I just came across an interesting piece from the CBC entitled "Is my food still safe after the 'best before' date?" It is filed under Food Safety: Recession Tips, and was published several days ago. The fact is that those of us who wander the aisles of the mega-mart rarely stop to consider that there are actually three types of date codes, stamped, stickered, or written (sometimes scribbled unintelligibly) on food packaging: Best Before dates, Packaged-on dates, and Expiry Dates.

According to the CBC piece, "Best before" dates are mandatory on packaged goods with a shelf life of 90 days or less. "Packaged-on" dates are mandatory on meat and co-ordinate with a chart that is displayed at meat counters. This chart is meant to help consumers determine how long meat is safe to consume from the date it is packaged. Me, I've seen that chart, but I never thought that it applied to my purchase. "Expiry dates" are mandatory on "fortified" foods and medication. The nutrients in fortified foods and active substances in medication (particularly prescription drugs) degrade over time. Some can become dangerous to consume after their expiry date.

Further, best before dates are voluntary on packaged goods with shelf lives longer than 90 days. While it is legal to sell products in Canada past their best before dates, it is not legal to sell products after their expiration dates. Retailers are also not permitted to tamper with best before dates.

CBC offers the following general "rules of thumb" for handling dairy and meat, presumably with guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada (HC). So long as it does not develop an off colour or odour, refrigerated cheese can be salvaged by cutting away "2.5 cm around any mold." Raw beef or pork can sit in the fridge 3-5 days after purchase. Chicken should be cooked a day or 2 after purchase. Frozen pork can last 4-6 months. Frozen beef, 6-12 months and frozen chicken, a year. Ground meat, on the other hand, should be cooked on the day of purchase. Immediately frozen, it can last 3-4 months.

What about foods away from the meat or dairy cases? According to a similar CTV piece, with guidance from a food scientist from the University of Guelph, opened bottles of ketchup can last months, so long as they do not sit out at room temperature for any prolonged lengths of time. Similarly, pickles and relish can last 2 months. Foods packed in oil can last a year, so long as the contents stay submerged. Unopened glass jars of jam can be stored for 12 to 18 months, so long as they are kept away from light. Canned foods, have varying shelf lives depending on their contents. Properly stored, high acid canned foods can last up to 18 months. Low-acid canned foods vegetables can last between 2 and 5 years. Please note that dented or dinged cans can result in broken seams, which can lead to bacterial contamination, making the contents inedible.

This said, have you ever tried to decipher "Packaged on" or "Produced on" dates on packaging, particularly on voluntarily marked foods? Some are explicit dates. Others, random strings of numbers and letters. Some manufacturers emboss or etch lids with barely legible codes. Others, print them. Such is not surprising considering that food producers have reportedly been less than forthcoming, regarding information on food packaging, especially when it comes to nutrition.

Happily, websites like the Consumerist have taken the time to publish guides for making sense of "Packaged on" or "Expiration" codes. The following are two cheat sheets from a recent set of guides:

Date Codes
Source: Consumerist.com


More Date Codes
Source: Consumerist.com

What really surprised me is that multi-digit codes can involve Julian dates. Our traditional calendar system is Gregorian. Wikipedia.net has long and involved entries on the historical significance and emergence of both systems. For our purposes, we need only tables that map the Gregorian calendar days to Julian ones. For a regular year's Julian dates, click here for a table from the Colorado State University. For a leap year, click here.

Let's put the Consumerist's guides to task on a selection of Ottawa purchased grocery:

Can of Delmote Creamed Corn

Top with unintelligible imprinted date code.

Bottom with legible printed date code
7363B translates to YDDD (DDD being a Julian date). According to the guide and the non-leap year table, the date code means December 29, 2007 and the can's best before date is 2 years from that date. I guess this explains why Delmonte canned goods, with a year's remaining shelf life, were on sale in January 2009.

Bottle of Ragu Sauce

No Date Codes on Label

Explicit Date and Date Code Printed on Top
According to the explicit date, the best before date is either May 7, 2009 or March 7, 2009. 71107PL is not decipherable by the cheat sheets. I guess American bottles of Ragu Sauce have different date codes and not dates.

Pair of Mars Bars

No Date Codes on Front or Side of Wrapper

Date Codes Printed Underneath
818CA95 translates to YW____ (W being a standard week number). According to the guide and the ISO standard for week numbers, the date code means Week of May 1, 2008 and the candy bar has a 40 week shelf life from that date. As such, the best before date is the week of February 23, 2009 (18 + 40 - 52). I guess I purchased a soon to be expired Mars Bar.

846DA01 also translates similarly. Accordingly, the date code means Week of November 10, 2008. Its best before date is the week of August 17, 2009 (46 + 40 - 52). Don't worry, this particular Mars Bar is residing in my fridge. It won't last the week.

Anyone else slightly perturbed by how involved it is to decipher best before dates of food? It feels like you're writing a math contest...

Earlier this morning, Ron Eade of the Ottawa Citizen (a local newspaper), blogged about another event scheduled to be held in the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park. I find this somewhat interesting because he allegedly caused smoke-induced calamity at last weekend's Ottawa Home and Garden Show. Instead of Aberdeen, Eade was invited to host a culinary demonstration in the Coliseum Building by exhibitor and participant FoodMode magazine (a local culinary magazine). There, it seems he had a flame up while grilling locally sourced lamb patties on a natural gas range. The proceeding demonstration was by Chef Marc Lepine, owner of Atelier. Chef Lepine tweeted afterward that the reaction from security and resident staff was surprising, as gas and heat naturally result in barbecue. Eade responded in his blog questioning the quality of the overhead ventilation.

Today, Eade drew attention to this year's Travel and Vacation Show. Accordingly, there will be 10 culinary demonstrations. Saturday's highlights include "South African Chicken Babotie" at 11:00 am by Chef Bob Russell of Stoneface Dolly?s and "First Tastes of the Season" by Peggy Hall of Slow Food Ottawa/Gatineau at 3:00 pm. Sunday's highlights include "Seared Wild Pacific Tuna" by Chef Kate Klenavic of The Whalesbone Catering at noon and "Art Of The Egg! Easter Chocolate Demonstration" by Chef Herve Chabert of Le Cordon Bleu at 1:00 pm.

If you go to the website for this annual show, you will understand why Eade explains in his blog how to find the culinary demonstrations.

On the website, click "Visitors" on the left side of the page, then click "Wine & Foods.

Here is a screen capture, of me following Eade's instructions:

Click for Culinary Demonstrations
For a hassle free direct link, click here.

Unfortunately, the rest of website is no more user friendly.

Clipart
With its mismatched webpage titles advertising "discount coupons offered", frame and table-based layouts, and clip art, the website is a throwback to the early 90s when the world wide web (WWW) was gaining popularity. And I thought foodiePrints' layout, with its complete lack of Ajaxified controls was old school.

To my readers, let me save you the headache of navigating the site. If you are interested in going this coming weekend, here are particulars:

• Entrance for Adults and Children Age 12 and over is $6.00. Children under 12 attend for free. Seniors, 60 and over, attend for free on Saturday.
• The event is being held in the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park, 1015 Bank Street
• It runs from April 4, 2009 to April 5, 2009, opening at 10:00 am and closing at 5:00 pm.

I want to see Chef Klenavic's demo. I love seafood.

A little under a year ago, I found that the local mega-mart, the Real Canadian Superstore, started selling what looked like cross bred sweet bell and jalapeno peppers. These little peppers were too cute to pass up, so I bought a package and carted them home without any preconceived idea about how to prepare them. That is, save for halving, seeding, and adding them to a salad. After much thought, I decided to stuff them with a half recipe of cevapcici mince. My successful cevapcici recipe was itself cross bred, adding an Asian ingredient (chestnut powder) to a decidedly Balkan dish. Essentially, I tried to mimic stuffed peppers that would normally be found in Chinese buffet houses, only edible.

I also stuffed quartered full-size green bell pepper to see if its thicker flesh made any difference in keeping the stuffing in place.

Here's what transpired:

Mini Sweet Peppers

Washed

Halved, Seeded, and Stuffed

Ordinary Green Bell Pepper, Stuffed, and Cooking

Cooked and Served Stuffed Peppers

It was a disaster. While I had coated the outwardly facing filling with tapioca starch, moisture from the cooking peppers prevented the entire device from holding together. There is a reason that Mediterranean recipes for stuffed peppers use a mixture of cooked meat and rice. This mixture is stuffed into hollowed out peppers, not halved ones. The stuffed peppers are then braised in tomato sauce, not sautéed in a non-stick pan.

Regarding the stuffed peppers from Chinese buffet houses, perhaps there's a layer of starch between the flesh and the meat, trapping the moisture, and forming a glue. Me, I want nothing to do with gluing meat to vegetables.

Fast forward 11 months. Today, I spent some time wandering the flickr photostream belonging to a user who goes by the handle jessrawk. There, she posts delectable vegan dishes including cabbage rolls and shepherd's pie. Finding her on twitter, I asked what soy ground meat product she recommends.

Here's a proposed recipe to address my previous set back:

1. Take 7 medium bell peppers, preferably red, 1/2-3/4 lb of Yves Ground Round (either original or Italian), 1 cup of steamed long grain rice, 2 cloves of garlic, one small onion, and whatever herbs you prefer. I'm thinking a handful of cilantro, both stems and leaves.
2. Finely chop the pepper, garlic, onion and cilantro stems. Salt and sweat in 3-4 tbsp of olive oil until translucent on medium heat.
3. Add the ground round to the vegetable mixture and cook for several minutes to let the meat take on some flavors.
4. Mix the meat mixture, rice and roughly chopped cilantro leaves together. Season to taste with kosher salt. Set it aside.
5. Cut the tops off the remaining peppers and hollow them out. Stuff them with the mixture, re-topping them afterwards.
6. Place the peppers into a slow cooker and add 1 cup tomato sauce (preferably homemade). Cook on high until simmering. Switch to low and simmer for an hour.

Definitely going to try this before the temperature rises too much to use the slow cooker...

Why am I putting together essentially a vegan dish? It's a healthful option to beef, which in large amounts has been demonstrated to be detrimental to your health. Besides, I've never cooked with soy ground meat and the results jessrawk has produced show that vegan ingredients have come a long way.

Please follow me in congratulating dear friend and foodiePrints follower, Yannick. It has been a week since he stepped triumphantly onto the blogosphere with EndorphinBuzz, a running blog that serves as a diary for his training, "endurance adventures", and subtle reflections on life, the universe and everything. While I'm not sure if Yannick is a Douglas Adams fan, I enjoy reading about his progress to transition from marathon runner to triathlete. Those of us who know him are betting that, after he masters the triathlon, he will look for another challenge like the iron man. Last week, he even invented a new sport, aquatic cycling.

Did I mention that Yannick is a quasi-foodie? During the only forecasted sunny day of the weekend, he and his better half trekked out to the Temple's "Sugar Shack" in Lanark Country. There, they tucked into buckwheat pancakes and baked beans drenched in freshly made maple syrup. As he writes on his latest blog, his foodie followers would more than likely have enjoyed pictures. Yup!

Jenn and I would have liked to have joined them, but we had to attend to that pesky Maytag incendiary-fridge-device recall business. The best time estimate we had of the repair person's arrival was anytime between 8:00 am and noon. Happily, he showed up at 10:00-ish, so Jenn and I headed out soon thereafter to enjoy the sun and run some weekly errands. Since we were city bound, we started off our day out at the Harvest Loaf Bakery in the Wellington Village for something sweet and maplely.

