During lunch one Friday, I found myself on the Gatineau side wondering where I could pickup miniature marshmallows for a recipe I wanted to attempt that evening. Then, something dawned on me. During this past winter's 53 day transit strike, a co-worker friend of mine saved herself taxi fare to the supermarket by walking down Eddy Street to a Giant Tiger. I decided to wander down the same street and found a number of eateries lining it. One of them is named "Le Coin du Chiche", which roughly translates into "Chickpea Corner."

Several days earlier, a friend and fellow shawarama enthusiast told me he spotted something-"du Chiche" on Eddy Street during a walk around the "neighbourhood." A quick search on google turned up both the eatery's full name and an Ottawa Xpress review from 2005. In it, then reviewer Lucy Rest referred to Le Coin du Chiche as "little more than a hole in the wall." However, despite its paltry interior and almost complete lack of seating room, it served "the best shawarma, bar none." She further encouraged patrons to "find a way" to the restaurant despite its short business hours that "catered" to nearby government offices.

With a recommendation like that, I decided to try it out on my way back from the Giant Tiger. Heading Rest's warning about the "Madame who runs the place insanely efficiently", I read the menus on the wall behind the counter carefully while I was in line. When it came my turn, I curtly responded to questions and ordered a full-size chicken sandwich, all dressed, and to go.

Here's what I was served:

Standard looking pita sandwich, wrapped in foil

From my stand-point behind the counter, I just just saw a Madame (not the Madame who took my order) split a full-sized pita and layer onto it white and dark meat chicken from a tupperwear container, vegetables (shredded iceberg lettuce, Frenched onions, sliced pickles, pickled turnips, and pickled hot peppers), and plenty of a white sauce from a large squeeze bottle. She then rolled up the sandwich, surrounded it with foil, and placed it on an antique-looking panini press to heat up.

When I unwrapped the foil I noticed significant cracks in the pita.

Cracks in the Pita
Assuming this was due to it being toasted, I carefully opened the sandwich to examine the filling.


Filling
Contrary to the review, I was not impressed by the chicken. I have encountered non-rotisserie chicken shawarma before. It was griddled. Eye-ing a residential oven in the cooking space behind the counter, I surmise that the chicken in the sandwich was baked, then boned, and chopped. Taste-wise, it was poorly seasoned and carried no spice. Texture-wise, it was somewhat harsh and overcooked.

Further, the sauce used was not garlic sauce common to other shawarma houses. Called "toum", the more familiar garlic sauce is thick and either creamy or airy. According to recipes from lebaneserecipes.com and waitrose.com, toum is basically an aioli made with fresh garlic. What my sandwich was drenched in was a very thin donair sauce. Donair sauce is made with milk, vinegar, sugar, and garlic powder. Unlike toum, donair sauce is slightly acidic.

When I went to put the sandwich back together and started to eat it, I discovered why the cracks had appeared. The pita was stale. It simply fell apart.

Complete Integrity Collapse
Day old pita is dry and brittle. Fresh pita, is soft and folds easily. Even toasted, fresh pita retains some malleability.

All in all, the sandwich, which was a mess to eat, was somewhat palatable. Best "bar none"? Hardly!

Ethnic Middle Eastern - Lebanese?: ---$, ----*

I doubt I will be returning to the establishment and recommend others to avoid it.

Nonetheless, here is their card:

Card

Particulars:
Le Coin Du Chiche
56, rue Eddy
Gatineau
(819)770-6152

If you head over to Costco, you can pickup a box of 6 sealed 6 oz packages of deli-sliced Montreal-style smoked meat in the cold-cut section. They come from Dunn's, an authentic purveyor of smoked meat, whose various establishments sell really tall smoked meat sandwiches. Each package is meant for an individual serving, which, as I found out, equates to an entire meal. Instructions on the box recommend storing the packages refrigerated if they are to be eaten soon or frozen for the long term.

Great! So what happens when it comes time to put together a sandwich? The meat is cold and uncooperative. It's not clear if the packaging could survive being submersed in boiling water. Solution: make like a deli and steam the meat like it were pastrami.

Step 1: Cut the meat out of its packaging and place it into aluminum foil

Wrapped and ready for steaming

Step 2: Bring 2-3 inches of water to a boil in a pot at medium heat. The pot needs to be able to accommodate either a steamer basket or a colander.

Step 3: Once water has been brought to a rolling boil, turn the heat down to medium-low. Place the wrapped meat into the steaming apparatus and steam for 5 minutes

Step 4: Remove, let stand 2 minutes, plate up and serve.

Serving Suggestions:
Single Decker with Dijon mustard and medium cheddar cheese on rye

Layering

Served
Suffices a regular appetite at supper time.

Double Decker with Dijon mustard, medium cheddar cheese, sliced baby tomatoes, on rye

Served
Eat when starving for dinner at supper time.

One Thursday evening, my better half came home with what Wikipedia calls an "angular shaped ball of rice, wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves." Phonetically, it is referred to as joong in Cantonese and jongzi in Mandarin. Confused, she told me her mom specifically defrosted the serving for me and she had already eaten hers. Then, she proceeded to steam it warm. Since I rather adore yellow bean joong with its sticky rice, piece of fatty pork, and salted duck or chicken egg yolk, I didn't protest and ate my dinner.

Joong, not to be confused with the square packages of sticky rice that are wrapped in lotus leaves, is sometimes served at Dim Sum, a brunch-style meal, consisting of small plates, mostly dumpling. The square packages, called lo mai gai in Cantonese (or nuo mi ji Mandarin), are classic Dim Sum and much more common. They are typically made with short grain (glutinous) rice, small pieces of boneless chicken, sliced Chinese sausage, green onions (scallions), and dried shrimp. Joong, however, are traditionally wrapped in a triangular shape because bamboo leaves are smaller, narrower, and generally more difficult to work with than lotus leaves. When I take friends for Dim Sum, I usually introduce Joong as a Chinese Tamale, which substitutes rice and bamboo leaves for corn masa and corn husks. If I still get a confused look, I ask them to unwrap one and try it. "It's good."

Making joong is labour intensive, so many people, myself included, purchase theirs from vendors and store them frozen. They freeze well, able to withstand the freezer for several months. I usually purchase mine in Toronto, in large quantities, and rush them home in a cooler before they spoil. I've yet to cajole someone to teach me how to wrap essentially fist-sized masses of rice and fillings with three bamboo leaves into the neat little packages and tie them so they don't come apart in a pot. E-gullet has a wonderful step by step guide of one technique with lots of pictures. Personally, I have never attempted it.

Here's a purchased joong I heated up for myself one evening for dinner. Steamed from frozen, I had but to cut the string, unwrap and enjoy, extremely convenient.

De-String

Unwrapped and served with five spice beef an onions

Filling
This is a yellow bean joong. The more common variety of joong substitutes yellow bean for peanuts, so if you have an allergy and you want to purchase joong, do ask the vendor which you are purchasing.

I find joong quite filling and satisfying. It is essentially meat and potatoes. Though, all the ingredients are cooked together so flavours meld somewhat.

I should note two things. Firstly, the reason I ate a joong that day (May 28, 2009) was to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, for which joong is traditionally served. Secondly, the joong described are savory. There is also a sweet variety that is filled with red bean paste. I prefer the savory version.

Almost a month ago, I had a conversation on twitter about the various dishes that can be made with pine and spruce, from short bread to mayonnaise and beer. The "Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska" blog even has a recipe for candied spruce or pine tips.

Here are images of evergreen tips at two levels of maturity:

Tips, too old to harvest

Younger borderline harvest-able tips
Unfortunately, my better half and I found these tips towards the end of the season, late May. The majority were at the later stages of maturity. Eventually, they will harden, expanding and forming new needles.

A tweep who goes by the handle @kitchenmage introduced me to a recipe for a Douglas Fir Sorbet. Next spring, I will attempt it with foraged evergreen tips.

The recipe comes from former Chef Jerry Traunfeld of the Herbfarm. It follows:

Recipe
What you'll Need:

• 3 cups Water
• 1 cup Sugar
• About 1 quart fresh Douglas Fir branch tips, washed
• 3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
• 1/2 cup Champagne (optional)

Method:
Heat the water and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan. As soon as it comes to a full boil, drop in the fir branches. Stir to submerge them, then cover and remove from the heat. Let the syrup steep for 30 minutes. Pass the syrup through a fine strainer and stir in the lemon juice and champagne. Freeze in an ice cream maker.

Source: rickandrob.com

I never thought anything edible could be made from evergreens.

Update: Just got a tweet from Ron Zimmerman (aka: @Herbguy), chef/proprietor of The Herbfarm Restaurant, stating that old Douglas Fir needles work too.

Herbguy Ron Zimmerman May 30, 11:16 PM
Act. old Doug Fir needles work 2: RT @foodiePrints: omething about spruce & pine tips with a recipe to try next year: http://is.gd/KkJu

Chef Zimmerman is an avid twitterer and a pleasure to follow. BTW, he was featured in May's issue (2009) of the Rachael Ray magazine: http://twitpic.com/6bjyw. It may be the only issue of that magazine I ever buy...

Emily Chen of MChen Wers, a talented local graphic design artist, asked the following questions of her blog's readers to get to know her growing audience:
1. Who are you?
2. What turns your crank?
3. Can you suggest any Etsians and/or artists I should feature?
4. Introvert or extrovert?
5. Got any music to recommend?
6. Anything here you’d like to see less/more of?
7. Wanna share an inspiring link?
8. What are you most proud of at this very second?
9. Who would you thank first if you won an Oscar?
10. Chocolate or vanilla?
11. What’s your fallback karaoke tune?
12. Haiku: yes or no?
13. Who makes you laugh the loudest?

Here are my answers:
1. Your host is a foodie. During the day, I’m a mild mannered IT Professional.
2. Learning and writing about food: how it is made, how it is served, and how it is evolving.
3. Nope. You’re the only "etsian" I’m familiar with :)
4. I’m a bit of both. I love to get and hold peoples' attentions. However, I also like spend time to myself, cranking out ideas or reflecting on recent experiences for my food blog.
5. Love any and all music. Currently, re-acquainting myself with the Beatles.
6. Nope. Love the site. Love the blog. Love your work. Keep it up!
7. You don’t get more inspiring than Susan Murphy. In the food world, there’s @cookingstudent whose blog (Cooking School Confidential) chronicles a successful writer, training to become a chef.
8. I’m most proud of my better half and I getting the attention of a master chef when we attempted his tweeted recipe.
9. If I won an oscar, I’d thank Jenn, my better half, for having faith in me.
10. French Vanilla, made with high quality vanilla beans
11. 80s pop, but there’s a reason I never pick up a mike at karaoke…
12. Yes
13. Jenn and the very random expressions she says at the oddest times.

A tweep who goes by the handle @missfish (Andrea Tomkins) tweeted about being in Toronto this past weekend: sitting in Dundas Square, taking a picture of Yonge street empty (quite the sight for those of us familiar with downtown Toronto), visiting Pottery Barn on Bloor, and attending an event at the Pantages Hotel. Yesterday (May 26, 2009), she put up a blog explaining the event she attended while stricken with a bad cold and advocated eating locally. It is yet another good read in the "Fish Bowl."

Regarding her weekend, the event was funded by Hellman's (the mayonnaise company) and was organized by a marketing firm called Harbinger. Accordingly, its intention was to discuss the subject of "local food", which Hellman's believes is simply buying Canadian. Andrea was one of eight Canadian foodies invited. I've a feeling her following as a trusted writer and recognized blogger on family and parenting factored into her invite as well. That said, as always she encouraged comments with her blog post.

