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City Bites

FOOD BUZZ: Jak’s Kitchen battles Bronson Ave. construction with Jak In A Box take-out meals

You’ve gotta hand it to the folks at Jak’s Kitchen. They are making lemonade out of lemons. When a construction crew began tearing up Bronson Avenue several weeks ago, owners John Armstrong and Kim Hill (John And Kim = JAK) discovered their restaurant was going to be in a cloud of demolition, dust, and detours until September. The news got even worse: their beloved outdoor patio is out of commission.

In spite of being stuck in a construction zone, the 26-seat restaurant remains open for business inside as usual — serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch. But rather than standing by helplessly and watching the number of customers dwindle due to the mess, Armstrong and Hill came up with a plan to launch a new take-out business called: Jak In A Box!

The idea is to give customers access to Jak’s regular menu, but to pack everything up in cute recyclable to-go containers — perfect for taking home (or to the office or off on a picnic).

One of the great little quirks about Jak’s Kitchen is that they serve breakfast until 3 p.m. They are perhaps best-known for their creative breakfast sandwiches, dubbed Kitchen Macs, which happen to be ideal take-out food. Think of it as a gourmet Egg McMuffin. Jak’s Macs feature fresh and mostly local ingredients like house-cured peameal bacon, Bekings Poultry Farm eggs, and Mariposa Farms’ selection of cheeses. The key is that they are served on hearty homemade breads — rye, sourdough, molasses-oat and, my favourite, buttermilk biscuits. These baked goods can also be ordered by the loaf or the batch for take-out as well.

Jak In A Box @ Jak’s Kitchen

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to close.

Jak’s Kitchen, 479 Bronson Ave., 613-230-2088

Please note: You can still reach Jak’s Kitchen off of Gladstone Avenue, turning left on Percy Street and then left again on McLeod Street. The parking lot across the street from the restaurant remains accessible.

 

 

City Bites

TWO FOODIE ROAD TRIPS: Seed to Sausage Grand Opening (May 19) & The Great Canadian Cheese Festival (June 1-3)

A selection of Seed to Sausage salumi served at the launch of the Great Canadian Cheese Festival

Cured meats, as we all know, are making a comeback. And while I have enjoyed many of the new porky products appearing in deli counters and on charcuterie boards around town, I do find it can get a little confusing. The terminology alone is tough to tackle: is charcuterie the same as salumi? Is salumi the same as salame? What’s the difference between copa and capicola? Smoked, cured, cooked, dried, aged, nitrates, and nitrites — there is so much to know.

Luckily we have an expert, educator, and true Salumist among us! Ottawa-raised Michael McKenzie of Seed to Sausage has emerged from his military career as the region’s Pied Piper of Pork (and lamb and beef). It seems whatever he makes at his salumeria in Sharbot Lake, 130 km west of Ottawa, a trail of chefs and foodies follow behind holding baskets of crostini and jars of artisanal mustard.

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WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Get initiated into Korea’s famous dish — a colourful bowl of bibimbap at Le Kim Chi

Before the merger: When the bowl of bibimbap arrives, you are meant to lunge in there with chopsticks and beat everything together lickety split or, cautions Anne DesBrisay, the staff will do it for you.

By Anne DesBrisay

Gifts in little white bowls from Le Kim Chi’s kitchen arrive first. These are not meant to be treated as an amuse bouche. You are to meant to be patient. My dining buddy had to be whacked when he began to scarf down the marinated potatoes, the sesame doused bean sprouts, the fermented, spicy cabbage called kimchi. “Wait,” I hissed. “These go with what’s coming.”

What was coming came a few minutes later: sizzling dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap, about which he was a greenhorn. If you don’t know Korea’s famous dish called bibimbap, you need to be initiated, and Le Kim Chi seemed a good beginning.

Bibimbap is that petal-like arrangement of sautéed vegetables, beef, crackling nori, and wiggly egg on rice, the raw yolk glistening at the head, the whole dotted with toasted sesame seeds. Stop too long to admire the still life at your peril: you are meant to just plunge in there with chopsticks and beat everything together lickety split, or the staff will do it for you. This I have learned.