Maple Tarts in the Butter Tart tradition

Only Maplely
They sated the maple syrup craving, perfect balance between sweet (not cloyingly so) filling a flaky pastry. I'm actually developing a dislike for the stodgy thick biscuit-like crusted butter tarts that you find at most coffee shops.

After picking up groceries and visiting Chinatown for lunch, we headed downtown to Canada Computers to pick up a hard drive for the new used IBM Thinkpad that I will use to maintain foodiePrints' blogging platform. Once I had the hard drive secured in my backpack, we wandered next door, discovering that our favourite purveyor of rye bread in Ottawa was still open, the Rideau Bakery.

It being the end of the day, pickings were slim. Still, there was an intermittent stream of locals coming in to pickup bakery for dinner. Jenn and I settled on some dessert. She had a piece of "Strawberry Shortcake." Me, a chocolate glazed donut.

Strawberry Shortcake

Layers of cake, strawberries, and pastry cream
The cake was from scratch and not too sweet. The strawberries were from fresh and provided both sweetness and tartness that the pastry cream carried well. Yum!


Chocolate Glazed Donut

Not your ordinary donut...
This being a bakery, the donut was quite the departure from the typical cakey Tim Horton's equivalent. The donut had both developed flavour and a pleasantly firm texture, neither bread nor cake. Its colour lent to egg being a potential ingredient. This was a donut with character, something that I have not seen in more pedestrian donuts for a long time.

Speaking of which, the lone person working the till, let us eat our desserts at the lunch counter. It was like stepping back in time.

Lunch Counter

Clock, Rye Bread is our Specialty
Yes, dear readers this is an authentic lunch counter, complete with fixed spinning stools and chrome finishings. It was great.

The Rideau Bakery on Rideau Street just drips history. Much of its furniture, wall decorations, doors, and feel hail from an era long past. Yet, the quality bakery that previous generations enjoyed remains. Jenn and I will definitely be returning, not only for the bakery, but for the legendary lunch that has been written up in Cheap Eats Ottawa. It's no wonder that Loblaws and the Superstore carry Rideau Bakery's goods. Rideau is an Ottawa institution and should be frequented whenever possible.

Here is the Rideau Bakery's Business Card

Business Card

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

Rideau Bakery
384 Rideau Street
(613)789-1019

While this entry won't be directly food related, I want to write something about the Maytag refrigerator recall that showed up on the Canadian national news, courtesy of the "Canadian Press" earlier this month. I had originally tweeted about the recall on March 10, 2009 when, despite going through news article after news article, I couldn't find information about how to determine if the fridge in my humble kitchen was affected. An updated CBC piece eventually, perhaps reluctantly, added a toll-free number.

A quick Google search turned up the Maytag repair website, where I gleaned more information about the recall. Firstly, the recall is being conducted by Maytag Corporation in voluntary cooperation with Health Canada. Secondly, it includes certain branded side-by-side and top freezer refrigerators including Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana, Admiral, Magic Chef, Performa by Maytag (mine)and Crosley. Thirdly, the reason for the North American recall of approximately 1.6 million units has to do with possible electrical failure in the relay that turns on the refrigerator's compressor. Failure can cause overheating and poses a "serous" fire hazard, which has been implicated in two incidents in Canada. Outside of Canada, there have been 41 reports of relay ignition, 16 of which caused property damage, some extensive.

Using the serial and model number guide from the repair website, I determined that my trusty fridge was implicated. I then clicked through, registered the fridge, and reserved an appointment for a sub-contractor to come by and make the necessary repairs. Luckily, I registered the same day the recall showed up in the national news.

Apparently, two days later, capacity problems with Maytag's call center erupted in what Greg Dawson of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper called a "fiasco." Call volumes caused intermittent system outages. Those of us in North America who went the Internet route faired much better.

Today, the Maytag repair person came as per the reservation. The repair took a total of 5 minutes, not including pulling the fridge away from the wall or cleaning up the accumulated dust and grime from behind the fridge. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch too closely as the repair person performed the repairs. He worked fast and the following are parts that I hope were replaced as opposed to leftover.

Relay Repair
The fridge has been working well since. Actually, it operates much quieter than before.

What do you do if you own a coffee shop and you have to compete with several hundred coffee purveyors in your local market, some of whom represent the multinational coffee conglomerate Starbucks? In Seattle, Washington, a city that boasts over 600 coffee shops, an enterprising owner of "Cowgirls Expresso" found a way to set her drive-through coffee shops apart: scantily clad baristas. Be it lingerie, swim suits or skimpy outfits, Lori Bowden claims that her "girls" came up with the idea, stemming from their weekly bikini-themed events. Now, there are theme days throughout the work week. Monday is military or sports day. Tuesday, cowgirls day. Wednesday, bikini day. Thursday, school girls day. And, Friday, "fantasy" day.

In 2007, the concept caught the attention of national news outlets like CBS and ABC. The following is a piece from CBS' Sunday Morning "Breakfast" show with Bill Geist.
CBS Sunday Morning - Cowgirls Espresso


Other coffee purveyors took notice. Some drive through coffee houses, like Seattle's Sexy Time Coffee and Sweet Sport Cafe, quickly adopted the idea. Others, such as the recently opened Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine took the concept further to the ire of some city residents.

Since the CBC piece, Bowden's Cowgirl Express has grown from 6 establishments to 9. They sell calendars and a limited line of branded merchandise from their online store. Canada's National Post took interest January 6, 2009, intimating that this concept was a response to the economic downturn. A quick Google-search turns up a "Buzz-Feed" with multiple news stories that date back before the market crashed.

To the National Post, if you want to write a piece about using "sex" to sell food product during the current recession, I have two suggestions.

1. Go to the Blue Cactus in Ottawa on a Friday and take a look at the hem lines. While the waiters are clad in black slacks and full length button up shirts, the waitresses I came across were serving tables in cocktail dresses or skirts that stopped slightly above mid-thigh.
2. Take a look at the recently released commercial from American fast food chain, Hardee's, with Padma Lakshmi. Lakshmi is a cookbook author, model, and host of the reality television show, Top Chef.

It follows:


Updated: Though I have never used a proper copper plated espresso or cappuccino machine, I have to ask, "Isn't that compressed steam (>=100 C-ish) that comes out of the machine?" Am I the only one who thinks that aprons (preferably full length) are necessary when using commercial grade kitchen appliances?

BTW, I saw female front of staffers at Cafe Mio in the Wellington Village yesterday in 3/4 length monogrammed blouses, black slacks, and half aprons. Equally fetching, yet professional!

Particulars:
Blue Cactus
2 Byward Market
(613)241 7061
Website

Cafe Mio
1379 Wellington St W
(613)761-5510

It seems that while I was studying and writing my foundations exam for Prince2 certification, "boxed water" has caught the attention of foodies in the blogosphere.

Boxed Water
Source: Lovely Package blog

Apparently, the "Boxed Water Is Better" company of Grand Rapids, Michigan feels that water should be sold in more sustainable containers than plastic bottles: tetra pak cartons. According to their website, their cartons are 90% sourced from renewable resources, trees. The trees used to make the cartons come from "certified", "well managed" forests. And, the cartons are just as recyclable as plastic bottles. Moreover, the company gives away 20% of all profits, 10% to world water relief and 10% to reforestation foundations.

"Boxed water" even made it onto the gizmodo gadget mega-blog and the equally technical hardocp.com website.

The "Boxed Water is Better" website also states that the "idea of Boxed Water was born in April of 2008." I beg to differ.

According to the Webshots.com website, user Annelizew75 posted an image of boxed water June 10, 2006.

Tetra Pak Water in Italy
Source: Webshots.com

User Jill posted an image of branded boxed water March 1, 2005.

Tetra Pak Evian Water in Italy
Source: Webshots.com

Interestingly, a Japanese company has been canning water for a number a years as well. In 2007, it caught similar attention in the blogosphere. Here is an image from an account by 29 year old "Merry Man" from the "Merry Man in Japan" blog. His image hailed from 2006.

Canned Water
Source: Merry Man in Japan blog

This variety of canned water has nothing to do with substituting renewable packaging. Rather, these cans are destined for survival packs in case of environmental catastrophes, such as like earthquakes.

More recently, June 24, 2008, user "Mooncake Box" posted a commercial version of canned water on flickr: branded canned water.

Van's Warp Tour Water in a Can
Source: Moonecake Box's flickr stream

Van is a shoe manufacturer. According to about.com, Van's annual "Warp Tour" is a worldwide tour, pairing extreme sports competitions like skateboarding with live punk music.

Bagged water anyone? How about "shoed" water?

Update: I hope boxed, canned, bagged, or shoed water isn't adopted by multi-national purveyors of water in response to growing backlash to bottled water. For instnace, the Ottawa Carleton district school board is considering banning the sale of bottled water on school property. At the moment, I have yet to be convinced that tetra pak water is anymore environmentally sound.

After coming home from my day's training, I found myself penning the following letter:

Dear Mother Nature,

Can you please reign in Jack Frost? He has already made his point. It is cold in Eastern Ontario. This morning, my course instructor accused Ottawa weather of being deceptive. He, being from "Merry Old England", was last in the city in January. Today, grass is showing, yet the temperature dipped below -12 C. With the wind chill, it felt like -20 C. After this week's set of lectures, he refuses to return to Canada!

Robbing Ottawa of a management instructor with 12 years of teaching experience aside, we are 3 days past the Vernal Equinox (March 20, 2009), the day of the year when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, otherwise known as the first day of spring. Is it really necessary to have weather like this?

Daily Minimum Daily Temperatures To Date for March 2009

Daily Maximum Daily Temperatures to Date for March 2009
Source: Environment Canada

Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,
Don

I just need to find an address and figure out the correct postage. Needless to say, I'm a little fed up! For the record, I'm Ottawa-born and, like a lot of Canadians, I celebrate spring weather when the temperature is just 5 degrees below zero. -20 C is excessive!

In the meantime, it's cold enough to revisit pot pies. When you pickup personal pot pies either from frozen or from takeout, such as those from the Real Canadian Superstore's "Meal's to Go" counter, they are lacking something...

Chicken, marked beef, Pot Pies are $1.99/each

Heated up in the Toaster Oven at 325F for 30 minutes

When you break open the barely flaky pastry...

it's moist but nearly dry inside...

BTW, Superstore says it offers alternatives to the ordinary...

Plenty of Tasty Alternatives to Ordinary Takeout

Tasty or not, there is always little to NO sauce. I feel that pot pies should be loaded with sauce, binding everything together. Else, there is no impossible juxtaposition of textures, flaky pastry resting in sauce (slowly soggifying) with plenty of veg. and meat.

Here's an alternative pot pie "technique" to the fall back chicken pot pie recipe from before. It addresses the sauce issue directly:

Season and sweat off 3/4 cup of roughly chopped carrots in 2-3 tbsp of oil on medium heat until tender

French an onion (2 if small) and repeat with the onion slivers

Tear up leftover roast chicken (about a cup's worth)

Roast pork works too...

