Before we begin, please note that sometime late Monday night, fire gutted a three-story apartment and commercial building on Eddy Street in the Hull sector of Gatineau. It made the 40 people, who were living in the residential portion section of the 95 Eddy Street building, homeless. Five businesses were destroyed, including De La Ghetto clothing Shop, Blanchisserie Eddy laundromat and La petite cuisine de Tony.

95 Eddy Street, courtesy of Google Maps
The Ottawa Citizen (a local Ottawa newspaper) reports that there were no injuries caused by the 6:02 pm blaze.

According to the Gatineau police, the Canadian Red Cross quickly mobilized to help displaced residents. With the spat of fires razing apartment buildings in both Ottawa and Gatineau of late, we at foodiePrints have made another donation to the Red Cross. We encourage readers to do so as well. Here is a link to options for donating: Options. Here is a link for donating online: Donate Online.

Now, why is an apartment fire on a food blog? Two reasons. Firstly, I work in Gatineau and have frequented the family-owned and run restaurant, La petite cuisine de Tony. They made a decent Lebanese fatayer. Secondly, I am slightly troubled by how CBC Ottawa reported the incident. My concern stems from an American survey I came across last night via the PR Squared blog.

The survey, conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations came up with, what was for me, a startling finding:

...an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter.

Cision however added the following caveat:

...it's also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors' and reporters' reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism.

Indeed, as many have no doubt observed, the speed with which a lead becomes a story and is reported has increased. Most local news concerns in Ottawa even have twitter accounts. I have seen both @CTVOttawa and @OttawaCitizen request pictures or accounts from witnesses of events.

At 8:30 AM (EST) this morning, CBC Ottawa's website reported the fire with a photo that had the caption "The fire destroyed 16 apartments and five businesses, including a bakery and a dry cleaner." The report read that a brick building at 88 Eddy Street had been the site of the blaze and has since been torn down. A friend of mine graciously provided me a screen capture of the report as it was originally posted:

CBC Ottawa's Original Report
He had it cached on his phone from when I told him that the wonderful little Portuguese bakery and sandwich shop I introduced him to two weeks ago may have burned down. The shop's green awning is in the picture from the original report.

The shop, called Estoril, is situated at 89 Eddy Street. I am particularly fond of it and its owners, visiting the eatery twice a month since I first discovered it last June.

Well, there are some problems with CBC Ottawa's story as it was originally reported. First, the building at 88 Eddy Street is across the street from Estoril. The building at 89 Eddy Street cannot possibly hold 16 apartments.

89 Eddy Street, courtesy of Google Maps
There is also no dry cleaner. Such is readily apparent from Google Maps.

At 10:30 AM (EST), CBC Ottawa updated its story to change the address to 95 Eddy Street.

CBC Ottawa's Updated Report
The update also added several accounts of the fire and a photo of the torn down building, taken by CBC's Chad Pawson.

At 12:37 PM (EST), CBC Ottawa updated its story again to change the number of apartments in the building to 12, forgetting to change the caption next to the paragraph. The caption still read 16.

To CBC Ottawa, may I suggest you take a little time to verify facts before you post a story, especially a headlining one? This includes getting addresses straight. If you can find the time to dispatch someone to the scene to take a picture and attach a Google Map to the online report, you can find the time to demonstrate that fast-paced journalism doesn't have to be sloppy journalism.

For instance, as I just found out by walking down Eddy, judging from the layer of ice on the building, Estoril did suffer water damage from the firefighters putting out the fire in the adjacent building. Estoril is presently closed, but I saw one of the concerned owners go in and out. It has not been torn down. However, the City of Gatineau is co-ordinating cleanup of of the torn down buidling and Gatineau police is re-directing car and pedestrian traffic as needed.

Ever since my less than successful first attempt at cooking lamb shanks, I have revisited preparing the traditionally long cooked cut of meat twice. Both times either produced shanks whose meat that was too soft or too firm. Neither attempt employed mushrooms. So, when Leela (@sheshimmers) of the She Shimmers and Melody (@gourmetfury) of the Gourmet Fury blogs announced February's vegetable for their Beet & Squash "Veggie Celebration Contest", I decided to attempt the only preparation of lamb shanks I have encountered that had the texture I wanted, braised lamb shanks with mushroom bolognese. That preparation was actually a frozen entree from local fine food store Epicuria (419 Mackay Street).

Given that I missed "Battle Napa Cabbage", due to other happenings this past New Year, I pulled out all the stops.

First, I went looking for the source recipe and its originator: Italian Master Chef Michael Chiarello. Then, I chanced upon Epicuria's recipe and took note of their intepretation of Chef Chiarello's recipe.

