My better half and I find that we eat out quite the bit during the weeks leading up to and including Christmas. There are always good friends in town or visiting, with whom we like to get together at one of our favourite eateries one last time before the new year. With the large dinners Jenn and I usually prepare between Christmas Eve and Boxing day, it is nice to sit down to a great meal at a great restaurant.

Brunch: Benny's Bistro
This year, we discovered a great brunch place, which we have determined somewhat inappropriate for our growing brunch club. It has limited seating. It is quickly busy and it does not take reservations (first come, first serve). Located surreptitiously in the back of the celebrated French Baker bakery (119 Murray Street) on the epicurean end (near Dalhousie Street) of Murray Street, Benny's Bistro is a local's favourite for lunch during the work week and an amazing brunch during the weekend.

As the Urban Foodie (@whisk_food_blog) wrote in the Ottawa Metro (a commuter newspaper), Benny's is a "Simple Touch of Paris in the Market." I could not agree more.

Local Art in Recessed Alcoves, Checkered Floor, Warm Colours

Bistro-Style Tables
Though, the service at Benny's is many many times better than what Parisian Bistros are reputedly known for.

The Saturday morning we visited, the special was an omelet ($14), which is what I feel, a fresh take on New York Nova and Eggs; an omelet with roasted salmon belly.

Special
It was spectacular, fatty salmon belly cooked delicately in an ever so slightly runny and made-to-order omelet. The kale was just wilted too, offering both an earthy flavour and not quite cooked texture, fresh and green.

Roasted Salmon Belly Omelet with Wilted Kale

Omelet Disassembled
The accompanying salad consisted of arugula and string shaved beets.

Me, I ordered the organic forest and leek confit "taco" ($15).

Breakfast Taco
It too was spectacular. Accompanying the freshly cooked mushrooms and confit leek were braised Belgian endive, arugula leaves, shaved butter nut squash (likely shocked to fix the curls), and a lemon and horse radish creme fraiche to tie everything together. Its base, a round of puff pastry. Garnishing, a slice of in-house pickled beet.

The Perfect Bite
The mixture of fresh, peppery, sweet, earthy, fatty, bright, and buttery flavours and crunchy, crisp, and soft textures resulted in an adventure for the palate, akin to a crisp hike in a forest.

Regarding the service at Benny's, our dishes were served within 10 minutes of ordering, even with a nearly full dining room. Because my better half is sensitive to cheese, they happily subbed out components of their brunch special and furnished us with a side of roasted fingerling potatoes. The potato side was just as carefully cooked as our mains. We originally thought the potatoes were cooked in brown butter.

When seated, our hostess greeted us with a bowl of freshly cut bread from the French Baker bakery, nothing stale here. Drinks followed very quickly thereafter. Coffee for me and tea for Jenn.

Bread

Tea

Total: $42.38 (with coffee, tea, and side of roasted fingerling potatoes and before taxes)

For small parties of 4 or less, eating at Benny's is one of life's luxuries you should avail yourself of. If you are a local foodie, it is a must visit.

Please note that Benny's does not open for evening service, its dining room reserved for special events only.

Lunch: Le Cafe
When we found out the Toronto foodie who baked one of the Christmas cookie care packages we received was coming to Ottawa for the Christmas holidays and wanted to have lunch with us in the ByWard Market, I made reservations at Chef Michael Blackie's newly re-opened Le Cafe (53 Elgin Street) in the National Arts Center (NAC). Our guest, Bonita (@boneats) of the Bon Eats blog.

A little background, Jenn and I hadn't visited Le Cafe since we started dating years ago. It was at Le Cafe, then under the late Chef Kurt Waldele, that I tried my first seared duck breast and duck confit. She, her first steak frites, the steak perfectly seared fillet. On a pair of students' budgets, eating at Le Cafe was somewhat extravagant, so we visited sparingly, only celebrating special occasions there. Later on, I would find out one of my then supervisors, someone who would prove to be a mentor in my career, had proposed to his wife at Le Cafe, also during Chef Waldele's tenure.

Chef Blackie made a name for himself locally at Perspectives (525 Legget Drive) in Kanata's Brookstreet hotel, earning 4 Diamonds from the CAA/AAA. Many of the chefs I follow on Twitter congratulated him on his taking up the reigns at the NAC and later tweeted positive comments for his new menu.

Menu
Chef Blackie is also a regular competitor during Gold Medal Plates.

Inside, the restaurant had largely not changed since Jenn and I were there last: dark stained chairs against white linened tables on a dark carpet. The textured white ceiling add a dimension of openness. The floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Rideau Canal offer a picturesque view, no matter what season.

Le Cafe's Dining Room

Table with Place Settings
Please take note of the one piece coarse salt and pepper grinder/dispenser on the table. It will come in handy later.

With Christmas not a week away, I ordered the soup ($6.50) to start and one of the specials that Monday, Le Cafe's interpretation of a turkey dinner ($11.50). I wanted inspiration for the turkey dinner Jenn and I were to prepare later on that week.

Sweet Potato Corn Chowder
Drizzled with truffle oil and ethereally light in texture, the cream soup was rich and flavourful, perfectly seasoned.

Turkey Dinner
Beautifully presented, Le Cafe replaced traditional stuffing/dressing with a savoury bread pudding. On top, sliced turkey breast. Then, yu choy (a Chinese green), bread pudding, cranberry sauce, roasted baby carrots, and turkey jus.

Dry Turkey
Alas, my slices of turkey breast were on the dry side. I had to drag bites through the savoury jus and tart cranberry sauce to make them palatable. Given the shape of the slices and the fact we were the first table in the dining room to be seated, my slices were likely first carved off the roasted turkeys. As someone who has been on a quest to prepare a moist roasted turkey, I find the first carvings from the top of the breast drier, as it is most exposed to the dry heat of the oven.

Bonita and Jenn ordered the other special that Monday, line-caught rainbow trout ($11.50).