Make yourself some sauce.
There is no picture here because I've gone two ways before, with either a bechamel or a veloute. To borrow from one of the blogs that I eagerly read everyday, "Cooking School Confidential", the following lists the proper components of each:

1. bechamel: milk, white roux, a pinch of nutmeg, and half an onion garnished with one bay leaf held in place with a clove
2. veloute: roux and white stock

For a bechamel take a 1/4 cup of oil and heat it in a pan until it ripples. Add an equal amount (by weight is better) of all purpose flour, place it in the pan and stir. Just before the mixture colours, it will start smelling nutty. Remove it from the heat and slowly add 3 cups of milk that has been simmered with the above listed aromatics and spice (sans aromatics and spice of course). Add the mixture back onto medium heat until the mixture thickens and bubbles. For the veloute do the same, but use a poultry stock or broth. While it tastes heavenly with homemade, I have been known to use cartons of low sodium chicken broth that happen to be in my pantry.

The following pictures are of pot pies employing bechamel.

Add the veg and meat to the sauce and heat through

Toss everything into a pair of non-stick loaf pans

Let rest for 5 minutes...

Cover with sheets of puff pastry, cutting vents for steam and brushing with beaten egg

Bake in a preheated 400 F oven until the pies look like this:

Done

and Dusted


Portion with a plastic knife, so as not to scratch the non-stick surface

and Serve

I prefer to break up the top crust a little so I get some pastry in every bite.

My preferred service option

BTW, the above mentioned Cooking School Confidential blog is written by a witty ex-journalist/professional writer/lecturer/teacher who, after a very successful career, decided to goto culinary school. In it, she chronicles her journey into chefdom. I am in awe of her sense of humour, passion, and generosity for sharing her experiences. Skip the episode of Hell's Kitchen. Cooking School Confidential is MUCH better.

According to the New York Times, when employment increases and economic turmoil worsens, adults reach for sweets. This, according to candy store owners and candy makers. Chicago's Candyality reported a jump in business of nearly 80 percent compared to last year. Likewise, San Franciso's Candy Store reported tripled orders for candies like Necco Wafers and Mallo Cups in recent months.

Candy makers have reported rising sales and surprising profits as other manufacturers struggle to survive. Cadbury reported a 30 percent rise in profits for 2008 while Nestle?s profits grew by 10.9 percent. Hershey, reported a 8.5 percent rise in the fourth quarter.

Theories to explain the phenomenon vary. For some, sugar simply makes you "feel good." It provides an emotional boost. For others, candy provides a nostalgic reminder of better times. It is low-cost and portable, making it an affordable and convenient escape.

It should be noted that candy demonstrated itself to be somewhat recession proof during another bout of economic woe as well. During the Great Depression, candy companies thrived, introducing an array of new products. Some, like Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Mars Bars with Almonds, and Three Muskateers remain popular today. According to Hershey's Archive director, Pamela Whitenack, Hershey was "the" dominant candy brand during the depression. Hershey not only remained profitable but was able to finance its own work program for the unemployed.

Happily, I'm not alone in seeking comfort in my own candy stash. The black surface under the candy pictured is the bottom of my desk drawer in the office. What surprises me is that the piece from the New York times concentrates on what it deems old fashioned candies like Mary Janes, Gummy Bears, Violet Gum and Jelly Bellies. These, being the preferred candies. It also mentions that non-premium brands of chocolate are benefiting, whereas premium brands are not.

Me, premium or otherwise, I'm not divulging the location of my chocolate stash!

Recently, I've written a pair of entries on the subject of coffee, encouraging Ottawans to buy their cups of premium coffee from local Bridgehead coffee houses.

Here's why. As per its website, Bridgehead coffees, black and green teas, cocoa and chocolate products, brittles, cashews, and sugar are all certified fair trade by Transfair. Further, Bridgehead proudly displays the TransFair certified logo.

Transfair is Canada's certification organization for fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and sugar. Displaying the fair trade certified logo demonstrates that the business has undergone an independent assessment according to monitoring criteria and standard set out by Fairtrade Labeling Organizations (FLO). It guarantees that the products purchased have been produced with fairness and global social responsibility in international trade. Most importantly, farmers and workers in developing countries, such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia, have been paid a fair price.

Moreover, what Bridgehead products are sold, whose ingredients are not subject to certification, employ locally sourced organic ingredients.

And yes, I practice what I preach. On weekends, I pickup a cup of medium roast coffee from the Bridgehead establishment, located in the Wellington Village (1277 Wellington Street W.). During weekdays, I carry Bridgehead coffee with me to work in a little yellow thermos that I picked up at Mountain Equipment Co-op two Christmases ago.

Bridgehead Ground Coffee
Instead of going to the local Bridgehead at the break of dawn before work, I buy pre-ground coffee and brew my morning cup with a coffee maker. Pictured is a 1/4 lb package of Columbian, my preferred variety of medium roast. With tax, the pictured cup (medium) of store brewed coffee and a 1/4 lb bag of pre-ground Columbian cost $5.90. I've now switched to picking up 1/2 lb packages. They last me just about to the end of the month.

Bridgehead serves bakery to go with their hot drinks. Employing fair trade or organic ingredients does not make them any less tasty. They are slightly pricey though (approx. $1.29/cookie).

Cookies with Hot Apple Cider

Ginger on Oatmeal
The ginger cookie tasted distinctly of its namesake spice (ginger). It was also not overly sweet, definitely not a traditional gingerbread. Regarding texture, it was cakey and substantial. The oatmeal cookie was likewise cakey and substantial. It too tasted sweet, but not cloyingly so.

Again, here is Bridgehead's business card.

Front

Back

A couple days ago, I was twittering about braising some veal. The veal in question was a stack of shoulder chops that my better half and I picked up at $2.49/lb from the nearby Loeb. There, we watchers shoppers go for the posher veal cuts. I spied a 1/3 bottle of pinot noir in the fridge, spoiling for some action, so I reached for an economy cut. Replete with sinews and tendon, shoulder chops come from the well worked portions of the young cow.

Firstly, I seared the shoulder chops, seasoning with salt and pepper, in my treasured cast iron skillet with 2 tbsp of canola oil on medium heat. After leaving them to brown and crust 2 minutes on each side, I de-glazed with the pan with the wine and simmered it down by half with three small onions, Frenched. The rested chops and the hot partial red wine reduction were then placed in a slow cooker with 3 dried chillies for an hour on high and an hour on low. Once fork tender, the chops were carefully removed and left to develop their flavor in the fridge overnight. The cooking liquid was strained, pushing some of the cooked onion through a metal sieve with the back of a soup lade. Then, it too was placed in the fridge to allow any accumulated fat to solidify on top.

The next day, the chops were reheated in a pan and allowed to take on a little colour on each side. Meanwhile, the de-fatted cooking liquid was reduced again by half. To serve, an entire chop was placed on a bed of steamed white rice and sauced with the reduction. Pan blanched bok choy accompanied.

Think rich flavors from the red wine, savory veal juices, and the disarmingly tender meat. The sauce was thick with dissolved gelatin. Definitely one of our better Tuesday night meals.

On February 17, 2009, Jenn and I walked by the former location of the failed NiHao teahouse on Holland Ave. and noticed that the signage had changed again. Another sign had been overlaid on top of the previous one.

Instanbouli - Coming Soon
Instead of just "Shawarma House", the revisited signage read "Istanbouli." Better yet, we found a smaller sign in the front window that read "Coming Soon." Inside, we heard quite a bit of construction going on.

Several weeks later, on March 2, 2009, the Istanbouli Shawarma House opened.

Istanbouli Now Open

Lawn Sign
When I arrived home the next day, my better half excitingly asked me if I wanted a shawarma sandwich for supper. Worn from a long day's work, I welcomed the idea and figured we would go to Les Grillades. Jenn had another idea.

Instanbouli's installation was remarkable. While the walls had a fresh coat of paint, some of the old furniture remained (chairs and tables), as did the dark wood flooring. What was markedly different was the gleaming new counter, the banks of vertical roasters and fryolaters behind it, and the commercial ventilation above them.

Old Dining Area

New Dining Area

New Counter and Roasters
This place no longer served tea.

The wonderful scent of roasted meat, garlic sauce, and freshly fried potatoes filled the air as we entered the restaurant. After surveying the new landscape, we discovered that we weren't the only ones opting for a quick weeknight dinner out. A family of four, two happy toddlers and both parents, had arrived before us. They ordered several chicken platters, while my better half and I perused the menu. The father greeted the owners of the establishment warmly, saying that they were customers from the "other" location. He commented that some of the furniture had been moved over. As he prepared the platters, one of the owners replied, "Yes, the landlord is kicking us out in April."

Apparently, the "new "Holland Istanbouli Shawarma House is the second Istanbouli location. The first, is on Wellington (1435), next door to Loeb. This is the Wellington West restaurant whose lighted sigage was torn off the building during a powerful wind storm in 2007. Its land owner has decided to re-zone the area, planning to tear down the existing structures and put up a "6-story mixed-use building", probably another bank of luxury condos with a baby store beneath.

Original Istanbouli

Site Plan Proposal
The longstanding middle-eastern eatery and its adjoining Indian spice house are no longer welcome.

I feel this is a mixed blessing. The landscape of the Wellington Village is changing. This will be the subject of an upcoming entry, as I disagree with Ottawa Citizen food writer Ron Eade's recent determination that the local restaurant scene is immune to the recession. On the bright side, those of us who live on Holland have a culinary trifecta: a sharwama house (Istanbouli), a pho noodle house (Pho Van Van), and a really good bistro (Allium) all located in the same city block. Better yet, Istanbouli is a decent shawarma house.

The platters we ordered during its opening week were well above average. This speaks well since Ottawa has over a hundred Shawarma houses and we frequent quite a few of them.

First impressions after the jump...

More after the jump...

Well it may not be thaaaaaaaat simple a correlation, but, according to a New Scientist magazine editorial, El Bulli's Spanish Master Chef Ferran Adria will be collaborating with Harvard University's physical chemist Dr. Laurent Courbin. The collaboration allows Dr. Courbin to explore the physical properties of the magical foods from the kitchens of El Bulli. At the same time, he hopes to help Chef Adria develop new textures by manipulating foods a the molecular level. One of Dr. Courbin's research subjects is non-newtonian liquids, such as the one that was put to music in a You Tube video.

The editorial, entitled "Science is vital ingredient at world's best restaurant", is a great read, also featuring a compiled interview with Chef Adria. The interview discusses subjects ranging from making edible spheres, containing any liquid, to industrial food science. It was translated from a lecture Chef Adria gave at Harvard, which happened to be entirely in Spanish.

Incidentally, the non-newtonian corn flour (aka: corn starch) mixture that was made to dance on a booming subwoofer also won Chris Chiswell first prize in New Scientist Magaine's "Green eggs and Cabbage" video experiment competition. With it, Chiswell demonstrated how to "walk" (at least jog) on water.


Aside: Another chef, who contemplates the molecular properties of food, is Chef Heston Blumenthal. Today, he reportedly told Australia's Hospitality Magazine that the food scare that had him temporarily close his restaurant may have been caused by highly infectious norovirus. Apparently, three of his staff and five customers have tested positive for the virus, which the Guardian newspaper also referred to as "winter vomiting disease." Such may explain how 40 allegedly sickened patrons ballooned into 400 related complaints to the British healthy authority, the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

According to wikipedia.net, norovirus causes outbreaks of infectious gastroenteritis. Contracting norovirus causes symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

The next event for the Hintonburg Supper Club will be held at Chilean Restaurant, Vina Del Mar (1079 Wellington Street W). It is scheduled next week Thursday (March 26) at 6:00 pm.

