Austin!
Touched down just after noon on Friday. Up since 4 am we are tired and hungry. Austin is overcast and a light rain falls but it is also verdant with spring, mild and the birds are singing, with the bonus of being sans slush and the treachery that is our Ottawa driveway currently.
Rob and I have been to Austin on two other occasions for all-too-brief stops on road trips, so we already have a basic lay of the land and some favorite places to grab a bite. We make an easy decision. Gueros!
Despite the drizzle, South Congress is alive and buzzing on this Friday mid-afternoon. We luck into a parking spot across from the restaurant and head in. Guero’s is packed but has a couple of free tables. We get seated and first up: Margaritas! We already know Guero’s does ‘em right. They offer about 15 margs with different tequilas. We order The Don, February’s featured marg made with Don Julio tequila, Triple Sec, fresh lime juice, rocks, salted rim for me, no salt for Rob. Our drinks arrive with a slice of lime and starting to sweat. Guero margs are in short glasses and are about twenty shades paler than the neon chartreuse abomination that the unfortunate think is a real margarita. Ooooh! Goes down easy after our long day.
Drinks arrive with complimentary, well made corn tortilla chips and two house salsas. The first, a smooth, roasted tomato chile dip provides a nice spicy burn. The second is a fresh, chunky pico de gallo with a hint of creaminess provided by some chopped avocado. I’m not sure which I prefer. Both are great with a margarita. I do immediately regret wearing a white shirt however.
Starving, we select a few apps off the menu to share. Tacos Al Pastor and Chorizo Quesadillas. The tacos are small, open-faced and piled with spiced pork and pico de gallo laced with coriander and fresh pineapple. They come with lots of fresh lime. The quesadillas keep me coming back to Guero’s. The soft, pillowy flour tortillas (corn are also available) are sumptuous with just enough cheese, chorizo and spiced oil rendered from the meat to glue the tortillas together. A generous helping of guacamole and sour cream for spooning up with each bite makes these the perfect marg-soaking-up food. With our bellies content we head to the hotel to check in and have a much needed nap.
Refreshed and ready to roll, we select the Iron Cactus for dinner because we can walk there. We are only a block from 6th street which is hopping on a Friday night despite the rain. The Iron Cactus, a large two story affair here in Austin, has a few locations in Texas, much like the Lone Star in Ontario minus the fake Texas crap and waiter named Durango. We have a 15 minute wait at the bar where the tender tells us they make a mighty good margarita. We bite. They have a pretty good array of tequila behind the bar. He makes us a decent drink with fresh lime and agave nectar. It’s good but a tad too sweet. Not bad though. The bar is noisy on a Friday. We are by a factor of two, the oldest people in the joint. Oddly the sound track beckons to us: The Zombies, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty and Steppenwolf.
After we are seated, I order a local beer, Fireman Four. Complimentary chips with two roasted chile -tomato salsas, one warm, one cold arrive. Chips are good and the salsas tasty. We order a Chile Con Queso app. It arrives in a cast iron pan, thin and white with a few chunks of chilies and tomato. Quite average but really good when sharing a chip with the mildly spicy roasted salsas.
For mains we are sharing an order of shrimp and pork carnitas fajitas. The dish arrives hot but not sizzling. The pork is in good sized chunks, sweet and nicely spicy. The shrimp appear to be wild caught as they have an intense shrimpy taste and are smokey sweet. Accompanying the proteins are nicely sauteed onions, poblanos, and red peppers. The flour tortillas (again corn are offered) are soft and perfect. Our mains come with a choice of beans. We both opt for the bacon onion beans which are very good but not sweet. The Mexican rice is dull and the classic fajita fixins are fine but in our book cheese is a no no and the guacamole had been set out too far in advance and had started to oxidize which is unappetizing.
We head back to our hotel via 6th Street, Austin’s bar and restaurant scene. Lots of colourful characters and live music spill out into the street. Can’t wait to check it out!
Spanish Tapas Night!
Rob and I are unfamiliar with Spanish wines in general. Oh sure we can pick out a decent Rioja but beyond that we are a little lost. We decided to cozy up an Ottawa winter evening by inviting a group of friends that enjoy red wine, food and travel. We sent out an invite to bring a tapas dish or a bottle of a favorite Spanish wine one might like to share. Our group of eight guests was more than up to the task and we had a fun evening trying new wines, comparing wines and enjoying the fruits of our friend’s kitchens. This is a great excuse to get together, weather be damned and learn about wine. Little or no coordination was done and so it was a true potluck with the tapas. Here’s a rundown for most of the food. As recipes show up, we’ll add them to the list.
