How do you turn poutine into $1266 to fight cancer?

You find a great cause. In this case, Isabelle Rivard's (@spoonsie) Give to Live challenge (isaonabike.com) to cycle from Vancouver, BC to Austin, TX (a 4300 km trek) and raise $10,000 for cancer causes.

Izzy Rivard
Proceeds from this event went to The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Craig's Cause for Pancreatic Cancer, and The Canadian Cancer Society.

You find seven generous restaurants who make specialized takes on the dish that normally tops crispy fries with squeaky cheddar cheese curds and a veloute-style gravy.

You contact culinary tour guide Paola St. George (@cestboncooking) who is also the marketing manager behind C'est Bon Cooking.

Chef Andrée Riffou and Paola St. George of C'est Bon Cooking

You sign up 35 poutine enthusiasts to join you in a tour of Ottawa's ByWard Market, including Mark Warburton (founder of Ottawa Foodies), Kaitlin (Ottawa food blogger behind Heartful Mouthful), and Jodi (Ottawa food blogger behind Simply Fresh).

Mark Warburton and Paola St. George

You split the group in two and take everyone on a 2 km walking tour of downtown Ottawa.

The result,

@foodiePrints (Jul 17, 09:40 PM)
@EqualOppKitchen ...7 very generous restaurants. 37 happy p0utine enthusiasts. 2 km of walking tour. $1266 raised to fight cancer!

Poutine crawls are not unheard of. Earlier this year, Toronto food bloggers organized one. Theirs was not a fundraiser, just poutine enthusiasts, trying the various takes on poutine their city has to offer. The dish that has been long derided, often referred as "fat lumber jack food", has slowly colonized the city.

With the help of friends, the bloggers behind the Endless Simmer blog organized a "Tour de Poutine" in New York City. In total, they visited 7 eateries and sampled 7 takes on poutine. As Rebecca Marx of the Village Voice blog wrote about the poutine crawl, it revealed Brooklyn to be an unlikely poutine paradise. The most interesting to me was the one that came from a lunch counter in the Essex Street Market, Shopsin's. Dubbed the "Last Supper Poutine", it was topped not with cheese curds, but three poached eggs.

Well, Ottawa neighbours Quebec, the province that gave poutine birth. This is a city that knows good poutine. Here's what our ByWard Market produces.

The Courtyard Restaurant (21 George Street)

Chef Michael Hay's take on Poutine

Hand Cut Shoe String Fries, topped with Duck Confit, St-Albert Curds, and smashed Foie Gras Torchon
Jenn and I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to try Chef Hay's poutine. Sous Chef Arleigh Martin assembled the poutine to order. According to one of Chef Hay's earlier tweets, the sauce involved "French fry consomme." The torchon looked like it was frozen with liquid nitrogen and "smashed."

Zak's (16 ByWard Market Square)

Breakfast Poutine
Home fries, cheese curds, hollandaise, and paprika.

More after the jump...

On May 21, 2010, Travis Boisvenue (@TravisBoisvenue), writer and CHUO radio personality, had me and Jenn in his studio at the University of Ottawa for a live interview.

CHUO
The subject: food in Ottawa and food blogging.

The following is the interview:
Foodie Prints by TravisBoisvenue
Source: Around the Block blog

Thank-you to Travis and his boss Ian Capstick for inviting us.

Aside: It seems we are not the only ones praising Ottawa's growing food scene lately. CBC, CTV, and the Ottawa Citizen (a local newspaper) are all discussing a piece Canadian expat Michael Kaminer penned for the Washington Post. During a weekend trip to the city of his childhood, he was so impressed with Ottawa's culinary progress that he referred to our food scene as "buzzing" and deemed it his "big reveal." In "Discovering Canada's Cool capital", Kaminer mentions Chef Caroline Ishii's Zen Kitchen and Chef Steve Mitton's Murray Street Kitchen, calling the former a gathering place for bookish and prosperous looking crowds and the latter, "aggressively Canadian."

While this lowly food blogger agrees with Kaminer's piece, I have a quibble. With respect, York Street isn't completely ruled by chain restaurants. Where York Street meets Sussex Drive, there is Stephen Beckta and Chef Micheal Moffat's Play Food and Wine (1 York Street). Across the street, Chef Matthew Carmichael's Ei8hteen (12 York Street). Both are locally owned and operated. Both stand against the tide of big box restaurants on York Street.