Unfortunately, neither I nor Jenn can attend. I will be on training and studying for a certification. She is similarly indisposed.

Vina Del Mar is a wonderfully laid back restaurant, serving colourful food. We've eaten there several times and agree with our supper club founder and organizer, Carol Paschal. The dishes served are not spicy. That is, of course, if you don't add the traditional Chilean hot sauce, called "pebre", which is supposed to accompany meat dishes.

Speaking of which, the event has a fixed menu of either beef, chicken, fish or vegetarian. I'm curious about what dishes will be served.

If anyone wants to attend on our behalf or, better yet, join the Hintonburg Supper Club, please send an e-mail to supperAThintonburgDOTcom or leave a message at (613)798-7987. Reservations will be accepted until March 22 on a first-come, first served basis.

BTW, Hugo and Stella, the husband and wife duo who own and operate the restaurant, recently received their liquor license. Even though I'm not fond of wine (this foodie rarely touches the stuff), I'm thinking a full bodied red would go well with whatever Stella has planned for the beef menu option.

Particulars:
Vina Del Mar
1079 Wellington Street W.
(613)724-3000

I took this picture shortly before my birthday at the Chapter's on Rideau Street:

European Cooking
I was looking for a copy of Ferran Adria's "A Day at El Bulli" to poke through.

Apologies for the blurriness. I had to snap this picture quickly as Chapters' employees, with good reason, do not look kindly upon cameras in their store. However, you should be able to make out books on South American, Creole, and Mexican cuisines...

Particulars:
Chapters
47 Rideau Street
(613)241-0073

According to Forbes' Magazine, the uber-wealthy go out for nights on the town too. Only they shell out a lot more at posh eateries for dinner.

Since one in seven billionaires make their homes in Moscow (Russia), New York (United States), or London (England), Forbes compiles an annual list of the costs of "living big" in those cities. Here are the food-related ones:

• In New York, a 9-course tasting menu for two at the 3 Michelin star restaurant Per Se runs $300 USD (S374.25 CAD).
• In London, a 7-course dinner for two at Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road run $165 USD ($205.84 CAD), which is a bargain as it cost $440 USD ($499.00 CAD) last year.
• In Moscow: a dinner for two at chic Asian fusion Nedalny Vostok runs $300 USD ($374.25 CAD).

As per the image, it comes from the Forbes website and the article's associated online slide. Anyone else think the female "billionaire" resembles Famke Janson?

Speaking of fine British restaurants, according to BBC, Master Chef Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant re-opened last Thursday (March 12, 2009). This, after a health scare, stemming from 40 patrons who allegedly fell ill after eating at the restaurant. The Fat Duck, which is located in Berkshire and also has three Michelin stars, was deemed by health authorities to be safe to open as food poisoning has been ruled out and no single source for disease could be found.

According to its website, the 17 course tasting menu at the Fat Duck runs 130 British pounds, per patron, which converts into $185.71 USD ($231.68 CAD). Though, in accordance with recommendations from the in-depth investigation, shell fish will not be served with the "Sound of the Sea" dish on the tasting menu, so its recipe has since been modified.

I'm glad the Fat Duck is back open. I didn't want to cross it off my to do list when I finally find time (and the funds) to visit England. BTW, while the waiting list for a reservation post-scare is currently 1 month, it was 3 months pre-scare. I guess I'll reserve a table for two now...

Right now, I'm finding Twitter a little wonky. Ever since Monday (March 16, 2009), I've been having problems making tweets "stick." When I post something, it disappears, so I tweet again. Afterward, both appear. When I go to delete the duplicate, the undeleted one disappears. Now things randomly appear and disappear.

I opened a ticket with the powers that be this morning. No one has responded. Though, there's this fancy new AJAX-ified widget at the bottom of my timeline when I login on twitter.com. It allows me to discover misplaced tweets and responses in style...Sigh!

Anyhow, my better half found this really cool website, called Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen that tracks the progress of restaurants profiled on both the UK and US versions of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares television show. That's the program that 9 year old Felix Light parodied for Caterer.com.


Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen

I don't want the link lost as I found myself spending 2 hours on the site looking up restaurants I remembered from the earlier British episodes. A lot of time and energy was spent on compiling information on this site. Apparently, restaurants that are profiled on the show have a 50:50 chance of survival.

Go check it out! It's great.

PS: Wherever did they find a picture of Chef Ramsay so young???

Using chopsticks is so second nature to me that, when I somehow got hold of a pair of ball point pens during a staff meeting, I started picking up and moving around loose objects without thinking. This slightly irked one of my colleagues, so I had to sheepishly replace the pens on the table and go back to pretending to pay attention. In high school, I spun pens. It could have been worse.

That said, I recently had to teach someone how to use chopsticks. As a lefty, it is no easy task to teach a right handed person how to eat with a pair of sticks. After some practice, my guest burst out laughing when our plates were served and I reached for a fork. I pointed out that as a native born Ottawan, I have the ability to choose whichever eating implement I feel is more efficient. It's not cheating when you're hungry.

Case in point, I've been known to eat a bowl of poutine with a pair of chopsticks and a slurp. Chopsticks allow me to portion every fry with the right amount of gravy and cheese. Try doing that with a plastic fork...

But, there are times when I need a fork and I only have chopsticks. Introducing the latest "why the heck didn't I think of that" innovation, this time from artist and metal designer Jaroslav Kucera.

Ultimate Chopstick Implement
Source: Daily What c/o Random Pictures' Live Journal

Dubbed the "Chopstick Aid", Kucera's fork attachment was picked up by Serious Eats earlier this afternoon. Clicking the link from Serious Eats to Live Journal, the first comment points out that it is probably easier to learn how to use chopsticks. You know what? As someone who has been using chopsticks for a couple decades, when the noodles are super slippery or the dumplings are unwieldy, I'll take a fork any day.

Kucera goes one step further, he also has a spoon attachment on his website.

Chopstick Fork and Spoon
Its design dates back to 2006.

Those of you who know me know that I go around a netbook on my back and a smart phone on my hip. These attachments are boons for the urban backpack. I would love to be able to carry a full complement of cutlery in my Mountain Equipment Co-op shoulder bag.

I'm true urbanite, so I can only assume that these would be great for camping as well.

I'm off to figure out how to import a pair :)

This just in: Speaking of Serious Eats, here's are frugal recipe ($8 USD) for something that very closely resembles poutine, only the fries are baked, cheese is used instead of cheese curds, and it is served with roasted garlic.

Two weekends ago, Jenn and I found ourselves wandering around Kanata Centrum, running errands. I needed to purchase tax software from Future Shop. She needed to go shopping for frames for a new pair of glasses. We ended up picking up some knickknacks for her from Home Outfitters and a pair of khaki's for me from Mark's Work Warehouse.

Shortly after we arrived at the Terry Fox station, via the 96, we noticed that Kanata Shawarma, formerly Mom's Shawarma, had been closed by the landlord and was advertising for new tenants. Its furniture and equipment had also been seized for auction.

Kanata Shawarma - Out of Business

Notice of Distress
That's two failed Shawarma houses in the same location.

When we finished shopping, it was nearly 2:00 pm. We had skipped lunch and were famished. Craving noodles and soup, we went to the Ox Head Restaurant, which is situated between the AMC theater complex and O'Connor's bar and tavern.

There, we both order pho, Vietnamese rice noodle soup that happens to be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The flavorful soup is typically a stock made from beef, including such cuts as knuckles and ox tails. It is traditionally served with a communal plate of bean sprouts and aromatics like Thai basil. Everyone at the table "customizes" their bowls of pho to their tastes by adjusting the amounts of sprouts, aromatics, and freshly squeezed lime they add.

Pho is eaten with both chopsticks and a soup spoon by carefully piling noodles onto the spoon, topping with aromatic condiments, dipping it in the soup, and taking slurp. Some eaters sauce every spoonful with either hoisin (the black stuff in squeeze bottle) or sriracha (the red stuff in the other squeeze bottle). I prefer to flavor the soup.

While Jenn "made her own" pho by choosing various components from the menu, including thinly sliced beef and tendons, I opted for the Ox Head Special. Its soup comes already "spicy." It also comes with thinly sliced beef and tendons

Here's what I was served. Notice the Frenched onions. They're a nice touch.

Ox Head Special Pho
The advertised, the "spiciness" comes added chili oil and chili flake.

As per my preferences, I like to add texture with lots of sprouts, earthy flavor with Thai basil, and brightness with lime juice. They supplement the savoriness, coming from soup that is almost always flavoured with fish sauce.

Personalizing to my Taste

I kicked the spiciness up a notch with some siracha.

Ready to Eat

Mine was a good bowl of pho. The herbs and bean sprouts were wonderfully fresh, not a blemish in sight. The soup was not over seasoned, as we have found in several pho houses outside of Chinatown. The rice noodles were perfectly cooked, neither aldente nor falling apart. It was served with a generous amount of beef.

Best of all, the beef tendons were soft. At Pho Bo Ga, Ottawa's original pho house, the tendons are plentiful, but they are crunchy. At Pho Van Van in the Wellington Village, they are hard.

As we ate, we also noticed that the soup, while genuinely made from stock and quite flavorful, tasted of garlic and ginger. This is somewhat atypical of Vietnamese pho. After listening to the owner and her family speak to each other in Cantonese, we understood. They either were of Chinese descent or grew up amongst people who were. Adding garlic and ginger to flavor a clear stock or broth is typical of Chinese cookery.

That said, the Ox Head noodle house offers much more than rice noodle soup. As the author of the Nooschi blog writes, the restaurant also serves a fine bowl of seafood noodle soup with transparent noodles and plenty of seafood. They also serve traditional cafe sua da (slow drip coffee), rice paper rolls, and a fried banana dessert with ice cream.

Unfortunately, Jenn and I only had room for bowls of pho, which ran us $18.04 after taxes, before tip.

Speaking of which, the pho at the Ox Head Restaurant is by far the best we've tried outside of Chinatown. We're definitely going back.

Here is their business card:

Front

Back

Particulars:
Ox Head Restaurant
790 Kanata Avenue
(613)592-0630

If you pickup the latest issue of the Ottawa Xpress and read past the cartoon of GM on a hospital gurney (getting a transfusion of taxpayer's money), the reviews of recently released albums (including Snow Patrol's "A Hundred Million Suns"), an editorial about a painting by Afshin Matlabi, and an opinion on a piece of theater called Tshepang, you'll get to the section that I turn to first. This week, the Xpress reviews Juniper, an upper scale restaurant, located next to a Subaru dealership in Westboro (245 Richmond Road).

While mostly negative, the review seems fair. Food writer, Colleen Johnson, aptly questions the necessity of long descriptions in menus that can be considered pretentious. She recounts how the meal started well with the amuse bouche and appetizers and failed shortly thereafter. I am not going to recount her review as it is quite an entertaining read. It is available on the Ottawa Xpress' website.

However, Johnson's review justifies the qualms Jenn and I had when we walked by Juniper recently and read its current menu. We wondered if the restaurant could pull off the Asian/European fusion menu without making mediocre dishes that are otherwise celebrated by various cultures. The soggy rice pilaf of a risotto with hunks of dried fruit that Johnson was served demonstrates that it can't.

