Great Canadian Dining Thread

[SignalHillHiker]

Hummus is great. I like the spicy stuff myself.

Which brings me to another dining promotion, Happy Hummus Hut. It's delicious. And they have Zevia!

http://happyhummushut.com/wp-content...ary-2014-S.pdf

Their menu is adorable:



Hey, KW, I just noticed there's a German version you might be familiar with:

It is a traditional part of Jiggs dinner in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

In German-speaking countries, pease pudding is known under the name Erbspüree. Alternative regional names are Erbsbrei or Erbsmus. It is especially widespread in the traditional cuisine of the German capital Berlin. The best-known German dish which is traditionally served with pease pudding is Eisbein.

In Beijing cuisine, Wandouhuang (豌豆黄) is a sweetened and chilled pease pudding made with yellow split peas or shelled mung beans, sometimes flavoured with sweet osmanthus blossoms and dates. A refined version of this snack is said to have been a favourite of Empress Dowager Cixi.

In Greek cuisine, a similar dish is called Fava (Φάβα). Despite the name, it is usually made from yellow split peas, not Fava beans. The mashed peas are usually drizzled with olive oil and topped with chopped raw onions.[5]

[kwoldtimer]

I've not seen it. Pork hocks down here would more likely be smoked. My grandmother used to use pork hocks to make her pea soup (she was a country Anglo-Quebecker).

One thing I have noticed in the supermarket here lately are buckets of navel beef from Nfld. Must be more ex-pats in town longing for Jiggs dinner than I had realized.

[SignalHillHiker]

Naval beef? Like, salt beef spare ribs?

[SignalHillHiker]

I had to Google it. That's so cute that you guys have a different name for it. You call it "Newfoundland-style Cured Navel Beef":

Ontario product:



Here it's just salt beef:

Newfoundland product:

[kwoldtimer]

Yeah, the product here has the map of the island on it. Seems pretty gross, by whatever name. Sorry.

Figgy duff strikes me as a simplified version of an English spotted dick (the "dick" seems as mysterious a name as the "duff" to me - bastardized versions of "dough" perhaps?) or the (glorious) clootie pudding that my Scots grandmother used to make.

[SignalHillHiker]

Yeah, all of the boiled puddings are pretty similar. My mother does a lovely blueberry one with a creaming caramel/molasses-based sauce on top. Really good. Or just plan custard.

Salt beef is actually really good. You boil it with vegetables so the vegetables become more salty and the beef less so. It is a truly delicious taste. I promise. It's gross out of the bucket... but if you get a chance to have Jiggs dinner somewhere, give a try in an already-prepared setting.

It's not like cod tongues or fish'n'brewis or any of the things that I know taste gross to outsiders quite often. Salt beef is something most people try and say, "Oh, wow!".

[SignalHillHiker]

We're going to hold a forum meet here sometime soon. Everyone was really excited for him because he became somewhat of a local legend at The Sprout.

A beautiful video profile from another source:

http://vimeo.com/82633007

When he got permission to come to Canada, all he knew was that Ottawa was the capital, and he was aware of other cities such as Quebec City and Montreal. When they said he was going to St. John's, he had no idea where it was. He thought Newfoundland was in Europe.

*****

New restaurant marks victory for former refugee

Ali Al Haijaa waited four years in a refugee camp in Jordan, hoping a new country would take him in. He finally ended up in Canada.

Six years after landing, he has opened his own restaurant, Mohamed Ali's in downtown St. John's.

Al Haijaa's parents were refugees from Palestine who made Iraq their new home. The fall of Saddam Hussein ended their stay in that country.

...

His first enterprise in town was selling Middle-East street food out of a van in St. John's — but the business ran into trouble with city regulations unlike anything Al Haijaa was used to where he came from.

When that didn't work out, his next endeavour was selling after-hour falafels out of The Sprout, a downtown restaurant in St. John's.

However, his ambition remained to have his own place.

...

Al Haijaa realized one of his dreams when he opened Mohamed Ali's at the end of March.

On the first day, business was so good he ran out of food before closing time. The same thing happened on the second day.

"It was really super busy," he said.

For Al Haijaa, this represents a major step forward towards his even bigger goals, but he still has more he wants to see accomplished.

In particular, he wants his business to be part of more multi-ethnic growth in St. John's.

Al Haijaa said he's here to stay.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...ugee-1.2597187

[J_Murphy]

I love his story, I went down to this restaurant last night but was 15 minutes too late as they closed at 5. Can't wait to see the new place.

[J_Murphy]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...ater-1.2600987

An owner of a St. John's restaurant that won an international pizza competition in Las Vegas is open about revealing her secret ingredient: Newfoundland water.