But you have other options. You can reach way down to detach the rice still cooking on the bottom of the hot pot, or leave some of it still stuck, still sizzling, to savour later, when it’s bronzed and crunchy with a nutty flavour. You can customize as you wish from the little gifts of pickled vegetables – they change all the time, but always there is spicy kimchi. You can slather on the gochujang (hot pepper sauce) or just dob it on. Or leave it off altogether. No one will judge you. The raw egg cooks in the heat of its companions, and keeps the whole — veg and meat and the sweet pungency of sesame oil that weaves through it all — on the moist side. It makes a filling, flavourful lunch for $12.95, and at Le Kim Chi, it comes with miso soup.

Cost: lunch specials at Le Kim Chi are all $12.95

Open: for lunch, Monday to Friday, dinner daily

Le Kim Chi, 420 Preston St., 613-233-2433.

 

City Bites

OPENING SOON! Brothers Beer Bistro in the ByWard Market

The "Brothers" behind the bar in the construction zone: (l-r) Nick Ringuette, chef Darren Flowers, Patrick Asselin

Let’s get the answer to “brothers” question out of the way: co-owners of the soon-to-open Brothers Beer Bistro are not biologically brothers. Patrick Asselin and Nick Ringuette are brothers in the ‘best buddies’ sense of the word. It’s the nickname they have for each other. And upon meeting them for the first time, it’s easy to see why they are friends. They are both warm, charming, fun-loving guys… with matching facial hair. The kind of brothers everyone needs.

Apparently Asselin’s bushy beard is the result of a promise he made (and perhaps now regrets) when he signed the lease for 366 Dalhousie St. that he wouldn’t shave until the 75-seat ByWard Market bistro opens later this month. Ringuette, the self-described “laid-back one,”  keeps his beard tidy while he works his final shifts at The Black Thorn where he has been a beloved bartender for the last six years. “I’m not a crazy mixologist, not a flare guy,” he says, “My thing is that I want everyone to feel like they are in my basement bar.”

So the name “Brothers” stuck because these guys really wanted to emphasize the importance of having a fun new social hangout spot where everyone feels like one of the family. “We want to bring back that social aspect of being out on the town,” says Asselin who practiced the art of hospitality most recently as service  manager at Play Food & Wine, “Instead of seeing people in restaurants on their phones and texting, we want to go back to people talking and interacting.”

When I stopped by last week, the gas had just been hooked up and chef Darren Flowers, the third “brother,” was eager to get in the kitchen to work on his menu. Flowers, who was most recently Steve Wall’s sous-chef at Luxe Bistro and previously at the Whalesbone, says he’ll be incorporating beer into all of the food — either as the braising or brining liquid or in other ways (beer vinegar, beer mayo, pickling with hops, bread made with spent malt from the brewing process). Even desserts will feature beer — Flowers plans to make his own beer ice cream.

Check out their facebook page for updates on Brother’s opening date.

Brothers Beer Bistro, 366 Dalhousie St., 613-282-9452. 

 


City Bites

IN SEASON: Fresh goose eggs. Who knew?

You may like them you will see. You may like them in a tree.

I wandered into Aubrey’s Meats (59 York St.) in the Byward Market last week and spotted a tray of enormous eggs — each one was at least three times the size of a regular hen’s egg. As it turns out, they were goose eggs. Unbeknownst to me goose eggs are “in season” right now. The birds lay their eggs annually from the beginning of March up until early June.

Who knew?

So while I was still scratching my head about what I would do with them, I bought a pair at $2 each and put them gingerly into my purse. Boy, those babies are big! Cooking them would require a strategy. At the checkout I asked how people eat them. Apparently they can be eaten scrambled or fried like a hen’s egg but one customer claims they also make the best and creamiest milkshakes.