When I arrived, most comments involved Ottawans speaking about the virtues of eating locally and their experiences. As a local foodie, I added my two cents. They follow:

#REALFOOD

A discussion about local food in Ottawa needs to mention Savour Ottawa. When you go to outdoor markets, producers and retailers who show their Savour Ottawa posters demonstrate that they have been audited by a third party organization to either produce local products or employ local food in their products. The poster provides a level of assurance that you are supporting local farms or businesses that support local farms.

Some outdoor markets for example sell produce that is no different than that of the larger grocery stores. Clearly, bananas are not grown locally. With respect to garlic (as is stated above) and onions, they are also not in season. However, wild garlic is and some producers are also bringing green onions to market.

As an avid foodie, I try to eat, not only locally, but also seasonally, and support restaurants that do the same. Look for those that have seasonal menus (menus that change often - monthly, weekly). Many openly support local farms. Atelier on Rochester, for instance, is again modifying their menu because forage-able spruce tips are quickly going out of season.

Andrea, feel free to remove the following link if you feel it is inappropriate. It links to my blog and new ways I?ve discovered to enjoy local asparagus and fiddleheads, simple and delicious.
http://www.foodieprints.com/item/1552

The hash tag (in twitter parlance), #REALFOOD, is being tracked by Hellman's and raises funds for Evergreen, "a national charity that works to make our cities more green by funding community gardens, facilitating outdoor classrooms, and collecting monies for said projects from corporate donors."

Thus, foodiePrints is now responsible for two "actions": a comment and blog post.

Unfortunately, in my haste to mention Savour Ottawa in the comment, I neglected to point out another Ottawa destination for local food, Chef Tracey Black's Epicuria. Epicuria is a food store and catering business that was recently and successfully audited by Savour Ottawa to be both a local producer and retailer. Regarding the former, like many modern restaurants, Epicuria maintains its own garden. You don't get more local than that! Go check it out.

Particulars:
Epicuria
419 Mackay Street
(613)745-7356

It seems that a rather old cartoon "open letter" from "Drew" at Left Handed Toons has lead to some renewed sandwich outrage amongst cheese enthusiast patrons of Subway.

Firstly, here is the cartoon:

Open Letter to Subway
Source: lefthandedtoons.com

Apparently, when a Subway employee posted a printed copy in the establishment he worked at, his "boss" took it seriously, responding with a "cheese" directive and putting up his own notice.

Notice
Source: lefthandedtoons.com

Accordingly, at the particular Subway franchise, the processed cheese triangles are positioned specifically to encourage non-coverage. This way, patrons will be encouraged to purchase "extra cheese" at $0.40 USD.

Nearly 2 years later (today), the image of the notice has re-surfaced on digg.com, garnering new controversy. Since its posting approximately 7 hours and 19 minutes ago, it has been dug 1094 times. Further, over 258 comments have been added. Many represent angry commentary about the state of fast food and poor service.

Me, I've another thought: If doubling the number of triangles to ensure coverage on a sandwich cost an extra $0.40 US in 2007 and two triangles make up a whole cheese slice, this means that that the particular subway franchise was charging $0.80 USD for 4 cheese slices ($0.20 USD/slice).

This week (week of May 25, 2009), Ontario's Food Basics stores are selling 500 g of Black Diamond cheese slices (24/package) for $2.00 CAD (approx. $1.78 USD or $0.07 USD/slice).

Cheese Slices on Sale
Source: Food Basics' Weekly Flyer

Admittedly, the retail price on Food Basics' flier is a sale, but it may signify that certain Subway franchises are making upwards of 100% profit on processed cheese. Arguably, the cheese slices are comparable. Subway's are thicker and smaller. Black Diamond's are thinner and larger.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents...

It was a busy weekend for many Ottawans. Some crowded the streets in the Glebe neighbourhood on Saturday for the annual Glebe Garage Sale (GGGS). Many, eager to search for bargains and participate in what my better half tells me is an experience that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Others, participated in the Ottawa Race Weekend, running the 2 km, 5 km, and 10 km on Saturday or the half and full marathons on Sunday. According to CFRA (a local radio station), over 36 000 people ran in the various events, setting a new participation record.

Speaking of which, my dear friend, Yannick, ran the half marathon on Sunday. His time, 1:40:24.9, placed him 666th, an outstanding finish. The interesting position number aside, he ranked within the top 10% of the 10 435 registered runners for the specific event. According to his personal blog, the result was a personal best. Congratulations to him!

Me, I spent the weekend recuperating from two weeks of running about, tending to various dinners and entertaining guests. Saturday actually saw me sleep in until 3:00 pm. I however, ended my two weeks of mad cooking by contributing baked goods to a fund raising event, organized by a favourite tweep of mine, @spoonsie (aka: Izzy the #bacon princess) for the GGGS.

She spent several days mobilizing Ottawans to either come to the event at the corner of Lyon and First Avenue or contribute delectables. In the end, she raised over $1000 for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation to support breast cancer research.

Spoonsie's Bakery Fundraiser
Source: @spoonsie's personal blog

Congratulations to Izzy!

Here are contributions from foodiePrints' meager kitchen:

Ingredients: Thursday night saw me chasing to the local mega-mart for additional provisions. My strategy for the following Friday: make a fool-proof recipe (biscotti) to ensure some bakery for the event. Then, re-attempt chiffon cupcakes with a new marshmallow icing/frosting recipe. And, if time permits, attempt master chef Heston Blumenthal's chocolate chantilly recipe to make vanilla wafer sandwiches.

Bakery Provisions to Supplement Existing Stores
The dried cranberries were part of a secondary contingency in case the chiffon cupcakes fell. I would have used them to make more biscotti. The whipping cream was intended to balance the chocolate chantilly, should it have proven too strong in flavour.

I ended up running out of time. Chocolate chantilly will have to wait for another event.

Honeyed Almond Biscotti: Turned out great!

Biscotti Logs, cooling for cutting

Sliced and toasted biscotti, air drying
Though, I still think they could have used a couple more hours air drying...

Recipe is located here.

Seeing the finished product, another favourite tweep, @rosella76, sent me an authentic Italian recipe for a special type of biscotti, called "cantucci." Gotta luv karma :)

Vanilla Chiffon Muffins: Turned out great!

Baked Cupcakes

As per habit, I baked several extras using cupcake papers and oven-proof custard cups. Here is the resultant texture: success!

Test Cupcake

Recipe is located here.

For the icing, I followed a recipe from the wonderful people at HowToEatACupCake.net. While there are many marshmallow icing recipes on the web, this one advocates heating its egg white base to 160F on a double boiler before whipping or adding marshmallows. Since the event the cupcakes were destined for was a bake sale, I didn't want to take any chances with raw eggs.

Recipe (adapted from HowToEatACupCake.net)
What you'll need:

• whites from 2 large eggs
• 1 cup fine sugar
• 6 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp syrup (used table syrup)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. In a large heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup, cream of tartar, and salt.
2. Set the bowl over simmering water in a pot and heat the mixture, whisking constantly with a balloon whisk, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture reaches 160F on an instant-read thermometer. For me, this took approximately 4 minutes.
3. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and, using an electric mixer, whisk the mixture until it forms soft peaks. The bowl should still be quite warm when finished.
4. Slowly add the marshmallows, while continuing to whisk on low speed.
5. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the marshmallows are melted and the icing is smooth. For me, I actually had whisk while alternately placing the mixture back over the simmering water. This is because the egg white mixture did not have sufficient heat to melt the marshmallows.
6. Use immediately


Completed marshmallow frosting

Iced Test Subject

Jenn and her sis Jazzie then sprinkled pink-coloured sugar in a bow design onto the cupcakes while I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.

Finished Cupcakes
Many thanks to both for helping me out.

Izzy even dropped by to pickup the bakery. In my care, I doubt they would have made it to the event in any resalable form!

I should note that after a successful bake sale, Izzy went on to run a 10 km the same day, truly an amazing individual! She will even be walking 60 km this coming weekend to further raise money for the same cause as her bake sale fundraiser. Click here to sponsor this amazing lady!


Tag(s): cupcakes, biscotti, Glebe

I found the following image of somewhat twisted root vegetables yesterday evening. it was tweeted by a local grill enthusiast who goes by the handle "@uppercanuck".

RT @uppercanuck: Veggie porn...with beets! http://bit.ly/WN3i6

He's well worth the follow, both for his awesome sense of humour and his grill recipes.


Interesting Carrot and Beet Specimens
Source: Flickr

The root veg comes from the garden of someone who goes by the handle "bluescrubby" on Flickr.com and hail from 2007. According to the comments to the image, the carrot and beet may have been the result of being planted too close together or there being insufficient nitrogen in the soil. I'm wondering if there was too much clay or if the soil were too compacted.

These specimens actually remind me of a like-shaped red pepper from a while back.

Anyhow, happy planting to my green thumbed readers :)

During the weekend, one tweet seemed to be spreading amongst Ottawa tweeps like wildfire. It involved news, reported by the news desk of a free commuter newspaper called Metro, of unionized workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), voting 93% in favour of striking if bargaining with the Crown retailer head fails.

RT: @metroottawa LCBO workers vote in favour of strike http://tinyurl.com/oau27r Dang -- time to stock up.

Corresponding pieces at the Ottawa Citizen, CTV Ottawa, and CBC Ottawa followed. Here is Metro's news release from the weekend:

Workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario have voted in favour of striking if necessary as the union and the Crown retailer head to the bargaining table on Tuesday.

About 6,000 workers, who are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, have been without a contract since the end of March.

More than 3,600 people cast ballots in the three day strike vote, with 93 per cent voting in favour of taking strike action if contract talks fail.

Randy Robinson, a union spokesman, says he expects the possibility of a strike won?t arise for several weeks because negotiations are ongoing.

The union says the main issue is a declining number of full-time positions in favour of lowering paying part-time and contract work with little job security.

Liquor store employees joined the public service union in 2005.

Source: Metro News Canada

Liquor in Ontario can only be purchased either at LCBO stores or Beer stores. The former sells spirits and the like. The latter, beer and sometimes hard apple cider. With an impending strike, I am going to heed the tweet and plan on stocking up on cooking liquor. Even though I work in close proximity of an SAQ (Gatineau's equivalent of the LCBO) store, I've a feeling traffic to Quebec for alcohol will multiply in the case of a strike occurring.

Sometime after work today, I will ask the following question to the tweeps following me: "What liquor will you stock up on in the wake of the potential LCBO strike and a fast approaching summer?"

For me, I plan on picking up a case of honey brown, a new bottle of Russian vodka, some dark rum, and a dry sherry, all destined for a dish or two this coming summer. At the moment, I'm thinking banana's foster...

On our way down to the local mega-mart ("supermarket" in a certain American FoodTV Personality's parlance) today, my better half and I picked up drinks at Bridgehead (1277 Wellington Street W.) and walked by the former location of Destination Hair (1335 Wellington Street W.). There, as per our weekly ritual, we checked if our neighbourhood's A'roma Meze had opened for business.

A'roma Meze - New Front
This past week, I had heard rumours that it were already open and I actually saw a handful of people last Thursday night enjoying drinks in the establishment.

When we arrived, the front window was open, so I peeked my head in, which attracted the attentions of the restaurant's two occupants. Seeing the dining room completed and the bar lit, I asked if the restaurant were open. Their response: no, but the restaurant had run its lunch service several days last week. It opens for dinner tomorrow, Monday (May 25, 2009).

I thanked them for the information and Jenn took me to the Harvest Loaf Bakery (1323 Wellington Street W.) two doors down for something to nibble on. With a fresh molasses cookie in her hand, we again passed by A'roma Meze. I again peeked in and mustered up the courage to ask if I could take pictures of the finished dining room for a foodiePrints blog entry to announce that they are ready for dinner service. I was warmly invited in.