Apparently, gone are the days when Juniper wasn't trying to be "overly clever." I lament the loss as the last time Jenn and I dined at Juniper, I had a really bad cold and could taste nothing. Our last visit was more than 2 years ago, when Juniper was listed in Ottawa Magazine's Chris Knight's Top 10 picks.

So why am I blogging about a restaurant that I have not visited recently? It has something to do with a comment that I found attached to the particular review on the Ottawa Xpress website.

I have noticed that Coleen Johnson reviews mostly "high end" restaurants, and dinners at that. There is a recession on. How many people can afford these expensive dinners? I am sure they are in a minority. People are losing jobs and/or sustaining significant investment losses. I used to enjoy the restaurant in the Xpress because the focus was on cheap or reasonably priced meals, and often lunch at that. I am weary of these reviews of expensive meals. I would like to see more of a focus on inexpensive alternatives. Please take note of the financial times at present

This comment upsets me for two reasons.

Firstly, it is not apt. The premise of the comment is incorrect. Ottawa Xpress serves the National Capital Region. The focus of its restaurant section was never restaurants that offer cheap or reasonably priced meals. Its focus is restaurants in the National Capital Region. As such, it will occasionally come across higher end restaurants. Though, true to its indie roots, Ottawa Xpress does not review big box restaurants from national or multi-national chains. The restaurants profiled are owned and operated by mostly local proprietors who happen to be experiencing from the same economic downturn.

That said, do certain restaurants deserve to have less exposure because they price their appetizers or entrees in the $25-30 range? Are the skills of their chefs or cooks any less deserving of review or recognition? The fact is these restaurants are suffering because of lower turnover in their dining rooms.

These restaurants should not be dismissed, but as Anne DesBrisay wrote in her recent review of the Urban Pear, they have to adapt.

The Urban Pear, like other restaurants with main dishes mostly in the mid-thirties, might need to consider innovative (i.e. price slashing) ways of getting bums back in seats without, of course, compromising quality. More gnocchi, less venison?

Secondly, the comment is not accurate. Since the new year, the restaurants reviewed demonstrate a broad spectrum of prices for appetizers and mains or entrees.

• Week of March 12, Juniper, Appetizers: $8-$15, Mains: $24-$38
• Week of March 5, Atelier, Entrées: $75
• Week of February 26, Som Tum Thai, Appetizers: $4.50-$8.95, Mains: $10.25-$16.95
• Week of February 19, Play Food & Wine (Beckta's number 2), Entrées: $7-$13
• Week of February 12, Various Restaurants for Valentine's Day
• Week of February 5, Pho Thi, Entrées: $7.95-$13.95
• Week of January 29, Flipper's, Appetizers: $5.50-$13, Mains: $14.95-$34
• Week of January 22, Ada's Diner, Entrées: $4.95-$10.95
• Week of January 15, The Urban Pear, Appetizers: $7.95-$14.95, Mains: $26-$37
• Week of January 8, SooRa, Entrées: $8.95-$24.95

Colleen Johnson and another food writer, Simon Osborne, also alternate writing reviews. There is no bias to higher end restaurants.

To the commenter, who goes by the handle "Kerri", we at foodiePrints are also not immune to the downturn in the economy. We can only afford to visit restaurants serving higher end food on very special occasions (i.e. rarely). This is why we are grateful for newspapers like the Ottawa Xpress who review these restaurants so we can spend our dollars more wisely.

To Ottawa Xpress, keep up the good work!

Particulars:
Juniper
245 Richmond Road
(613)728-0220

A little over a week ago today, I started fooling around with Twitter feeds and created an account for foodiePrints.

In case you're not familiar with it or its iconic blue bird, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to create and/or participate in communities of like-minded micro-bloggers. Micro-blogging is the practice of posting quick entries ("tweets" in Twitter's case), no more than 140 characters long. Since Tweets are very concise, they often include links. Twitter allows you to combine together streams of tweets, called feeds, so you can "follow" them in unison. Many people use Twitter to document the minutia of their day-to-day lives.

The twitter bird image comes from inconspedia.com.

For foodiePrints, I intend its Twitter feed to allow me to announce newly posted foodiePrints blog entries, describe what works in progress are underway for faithful readers, and post links to food-related happenings around the web. Essentially, I want it to fill in the gaps between posts on foodiePrints proper.

If you're on Twitter, you can follow me directly. Else, you can bookmark "twitter.com/foodiePrints" and check back from time to time to see what's going on.

I should also note that I'm considering adding a tumblog to foodiePrints for orphaned food-related pictures as well. More on that later.

As always, happy eating!

Update: Here is a "manual" on Twitter, penned by David Risley, a self-professed "six-figure blogger." It describes the benefits of using Twitter and symptoms of Twitter-addiction. I actually found myself checking Twitter before I went to bed last night. I wonder if I'm doomed...

Update 2: If you're like me and you like open source operating systems like Ubuntu's distribution of linux, you're probably using pidgin for instant messaging. If you go to the lostInTechnology.com website, there is a walk through for adding Twitter to pidgin.

During the month of February, it is the dead of winter in Ottawa. Three months of ice and snow have fallen and daylight is short. This is when the cross section of any snow bank reads like the rings of a tree. You can actually count the numbers of storms that have come across our city in the layers of compacted snow.

During the month, the temperature also fluctuates between cold and very cold.


Source: Canadian Climate Data from Environment Canada

Ottawans are hardy people, but prolonged exposure to the bitter cold is good for neither body nor soul. This is when we turn to meat pies for comfort. Stodgy goodness, meat pies embody the cliche "meat and potatoes." Sometimes there is even a "splash of veg for colour."

Because Ottawa borders on Quebec, the meat pie of choice is often the tortiere. Quality tortiere can be purchased at many eateries. It also comes frozen at several bakeries and butcher shops. For instance, on Wellington Street, frozen tortiere can be found at Parma Ravioli (in the freezer case next to the frozen pasta entrees) and at the Harvest Loaf Bakery (stacked in the middle freezer).

I believe that meat pie cravings can be sated with homemade fare using provisions from the fridge, freezer, and pantry. There is little reason to brave the elements to pickup a meat pie. Though, Jenn and I have been known to concede a little after a particularly bad storm.

Such happened last year (2008) when snow kept falling during the last week of February, only relenting early March.

Unploughed Road in the Wellington Village

Snow Covered Cars

So, Jenn and I snowshoed it up to the Harvest Loaf Bakery to pickup something ready to bake.

One Frozen Tortiere

Ingredients - beef, pork, onion, spices. flour, salt, vegetable shorting, skim milk

Ready to bake in a convection toaster oven

After baking, from frozen, at 375 F for 50 minutes

One serving of meat pie goodness
Our purchased tortiere's crust was quite substantial. Its meat filling was somewhat coarse and tasted very savory. However, the tortiere tradition normally includes adding either potato or breadcrumbs to the mince to release starch and trap any emergent liquid during baking. The added potato or breadcrumbs also change the texture of the cooked filling, making the Harvest Loaf version tasty but unauthentic. It was slightly crumbly.

While we were grateful for being able to pickup something sustaining after a record breaking snow fall, we usually sate meat pie cravings with chicken pot pie. One of our pot pie standby recipes follows. It is more of a method for using up leftovers than anything else.

Step 1: Find and coarsely chop aromatics from the fridge. For me, this usually includes onions and carrots. Disassemble enough vegetation to fill a 2 cup measure. Alternatively, 1.5 cups of thawed and drained frozen vegetable medley will do.

Step 2: Sweat the vegetation in 2 tbsp of vegetable or canola oil and a pinch of salt on medium heat in a pan until they become translucent. Set them aside.

Step 3: Gather together enough shredded or chopped chicken meat to fill a 2 cup measure. Set it aside. Besides roast chicken, I've used leftover pork roast, fried chicken, and steamed chicken.

Step 4: Create a roux by placing 1/3 cup of oil into a pan and heating it on medium until it ripples. Add 1/3 cup of flour and cook the mixture together until it turns slightly golden (blonde roux). Slowly add 2 cups of milk and stir until the sauce thickens. Season to taste.

Step 5: Add the sweated aromatics and meat to the milk gravy (aka: bechemel) mixture

Step 6: Place the mixture into an oven proof pie pan or souffle dish lined with pastry. In a pinch, I use thawed frozen puff pastry.

Step 7: Either cover the pie with more pastry or pieces of pastry.

Pot Pie ready for Baking

Step 8: Bake at 400 F until the filling is bubbling and the pastry turns golden brown (20-30 minutes).

Baked Pot Pie

Close up of piece meal crust

Step 9: Let cool for 10 minutes and serve warm

Slicing

Tidying up

Space left by Excised Slice

One serving of pot pie goodness

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

Parma Ravioli
1314 Wellington St W
(613)722-6003

On February 21, 2009, a user named Carlos Kelley (handle: Ourselves), submitted a website to digg.com with the title "the Top 1 Greatest Sandwiches of All time. Ever." The website was wikipedia and the subject, the iconic Peanut Butter and Jelly (PB&J) Sandwich. As of today, the wikipedia entry on the PB&J has garnered 1703 "diggs" and is the second "best match" item when you search for the word "sandwich." The first, is a top 10 list of sandwiches from a video game blog called Screw Attack. The PB&J placed first on that list.

Since I am allergic to peanuts, here is my answer to the classic PB&J:

Cashew Butter and Jam Sandwich
Meet the CB&J. It is a perfect balance of flavor (nut and fruit) and texture (smooth and crunchy).

My better half packed the sandwich for my breakfast this morning. Remembering that we had leftover homemade cashew butter from making a batch of hummus, she sandwiched just the right amount of it with store bought strawberry jam in two slices of Rideau Bakery light rye bread. It was delicious.

BTW, Jenn and I are presently substituting rye bread for our usual week's loaf of whole wheat. Rideau Bakery's rye bread is our favourite light rye to date. Its texture is pleasantly dense and its flavour is unmatched. It can be purchased from many of Ottawa's megamarts. Loblaws, Superstore, and Farmboy resells Rideau Bakery bread.

Particulars:
Rideau Bakery
384 Rideau Street
(613)789-1019

Alright, now I'm officially confused and somewhat dismayed by the information available on recycling paper coffee cups.

Like many public servants, I live in Ottawa and work in Gatineau. As such, I try to take my morning coffee with me in a thermos. I support Fair Trade coffee and very few Gatineau coffee shops display signs that they serve "Fair Trade Certified" coffee. Official labels from the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) guarantees that the product sold conforms to fair trade standards. The CBC wrote a nice backgrounder on fair trade and its practices two years ago. Among its key elements, purchasing fair trade products supports paying fair prices to producers, having safe and healthy working environments for workers, and implementing better environmental practices and responsible methods of production.

However, there are days (infrequently) that I forget my thermos or haven't the time to brew my cup of coffee during my morning rush out the door. I still need my caffeine hit so I end up taking my mug down to the food court and lining up with my colleagues to buy coffee.

Today, I had an interesting discussion with the seeming owner of a Marcello's. He jokingly accused me of "taking" one of his lids with my coffee, charging me for a large. I smiled at him and said that I was buying coffee and saving him a paper cup. Besides, I pointed out that the plastic lid, made by Dover Industries, was recyclable. The paper cup, also made by Dover, with its silicone or wax impregnated walls, was not. An executive behind me took offense. He said that the cup was just as recyclable. "It's written on the cup." After picking through samples of all three sizes of cups, I found no printed verbage saying that the cups were at all recyclable. However, the lids were marked "6 PS", meaning that they are made of polystyrene, which is normally recyclable. Unfortunately, the recycle bins in my office building have attached signs asking that polystyrene be put in the garbage. Eh?