Pi, which serves gourmet pizza from its restaurant on King's Road in downtown St. John's, picked up the top prize in the non-traditional category at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas last month.


Co-owner Meghan O'Dea, who attended the competition with Bart Pierson, said their winning recipe included lamb, water chestnuts, a tomato-mango chutney, a pesto base — and one ingredient that costs nothing, but valuable enough to take with them.


"We took Newfoundland water just straight out of the tap. [I] just threw it in my suitcase, and that was it," said O'Dea.


"I knew it was that because Vegas water is not that good."


O'Dea said the win has given Pi a significant boost, with record sales since scoring the win at the Pizza Expo.

This place has long been one of my favorite places to eat in St. John's.

[SignalHillHiker]

I've not been yet, but it looks nice from the outside. I'll have to check it out.

A Newfoundlander also won that Chef Canada recipe contest or whatever it was. I believe it was televised. Heard about it on the radio.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

I don't understand how people can say they like the taste of vegetables. There's a very limited number of vegetables that I don't mind eating, mainly some squashes, potatoes and peas. And only if they're cooked right. At best I find vegetables to be something I have to tolerate because apparently it's "healthy" according to the "professionals." Anyone who says they love vegetables is lying to others and possibly to themselves as well. There's no convincing me otherwise.

I had to comment on this..

Tonight I had a spinach salad for dinner..Now granted it had boiled egg, some cheese, pasta, and ham in it (quasi julien), but it had it's share of vegetables..Tomato, celery, shaved carrot, etc...It truly was a kitchen sink..
75% vegetable, with a bit of a ranch dressing on top.

Tell you what though..For taste, I would of put that up against any burger hands down.

[SignalHillHiker]

The Edible Road Trip has finally crossed over into Newfoundland. First stop: Corner Brook.

Moose Pastrami & Our First Taste of Screech

In Corner Brook we met up with our friend April, the ideal Newfoundland host.

We gave her this title for many reasons, but the most important one is that she’s utterly devoted to her home. She LOVES Corner Brook, and spent half our time with her lamenting the fact we couldn’t stay longer. “Even just a few hours more – do you even know the things I could SHOW you??!”

...

Despite the time crunch, she managed to pack a lot in. She first showed us where she works – Newfound Sushi, Corner Brook’s first and only sushi joint. The owner, Kevin Vincent, used to work as a west coast kayak guide and knows Kuyuquot! It’s a small, small world.

He also makes daaaang good sushi, much of which utilizes local fish.

...

Next, April took us on a hike up Marble Mountain to a waterfall, toting a bag filled with a thermos of coffee, mugs, Screech, scones, Fussell’s thick cream, and jam.

We each topped up our coffees with a dash of Screech, Newfoundland’s quintessential liquor; it’s a type of Jamaican rum that first showed up when it was traded with the West Indies in exchange for salt fish. If a Newfoundlander is going to insist you try anything, it will be screech (though this was not the moment we were ‘screeched in.' Trust us, you’ll know when that time comes).

Later that afternoon, we visited the Marble Inn Resort, where we met owner Joe Dicks and Head Chef Nathan Hornidge. Guests at the resort have their choice of dining at Madison’s or the more casual Cove Café, where we tried two things we’d never before seen:

black bear sausage,

and moose pastrami.

He served the sausage with a plum compote made with plums from the trees outside, and the pastrami with house-made pickles. Both meats were rich and extraordinarily good. April, a native Newfoundlander, said she’s never tried better moose!

http://edibleroadtrip.com/blog/2014/...rfmanz1ya54o8g

[rousseau]

Pearl milk tea (aka "bubble" tea) buying guide.




Where are the good spots for it in your city?

I was actually there when it was invented in Taiwan. Or was it Hong Kong? Could be some debate there. Either way, I've been drinking and loving it for twenty years. And it shows. Around the midsection, I mean. I try to limit myself to once a week these days.

By pearl milk tea I mean cold milky black tea with dark tapioca balls in it. The original, in other words. Which is how you order it in Chinese when you're outside of Taiwan, as the mainland Chinese who've adopted it are upstarts who've come up with all kinds of crazy flavours of what seems to be known in English as "bubble tea." Pedant alert: "Bubble tea" just means any kind of tea drink where the mixing process involves a cocktail shaker.

Waterloo:
- Bubble Tease in University Plaza. It's a sort of jack-of-all-trades restaurant. Rarely are there less than a hundred Chinese exchange students crowding the place. I don't know about the food, though, and couldn't care less: the pearl milk tea at this place is the real deal. They get two crucial things right: you can actually taste the actually brewed tea in it, and the tapioca have just the right amount of sweetness and softness.

