Wine is Fine

Last night, Christina and I got into a bottle of Golden Kaan merlot from South Africa. The vino was spicy, but neither of us could figure exactly what it tasted like. Here's how the company website describes it: "fleshy black cherry, chocolate and oak."

Fancy wine talk aside, the bottle seemed to go on forever. Can you tell?

Blessed Are The Cookies

Are late blessings better than no blessings?


These Hanukkah cookies are from Loblaw's, but if you can't bear to worship using factory-stamped sweets, head to Rideau Bakery. Erin's been eating their sufganiyot since she was a little girl.

Happy Christmas!

That's what they say in England. Here's a British boy and his little sidekick.

Bite Hard is going 'lite' until early next year - when we're getting a brand new look and a surprise logo (hand-painted by yours truly). Can't wait!

On Stage

Just in: Ottawa XPress' sharp-shooting food writer, Simon Osborne and his band, Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs, will be opening for Andy Swan this Saturday at Babylon. (Soz will be the fetching chap on bass.)

Throwing food is not allowed (unless it's artisanal olive oil or smoked confit de squid).

160 Workshop - Installment II

Wanna workshop?

Organized by house mates, Darryl and Beth, the first 160 Workshop was a runaway success, so sign up fast. Space is limited - it's held in their house, after all!

For only 5 bones, learn how to save on your heating bill, throw a wild holiday party, draw up a zine, make your own holiday gifts, and more. Dec 16 @ 160 Primrose Ave.

Check this if you're ready to go.

Fruit Pâté Part Deux

Au'some Fruit Juice String. What a bad name. The package is a horrendous orange-colored plastic puck. But it was sent to me by my mother, so what could I do but try it?



Luckily, the candy itself is soft and chewy and nice and fruity. Plus, it's fun to uncurl it, inch by inch, before you eat it all up. Made from fancy pants ingredients like pear purée, fresh orange juice, and purple carrot extract. Just like traditional French fruit pâté, only American. What do you think of that?

Spelling Bee

Gummy alphabet. Can you guess what it tastes like? You betcha. It's soft and fruity. Only one problem: they disappear way too fast.



Available at Bulk Barns across Ottawa.

New To Me

Clearly, I'm still new to the Ottawa scene. Christina suggested breakfast at Paticceria Gelateria Italiana, a filly of a sweet shop that I'd never even heard of. Am I ever glad for friends with taste.

Set at the corner of Preston and Larch, PGI is a cozy, comfortable neighborhood hangout complete with a massive, hissing coffee maker, laminated menus, and cupcake cuties taking orders. Inside, the walls are lined with complicated cakes, bags of biscotto, and bottles of hard liquor and wine. Count on cheap, dependable food and brio to burn.

We bought lots: two full breakfasts, fresh juice, a dark cup of coffee, and two packages of white chocolate 'Love Mice.' They're such cute little dollies, but I've yet to try them; I'm saving them for my honey.

Photo courtesy of Christina Riley.

Good, But Almost Gone

Burnt toast: Winter 2007.

My favorite little food mag, Burnt toast, has been treading water - and sometimes pulling clean strokes, fast through - for the last four years. But the editor (my good friend, Cindy) has decided to close up shop.

The final issue arrived in my mailbox yesterday afternoon. It was fatter than usual, so you can imagine what fun I had going through all the pages. The cover story, about the earthy Miriam and Isaac and their Byward Market grocery, has Cindy's style stamped all over it. I suppose she can relate to all their efforts; Cindy's always been one to admit that even though it takes a lot of work to get a project going, that's also half the fun.

Another amazing part of this issue is the intimate art show laid out just after the centerfold. Cindy called upon talented friends to showcase any kind of grain in any way they liked. The results are pretty special: a collage of a somber-faced virgin wearing a wig of fancy sweets; feral-looking pods and beans by Deborah Margo; and a handful of scattered popcorn painted by photographer, Christina Riley.

I admit that I show up in this issue a couple of times too: tipping back with Cindy and Christina one afternoon at a sherry tasting; as the author of a story about my father and his original ways with food; and near the very end, there is a picture of my sleeping korat. Bite Hard is even mentioned.

Seems apt since I learned lots of what I know about food from Cindy. Today, she and Tony, her partner in crime, got me to try a locally-made hot sauce I had been avoiding. And guess what? I loved it. That's just like her. Makes you comfortable enough that you want to open up to new things. I'd say that whatever she gets up to after Burnt toast will be worth watching for.

Oh yeah, the back cover is a great watercolor by Brazilian artists, Anderson Augusto and Leonardo Delafuente. Looks just like burnt toast on the move. Better get some while you still can.

