Around town

Posted by Bonita

My parents have been meaning to take me this a local Farmer's Market for some time now. However, it seems that whenever we have a Sunday where we're actually free, it would be raining cats and dogs. We finely made our way down to the market today with the gorgeous weather outside. It wasn't a terribly large market, but they were all selling locally grown produce or locally made products, like sausages, jams, baked goods, etc. We ended up picking up some fresh veggies: broccoli, new red potatoes, a cabbage, a bunch of sweet Spanish onions and a dozen sweet corn.



Since we were in town, I wanted to swing by the Byward Market, one of my favourite places here in Ottawa. It's an absolutely beautiful place, with the market itself, cute boutiques and many many restaurants. However, before heading to the Byward area, we made a quick pit-stop at Bridgehead for some coffee. Bridgehead is actually a local coffee chain that specializes in fair-trade and organic coffee. Coffee was good, definitely comparable to Starbucks, although I still think Starbucks has the strongest, most potent brew (mmmm....).



With a coffee in hand, I thought that I was missing something to go along with my coffee. There's a lovely little French bakery in the Byward area, The French Baker, which features probably THE best croissants in the whole city. The are made with pure, all butter, resulting in a super rich, super flaky (and super fatty) croissant. These pastries are actually hard to come by because they fly right off the shelves. There's always a huge line-up right out the door on weekends, and they sell out quite quickly. But hey, if you're going to have a croissant, you might as well have the real deal. It's what I imagine the croissants in Paris would taste like. Fresh out of the oven, we picked up some plain butter croissants and chocolatines to go along with our coffee. A delicious, truly decadent Sunday brunch!


Plain, all-butter croissant. Mmmm....


A true French pastry, the chocolatine.


The French Baker
119 Murray Street
Ottawa, Canada
613 789 7941

If at first you don't succeed, try try again...

Posted by Bonita



That's what I kept repeating to myself after last night's bread failure. If you've ever been to an Asian bakery, particularly a Chinese or a Japanese one, you'll often find "milk bread," a really soft and fluffy white bread loaf that's completely square. It's honestly one of the best taking breads I've ever had and I really love it, along with my mom. Unfortunately, we don't have it very often. There's a really great Japanese bakery in Markham that bakes really great bread, and after coming across a few recipes for Hokkaido Milk Loaf, I thought that I would also give it a try myself.

I don't really know much behind the story of the this bread, but I believe it's called Hokkaido Milk Loaf is because the original bread actually uses the expensive milk from Hokkaido, Japan. I actually found two recipes online for Hokkaido Milk Loaf, one which used butter while the other didn't and both not requiring the use of real Hokkaido milk. Unfortunately for me, both recipes are written purposely for a bread machine, something I don't have, which meant that I had to fiddle around with the directions. After some deliberation, I decided to try the recipe with butter first. Let's just say that was a complete failure. After baking, my bread came out completely flat and had the texture of a cake rather than a loaf of bread. To say that I was greatly disappointed would be an understatement. There are a few possible reasons that it turned out to be a failure: a) The recipe called for too little yeast. Three grams of yeast? That's nothing... b) I might have messed it up a bit right before I put it in the oven. Ooops! c) I might have over-proofed it. Since the recipe was for a bread machine, I decided to actually go out of my way to purchase some instant yeast and try it out. Now, I have no experience with instant yeast whatsoever; I've always been an active yeast kind-of-girl. Thus, with my inexperience with instant yeast, there is a good probability that I might have over-proofed my bread.



Whatever the reason, my failure at my first attempt at milk bread did not discourage me. I woke up this morning and tried out the second recipe, this time going back to my familiar active dry yeast. The results? Major success! The bread rose beautifully...as much as three times compared to my failed milk loaf. The texture is really soft and fluffy, with a close grain, very similar to the milk loaves that I've eaten in the past. It's definitely a bread that I will be making again in the near future!



There were a few things I changed. I kept true to the ingredients and the amount used, but I changed the directions because I used a stand mixer rather than a bread machine. Furthermore, I didn't have a extra-long loaf pan; rather, I used an 9x5 inch loaf pan. Therefore, I used 3 of the 4 balls of dough to make the loaf, and with the leftover ball, I simply split it into 4 equal parts and rolled them into individual buns.