The Menu:
Mediterranean Spiced Olives
Shrimp and Chorizo with Smoked Tomato Dip
Manchego Cheese
Spanish Roasted Potatoes in Tomato Sauce (Patatas Bravas) – Simply Recipes
Tooma Cheese with Guava Paste
Mussels in Spicy Coconut Milk
Grilled Mushrooms
Homemade Gooseberry Compote
Quinoa Salad
Olives with Roasted Peppers
Whipped Potato, Fish and Olive Spread with Garlic Crostini
Tart with Gorgonzola, Fig, Watercress and Serrano Ham
Abby and Nico’s Quinoa Salad (Abigail Lixfeld and Nico Pham-Dinh )
- toast the quinoa lightly, then cook in duck stock until done
- chop snow pea leaves and then blanche in hot water for one minute, then shock in cold water
- coarsely chop and then saute vegetables in duck fat (e.g. carrots, leeks, bell peppers)
- mix quinoa, snow pea leaves and vegetables, dress and season to taste
Dressing:
- grapeseed oil, reduced sodium tamari, garlic, cracked pepper, agave
Abby and Nico’s Grilled Mushrooms (Abigail Lixfeld and Nico Pham-Dinh )
- thinly slice king oyster mushrooms
- toss in a dressing of grapeseed oil, soy, agave, dijon mustard, tarragon, salt and pepper
- bbq, pan fry or grill until cooked through but still firm
Served with Nico’s Mom’s Ground Cherry Compote
Rob’s Shrimp and Chorizo
- Peel, clean and de-vein gulf-caught fresh shrimp
- Toss cleaned shrimp in spice mix (paprika, chili powder, garlic, salt, pepper)
- Slice Spanish-style dry chorizo into 1cm-thick coins
- Saute chorizo to render some of the fat. Remove from head when tender.
- Saute shrimp in same pan with chorizo-oil (augment with olive oil as needed) until just cooked.
- Take toothpicks and secure chorizo coins inside the curve of the shrimp
- Serve with your favourite dip, in this case, a smoky tomato jam. Sauces made with melted citrus marmalades are excellent as well.
Rob and Maureen’s Tart with Gorgonzola, Fig, Watercress and Serrano Ham
preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Brush flatbread with olive oil
Distribute sliced fresh figs, gorgonzola and watercress sprigs on flatbread
Bake in oven until crispy and golden, and topics are cooked and melted.
Top with slices of Serrano ham while hot (it will “melt” into the hot flatbread)
Cut into easy-to-eat squares.
Spicy Mussels (Courtesy of Jan and Patti adapted from 222 Lyon Street Tapas Bar)
Serves 2 (main course)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 cloves chopped fresh garlic
¼ cup chopped Spanish onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
2-2½ cups chicken stock (use less/more depending on how much liquid you want)
¾ cup dry white wine (less if you want it less “winey”)
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Sprinkling of crushed red chillies (to taste)
2 lbs (one mesh bag) fresh live mussels, washed and scrubbed if necessary
1-1½ cups heavy (35%) cream (use less/more depending on how much liquid you want)
In a large pot, heat the oil until hot. Add the chopped garlic, chopped onion and parsley. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the chicken stock, wine, crushed red chillies and Dijon mustard. When heated, add the mussels. Cover the pot and cook until the mussels have opened, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cream and stir well. Discard any mussels that have not opened. Serve immediately in a large bowl.
Accidental Vegetarian: Panzanella
Meatless Monday and sharing a bottle of wine over dinner, is a tradition we have recently slipped into, as it is the one evening neither of us has to rush off to do something else. We are discovering that vegetarian food does not have to be boring. It’s actually surprisingly easy to find recipes for dishes that you would cook or order in a restaurant, because you want to eat it, not because it is vegetarian. Italian cuisine offers up many such pleasures. Panzanella is light but satisfying, and pairs well with a good Chianti Classico.
Panzanella (Tuscan Bread Salad)
Serves 4
adapted from the several dozen but all very similar recipes on the web. David Rocco inspired me to try it after he prepared a version on Dolce Vita.