Ladies First

Girlies, this is your chance to learn from female powerhouse, Radhana Garand. Her next workshop, on Saturday, is geared totally toward women. As with all her classes, the $20 fee includes a steaming, spicy lunch. Email radhana@fearlesscooking.ca for more details.

No Spelt Allowed

While I'm not a vegetarian (especially when there is a well-stacked BLT up for grabs), I'm not exactly a carnivore either. I don't have any objections to moderate, yet rapturous meat-eating - just a personal yen for foods that are lower on the food chain and a stomach that likes beans better than franks.

Ottawa's handful of hardworking veggie restaurants produce delicious food, it's true, but many also have the delicate whiff of healthfulness that sometimes - not always - gets in they way of taste. If you don't want any animals to suffer on your behalf, but are bored of the typical carob and kamut combinations on offer, check out these foxy sisters:



Cocoa Mint Squares. Made by Ottawa's newest vegan baking company, Indulgent Herbivore.

Must tries: IH's sugar-crusted ginger cookies and chewy caramel blondies. Both toothsome, addictive, and utterly wicked. No spelt allowed.

Indulgent Herbivore will be here on Sunday and can be reached at v.m.holm@hotmail.com.

Busting Out

As promised, Bite Hard is branching out. In addition to food, I'm going to start bringing you posts about art, thrift shopping, writing, alternative forms of exchange and consumption, design, bingo, beer, and rural life.

First up, irregularly-shaped key chains cut out of re-purposed circuit boards. Picked them out at The Healthiest Home (free with purchase).


I wonder if the new key rings hooked onto each one cancels out the environmental benefit. Wouldn't surprise me. But no matter - I love the lime green, black, and copper color scheme.

Fly Fruit

A fresh barhee date, all the way from Isreal. Crisp as an apple, but tastes like mild honey with a slightly bitter skin. One of the only varieties that is good eaten semi-ripe stage before it has been sun-dried. If you can't acquire the taste for fresh dates, try a handful of the dried with a cup of strong coffee in true Saudi Arabian style. Purchased at Herb n' Spice on Wellington.

Fragrant purple passionfruit. My friend, Paradiso, used to buy bags of these for a dollar when she lived in Kenya. Her face lit up when she saw this lone ranger on my coffee table the other night. She said she and her friends used to fill up their pockets with passionfruit before a hike and as soon as the sun started to get beat down, they'd crack them open and suck out the juice.

99 cents each at at Herb n' Spice.

As Good As It Gets?

The contrast between two food stories I've read recently is worth mentioning.

The first was Ottawa Magazine's Top 10 Restaurants list published in their annual food issue. Chris Knight, OM's resident food flogger, chose what he thought were the city's best restaurants. Unfortunately, a few of his picks (e.g., the one for Social) rely on claims about the chefs' potential, rather than the actual goods. They are no doubt all great chefs, but if they aren't delivering (whether that's the restaurant's fault or not), it's just plain weak to include them in a top ten list - especially at the expense of restaurants where the food is undeniably better (e.g., The Black Cat).

Even worse was the fact that the description of one restaurant Knight mentioned - Juniper - included the line "I've never had a bad meal at Juniper. I've never had an oh-my-gawd-that-totally-rocked dinner there either." I couldn't agree more with his assessment, but why include it in the top ten then? Surely there are other Ottawa restaurants that are doing it better. Makes me wonder what is really behind Knight's picks.

Needless to say, by the time I finished reading, I was thoroughly depressed.

Compare that to Toronto Life's 100 Tastes to Try Before You Die in their Food Lover's Guide issue. The story consisted of thirteen pages dripping with original, belly growling foods - all Toronto specialties or produced within or near the GTA. This article was a big-talking, swaggering, horn-blow, in which the author honored the establishment, celebrated the upstart, flirted with embellishment, and otherwise glorified the fancy, foxy, and one-of-a-kind.

It's time to quit extolling the expected and cut the moaning about everything else in Ottawa. And here's your chance to put up.

What foods, dishes, or local favorites should be included on Ottawa's 100 Tastes That Make Us Great list? I want to hear your suggestions - weird, cheap, chi chi, sweet, spicy, traditional, new school, whatever. Just lemme have them. And if you don't want to put up, you know what you can do.

Zoethout

Sweet Harlekijintjes

A new copper-coloured licorice from Holland. Fairly mild and quite delicious. A nice change from the old double-salted dogs, which I just can't seem to get used to. I'm totally hooked.

Available at Dutch Groceries on Clyde.

Bigger Bites

Clearly, we're getting too big for our britches.