For our coverage of this year's Taste of Wellington West event, visit the Ottawa Tonite website.

Taste of Wellington West 1010: Rain and Sandwiches
It is our second year attending the event and, as last year, we had a lot of fun.

The two finds this year, amazing red pepper hummus from Credible Edibles (78 Hinton Avenue North) and lime meltaway cookies from the soon-to-open Alpha Soul Cafe (1015 Wellington Street W.).

Alpha Soul Cafe

Business Card

Lime Meltaway Cookies

Another find last Saturday actually has very little to do with the Taste of Wellington West. Holland avenue residents have a new family-run convenience store (83), called Sun Grocery Store, formerly Holland Avenue Flowers and Gifts. What sets this convenience store apart are the freshly made queso blanco it sells and their assembled-to-order "barbecue" sandwiches.

Sun Grocery Store

Barbecued Sandwiches
Each sandwich is made with a flour tortilla. It is filled with freshly cut tomato, lettuce, and skewer grilled chicken breast. You have a choice of supermarket mayonnaise or freshly made chimichurri. Chimichurri is a Latin American green sauce, made with chopped parsley (and/or cilantro), minced garlic, olive oil, and white vinegar.

"barbecue" sandwich

Fresh veg and grilled chicken
Think home-style food, juicy white meat chicken, and fresh and tangy chimichurri. The sandwich was an unexpected delight.

Cost: A mere $3.50 (before taxes or tip)

For much more complete photo coverage, visit Dennis Van Staalduinen's (@denvan) Beg to Differ blog. Dennis is the founder of the Wellington West Business Improvement Association and a great guide to the neighbourhood.

Particulars:
Credible Edibles
78 Hinton Avenue North
(613)558-7569

Alpha Soul Cafe
1015 Wellington Street W.

Sun Grocery Store
83 Holland Avenue

Over the past month, Don and I have been on assignment for the Apartment 613 blog, putting together a pho round up. Our "A Pho Study: 5 Takes On Ottawa Pho" was posted today.

With Ottawa having so many pho noodle houses, we decided to visit several we have not yet eaten at.

A Pho Study: 5 Takes on Ottawa Pho
Though, we could not write a pho round up without including our favourite, Pho Thu Do in Ottawa's Chinatown.

Happily, we found two pho noodle houses that had us re-evaluate our Top 5 list for Ottawa. It follows:

1. Pho Thu Do - 765 Somerset Street W.
2. Springroll House Cafe - 1093 Wellington Street W.
3. New Pho Bo Ga La - 763 Somerset Street W.
4. Pho Bo Ga King - 778 Somerset Street W.
5. Pho Bo Ga (the original) - 12 Lebreton Street N.

To Apartment613's staff and editors, thanks for letting us contribute to your blog. We look forward to working with you again sometime!

To our readers, take a gander at Apartment 613. It is a great blog!

In April, freelance journalist Paula Roy approached us for an interview for her column in the Kitchissippi Times, a community newspaper for the west end of Ottawa. Flattered, we did our best to align three busy schedules to meet up. After numerous e-mails and a quick photo at a Bridgehead coffee house (1277 Wellington Street), the monthly published newspaper released quite the read on our little food blog. Many thanks to Paula and her Editor for a wonderful article.


April 22, 2010 Edition of the Kitchissippi Times

Hintonburg Food Bloggers Share Their Passion

The following are selected interview questions and answers that resulted in the article:
What part of Kitchissippi do you live in? (i.e. Hintonburg, Wellington Village, Civic Hospital, Westboro, McKellar Park, etc.)
Don: We live in Hintonburg

How long have you lived in this area?
Jenn: We've lived in Hintonburg going on six years.

What role do each of you play in foodiePrints? It would appear that Don writes and Jenn edits - is that correct? Does the cooking get divided fairly evenly or do you cook together most often?
Jenn: Indeed, Don is the primary blogger while I am his editor. Though, I started actively blogging fall 2009. We both share the task of taking pictures of the foods we eat and cook.

As for cooking, we both enjoy it so much it's hard to say who cooks more. Cooking is our creative outlet and a great way for us to spend quality time together.

Don: I feel strongly food bloggers should cook or, at least, spend a good amount of time in a kitchen with someone who cooks. Jenn and I fight over the kitchen.

