There's No Place Like Ottawa for the Holidays

So I decided kind of last minute to make myself scarce and get out of town for a few days. Montreal is great, but I did a lot of growing up in Ottawa and I'll always love coming back here.

I zipped into the capital for a quick trip to see some old university friends here before heading west for a bit. Of course I'm right in the middle of finals now so some of my work came with me. Everything has to be done in the next ten days so I'm resting up to prepare for the final sprint to the finish line.

Then home to my parents in Edmonton for a while. I'll be back in Montreal by Christmas eve, though, so lots of travel on the horizon for me. I can't wait to try my parents new kitchen.

While I'm in Ottawa I have some bosom friends to connect with and of course one or two restaurants to stop in at. I might find my way to So Good tomorrow around lunchtime. Get myself some tofu pepper salt and wu se chicken. Care to join me?

Checked into the ever-resplendant Chateau Laurier - my hotel of choice in Ottawa, of course... I don't think I will ever get tired of getting to sleep in a big bed inside a castle.

After checking in I went right to the in-room dining menu and sized it up. Eventually I settled on the Senator's Nicoise Salad and a glass of Pinot Grigio.
Herb dusted pan-flashed Ahi tuna over salad nicoise of boiled baby potatoes, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes and hard boiled egg. And soooo many delightful crisp green beans! An excellent start to the weekend.

Later an early evening visit turned into one or two rounds of martinis with a darling old friend. Time catches up to everyone. We can't hide from it, though it may be tempting to try. Our friendship has gone from kool-aid and grape juice at work to cosmos on Sparks Street to now - dry vodka martinis with lots of olives in the hotel lounge. I love this man.

He insisted that I return to my room and order up some dinner. So now I am waiting. I am waiting for french onion soup and a slow roasted prime rib sandwich with au jus dip. I'm getting my first french onion soup of the season. I can't wait for it to warm me up. Have you got a favourite onion soup recipe? Care to share?

Stay tuned as food and ensuing shenanigans make their way onto the pages of the Digest. Hotel eats galore, lots of Canadian wine and beer, I hope, and old friends in the coming days.

I love this town.

post-holiday recovery

The holiday season lasts really long. Especially in the hospitality and service industry. From the end of November until now, I basically have not had two days off in a row. Except for the little bit of time when my family all together. I mean the full family - sisters, partners, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And do you know what I learned? My family is really big and really hungry pretty much all the time. I mean even when we're in a smaller arrangement of the family, say parents, partners, and grandparents, we're still pretty boistrous and at once slightly peckish.

So for the past couple of months I've done little but cook, eat, serve, and discuss food, but because I've been so busy doing that... I haven't had time to write. Not cool.
Now that things are finally settling down on all fronts, I can settle in, catch up, ad take stock of what a trip it all was.

Let's see, there was the obscene amount of food that I served at work the weeks leading up to Christmas. And the fact that I was hired at a fine wine and spirits shop in the neighbourhood I grew up in. That exciting news in itself is worthy of a post. More to come about Crestwood Fine Wines and Spirits...

I cooked dinner for Joey, my sister Sarah and her partner Ed on the first night of Channukah. My parents were away so my mom's traditional role of racing home after work to make dozens of latkahs fell to me. I made crispy cornflake crumb chicken baked in the oven and we ate latkahs was apple sauce and sour cream until we each had to unbutton the top buttons of our pants.

Then there was the big fat family vacation on a Caribbean cruise over Christmas. My grandmother decided to take us all on vacation to celebrate her 80th birthday. There was a cocktail of trepidation and curiosity about what the experience would be like. In a way it met every expectation. But then again, in other ways it was a total surprise. Sometime soon I will spend some time telling the tales of the MS Noordam. But I think those will have to wait. Let me tease you by saying we ate a lot of lobster, beef tenderloin on board but my favourite meal was the snack bar lunch on the beach in Cozumel, which was comprised of cheese and chicken quesadillas, salsa, guacamole, tostadas, fish tacos, and Sol beer with fresh limes.