I've included the recipe below. Credit for the recipe belongs to Angie's Recipes; however, I've adjusted the directions to be more user-friendly for bakers who don't own bread machines like myself.



Hokkaido Milk Loaf
Adapted from recipe here
Makes one 9x5-inch loaf and 4 small buns

• 540 g bread flour
• 60 g cake flour
• 10 g dry active yeast
• 30 g milk powder
• 80 g sugar
• 9 g salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 250 g warm fresh milk (105°F-115°F)
• 150 g tepid whipping/heavy cream (90°F)

1. Dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in the warm milk. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Sift together the bread flour, cake flour and milk powder. Set aside.
   
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat (paddle) beater, combine the whipped cream, egg, salt, the remaining sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour mixture. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the yeast mixture and 1/2 cup of the flour and beat for 1 minute. Add the remaining flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until thedough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If dough remains sticky when all the flour runs out, add some bread flour, a handful at a time.
   
3. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 tablespoon at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 5-7 minutes. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours.
   (N.B. This is really subject to the weather in your area. I usually like to warm my oven a bit and then let the dough proof in the warm oven.)
   
4. Take out the dough and press out the gas produced during the proof. Divide it into 4 portions. Round up and let rest for about 20 minutes. Roll 3 of the 4 portions out, roll up swiss-roll style, pinch the ends and tuck under, and place in a greased 9-by-5 inch loaf pan. For the remaining portion, divide into 4 equal portions and shape them into buns (make whatever shapes you want!) and place on a parchment-lined or greased cookie sheet. Cover dough with a clean dishcloth and let the dough rise till is has increasedin size by about 80%.
5. Preheat oven to 325°F. Brush top of bread with egg wash or milk. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes (the buns will only need about 20). Take out of oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Turn the loaves out onto wire racks and let cool completely.

N.B. I've decreased the oven temp to 325°F because I was using a panwithout a lid. It's unfortunately that I don't own a Pullman pan to get atruly authentic-looking (as well as tasting) Hokkaido milk loaf, but this methodstill yields a great looking and great tasting loaf. But each baker knowshis/her oven best...so it's at your own disgression! Also, it's key to letthe loaf rest for 20 minutes before you even attempt at getting it out of thepan. Trust me...I've learned the hard way in the past by beingimpatient. You'll end up with a mis-shappened loaf. Give it the 20minutes to sweat so that when it comes time to turn it out of the pan, it'll slide right out without any problems.

A Sweet Treat

Posted by Bonita



There's something special about European cookies. Whereas your average American cookie is usually a drop cookie or a freeze and slice cookie, something that's fast and easy and simple to make in our busy, hectic lives, I find that cookies from abroad tend to require a lot more time, a lot more patience and a lot more love. But despite all the extra work, it's all worth it in the end. I really do love European cookies, even though I don't make it as often as I would like, frankly because I too don't usually have the time to spend on cookies.

I was in one of my baking moods today and really wanted to make cookies. I tried making Rugelach two weeks ago, and while they didn't taste bad, I did have some problems with them. Both the dough and the filling were hard to work with, and in the end, I had pretty ugly looking cookies. However, the problematic cookie did not discourage me. I went back to internet to search out another Rugelach recipe I could try out, and found one over at one of my fave food blogs, Milk and Cookies. The recipe looked appealing enough (plus the pictures of her cookies were the real clincher), and fortunately for me, I had all the ingredients on hand. Thus, I whipped up the dough in less than 10 minutes in the afternoon and popped them in the fridge so that they would be ready for me after dinner.

The assembly of these cookies does take a bit of time, but it's really very simple. Mostly just a lot of measuring and a bit of chopping, but once you have all your filling ingredients in front of you, the rest is pretty easy. This dough was absolutely a delight to work with. Compared to the other previous rugelach dough, this dough still had a bit of softness to it coming out of the fridge, which made it so much easier to roll without cracking on me.