Ingredients: Salad
9-10 cups of day old rustic bread such as Italian crusty, cut into large cubes….1-2 inches
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 a large sweet onion, cut into thin slices
1 cucumber, peeled, cut in half, then quarters, then chunks
1 cup fresh basil, chiffonaded
Parmesan for serving
Ingredients for Dressing:
1/3 cup good quality olive oil
3/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
good pinch of Kosher salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
Method:
1. Combine bread and half of the marinade, toss and let sit to marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Add the remaining marinade and other ingredients. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Serve with Parmesan cheese if desired. Salad does not keep so eat up!
Click HERE for a print-friendly version of this recipe.
Accidental Vegetarian: Rustic Pasta
Eating vegetarian appeals to me on many levels: It’s healthy and lighter generally, and, as an animal lover I do struggle with eating mammals at times. Rob and I consciously buy from local farmers where possible. I want to know where my meat came from, that it was raised with care and an eye to it’s quality of life, and without antibiotics and hormones But bacon is so damned delicious and my resolve to eat less meat fades in the light of a frigid Ottawa winter. A steak cooked medium-rare and served up in a Thai coconut curry sauce or a pork and green chile stew is just that more comforting and soul sustaining than a tofu stirfy or portabello burger, in the grip of a -32 windchill. So, when I stumble across a recipe that coats the mouth with such satisfying, savoury richness and flavour and delivers that feeling of being sated, sleepy and happy AND it is vegetarian, I am very happy.
This recipe was shown to my daughter Hannah by her friend, Bridget (Hi, Bridget!) when they were in their late teens.
Rustic Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic and Thyme
Ingredients:
1 sweet onion, medium chop
2 pints of cherry tomatoes. A mix of varieties is nice. Buy the sweetest ones you can.
2-3 large cloves of garlic, sliced thin (I use a hand held mandoline)
A glug of good quality olive oil. I use Frantoia (alla Mario 
)
A couple of sprigs of thyme, remove stems. You can use any woody herb on hand such as Rosemary or sage. Lightly chop to bruise herb.
Salt and pepper
Rustic pasta like garganelli
Parmesan or Pecorino for serving
Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss onion, tomatoes (halve any large ones), garlic and thyme with a good glug of olive oil (don’t skimp, it’s a large part of the finished sauce), salt and pepper to taste. Roast in oven for about 40 minutes. Tomatoes should have blistered and lightly charred skins. Turn oven off and leave to keep warm. Cook pasta. Stir tomato sauce and serve on top of pasta. Sprinkle with fresh grated cheese. You can easily adjust this recipe to serve as many people as you like.
Click HERE for a printable version of this recipe.
Roast Chicken with Thai Spices
I was menu planning for the week ahead on Friday and was inspired to create this dish by one of the plump, juicy local chickens from Winfield farms that I had in my freezer. Roast chicken of any kind is comfort food on a blustery winter day. I love the warm, spicy flavours prevalent in Thai cuisine and felt they would compliment a chicken nicely. Rob suggested making a yellow curry sauce and so it came together.
Thai Spiced Roast Chicken with Yellow curry Sauce and Coconut-Mango-Coriander Jasmine Rice
Ingredients for Chicken:
1 3 1/2 to 4 pound chicken
1 tsp Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste
2 limes
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
fresh ground pepper
A handful of coriander
Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse chicken and set on a rack in roasting pan. Whisk together green curry paste, juice of 1/2 a lime, fish sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl. Baste chicken with spice mixture. Stuff some fresh coriander under the skin and place a handful of coriander and three lime halves in the cavity of the bird. Roast for about an hour and a half.
Ingredients for Yellow Curry Sauce:
1 tsp Thai Kitchen Yellow Curry Paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Can of coconut milk
Method:
Heat all ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Serve with chicken.
Ingredients for Coconut-Mango-Coriander Jasmine Rice:
1 cup Jasmine or other white rice
Can coconut water with pulp
1/2 cup diced mango (frozen is fine)
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Method:
Using favourite method, make rice with coconut water instead of of water. When rice is done toss with mango and coriander.
Click HERE for a printable version of this recipe.
Holiday Treats: 2 Family Faves
Chocolate Truffle Mice
My mom used to make these chocolate truffle mice every Christmas. When other kids brought in cookies or bar desserts their moms made during our elementary school Christmas parties, I brought these mice. Santa may have even been left a few mice on more than one occasion. This recipe and the recipe below, candied orange peels, are in the notebook my mom passed onto me.
Adult me is wondering how kid me did not appreciate “gooey pizza muffins”.