Once I got the eggs home, I decided to seek some more expert advice. I called up Ian Walker from the duck and geese farm Mariposa, located 45 minutes east of Ottawa in Plantagenet, Ontario. He supplies Aubrey’s with the eggs. He says he had a childhood trauma related to eating goose eggs for the first time (don’t ask) so he’d be the wrong guy to discuss the flavour and texture compared to ordinary eggs. This made me a little nervous — like when the chef won’t eat at his own restaurant. I began to think perhaps blogging about goose eggs wasn’t such a good idea. I felt like the curmudgeonly character in Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs & Ham. I didn’t want goose eggs here or there, I didn’t want them anywhere. Ian suggested I call Steve Mitton at Murray Street (110 Murray Street) for a second opinion.

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WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Savouring a taste of the tropics at Havana Café

A noon-time bargain, the Ropa Vieja came with Congris rice (white rice stained purple with black beans ), fried plantain, and steamed yucca logs

By Anne DesBrisay

I don’t know Cuban food very well. Have never been to Cuba (it’s on ‘The List’) and Havana Café is the first Cuban restaurant in Ottawa, at least of which I am aware. So I scanned the other five tables and all — including one of students from Hopewell Public School (being treated like the little princes that they no doubt were by the clucky server) — were chomping down on Havana Café’s $5 sandwiches. And though they looked good, I have sworn off eating bread on Thursdays. Sadly, this was Thursday.

I needed another idea. So I asked for help and was immediately steered toward Ropa Vieja. It means Old Clothes, she told me. I thought that sounded pretty good. Bring it on, I said, and braced myself for the stereotypically grim buffet experience of the Cuban monster resort.

As is plain from the picture, it didn’t look promising. When your traditional diet is mostly pork, rice, beans and shades of brown starch, the plate isn’t going to be pretty. Earthy, to be sure, but not what you’d call tropically tinted. But here we had thin strips of slow cooked steak, mingled with green olives, onions and peppers. I braced myself for boot leather, but it was not. Not at all. It was, in fact, remarkably tender and flavorful in an acerbic sauce piquant with vinegar. The Ropa Vieja came with Congris rice (white rice stained purple with black beans ) sweet, fried plantain (nothing greasy about them), and steamed starchy yucca logs. It was a noon-time bargain, this piled plate and much of it came home with me.

Cost: Ropa Vieja with rice and veg, $10.

Havana Café, 1200 Bank St., 613-733-1200.

EAT LOCAL; COOK LOCAL: Previewing a pretty book of recipes from Prince Edward County

The Art of Herbs Cookbook

Tasty, beautiful, local. Last fall, Cynthia Peters, food writer and owner of From the Farm Cooking School in Prince Edward County, teamed up with artist Susan Wallis to create a visual feast of a recipe book themed around chives, basil, lemon balm, coriander, and tarragon. Each of the 22 recipes is paired with a richly textured encaustic herbal painting. Local chefs, farmers, and winemakers provide the opening remarks for the sections, further personalizing this homegrown homage to the bounty of the County. In honour of this early spring herb, we have reproduced Peters’ spicy shrimp and chive recipe.

The Art of Herbs Cookbook is available at The Red Apron and Collected Works Bookstore. For more information on the book, visit fromthefarm.ca.

Garlic Shrimp with Chives  (Serves 4)
16 uncooked jumbo shrimp
1 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil

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WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: A well-regarded chef resurfaces at Bistro Boréal at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

A pretty appetizer of a fish cake with shrimp features a fat dill-flecked cake topped with three shrimp, a toupé of micro greens, and a chive spear.

By Anne DesBrisay

The dining room of the Museum of Civilization has moved and been rechristened. It used to be called Café du Musée and it used to be housed in a separate, administrative building overlooking the River. Now the restaurant is in the museum proper, where the gift shop used to be. It has a less thrilling outlook, over Laurier Avenue, but it is inarguably more accessible, and the new location likely makes a lot more sense in terms of attracting both museum visitors and hungry pedestrians sauntering down the Avenue.

In the open kitchen of the new Bistro Boréal is Chef Georges Laurier, whose career on the Gatineau side includes — among other stops — the iconic Café Henry Burger and the lamented Laurier sur Montcalm.  My first taste of Bistro Boréal was lunch. And it was an impressive one.