Apparently, recycling programs fall into municipal jurisdiction and recyclables are differ depending where you are located:

Ottawa: Lids Yes, Paper Coffee Cups No
In Ottawa, we apparently have black boxes that accept paper or cardboard. According to the city website, they do not accept "Fast food drink cups." Paper coffee cups pretty much fall into this category. Our blue boxes accept all plastics marked with the "rounded arrow triangle" (1-7):

1. PETE - Polyethylene Terephthalate
2. HDPE - High Density Polyethylene
3. PVC - Polyvinyl Chloride
4. LDPE - Low Density Polyethylene
5. PP - Polypropylene
6. PS ? Polystyrene
7. Other - Other

Black and Blue Bins
Source: greenlivingottawa.com

Gatineau: Lids No, Paper Coffee Cups Probably Not
In Gatineau, there are only blue boxes. According to the city website, they accept paper and cardboard, some plastic, all metals, and glass. Regarding paper, the blue box does not accept "Waxed or plastified paper and card board." This includes most paper coffee cups. Regarding plastic, the blue box does not accept Polyvinyl Chloride (3 - PVC) or Polystyrene (6 - PS). It also does not take straws or caps (assumed to be plastic bottle caps).

Toronto: Lids No, Paper Coffee Cups No
Interestingly, Toronto takes neither because its recyclers cannot process mixed paper and plastic. Paper recyclers claim that plastic "contaminates the materials" and they require a machine to separate lids from paper cups. The cost, according to the Toronto Star would be approximately $3 million to purchase the machine and $1 million a year to operate.

In response, city counsel tried to ban coffee cups, explicitly stating that a paper cups with plastic lids are mixed material and thus non recyclable. Tim Horton's raised issue, earning a temporary reprieve for coffee shops and restaurants until they collectively come up with a plan for stemming the flow of mixed material containers into city garbage bins. Tim Horton's also disputed the 20 cent refund that the city wanted to implement for customers who bring their own mugs, citing that it already instituted a 10 cent/mug program.

Is mixed material the issue in Gatineau as well? Is Gatineau using Toronto's paper recycling facilities? If so, how much more time out of one's normal lifespan does it take to separate lids from cups and place them into the proper receptacles?

Then again I see many people leaving their free commuter newspapers on the bus after they finish reading them. I don't buy the, "I'm leaving it for the next commuter", excuse. Every bus stop has a commuter paper box. Every major bus stop has people handing the papers out. And, most papers end up falling on the floor and caked with dirt.

I have even confronted people who get off at government buildings. Almost all government buildings have blue boxes regularly spaced within two or three paces. Nevertheless, I end up picking up anywhere from 4 to 7 of these papers everyday and depositing them in a blue box on my way up to my office. I am starting to assume that two generations of parents neglected to teach their children to pickup after themselves

I'm not even going to ask how difficult is it to use reusable mugs for coffee...

BTW, I take a lid from a coffee shop periodically because I would prefer not to spill hot coffee on my fingers as I carry the mug around. One lid lasts me months. At least now I know that, when my polystyrene lid becomes cracked and unusable, I need to take it into Ottawa to be recycled.

If the overplayed "Canada Land" television commercial is any indication, Tim Horton's "Roll Up the Win to Win" (RUTRTW) campaign is in full swing. And yes, its pronounced with rolled R's, "R-r-roll up the R-r-im to Win."

Seemingly in response, an enterprising Canuck recently re-launched his RUTRTW blog on blogspot.com to document his participating in the 2009 "season." In its previous incarnation, he blogged a total of 22 times during the 2008 campaign, which began late February and ended early May.

Tim Horton's annual campaign distributes pre-printed paper contest cups to stores across Canada. According to Wikipedia.net, over 30 million prizes are handed out each year. Customers determine if they have won a prize by unrolling the rims on their cups after they finish their drinks to reveal messages underneath. Prizes range from in-store products to new cars.

The image of the losing cup comes from Wikipedia.net.

Apparently, Tim Horton's campaign is so popular that someone invented a rim rolling aid and tried to pitch it during Season 2 of CBC's Dragon's Den.

However, as has been reported by CBC and picked up by Yahoo Canada, Ontario participants maybe somewhat miffed about the prizes available to them. Like last year, Tim Horton's did not distribute prizes randomly to its distribution regions. Each has its own chances of winning prizes. Of the 281.7 million cups distributed, only 15 of the 35 cups for the top prize, a $32 000 2009 Toyota Venza, have been sent to the province. Thus, the probability of winning a Venza is actually higher in stores located in British Columbia, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. In Ontario, the chance is 1 in 9.9 million. In British Columbia, the chance is 1 in 5.9 million. All other prizes have been distributed proportionally.

Interestingly, the odds of being struck by lightning in the United States is higher, 244 000 to 1 (i.e. chance of 1 in 244 001). So is the chance of being killed by an asteroid impact, 1 in 700 000.

But, I have another theory about the potentially unfair distribution of top prize contest cups. Tim Horton's, being a responsible Canadian business, made the decision to support domestic tourism. Ontario is the most populous of Canada's provinces. Having more top prize contest cups in British Columbia, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada encourages Ontarians to visit cities in other provinces.

Yes, I'm grasping a straws. The only other reason, I can think of, for having fewer winning top prize contest cups in a region that is projected to purchase 52.2 percent of all contest cups is because Tim Horton's hopes that fewer people will come across them.

BTW, Tim Horton's would have been able to assuage ill-feelings from Ontario had it decided to distribute cars made from any of Ontario's ailing North American car plants. Unlike the 2009 Toyota Corolla, Matrix, or Rav4, the Venza, while North American made, may not be made in Canada.

Me, until Tim Horton's starts supporting Fair Trade coffee, I am going to continue carrying my little thermos of coffee from any of Ottawa's Bridgehead coffee houses. And, I'm not singling out Tim Horton's. I refuse to buy coffee at Starbuck's for the same reason.

Here's a card for Bridgehead. They're pretty conveniently located in various locations around the city. You can have your coffee fix and support a genuinely responsible and Ottawa-grown business.

Front

Back

Ever wonder how to "make" Chinese food takeout? Jonathan from VecturTuts+ has and he went so far as to "craft" a vector-based Chinese food computer icon with Adobe Illustrator, an industry standard software for print publishing. The resultant icon includes of a stereotypical "take-out" box, a pair of chopsticks, and some atypically shaped fortune cookies.

Chinese Takeout
Source: vector.tutsplus.com

Unfortunately, the take-out box and the fortune cookie have little to do with genuine Chinese culture. That is, according to Jennifer 8 Lee, author of "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles." In her book, Lee demonstrates that much of what Americans think is Chinese really isn't.

Take-out boxes also have little to do with oriental restaurant take out in Canada. Here is proof!

Vietnamese Pho Take-Out
The following is take-out pho from a Vietnamese noodle house, called Pho Van Van, which is located on Holland Avenue (93). Typical of Ottawa's many Pho houses, noodles and soup come piping hot in lidded Styrofoam containers and packaged with bagged veg.

Bagged Takeout

Inside are Styrofoam containers with cooked noodles, meat, and soup; condiments; bagged veg; and disposable chopsticks

If you're lucky, your chopsticks will be branded with a familiar cartoon character and a thank-you in German

soup with noodles and thinly sliced beef turned out into a heat-proof bowl

noodles with thinly sliced beef, tripe, and beef tendons

bagged fresh herbs and bean sprouts

one assembled bowl, sauced with sriracha

another assembled bowl, without sriracha
As per traditional pho, the beef is served somewhat rare. This is why it is imperative that the noodles, beef, and soup be put together as soon as possible. The meat is meant to cook through in the heat from the soup. Otherwise, you can ask the restaurant to substitute already-cooked beef.

Hong Kong-Style Take-Out
The following is take-out from a Hong Kong-style Cantonese restaurant, called Royal Treasure, which is located in Chinatown (774 Somerset Street West). It comes in Styrofoam clam shells.

Yeng Chow Fried Rice

Singapore Curried Rice Noodles
In years past, take-out used to come in aluminum containers with lids and crimp-able edges.

Similar to the Styrofoam containers from Pho Van Van, Styrofoam clam shells are intended to retain heat, keeping the dishes warm. In the case of the curried noodles, the clam shell also contains the curry sauce.

Stereotypical take-out boxes, even if they are made of silicone impregnated cardboard, are simply too small and flimsy to be practical.

Though Styrofoam containers, while insulating and leak-proof, are environmentally unsound...Hmm...Tupperware would warp from the heat...I wonder if the makers of Corningware would humour a humble food blogger and make a re-usable container to pickup takeout. How about something BPA-free from Thermos? Just a thought...

Particulars:
Pho Van Van
93 Holland Avenue
(613)722-1663

Royal Treasure Restaurant
774 Somerset Street West
(613)237-8827

Several months ago, my better half and I had quite the workout, lugging home a 22 lb leg of pork. I ended up dismantling it into stew cubes. Jenn ground the scraps and made dumplings. Today, I cooked the first third of the meat as a de-constructed slow cooked pork stew.

What came about was slightly "gussied up" comfort food:

Assembled Stew

Essentially, I cooked everything separately with several methods to produce different textures, intensify flavours, and prevent the gloppy mess that comes from tossing all your ingredients into a pot with some liquid and simmering it for a couple hours.

• Pork - seasoned with kosher salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder; marinated in 3-4 tbsp of fish sauce for 20 minutes; "silkened" with rice starch and canola oil; seared in a non-stick pan; braised in a crock pot set to low with a strained stewing liquid for 3 hours
• Stewing Liquid - one bottle of honey brown beer, reduced by half in a pan on medium heat with 3 dried chillies, 2 whole pieces of star anise, two packets of genuine Tim Horton's granulated sugar (I found them in the pantry), and a splash of light soy sauce
• Carrots - sliced thin on the bias and steamed on top of (i.e. not immersed in) the braising pork during the last hour of cooking
• Mini-Potatoes - placed in pot filled with salted water on medium heat until boiling, then simmered on low until fork tender (approximately 15 minutes)
• Onions - 3 small cooking onions, frenched, and then fried in 1 tbsp of oil with a pinch of salt until caramelized (approximately 20 minutes)

After removing the braised pork from the slow cooker, I strained the remaining sauce and reduced it in a pan on medium heat until it thickened. The liquid was then used to glaze the stew just prior to its assembly.

Here's the finished pot of stew, served family style:

De-Constructed Pot of Stew
Think soft braised pork, glazed with a savory pan reduction, served with just tender carrots, sweet caramelized onions, and halved baby potatoes.

Definitely one of my better Monday night suppers...

Last year, I posted images of stunning artwork from renowned food photographers Akiko Ida's and Pierre Javell's website, minimiam.com. The images are impossible revelations of a miniature world where people encounter familiar settings in food. Their website's splash animation asks, "Who hasn't dreamt of diving in thick chocolate mousse", "digging a hideout in a piece of cheese of fruit", or "skiing down a slope of whipped Chantilly cream"?