Oh yes, and of course we could not have gotten on that ship if we did not first travel halfway across North America to board from the port of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Do you know what else is in Florida? Orlando. Do you know what marvelously terrifying park is built in Orlando? Universal Studios. My sisters and I spent an entire day roadtripping to and from Universal to spend an afternoon at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That's right, the Dolgirls went to Hogwarts. It was amazing. Surely a day I will never forget. I have never done anything like that and I don't know if I would do anything like it ever again. I had so much butterbeer that eventually I couldn't drink anymore. And there were whole turkey legs. People were walking around with them in their hands. Peering and surveying the length of lineups with greasy skin and bits of turkey meat smeared all over their faces. That was super gross. But we did try them in the Three Broomsticks tavern, and they were actually quite tasty.

I want to tell you all about all of this. But let me take my time, now that I finally have some to myself again. More soon...

easy avocado enchiladas

I just learned that enchiladas were one of the recipes included in the first definitive Mexican cookbook, El cocinero mexicano ("The Mexican Chef"), in 1831. Wikipedia told me this when I went looking for info on the origins of this marvelous dish. They were informed, by the way, in "Tacos, Enchiladas and Refried Beans: The Invention of Mexican-American Cookery" published by Oregon State University.

Enchiladas are essentially any mixture of meat, fish, vegetables, or beans wrapped up in a soft (usually corn) tortilla and baked in a chili sauce. I have had them in many restaurants in Canada and even in Mexico. None have been all that memorable, save some that I once had cooked for me essentially out of someone's kitchen at a little beach snack bar somewhere near Manzanillo.

The enchiladas I like to make come from Mollie Katzen's "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest." First she explains the enchilada's basic components and construction. Then she gives three different recipes for fillings: Cheese with Surprises, Avocado, and Zucchini and Pepper. Honestly, as soon as I laid eyes on that avocado recipe my heart skipped a beat. I've never even tried the other two, though "with surprises" intrigues me a great deal.
Combine:
1/2 C fresh lemon juice
4 ripe avocados, coarsely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
6 green onions, finely chopped (greens and whites)
3/4 C fresh cilantro (didn't have any so I used Italian parsley)
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cumin

Make this just before you're ready to assemble the enchiladas and fit them into a casserole to be baked.

Mollie Katzen also gives two different recipes for enchilada sauce - a salsa verde, which requires green tomatoes (perfect for a big crop in summer) and the red sauce which can be made as long as you have access to a few basic supermarket ingredients like ripe tomatoes and a red bell pepper. Sometimes I blend it smooth but today I left it chunky for a nice texture.

The enchilada sauce can be made ahead of time.

Simmer in a pot:
5 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large red sweet pepper, finely diced
1 tsp. salt
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp crushed rep pepper, or chili pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. ground cumin

It's not in Mollie's recipe but I like to top the enchiladas with mozzarella or jack cheese before baking in the oven. Also, she covers with foil before baking and I leave the dish open to brown a little on top.

Tonight I paired the hot casserole with a quick spinach salad with chopped kalamata olives, big chunks of Starkrimson pear (a new discovery and positively delicious!), chopped green onion, and crumbled chevre. I made a vinaigrette of maple syrup, honey Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.


via Wikipedia:
Oregon State University -
http://web.archive.org/web/20070718154326/http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture/mexico_smith.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14.

combatting brain drain with smoked meat sandwiches

I saw a very delicious story on the news the other day. Amid stories of natural disaster, corrupt bankers and politicians, and a flailing economy, this warmed the cockles of my heart.

Click here to watch the news piece

I turns out that the greatest smoked meat sandwich to be had in New York is found at neither Carnegie nor Katz's delis, but at a new spot called Mile End Delicatessen that opened last January in Brooklyn. CBC reported that the deli received its top rating from Zagat, the authority in food and travel guides, described by CBC's David Common as the "gastronomic bible of New York City."

Owners Noah Bermanoff and Rae Cohen are Montreal ex-pats who sell the iconic smoked meat as well as St. Viatur bagels, hand delivered either by FedEx or quite often by friends who drive through the night from Montreal ensure their fresh and speedy arrival each morning.

