from the frozen case at any mega-mart and working with it is easier than making a peanut butter sandwich, the latter dessert is rather overpriced. BTW, a 355 mL can of Pepsi from the Swiss Chalet online ordering website runs you only $1.59.

Given the price point, my better half, a colleague from the office, and I stopped by for a supper a couple months after the restaurant opened. I had the Foolish Chicken Club. They ordered breast quarter chicken dinners. Mine, was sliced barbecue chicken breast, bacon, and lettuce, served atop a wedge of toasted but bready focaccia. Instead of fresh cut fries, I ordered the house salad. I enjoyed my sandwich. The chicken was moist and well seasoned; the bacon, crisp and crunchy; and the lettuce, fresh. My salad was also decent. The morsel of chicken Jenn gave me to try was succulent and tender. My colleague was likewise impressed. All-in-all, our meals were good.

That said, I am sorry that I didn't bring my camera to document our first encounter at the Foolish Chicken, because the next time Jenn and I went, we left less than impressed.

Following a glowing review from the Ottawa Citizen's restaurant critic Anne DesBrisay, Jenn and I returned one Friday evening after we finishing our third furniture rotation to allow our contractors to continue their work on our renovations. Famished, we both ordered wraps for dinner.

In her review, DeBrisay praised the husband and wife team who ran the restaurant and its chef, Mark Blakely. Me, I have nothing but contempt for an establishment that uses words like "barbecue" and "Carolina-style" sauce when it produces a "BBQ Boneless Rib Wrap" that disintegrated into a pool of watery fluid and broken flour tortilla after my first bite.

Jenn's Wrap with Fries

My Wrap with Salad
Just look at the pictures. The bottoms of the wraps were soaked and ready to give when they were served to us.

Before anyone races to the menu, it's the Foolish Chicken's website that makes mention of a Carolina-styled barbecue sauce.

Foolish Chicken Website
I've a feeling that the restaurant's "secret" sauce for its ribs is also Carolina-styled as well. This is because, the wraps were so vinegary that mine had me coughing from the sheer acidity. I had to de-construct the sandwich and drain some of the "sauce" to make it edible. With the tortilla already soaked through, this was a delicate task.

According to about.com and wikipedia.net, North Carolina-style barbecue sauce is vinegar-based but varies by region. Eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce is only vinegar-based. Western North Carolina barbecue sauce is more tomato-based. Centrally, the barbecue sauce uses a mixture tomato and vinegar. Elsewhere, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, the barbecue sauce is less tart, sweet-tasting and tomato-based.

To me, the vinegar-based barbecue sauce tradition comes from vinegar providing brightness or "tang" to contrast the savory flavors of slow smoked pork or grilled chicken. There is no contrast when there is an over abundance of "brightness." One has to wonder about the logic behind having rib meat that is glazed with a vinegar-based sauce, adding a vinegary salsa, and then saucing the wrap with more vinegar-based sauce.

As per its menu, here is how the wraps were constructed: soft (translated: soaked) flour tortilla, lettuce, peppers, onions, grated cheddar, salsa, boneless rib meat, and "special" TFL sauce

Cross Section
Everything is as the menu described, save for rice that seemed to be added as filler.

Why filler? If you wander over to OttawaFoodies' accounts of the Foolish Chicken, you will find a number of negative reviews involving the restaurant's "frugality." When they ran out of corn bread, the owner refused to substitute the side or add more of an existing one. When they ran out of chicken, the restaurant served a chickenless club sandwich. According to an ex-server, the restaurant also serves day-old coffee. It isn't too much of a stretch to deem unlisted rice in a wrap filler.

The dinner cost $27.66, excluding tip, including two pops, and taxes.

Apparently, we dined at the restaurant, shortly before the Foolish Chicken's celebrated its one year anniversary.

One Year Anniversary
I am not ready to celebrate the restaurant...

After reading DesBrisay's review again, reviewing the accounts from OttawaFoodies, and leveraging my experiences, I believe that the only good dishes served at the Foolish Chicken involve no sauces. This means that an astute patron must order a chicken dinner because the chicken is roasted with a dry rub. And no, this means the chicken is not "Carolina-style." For drinks, don't order coffee.