As an aside, this notebook is the first thing I will grab if there’s ever a fire. It’s full of clippings from magazines and newspapers my mom stuck in a huge spiral-bound notebook. There’s notes all throughout, “excellent”, “not great”, “Heather loves these” and lots of these recipes I remember my mom making growing up.
Chocolate Truffle Mice (Canadian Living Magazine)
4 ounces/squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs (or Oreo baking crumbs… But if you grind up the cookies yourself, about 30 cookies.)
1/3 cup more crumbs for later (or you can use icing sugar or sprinkles… But be warned, icing sugar will make your little mice disturbingly realistic)
Dragees
Almond slivers or flakes
Licorice for tails
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, then remove it from the heat. Mix in sour cream, and then the cookie crumbs. Park it in the fridge to cool for about an hour.
Roll about a tablespoon’s worth of truffle into a ball, and then shape the ball to have a little point at the end for the mouse’s nose. Coat the truffle in more cookie crumbs.
You can then decorate with dragees (silver balls) for eyes, almond slivers for ears and licorice strings for tails. Do not be surprised if once everyone is done eating them, you are left with a plate of disembodied tails.
Candied Orange Peels
I’ve been making the candied orange peels on my own for the past three or four Christmases. Matt’s mom showed me a recipe in a magazine for candied orange slices, not peels. I thought this was really interesting and I am going to do both peels and slices during this run.
One interesting note is that the recipe for peels is done in two stages: first, you boil the peels in water for 15 minutes to remove the bitterness, then simmer them in sugar syrup until they are candied. For the slices, all the recipes I have found skip that first step. In addition, the peels use sugar and corn syrup, while the slices do not use corn syrup, but simply a 2:3 water to sugar ratio.
I’ve experimented with this recipe, and the only other citrus fruit that holds up well to the process is grapefruit, which still retains its distinct grapefruit flavour. Lemon and lime peels seem too thin and turn out crunchy and burnt-tasting.
The chocolate dipping is what I added to this recipe. Dark chocolate tastes really good, but semi-sweet chocolate chips are easier to eat out of the freezer when no one is looking.
This recipe is from Family Circle, December 1989.
Candied Orange Peels 
2 to 3 lbs of navel oranges, or about 8 oranges.
3/4 cup of water
2 cups of sugar, with extra for rolling the peels in
2 tablespoons of corn syrup
Remove the peel from the oranges. I’ve found cutting them into quarters and scooping out the flesh works best, but if you intend on eating the leftovers later you will be left with a pile of mush. I always intend to eat the oranges, but never do. This is why I am excited about trying slices this time around, because there is less waste.
Boil the orange peels in a pot of water for about 15 minutes, drain.
Boil sugar, 3/4 cup of water and corn syrup, add the orange peels and simmer for about 35-55 minutes or until translucent. Do not burn it, or your pot will never be the same again. In addition if you burn the syrup, your peels will taste burnt and be crunchy even if they don’t look burnt.
After the peels are simmered, they are left to cool/dry before rolling them in sugar. They are supposed to be rolled in sugar when they’re just “tacky”, but I have found if you roll them when too dry the sugar won’t stick, but if you roll them just before the tacky stage the sugar is absorbed because of the moisture and the peels stay… Juicy.
I found the slices difficult to candy evenly, as they float. And, the more you push ‘em back into their syrup, the more they fall apart. But if you cover them with enough chocolate it doesn’t really matter
Enjoy!
Inspiration 2: Perogies
For the second time in as many visits, a trip to Piggy Market changed our dinner plans on the spot. We spotted heads of local cabbage in the corner, molasses-cured smoked bacon and perogies behind the glass counters and a lovely home-made apple pie cooling on the counter. My plan hatched immediately. It was cool, grey day, calling out for a dinner of old-world comfort food.
The cabbage was chopped and blanched. Onions and bacon fried together, the pot de-glazed with a generous couple of glugs of Waupoos hard apple cider. The cabbage was added and fried until soft, absorbing the bacon fat and flavours from the thickened cider.
The pot, now emptied of its mixture, gets a fresh dollop of special, high-milk fat butter, and we fry the cheese and potato pillows until they are golden. Everything is tossed together and served with the rest of the Waupoos, paving the way for the punctuation of a perfect sweet bite of pie.
Holiday Lemon Cheesecake Bars
Instead of perusing the internet for fun new recipes, I actually ventured outside and purchased the Canadian Living Special Cookbook Edition – Holiday Favourites at the grocery checkout to find a second new recipe to try. I love Canadian Living and I’d say 80 per cent of the recipes in my most prized possession, my mom’s scrapbook of recipes cut out from newspapers and magazines, are from Canadian Living. I chose the lemon cheesecake bars, because I love lemon bars – but have never made lemon bars before – and the cheesecake layer seemed like it would be an interesting addition.