The main attraction at the tiny hot spot is their beef brisket smoked meat. Also on the menu: poutine with real cheese curds, borscht, and sandwichs names like the "Ruth Wilensky" which is sliced salami on an onion roll (10 cents extra for no mustard) and "The Beauty" - lox on a bagel with cream cheese, tomato, red onion & capers served either open or close-faced.

The format is simple, the price is right, and the food looks amazing. It looks as though they've come up with a winning strategy as they are currently planning the opening of a second location. Too bad it's not up the street from my house. I miss Montreal smoked meat all the time.

Photo Credits:
Daniel Kreiger
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
brownstoner.com

what do you mean it's summer? it's started already? cool, let's have a picnic!

I swear, no one told me. I've spent so many back-to-back summers away, either in Ontario, Quebec, or Italy that I've forgotten what it feels like to experience an Edmonton spring followed immediately what I'm beginning to remember as Edmonton summer. I am guilty of falling victim to the intoxicating wafts of fresh blossoms and then greedily planting a garden before the Victoria Day long weekend. I also took a holiday in New York and didn't tend to my garden, as I should have in the days leading up to my trip. I was working extra hours at two jobs, training at one of them, and preoccupied with other writing I've been working on. So of course, bad things happened to the garden while I was away and shortly after my return. But I'm getting sidetracked. I'll tell you those stories in the next instalment of "planting a garden". The point is, I haven't written in a while nor have I been cooking, and so I must retrain myself to get back to those things, and to you, dear, loyal readers.
All right, yes, New York. It certainly felt like summer as soon as I got off the plane. The mercury did not dip below 30 degrees any day that we were there. At nights it cooled down slightly to around 25. That being said, it was rather difficult to maintain a high energy level to go go go the whole time. The vacation was a great deal about leisure, so we took our time. We loved choosing restaurants as it meant pouring over their online menus and dreaming of what kind of night might follow a meal at each place. Rarely did I find myself eating the entire meal (which was always at least twice as much as I could eat), but I didn't sweat it. One night we actually gave our leftover curry and rice to a homeless man on the way back to the hotel. Also, the heat made me realize that making sure we saw the 5 or 6 galleries, 2 museums, not to mention all the shopping,
Crab cakes and cucumber salad on the patio grill at the Boathouse in
Central Park
theatring, and fine dining as we could - not so realistic. There were a number of delightful food moments and memories, too many to share them all with you.

Some of the brightest food highlights (indeed in the darkest
places) I've captured with my Nikon D40. I've got a good old lens, but she's a bit broken and needs to be fixed. She kept conking out on me, so I was very happy to have had my friend's macro lens on loan for the trip. I've been playing around with that a lot since coming home and starting to cook again (!) I welcome your input and suggestions on updating my lens for my DSLR. I am thinking right now that I'll just send the warranteed lens away and pick up a well-made low price range macro lens too.

Wild blackberries that I noticed were growing on an island on the lake
in Central Park. I don't think the birds, ducks, and turtles will miss
these few we nabbed.