Here are pictures of the completed renovations:

Trendy Dining Room

Blue-Lit Bar
I especially like the long table with high chairs that patrons can saddle up to to enjoy a quick meal.

Accordingly, the blue-lit bar was a design request of the owner. It is meant to contribute to the Mediterranean feel of the tapas restaurant. Having never visited Greece, I can only assume that the ouzo, which is prominently featured on the front cover of A'roma Meze's menu, is dispensed with authenticity. I just think the restaurant has a trendy European evening club feel, something I'm itching to test drive with friends on a Saturday evening.

The Wellington West location features a menu that looks identical to the first A'roma Meze's on Nepean Street (239), which we were told is situated across from Stephen Beckta's eponymous flagship restaurant (226 Nepean Street). Apparently, after four successful years, the owner decided to expand.

I took a quick look over the menu and exclaimed with incredulity two non-traditional tapas items: "Kangaroo Souvlaki" and "Pan seared Red Deer." Both, I'm assured, are excellent. To see the menu, go to A'roma Meze's website.

When I thanked my hosts, I mentioned to Jenn that I may have actually beaten Ottawa Citizen's Food Editor, Ron Eade, to report on an opening. Hearing my comment, I was told that Eade had been in on the Monday for pictures and an interview. Both will show up on a forthcoming blog entry. Oh well!

I'm looking forward to reading Omnivore's Ottawa for a much more in depth entry.

Thanks to A'roma Meze for letting me snap pics. Hopefully, I'll find time to come in during your first month! Good luck!

Update: And, Ron Eade published his A'roma Meze-related blog entry this morning (Monday, May 25, 2009). As predicted, it is quite informative. Go take a peek!

Particulars:
A'roma Meze
1335 Wellington Street W.
The card I was given seems to be for the original location. The phone number listed is (613)232-1377

On her birthday, Jenn requested a traditional Japanese honey cake, called a kastella. It is a thick crusted cake that resembles a traditional sponge and is meant to be served with strong tea. I served it with Pascale's premium French Vanilla ice cream, which is a little "over the top", but neither I nor my better half can say no to Pascale's ice cream...

For reference, here is what a personal-sized kastella cakes looks like from one of Toronto's T&T Asian grocery stores.

Kastella from T&T, sold in boxes of 4

2 individually wrapped cakes

Half of one cake

Texture
I find the serving enormous and usually split it with someone.

Here's a successful Kastella from my meager kitchen's oven:

Kastella in its baking pan

De-panned Kastella with a serving already cut out

One serving with a really badly shaped canelle of ice cream

Recipe
What you'll need:

• 6 extra-large eggs (large eggs will do, but the cake will not rise nearly as high)
• 1 1/4 cups of fine granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (sifted)
• 2 scant tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp warm water (not boiling)
• 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar (optional)

Prep:

• Boil some water and set aside 4 tbsp of it. Let it to cool while you do the rest of the prep.
• Separate the eggs, yolks in one bowl, whites in another. I actually find that a narrower bowl is best for whipping egg whites, and yes, we will be whipping egg whites
• Sift 1 1/4 cups of cake flour onto a flexible cutting mat.
• Pre-heat the oven to 375F
• Either grease and flour a rectangular 7x7" pan or line with parchment. I use a standard lasagna pan.

Method:

1. Add 2 tbsp of honey to the warm water. Mix until dissolved. Set it aside.
2. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat with an electric egg beater until frothy. I usually do this with a hand whisk to begin and switch to an egg beater after, but it doesn't matter.
3. While beating the egg whites, slowly add the sugar in a gentle stream. Essentially, this will become a meringue.
4. Once stiff peaks can be formed, add the honeyed water and egg yolks. Fold with a silicone spatula until combined.
5. Sift in the flour into the batter, again folding with the silicone spatula, using the flexible cutting mat as a chute. Double sifting the flour ensures that the flour can quickly integrate and will be evenly distributed without losing egg white volume or forming very much gluten.
6. Once incorporated, gently pour the batter into the prepared pan
7. Bake for 45 minutes. The surface will turn a deep brown. Do not lower the temperature or the cake will fall. Continue baking.
8. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool
9. Remove the cake from the pan and serve.

De-panned, de-papered kastella

Texture of kastella
Made properly, a kastella is light with a thick and almost tacky crust. It is sweet so that it can accompany sips of strong tea.

I intended to serve it with a tart blueberry sauce, but a certain birthday girl told me not to bother and sat down to a square of her birthday cake with a glass of milk and some ice cream.

This recipe originally came from Abby and Mademoiselle Ling when they were members of the Queen's Asian Cooking Club (QACC).

BTW, the original recipe included 2 cups of sugar. I've tried that before.

Too Much Sugar
It is inedible sweet. Worse yet, it does not rise well because the meringue tends to be overloaded with too much sugar.

Update: Here are pics of Pascale's French Vanilla ice cream:

French Vanilla

Rich texture, Incredible flavour

Particulars:
Pascale's All Natural Premium Ice Cream
Sold at the Piggy Market
(613)322-4256
E-mail: pascale@pascalesicecream.com

A lovely lady who goes by the handle Rosella on Twitter posted a link to pictures of her visit to Toronto's Chinatown yesterday evening.

rossella76 May 21, 09:25 PM
A selection of my first day in Toronto last week http://bit.ly/Sgq4e

Her tweet prompted me to rifle through foodiePrints' image archive and fish out some pictures of fruit from the trip Jenn and I took to Vancouver two years ago.

Mostly, the images come from a produce shop located in a lovely marketplace called "Granville Island."

Granville Island
There, Vancouver demonstrates one benefit of being so close the Pacific rim: proximity to Asian fruit producers:

Donut Peaches

$2.99/lb
Unfortunately, we didn't purchase any donut peaches, so I'm not sure how they differ from regular peaches. Though, I am a fan of Niagara peaches, gorging myself come late August or early September.


Rumbutan

Product of Thailand, $5.99/lb
Rumbutan are essentially hairy versions of the more familiar lychee fruit. They are quite sweet when ripe. Like lychees, they store poorly.


Longan (Dragon's Eyes)

$2.99/lb
I prefer longan over lychee fruit. Firstly, I find them sweeter than lychees. Secondly, while longan fruit have less flesh surrounding their round nut-sized seeds, the flesh has no papery membrane separating it from the seed. Such is characteristic of lychees. Like lychees and rumbutans, longans store poorly.


Dragon Fruit
Regarding dragon fruit, I could not resist buying several to share with Jenn and her family. I have long read about this fruit online on Asian blogs, but fresh specimens are difficult to come by on the Atlantic end of Canada.

To serve, find a ripe dragon fruit. It should be bright in colour and firm, but yielding. Mushy flesh signifies either bruised or rotten fruit.

Place it on a cutting board or chopping block

Halve it with a large knife

Segment the halves into thirds

Enjoy
The flesh from dragon fruit comes off of the skins very easily. It has a wonderfully fresh taste. When fresh, its texture is a cross between a kiwi fruit's many seeds and a just-ripe pear. It is honey sweet.

Back in Ontario, I refuse to buy dragon fruit because shipping them across the continent tends to mangle the fruit. I surmise this is the same reason that I've come across more South African lychees than Thai, in the past couple years.

Don't worry! As a proud resident of Ontario, I brought a pair of yellow watermelons with me to Vancouver, vine ripened from a farm in Quebec. Jenn's cousins were as amazed with yellow watermelon as I was, fresh dragon fruit.

BTW, in Ottawa, we can still get our hands on our fair share of some odd fruit:

Pomegranates
Try explaining this fruit to someone who hasn't encountered them.


Persimmon
Persimmon taste like funky mango, but with a firmer flesh. It has a fuller and somewhat tarter flavour.

For the curious, here's how I was taught to serve them:

Peel the skin

Quarter and remove the core

Perhaps the new T&T opening at the corner of Riverside and Hunt Club in Ottawa will provide better quality exotic fruit...Otherwise, I'll be going back to Vancouver to visit and soon!

On May 19, 2009, Andrea Tomkins (aka: @missfish), published a blog in the "fishbowl", asking why Ottawa can't have the same variety of street foods as Toronto.

The day before, Toronto saw 4 of the 8 ethnic street food vendors in its "A la Carte" program open for business. The carts served foods beyond hot dogs and fries, including biryani with lassi and a souvlaki with salad in Nathan Philips Square

Here is my contribution:

I?m all for diverse street food. Any ep. on vendr.tv has me wondering why we can?t have the same variety and quality of food from mobile purveyors on our city?s streets.

But, has anyone else noticed the conspicuous absence of hot dog/sausage vendors from the ByWard Market? Something?s afoot!

I spent a half hour yesterday wandering the market, looking for a place to buy a hot dog. I ended up buying a pair from the ice cream shop beside the beaver tail place?

I?m wondering if the city has grown even more regressive and prevented any street food in areas where Ottawans regularly congregate?

Toronto really isn?t much better. Their demands on the ?A La Carte? program street vendors are extensive from mandatory purchase of city-designed carts ($32k-$40k) and expensive licenses ($15k/annum) to extremely restrictive food preparation rules (e.g. only pre-cooked food may be served). Their selection process lead to only 8 carts out of a possible 13 making it through what was described in the media as a bad parody of ?Hell?s Kitchen.? I?m not advocating ?laissez-faire?, only a little latitude?

That said, I?m not sure the city of Ottawa is willing to address diverse street food, when it may be making traditional street food less accessible...

For more information on the launch of Toronto's ethnic carts, including some reviews, feel free to peruse the following links from the media:

• Globe and Mail: Street vendor permit issues on Toronto streets.
• National Post: Point of view from Toronto Public Health, the municipal arm overseeing the "A La Carte" program
• Blog To: Review with pictures.
• Toronto Star: Review of Souvlaki and Biryani plates
• Toronto Sun: Overall coverage

I'm left wondering if local restaurants have been lobbying the municipality of Ottawa to prevent what they view as undue competition in their retail space. Personally, I think that preventing street vendors from selling their wares effectively strips Ottawa of food diversity when it comes our local restaurant scene. The restaurants that I frequent make and serve food that cannot be sold via a "cart." At the same time, there is food from a cart that should not be served by a restaurant. Surely the restaurant scene in Ottawa is mature enough to reflect such...

According to the e-mail that's going around, the "Hershey Man" can tell your age using "chocolate math."

Here are the steps:

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759. Else, add 1758.
6. Subtract the four digit year that you were born.
7. You should have a three digit number.

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are your age.

Furthermore, this trick "only works for 2009."

Working out the algebra, you find out why:

• (2n+5)x50 + 1759 - birth year, where n is the number of times/week you like to have chocolate and birthday has occurred or
• (2n+5)x50 + 1758 - birth year, where n is the number of times/week you like to have chocolate and birthday has not occurred

And:

• 100n + 250 + 1759 - birth year -> 100n + (2009 - birth year), where n is the number of times/week you like to have chocolate and birthday has occurred or
• 100n + 250 + 1758 - birth year -> 100n + (2008 - birth year) where n is the number of times/week you like to have chocolate and birthday has not occurred

In other words, the trick sticks your chosen number into the 100's place and prays that you're not 100+ years old.

For it to work next year, simply increment the 1759 and 1758 by one, respectively.

I'm just glad there are no consequences for not perpetuating the e-mail like "Forward this e-mail to 3 friends in the next five minutes or you'll turn into a chocolate Easter bunny."

For those who don't know, Ottawa hosts a restaurant that is actively pushing the frontiers of food. It is located on Rochester Street and, as of today (for the 5th consecutive month), the foodie community at OpenTable.com feels it is the best overall restaurant in Ontario. Of course, I am referring to Atelier.

Me, I haven't tried it, but I like to encourage innovation. Just look at what the chefs at this restaurant have been up to:

Source: "The Ride So Far" from Atelier's YouTube Channel

This video was released shortly after the 6 month anniversary of Atelier's opening.