Once I rolled it out to about the right size, I spread on my filling ingredients on top. Sliced the dough with a pizza cutter into 16 triangles and rolled them up crescent-roll style. Gave me no trouble at all. I opted to forgo the glaze and sugar topping and just popped them into the oven after chilling them for 30 minutes, as was directed. When they were done, I took them out of the oven and let cool for 5 minutes on a rack before dusting them with icing sugar. These cookies are absolutely delicious. The pastry is nice and flaky and filling is to die for. The combination of the apricot jam, cinnamon sugar, dried currants and chocolate is surprisingly delightful, and it makes for a real treat when you bite into one of these cookies. The good thing is that these are pretty small in size, so I don't feel as bad when I indulge in one...or two.

I also made Lemon Drop Cookies for my best friend this morning, who I haven't seen for awhile. I'm always happy to bake when I have an excuse, so what better reason than to make some for a friend, especially one who loves my baking! These cookies are really simple and you can whip them up in 10 minutes flat. They're actually called a drop sugar cookie, but it departs from your traditional sugar cookie because it's not crisp, nor does it contain any butter (**gasp**). But do not cringe! Just because it's missing butter doesn't mean these don't taste cook. They're really heavenly. These cookies rather have a more cake-like texture to them, soft and light. Plus the hint of lemon in these makes these cookies to die for. This recipe was actually passed on to me by a really close family friend.



Lemon Drop Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar (plus additional sugar for topping)
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and mix well
2. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until blended. Add sugar, oil, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mis well. Stir the dry ingredients into egg mixture until blended. Chill, covered, for 30 minutes or longer.
3. Preheat the oven to 400°F (if you know that your oven runs really hot, you might want to decrease it to 350-375°F).
4. Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Mist the bottom of a 3-inch flat-bottom glass with water and dip glass in additional sugar. Press the top of each cookie lightly with the glass to flatten, misting glass with water and dipping in sugar before pressing each cookie.
   (N.B. Alternatively, you could try rolling the cookies into a ball by hand, and then rolling them in sugar before pressing them. I haven't tried this method yet but I'll probably give it a go next time I make it, only because none of my glasses have a completely flat bottom and it was frustrating how the sugar wasn't sticking to the bottom of the glass very evenly.)
5. Bake cookies until lightly browned, about 8 min. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Mango Tango

Posted by Bonita

It's mid-July, and that could only mean one thing...mango season! Having just come back from Toronto, we knew that the asian supermarkets would be stocked with mangoes, and naturally, we stocked up on some. Well...more than some. Who would have thought that we'd end up lugging home with us 26 mangoes? Yes...26. We're slightly crazy...



But having so many mangoes around meant that I could finally make a Mango Mousse Cake, something that I've been dying to try for awhile. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan a mousse cakes. I'd probably would have enjoyed eating a mango cheesecake more than a mousse cake. But mousse cakes are quite popular amongst Chinese cake shops, so I thought I'd would pay homage to the mango mousse cake myself. I found a recipe here and gave it a try.

As you can see, this cake needs work. First of all, the sides of my cake were sloppy. That's my fault really. I don't have those fancy plastic cake strips to line my cake pan, and my attempt at lining the cake pan with parchment paper failed (leaving me very, VERY frustrated), so I had to use plastic wrap instead. It meant having to compromise the beauty of the cake because the plastic wrap would leave its mark on the cake.

As for the taste test, it needs improvement. First off, there wasn't enough mango flavour to the cake. Perhaps if I add more mango puree to the mix next time (while decreasing the amount of cream used) and perhaps adding a few more drops of mango extract might help. Also, my cake layers were a little too thick in my opinion. I would definitely cut thinner layers next time (again, I only had myself to blame. Me and my poor blade work.). And lets not get started on the decoration itself. God knows what I was thinking. I wasn't actually...I just sort of haphazardly plunked down mango slices and piped out whipped cream, so it's not the most attractive cake. Makes it look so amateurish...at best...



Another troublesome aspect about the recipe was that, because it came from Hong Kong, I had to convert some of the measurements, which was also a bit of a pain. All in all, I think this recipe needs work, although it gave me some sort of base to work from if I do attempt this cake again in the future.