I want to tell you about this one meal I had though... I was given loads of advice and suggestions for where to eat and what to do while in New York. Thank everyone who offered me his or her precious info. One suggestion that I am particularly thankful for was from my sister who used to live in New York. Based on her recommendation I took my companion and another friend who now lives in New York down to Chelsea and we ate at August on Bleecker. It would be easy to walk right by it. In fact, our cab driver wouldn't pull over right away. Peering through the big front window, the restaurant appeared to be empty. I trusted my sister, though, so in we went. A shiny, hot wood-burning oven with endless piles of orange glowing coals was obviously the first thing I was drawn to. Soon after I looked around I heard laughter and tickling glasses coming from somewhere further into the restaurant. The sommelier (and I assume also an owner or manager) greeted us and took us through the narrow restaurant into the glass-roofed patio in the back. Large plants hung down and lights were suspended across the courtyard-like space.
The dinner menu was small, but the food was divine and wine list was sensational. Our sommelier friend came over when we asked our server a rather odd question. My friend likes Pino Grigio and I made the assumption that something called Fie Gris would be rather similar. Our server hadn't tried this bottle, so she called in backup. The sommelier began to describe the wine without seeming to be able to put his finger on just what it was like or could be compared to. He called it "rich", and kept repeating that characteristic over and over. "It's a bit citrusy, yeah, but it's just so... rich." It's indescribable, but he was exactly right. Not quite like anything I have tried before, but deliciously rich without being buttery and still with lots of nice fruit and blossoms. I must write to them and find out the exact name of the bottle. In all the deliciousness I plum forgot to write it down...
We also enjoyed some wonderful oysters from Saddle Rock, Long Island. Don't believe that old hoohah about only eating oysters in months that have an R in them. This dates back to a time when we had poor refrigeration. Besides, these were harvested not too far from where I was dining, even better!
I thought when I ordered the salad with arugula and lamb's quarters that I would be getting something with pieces of lamb meat... yeah, lamb's quarters are actually wild spinach, I have learned. It was still delicious, but because I had imagined some incredibly rich, heavy salad course, I was actually a little disappointed. The chefs at August made up to me, though with the stunning main course that was created as the nightly special. It was a sea bream grilled and served with fresh microgreens and tarragon in a light cream sauce strongly flavour with lemon. The brine from happy little green olives commingled with the sauce and the natural smoky flavour and oils from the grilled fish. It was rustic, inventive, and incredibly satisfying. I ate a whole fish. Minus the head and the eyes, which I secretly kind of want to try.

My dining companions each got one of the pizzas that were on special that night. Every sunday they have a pizza and beer deal. Something involving a bucket of beer, it actually looked pretty cool. My friends gave mixed reviews to their main courses. The one who eats meat said his was fantastic. I tasted some and it was pretty damn good. Lots of good quality Italian cured meats crumbled over a wood fired pizza crust with lots of fresh mozzarella. The one who is a vegetarian said her pizza had too much going on and it certainly looked that way to me - peppers, greens, and fava beans all sort of thrown "rustically" onto the crust without all concern for the mixture of textures and flavours.

We finished the meal with a couple of desserts which we all sort of shared. My veggie friend and I shared the hot rhubarb crumble with black pepper ice cream on top and the carnivore had a trio of gelato. We all had a contentedly (almost uncomfortably) full walk down to Union Square and after one more cold drink in the hot heat, headed back into a cab, uptown, and into the night.

montreal delights

Montreal. It evokes in my mind a city of light, of culture, and most certainly of some of the best food in North America. The most common refrain of its utterly European style and lifestyle makes you feel like you are in a place where everyone is zigging in a country where people are known for zagging. Montreal is groovy. It's old and up late and may boast some of the best ethnic food in Canada. Even its high-end designer, haute cuisine establishments are serving up artistic creations topped with infused foams and strange and exciting fungi.
Montreal, not unlike Toronto in this respect, strikes me as one of the brunchiest towns I've ever had the pleasure of dining in. Very good eggs and toast places with charm and character pop up all over the place. Visiting this city with sisters as my guides, I have eaten some very yummy late-morning-breakfast-lingering-into-long-afternoon-coffee-and-walking-around meals. This time I returned to L'Anecdote on Rachel and Saint-Hubert. The inside of it is deceptively large. The front area is very retro and has big cosy red leather booths with wide windows that look out onto Saint-Hubert. Further back bigger tables are available for larger groups. In the front, dessert and chrome sparkle to greet the new customers.
An old friend from art history met me by the Sherbrook metro and we walked over together. The trouble is, we got so wound up in visiting and coffee that I sort of forgot to take a before shot. This is what was left of a very large and tasty diner breakfast. Delicious.