As if to answer the question, French artist Vincent Bousserez produces equally impossible revelations of a miniature world in more than just food. On his website, twentyonehundre.fr, you will find images of people living the "plastic life." They polish strings of plastic beads, "window-wash" the inside of a glass, jimmy a briefcase lock, bath in a bottle cap, clean a water colour palette, figure skate on tea lights, sunbathe on a ink bottle, or walk through the valley of "pink". If Bousserez's Macromedia Flash-based website doesn't suit your fancy, he also posts his work to a Flickr photostream. Two images from the photostream were recently posted to digg.com, here and here. They are how I came across the artist and his work.

However, this is a food blog, so the following subset of Bousserez's work is so themed:

Hazmat's tending to an aged piece of soft cheese
Source: Vincent Bousserez's "Plastic Life" Flickr photostream


Workmen taking apart an aged piece of hard cheese
Source: Vincent Bousserez's "Plastic Life" Flickr photostream


A woman, carefully navigating groceries on a filthy barbecue grill
Source: Vincent Bousserez's "Plastic Life" Flickr photostream


Explorers Emerging from a glass bottle
Source: Vincent Bousserez's "Plastic Life" Flickr photostream

I should note that some of Bousserez's work can be considerred risque. Not only does he work with nudes for his landscapes, but he also has a pair of "busy" figurines." A NSFW "piece" with them "busy" on an apple (yes, think of the irony) follows after the jump.

Cheers to Vincent Bousserez. Your "answer" to Akiko Ida's and Pierre Javell's question take the medium further, creating even more thought provokingly surreal images.

More after the jump...

According to Tracey Tong, editor and writer for the Ottawa edition of the Metro (a free local commuter newspaper), the last day for skating on the Rideau Canal Skateway came and went last Thursday, March 4, 2009. This weekend's mild weather prompted the National Capital Commission (NCC) to officially close the skateway, citing unsafe conditions. Higher temperatures weaken the ice, making it unpredictable and unsafe to skate on.

Fear not! According to Tong's article, approximately 1 million visitors took to the ice since this, the 39th, season began. Incidentally, the skateway was open 58 days out of the season's possible 64 days.

Jenn, Viv, and I only found time to skate on the canal once, 2 weekends ago, during the last of the Winterlude festivities. They, having already gone to see the ice sculptures, raced down the canal, while I tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to stay upright. My better half gave me skates for Christmas. However, since I haven't put blade to ice in 3 years, I was unstable on my unfamiliar skates.

Nevertheless, during our time skating (most of mine spent stumbling) we stopped by several of the concessions to partake in Winterlude food traditions.

Jenn fueled her skating with hot apple cider.

Hot Drink Concession

We all stopped for beaver tails.

Beaver Tail Concession

I had intended to try the "Obama" (beaver) tail, which was invented by BeaverTails Canada Inc.'s founder and co-owner Grant Hooker. It is a classic cinnamon and sugar beaver tail that sports a chocolate (Nutella) and maple syrup "O." During President Barrack Obama's short visit to Canada, he was actually served his signature pastry in the Byward Market, after he purchased cookies and souvenirs at nearby shops.

Instead, we each opted for the classic. Like many Ottawas, I only eat beaver tails during Winterlude and it is well worth the annual wait. Made to order, these deep fried pastries are a wonder to re-discover and they taste best in the biting cold when your feet are sore from skating.

Classic Beaver Tail

This year, I was amazed by the hand worked dough. The workers at the particular concession we stopped at made the largest beaver tails I have ever seen. The dough was shaped so that it was thinner in some places along its length. This results in two textures, thicker portions with more substance (chewier) and thinner portions with a satisfying crunch (crunchier).

Two Textured Beaver Tail
Yum!

To Obama, I have to say that you left without trying a true Winterlude treat, a Canadian bacon sandwich, called a Bacon Bunner. Why? Traditional North American bacon is cut from the fattier pork belly. Canadian bacon is cut from the leaner loin. Its lean nature makes Canadian bacon more difficult to cure and smoke and different in flavour. Jenn encountered the Bacon Bunner last year, but never had the opportunity to try it. This year, we remedied that oversight.

Introducing the Bacon Bunner

Bacon Bunner Concession

Bacon Bunner

Sporting an unremarkable supermarket-purchased Kaiser roll, the Bacon Bunner exemplifies the idiom "it's what's inside that counts." This is because, sandwiched between the roll, are thin slices of maple syrup-glazed Canadian bacon, layered on top of one another. The hints of sweetness go very well with the savory flavour that comes from the smoked meat product. It was great.

De-constructed

No condiments, just baconey and mapely goodness
Served hot, the Bacon Bunner warms you up when you eat it. However, I recommend that you only eat one. Otherwise, the trip back to wherever you left your shoes will leave you with a tummy ache. Skating on a full stomach is always unwise.

So long Winterlude 2009! Looking forward to Winterlude 2010.

Several weeks ago, Jenn and I joined the Hintonburg Supper Club. Unlike the supper clubs for which Wikipedia has a definition, this one is informal and does not involve a fixed dining establishment. Instead, its members visit a new restaurant each month. Its founder, Carol Paschal, organizes the outing with a local restaurant and sends an e-mail to the club's membership. Each outing regularly hosts 20 guests and the club always welcomes new faces.

The Hintonburg Supper Club is a recently resurrected initiative by the Hintonburg Community Association. It has been reconvened to support local business and promote enjoying good food with good company in a great neighborhood. Its January outing to Hino's (1013 Wellington) was actually written up by columnist Dayanti Karunaratne in the Ottawa Citizen, a local newspaper. And yes, we are familiar with the "troublemakers" Karunaratne names. Both Sean and Rob are genuine foodies and own Celebrity Hair Design (1024 Wellington), a local salon we both frequent. Rob highly recommends Hino's striploin steak, which is marinated in teriyaki sauce and "expertly" seared on the grill.

Since Hino's was Hintonburg's fifth outing since September, Jenn and I must have attended its sixth at the Pnom Penh noodle house (1100 Wellington). There, attendees actually took up 3/4 of the dining room. My better half and I sat with a lovely couple, Pat and Linda, and we had a great time. An older woman, who seemed also to be the owner, served up our pre-ordered dishes. She worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone was enjoying either their appetizers or entrees as the tables quickly filled. Each was made-to-order.

Me, I mistakenly pre-ordered item 228 on the Pnom Penh's menu, a fresh Udon noodle (thick Japanese wheat flour noodles) entree, fried with beef and served with green onions and bean sprouts. In my e-mail to Carol, I requested a fried wide rice noodle with beef, but wrote 228 alongside the description instead of 222. After checking the menu, I tucked into my udon dish. It was enormous. In a regular Chinese restaurant, such a dish would be paired with side orders of vegetables and another meat and eaten communally by a group of 4. With respect to the dish, its beef was tender and tasted characteristic of thinly sliced beef fillet that was stir fried to season after blanching in boiling oil. The noodles were salty for my taste and quite greasy. From their texture and colour, I surmise that the noodles were boiled, fried, and finished with soy sauce. Needless to say, the dish was VERY filling. I was glad that I did not order an appetizer.

Jenn ordered item 247, a crispy egg noodle entree, fried with chicken and vegetables. Both items 247 and 222, my intended rice noodle dish, are very standard Chinese dinner fare. Jenn and I had intended to test half of Pnom Penh's claim to serve "Authentic Cambodian and Chinese Cuisine." True to form, Jenn's dish was assembled with pan crisped noodles as its base. Broccoli florets, chunks of baby corn, pieces of white meat chicken, sliced water chestnuts, and Chinese Black fungus were then heaped on top. A starch-thickened clear gravy, tasting of Oyster sauce and much garlic, was then poured over everything and the dish was served. According to Jenn, the dish was very pedestrian, its noodles tasting as if they came from dry. Though, it was well seasoned and its vegetables were perfectly cooked. She however pointed out that an authentic Chinese dish should come with Chinese vegetables, such as Chinese broccoli or another like green. Conversely, the black fungus was a nice touch.

At $12.95 for Jenn's dish and $9.95 for mine the meal was somewhat pricey. Equivalent dishes at the Royal Treasure Restaurant in Chinatown are $2-$3 cheaper.

I have to congratulate Phnom Penh for being able to accommodate so many patrons at one sitting. Everyone I spoke with enjoyed the food, praised the owner for her diligent service, and left happy.

Here are images of the window stickers and business cards that were printed for the supper club.

Window Sticker

Business Card
The sticker is on the window of our condo. I carry the business card in my knapsack along with those coming from my favourite restaurants.

According to the piece by Karunaratne, Hintonburg is "bounded by Scott Street, the Queensway, the O-Train tracks and Holland Avenue." There are many eateries in this region of Ottawa. I look forward to the club's next outing!

Particulars:
Hino Restaurant
1013 Wellington Street West
(613)722-1129

Phnom Penh Noodle House
1100 Wellington Street
(613)722-8588
Website (warning: menu is a pop-up)

Royal Treasure Restaurant
774 Somerset Street West
(613)237-8827

Tonkatsu is Japan's interpretation of the chicken-fried steak, unofficial state dish of Texas. Instead of steak, the Japanese substituted pork, refining the recipe to produce a deep fried pork cutlet.

Its breading is typically panko. Panko is a variety of breadcrumb that produces a crunchy coating when fried. It is made from coarse crustless bread. In a pinch, Panko can be substituted with lightly seasoned Italian croutons, pulsed in a food processor.

Me, I decided to make a tonkatsu, but I amended the traditional recipe and borrowed from another Texan food favourite, country fried chicken. In other words, I didn't want to bother with deep frying and shallow-fried breaded pork loin chops instead.

First, I picked up a half pork loin from the local mega-mart. Then, I sliced off 2 cm (approximately 3/4 inch) thick boneless chops and marinated them overnight in a spice dry rub. The rub is an all-purpose (8:3:1:1) pork rub that I borrowed from Alton Brown. Though, when I make it, I fortify the mixture with 1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder. And to Tommi Miers, yes you can make your five spice powder, but it's easier to buy it freshly ground and use it quickly.

BTW, this recipe works equally well with any pre-cut pork chop. I chose to disassemble a half pork loin because I watched as a half dozen or so people walked up to the meat display and complain that half loins were unwieldy. At $1.99/lb, why would anyone pass up something that translates into boneless center-cut pork chops so easily? They're striploin steaks in the beef world.

After a night's rest in spicy goodness, lightly coat the chops (gently knocking off any excess) with finely ground starch. It doesn't really matter whether you use corn, rice, or tapioca starch, so long as it is more finely milled than regular wheat flour. The intention is to create a sticky coating to which panko can adhere.

coated pork chops
I used rice starch.

When coated, place the pork chops onto a rack and let them rest for 5 minutes. During this time, take out a heavy bottomed pan or skillet and fill it with an an inch of a high smoke point oil like canola oil. Place the pan or skillet on medium heat and drop a pair of unpopped popcorn kernels into the oil. When the kernels pop, the oil will be hot enough to pan fry the pork chops. To keep oil from splattering, place a splatter shield onto the pan or skillet.

Assemble your frying station: one bowl with 2 eggs and 2 tbsp of milk mixed together (aka: egg wash), 1 pie plate of panko bread crumbs, and one cake rack over a sheet pan.

Frying Station

For each chop, dredge it in the egg mixture and then coat in the panko. Place it into the hot oil and fry it for 3 minutes on each side, or until the internal temperature reaches 150°F.

Frying Pork
Since my cast iron skillet accommodates only 3 chops at a time, I fried mine in batches. Between every batch, I actually filtered the oil. This kept the oil clean and prevents premature browning and/or blackening of your chops. Be VERY careful when you're playing with very hot oil. It is actually easier just to use more than one pan.