Pan Seared Rainbow Trout
Both Bonita and Jenn, whenever possible, prefer their fresh fish medium-well, ever so slightly rare in the center. The trout was a little over cooked for their liking. Each fillet's corn meal crust though was crisp and carried a nice crunch. The sauce was a good accompaniment and the mashed potatoes, wonderfully smooth.

Bonita, Jenn and I remarked at all our dishes coming adorned with yu choy. Bonita aptly dubbed it Chef Blackie's "it" vegetable for Christmas 2009. We giggled quietly when other tables were served their dishes and patrons found their accompanying greens exotic. Yu choy is a staple vegetable in Asian diets, the three of us eating it in our respective homes the night before.

For drinks, with Bonita and Jenn having plans that afternoon and my having to return to the office, we decided to order purified water.

MB In-house Purified Water
According to a media-release, Chef Blackie had installed a Vivreau Water Purification System that purifies tap water, producing both a carbonated Perrier analogue and a non-carbonated option. At $3/re-usable glass bottle, a portion of sales goes to the NAC's National Youth and Education Trust.

As someone who very rarely drinks wine, I am weary of the disapproving looks I get from wait staff who think I am at a restaurant for a cheap meal. Usually, I order cranberry juice or a cocktail to finish the meal. But, with the in-house purified tap water on the menu, I have another option. At Le Cafe, our waiter's look changed from disapproving to amused, when I asked if bottles from "Chef Blackie's Vivreau Water Purification System" were available.

Total: $67.80 (after taxes, but before tip)

More after the jump...

Ever since Jenn finished schooling at Queen's, she and I have been throwing Christmas dinners for her family every year. This year, we went with a turkey-based feast. Due to other engagements Thanksgiving weekend, we opted for Mongolian Hot Pot using a chicken pho broth in October. This left me without having cooked a turkey for 2009 and I could not let December pass without roasting one up.

Given the shopping insanity we witnessed at the nearby Loblaws Superstore (190 Richmond Road), leading up to the week of the 25th last year, we opted to order an (apparently frozen) organic turkey from Wellington's own Saslove's (1333 Wellington Street W.). Originally scheduled for pickup on Christmas Eve, we requested to fetch our turkey the day before (December 23, 2009). We were glad we did. Apparently, the entire neighbourhood and surrounding ones order turkeys from Saslove's. While the 22nd of December was quiet at Saslove's store front, word quickly spread that the entire shipment of turkeys had arrived. Surprised employees had to create a queue to the back of the butcher's the next day to hand out turkeys. They created a queue to the only cash and till that could handle debit and credit cards. They created a bypass queue to a second cash and till for anyone paying with cash. Guess which queue was longest? On the bright side, everyone in line was friendly to one another and the staff made light of the situation to lift spirits. I remarked to Jenn that we have never had a better turkey buying experience. Though, next year, we will be ordering two small turkeys instead of the giant $86.31 (before taxes) monstrosity we ended up lugging home. Interestingly, giblets cost an extra $5.

Dinner-wise, here is the menu we chose:
Chinese Appetizers (Small plates for Arrivals)

Small Plate Buffet

Rolled Prosciutto

• Pig tails slow poached in a soy master sauce with brown sugar, Chicken marinade, ginger, and star anise, served warm
• Stir fried ginger and scallion omasum (3rd stomach of a chow), served warm
• King oyster mushroom chips
• Atlantic smoked salmon
• Pingue prosciutto from The Piggy Market

Starter

• Cauliflower Soup, flavoured with Parmesan and topped with shredded and crisped king oyster mushroom

Mains

Feast

Tortiere

Lo Mai Fan in Lieu of Stove-top Stuffing

• Butter and Summer Savoury Roasted Turkey Breast
• Turkey Leg Confit
• Traditional Quebec Tortiere (filling: pork, ground beef, onion, cloves, rosemary, thyme, celery and potato) from Petit Bill's Bistro ($16.95, $5 of which to raise money for the Salvation Army's Toy Mountain campaign)
• Stir Fried Chinese Greens (Yu-Choy, which seems to be the green of choice this Christmas), courtesy of Jenn's mom.
• Sticky Rice (called Lo Mai Fan) with Chinese Sausage (lap cheung), celery, and shiitake mushrooms

Dessert

• Fresh fruit (freshly cut pineapple and orange segments)
• Apple Pie from Farm Boy, courtesy of Jenn's brother

Recipes follow:
Omasum
The recipe for the stir fried ginger and scallion omasum has already been posted to foodiePrints.

Pig Tails
Pig tails, like pig feet are offcuts prized by Asian cuisine. They are usually long braised in a sticky sweet sauce, loaded with umami for special occasions like Chinese New Year. For Christmas dinner, we opted to slow poach them (2 hours) in a soy master sauce, originally leftover from a red-braise. This master sauce is one Jenn and I continually re-adjust the seasoning of and use to poach chicken with to make soy sauce chicken. We poached the tails the night before and reheated them in a pan to caramelize the sugars, just before guests arrived.

Pig Tails Added to the Soy Master Sauce

Pig Tails Poached
The tails took on the flavours of the poaching liquid. Their skins softened and caramelized beautifully in a well seasoned cast iron pan on medium heat.

More after the jump...

On December 16, 2009, the Metro published a photo taken by the foodiePrints' team at Benny's Bistro. It was one I took for the Urban Foodie, Shari Goodman (@whisk_food_blog), to accompany her review of the hidden-away restaurant behind the French Baker bakery on Murray Street.

For posterity, here is a screen capture:

Brunch Plate at Benny's Bistro from Metro Ottawa

And here is a photo of the newspaper Jenn graciously brought home for me, as I neglected to pick one up before work. After all, the Metro Ottawa is a commuter newspaper.

Organic Forest Mushroom and Leek Confit Taco
It was delicious.