Not sure what my next experiment will be. Perhaps Japanese Cheesecake? I've also been dying to try that, and I've been craving cheesecake for awhile now. But to be quite frank, I'm desperate for some more mouths to feed and help taste test for me...

Visiting Family Leaves Its Mark

Posted by Andrew

Man, I know I've been spoiled by especially my Mom and sis when they visited me as part of our trip to the Rockies last month. My family decided to stay in town another week before we went our separate ways from Winnipeg during the Canada Day long weekend. In that time Mom managed to make me some nice dishes including lobster in ginger and green onion sauce. Bonita also delighted me with some of her cooking and baking. Her last Wednesday night here, she made choco-espresso biscotti for my colleagues the next morning; they went quickly. Friday morning, she made blueberry muffins, and they, fresh out of the oven, went even more quickly. And of course, she made that chocolate mousse cake for my belated birthday.

To top it all off, my sis made me a large batch of veggie lasagna. OK, so normally I don't go veggie, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to cut back on the meat just a bit once in a while, and according to my sis she finds the veggie recipe more appetizing. On top of that, it's got mushrooms and spinach instead of beef, and since I can handle mushrooms and spinach very well, why not try it? So, with that she made one for me and popped it in the freezer, ready to be cooked and eaten at my whim.




Bonita, thank you for the lasagna, it was very good! Of course, there was so much of it I could only eat one quarter of it on Saturday night. (To give you folks out there an idea of scale, the width of the glass pan is about 30cm or 1'.)

Christmas in July

Posted by Bonita



Alright, so it WASN'T quite Christmas, but it sure felt like the holiday season with the amount of cookies I've been baking these past few days. I've only been back for 2 days, barely enough time to unpack, do a couple loads of laundry, repack my bags...oh yeah...and make some treats for my relatives when I head to Toronto tomorrow. But hey, I'm certainly not complaining after having been away from my kitchen for the past three and a half weeks. Does it make me slightly crazy if I told you that I actually hugged my Kitchen Aid when I got home? Yes...yes I did.



While I'm not fortunate to have the Food Network here at home, my lucky brother does, so during the times when there was nothing to do, I'd have the FN on. A few shows were making jam, Jamie Oliver with his strawberry jam on Jamie at Home and Laura Calder's apricot preserves on French Food at Home. Now, I've never been a jam-fan. I've always found them to be sickeningly sweet, but I've started to get over my aversion for them this year with my new-found love for Greaves' raspberry jam. Yet, despite not being a huge jam fan, watching the likes of Jamie and Laura make jam got me into the mood of making jam, even if I didn't plan on eating it myself. Thus, 9 lbs of fruit, 8 cups of sugar and lots of loving tender car later, I'm left with 4 jars of strawberry jam and 6 jars of apricot jam to give away. Well...actually, make that 3 and 5 jars to give away. I think I'll keep one of each. Nothing beats homemade, and I think I might have a new crush with these lovely jems. My mom was smart to bring out a loaf of bread I had baked awhile back ago from the freezer, and it was lovely toasted with a bit of butter and my apricot jam. Yummy!!!

As for the cookies, I made Cinnamon Hazenut Biscotti and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti because my aunt loves my biscotti, but have yet to try these ones. My little cousin also loves the butter cookies that I make for him, where I usually sandwich some jam in between. However, feeling slightly lazy this time around (more like I didn't want the hassle of washing out my cookie press afterwards...), I decided to make him Jam Thumbprints this time around.



As for my other aunt, I made these lovely Jam Sandwich Cookies, thanks to a recipe from Cream Puffs in Venice (a really amazing foodblog!) and Apricot and Walnut Rugelach, inspired by the recipe at Williams-Sonoma. These cookies did take considerably more time to make, since it required making the dough, chilling it, rolling it out, and assembling them. The rugelach was a bit of a pain to make, but they did turn out pretty nice in the end, although slightly ugly in my opinion. However, the more you roll the cookies, the easier it gets, so my 2nd batch was definitely looking nicer than my 1st batch. The jam sandwich cookies took a lot of time too, but it was definitely worth it once you pop one of these treasures into your mouth. They literally melt in your mouth. I used raspberry and peach jam in between the shortbread cookies, although I do favour the raspberry cookies more (no surprise there). Both beautiful to look at AND tastes great, these gems were definitely the highlight of my baking weekend.