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WEEKLY LUNCH PICK: Cuisine & Passion cooks up fare worthy of the Rolling Stones

Pandan-wrapped chicken with roasted cauliflower and squash, and a chick pea and smoked salmon salad.

By Anne DesBrisay

If I were feeling peckish and fond of the Rolling Stones, I might seek out the band’s former chef and see what’s cookin’. I’d have to go to Orléans to find him, to a strip mall on St Joseph Boulevard next to a Jumbo Video, where a bright yellow sign announces ‘Gourmet Meals to Go.’

Ordinarily, trolling Orléans for good eating can be a disheartening exercise. But Marc Miron and his wife, chef Chantal Gagné, have had cooking careers that have taken them to hotels and restaurants all over the world, (and, for a time, says Miron’s CV, to the kitchen of Mick, Keif, Ron, and whoever the other guy is). But they’ve now settled down in Orléans where they feed we commoners, grub that’s inarguably the best in these suburbs. They do this at their gourmet shop and cooking school “Cuisine & Passion.”

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SAVE THE DATE: Talking VegFest (Sunday, April 29) with vegan panzerotti eater Josh Flower

FLOWER POWER
Josh Flower, the new president of the National Capital Vegetarian Association, chats about keeping the vegan message positive, the popularity of this month’s VegFest event in the Glebe, and his wife’s panzerottis

When did you become a vegan? And why?
Eleven years ago I became a vegetarian; nine years ago I went vegan. The reason was animal rights — I’ve always been an animal lover. Even as a child, when I saw a dead or injured animal, it really affected me. But I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and the common logic for treatment is to shy away from roughage, toward a meat-based diet. So doctors advised against a plant-based diet. But I didn’t buy the logic that [a plant-based diet] was bad for my health. I started introducing more and more plant-based foods, my condition improved, and I weaned myself off medication.

How do you think veganism has changed in the past decade?
The biggest change is awareness. When I became vegan, it was still an unusual sort of thing, whereas today everyone knows someone who is vegan.

What’s your favourite food?
My wife’s panzerottis. She puts faux chicken and Daiya cheese and onions and all sorts of vegetables. If I’m in a bad mood or I’ve had a long week, she just says, “Panzis tonight?” In terms of specific products, it’s the Gardein line of meatless products. They’re great, and they serve as a gateway for those who have trouble giving up traditional foods.

In your bio, you mention your interest in a broad-based approach. What do you mean by that?
I like the grassroots approach of NCVA. I also love the annual VegFest [now in its fourth year], which is what got me interested in the organization. But I’m also interested in having a broader impact through the Internet, which enables us to reach a lot of people with a very positive message.

What are you excited about for VegFest this year?
We’re hoping to do more food demonstrations and also have more booths and vendors. In the future, we’re considering moving the event to later in the spring and having it outside.

What’s your biggest pet peeve when discussing plant-based diets with omnivores?
Alienating people at the table. If I’m the only vegan at the table, inevitably someone will say, ‘Why vegan?’ I say personal reasons, and that I’m happy to talk to them about it sometime, and sometimes we’ll talk after. A lot of people approach it as a combat situation, but the only thing you can do is live your life and use that as an example. People are curious, and that’s a good thing.

What three things can meat eaters do to improve their health without going totally vegan?
First of all, I don’t endorse meat eating; I think we have evolved beyond hunting and gathering. But if I had to say three things, I would suggest sourcing out high-quality meat that comes from a farm you can visit, where animals eat real food. This should be meat without growth hormones or antibiotics. You can also reduce your consumption: if you normally eat it for lunch and dinner, move to only dinner or have all-veg days. Thirdly, try some of these meatless products like the Gardein line at Loblaws — and don’t give up if you have a bad veggie burger! And join the NCVA: we’re not going to judge you; we’re here to support you.

VegFest takes place on Sunday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Glebe Community Centre. www.ncva.ca.

 

 

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