Do check out Shari's reviews in the Thursday editions of Metro Ottawa. I find she is very fair with the restaurants she visits. She is insightful and provides much needed intelligence on the growing restaurant scene in our fair city. In fact, I actually look forward to her reviews on the way to work every week

Particulars:
French Baker (original location)/Benny's Bistro
119 Murray Street
(613)789-7941

French Baker (Second location)
801 Bank Street
(613)236-7579

Since Christmas 2006, I promised myself to bake something different every holiday season for the potlucks my better half and I attend. Christmas 2007, we made cranberry scones, learning how in a baking workshop at a local bakery (Three Bakers and a Bike) earlier that fall. We would make them again a year later, but this time I re-worked the recipe to use only butter. I would also make several batches of biscotti, but I looked for something new, thumbing through magazines and surfing the web.

Eventually, I settled on Alton Brown's "Macaroon Delights."

AB's Macaroon Delight
Seeing AB's vid on how to make the macaroons would be one of the last videos I watched from the Food Network website. In following months, the powers that be blessed modifications to the site that not only favoured Microsoft Internet Explorer, but also browsers on the Microsoft Windows platform. As a proponent of open source software, I use Ubuntu Linux, my preferred web browser, Mozilla's Firefox.

Even more interesting, the webmaster or database administrator would mix up AB's two macaroon recipes on the Food Network website, an older recipe coming from Good Eats' "Down and Out in Paradise" special. For some odd reason, half way through the month of December, the month when food websites are most heavily searched, the title and links of AB's macaroon recipes were mixed up. "Macaroon Delight" was no longer search-able. Its corresponding recipe was renamed "Paradise Macaroons." The "Down and Out in Paradise" macaroons was renamed "Toasty Coconut Macaroons."

That said, whatever they were intended to be called, AB's holiday macaroons came out great!

Biscotti Macaroon Platter

Without re-printing AB's recipe, 14 oz of unsweetened + 2 oz of sweetened coconut (by weight) were mixed with 2 oz of sweetened condensed milk (by weight), a pinch of kosher salt, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dry Coconut Mixture

Then, 4 large egg whites, 5 oz of fine granulated sugar (by weight), and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar were whipped with an electric mixer until they formed medium peaks.

Egg Shells

Whipped Meringue

Medium Peaks
I discovered that a smaller metal bowl, allowing the egg white and sugar mixture to pool halfway up, produced a better meringue. After all a meringue is what beating egg whites and sugar together produces.

Finally, the meringue was folded into the coconut mixture to lighten it. The mixture was scooped onto parchment lined half sheet pans and baked in a pre-heated 325 F oven for 25 minutes.

Final Mixture

Tray of Baked Macaroons

Close-up

Trust me, use a disher when scooping the macaroon mixture to produce a nice tight package. Otherwise, you will end up with these:

Flat Macaroons
They still brown up nice though, producing a toasted flavour.

Browned Macaroon Bottom

The taller macaroons turned out chewy, crispy, sweet, vanilla-flavoured, and slightly caramel. They disappeared quickly at the pot luck they went to. Incidentally, AB's original recipe, topped the macaroons with semi-sweet chocolate and chopped nuts. I will have to try that sometime...

Other Notes
While the macaroons baked, I decided to play with meringue a little more, using a Tyler Florence recipe and producing the following snow peaks.

Snow Peaks

Close-Up
Clearly, I need more practice, working with a pastry bag.

Here are the logs of biscotti that turned into what was platterred above...

Biscotti Logs

During Christmas 2008, I also discovered pre-cut parchment paper.

Pre-Cut Parchment Paper
While convenient, a roll of parchment paper is cheaper by length overall and much more flexible when using half sheet pans.

And as always, here are contingency ingredients in case the macaroons didn't work.

Dry Cookie Mix and Marshmallows

Cupcake Tins, Almonds, Cranberries, and Powdered Sugar
You don't want to know how many cartons of eggs I had in reserve. The pantry is always stocked with extra bags of sugar and flour. Worst case scenario, I planned on baking up chiffon cupcakes and icing them with a marshmallow frosting.

With foodiePrints celebrating its third birthday - its first published blog entry, a twice re-written "hello world" and its first recipe, one for almond biscotti - I discovered that we have relatively few Christmas-themed posts. This post aims to slowly remedy this by compiling a selection of images from our archives to share some of our traditions.

Office Christmas Parties
Office Christmas parties are an interesting species of get-together. As Jack Knox wrote in his "Office Christmas party all about being inappropriate" for Canwest's canada.com, the general consensus from business leaders is to attend. For the organization, they provide management an opportunity to evaluate staff's soft skills for future advancement. Such includes appropriate dress, conversation skills, and showing discretion. For employees, they provide the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed setting and get a sense of the prevailing thoughts of management.

The party I attended with my better half's office was held at Ottawa's then Civic Centre (1015 Bank Street) at Landsdowne Park. There, I watched my first live hockey game, featuring Ottawa's 67's.

67's Game

Served was typical sport stadium grub.

Onion Rings and Chicken Fingers

Not Particularly Spicy Wings

Beer, Mexican Corona

Mine was held at La Boîte à Chansons (444 Bd De l'Hopital) in Gatineau, a very large restaurant, whose interior is made to resemble a log cabin.

La Boîte à Chansons

There, I ate a traditional Quebec feast:

Clockwise from bottom: tortière, meatballs, roast beef
Everything was smothered in gravy. Though, I was instructed the tortière, a revered meat pie dish, had to be eaten with ketchup.

Mini Tortière, properly served
Indeed, the tortière did well with some added sweetness and acidity to match the savory filling and rich pastry.

A week later, my team also bid farewell to our office assistant, a wonderful gal. She happened to be the person who ensured that I ate my serving of tortière without embarrassing myself. To celebrate her advancement, we took her out to lunch at Naples Pizza (70 Rue Montcalm), again on the Gatineau side.

While my colleagues each ordered great pizza, I went rogue and ordered the lasagna (spelled "lasagne" on the menu, cost: $9.95). Here is the oddity of pasta I was served. It still puzzles me today.