So, Bite Hard is busting out!

Now, posts will be on a wider range of topics, such as thrift shopping, DIY, and wicked wares. Also up, guest editors with a penchant for ranting.

Still mostly Ottawa-based and still bringing you nearly-edible pictures and plenty of snappy text.

Straight Up

This ain't a rum toddy, baby.

After today, nothing would do but an ounce of Myer's cool dark rum. Dependable and "decent in the mug."

Must be the 40% proof that makes me imagine being Mexican, eighteen, and very warm. Of course, I downed it bobo style: in sips with a pumpkin spice cookie and a handful of bite-sized prunes.

Hors d'oeuvres for a cold night in Ottawa.

Bite there: New York and Quebec

Natural Foods Pantry in the market is carrying Lesser Evil kettle corn. It's air-popped, made without chemical crap, and tastes too wicked to be true. Lesser Evil is made in rural New York by some fine people who look like they snack mostly on apples. I bought some in Maine last Christmas, but couldn't find find it in Canada. Now I have. Hope you do too. Only $2.99 for a decent-sized box.

Closer to home, Plaisirs Gastronomique's Quiche Provençale. PG is a Quebec company that has managed to make flaky pastry without old-school shortening and they pack fresh ingredients into every product. This one was made with whole eggs, cream, milk, zucchini, tomatoes, black olives, and Swiss cheese. Now I want to try their duck pie in puff pastry, goose pot pie, and brown lentil salad with cranberries and almonds. Get it at Loeb, a grocery store that doesn't sell baby clothes, plastic chairs, gift wrap, or candle holders.

Apple Crisps

There's nothing greasy about these chips. Churned out in bagfuls by my father, they're made by dehydrating thinly sliced New Brunswick Cortlands. If you have a dehydrator of your own, you can make chips like this from any variety. Here in Ontario, I go for Galas and Lobos.

If you're thinking about your health these days, these little busters are full of vitamins and fiber. On occasion, Dad even dusts them with cinnamon, a spice that's been found to help balance blood sugar.

You can buy dried fruit snacks in grocery stores, but they are often exorbitantly-priced. Check natural food stores and bulk stores for cheaper chips.

More Fall posts in the pipe. See them soon!

Eat My City

Ottawa residents are used to hearing constant whinging about the food scene (or lack of it) in the nation’s capital. Our sushi isn’t Toronto-grade, our bistros and smoked meat not up to Montreal standards. We lack New York’s 24-hour pulse, and even Gatineau, our Francophone sister-across-the-river, outshines our atmosphere, charm, and that extra bit of je ne sais quoi.

But devoted fans of local food know that eating well in Ottawa doesn’t take a great deal of insider knowledge. You just have to leave the baditude at home. I just checked out Enroute Magazine’s most recent top ten list: best new resties across Canada. Reading about all those great spots inspired me to jot down a few of my most recent Ottawa food obsessions.

1. Hino – Tastes like Mom’s cooking, if your mother is Japanese. Big home style plates of teriyaki chicken, slippery noodles, rice, and salad. Butter-soft calamari in warm ginger dressing. Japanese curries, delicate pork chops, cold bottled beer, and an unpretentious dining room fill out a happy Hino meal.

2. Organic local spaghetti squash – Admittedly, these babies are from Quebec, but hey, we’ve got em here for the buying. At 99 cents a pound, no less. My technique: roast them till the skins brown for a smokier, richer flavour. Then douse them with butter and parmesan. Herb and Spice, 1273 Wellington W.

3. #418 – Although I was raised on meat and potatoes, noodle bowls have become comfort food for me during my time in Ottawa. Phnom Penh Noodle House does them fresh and fast for about eight bucks. #418 is topped with thinly-sliced fried tofu that tastes better than candy. Bonus: A jar of fire-engine house-made hot sauce sits on every table.

4. Gooney’s – I lived downtown for two years, moved to the West end, and then discovered this mad sandwich shop in my old neighborhood. Located right downtown where you need it most, Gooney’s serves warm sammies on the freshest buns this side of a teenager. 360 Laurier W.

5. Sconewitch – She brews one of Ottawa’s most perfect brunches. Eggs scrambled with what can only be mascarpone cream and topped with meaty mushroom ragout. Served alongside a thoughtful fruit salad of miniature grapes, ripe strawberries, and a slice of star fruit; a pile of greens with sweet Dijon dressing; and your choice of warm scone and jam. The ginger currant with a pot of lemon curd makes my hair curl every time.

There you have it. What Ottawa foods get your juices flowing? Send me a note and I'll give them space sometime this week. bitehardottawa@gmail.com