Hun Buns

These everyday shakers were purchased at Ma Cuisine on Dalhousie. Tiny, it's true, but they make lunch a prettier affair. Ma Cuisine also stocks an impressive selection of Puegot S&P grinders.

French Fruit

Until today, the only "fruit jellies" I'd had were the ubiquitous citrus slices that pop up at Christmas. Fruit pâtés by Francois Doucet are something else altogether. I just ate a tiny bar of FD's raspberry pâté. Fine candy for a hot day: not overly sweet, the flavour somewhere between fresh raspberries and ones that have been cooked down. No wonder - it's 50% fruit. Il Negozio Nicastro also sells pear, apricot, and myrtille flavours.

Tasty Dumps

Usually, I find "vegetable" dumplings are filed with veg and oddly, pork. Not so for these tasty tims from Kaedeya. I bought a bag for $5.60 yesterday and ate them with the homemade ginger dressing they sell. If you want to make a meal of it, Kaedeya also stocks organic soba noodles, seaweed salad, and oolong tea.

Ham on Rye

I don't generally like food memoirs or books about food (except cookbooks). Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski is neither. It has a tasty title, but Bukowski's writing is full of violence, poverty, druges, booze, and sex. No surprise that it's based on real life.

But if the title makes you hungry, you can get ham on rye, ham and cheese on rye, or liverwurst on pumperknickel for $1.89 at the German Town Deli on Slater. Sour pickles extra.

Image from www.canongate.net

Stick-on Stones

I got some free fridge magnets a few months ago at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. Got me thinking about the stuff I stick stuff up with. I figure a good magnet has to have style, strength, and not "stick out" too much. My collection now includes dark grey rocks from Arbour in the Glebe, chipped clay from some girl at the Ladyfest Craft Sale, and cool metal hooks from Zone. Guess what? They all keep everything in place!

Weed versus Plant

This itty bitty is a leaf of lamb's quarter, which was nothing more than an edible weed in New Brunswick when I was growing up. Seems city folk use the mild plant to decorate salads, heft up quiches, and add texture to sandwiches. I heard they're good with cucumber and melon too.

My lamb's quarters came in my Bryson basket, but you can probably find it growing on the edges of vegetable gardens and on grassy patches throughout the city.

Costco, Part Deux

Image from www.drugstore.com

Wellements makes the a sweet organic energy bar called Bora Bora. My favorite flavour is Cinnamon Oatmeal (pictured), but they have five different kinds in total. BB's are made from fresh ingredients like rolled oatmeal, raisins, dried cranberries, apples, crispy brown rice cereal, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon, but they taste almost like cookies. The best part is, they are sweetened with agave, a low glycemic sweetener. So, you won't fly first and crash later. These hefty boys will keep you going for a few hours.

18 organic bars for $19.99 at the biggest box of all. Sorry, Costco haters. You'll have to make your own.

Quality Control Expert

This salmon is the best I've had outside of the fresh stuff on the West Coast. I'm no food militant, but farmed salmon is just sick. These gorgeous wild fillets are flash frozen by Great Glacier Fillets, a small co-op in Northern BC. I bought mine at the Ottawa Organic Farmer's Market, but last time I checked, the Herb n' Spice on Bank had em too.

Cookies don't keep the rain away

Still, during what seems to be Ottawa's monsoon season, nothing will do but a butter-soft sugar cookie from 3 Tarts on Wellington (near Island Park). 3T does them holiday-style with nutmeg. Delicious eaten with a sliver of Quebec cheddar. They also make a dizzying number called Mocha Cinnamon Chocolate Chip, which has slightly crunchy edges and a bit of white sugar laced over top. All cookies are 75 cents plus tax.

Oneida is so over!

I'm looking for new flatware: not to replace, to augment. Somehow my household has fewer forks than it began. Here's what I've come across so far:




The sexy sisters in the top left corner are made by a Shawville company called J'ustenbois that crafts maple utensils entirely by hand . Apparently, the dense wood prevents bacteria from growing and the fact that they aren't metal keeps them from changing the flavor of your food.

The picture on the right is of a collapsible bowl by Orikaso, a Japanese company that markets their funky dishware as camping gear. But you could also bring it on a picnic, to work, or on the train. Orikaso and J'ustenbois are both available at Mountain Equipment Co-op on Richmond Rd.