Chimney-shaped Lasagna

Filled with Pizza Sauce, Cheese, and Pepperoni
On Naples Pizza's menu, the lasagna was described as "a special blend of Italian Noodles, Pepperoni, selected Cheeses, & Meat Sauce." Lesson learned: When going to a renowned pizza house, order what it makes best. Comparison-wise, a personal combination pizza ("mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, bacon & onion") cost $9.75.

Christmas Baking
That year, Jenn and I baked cranberry scones and almond biscotti, batches of each destined for two potlucks and several close friends.

Regarding the biscotti, I followed the tried and true recipe that launched this blog.

One Batch of Almond Biscotti, drying

Though, whilst searching for that year's Christmas basket fodder, we came across these biscotti at the Dollar Store.

Dollar Store Biscotti
They were slightly more puzzling than the chimney lasagna.

Regarding the scones, their recipe comes from a baking course we took at Ottawa's Three Bakers and a Bike Bakery (1281A Wellington Street W.).

Scones Destined for Jenn's Parents
I am not at liberty to share that recipe, but here are hints that work with all tea-style scones recipes. When making scones, there must be enough fat to coat the flour mixture to form pebbles.

This is too dry

So add enough fat that...

...the mixture resembles this.

Bake six to a half sheet pan, lined with parchment paper

Cool on cake racks...

...and you will have great scones

A Toaster
That year, a dear friend gifted my better half with something she had been eyeing for a while...

A Hello Kitty Toaster

Naturally, it arrived boxed in pink

Interestingly, it makes pretty good toast...

...which we ate a lot of that Christmas

On a related kitty note, here is a mousse filled chocolate kitty Jenn's sister Jasmine received as a Christmas gift.

One odd looking chocolate cat
And, here is how we discovered it was filled with mousse...

One bisected odd looking chocolate cat

Speaking of tortière, the following is a twitter conversation I had on the subject this past weekend...

More after the jump...

In November, Leela of the SheShimmers food blog, celebrated its one year anniversary with a satay-style grilled chicken recipe (featuring her mother's peanut sauce), a look at her blog's original banner (it's cute!), and a contest to win an All-Clad MC2 8-inch stainless steel skillet.

To enter, participants left comments on the blog post, explaining why they are "thankful for their father, mother, grandparent, or other guardian for being a positive influence on their lives." Since SheSimmers is a food blog, many comments involved food memories.

Here is mine:

As for the contest, my parents weren't the best cooks. They were however adventurous and tried new things.

I follow in that tradition, but their most important food lesson to me is eating as locally as possible.

When I was a child, decades before the 100 mile diet came to popularity, my parents grew a tremendous vegetable garden every summer, harvesting quite the bounty in the fall. From it, I learned what produce, grown for flavour and freshness tasted like. Be it organic or otherwise, most mega-mart (supermarket) produce is grown for shelf-life and shipping. There is a marked difference.

Growing up knowing that such vegetables as tomatoes don't have to taste like water is something I am incredibly thankful for. It is why I support local farmers today.

A week later, Random.org chose my entry to win. Several days after that, this arrived at the local post office, my being at work when it was delivered.

One well-wrapped express posted box

Inside, another box

Inside that box, warranty information, and paper...

...and, a hefty 8" pan...

...made by MetalCrafter LLC

With work normally being hectic and my trying to keep on top of the seasonal blog entries for foodiePrints, I only opened the package yesterday evening, it sitting with my stack of "to try" recipes for weeks. So, I decided to take pictures of its unboxing.

Setting the camera down in another room while I took a box cutter to the package, I originally decided to take the pan to the camera. This had me wandering room-to-room with a never-been-used-before stainless steel pan. Slightly, confused my better half asked "...and why are you wandering the house with a skillet?" Without thinking too much about it, I responded, "I'm looking for the camera!" I guess such is good confirmation that I am a food blogger...

Many thanks to fellow food blogger, Leela (with some help from Random.org), for adding a new cooking implement to foodiePrints' kitchen arsenal. It will likely see use in coming weeks, especially in preparing Christmas dinner.

Anyone want to know what a young food blogger looks like? The following is yours truly on a family friend's farm, discovering where apples come from.

Me, age 3

With Christmas but 3 short weeks away, I find weekends quickly fill with events to attend from pot luck dinners to Christmas Parties, everyone getting themselves into the festive spirit. This past Saturday, foodiePrints' blogging team went to two parties, finishing the evening at the Canvas Resto-Bar on Holland Avenue. The first, was Ian Capstick and Shawn Dearn's MediaStyle Holiday Party. The second, the CycleLogik Christmas Art Show.

For those unfamiliar with CycleLogik, it is primarily a bicycle shop (self-described as Ottawa's "premier bicycle and multi-sport boutique"), but it doubles as a fine coffee shop and local art gallery. 2009 is its second year, organizing an art show.

CycleLogik

Second Annual Art Show

While Jenn and I only stayed long enough to chat with Chef Jason Laurin of Essence Catering, take pictures of his amazing food, and discover that the Andrea Sutton pencil work of Jim Henson's Swedish Chef was purchased, we had a lot of fun.

Pencil Work of the Swedish Chef by Andrea Sutton

The crowd CycleLogik drew together was electric (to borrow a heavily overused but apt term), everyone chatting, laughing, and admiring and discussing the many pieces of great art work on display.

Electric Crowd

Great Local Works

CycleLogik may be powered by fair trade caffeine in an Italian tradition, but its art show was powered by great music, mixed by a fine DJ, Mr//Greg.

Mr//Greg

As for who bought the Swedish Chef piece, that would be, triathlete in training and food blogger, Chef Laurin.

Chef Laurin
Warm and enthusiastic, he was fun to talk with, even as the boys behind the bar mis-adjusted the keg of Beau's Beer and showered him in Lug-Tread.

Proudly reloading trays for us to sample, here is what he served that evening:

Grilled 5 Spice Egg Plant with Dens Miso and Limoncello Pearls

Close-Up
The egg plant had a strong soy umami flavour that was reminiscent of an oyster sauce. The limoncello pearls were flourishes of sour and another texture.