Not impressed yet? Click here for images of recent dishes from their latest photo shoot. They are hosted on Atelier's website. Apparently, the restaurant will even be featured in the August 2009 edition of Elle magazine.

I promised myself that I'd give the restaurant's 12 course tasting menu ($75) a try before Atelier celebrated its 1 year anniversary. Several weeks ago, I decided June 29, 2009 will be the date. There are two reasons:

1. I like to pack a lot of activities into the days surrounding Canada Day.
2. A foodie friend from Toronto may drop by Ottawa that evening specifically to dine at Atelier.

Because this will be the first time I have ever tried food so avant garde, I invite 16-20 other food enthusiasts to join me. Foodies, gastronomes, gourmets, or simply adventurous eaters, I want to hear from all of you!

Here are some ground rules that I've worked out with Atelier's Executive Chef/Owner, Marc Lepine:

• There are limited seats in Atelier's dining room so reservations are a must (June 29, 2009 @6:30 pm). Please mention you are with foodiePrints.
• Reservations need to be made with the restaurant ((613)321-3537) and must include a credit card number.

Unlike other tweet-up/foodie meet venues, please bear in mind that Atelier is a fine food establishment and no shows are very costly to their bottom line. No shows on June 29, 2009 will be charged 50% of the value of the tasting menu.

For those who follow Ottawa Citizen's Food Editor, Ron Eade, these are the same rules that were arranged for the Omnivore's Ottawa's first Supper Club. Like those arrangements, if more than 16 people reserve, we can get a discount on the 12 course tasting menu.

I will check back with Atelier weekly to see how numbers are and update this blog. I look forward to meeting everyone who wishes to join me for dinner on June 29th.

Particulars:
Atelier Restaurant
540 Rochester Street
(613)321-3537

One of Ottawa's social networking visionaries and a founder of the 12 for 12k charity, Susan Murphy posted a very interesting piece on her personal blog about how those of us on the web are often too busy with it to notice when important developments occur. As examples, she points to Google openly considering "Rich Snippets" and the launch of Wolfram Alpha.

She feels, and rightly so, that we who use the web are often so mired in it that we may be stifling innovation because we simply don't ask for more: more accessibility, better user interfaces, quality search results etc. We're just too busy twitter'ing, facebook'ing, and blogging.

In response, a commenter replied:

I?ve heard these arguments for years, Susan, and as valid as they seem, nothing?s going to happen?from the perspective of a critical mass shift?for YEARS...there is one web...Your blog post is information, this comment is information; how will John the Plumber who?s never touched a computer or cellphone in his life use what we?re creating?

Well, a chef answered the question in his blog, called d8c, encouraging others in his field to look to new tools like Wolfram Alpha. It is a short but important read.

The following is my comment to Sue's blog. It responds to the "Joe the plumber" comment:

Sue, you?re not the only one pointing people to try new tools to drive innovation in the direction of the semantic. Ari Herzog mentions Joe the plumber. How about Jonas the Chef?

In his latest blog, which was pointed to me by the Exec. Chef/Owner of Epicuria, Jonas points to Wolfram Alpha as one of several new tools that people in his industry need to start paying attention to. Wolfram Alpha provides more ?value? than traditional tools like Google. It readily gives information that chefs can ?really use.?

Such more than likely stems from Wolfram Alpha?s strengths: 1) careful input of selective information from reputable sources and 2) natural language interface. The tool thus carries automatic legitimacy and authority. Not only can it reason, which is already novel, but it reasons with information that was already selected to be legitimate.

And yes, this is also Wolfram Alpha?s weakness because the information base, upon which the tool reasons, needs to be maintained. It will be labour intensive. Semantic technologies aim to add meta data to existing user-generated information so semantic-aware application can reason with it. Wolfram Alpha is essentially a proof of concept, employing a closed information base.

I feel Jonas is alluding to chefs to think outside the box, perhaps think at the molecular level and try avant garde techniques using such things a cryo and immersion circulators.

In the same vein, everyone should try new things, especially with respect to the world wide web. There is much to do to make the semantic web a reality, but the impetus must be put to the ?nerds? to move in that direction.

I want more leverage-able information with my first query. I want to be able to converse with the web, be it on a smart phone or computer, with conversational prose. I want to be able to make use of crowd sourcing beyond summarizing dozens of blog entries, tweets, or conversations in an online forum. I want all information on the World Wide Web to be more accessible.

I think Joe the plumber would appreciate such too. This is especially true when he becomes aware of services like AskAroundOttawa that recommend him, by name, to potential clients because he does good work.

BTW, many thanks to Chef Tracey Black, the mentioned Executive Chef/Owner of Epicuria, for tweeting about Jonas' latest blog post during the weekend. It was worth occupying my guests with the Wii and sneaking into the bedroom with my laptop to read it.

To this end, I would like to encourage innovation in the culinary field as well. This is why, I am arranging dinner at Ottawa's arguably most "avant garde" restaurant, Atelier (540 Rochester Street) as a pre-Canada Day event.

There, its executive chef, chef de cuisine, and pastry chef balance the newest tools and techniques with local and seasonal ingredients. Last week, chef/owner Marc Lepine even served rhubarb from his own garden. The dishes he and his crew fashioned from the spring vegetable more than likely defy imagination.

I will blog and tweet about the event properly this week.

Essentially, I would like 18 food enthusiasts, be it Ottawa's own or visitors to the city, to join me on June 29, 2009 to try new dishes and support new ideas. Please disregard the hype about Atelier practicing "molecular gastronomy" because working with science in the kitchen is essentially what all chefs do regularly. As Jonas encourages, Atelier's chefs just happen to think about making dishes at the molecular level. They employ novel methods to prepare them. It is more of an evolution of the professional kitchen, than a cuisine in its own right.

Particulars:
Atelier Restaurant
540 Rochester Street
(613)321-3537

Epicuria
419 Mackay Street
(613)745-7356

For those of you who know me well, you know that I dislike being predictable. So what do you think happened Wednesday night when my better half had to work late and I was left to my devices for dinner? Any normal bachelor, living in very close vicinity of west Ottawa's Epicurean Row, would have availed himself of a decent meal at a restaurant or takeout from one of the neighboring foodie shops.

Me, I decided to gorge myself on some locally grown seasonal veg: fiddleheads and asparagus.

Fiddleheads
According to About.com, fiddleheads are a spring delicacy. They are young Ostrich fern fronds that have not yet opened up. They must be picked during a two-week window before the fern unfurls. Afterward, they are inedible due to higher concentrations of a naturally occurring toxin.

Health Canada has a warning about this forage-able bounty,

...fresh fiddleheads (need to) be washed several times in fresh cold water. They should then be cooked in boiling water for 15 minutes or steamed for 10 to 12 minutes until tender. Water used for boiling or steaming fiddleheads should be discarded as it may contain the toxin. Fiddleheads should also be boiled or steamed prior to sautéing, frying or baking...

Having consumed undercooked or raw fiddleheads, some unpalatable symptoms can ensue: diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and headaches. They generally lasts less than 24 hours, but can precipitate further illness.

As such, follow the proceeding recipe at your own risk. I have cooked fiddleheads for 15 minutes in boiling water before. The results were less palatable than the symptoms that may occur from eating them undercooked. However, I do suggest washing them in three changes of water.

@foodiePrints Trim ends, wash/rinse well, remove paper skins & bits of debris, simmer 4-5 mins; toss w/ butter, flaky sea salt & pepper.

The recipe comes from a reputable source. And yes, it was a tweet...

Purchase fiddleheads from a reputable stall in a farmer's market. In Ottawa, look for a Savour Ottawa poster. It means that the vendor has been successfully audited by an independent body. Mine purportedly come from Navan Ontario. I purchased them in the Byward Market.

Purchased Fiddleheads

Heat a pot of water to boiling under medium heat. Add the fiddleheads. Lower to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Bringing water containing fiddleheads back to a boil

Meanwhile, place 1.5 tbsp of unsalted butter into a metal bowl.

Broken up butter

Retrieve the fiddleheads and drain thoroughly. Discard the cooking liquid with prejudice. When you think the fiddleheads are dry, drain them again. Then, deposit them piping hot into the metal bowl and toss in butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Shred some parmesan padano onto the fiddleheads.

Parmesan Padano, also purchased locally

Serve.

Done

Fiddleheads made this way retain a crisp texture. They taste very earthy, somewhat reminiscent of properly cooked brussel sprouts, but with an edible texture. The butter and parmesan padano add richness and sharp accompanying flavours. Thank-you Mr. Reputable Source.

Asparagus
As for the asparagus, again purchase local asparagus from a reputable vender. Separate according to thickness and break off the woody ends.

Separated Asparagus

Drizzle with oil. Salt and pepper and grill until they brighten in colour.

Grilling Asparagus

Remove them to a plate.

Add 1 tbsp of butter into a non-stick pan and heat it on medium until it stops bubbling. Sautee some panko bread in the butter until they brown slightly.

Top the asparagus and serve.

Done

The asparagus was again earthy, fresh, and sweet, things that imported asparagus do not taste like. Served this way, the asparagus actually take on textures of tempura vegetables, minus the frying of course.

Hello spring! You do not know how much I have missed you!

Update: The Globe and Mail just posted an interesting piece related to foraged spring delights, growing locovore-ism, commercialization of the crop, and the potential threat of ramps (wild leeks) and fiddleheads going extinct. Apparently, the demand for fiddleheads from one Quebec supplier is up 20% this year.

A little over two years ago a sushi shop opened on Promenade Du Portage, called Fuji Sushi. It happened to be situated nearby two large government office complexes, "Place du Portage" (4 phases) and "Terasses de la Chaudiere", in which workers are known to start their days at 7:00 am so that they can put in an hour's workout at the gym when they clock out. As someone who enjoys sleep, I do not understand the propensity to leave home everyday at 6:00 am. However, I do share these early risers' interest in a nearby food purveyor that sells something less greasy than pizza, burgers, or fries.

Besides, at the time, I had a young director and his assistant was very interested in Asian cuisine. Both were caught up with the trendy new sushi shop. Along with another colleague, the four of us set out on several sushi lunch expeditions to close off a particularly long week.

Then, there were some eager workers on the line, fashioning sushi to order and stockpiling 8-20 piece pre-made trays ($9-$24). The following are some of the first trays we dined on:

Three trays

Close up of a 20 piece tray
The sushi was actually decent, conscientiously made and fresh. Such is quite the achievement as the operation employed no seasoned itamae (aka: sushi chef). In fact, the cooks on the line were rather young, some more than likely schooling at one of the culinary schools in the national capital region.

Regarding the nigiri and maki, the rice was loosely packed and lightly seasoned with vinegar. The ingredients were evenly cut and carefully assembled. This was sushi that was slightly higher quality than supermarket.

Please note that, while there is some nigiri, the majority of the sushi can be considered "western-style." There was futomaki (thicker rolls) with tempura shrimp or tempura crumbs (Crunchy roll); futomaki with smoked salmon, avocado, and cream cheese (Montreal roll); hossomaki (thinner and shorter rolls) with mango and cream cheese (Tropical roll); and more common inverted maki or California rolls. "Western-style" sushi differs from traditional "Edo-style" sushi. I highly doubt I would ever find cream cheese in a maki roll were I to visit Tokyo. Were I to suggest it, I seriously expect to be escorted to the nearest water front and asked to swim home...

Recently, a fellow office worker in Gatineau reminded me that Fuji Sushi is still quite popular. I actually hadn't frequented the shop in a year and a half, often finding myself working through most of my lunch breaks. Last Friday, I decided to pop in and pickup a random tray, forgoing my standard packed lunch. Cost: $10.31, including taxes and tip.