At left is my new favorite tool for urban picnicking: a forkknifespoon combo thought up by Scandanavian designer Joachim Norwall for the folks at Light-My-Fire. It's melt-proof and you can stick it in the dishwasher too. Comes in delicious colors. I got this one at The Cookware Centre on Bank Street.

Points for Pho

Image from www.phomiboga.com

I found out that Pho Mi Bo Ga in South Keys* has a new points card. $1 spent = 2 pts. Redemption details are on their website. It might seem like overkill for a small restaurant, but they are known for their extremely devoted fan base.

*Unless you live in South Keys, you might not think to venture out there for Vietnamese food. But, my excuse is PMBG's addictive vegetarian noodle bowl. It's dressed with the traditional cucumber, mint, bean sprouts, and peanuts, but added to that is a slightly pickled salad of carrot and thinly sliced onion (which is a lovely pink color). They also top the bowl not only with the requisite spring roll, but also with a healthy portion of lightly-fried tofu cubes.

Turnip Red, Beet Yellow

These bad oscars are courtesy of Bryson Farms' home delivery program. We split a four-person, $60 basket, with another couple, but you can also get a two-person for $45.

Good: Heirloom veggies that you don't have to go out shopping for.
Not as good: This time of year, the boxes still tend to be heavy on zucchini and last year's potatoes.

If Bryson Farms has a waiting list, you can join Ottawa's Good Food Box program anytime.

It even tastes good!

Image from www.naturespath.com

The Natural Food Pantry in the market was passing out free bags of a "New!" breakfast cereal. The package had words like "smart," "bran," "psyllium," and "13 g fiber per serving." So, without much hope, I took a baggie home where it sat in my cupboard for 3 weeks.

I sprinkled some on strawberry yogurt yesterday, and it was crunchy and sweet...and only tasted a little bit healthy. They should say that instead of all the other stuff about bowel cleaning and such.

Nature's Path Organic Smart Bran tastes good. More cereal posts in the queue.

Candy, not really

Some stuff looks good enough to eat, but you can't. Not when it's made from plastic. I bought this candy-striped wrist cuff for $3 at June's of Ottawa yesterday. I don't know the address, but it's upside of A Fine Thing at 1096 Somerset West. June's store is literally stuffed with necklaces beaded in watermelon red, Jawbreaker blue, and granny apple green. I also saw a funky Bavarian teapot and sugar dish that would be pretty sweet for serving iced coffee.

Before Pocky Came Pretz

Image from www.taquitos.net

Friends are always surprised when I tell them you can buy "salad" flavoured Pocky. Maybe that's because I'm in error; the salty sticks I'm referring to are actually called Pretz. I picked up a box today for $1.79 at Kowloon Market on Somerset.

Munching on them, I got to thinking how they don't really taste like salad. They actually taste faintly of cheese. The ingredient deck cleared this up for me, but man, I wish I hadn't looked: hydrogenated oil, margarine, and chicken extract (?) were the most offputting. Pretty funny coming from a company whose philosophy includes "Provide delight through wholesomeness!".

They're such tasty little buggers, I'll probably just feign ignorance when I serve them.

Big Grains

Got a big jug of rice at Costco on Merivale. The label says "A gourmet blend of four uniquely aromatic California rices." Turns out, it's produced by a NorCal grain company called SunWest. Well, it surely is the only rice I've tasted that manages to be both meaty and delicate. Harvest Medley is only $5.99 for 1.45 Kg.

Lots of people turn their noses up at wholesale clubs. Not me. More on Costco later.

Calmer than a tempest and just as beautiful

This little bauble set me back just $3.99 at St. Vincent de Paul on Wellington Street this afternoon. Not until I got it home did I realize that it is a piece of vintage pilivite, a kind of china made by Pillivuyt, a porcelain company in Mehun, France. I don't know what era this teapot is from, but the company itself is nearly 200 years old.

Also at the thrift store, I picked up a ceramic plate sectioned off into five compartments for $.99. The shelves at SVP are loaded with shot glasses, wooden platters, microwave cookbooks, and usually a George Foreman grill or two. You could set yourself up here for real - without setting yourself back more than a tenner or two.