A tray of innovative maki and nigiri.

Aji Amarillo Marinated Shrimp on Causa Roll with Avocado

Seared Salmon on Nigiri with Fermented Black Bean Jam
Only trying the nigiri, I was amazed by how carefully seared the salmon was. While I found the rice bed a little too densely formed, I enjoyed the take on classic sushi.


Pork Belly Confit with Maple BBQ Sauce Frosting
Not trying a block of pork belly confit was a sad oversight. It looked great.


Kumquat Screwdriver with Blood Orange Gel and Campari Pearls
This was a surprise, a hollowed out kumquat with a thin gel and more liqueur-based pearls. The sweet and citrus gel mixed with the Campari in what was essentially a bowl made of zest. Definitely refreshing, I encouraged two people looking skeptically at me to try.


Marshmallows taken to another level...
The red ones were a morello cherry marshmallow with port, sundried cherry, and smoked oreo. The white ones, coconut marshmallow with pina colada mousse, pineapple, and white chocolate powder. These marshmallows were easily the taste of the evening, the marshmallows tasting worlds better than storebought, each with a signature flavour. The coconut marshmallow was salted, so with the pineapple, it reminded me of salted caramel only tart.

His were dishes that borrowed from both classical cuisine and more modern techniques, some molecular. Personally, I think the heavily experienced chef was showing off that night; merely flexing his culinary muscles and orchestrating eating experiences to match the creativity of the art around him.

We look forward to seeing more of him and his dishes.

Particulars:
CycleLogik
1111A Wellington Street
(613) 722-2345

Essence Catering
430 Parkdale Avenue
(613) 850-4776

Canvas Restaurant
65 Holland Avenue
(613) 729-1991

The Christmas party season for foodiePrints opened this past Saturday with our attending Ian Capstick and Shawn Dearn's MediaStyle Holiday Party. MediaStyle provides training, strategy, analyses, and planning for media (both traditional and new media) and content production (TV, film, video, and web). And, they throw a great Christmas party.

What are the elements of a great Christmas party? According to the Steaks Guide, because a guide to steak is clearly a respectable source of party information:

• Choose a theme
• Get your party guests involved
• Decorate the house according to the theme
• Provide food and drink
• Thank your guests for coming

In this case, Ian and Shawn RSVP'd an ultimate tweet up of some vibrant Ottawa locals who spent the evening translating links from a social network into human ones. They asked each guest to bring a bottle of wine to share and a donation for the Ottawa Food Bank. They decorated their home in Christmas colours and put on some great urban music. They put out a spread of hors d'?uvres that demonstrated food tastes great when served on sticks. For instance...

Bacon Crusted, Whipped Goat Cheese with Herbs
Then there was the slice your own ham with rolls from a local bakery, the leaves of endive topped with sour cream, the tomato bruschetta, and the trays of cucumber slices topped with cream cheese and vegetarian caviar.

Besides savory treats, they baked enough cupcakes and Christmas cookies to fill an entire room, some even spilling out into the party room.

A table of sweet treats

A tower of cupcakes

Strawberry and Vanilla Frosted Cupcakes

Vanilla Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes, sprinkled with Chocolate

Vanilla Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes

Holiday Themed Cupcakes


Another table of sweet treats

Sugar Cookie Bells

Sugar Coated Fruit Jellies

Adorable Gingerbread Men

Finally, they thanked everyone for donating approximately 157 lbs of non-perishables and cash to the food bank and challenged everyone to do better next year.

Thank-you to our hosts Ian and Shawn for setting a great example to follow!

This just in: For more great pics from the party, check out local photographer Ming Wu's blog (@ming_wu).

We at foodiePrints were very excited when we discovered that when you enter "f-o-o-d-i-e-p-r-i-n-t-s" into the Google search field, it auto-completes when the "p" is entered.


foodiePrints Auto-Completing

This means that the most popular search engine on the Internet suggests "foodiePrints" from time to time.

To Google, I apologize for the multiple times I submitted the search. I just couldn't believe what I saw!

There is a foodiePrint on the Spinach Tiger blog; one, we are particularly proud of.

Angela, the blogger behind Spinach Tiger, organized a "Red to Remember" event to mobilize food bloggers all over the world to increase the visibility of AIDS as an epidemic on December 1, 2009, World AIDS Day. To participate, bloggers posted a dish that featured a red ingredient.

Red to Remember
Some were baked. Some, cooked. Others, stirred together.

When Jenn and I discovered Leela's post on her SheSimmers blog, we rushed to participate and add another blog to the roster.

Menudo Rojo
Ours was a menudo rojo. Its red ingredient, red peppers. It would turn out to be the only Canadian entry as well!

Go visit the Angela's blog. There are many more great red dishes featured. My favourite, Angela's own old fashioned Ice Cream Bombe.

To many Hintonburg residents, their neighbourhood, that is bordered by Centretown's Chinatown and the West Wellington Village, is under siege from forces bent on its gentrification. The culprits: commercial developers and, to some extent, Ottawa's municipal government. Both are seen as overly eager to remake Hintonburg in Westboro's image. Already, there are no less than four large scale construction projects putting up buildings in the West Wellington Village, either multi-story condo buildings or "pigeon-hole"-style townhouses. There are rumours, developers are eyeing Hintonburg next, some homeowners even reporting agents questioning them about their intentions to sell their properties.

Ottawa's Epicurean Row, a stretch of Wellington Street West, that is shared by both Hintonburg and the West Wellington Village, is renowned for having an extremely high density of locally-owned eateries and fine food stores. It now hosts a Booster Juice (1277 Wellington Street W.) and Tea Shop 168 (1356 Wellington Street W.), both franchises of arguably large chain businesses, here defined as non-locally owned and having many storefronts or locations in other cities.
v
Recently, the Ottawa Citizen (a local newspaper) even intimated the close of Melrose Groceteria/Helen's Cuisine another casualty of gentrification, the building soon to be renovated to house an upscale pizzeria. To Robert Bostelaar, writer and journalist for the Ottawa Citizen, neither Helen nor Buddy Saikely were forced out of their business. After 40 years serving a grateful community and at least two generations of loyal patrons, they deservedly retired. Theirs was an eatery and convenience store that reflected a closely-knit community where residents know their neighbours and get together for street parties.