The end? Not quite. You'd think it would be after the scary amount of sugary sweets I have concocted already. I still have a banana bread on my "To Do" list, so I guess I'm off to get started on that. I'll see you next week!!!

Back to Wasabi

Well, I finally took my family to Wasabi on Broadway last Saturday, and I knew at least my sis and I would absolutely be indulging ourselves on sushi. Mom can handle the stuff alright as well, but Dad is another story. Imagine my surprise then when he tried the New Style Sashimi and said he actually really liked it! Man, this chef must be doing something really right then!

With at least another sushi lover with me I was able to try some more stuff this time around.

To start things off, we all had our own orders of sunomono salad, the special that night being the lobster claw. Since the claw was fully cooked we knew Dad could easily handle that, and it was superb! The salad was light, perfect for a hot summer day. Bonita was the first of all of us to notice that the salad dressing was spiked with a hint of miso, and she realized that with a bit of trial and error she could do something similar at home herself. Beneath the lobster claw is a bed of shredded cucumber and mung bean vermicelli with a rice wine vinegar & miso dressing.

Next Bonita and I had New Style Sashimi, the tuna upgraded to bluefin. I won't describe the dish again, but suffice it to say that my sister loved it, and even Dad was able to enjoy it as well! There are three slices each of bluefin tuna, salmon and Chilean sea bass.

Dad ordered the Salmon & Tempura entree, one of the few fully cooked dishes available at this restaurant. The salmon was cooked just right to still be moist inside.

Mom ordered the (Chilean) Sea Bass & Tempura entree. They weren't kidding when they said the sea bass was marinated for 3 days, this melt-in-your-mouth fish had a punch of flavour through and through.

These are two of the three sushi dishes Bonita and I first ordered. The one with the green tobiko (flying fish roe) is "Mango Tango", with mango, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and tempura shrimp drizzled with wasabi mayo. The ones further back are the "Godzilla Roll", with avocado, tempura shrimp and fried soft shell crab. Delicious!

This was the third dish, the "Volcano Roll". Inside the roll is avocado and eel. The wam sauce draped over the sushi pieces is made of spicy mayo, tobiko and chopped scallops. Of the sushi I had that night, this is still perhaps my personal favourite.

With Bonita and I still having room in our stomachs, we ordered a bit more. This one if memory serves me right is "Ocean Jewel", with avocado, king crab and asparagus, the roll wrapped in the usual nori (seaweed) and sweetened egg as the outer wrapping.

This is toro (tuna belly) sashimi, the cut of all cuts in Japanese sushi cuisine. They were absolutely heavenly, and I was a bit surprised that Dad could tolerate it pretty well, considering this is the fattiest, and therefore the most flavourful, part of a fish. Furthermore, tuna fat melts at a low temperature, the flavour "oozing" once that piece hits your tongue.

Lastly, we decided to try the beef version of New Style Sashimi, and though the flavouring was just as nice as the fish version, unfortunately with beef you do have to deal with some tougher parts of the meat, though the chefs are not to blame for this. Each slice of beef here is wrapped around a slice of fresh shiitake mushrooms.

Death by chocolate

Posted by Bonita



It was Andrew's birthday this past Saturday, but since we were on vacation, I had to postpone his birthday cake until we got back to his place in Manitoba. But more on the cake later...

After a whole week out on the road, it was definitely nice to be back to a home-base with a kitchen at my leisure. Alas, my brother's kitchen is certainly not as well-stocked as the one at home. In fact, I had to lug along with me a big box full of my own equipment, gadgets and ingredients to Manitoba. If I could have lugged the whole kitchen, I probably would have! But chefs have to make do with what they have in the kitchen, and thus I too must suck it up and live with what I have at hand.