Here's what I ended up with:

14 Piece Tray with New Menu

Sushi
I was literally shocked. While Fuji Sushi still included more pickled ginger, wasabi, and light soy than can possibly be eaten with their trays, the tray's contents were astonishing. The hossomaki had next to no rice around their overstuffed cores. The avocado was unevenly cut and clearly oxidized (brown due to prolonged exposure to the air). The tuna on the tuna nigiri was so sloppily sliced thin that it had cracks in it, revealing the rice bed beneath. The shrimp on the shrimp nigiri was so overcooked that it lost its natural texture. The rice beds were also densely packed, requiring much chew to eat.

Worst of all, the rice was hard and it is no wonder.

Rice Bed
Looking closely at the rice bed of the shrimp nigiri, the rice used did not look like sushi rice. It looked like long grain rice. Traditional sushi rice is short grain, like Italian Arborio rice, which is used to make risotto. Unlike short grain rice, long grain rice hardens when cooled.

When I purchased my tray, I also saw someone literally hacking at a side of salmon on a work table with what looked like an 10" scimitar-style knife without a granton edge. Smiling, the cashier told me that he was preparing fish for a party order to be picked up that evening. Looking around, I saw neither Japanese carbon steel knives nor honing steels, typical of a sushi restaurant.

What had a year and a half done to this poor establishment to cause such a drop in quality? Suffice it to say, I won't be returning.

Determination: Domestic North American - Sushi: ---$, ----*

For completeness, former and current menus follow after the jump. However, I advise you not to use them...

More after the jump...

Yesterday, both the Globe and Mail newspaper and the CBC published separate stories on Health Canada being encouraged to allow more food producers to fortify their products. While Globe and Mail's Carly Weeks starts by mentioning "cheese puffs with added vitamin D", CBC includes a picture of gingerbread men.

Accordingly, there are mandatory fortification programs that add vitamins like D and C (folic acid) to milk and flour respectively. These policies however restrict other members of the food producing industry from doing the same. In 2005, a proposal was made to permit manufacturers to add thiamine, beta-carotene, vitamin D, and calcium to such products as frozen dinners or packaged snacks. Foods that naturally contain vitamins and minerals, such as fruits, vegetables, pasta, meat, and breakfast cereal would be excluded.

On Wednesday (May 13, 2009), the Food and Consumer Products of Canada industry group begun actively lobbying the federal government to make a decision on the proposal. According to FCPC president and CEO Nancy Croituru, the intention is not for deregulation, but "smarter regulation" so that manufacturers can provide Canadians with "the healthy products that are now available out there."

In response, health and nutrition groups are pushing Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to scrap the proposal. They fear that fortifying processed foods will be used as a marketing gimmick by companies to sell products with little nutritional value. This in turn, could lead to more consumption of processed food and worsen already unhealthy eating habits. According to them "fortification does not affect existing levels of sugar, fat, calories or sodium, which can already be quite high."

In the open market, where marketing seems to be the weapon of choice to fight for consumer dollars, manufacturers have been known to actively pursue labeling their products as healthy.

General Mills Inc., for instance, is currently in contention with the American equivalent of Health Canada, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The U.S. already permits many of its processed products to be fortified thereby allowing manufacturers to advertise health benefits. In the case of General Mills, the FDA has taken issue with their labeling boxes of Cheerios with "clinically proven to lower cholesterol." According to the FDA, promoting such makes the breakfast cereal a drug. This is because the product is "intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease."

Another example is the knee-jerk reaction of manufacturers to a study from the Journal of Clinical Investigation that resulted in a study group that consumed drinks, sweetened with fructose, having more visceral fat, higher levels of LDL cholesterol, and lower insulin sensitivity. Visceral fat adheres to organs and is associated with heightened risk for such diseases as cardiovascular and type 2 diabetes. As a result, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut, Kraft Foods, and ConAgra have publicly changed their sweeteners from high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to more "natural" ones, including blends of cane and beet. Slate Magazine's Daniel Engber takes them to task in his piece entitled, "The Delcine and Fall of High-Fructose corn Syrup." Firstly, HFCS is only slightly higher in fructose than cane sugar (sucrose). The study from the Journal of Clinical Investigation states in its conclusion that further study is required to determine what levels of sugars (HFCS or sucrose) can be associated with adverse effects. It does not differentiate between the two as the study only tested drinks sweetened with either fructose or glucose. Secondly, Australia, whose primary sweetener is cane sugar, has similar obesity rates as the US. Thirdly, the FDA itself ruled that HFCS can be considered "natural."

Since manufacturers aim to fortify processed foods and continue to sweeten foods with sugars in quantities that have not been demonstrated to be anymore healthy, I would like to enter the fray with the following food product:

Felt Shawarma
Source: Squid Wool blog

This product is made with felt. No sugars were added. It can easily be fortified by stuffing it with a couple Flintstones chewable vitamins. Sounds ludicrous? Do what manufacturers want to accomplish sound that much different?

Update: I just came across a corollary piece by New York Times' Marc Bittman, entitled "Food Companies Try, but Can?t Guarantee Safety".

While manufacturers seem perfectly willing to add stuff to their products, they have started putting instructions on frozen dinners recommending they not be heated in a microwave and they be tested with a probe thermometer to ensure that the food reaches 165F. It seems that, in the wake of large scale cases of food born contamination, manufacturers want to offload liability to consumers...

A link that's currently making the rounds on digg.com leads to a piece that was put together sometime this past March on home-designing.com. It features some rather creative chair designs, made with recycled materials. There are chairs constructed out of everything from pencils to firearms. Since foodiePrints is a food blog, I am going to include two pertinent images from the collection. There are much more on the original page that link to some really interesting furniture design websites.

Ever wonder what happens to the cutlery from restaurants after they're turned over? UK's Osian Batyka-Williams made a sitting implement from serving implements:

Chair Made From Spoons
Source: osianbatykawilliams.com c/o home-designing.com

I drink very little wine, but I've an abundance of wine bottle corks after dinner parties. Here's an innovative way to use them:

Chairs Made From Wine Corks
Source: furnitureseen.com c/o home-designing.com

Gotta luv the resourcefulness of designers :)

My better half - blog editor, restaurant co-critic, and talented cook - celebrated her birthday this month. She is an invaluable member of the foodiePrints team. It is to her I turn when I try new recipes. She accompanies me to restaurants, where her fine senses of smell and taste can detect the faintest flavourings. She also happened to be the reason I started looking intently at food. What better reason is there to learn to cook than to cook for a loved one?

How does one celebrate the birthday of the editor of foodiePrints? Our friend Lou Lou started with a dinner party. I carried on with a foodie's picnic and finished with cake and ice cream.

Dinner Party:
As per the 6 months long tradition between our friends, Viv and Lou Lou, each weekend we have been attempting new recipes and inviting each other over to try the resultant dishes. If we're exhausted after a long work week, we fetch take-out and play Wii late into the evening. One Friday, we even discovered that freshly made Thai and Indian food go well together.

A Saturday before Jenn's birthday, Lou Lou invited us over to her place. There, she surprised us with quite the spread:

Lou Lou's Dishes
Clockwise from bottom left: stewed goat with sweet potato vermicelli noodles, stewed goat without noodles, turkey breast Thai green curry with young sugar snap peas, and fried rice with corn and green beans.

While everything was good, the stewed goat dish with sweet potato vermicelli noodles was by far the standout.

Stewed Goat with Noodles
The goat pieces came pre-chopped and bone-in from an Asian mega-mart in the Scarborough area. Lou Lou froze the pieces, intending them for a special occasion. To make the dish, she started by frying up some pantry dried spices (including some curry powder) and added sugar. Then, she added the goat meat and dashes of several prepared sauces. She was vague about which ones. I tasted some soy. Once everything was coated, she added enough water to cover and simmered the dish on low for three hours. Since neither my better half nor I have ever tried goat, she fished out some pieces for us to try before adding a little more water and the vermicelli noodles.

Sweet Potato Vermicelli Noodles

Stewed Goat
The noodles expanded almost magically in the cooking liquid, filling the pot. The flavours of the reportedly Northern Chinese dish were intense: sweet and savory, peppery, spicy, and slightly pungent. The texture, while not meltingly tender, just barely held together.

Goat meat does not have the strong flavour of lamb, but tastes different than beef. This red meat is somewhat sweeter.

When I first peeked into the pot, I thought Lou Lou had cooked up a batch of pig's trotters. Happily, I was wrong. It was much better. I will definitely attempt the recipe when again the temperature causes a frost warning. I should be able to find some goat meat in our local Chinatown.

For the green curry, Lou Lou used condensed coconut milk in a tetra-pack, which I've yet to come across in Ottawa.

Condensed Coconut Milk

For dessert, Jenn and I brought our attempt at Chef Rick Bayless' Olive Oil cake.

Picnic:
The next day, Jenn and I skipped breakfast and packed plates and utensils into a knapsack with a thermos of water and a stack of whole grain crackers. Around noon, we set off on foot to pickup provisions for a picnic in the park that divides Westboro Village's shops from its residential area. My intention was to have us enjoy a couple hours of quiet time, snacking on some locally made delectables for a late afternoon lunch.

On our way down Wellington Street, we stopped at the Ottawa Bagel Shop (1321) and Il Negozio Nicastro (1355). At the Bagel Shop, we picked up a loaf of white Art-Is-In bread and a portion of a Quebec-made raw milk cheese.

Bread and Cheese
Cost: $7.77 including taxes.

While we perused the artesanal meats and cheeses at Il Negozio Nicastro, we found ourselves spoiled with too much choice. We took some notes of things to try, but left empty-handed. That is, save for its business card.

Il Negozio Nicastro

A trip to through Westboro Village would be incomplete without a stopover at the Piggy Market (400 Winston Avenue). There, we picked up a 2 finger-wide slice of chicken pate and, as requested by Jenn, a rotisserie chicken. When last we went to the Piggy Market, co-owner Dave Neil didn't have a rotisserie setup.

Roasted Chicken and Chicken Pate
Before anyone asks, the pig container is actually a sandwich container that my better half picked up at the Dollar Store. Dave got a kick out of it when I asked him to forgo the butcher paper and deposit the pate into it.
Cost for Chicken and Chicken Pate: $35.02 including taxes.

Having only plastic utensils, leftovers from years of re-using them for my lunches, we discovered that one of the most important things to pack for a picnic is a sharp metal pocket knife. It would have made quick work of slicing the cheese and portioning the chicken. Instead, we made do with the serrated butter knife.

The raw milk cheese had a full flavour that I used to only associate with authentic parmigiano-reggiano.

Raw Milk Cheese
It also smelled somewhat strongly, but its sharpness and nuttiness were paramount! And yes, I eat the less substantial rinds of semi-hard cheeses...

The chicken pate actually had a mild offal flavour even though it more than likely included no liver.

Chicken Pate
It was extremely finely ground and smooth, spreading easily over crackers.

The chicken was simply the finest rotisserie chicken we've ever eaten. While it may have costed several times that of a mega-mart equivalent, the chicken was exquisitely succulent, both dark and light meat cooked to perfection.

Succulent Dark Meat

Dark Meat Served on a Cracker

Extremely Juicy White Meat
Jenn and I are still trying to figure out what went into the glaze that coloured the chicken's skin. It tasted strongly savory and sweet with a tart almost tomato-y-ness...We saw what looked like bottles of organic ketchup under a work bench at the Piggy Market, but that can't just be it...I surmise that the chicken must have been slow roasted to produce the wonderful textures. Perhaps it was brined beforehand...

I should note that bagpipers and uniformed cadets marched down the street during our picnic. They were escorted by two police cruisers, who blocked traffic.

cadets
With the elderly veterans gathered around a nearby military memorial, we figured they were commemorating a battle from World War II.