Hintonburg, however, has another eatery that reflects the neighbourhood, the Wellington Sandwich Shop.

Storefront

Counter
This eatery is somewhere, known mostly to locals, inconspicuous and often passed by by people driving through Hintonburg. Inside, a wonderful woman named Filomina operates a place where people get together to eat, enjoy each other's company, and catch up on the local gossip. Patrons partake of food more familiar with times gone by.

Filomina cooks entirely from what we at foodiePrints calls first principles. A chicken sandwich or wrap starts with a marinated chicken breast, entirely raw, being thrown onto a gas-fired grill. A burger starts with measuring out ground meat, seasoning it, shaping it into a patty, and throwing it onto a gas-fired grill. Sandwich toppings are prepared to order to ensure freshness. For example, tomatoes are sliced as orders are taken. Soup, salads, and bakery are made daily. The soups are also seasonal and change from day to day.

Daily Soup and Specials
During the last two weeks she made yellow split pea and cream of broccoli, both made from scratch, both disappearing quickly during lunch.

If you are at all regular, Filomina will not only learn your name, but will remember how you like your orders. This includes young children.

What does somewhere that knows your name look like?

It has handwritten chalkboard displays

Its seats are warm and inviting

Its walls are softly coloured and decorated with unique decorations

It offers artisanal products, like homemade soap

What does it serve? Really good homemade food! To date, Jenn and I have only ordered hot sandwiches from the grill.

Hot Sandwiches
On a previous outing, we ordered the BLT and veggie burger, the latter a recommendation from Melissa Dimock of Refashionista (@refashionista).

This time, we followed another recommendation of Carol Paschal, the organizer of the Hintonburg Supper Club, and had the hamburgers. She, the "Homemade Hamburger" ($4.95) with 100% lean ground beef.

Homemade Hamburger
Me, the "Wellington Burger" ($5.95) with cheese, bacon, and fried onions.

Wellington Burger

My thoughts, my hamburger patty was incredibly fresh tasting and wonderfully crusted. Its toppings, exceeded expectations: fresh and crisp veg, browned and singed fried onions, melted cheese, and flat top grilled bacon. The kaiser rolls are also grilled crisp.

Slightly Dry Pattie
Unfortunately, with the patty made from lean ground beef, grilling it well-done results a somewhat dry texture. It is the only issue with what is otherwise a great homemade burger.

To finish, we had butter tarts, highly sought after commodities at the Wellington Sandwich Shop.

Butter Tarts
Dense, buttery, and sweet with a thicker pastry, these are the best butter tarts in town.

If you are in the area, drop by for breakfast or lunch. However, be warned. Filomina opens early and closes at 3:00 pm, Mondays to Saturdays. She only recently started taking Interac and prefers cash.

The next time we head over to the Wellington Sandwich Shop, we plan on ordering the turkey sandwich and asking why turkey's aren't allowed...

No Turkeys Allowed

Particulars:
The Wellington Sandwich Shop
1123 Wellington Street W.
(613)722-5946

In our 6 years in Hintonburg/Wellington West, Jenn and I witnessed the sale of our neighbourhood heritage landmark, Fire Station #11 on Parkdale Avenue. Afterward, we saw the building extensively renovated to accommodate commercial tenants. One space was eventually taken by Carley and Oliver Schelck, who had their 1700 square feet custom designed by Design First Interiors to be an open concept "event space." One well equipped commercial kitchen and a 20 foot dining table later, Urban Element opened.

Well Equipped Professional Kitchen

Dining Area, Featuring a 20 foot Dining Table
Together with an in-house catering team and resident chefs, Urban Element offers a venue to hold a wide range of activities and culinary events, including hands-on and demonstration cooking classes, post class sit down dinners, cocktail parties, wine tastings, and corporate meetings.

Alas, the foodiePrints team never attended any of the events. We have come across Urban Element's catering team and chefs participating in community events, often fund-raising for charity. But, we never took the opportunity to take any of the classes offered. In the past, local chefs have organized many a tempting class from Wellington Gastropub's Chef Chris Deraiche explaining how to pair food with beer to Domus' Chef John Taylor demonstrating current trends in how to cook Autumn's harvest bounty. As Urban Element advertises, theirs are unique culinary experiences.

When I discovered that Urban Element chose to celebrate its 4th anniversary with a sponsored wine and cheese, RSVP-only, I jumped at the opportunity, inviting one of Ottawa's food luminaries, Paolas St. George (@paolasepicure) to join me.

Besides being given free run of its facilities, we got to watch two of Urban Element's resident chefs prepare appetizers for guests.

Chef Working to Assemble Appetizers

Two Sheet Pans of Appetizers Baking

Its well lit and spacious instructional kitchen is outlined with a marble bar for people to sit and, presumably, for pastry work. Separating the kitchen from the dining room is a half wall, fitted with a floor to ceiling book case, displaying things culinary.

Shelf with Things Culinary, from Dishware to Preserves

Including Some Recent Cook Books
We were very impressed. And yes, the top shelf holds decades of bound Gourmet Magazine.

Drink-wise, wine and beer were served.

Wine

Beer, but no ordinary beer, Beau's

A fine pint of Beau's
Apparently, the two varieties of Beau's beer being poured are exclusive to Beau's distillery, Night Märzen and Tommy Gun American-Style Pale Ale (APA), both seasonal brews. Restaurants usually have Lug Tread on tap.

Cheese-wise, threee resembling Grana Padano (hard), Stilton (blue), and a Camembert (soft) were served along side sliced Art-Is-In bread.

Cheese
Accompanying the cheese was a chutney and a nut praline.