Living in a small town, there's often not a lot of choices to pick from. I certainly just can't go downtown to gourmet shops to pick up some great meats and veggies, unlike back home with the Byward Market. We did pick up some nice steaks yesterday, and I thought it would be nice to add some spark to the steaks rather than the regular steak spice my brother uses all the time. Stopped by the liquor store to pick up a bottle of brandy, and I was all set to make Steak au Poivre. I used Ina Garten's recipe, and the only thing I changed was I added some sliced mushrooms to the sauce (since Andrew's a self-confessed hobbit) and substituted a small onion for the shallots since we were all out of shallots. The sauce turned out nicely, although next time I might add a bit of cornstarch solution to the sauce at the end to thicken it a bit more, but that's just personal preference.

As for tonight's dinner, I picked up some shrimp and arugula from the store yesterday, and since my brother had a couple of tomatoes lying around in his fridge, I thought I'd try Pasta with Shrimp, Tomato and Arugula. The sauce smelled absolutely divine while I was cooking it over the stove. I also feared that I might have overcooked the shrimp, but everything was perfect in the end. The family seemed to enjoy it, so I guess my job was done here!



Now for the cake. It should be no surprise by now that both Andrew and I are huge chocolate lovers. And while I love chocolate, my love for it usually just stands with chocolate candy. Not to say I don't like chocolate cakes, cookies and desserts...I do! But nothing beats chocolate candy for me, and if there are other dessert choices besides chocolate, I'm apt to try something else. Andrew, however, is a chocolate lover through and through, so what could be better than making him a Double Chocolate Mousse Cake? And what could be better than Chocolate Mousse Cake? Add his favourite fruit inside...raspberries!

This cake is based on the recipe from La Tartine Gourmande. Instead of making individual-sized cakes, I made an 8-inch one. First, I made the cake layer and let that cool down. Then I layed a layer of raspberries and blackerries, after which I covered the berries with the dark chocolate mousse. Unfortunately, since the recipe is based on individual portions, I didn't have enough mousse to cover all the berries. I actually ended up doubling the mousse recipe and it STILL didn't cover all the berries. At that point, I had also run out of cream, so I had to wait until the next day to finish the cake.



After a quick trip to the grocery store the next day, I finished the cake, except this time I decided to make a layer of milk chocolate mousse. When ready to serve, I decorated the top with fresh raspberries, shaved chocolate and dusted it with cocoa. The cake turned out really nice. The sides were a bit sloppy in some places since I didn't have those plastic cake sheets so I had to plastic wrap my cake pan instead. Otherwise, the cake didn't turn out too bad, and the family enjoyed it! I just love how this cake looked in the end. It really is my first "professional"-wannabe cake. Happy (Belated) Birthday Andrew!!!

Escape from the city

Posted by Bonita

One of the good things about travelling is the fact that you can try new food. One of the worst things about travelling is the fact that you’re eating out pretty much all the time.

With Calgary expanding like there’s no tomorrow these past few years, it’s no surprise that there will be a few dozen upscale restaurants to choose from. After sifting through a few guide books and online guides and reading reviews, we decided to try The River Café when we were in Calgary last week, a quaint little restaurant located in Prince’s Island Park and features Canadian regional cuisine.

To get to the restaurant, you have to park your car back in the city, and then cross a bridge over to Prince’s Island Park. After a short walk, you’ll find the restaurant tucked away in a corner, surrounded by beautiful pine trees. The interior of the restaurant is nicely decorated, giving off a cozy, homey, cottage-like feel, featuring lots of woodwork and natural décor. The River Café was already packed when we got there, and even though we had already booked our table the day before, we still had to wait a bit at the bar for our table to be ready. But once seated and given our menus, all was forgotten as we lost ourselves in the very impressive menu choices, as well as their daily specials.