Then we continued strolling and ended up on a mission for beer. My friend was about to move and the occasion definitely called for a couple cold ones. We discovered a very interesting deppanneur on Duluth. Lots of locally microbrewed beers at a very good price with mix and match deals. Ultimately, we found a very pretty little spot to get ice cream on Saint Denis called Au Festin de Babette. He had orange chocolate and I had pistachio.
Later in the afternoon, I met two of my very best friends at the bus terminal, down the street from my sister's apartment where I had been staying. We wrapped our arms around each other, said a quick hello while they freshened up back at my sister's, and we were back out on Saint Denis. We stopped for a quick bite and a slice of pie at Rockaberry (mocha tiramisu, which we saved for later) and then shopped the afternoon sun away. As it set we headed to our hotel, The Queen Elizabeth, and checked it. After another quick recharge, we returned to the Plateau where my fabulous sister was waiting to join us for dinner at one of my favourite restaurants in Montreal.
Just a short walk down Saint Denis from my sister's house is Chuch, a vegan Thai restaurant with the most remarkable fake meat I've ever eaten. The textures are so real and the sauces are so flavourful that I enjoy it as much if not more so that non-vegan Thai food. The four of us went crazy. Though there was only one vegetarian among us, I would describe the lot of us as more or less flexitarian. The vegetable dumplings went so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them. When the rest of the food arrived, I was sure to keep my wits about me before having at it like the lost boys in Hook.
We each chose a non-meat or a sauce that sounded scrumptious and got a few helpings of rice to round things off. My sister was incredibly helpful in recommending her favourite dishes, and I usually take my cue from experts when they know more than me in a resto. The four of us shared Chicken in red and green curries, Beef in three sauces, and duck with deliciously guilt free crispy skin.We shared two bottles of white wine - a Gewurztraminer than needed to be way more chilled than it was, but was still quite promising - and a Pinot Grigio.
At this point in the story I should probably tell you that I was in Montreal celebrating my birthday... that officially began at midnight and was rung in with mocha tiramisu pie for the birthday cake. Sorry dear readers, that I have no picture of that magical moment either. But I can tell you that when the three of us friends woke up in out big comfy beds in the Queen E the next morning, and before we checked out and left town, we said goodbye to Montreal in style, with room service.

happy as a clam

Welcome to Halifax, where the people are friendly, the beer is flowing, and the seafood is so fresh it jumps into your mouth.

I arrived yesterday afternoon after a long day of flying. A rush-hour meander through Dartmouth and I was at my friend's door. She lives above a delicious smelling Chinese restaurant on Quinpool. After a happy dance in the kitchen and a hot cup of tea we were out on the street, catching up and meandering towards the Common to sit out in the sunshine.

The evening was rounded out with dinner and drinks in a pub downtown - The Old Triangle. The food was not exactly legendary, but it was most definitely a good start to the seafood bonanza that I hope this town has in store for me. We started with mussels in a white wine and lemon juice broth - Mussels Molly Malone. Then there were the bacon wrapped scallops. They pronounce them scawlups here, and I was corrected early on, certain not to make this mistake again while I am here.
I could definitely have had another 4 orders of those scallops though...

There was also an oven baked Haddock Au Gratin which was an interesting dish - flaky white fish and mashed potatoes in a cream sauce, dredged in melted cheese - methinks I found a new maritimey comfort food which might reappear in my own kitchen sometime soon.
The seafood chowder left much to be desired, though, with mostly fish and potatoes as the leading characters and nary a scallop or shrimp in sight.
Not exactly a spectacular meal, but hey, I only just arrived.

Tonight, on the other hand, was a meal that will go down in history as The Night We Ate Five Pounds of Mussels.

I learned how to clean the mussels properly, wedging them open from the back joint and loosening the mussel away from the shell to ensure it cooks evenly. My hand was a little tender after preparing so many mussels, but as they say, many hands make light work and before long all five pounds were boiling away on the stove in a pot of salted water. In the meantime we chopped about 2 cups of curly parsley and minced six cloves of garlic and added them to a cup of melted butter and let it simmer together as the mussels cooked. After about five minutes at a rapid boil the mussels had turned yellow with an orange-ish tinge and we knew they were done.

My friend Sam and I sat ourselves down at the table with the mussel mountain in front of us and got right down to business. We actually ate them all, with sourdough baguette to soak up all the leftover sauce. When the butter mixture commingles with the salty briny juice of the shellfish some sort of magic occurs. Everything was washed down with a lovely Italian white that was cool, crisp and mineral with a lingering acidity that balanced the buttery mussels quite perfectly.

I’ve only been here two days and I have yet to meet a meal I did not like. Pancakes for breakfast every morning too… I really could just stay… more soon.