Accompaniments

Finally, the appetizers:

Mince Meat with Stilton

Pattypan Squash, Topped with a Butternut, Potato, and Garlic Mash

Potato Mousseline Topped Spicy Chicken Pot Pies

Curried Squash Soup Shooters

Mini Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Flourless Chocolate Fondant Brownies, topped with Crushed Candy Cane
My thoughts on the appetizers, the standout was the pattypan squash appetizer. It featured two varieties of squash, highlighting their strengths: green and fresh pattypan and sweet and creamy butternut. I found the pot pies so oddly seasoned that I originally thought the protein was canned salmon. The squash soup shooter was likewise overpowering with curry.

The biggest disappointment, the fondant brownies. While lusciously chocolate, they should never have been served as finger food. With their soft textures, the squares quickly melted when handled. They should have been served plated and come with a utensil.

Happily, the January 2010 class schedule was unveiled at the event. What interests me are the Bridgehead "Be a Barista" Coffee Seminar on January 11 and the Piggy Market's Chef Dave Neil's Artisan Sausage Making Seminar on January 18.

On our way out, I asked Oliver to point out one of my favourite Ottawa food bloggers, Rachelle of the Rachelle Eats Food blog. A lovely lady, she, Jenn and I chatted about blogging and having the opportunity to meet one another face to face. She also has a writeup on the Urban Element anniversary event. Do check it out!

Particulars:
Urban Element
424 Parkdale Avenue
(613)722-0885

Here at foodiePrints, we are always on the lookout for Ottawa's best bubble tea house. Thus far, Don and I have been to the two locations of Bubblelicity (Chinatown and ByWard Market), the Nihao Tea House (now defunct on Holland Avenue), and Maple Valley (also in the ByWard Market). Since the summer, we have been eagerly awaiting for Tea Shop 168 to open on Wellington Street W. (1356). In business since 1996, Tea Shop 168 is a Toronto-based chain that has over a dozen locations, mainly in Markham and Scarborough.

After months of renovations, Tea Shop 168 finally opened its doors last Saturday (November 28, 2009). To celebrate, everything on the menu was 50% off the entire weekend. This week, all purchases are discounted 10%. Starting next week, lunch will be offered and the menu will include lots of Taiwanese-style snacks, such as fish balls, won ton dumplings, toast, etc.

Welcome to Tea Shop 168!

With the majority of our errands run, we decided to give the newly opened bubble tea house a try that Saturday evening. Upon walking into the cream and yellow coloured house that was previously a hair salon, we were enthusiastically greeted by a young Mandarin-speaking woman (who happened to be the owner), her staff, and several of her friends. Playing was Japanese pop music from the early 2000s, a greatest hits mix of Ayumi Hamasaki.

Inside, there were two tall glass bistro-style tables able to sit groups of three and tall gray metal stools lining a bar set against a large bay window. On the other side of the room was another long counter with menus, Chinese and Japanese fashion and gossip magazine, and a cute brown miniature shopping cart for tips beside the cash register. Behind the counter was an ice maker, an induction burner, a rice cooker (for cooking the tapioca pearls), two commercial grade blendesr, and rows of jars filled with colourful powders, each a different flavour.

Bistro table with a clock

Gazing outside from the bar counter

A variety of flavours in jars and squeeze bottles

After consulting the menu, I decided to order my usual, a regular size lychee bubble slush with lychee jelly pieces. Don ordered a black tea taro flavoured milk tea with pearls. All drinks, eat-in or take-out, are served in a plastic Tea Shop 168 cup, either sealed with plastic or with a lid.

Checking out the menu

My lychee slush was surprisingly pleasant. It was not overly sweet, nor did it take on a yellowish colour from too much syrup. When bubble slushes take on a colour, it is often too concentrated. I did not find any chunks of ice and there was just the right amount of jelly pieces.

Lychee Bubble Slush with lychee jelly pieces

When ordering tea-based drinks, you can choose to have it served hot or cold. In this case, Don requested his to be cold. However, when the server handed him his drink, I was rather surprised it was just slightly room temperature, warm for bubble tea. The taro milk tea was slightly powdery and the tapioca pearls too soft.

Taro Milk Tea with pearls

Although the drinks were a bit of a hit-and-miss, Tea Shop 168 is certainly worth checking out. The menu offers a variety of teas and slushes. While the staff are still in training and are experiencing a bit of trouble finding the requested powder (suggestion: organize it in alphabetical order!), the preparation of each drink is impressive. Everything is carefully measured and then shaken in a cocktail shaker.

That evening, each drink cost only $2.10 (regular price: $4.19) for a total of $7.11, tax included.

Thus far, foodiePrints' ranking of the top tea houses in Ottawa are as followed:

4. Bubblicity
3. Tea Shop 168
2. Maple Valley (foodiePrint's review)
1. ???

Stay tune as foodiePrints will be revealing its favourite bubble tea shop very soon!

Particulars:
Tea Shop 168
1356 Wellington Street
(613) 695-2686

Florence fennel (also known as anise), the bulbs that taste of licorice when raw and sweet celery when cooked were completely alien to me when I decided to prepare an entry for this month's Fennel "Beet 'n Squash" battle, this time hosted by Melody Fury of the BouchonFor2 blog.

When I went looking for ideas for how to prepare it, I found this variety of fennel is as often served thinly sliced and raw as it is cooked simply. In fact, last month's beet winner, Shao of FriedWontons4u and Lan of Angry Asian Creations blogs recommended I slice it thin, drizzle it in good olive oil, and grill it. Chef Dave Neil, owner of Ottawa's Piggy Market (new website!), recommended slicing it thin and serving it in a salad with thinly shaved Parmesan, a peppery green like arugula, and a vinaigrette made from truffle oil and champagne vinegar.

Throwing all common sense to the wind, I decided to completely re-work a shrimp pot pie I found on Google Images to feature gently sweated sliced fennel.