As a starter, Andrew and I shared the Fish and Game Platter, featuring Native Candied Trout, Rabbit Rillettes, Salt Cured Bison, Pork & Game Terrine with Brassica Mustard and Crabapple Jelly, Smoked Rainbow Trout, Grilled Apple Turnip Relish and Red Onion Marmalade, all served with House Made Crackers. The platter looked beautiful, but the food was even better! The crackers were very yummy. My personal favourites were the Smoked Rainbow Trout, the Pork & Game Terrine and the Native Candied Trout (my favourite of all!!!). The sweetness of the jelly and the saltiness of the grainy mustard really enhanced the flavour of the terrine, while the sweetness of the candied trout was just right, not too sweet and the smokiness of the trout was absolutely beautiful. And while I did originally cringe when eating the Rabbit Rillettes (for personal reasons), I have to admit that it did taste good. Although it’ll probably my one and only time I’ll ever eat rabbit!



My main course was the Wild Pacific Spring Salmon, cooked to perfection (medium heat) and served over a bed of barley and spring vegetables, including bitter greens and fiddleheads, and topped with tomato and feta chutney. The fish was absolutely delicious, and the chutney complimented the fish very well. A really nice, light summer dish!

For dessert, I had the Chocolate Beet Cake, served with a White Chocolate & Toasted Cocoa Nib Ice Cream and Apple Cider Sabayon. The cake was rich and decadent, and the ice cream balanced the chocolate cake very nicely. It was definitely one of the nicest meals I’ve had in a while.



What I loved about this restaurant was that it features fresh Canadian ingredients, many of them organic. The atmosphere is great too, making you feel like you’re in the wilderness. The restaurant really celebrates what nature has to offer to us, both regionally and seasonally, and I think that’s a great philosophy. Service was great too! Just be sure to book a table, as this place was packed and a continuous stream of customers kept on coming in, even by the time we left (9:30 pm!). This is certainly a gem of a restaurant, which changes its menu every month, and is a great place to escape the chaos of the city without actually leaving the city.

Name: The River Café
Address: Prince's Island Park
Cuisine: Seasonal Canadian
Price Range: Dinner $60-80
Accessible: Yes

The Gastronomical Side of Business Trips

Posted by Andrew

Depending on the type of business trip you might take, your experience with meals abroad can vary. Time (or lack thereof) can be a factor, as well as the cultural/social variety and sophistication of the place you're visiting. Even what your business host might provide you can be a factor as well. My previous business trip in March took me to Morden, Manitoba, and not meaning to put down this pretty little town, but the dining selection was understandably a bit more limited and more "local" or franchise in nature. This week I got to go to Quebec City for the CIP conference, and here my experience was much richer (both in dishes offered and the prices one has to pay for them).

Again, with my being in the heart of Quebec's tourist area the fear of running into culinary tourist traps came back to me a bit. Furthermore, with it being a heavy tourist area I was anticipating that the cost of meals would also be higher here than in many other tourist areas across Canada.

Saturday, June 2
After landing in Quebec mid-afternoon I found myself trying Aux Anciens Canadiens for dinner within the old city walls, a restaurant that features traditional French Canadian cuisine. The lobster bisque was creamy and rich in flavour, while the game pate was neatly balanced by the carrot compote (preserve); however, I thought that the preserve might have been a bit on the sweet side. The main course was the "Coureur des Bois", which consisted to two feature items: traditional tourtiere (a Quebec-style meat pie) and stewed pheasant & buffalo. There was also a tomato and fruit salsa on the side which had a similar flavour to ketchup (then again, even the waitress called it a "tomato and fruit ketchup", only it was chunky so that I considered it as a "salsa"). The flavouring of the stew was a bit on the bland side, but the tourtiere was decent. For dessert I had a maple syrup tart, which, as much as I do love maple syrup, I thought unfortunately was too much on the sweet side.

Aux Anciens Canadiens definitely gives one a glimpse of traditional French-Canadian cuisine, something that one may not find as easily now in the big cities due to its historic and even rustic nature. Set meals are available, but portion sizes for especially the main course dishes are larger than average.

Sunday, June 3
For lunch I landed myself outseide the old city walls at Louis Hebert along a section of the Grande Allee lined with a whole slew of restaurants and eateries. The cream of onion soup was velvety and full-bodied, while the smoked salmon platter, with some baby greens and a light dose of capers, was a delight; this dish has got me inspired to try making a salad dish when my family visits me shortly. Set menus are available.