As for the cake and ice cream, they will follow with a recipe in another post , so stay tuned!

Update: Clearly, I need to get my taste buds checked. Sundays are Honey Mustard rotisserie chicken days. I just got back from the Piggy Market, having picked up a pair of smoked duck breasts and a loaf of Art Is In bread for appetizers this evening. The following is the weekly schedule as of May 17, 2009:

• Thursday - Mystery day (Dave makes whatever flavour of chicken he sees fit)
• Friday - Citrus
• Saturday - Jamaican Jerk (this WILL be the next rotisserie chicken I buy from the Piggy Market)
• Sunday - Honey Mustard

Update 2: I just got back from the Piggy Market (June 6, 2009), where Dave listed the ingredients of his chicken pate to me. There is liver in it, but other ingredients are added to complement it and ensure a creamy smooth texture. I bought another 1 inch loaf for supper.

Particulars:
The Ottawa Bagel Shop
1321 Wellington Street
(613) 722-8753

Piggy Market
400 Winston Avenue
(613) 371-6124
E-mail: thepiggymarket@gmail.com

This year, I arranged vacation days around the Mother's Day weekend to ensure that there was ample time to celebrate the mothers in my life: mine, my better half's, and her godmother. Best of all, I would have a day to recover afterward. Having a four day weekend and a long list of tasks to accomplish, we rented a car, picking it up Friday morning. Between chasing from one end of the city to the other, foodies both, we indulged in visiting several eateries, normally difficult to get to without a car.

Whalesbone Sustainable Fish and Oyster Supply
For lunch on the Friday, we went to The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster and Fish Supply, located 504-A Kent Street.

Front

Side Signage
There, we encountered Chef/Manager Kate Klenavic in her characteristic toque, which she seems to be always wearing in her pictures.

What makes the Whalesbone Supply sustainable? According to its handouts, it is committed to sourcing shell-fish and fin-fish from suppliers who practice sustainable farming and fishing. While their product list is small, their targeted species reflect, among other factors, the following:

• populations abundant enough to sustain fisheries
• preference to hook & line caught fish over trawling
• preference to on-shore farmed fish over open water
• preference to string and rack farmed shellfish over ground culture
• minimized catch of non-targeted species
• protection of spawning grounds, sea beds, and kelp beds
• sustainable management initiatives

Together, purchasing sustainable fish from Whalebone Supply ensures that fisheries remain healthy, less species go extinct, the food chain is preserved, "by catch" is reduced, and damage to the natural habitat of fish and other marine life is preserved. They are also honest about their fish being shipped to Ottawa frozen when not in season.

Between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, Fridays and Saturdays, Whalesbone Supply sells their "Famous Brown Bag Lunches", made from available stock. Because of unfortunate weather patterns in Western Canada, leading up to the day of our visit, the bag lunches were restricted to yellow perch and mackerel from Lake Erie and sockeye salmon from Alaska.

Lunch Board

Jenn had the Perch Dog Sandwich (cost: $5.50)

Perch Dog

Cross Section
Think incredibly fresh tasting, lightly floured, and pan fried fillet of perch in a soft kaiser (with toasted sesame seeds). It was accompanied by lightly pickled onions, shredded lettuce, and homemade mayonnaise. The bite I took was amazing, balancing crispy freshly cooked fish with crunchy lettuce, fatty mayonnaise, and bright pickled onions. The onions reminded us of sauerkraut.

I had the hot smoked salmon sandwich (cost: $6.50)

Hot Smoked Salmon Sandwich

Cross Section
When the Whalesbone Supply opened, the father of one of the co-founders found that he had a hot smoker that he wasn't using and offered it to the establishment. It is now located at the rear of the building. The result: Whalesbone Supply produces some really nice hot smoked sustainable fish, which they sell to a steady stream of customers. Hot smoking fish means that it is lightly cured and cooked in smoke that has not been cooled. As such, the fish is not preserved and will need to be refrigerated to prevent spoilage. Textures different to cold smoked fish are produced, but hot smoking adds a wonderful smoky flavour.

Case in point, the hot smoked salmon. Think gently flaked fish that came from smoker to plate, in a soft kaiser. It was accompanied with a sour cream sauce, lightly caramelized onions, and capers. This take on the classic cold smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers was great. The same balance is achieved between savory, smoky, and bright flavours, all carried by the fat in the sour cream. But, there is added sweetness and texture from the onions. Yum!

Total: $20.00 including 2 drinks, taxes, and tip. This is quite the bargain, considering that the fish came straight from the supplier.

Speaking of drinks, Jenn and I purchased two types of ginger ale, a more traditional canned Schweppes and a much more full flavoured Stewart's Ginger Beer.

Stewart's Ginger Beer
Stewart's didn't carry the strong and searing punch of ginger like the Jamaican ginger beer I tried at the Ottawa Bagel Shop. It was also less sweet than the Schweppes.

Please do not confuse the Whalesbone Sustainable Fish and Oyster Supply with the Whalesbone Restaurant on Bank Street.

Whalesbone Restaurant
Both are affiliated, but one is a supplier. The other is reputedly the go to place for fish and seafood in Ottawa. Further, the Whalesbone Supply has no seating area. Bag lunches are strictly takeout, made to order, and, if 10 or more will be purchased at any one time, they require prior warning by phone.

The Works
After having accomplished Friday's errands, Jenn and I took her sister Jazzie for dinner at, what I feel is the flagship location of locally owned "The Works" burger chain. Its Glebe location on 580 Bank Street is the oldest of the 5 establishments. The others are located in Kanata, Orleans, Manor Park, and Westboro. I believe the Glebe location is where the "legend" was born and it serves as the example for the others. As such, while Jenn and I have had Westfest burgers from the Westboro location, we decided to have our first authentic "The Works" experience in the Glebe.

A description follows after the jump:

More after the jump...

After missing March's Hintonburg Supper Club event, my better half and I vowed to attend the next one. Having exhausted the restaurants on Wellington Street, April's event was held at the Canvas Resto-Bar on Holland Avenue.

Canvas Resto-Bar
For RSVP'ers, owner Charles Beauregard put together a very respectable table d'hote. The starter was soup (the day's "chef's creation") and a small seasonal salad. The main, a choice between steak or poultry. The dessert, a choice between custard or chocolate mousse.

Menu
Cost: $45 before tip or taxes and drinks were extra. For drinks, Jenn and I ordered "Whispers of Summer" ($5.90 for 2), which is an off-the-menu mixture of citrus and mango juices that features some very summery flavours. It is quite refreshing.

The starter turned out to be a roasted tomato soup and it came with a mixed green salad.

Soup and Salad Starter
The soup was finished with finely shredded Parmesan. The salad featured young dandelion leaves sprinkled with pecans and a raspberry citrus dressing.

While the salad was more seasonal (a wonderful mixture of peppery greens, cherry tomatoes, and a sweet and tart dressing), the soup tasted like a throwback to fall. That is when tomatoes are ripe in Ottawa. It tasted of concentrated tomato, punctuated with sharp tastes from the cheese. Served with Art-Is-In bread and slightly caramel-tasting brown butter (beurre noisette), the dinner opened with promise of good things to come.

For my main, I chose the Quebec Guinea Fowl Supreme: breast meat quarter with wing drumette (aka: date portion).

Poultry Main
It came with sauteed green string beans and smashed fingerling potatoes. The plate was drizzled with a red wine reduction.

I found the supreme portion somewhat overdone for my tastes, slightly harsh. However, its sides were well cooked and well portioned, allowing me to pair meat with either potato or string beans for very agreeable mouthfuls. The fingerling potatoes were a welcomed change to singularly textured mashed.

For her main, Jenn chose the steak frites.

Steak Main
The steak was a tenderloin cut. It was accompanied with bistro fries and a garlicy aioli. The plate was drizzled with a port reduction.

My better half seemed to enjoy her meal. The bite of steak she gave me came from the outer portion of her steak. It was quite well done. Since she ordered medium, this meant that only the center of her steak was done as requested. The fries and aioli, on the other hand, were freshly made and creamy respectively.

For dessert, we both had the Kahlua Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee
The creme brulee, with its delicate custard and thin melted sugar crust, was served with fresh berries and a slice of mint. Their acidity and freshness helped to cut the richness of the custard.

Overpowering Bite
However, the custard itself tasted overpoweringly of Kahlua, each bite packing a powerful alcoholic punch. Less would have been greatly appreciated. Jenn couldn't finish her dessert. I mostly finished mine as I enjoy portioning properly crusted creme brulee with a spoon - every bite of custard with some sugar crust.

All in all, the meal was good and our table mates (Joanne and Brad) sang the restaurant praises both before and after dinner. Save for the dessert, we agreed. What issues we had were minor. The platings were very fetching. Service was also spectacular. Food was served quickly and efficiently.

Beauregard, who was our host, knew his menu and restaurant well, happily sharing information about its dishes and wine. In fact, the yellow chair that is randomly placed in the dining room from evening to evening is a result of he having extra yellow paint during renovations after Absinthe took its leave. It is meant as a conversation starter and was very effective.

The Yellow Chair

Much of our dinner conversation was about the restaurant scene in Ottawa, Ottawa's food critics (including a certain Ottawa Citizen Food Editor), and the Ottawa Magazine. When Canvas was mentioned, Beauregard interjected that the year it was listed on Chris Knight's "To Watch List", Knight walked into the restaurant within days of its opening.

Knight, in the unlikely situation that you are reading this review, I feel that Canvas is a good fine food eatery. It has potential to be much more. Determination: Ethnic European French/British: -$$$, --***

Here is Canvas' business card:

Front

Back

Almost forgot: If requested, Beauregard signs copies of special event menus for you. I plan on collecting special event menus from restaurants when they are offered to patrons.

Updated: If you're interested in brown butter (beurre noisette), The Traveler's Lunchbox blog has a recipe for brown butter ice cream.

Particulars:
Canvas Resto-Bar
65 Holland Avenue
(613)729-1991

More after the jump...

My better decided to add stir fried lobster to her Mother's Day menu. As such, we picked up a pair of live lobsters from the local mega-mart. When we purchased them from the fish counter, the teenage fishmonger eagerly offered to cook them for us. It seems that many customers are squeamish about handling raw foods, especially the variety that moves around. Given that the "cooking process" takes no more than several minutes, I wondered how humane it was for lobsters to be either quick boiled or quick steamed. When requested, the once brown lobsters are taken from their tank into a back room where the "magic" occurs. They are then handed back to happy customers red and immobile, their shells in immaculate condition.

On a side note, several customers, who crowded the fish counter when that day's stock was unloaded, turned away when they were told that the lobsters were farmed and not wild. Honestly, at approx. $7/lb for 1-1.25 lb lobster, do you really expect the weekend "special" to be lobster trapped off the maritime coast?

That said, we decided to accept responsibility for lobster welfare and sought to find a more humane way to put them down. There are numerous on the web:

• Place them in fresh water to put them to sleep, then cook
• Place them in tepid water to acclimatize them and the slowly raise the heat.
• Numb them by refrigeration (either in the fridge or freezer) prior to cooking
• Numb them by dousing them in iced salt water prior to cooking
• Plunge a knife behind the eyes and cut down through the head, then cook

Source: Majority of these options are aggregated in a piece called "Shell Shock" from the NYTimes

After some discussion on twitter and finding a step by step guide, I ended up choosing the traditional method of bisecting the head area with a chef's knife. However, I first chilled the lobsters in the fridge for well over an hour.

As per instructions:

Take one groggy live lobster
Grasp it between where the body connects to the tail.

While holding it against the cutting board...

place the tip of a chef's knife 1" or 1.5" from the head, with the blade facing away.