Any other hobbies besides cooking/eating/blogging?
Jenn: When I'm not cooking or doing blog related activities, I spend as much time outdoors as possible. I can always be spotted running or going for a relaxing stroll through the neighbourhood.

Don: She also tends to a handful of herb beds and two pots of tomatoes on our balcony, a gardener.

Me, I am surprised there’s life outside of the blogosphere. When not blogging, reading others' blogs, commenting on said blogs, contributing to various food-relate forums, I read (mostly about food). Jenn has been encouraging me to join her on her long walks and we have taken up cycling.

Have you always been passionate about food? What first inspired you and when?
Don: My parents cooked and they instilled in their children a love for earth to table eating. We had a garden in our backyard, growing up. My sisters and I learned what corn, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, various squashes, lettuce, green onions, fresh herbs, string beans, snow peas, and asparagus taste like when not shipped for hours in refrigerated trucks. My parents also took us to ethnic markets and farmers’ markets when they went grocery shopping.

What first inspired me to cook would be meeting Jenn. While my mom made sure her son could cook as well as her daughters, I did not pickup pan, spatula, or knife in any meaningful way until I met Jenn. To put it simply, if you can help it, you aren’t going to heat up processed foods for someone you love. It grew from there. Eventually, I began preparing larger and more complex meals and started to enjoy it.

Jenn: I have always been passionate about food. I grew up watching my mother cook and bake, both from scratch. I often sat in the kitchen, doing my homework and watching my mom prepare dinner. My parents have a beautiful garden, growing many varieties of Asian and non-Asian vegetables. Years of watching my mom cook and my parents lovingly tend to their crops and plants in the garden contributed to my love of cooking and inspired me to make my own interpretations of foods I grew up eating and attempting new dishes.

Tell us about your culinary backgrounds - what kinds of food did you enjoy growing up and whom would you consider your culinary mentors?
Don: I grew up with a primarily Asian diet. My mentors in that cuisine would be my parents. My family watched Martin Yan when he was on public television and Kylie Kwong when she was on the Food Network.

My father loved to experiment with recipes. I remember him making French croissant’s from scratch. He once being a chemist took to baking well. My family would try our hands at making dim sum dumplings entirely from first principles, seafood ones, open face meat ones, sealed ones.

When I moved out on my own, I discovered the worlds of non-oriental cuisine: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Mexican. In those cuisines, I’ve read or own books by Jacques Pepin (to some extent Julia Child), Michael Chiarello , Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, Rich Bayless, and Alton Brown. Today, I’m digging into on the writings of Michael Ruhlman and Nigel Slater.
You don’t want to know how many food blogs I read.

Jenn: My mentor would be my mother and I too grew up with primarily an Asian diet.

What kinds of foods do you most and least enjoy making (i.e. appetizers, soups, baking, etc.)
Jenn: I enjoy making Asian-style soups, dumplings, and making a variety of rice noodle dishes. I'm not sure if there's something I don't like making.

Don: There aren’t dishes I don’t enjoy making. After a long day in the office, it is wonderful to work a bread dough or prep mise for Jenn or something I am making. If there is any technique I dislike, it would be washing leafy Asian greens. It’s the process of removing the sand and grit that I find somewhat annoying. Though, tearing, cutting, or cooking them, I enjoy.

What's your favourite thing to make right now?
Don: Right now, I’m working on home cured meats, just finishing a duck prosciutto in the refrigerator. With spring having arrived, my attention will turn to asparagus and fiddle heads shortly…

Jenn: I'm trying to perfect an old family recipe for a sponge cake.

Can you please tell us what cooking tool you couldn't possibly do without and why?
Don: Besides chef’s and paring knives, I would be lost without my heat resistant silicone spatula. I love wooden spoons, but almost always reach for the silicone spatula.

Jenn: I can't live without my cleaver. I would be lost without it. I use it to chop, crush, and mince meats, herbs, and vegetables.

What is the strangest thing you've ever cooked or eaten and what were the circumstances?
Don: In Vancouver, I tried a clam with a very large protuberance called “geoduck.” I ate it at a banquet in a higher end Chinese restaurant, something Ottawa has yet to open.

Most recently, I had oysters on a half shell at Whalesbone (on Bank). I’ve eaten many things raw from shell fish to fin fish (sushi). Oysters were a revelation.

More after the jump...