That night I went to the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) reception at Le manoir Montmorency, and there for dinner was a pleasant buffet for all. Some of the savoury dishes I can remember include a shrimp and scallop ceviche-style salad, smoked salmon pieces (yep, not just thin slices), pate with caramelized onions on crostini, smoked salmon sushi-inspired rolls (with nori, cream cheese, dill & pickles) on crostini, various terrines, including one sprinkled with apricots, and a whole bunch of cakes, tarts and cheeses. The reception certainly helped boost my first impression of Quebec hosting the CIP conference.

Monday, June 4
CIP provided a lunch of various sandwiches and wraps with potato salad. For dinner though, everyone was on their own, so a fellow UW classmate, a friend of hers and I finally found a sports bar west of central Quebec to watch Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals and have dinner as well. It was small and looked like a hole in the wall, definitely catered to the locals. Surprisingly though, their Sicilian pizza was quite good and was reasonably priced between the three of us. It was also nice for the bar to provide Polar Bear shots to everyone in the bar on the house whenever Ottawa scored.

Tuesday, June 5
Lunch was provided again by CIP, sandwiches and croissant sandwiches offered as well as an artichoke salad. That evening was the CIP Awards Gala, which meant dinner would be provided as well, and CIP certainly made sure we were well fed. For starters I was given a plate with baby greens and two slices of what looked like brie or camembert with something sandwiched within each slice. It turns out that somehow slices of smoked salmon were wedged into the camembert; I can definitely recall that I grinned from ear to ear and chuckled in delight. The main dish was duck breast in red wine sauce and cranberries with cauliflower and wild rice on the side. The dessert was disappointingly a bit weak, with the surface of the creme brulee a bit undertorched.

Wednesday, June 6
Once the CIP conference was over around lunchtime I found myself a place to grab a quick lunch at Paillard, a bakery, sandwich shop and ice cream shop all rolled into one with an interior decor that is reminiscent to Williams-Sonoma and sort of reminds me of some of the sandwich shops I've been in London, UK. Sandwich selection is a bit limited, but I'd prefer quality over quantity. I had myself a nice toasted chipotle chicken focaccia sandwich with a bottle of British ginger beer.

For dinner I went all out in my indulgence at Le Saint-Amour (needless to say, at ~$130 my wallet took the biggest hit here as well). Quebec is well-known as a major producer of foie gras (duck liver), and this restaurant apparently prides itself in specializing in foie gras. For starters I was provided with an amuse-bouche of a thick tomoto coulis with sundried tomatoes and a whipped parmesan topping, all put in a tall shooter glass. The flavouring was rich, and the acidity of the tomatoes definitely got my appetite going. My appetizer was bluefish carpaccio sprinkled with mandarin and tomato pieces, drizzled with lemon juice and dressed with layers of smoked Sockeye pieces, chopped avocado and snow crab on turnip (daikon) medallions). The bluefish was delicate and was not overpowered by the flavours of the ingredients, including the smoked Sockeye.

The main course was very lean caribou in Sarawak pepper on a bed of creamed potatoes flavoured with wild boar bacon. Half a roasted peach sat on the caribou and provided a pleasant twist in the medley of flavours. Of course, I had to try the foie gras here and so ordered a seared slice of it to accompany my main course. It was 80g of gastrononmic heaven melting in my mouth! I'm sure my arteries will never forgive me for this, but I just had to try it, and how often can you eat such a delicacy in Brandon?! Come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I had a foie gras product, be it a pate or the pure thing.

For dessert I ordered something called the Royal, which came in two parts. On one side was a cake-like feature with raspberry coulis and a chocolate wafer base with Italian Garanaja chocolate ganache and two shredded coconut crisps on top. The other part of the dessert was a mini coconut ice cream scoop resting in a dark chocolate ganache taking up the bottom third of the tall shooter glass, the remaining two thirds filled with raspberry coulis. The dessert had just the right touch of sweetness partly in thanks to the bitterness of the dark chocolate.

Le Saint-Amour has a very limited set menu selection, but if you really want to indulge on their speciality, foie gras, you'll have to order a la carte.


For more of my Quebec adventures beyond the food realm, please visit here.