Having read up on the recipes and armed with tips from an ex-Epicuria Chef, I went shopping for lamb shanks. Before, I purchase frozen New Zealand lamb shanks from the local supermarket. This time, I sourced the lamb shanks from my neighbourhood butcher's Saslove's (1333 Wellington St. W). They turned out to be fresh Canadian lamb shanks. Mushroom-wise, I picked up two Asian varieties from a local (non-T&T) Asian supermarket, the New 168 Market, just outside of Chinatown (1050 Somerset Street W).

Now, tradition has it that a "bolognese" is a meat "ragu" that is a staple of the Bologna region of Northern Italy. It is a full-bodied meat sauce that is tomato based and flavoured with wine and mirepoix vegetables: 2 parts onions, 1 part carrots, and 1 part celery. At times, it includes milk or cream. For reference, think of the filling in a classic Bolognese lasanga. Here is one I made several weeks ago:

Bolognese Lasagna
Substituting mushrooms for meat, while bucking tradition, makes a good deal of sense. Mushrooms can be good and meaty. Though, they have to be carefully cooked or will come out rubbery.

Here is what turned out:

Braised Lamb Shanks with Mushroom Bolognese
I served it with onion polenta and yu choy.

Recipe
Here's what you'll need:

2 796 mL Cans of Low Sodium Plum Tomatoes

Approximately 230 g (1/2 lb) of one variety of mushroom

Approximately 230 g (1/2 lb) of another variety of mushroom

3 Medium to large lamb shanks

• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup of chopped celery
• 2 cups of dry red wine (Ours: a 2007 Jackson-Triggs Cabarnet Franc/Cabarnet Sauvignon from the Niagara Peninsula)
• 3 cups of low sodium chicken broth

According to the notes in Chef Chiarello's recipe, the shanks can be made a number of ways: braised for 2-4 hours in an oven set to 300F or braised for 6 hours in an oven set to 250F. While the shanks can be made in a covered pot on the stove top, "there is caramelization of flavors in oven braising that stove top cooking does not replicate." We went the super long route in a low oven. But first, we need a braising liquid and, since we're braising overnight, the liquid can be refrigerated during the day thereafter so the fat can rise to the top, solidify, and be easily lifted off. The braised shanks can also be aged in the refrigerator alongside.

More after the jump...

Apparently, January 29th is National Corn Chip Day in the United States, a day that celebrates the American almost addiction for corn chips. It comes with a challenge to eat corn chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

To mark the occasion, Scott Kleinberg of Chicago's free newspaper RedEye went looking for and found 18 of what he calls "Strangest Corn Chips from Around the World." Images of his choices were made into a slide show that is gathering a following on digg.com.

Among his chosen corn chips are 10 varieties of Doritos. 16 are manufactured by FritoLay. Two, from corn chips originator Fritos.

The 15th entry in the slide show is Doritos' Scream Cheese, whose caption reads, "I'm assuming this is spicy cream cheese flavor." It is actually a Canadian one. In fact, its name originated in a user-generated marketing contest to find a marketing "guru."

I came across the unnamed chips one work day during lunch. Curiosity got the better of my palate and I purchased a bag.

Unnamed Flavour of Doritos' Corn Chips

Ingredients

Corn Chips
Ordinarily, I avoid Doritos' corn chips since the flavouring powder contains either an artificial cheese compound or a preservative that makes me cough. Attempting to become Doritos' new marketing guru, I came up with "Fieri Cheese" and based my proposed marketing campaign on one of the Food Network's most annoying personalities, Guy Fieri. It made sense, the chips tasted rather artificial like the Doritos I have tried before. Only, this flavour had bite. I envisioned a series of commercials where Fieri goes around saying "Got Fieri", pops a chip, and breathes fire, setting various objects and national monuments ablaze. Happily, I never found time to submit the idea.

Instead, a much more deserving Montrealer named Ryan Coopersmith was chosen guru. Here was his entry:


Anyhow, I have partaken of several cream cheese-based dips, spiked with a chili puree. Each tasted far better than Scream Cheese from Doritos. Each was served with plain corn tortilla chips, two made from corn (not flour) tortillas.

If you plan to celebrate corn chip day next year, I encourage you to make your own from corn tortillas and whip up a nice salsa to accompany them. Better yet, homemade nachos (beef or chicken) with freshly grated cheese is always a crowd pleaser.