Plunge downwards and then...

bring the knife between the eyes to finish the cut.


Place the lobster a steaming apparatus and steam for 15 minutes over simmering water
For a lobster ranging from 1-1.25 lb, this is appropriate to not overcook the meat.


Plunge the lobster into ice water to stop the cooking


After straining, you will have gently cooked lobster, ready for a stir fry

Using an already posted recipe for aromatic stir-fried lobster, such is what happened to the two steamed lobsters.

Served
Also served were smoked salmon, sweet chili chicken, sautéed egg tofu on Chinese greens, oven roasted pork side ribs, and stir fried bok choy. Not pictured were fish soup and beef stew. Quite the feast, no?

The lobster dish went over very well, disappearing quickest.

Given that I'm awaiting the next iteration of the iPhone 3G, this is going to be as close to live-blogging/live-tweeting as foodiePrints will get for the time being.

Around noon today, Jenn and I dropped by Hintonburg's ArtsPark event in Ottawa's Parkdale Market. It featured an art show, live music, a "Poetry Factory", and several children's activities. When we arrived, an entire orchestra was setting up in the drained wading pool in the "quad."

Arts Park

Card
Today being Mother's Day and the event being extremely family friendly, the park was packed despite the temperature falling to 5 C. Still, all the vendors and volunteers were warm, inviting, and friendly.

Of course, we at foodiePrints were more interested in the "Taste of Hintonburg" tables behind the stage.

Tables from left to right: Indian Express and some standard event barbecuers
There's nothing quite like hot foods in a cold climate with live music playing.

At Indian Express' table, we picked up what I think may be Alu Tikka on their take-out menu: 2 potato patties, served with curried chickpeas, and finished with yoghurt and a tomato-based sauce.

Alu Tikka

The sweet tomato-based sauce sauce and chickpeas were spiced, producing some heat, which was cooled by the yoghurt. The potato patties seemed to be made from shredded potatoes, herbs, and crushed whole spices.

Potato Pattie
They were sauteed to crust in a wok-like implement and served hot.

Total cost: $5

We also found the Indian Express-mobile parked next door.

Indian Express-mobile

Two doors down from Indian Express' table, we came across Essence Fine Food Catering, who served a wonderful hot smoked brisket sandwich.

Essence Catering

Hot Smoke Brisket Sandwich

The sandwich featured beef brisket that was hot smoked over a period of 5 hours and then further slow cooked for another 4 hours in an oven. The smoking fuel was soaked oak. Needless to say, the brisket, which had fallen apart from the slow cooking, was very succulent. It was shredded and then dressed with a pomegranate barbecue sauce and served on a whole grain bun with mint slaw, shredded carrots and onions, and toasted sesame seeds.

Beautifully Layered Sandwich
It was delicious, smoky, sweet, and slightly tangy (not at all vinegary). The slaw added wonderful fresh aromatic flavours, which actually had me thinking of a Vietnamese bahn mi.

Again Total Cost: $5

mchenwears
Don't worry, we didn't just stop for the food. We perused the arts tables too, picking up an adorable print from local artist and freelance graphics designer Emily Chen.

Jungle
Emily is @mchenwears on twitter. Besides prints, she has a wonderful line of hand-printed tee's, skirts, and t-shirts. Everything is also available for view online from her website, mchenwears.com, and for sale on Etsy.

There's still an hour left! Go check it out!

According to the Associated Press, today is "Odd Day" to math buffs because the date 5/7/09 is one of only six this century that will feature three consecutively odd numbers. Redwood City math teacher, Ron Gordon, who also promotes such numerical holidays as Square Root Day on 3/3/09, has offered $579 to anyone who celebrates Odd Day with the most "zeal." On his website, oddday.net, he suggests celebrating by "giving a friend a high-five", "rooting for the odds-on favourite", "reading the Wizard of Odds", "watching the Odd couple" or saying "aaaaaahd" in the doctor's office. Oddly, the "Odd Day" piece has been picked up by Yahoo and other national newspapers, but gives no further details about the contest.

In my search to discover more "about Odd Day", I ran head long into the Practically Edible website. Apparently, it's "National Leg of Lamb Day" as well. Eh? National where? Serious Eats doesn't tell you, despite their posting a blog on the subject and recommending commemorating the day by cooking the late Bea Arthur's leg of lamb recipe. The Practically Edible website mentions Australia and the "northern hemisphere." It also intimates that North Americans avoid lamb because we "don't like the taste", hence it is more expensive when compared to lamb in international markets.

In response, please take note. We at foodiePrints reside in North America and we enjoy lamb.

Here is an "odd" recipe to commemorate both days. It produces a slow roasted lamb leg that is effectively braised and then broiled to take on some colour.

Braised Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots

To make it, purchase one shank end leg of lamb, fresh or frozen. If frozen, defrost it.

Take a paring knife an poke holes in the lamb about and inch into the flesh. Distribute the holes evenly amongst the meatier portions. Then, unwrap garlic cloves to fill each hole. Gently push them into the flesh until they disappear. Salt and pepper the entire leg and drizzle with olive oil.

Place the lamb in a baking tray and tent completely with aluminium foil. Place the tray onto the middle rack of a pre-heated 325F oven. Roast for an hour.

Afterward, remove the tray from the oven and gently pull off the tinfoil. Carefully lift the lamb leg to place 1lb each of fingerling potatoes and baby carrots onto the tray under the it.

Re-tent completely, and bake for another 2 hours.

Remove the foil, switch the oven to broil and broil the lamb for half hour. It will take on a lovely golden colour.

Slice and serve the lamb along sides of carrots and potatoes.

Taste? Think succulent lamb with hints of garlic. The potatoes and carrots actually cook in the lamb leg's jus and pickup lamby flavours as well.

Done

This just in: Don't tell Ron Gordon that 5/7/09 (mm/dd/yy) is not the way dates are presented in Canada. This is an American representation, which probably means that odd day for us will not be for another 2 months. Shhhh!

With warmer weather approaching, my stock and crock pot have found themselves slowly being neglected. Spring and summer in Ottawa mean shifting diets towards including more seasonal produce like dandelion leaves and fiddle heads. Some local farms with poly-tunnels (plastic enclosed green houses) will soon bring a variety of fruits and vegetables to the local open air markets, including the annual Lansdowne and new Main Street Farmers' Markets. Why do I make the distinction? Some open air markets, like the Parkdale one, host vendors who sell produce that come from the same distributors as those that supply local mega-marts. As such, the fruits and vegetables are sourced no more locally than Florida oranges or Mexican tomatoes in the produce section of the Superstore.

Incidentally, the Parkdale Market has one vendor who decided to sell me a non-locally sourced Spanish onion for $1, when his display clearly read $0.75/each. After some argument, I gave up and paid a dollar for my onion. I was pressed for time and wanted to load up a batch of lamb korma to braise before heading out to dinner with my better half's family.

Before you ask, the Korma was not a "scratch" recipe, but I did completely ignore the instructions from the can of Patak's curry sauce.

Patak's Lamb Korma Curry Sauce
With shoulder and stew lamb on sale at the Metro this week and the can of Patak's curry sauce listing no multi-syllabic preservatives on its label, I couldn't resist.

However, I find braised dishes taste best if left to age in the fridge overnight after cooking. Flavours intensify and any fat pools at the top. It then solidifies and can be easily removed. This is why I usually make a slow cooked curry a night or two before it is served. Hence, the korma was Tuesday's evening's. The korma was braised the previous Sunday.:

Lamb Korma Served
It was served on basmati rice with a simple salad of cucumbers and tomatoes. The curry's flavour was wonderful, savory and mild, punctuated with coconut and tumeric. Best of all, the lamb was meltingly tender, true alchemy converting some rather unpromising scraps of meat and bone into something palatable.

To make it, I cut up 6 pieces of bone-in stew lamb into 2-3 inch cubes, estimated weight of 2 lbs, and placed them into a metal bowl.

Stew Lamb

I added salt, freshly ground pepper, and vegetable oil. Once well mixed, I seared the lamb on all sides in a metal pan over medium heat, approximately 2 minutes per side. Once seared, the lamb was placed into the pot of a crock pot (aka: slow cooker)

I deglazed the pan with a frenched onion and a pinch of salt, lowering the heat slightly below medium.

Onions

Once softened, I added the contents of one 284 mL can of curry sauce to the pan and heated it to a simmer with the onions, scraping any remaining fond at the bottom of the pan.

After simmering for 2-3 minutes, I topped the lamb with the onion/curry mixture.

Topped

To braise, I turned the crock pot to high and brought the liquid back to a simmer. Then, I switched the crock pot to low and left it for 3 hours.

When cool, it was placed in the fridge.

To serve, Jenn lifted the fat off with a soup spoon and re-heated the curry in a non-stick pan under medium heat until simmering.

Reheated

Served

Simple! No fuss...No muss.

On April 24th, celebrated Chef Rick Bayless generously tweeted the entire recipe for an olive oil cake that he serves in his Topolo restaurant with rhubarb, olive oil ice cream, and whipped sour cream.

5/4c sgr,2 lime zst,4 egg,beat 5 mn. Fold n ordr: 3T milk,1 3/4c flour,1 1/2t b.pwdr,2t lime,3oz ch gngr,7T mlt buttr,2/3c OO.2x9"pan.325/30

He, however, had to explain later that "ch gngr" was his recipe shorthand for "finely chopped" fresh ginger."

In so doing, Chef Bayless followed in the footsteps of Maureen Evens, a 27 year old British Columbia (BC) native who, according to CBC, currently resides in a rented castle in Norther Ireland with Twitter's former lead architect Blaine Cook. Going by the handle "@cookbook", she has been tweeting entire recipes since 2007, amassing a following of 12 000 tweeple, myself included. Her prolific tweeting even garnered the attention of the New York Times recently.

Here are two of her recipes from the New York Times piece:

Kashgar Noodles: mix3.5c flour/2egg/t salt; knead+12T h2o. Cut4; roll30x10cm/12x4". Cut crosswise cm/.5". Cvr30m.Pinch+stretch dbl. Boil6m.

Lahmacun: Turkish. Knead T yeast/t sug&salt/1.5c h2o/2c flour; rise h. Roll/top3 w 2c feta&greens/egg/4T butter; 15m@450F/230C. Srv w lemon.

As an enthusiast who is trying to keep the dying art of cooking alive, I really enjoy deciphering twitter recipes and putting my interpretations to test. Compared to Chef Bayless' recipe, writer and poet Evens' recipes look almost like riddles.

While Evans' Turkish Lahmacun recipe peaked my interest, last Saturday evening, I put my interpretation of Chef Bayless' recipe to test and attempted his cake for a dinner party hosted by a very dear friend named Lou Lou. As contingency, however, I purchased a package of bakery chocolate chip cookies in case I mistook a "t" for a "T" and tripled the amount of an ingredient.

To my utmost pleasure, the recipe turned out a very delicate cake that was gently sweetened and carried both warmth from the ginger and citrus from the lime zest.

Serving of Olive Oil Cake

Delicate Texture
Best yet, there was little argument in the kitchen between my better half and I about what the cryptic recipe meant. However, we did choose to add half the measurement of ginger from the recipe for two reasons: 1) our ginger was rather old and powerful and 2) we simply didn't have 3 oz of ginger. 3 oz of ginger translates into a rather large hand.

First we measured out 1.5 oz of peeled ginger on a digital scale and finely chopped it. Then I zested two limes. While I was able to zest the skin from my purchased limes, if ever I had a reason to pickup a micro plane grater, this was it. Limes are much more difficult to zest than oranges or lemons because of hard rind and thin zest. I also finely chopped the zest to ensure that no big pieces would end up in the cake.

Meanwhile, Jenn added 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar to a medium-sized metal bowl with 4 eggs. To this, I added the zest and proceeded to beat the mixture senseless with an electric egg beater for 5 minutes.