After 6 minutes or so, retrieve the crispy tonkatsu and let cool on the cake rack. The excess oil will drip onto the sheet pan underneath. Let rest for 5 minutes and serve whole or sliced.

Sliced
Because the pork was shallow fried, instead of deep fried, the crunchy crust adhered very well to the surface of the pork. The pork itself was perfectly seasoned and juicy. The spice rub between the meat and the crust was trapped, giving the pork a sweet and savory flavor.

Regarding a serving suggested, my interpretation of tonkatsu goes very well with white rice and a vegetable stir fry.

Serving Suggestion

To those misguided shoppers who turned their noses up at a half pork loin, I don't think you have ANY idea what you're missing!

Recently, I started following Ronald Eade's Omnivore's Ottawa blog.

According to his "columnist's profile" Eade has been a food editor for the local Ottawa Citizen newspaper since 1998. He is a husband, father, and foodie, "indulging his passion for culinary adventure" and "testing new dishes on his wife and nine-year-old son."

Attached to this week's survey (February 27, 2009-March 5, 2009) of mega-mart "specials", is an addendum entitled "WHY WE'RE SO FRIGGIN' FAT -- The quest continues." In it, Eade issues a challenge to his readers. Send him digital images of "lard-laced cuisine in the Ottawa area that, really, no one should tackle without a fully charged defibrillator." He then gave an example: "bacon-smothered poutine."

On Saturday, I e-mailed him an image of my first and only plate of smoked meat poutine from Dunn's.

food no one should tackle without a fully charged defibrillator

Eade posted the picture with some commentary on Sunday.

foodiePrint on Omnivore's Ottawa

While it was another addendum, this time to his announcing that he's taking some much deserved time off, I was literally giddy when I saw the entry.

Thank-you Ron! Have a great vacation!

Updated: To Canwest, I strongly advise you keep supporting your food writer Ron Eade. He's quite up-to-date with respect to happenings in the food world. As per his weeks old challenge to Ottawans to send him "Why We're so Friggin' Fat" images, he more than likely was aware of a website that Sarah Boesveld wrote a piece on for competing newspaper, the Globe and Mail. The website is entitled "This is why you're fat: Where dreams become Heart Attacks." Her piece was published yesterday.

thisiswhyyourefat.com
Accordingly, whyyourefat.com is the creation of a pair of New Yorkers (Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley) who are currently hammering out a book deal and developing a television show. On it are such culinary monstrosities as today's Blueberry Waffle Breakfast Sandwich (2 eggs, 2 sausages, ham cheese, and 2 blueberry waffles, glazed with maple syrup) and my favourite, the Sandwich Cake (layers of deviled ham, chicken salad, and olive nut, spread between a whole loaf of white bread, frosted with four packages of strawberry cream cheese).

Boesveld refers to the website as "glutinous" excess that permits those of us who are more sensible to "live vicariously through someone else's heart clogging adventure." She then intimates that the website is a natural progression from the success enjoyed by the creators of the Bacon Explosion during the past Superbowl season.

Me, I'm appalled by the dishes on the website. However, I'm encouraged to keep following Ron Eade's editorials in print and his blog online.

As I wrote in my recently posted muffin recipe entry, breakfast is quite the social quandary to me. What are acceptable breakfast foods? Why is it that we turn a blind eye to someone reaching for a cold slice of pizza for breakfast. Yet, we give others odd looks when they reach for leftover dessert. Are cheeseburgers appropriate breakfast foods when you're no longer in your 20s?

According to dictionary.com, breakfast food is defined as "any food (especially cereal) usually served for breakfast." Assuming this definition is apt, acceptable breakfast foods are determined more by shared experience, than by specific requirements. Thus, breakfast foods have a social root and cultural significance. This explains the regional specificities of breakfast foods.

The social and cultural aspects of breakfast food result in a large variety of foods eaten to start the day. This is evidenced by Esquire Magazine's online slideshow of the 59 "Best Breakfast Places in America", which has garnered 493 Digg's since it's posting 3 days ago. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the breakfast of choice includes a slice of ham with red-eye gravy and cheese grits. In Conway, Arkansas, it's corn beef hash with fresh biscuits and strawberry preserves. In Atlanta, Georgia, it's fish and grits or a "heap" of potatoes, onions, cheddar jack, green peppers, two eggs and a slice of bacon. In Paia, Maui, Hawaii, it's the "top it anyway you want it" breakfast burrito. In Bloomington, Indiana, it's Eggs Benedict. In Chicago Illinois it's the cinnamon bun. In Wilmette, Illinois, it's potato pancakes with apple sauce and sour cream.

I'm born in Canada. I grew up in the suburbs of Ottawa. I am a urbanite and I love sandwiches, so I believe that breakfast foods should be bread, into or onto which goes "stuff." Here's what I consider appropriate to start the day:

Using the "banh mi hot ga op la" from the Wandering Chopsticks Blog as inspiration, here is the breakfast "bahn mi":

Halved Crusty Roll, Slathered with Liverwurst, and Stuffed with a Fried Egg

Add a slice of fresh lettuce, and you're balanced
Savory, eggy, crusty, crunchy, and sweet, the breakfast bahn mi also makes a great snack food item as well.

English muffins offer a myriad of choices. Toasted, they easily substitute the traditional bagel for a smoky and savory treat.

Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese and Capers
They also make great holders of ham and egg, producing a respectable home-made McMuffin

Deli sliced ham with a fried egg
Which happens to go well with a cup of freshly brewed Columbian coffee, especially if the coffee maker is a Christmas gift from the parents of your better half.

Nice cup of Columbian Coffee

Single Serving Coffee Maker

Speaking of Christmas, here's something I put together during the holidays, the Hello Kitty breakfast sandwich.

Take two pieces of Hello Kitty toast

Spread strawberry jam on one slice and cream cheese on the other

Assemble, Slice and Serve
Of course to make the Hello Kitty toast, you need some specialized equipment.

Hello Kitty Toaster
Otherwise, you've just a sweet and savory breakfast treat that borrows from Tim Horton's strawberry breakfast strudel.

Speaking of cheese, grilled cheese makes a very acceptable breakfast sandwich

Shredded Old Cheddar on Dark Rye, pan fried in butter
If you've no time to grill your cheese, try spreadable cheese such as individually wrapped wedges from the Laughing Cow dairy.

Laughing Cow Spreadable Cheese, Prison Mug, and 2 slices of Dark Rye

Unwrap

Spread, Repeat

Now if you're thinking of a platter for breakfast, you can do better than the "1 dollar" breakfast at Ikea

Tempting Dollar Breakfast at Ikea

Strange Textured Eggs, Dried Out Sausages, and Greasy Home Fries

Consider sourdough from Ottawa's own French Baker bakery. At a measly $3.50 per loaf, you've expertly baked bread for breakfast and something decent to sop up your excess pasta sauce with during dinner.

Small Loaf of Carefully Risen Sourdough

Crusty all over

Goes very well with scrambled eggs
While I found it somewhat less than sour, the loaf Jenn and I picked up at the local Herb and Spice on Wellington Street (1310) had an exquisite texture.

If you want to go to the source, you have to visit either its ByWard Market or Glebe locations.

French Baker Business Card

All this to say, with good bread and great fillings, you're spoiled for choice for breakfast.

Particulars:
French Baker
119 Murray Street
(613)789-7941
or
801 Bank Street
(613)236-7579
frenchbaker.ca

Herb and Spice
1310 Wellington Street W.
(613)722-5747

Ever since McDonald's switched its Chicken McNuggets to all "white chicken meat", patrons have yet another excuse to eat them. That is, besides the subtle balance they maintain between crispy coating and tender chicken.

Recently, I decided to try my hand at making chicken nuggets. Like other foodies, I feel that one of the better ways to appreciate food is figuring out how to make it. After some research, I dug up two recipes that I later amalgamated into one of my own.

The first, comes from the "For the Love of Food" blog. It produces the following nearly authentic mouth-watering results:

Nearly Authentic McDonald's-Style Chicken Nuggets

The second, comes from the linked instructional video from the UK VideoJug website:


My results were passable, but my amalgamated recipe needs some tweaking.

Amalgamated Recipe Chicken Nugget

Recently, the entry, featuring For the Love of Food's recipe, added some tips to address issues raised by people who have attempted the recipe. These, and some suggestions of my own follow:

Recipe:

Seasoning

Minced Chicken, Seasoned

Nuggets, Shaped, and Floured

Close-up of Nuggets, Ready for Shallow Frying

Shallow Frying a Batch in a Cast Iron Skillet

Frying One Side

Then, the other

Fried Nuggets Cooling

What You'll Need:

Mis En Place

• 2-3 whole boneless skinless chicken breast pieces (thawed if from frozen)
• heavy pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (with chicken nuggets, I'm not too inclined to use freshly ground)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano flakes
• 2 beaten eggs
• all-purpose flour to dredge

Method:

1. Fill a cast iron or another heavy bottomed skillet with a half inch of oil. Set aside
2. Cube the chicken breast into pieces and place into a food processor with the seasonings.
3. Pulse until the chicken forms a fine paste. I actually minced the chicken breast with a pair of vegetable cleavers, channeling my inner Martin Yan. However, the resultant nuggets were too dense, so I surmise that mechanical processing may aerate the meat, creating a lighter mixture. According to wikipedia.net, McNuggets are made from "mechanically separated meat."
4. Shape the chicken into balls, 1.5-2 inches in diameter. According to the For the Love of Food blog, smaller portions (ping-pong ball size)make lighter nuggets.
5. Dip each ball into egg and then dredge lightly in flour.
6. Place each onto a tray and put the skillet on medium-heat
7. Once the oil shimmers, fry the meat balls into the skillet in batches, gently flattening each into "nuggets"
8. Fry each batch, approximately 3-4 minutes per side, until each nugget takes on a golden colour.
9. Remove to an inverted cake rack on paper towel or a sheet of newsprint to drain.
10. Let cool 2-3 minutes and serve warm.

More lessons learned:
According to the McDonald's website, Chicken McNugget ingredients include water, starch, and "chicken flavor." They are also "battered and breaded" with water, enriched flour, corn flour, starch, chemical leavening and spices. This has me wondering if the chicken mixture includes a starch slurry to keep it moist and the shaped nuggets are breaded with a seasoned flour then battered. At the moment, I'm not ready to add a slurry to the mixture. I also think the beaten egg and flour are sufficient. Though, I am tempted to add some baking powder to the flour.

Now, what do you do when you perfect your own recipe for making McDonald's-style chicken nuggets? Besides out of hand eating, there's the "McNuggetini"!

McNuggetini
Source: Curiology Blog c/o the former Curiology Blog

This concoction was the brainchild of Ms. Allie Ward (of the Curiosology blog) and Ms. Georgia Hardstark (of the State of Georgia blog). It was posted on the This Recording blog. There, it gained significant exposure, eventually ending up on the Huffington Post website.

Why? As Ms. Hardstark observes, Chicken McNuggets make great food after "last call" and her friend Ms. Ward loves White Russians.

How? The Mcnuggetini consists of a martini glass, rimmed with McDonald's brand barbecue sauce, a mixture of 4:1 McDonald's brand chocolate milkshake and Absolut Vanilla Vodka, and a Chicken McNugget to garnish.

While I have yet to develop a taste for martinis, I'm awed by the creativity. Cheers to you both!