Dear Ikea,

To celebrate the great relationship between Sweden and Canada, may we suggest a new dish be served in Ikea restaurants to mark Canada Day (July 1, 2010)? It is a fusion of Swedish foods already on the menu and cheese curds from Quebec, producing a tasty interpretation of a Canadian dish.

Take the classic köttbullar (swedish meatballs with cream cauce) with a side of fries.

Swedish meatballs with cream sauce and fries
Add cheese curds from La Fromagerie Les Folies Bergeres, purchased at Herb and Spice (1310 Wellington Street W.). And, you will have the Ikea poutine:

Swedish Meatball Poutine

This concept was originally described to us by Ottawa's David Hicks (@ALL_CAPS) who makes the poutine with freshly cut Belgian-style fries (Ikea's are slightly battered, resembling fries served at KFC and Costco). The one above, we made directly in the Pinecrest Ikea's restaurant (2685 Iris Street) in Ottawa.

We think it would be a big hit!

Sincerely,
Jenn & Don

Update: For those of you who don't know, Jenn and I are participating in organizing a C'est Bon Cooking Poutine Crawl, a walking tour tasting of poutine, in downtown Ottawa. The event will be a fundraiser for Isabelle Rivard (@spoonsie), who aims to cycle from Vancouver, BC to Austin, Tx (4300 km) and raise $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. We already have 2 restaurants on board. Stay tuned for details and a contest for a pair of tickets.

Update 2: The mild-tasting cream gravy went well with the fresh cheese curds and fries. Unfortunately, it was not warm enough to melt the curds. The meat balls and fries took on the milky, slightly sharp, and fatty flavours well. As per Marcus' comment, we neglected to ask for any lingonberry sauce, something sweet and tart that would have cut the richness. Next time!

Particulars:
Pinecrest Shopping Center
2685 Iris Street
1 (866) 875-4532

Apparently, there is but one Ikea in a one ore two city radius of Ottawa, so it is often packed to the gills with customers, eager for bargain home furnishings. Me, I'm not a fan of Ikea furniture, save for some of the tables. However, I am a fan of some of the inexpensive kitchen wear.

I am also a fan of its little cafeteria and I am not alone. I've read tweets, blog entries, and even submissions to Yelp and the like about the virtues of the "complete Ikea experience": a meandering trip on the directed path through each of the store's departments and hunkering down to a plate of Swedish meatballs with fries, lingonberry jam, and a fountain drink.

The Ikea Experience

Ikea Cafeteria

Swedish Meatball
The price can't be beat:

Meatball Dinner
10 meatballs with gravy, lingonberry sauce, potatoes or fries, and a soft drink.
$6.49

Source: Restaurant section for Ikea Ottawa

Is this gourmet food? No, but I'll bet a lot of fine foodies would be tempted. Even with its salty and floury sauce, fried from frozen fries (though fried up crisp and not greasy), and more than likely deep fried from frozen meat balls, the plate pairs a balance of flavors. It demonstrates that savory goes very well with deeply tart and sweet flavours. Ketchup has been all but replaced in my house. One of its replacements: lingonberry jam!

Of late, my better half and I have been making it a pseudo-tradition that we split a plate of Ikea meatballs slightly before lunch on days when dinner will be a multi-course banquet. It is all we eat. This tradition started the day we first went to Ottawa's Atelier and continued recently with another 15 courser. Here are pics from my then dying (now dead) digital camera:

Pre-Multi-Course Brunch
The white/yellow mass was supposed to be mac 'n cheese. My advice: stick with the meatballs. :)

No, I haven't forgotten the 50 cent hot dogs, but, if you are going to visit a multi-national purveyor of affordable furniture that originated in Sweden, why not try the store's take on its indigenous food? Heck the Ikea website even has a page or two dedicated to its cafeteria food.

Particulars:
Pinecrest Shopping Center
2685 Iris Street
1 (866) 875-4532

It's been a while since I put anything in the kitchen gear category. Such may be the result of my instituting a temporary moratorium on kitchen expenditures before heading out West for a vacation. The moratorium will remain until I replenish some of my funds. Happily, I think I have found another way to save money in the kitchen: Ikea Hacking (aka: re-purposing Ikea products)!

I ran across the phenomenon in today's online issue of the New York Times. The article linked to Ms. Mei Mei Yap's "ikeahacker" blog. There, I found some innovative ways of furnishing the kitchen with some low cost Ikea products. Most of the solutions are simple and elegant. Some are outright ingenious. The blog is a wonderful compilation of human ingenuity.

For instance, one entry involves taking a pair of Ikea cabinet base units, attaching them together and creating a tall pantry unit that butts up against the fridge. How about creating a bar from an Ikea high cabinet and an Ikea counter top? Best of all, everything fits into a shoestring budget.

Here are two of my favourites from ikeahacker:
Long Overhead Cabinets

Made from Ikea Book Cases

Brilliant Kitchen Tool Wall

Made from Non-Ikea Stainless Steel Canisters, some Metal Wire, and Ikea Grundtal bars

Not bad for "unboring" Ikea stuff eh?

Cheers to Ms. Yap. Love the blog. Will visit often!