Everyone seems to consistently rave about the Foolish Chicken's desserts. No disrespect Ms. DesBrisay, but I will have to try them firsthand before I believe it. If they taste vinegary, I won't be returning.

Here are the business cards for Foolish Chicken and the AliCat Art Studio

Foolish Chicken Business Card

AliCat Art Studio

Particulars:
Foolish Chicken
79 Holland Avenue
(613)321-4715

AliCat Art Studio
1395-B Wellington Street West
(613)218-7232

To date, there are two things I dabble in when I'm not in front of the computer: food and food photography. Since I maintain a blog, pictures of the food I prepare tend to end up on it.

It's quite the viscous circle, but I enjoy it.

Just as I have learned to appreciate good food by learning how to prepare dishes, I have an appreciation for creative photography. Creative photography is quite the art form. It requires imagination and skill.

Recently, I came across a gallery entitled "92 More Must See Creative Photographs" on the "drawing the o-p line in non-Euclidean geometry" website.

Here are the 4 food-related images from the gallery:

Enjoy Your Breakfast by nocturnalMoTH

Large Utensils

McSad by lexidh

Fanta Berry Blah

There is much more in the gallery, but I'm just concerned with the food-related stuff :P

As always, hitting this year's Westfest was a great way to spend a Saturday during a warm June day.
West fest is an outdoor street festival that showcases local musical, visual art, dance, spoken word, and performance art talent. As before, it was a 3 day event that took place in the Westboro village of Ottawa.

WestFest 5

Westboro Village's WestFest
This year, however, there was an aboriginal component to the concessions. We'll get to that.

From the direction of Wellington, Richmond was cordoned off just passed the Superstore at Kirkwood. Here is what the festival looked like at 1:00 pm on the Saturday of the event.

Extended Patio

Crowds of Revelers
Just look at that bustling crowd. This was a day to be out and about.

A little further down, we stumbled into a Food Network crew who also decided to take in the sights and sounds. They shot parts of an episode of the road show "Road Grill." According to the Food Network:

Matt Dunigan and his Team set up their giant barbecue road show at a new location and event, bringing love, laughs and great food to people enjoying summertime outdoors. Shot before a live enthusiastic (and hungry!) audience, Matt shows us the simple secrets and techniques of great barbecue.

Road Grill

Film Crew

All Female Grill Masters
Not knowing that the grilled goods we smelled would be shared with the audience, we took pictures of the gathering crowd and ambled on. Oh well, no foodiePrints on television this year.

Several steps past the Road Grill crew, we ran into performers from the Amakhosi troupe that was performing at Landsdowne Park.

Amakhosi

Performers
Extremely friendly, they actually posed for us, but that picture didn't turn out well.

This year, we passed on a WestFest burger from the Works and headed down to the main concession stands. Always a supporter of Westfest, the Works' street patio was packed with happy people enjoying what looked like great food.

WestFest Newspaper Advertisement

Packed Patio

The first concession stand was Adrianna's Den.

Adrianna's Den
It served "traditional" aboriginal food.

Traditional Aboriginal Food

Menu
Now I find burgers, poutine, anything called a taco, bologna, and fries somewhat suspect when it comes to authentic aboriginal food. Though, I did notice something that I've been dying to try: fry bread. Also known as "fried bread" or "frybread", fry bread hand kneaded dough, leavened with either baking powder or yeast, that is deep-fried in oil. Having already eaten lunch, my better half and I shared a buffalo burger on fry bread.

Buffalo Burger

From the Side

Yum
The burger was marvelous. The bread was savory, light yet substantial, crunchy on the edges, and soft in the middle. The pattie was perfectly seasoned and juicy. Judging from the texture and grilled flavour, I surmise that the burger was made from 80/20 ground bison that was coated in a spiced or seasoned flour mixture and then grilled. Afterward, it was placed in a metal container with a lid for a post grill steam. There, escaped juiced and moisture mingled with the cooked flour to form a wonderful gravy-like coating. Still, the pattie isn't the best thing about this burger. There's a blowhole for excess ketchup to escape from. More than likely, the hole is put in the each round of fry bread to increase the surface area exposed to the hot oil and ensure even cooking.

Next door to Adrianna's was a stand from the Caribbean Flavours restaurant.