Almost 4 years ago now (2006), McDonald's entered the coffee wars, completely replacing its regular coffee with something that it felt embodied "gourmet." Essentially, it followed the leads of 7-Eleven convenience stores, Dunkin Donuts, and direct competitor Burger King. The idea, pair a re-formulated "premium roast" coffee with items on its regular menu at McDonald's value-oriented prices. It's not a bad one. Whereas most large coffee house chains like Starbuck's offer snacks to tempt the sweet tooth, sandwiches, and the odd soup, McDonald's offers a more meal-oriented menu. McDonald's, in turn, does not offer scones or biscotti, but does sell muffins. Presumably, its intention was to increase the convenience of purchasing coffee for harried parents of Happy Meal-aged children and young adults who stop by for a quick and inexpensive bite.

In Canada, the battlefield McDonald's entered with its premium roast coffee is presently dominated by national chain, Tim Hortons (Timmies). While Timmies doesn't serve burgers or fries, its many franchises are equipped to serve a full menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It does offer scones, tarts, and, its primary product, doughnuts. Also, a number of Timmies are paired with Wendy's, so patrons can pickup burgers and fries, walk a few paces, and purchase coffee.

Me, I tried McDonald's premium roast coffee last year. I found it on par with Timmie's, quality-wise.

Left: Tim Hortons, Right: McDonald's Coffee
Please note that I prefer coffee from any one of Ottawa's Bridgehead coffee houses, that only serve fair trade coffee. I find Timmie's a necessary evil, when I am not in the walking vicinity of a Bridgehead coffee house. I very rarely visit a McDonald's restaurant, but am a fan of their fries.

On January 25, 2010, Timmies, with 500 franchises in the United States since 2008, entered the breakfast wars by offering an English muffin-based breakfast sandwich at $1.99/each for a limited time. According to the Financial Post, NPD Group Canada tabulated a statistic that "Canada's biggest coffee chain has seemingly triumphed in the breakfast-sandwich segment over competitors McDonald's and Starbuck's with a 51% share." Analysts feel that Timmies intends to further its lead by directly competing with McDonald's.

To date, Timmies has avoided the confrontation, selling bagel-based and home-style biscuit-based breakfast sandwiches. Here is one I picked up while traveling on business to North Vancouver last summer.

Tim Horton's Breakfast Combo

Biscuit-based Breakfast Sandwich
The biscuit-based breakfast sandwich consisted of a hash brown (yes...a hash brown), a sausage pattie, an egg, a slice of processed cheese. It was a very salty and greasy meal.

Regarding English-muffin based breakfast sandwiches, McDonald's McMuffin breakfast icon was created in 1972 when the late Herb Peterson (a franchisee), decided to make a portable eggs benedict. I have yet to try Tim Horton's interpretation. It will be interesting to see what Tim Horton's does with it.

Wintery conditions have finally returned to Canada's capital after record rainfall earlier this week, the fourth week of January. With such odd weather, it is a wonder Ottawans have their bearings climate wise. Today, temperatures fell below zero again, so I think I will mark the occasion by revisiting a slow cooked dish, red wine braised lamb shanks with onion polenta.

Red Wine Braised Lamb Shanks with Onion Polenta

Of note, even though the lamb shanks made a hearty and savoury dinner, I consider this dish a failure. I will explain why later.

To make the above braised lamb shanks, three fresh lamb shanks were purchased from then Loeb (now Metro) on Wellington. For the record, it was several days past Christmas and Jenn and I wanted something very much non-poultry after serving up our annual turkey feast with all the fixings.

Three fresh lamb shanks

At $11/kg, the shanks ran us $16 before taxes
Remember that number, it will come in handy later...

As with any braise, I seared the lamb shanks, placed them in a small mount of flavourful liquid, and cooked them covered for a long period of time (3 hours). To ensure a hands-free braise (Sunday is chore day for my household), I turned to my slow cooker (aka: crock pot). To ensure the shanks picked up some tannins from the red wine (an unremarkable cabernet sauvignon), I coated the shanks in flour before searing them.

Lamb shanks seared in a little canola oil in a pan

Lamb shanks unceremoniously deposited into the pot of a slow cooker

The braising liquid was a red wine reduction, flavoured with sweated onions.

3 sweated down onions
I added one bottle of an unremarkable cabernet sauvignon, brought to mixture to a simmer, and lowered heat to low, reducing it until thickened.

Reduced red wine and onion mixture

Mixture poured over lamb shanks and slow cooked on low for 3 hours

Braised Lamb Shank

After letting the shanks cool, I placed them in the refrigerator overnight, since braised meats taste better aged. Here' are theories why.

To serve, I whipped up a standard polenta recipe and added finely chopped green onions to taste. That day, I used Alton Brown's polenta recipe. Others will do.

Creamy batch of polenta

Meanwhile, I baked the lamb shanks in an oven, preheated to 350°F, uncovered until they darkened.

Plated Served

More after the jump...