Toronto:
- Ten Ren's Tea Time on Hwy 7 in Markham. This is an actual Taiwanese company. The pearl milk tea is a bit creamier than others, though that only makes it that much nicer. Ten Ren has a small place on Dundas in Chinatown that seems to be just as good, if I recall correctly.

- Tea Shop 168. This is a chain, there are about twenty-five of them all over the city accordnig to their website. It's hit and miss. Usually serviceable.

- Chatime Bubble Tea, 132 Dundas St. W. Stay away. The tea isn't flavoured properly and the tapioca literally have a plastic flavour. We've had it twice there, and both times it was awful.

Are there any others in Toronto people would recommend?

London:
- A little place on Richmond just east of Talbot. Stay away. Same as Chatime, it tastes awful. They don't make it properly, and they don't care. Probably won't be in business much longer.

I'm interested in finding a go-to place in London. Haven't yet. Any suggestions?

[SignalHillHiker]

New promo video for Legros & Motti.

• Video Link

[savevp]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I had to Google it. That's so cute that you guys have a different name for it. You call it "Newfoundland-style Cured Navel Beef":

Ontario product:

I get this all the time at my nearby Metro in Toronto (Annex). Aside from being good value, it is great salt beef if you enjoy that. Springtime; salt beef, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, and carrots. Makes for a nice supper in my books.

[SignalHillHiker]

Even though I hate sushi, I let my friends convince me to try it again this evening for supper - and oh my God, I'm so glad there is.

I don't know what was in the sushi I've had on the mainland, but from Halifax to Winnipeg, it all this this strong taste I just couldn't stand. It's like cilantro for me - if it's there, I can't eat it. I even tried teriyaki sushi chicken (which I love) and even THAT had the same taste - so my friends there figured it must've been the type of vinegar or seaweed.

Whatever it is, Sun Sushi doesn't have it. I couldn't believe it - the taste was amazing! It's probably not authentic or something, but it was just delicious. I LOVE sushi now!

A few pics from our trip.

Sun Sushi is right across from Mohammed Ali's on Duckworth Street.





Miso soup:



Spicy salmon rolls:



And the other half of my order, in case I hated the sushi - a teriyaki chicken bowl, with the restaurant's own teriyaki sauce. Delicious!

[SignalHillHiker]

Broken Books opens tomorrow. It's directly below Fixed Coffee and Baking at the National War Memorial.





And the upstairs (Fixed Coffee and Baking):

[FrankieFlowerpot]

Dinner last night at Origin on King Street East in TO

Starters - Deviled eggs + souffletine + herbs + smoked bacon and Buffalo mozzarella + pear + rosemary oil + pine nuts + honey



Main - Moroccan hen with harissa and mint couscous with pickled red onions

[J_Murphy]

Thought I would share this...

Tourists flock to Newfoundland in the summer to see whales, seabirds and icebergs. But freshly-made picnic lunches have also been luring tourists and locals to the Ferryland lighthouse for the past decade.

The lighthouse began operating in 1870 as a navigational beacon. The federal government wanted to tear down the lighthouse and the accompanying house in 1969 until the local community objected. The lighthouse then became fully automated in 1970.

The automation meant that lighthouse keepers were no longer needed. So the house fell into disrepair until Jill Curran stepped in to lease and restore the buildings. They also saved the lighthouse with a culinary plan for a picnic service there.

"It's been a large part of Newfoundland tradition to have picnics," says Curran. "So we just put a unique twist on it."

People dine on ham and brie sandwiches on homemade bread, bakeapple tarts and freshly-squeezed lemonade. Without any advertising, the lunches from Lighthouse Picnics have become so popular that reservations are necessary.


Besides the food, visitors are also thrilled by scenery.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Beverley Dean, a tourist from Lexington, Kentucky. "It's absolutely breathtaking. Beautiful. We've seen whales and we've seen puffins. It's just beautiful."

Family Connection

Lighthouse Picnics was inspired by a love of Ferryland and Curran's family connection to the lighthouse.

Her great-grandfather, William Costello was the lighthouse keeper and her grandmother was born in the lighthouse.

The federal government transferred ownership of the lighthouse and residence to the town two years ago. Curran now leases the house from Ferryland.

Throughout Canada, there are hundreds of lighthouses the federal government has deemed as surplus.

Curran hopes that more towns and community groups will step forward to save them.

"They're stunning buildings in stunning locations," said Curran. "There is life for these buildings after they've housed staff for the Coast Guard. I'm sure of it."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...cess-1.2717151

[SkydivePilot]

In Regina, go to the Diplomat. Wow!!!