Jenn preheated the oven to 325F and prepared the rest of the mise en place: 3 tbsp of milk (2%), 1 3/4 cup of cake flour (sifted), 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder, 2 tsp of lime juice (squeezed from one of the naked limes), 7T (almost an entire stick) of melted butter (microwaved for 5 seconds on high and left to liquefy completely), and 2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil. The extra virgin olive oil we chose was rather flavorless, so did not contribute substantial pepperiness nor fruitiness. Jenn also took some parchment paper to a non stick lasagna pan, fashioning a sling so we could easily remove the cake after it cooled.

Each of the remaining ingredients were then added in order to the beaten egg/sugar mixture, which had doubled in volume and lightened slightly. When it came time to add the ginger, we actually forced the finely chopped ginger through a garlic press into the mixture. This way, we separated the harsher fibers from the ginger.

The entire mixture was then poured into the prepared pan and baked for 35 minutes. The recipe called for 30 minutes, but our poor old oven produced a cake that needed another 5 minutes for an inserted toothpick to come out clean.

Done

Small Piece for Tasting
The finished cake had the most gorgeous golden colour. Definitely making this again.

Update: Chef Bayless must have come across my tweet about our attempting his recipe because he responded

@foodiePrints I love your olive oil cake from my cryptic tweet. I'm totally impressed.
4:06 PM May 5th from web in reply to foodiePrints

Thank-you Chef!

More recipes tweeted by Chef Bayless follow after the jump...

More after the jump...

As some of my readers are already aware, I changed jobs recently and shifted office buildings away from Place Du Portage (200 Promenade du Portage) in Gatineau. The move was in response to an offer of a new challenge that I eagerly accepted. As a result, my eating habits have changed. The restaurants and shops that I frequented over the past 5 years are no longer conveniently located within several paces. While I normally bring lunch with me in re-usable containers, I have found that I gravitated to certain eateries when I forgot my bagged lunch in the fridge or worse, on the counter. Before I moved my belongings, I systematically re-visited many of the eateries in and around Place Du Portage's phases.

Portage - Cultures:
Regarding Portage's in-house food court, I usually purchased a quick lunch from Cultures when time was pressing and a cold lunch sufficed. Culture's has quite the variety in its buffet from fresh cut fruit and vegetables to meat and even stuffed grape leaves, all of which patrons purchase by the gram(g).

My favourites include its avocado salad (tart and sweet dressed riped avocado), spinach salad (bright dressing with fresh green leaves), large chunks of processed gouda, and quinoa salad (cooked to resemble buhlgur).

My Typical Lunch from Cultures
With each purchase, patrons can also pickup quarters of complimentary white or whole wheat pita bread. Cost: typically, under $10 for the serving shown.

Here is their business card:

Business Card

Update on Cultures: I have recently been informed that Cultures has raised the flat price for coffee from $1/any size to $1.25/any size to match competing venues in the food court.

Portage - Thai Express:
Thai Express is a relative newcomer to Portage's food court, opening after the 51 day OC Transpo bus strike. Its business model was novel, as ingredients were assembled and dishes were made to order in large carbon steel woks over powerful gas-powered elements. The spectacle of watching highly skilled cooks put together a dish over flames that shot high into the air quickly gathered crowds of people. The distinctive tasting dishes made by exposing ingredients to high heat, caramelizing sauces and giving an oily sear, were habit forming. Hence, property management had to fence off and redirect the long lines that formed and blocked access to other eateries during the lunch hour.

Line Up in front of the Thai Express

Here is a pad-thai from one of my last lunches in the building:

Spicy Chicken Pad Thai with egg, green onions, and...

perfectly post-al dente rice noodles, coated in a tamarind-based sauce
It was served in an updated, but equally adorable box...

Cute Box
along with a cellophane noodle spring roll

Freshly fried spring roll

At $6.38 + $1.99 (combo: drink + spring roll), before taxes or tip, I feel that this is the best deal to be had for a good-sized portion of really decent pad thai. The pad thai from the Thai Express in Place Du Portage is also markedly better than that served at the Rideau Center location, largely due to the cooks. I hope the cooks keeps up the quality as the Thai Express chain makes peanuts optional instead of cooking them into their dishes. If you want to add peanuts, you can sprinkle them onto the respective dish after it is served.

Portage - Teriyaki Kyoto:
It is an odd juxtaposition that a terikyaki/sushi eatery in Portage's food court makes perhaps the most respectful incarnation of former McDonald's franchisee Herb Peterson's McMuffin.


Teriyaki/Sushi eatery

English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich

As I have alluded to before, with its shaped egg, crisped bacon, slice of processed cheese, and toasted to order English muffin, this English muffin breakfast sandwich is the finest that can be had in the Portage complex.

Speaking of juxtapositions, perhaps McDonalds would like to add Egg McBaozi to the menu...

Frequented eateries outside of Portage follow after the jump:

More after the jump...

Two Fridays ago, Jenn and I found ourselves with a neighbour, starving. Our neighbour was craving maki sushi. Another friend was on her way over. She was craving Indian. Jenn wanted Thai. I was just plain hungry.

When everyone congregated in our little condo, we polled what restaurants we've been to in the neighbourhood. We picked three restaurants and decided on a strategy. That evening, our palates were going on a tour of Asia and we didn't need plane tickets or shots. The Wellington West and Hintonburg areas happen to be well endowed with some very decent ethnic restaurants.

Our chosen restaurants follow:

• Siam Bistro (Ethnic Asian - Thai: --$$, --***) - 1268 Wellington Street
• Sushi Umi (Ethnic Asian - Japanese: --$$, --***)- 1311 Wellington Street

Because Siam Bistro does take out, but the dinner service had already begun, we called them first. This restaurant does not deliver and gets really busy in the evenings. There, we ordered the 35b (sans peanuts) - a green curry with shrimp, pineapple and tomato; 36 - curried wild boar; and 52 - a pad thai. When the restaurant gave us a 45 minute wait time, our neighbour sat down with the takeout menu to Sushi Umi. There, she chose two plates of maki, one rainbow roll and one dragon roll. The latter features fresh water eel, always tasty!

Fifteen minutes later, we set out to Sushi Umi to order and get our maki. When we arrived, we found a line up. Several minutes later, the chef/owner very apologetically told those of us at the back of the line that he had completely run out of ingredients. The lunch and early-dinner service were very busy. One specific shortage that he could not address was sushi rice. He had no more.

Somewhat disappointed, we stepped out of the restaurant and came up with a contingency plan: Indian Express (Ethnic Asian - Indian: ---$, -****) - 1104 Somerset Street. The suggestions was unanimously agreed to as Jenn recounted our last outing there and their heavenly butter chicken. The problem: traversing the 10 or 11 blocks there and back in time to pickup the takeout from Siam Bistro. With 20 or so minutes remaining, we ran like crazy people to the end of Wellington Street where it turns into Somerset. When we turned the corner, we could smell curry. It was worth it. There, we lined up with the handful of people who were already in the restaurant. One had come all the way from Kanata, swearing by the food at Indian Express.

While our orders were prepared, two of us sprinted back to Siam Bistro, just in time to pickup our curries and pad thai. Then, co-ordinating with quick calls on our cell phones, we all met back at the condo.

Here's the haul. From Siam Bistro:

clock-wise from bottom-left: 52 with no peanuts, 36, and 35B

clockwise from bottom-left: pad thai, curried wild boar, and green curry

For reference, the Thai Green Curry with shrimp, pineapple and tomato is written phonetically on Siam Bistro's menu as "Gang Keow Wan Goong" ($13.95). The curried wild boar, Gang Ped Moo Pah ($14.95), is a chef's special. And, the pad thai (a favourite of my better half's) ($10.25) is self-titled. Total: $44.24 after taxes, before tip.

From Indian Express:

top to bottom: butter chicken with basmati rice and chicken tikka

gulab jamin for dessert

For reference, butter chicken is sold either with basmati ($9.00) or as a separate portion, $8.50 for a medium and $11.00 for large. The chicken tikka does not come with rice ($11.00). As a result, I bought oven baked naan at $1.00/piece. The gulab jamin is sold $1.00/pc or $4.99/lb.

Adding a pot of freshly made jasmine rice, we ate like royalty.

One Spicy Spread
The generous portions and flavours were astounding.

My plate:

clock-wise from bottom: naan, boar curry, green curry, and chicken tikka on rice
The naan was rather pedestrian as it was not cooked in a tandoor, so it was neither blistered substantially, nor slightly smokey in flavor. Brushed with clarified butter (ghee) and fresh, it nevertheless went equally well with Indian and Thai curries, which was an epiphany for me. Indian and Thai foods go well together.

That said, Indian Express' butter chicken was again spectacular, rich, deeply flavorful, and very tender. The chicken tikka was equally wonderful, tasting of tomato, onion, and coriander. Both were made with marinated boneless chicken. As we cut into each piece, the cross section showed how deeply the marinade penetrated.

I usually find Siam Bistro's pad thai somewhat too sweet. That evening, the sweetness was toned down, allowing umami flavours to reign. As always, good pad thai is a mixture of textures as it is flavours. This was good pad thai. The noodles were not over cooked. They were just sauced. The bean spouts and egg were fresh. The boar curry was quite spicy and surprised us with the sheer amount of vegetable in the dish. The boar itself was somewhat harsh, but quite meaty. The green curry was somewhat less spicy and very aromatic, characteristics of how Thai curries are made: finely ground herb and pepper pastes, cooked in the fat from coconut milk. While it tasted great spooned over rice, be it jasmine or basmati, I actually enjoyed it best with buttery naan.

Dessert:

Halved gulab jamin dressed with syrup
Think rich soft cake, soaked with honey. One is enough to sate just about any sweet tooth and, as Jenn's roommates found out years ago, gulab jamin are not easily made. These were great. With every bite, I actually felt some sugar crystals along the back of my teeth. I wonder if this is a sign of well made gulab jamin.

Spicy Friday anyone?

Business cards and particulars follow after the jump:

More after the jump...

I woke up atypically early this morning, so I decided to check the blogs I subscribe to via RSS on Google Reader before breakfast. A new piece from Ottawa Citizen's food writer Rone Eade popped up. When last I e-mailed him, he replied that he was going to this past Wednesday's BC Scene event, hosted by Whistler's Gold Medal Plate recipient Chef Melissa Craig and Ottawa's own Chef Michael Blackie. Given that I couldn't fit tickets to the event at the National Arts Center (NAC) ($120/ticket) into this month's budget, I have been eager to read Eade's determinations.

Between the plates of "Okanagan Pear Mousse, Agassis Hazelnut Ganache Hemp Seed Nougatine, and Ice Wine Elderflower Jelly" and "Duck Confit Sage Dumplings, Wild Mushroom Duck Broth and Fresh Asparagus", my yogurt and granola breakfast didn't quite satisfy. I vaguely remember Fettuccine's on Elgin serving duck confit ravioli years ago, but Chef Craig's looked spectacular.

Afterward, to my surprise and sheer delight, I found a foodiePrint above the BC Scene piece.

Seafood Poutine
Source: Captured from Ottawa Citizen's Omnivore's Ottawa

He even quoted me (Don "the blogger") on why I thought Allium's seafood poutine superior than Le Petit Bill's, which Eade blogged about earlier this week.

To Ron Eade, many thanks for the mention! Cheers!

BTW, for those of us who follow you on Twitter, it is not difficult to guess what restaurant will be hosting your inaugural supper club dinner. I've a feeling that the glass of wine with the 12 course meal is generously contributed by the restaurant you've chosen. Though I'm dying to try what wonders its executive chef or his staff will make with that "well traveled" grill, I look forward to the next dinner.