Caribbean Flavours
I followed the smell of fried corn flour to the stall. Once there, I found stacks of freshly made Jamaican patties that I couldn't turn down.

Green-Filled Fresh Jamaican Pattie

Bite

Filling
Oh it was great. Imagine the flavours and textures from biting into a freshly fried corn flour pastry stuffed with soft cooked greens. Just look at the delicate and flaky pastry. Caribbean pocket pies baby!

Printed menus from Caribbean Flavours follows after the jump.

On our way back home, we stopped at the Superstore to get a picture of store bought beef-filled frozen Jamaican Patties. They just don't compare.

Frozen Jamaican Patties from the Superstore

Apparently, we got inside just in time as the skies quickly clouded over and it rained.

Flash Rain
Thus ended our trip to Westfest 5. We're looking forward to Westfest 6 in 2009!

This just in: Here are buttons that were handed out during this year's WestFest

Buttons

More after the jump...

Apparently, the Family Circle magazine is again holding a potential first ladies' bake-off. Before anyone asks, this is not a tasting competition. Cookies will not be mailed to randomly selected recipients. The bake-off is in fact a recipe competition. Both Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain have submitted cookie recipes to the magazine and readers are asked to try each in their own kitchens. Depending on the relative success of each recipe, participants are invited to submit comments and vote in an online poll. Results will be published in the Family Circle's mid-October issue, just ahead of the November elections.

According to yahoo.com, the magazine's bake-off has been a good predictor for determining America's next first lady during the past four presidential elections. Also, based on the past bake-off's, a potential trend has emerged: those recipes that include chocolate seem to fare better. For example, Laura Bush's Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookies beat out Teresa Heinz Kerry's Pumpkin Spice Cookies during the last election.

Past election's recipes are available on the magazine's parent website.

Regarding the current election, Cindy McCain?s recipe makes approximately 5-1/2 dozen oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. It reportedly comes from an unnamed good friend and not a TV Chef from the Food Network.

Oatmeal Cookies
Source: Parents.com

Michelle Obama's recipe makes approximately 6 dozen 2-inch x 3-inch shortbread cookies. It reportedly comes from the godmother of both of Obama's daughters.

Shortbread Cookies
Source: Parents.com

Interestingly, Bill Clinton (once-potential first gentleman?) also submitted an entry. His recipe also makes oatmeal cookies. It produces approximately 3-1/2 dozen cookies. and reportedly comes from longtime family cook Oscar Flores.

Oatmeal Cookies
Source: Parents.com

With an average 62 cookies per recipe, it seems that first ladies bake a lot of cookies. I wonder what will happen if Bill Clinton's recipe wins?

Personally, I want to try Michelle Obama's delectable-looking shortbread cookie recipe. Though, given that I am Canadian, I'm not sure I am permitted to register or vote. Besides, Parents.com's privacy policy reserves the right to use collected information information to forward offers from "vendors and service providers." I have enough spam.

The recipes themselves follow:

More after the jump...

Characteristic of what I would like to call westernized or California-style sushi, maki-zushi comprise the cylindrical pieces on a sushi tray that are usually formed using a bamboo mat. They are made of seasoned rice wrapped around a filling: meat, fish, vegetable or some combination thereof. The rice itself is typically surrounded by a strip of nori. Pieces vary in length from 2 and 3 inches. They are often served in groups of six or eight. According to wikipedia, types of maki-zushi include futomaki (fat rolls) with multiple fillings, hosomaki (thin rolls) with single fillings, and uramaki (inside-out rolls) with one or two fillings.

If feasting on maki-zushi isn't your forté, feast your eyes on the following maki-zushi art:


Pikachu, bear, snails, and flowers...oh my!

Egg-wrapped flowers

Nori-wrapped flowers

Wasabi-topped Dragon

Really cute panda bear

The images come from toxel.com. There, you will find more images of incredible sushi art.

If artful sushi doesn't "cut it" for you. You're unimpressed by how versatile maki-zushi can be, and you're a Mac zealot, how about finding another use for your Macbook Air? Apparently, It's sharp enough that it cuts like a knife. Alton Brown would be proud!


Cake Knife
Source: rahulsood.com


Bread Knife
Source: hardocp.com

Now I want to see someone use a Macbook Air to cut a roll of maki-zushi!