Here is my entry:

Fennel and Shrimp Pot Pie

Fennel and Shrimp Pot Pie, an alternate serving
Unlike my other forays in the pot pie arena, I substituted a thickened cauliflower cream for a veloute (or a bechemel) and deconstructed the dish. The cream, however, was infused with fennel and onion to simulate the melding of flavours that comes from baking a pot pie. Everything was cooked separately.

Why? Well, when I originally attempted this dish, I thought the thickened cauliflower cream, essentially a puree of cauliflower, potato, and onion, had enough starch that the dairy would not curdle. Unfortunately, even chilling the cream before topping with puff pastry produced the following unappetizing mess after baking.

Curdled First Attempt

An Unappetizing Mess
After some thought, I decided that either I go back to a heavy starch-based sauce (employing a roux or a heat stable starch slurry like SlowGel) or I deconstruct the dish, assembling the components, sauce, shrimp, fennel, and crust, when plating. I chose the latter.

Recipe

2 bulbs of fennel

sliced fennel beginning to sweat

onion and fennel frond infusion

one head of cauliflower and potatoes

disassembled head of cauliflower

cauliflower, potato, and finely chopped onion sweat

cauliflower mixture simmered in milk and fennel infusion

blending smooth in batches

passing the cauliflower cream through a fine strainer

adding cream

resultant cream should coat the back of a spoon

At this stage, the cream makes a fine soup...

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

To make the puff pastry stars and pine trees...

store-bought puff pastry

puff pastry cut, brushed with an egg wash, and baked

they float in the cauliflower cream

What You will Need:

• 2 bulbs of fennel
• 1 large cauliflower
• 2 small potatoes (3 if you want a thicker consistency)
• 3 small onions (or one and a half medium ones)
• olive oil for sweating the vegetables
• 750 mL (3 cups) water
• 600 mL (2.5 cups) 2% milk
• 142 mL (0.5 cups) table cream (18%)
• kosher salt for seasoning
• egg for brushing the puff pastry
• shrimp
• 2% milk for poaching the shrimp

Please note that the following method mixes prep and cooking.

More after the jump...

As someone who believes in eating nose to tail, I have always been intrigued by Mexican menudo, a hearty tripe soup (or stew) that is reputedly good for curing hangovers. I first encountered menudo while watching an old episode of Chef Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (Season 5?). He was visiting Mexico and, as he tucked into a bowl, he made light of the soup having the same name as a former Latin boy band, whose lead singer was none other than Ricky Martin.

Like Chichi Wang of Serious Eats, author of a series of "The Nasty Bits" blog entries, I enjoy the texture of slow cooked honey comb tripe: delicate and almost gelatinous. Having grown up exposed to foods from many cultures, I have eaten beef tripe (omasum) at Chinese dim sum, where it is cooked crunchy and served with ginger and green onions (scallions). I have eaten beef tripe (honey comb) stewed in soy with star anise. I have even stewed beef tripe myself in store bought tomato salsa.

Stewing tripe in salsa was essentially my attempting to pair tripe with tomato and chile. It lead me to attempt a hominy-based menudo a year ago, with a small degree of success. Having come across Chichi Wang's attempt at Chef Rick Bayless' Menudo Rojo, I decided to try again, taking lessons learned from my first attempt. This time, I produced something sublimely good.

My Attempt at Menudo Rojo
Wang's recipe borrows from Chef Bayless' Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the heart of Mexico, a reference cook book that has enjoyed almost 22 years of re-prints.

Authentic Mexican, published 1987
I recently came across a first edition at a public library.

Though, I did stray somewhat from Chef Bayless' recipe, making an African Kosayi to infuse chile into the menudo stock instead of a paste from dried chiles.

We will start with the African Kosayi, essentially a spicy red pepper sauce that is somewhat analogous to Vietnamese sriracha. The following recipe comes from an episode of the third season of the Australian Food Safari.

Recipe

Red Peppers

Red Peppers Post Boil

Seeding and Skinning the Larger Peppers

Peppers Pureed

Puree, corrected for Flavour with Vinegar and Sugar

What You'll Need:

• 2 red bell peppers
• approximately a dozen bird's eye chiles
• 5 cili merah chiles
• Any mild vinegar like rice wine vinegar
• Granulated white sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt to season

Essentially, any combination of sweet and hot chiles will do, so long as the ration is 1:1 by mass. The peppers I chose just happened to be varieties more common to Asian cuisine.

Method:

1. Place the peppers in a pot with a tight fitting lid, cover with cold water.
2. Place the pot over a burner set to medium heat and bring the water up to a simmer.
3. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for 25 minutes covered
4. Remove from the heat and let the peppers cool until they are handle-able
5. Drain the peppers.
6. Dawn a pair of latex or vinyl gloves. Do NOT skip this step. Prolonged exposure to hot peppers, cooked or otherwise, can cause the capsaicin to seep into the skin. It burns!
7. For the larger peppers (i.e. not the bird's eye chiles), halve them, remove their seeds, and peel off the skins. Boiling the peppers like this is similar to roasting them. The flesh separates from the skins.
8. For the bird's eye chiles, just pull off the stems. They should come off rather easily.
9. Place the seeded and skinned pepper flesh into a blender along with the stemmed chiles
10. Blend until smooth
11. Strain the puree through a wire strainer. This will remove any errant seeds and skins.
12. Stir in the olive oil
13. Correct the flavour with vinegar and sugar. According to the source recipe, a Kosayi should not be too hot. For the above peppers, I added 2 tbsp each of vinegar and sugar.
14. Season to taste with kosher salt.

For the menudo itself, Chef Bayless' recipe employs pig trotters to impart a stickiness to the stock that comes from slow cooking collagen into gelatin. Please note that the tripe, more common at Chinese dim sum and served in bowls of Vietnamese Pho noodles, is layered omasum, the third of a cow's four stomachs. For this recipe, thicker and more substantial honey comb tripe is required. Omasum may actually dissolve completely from the long stewing in the following recipe.

More after the jump...