The "healthy" lemon cookies I used for the crust.
The original recipe calls for 30 lemon social tea cookies, but all I could find at my pathetically understocked, low-variety grocery store were no- sugar-added Peek Freans lemon “Lifestyle” cookies. Healthy ones. I wasn’t confident they would be lemony enough for the purpose, so I added two heaping spoonfuls of lemon curd to the butter and whisked them together after melting. I used almost the entire package of cookies and fed the leftover five or six to Matt. I also ground up enough to make a little more than the required two cups of crumbs to compensate for the extra liquid from the lemon curd.
Sometimes I get overzealous while baking, so here’s where I screwed up:
I didn’t follow the order when making the cheesecake layer, instead of beating the cheese and sugar first, then adding the egg, I just beat it all together. This is probably why when I bake cookies they melt into a giant cookie puddle in the oven. I didn’t trust the texture after I realized my mistake, so I let the cheesecake layer sit in the fridge for a few hours to firm up before pouring over the lemon layer.
Doing my best to make up for lost deliciousness in the crust by adding lemon curd.
Onto the lemons: it took me approximately three regular-sized lemons to come up with the lemon zest I needed, and two and a half of those lemons for the juice required for the recipe. And with the shhht shhht shhht of the microplane, our puppy Bodie came running into the kitchen. I’ve been known to spoil him with some asiago microplaned over his kibbles so the sound of the microplane in use is akin to a can opener to a cat, but not today. Sorry, Bodie.
The lemon squares turned out very well, and extremely rich. The cheesecake layer was not overpowering in its cheesecakey-flavour. The crust tastes like any good, buttery shortbread crust with a hint of lemon. I would recommend parking them in the fridge for a while after they cool to make cutting them easier, as they are quite delicate. I cut them into very tiny, one-bite pieces. The recipe says it makes 60 bars, and I got 60 very tiny, 1 1/2-inch pieces.
Lemon Cheesecake Bars
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
Icing sugar for topping
Cheesecake Layer:
1 package cream cheese (one brick, 8 oz)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
Base:
30 lemon social tea cookies
1/2 cup butter, melted
Base:
In a food processor, crush cookies to make 2 cups crumbs, pulse in butter until moistened. Press into 9×13-inch parchment-paper lined or greased cake pan. Bake at 325 until firm, about 12 minutes. Cool on rack.
Cheesecake layer: In bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth; beat in egg. Spread over base, set aside.
And the rest:
In a bowl, beat eggs with sugar until thickened. Beat in lemon zest juice, flour and baking powder until smooth, pour over cheesecake later.
Bake at 325 for about 35 minutes or until edges are brown, the top is slightly golden and lemon layer is set. Cool on rack, cut into bars, dust with icing sugar.
Makes 60 bars (apparently).
Click HERE for a printable version of this recipe.
Lemon bar base, out of the oven and cooling. Instead of one large, 9x13 pan, I used two smaller ones.
The second layer - cheesecake.
With the frothy lemon layer added, it's time to go into the oven.
Out of the oven, cooled and dusted liberally with icing sugar.
A close up of the lemon cheesecake strata.
The finished lemon cheesecake bars.
Contributor Heather Rose is a freelance writer living in Toronto with her puppy, Bodie and boyfriend, Matt, one of whom enjoys her culinary experiments more than the other. She applies her life-long philosophy – “I did my best” – to all her recipes and cooking experiences. Check out her website at www.heatherrosewriting.com.
Fatboy’s Roars into O-town
When it rains it pours. Ottawa, after having existed in a BBQ vacuum for so long, now has a third joint gracing the real BBQ landscape and we have heard unconfirmed rumours of yet another joint to open on Bank. Fatboy’s Southern Smokehouse opened this week on the Byward Market. Rob and I headed down there last Satuday to check it out.
The entrance is warm and beckoning and we were immediately greeted by friendly staff. The interior is brightly lit, bustling, charming and traditional with a warm faux wood floor, accented with a brick wall painted nostalgia-style with the Fatboy’s logo, featuring pine planking and steel accents, red checkered tablecloths, comfy padded armless chairs, and a bright open kitchen showcasing a monster Southern Pride smoker that holds 750 pounds of meat. They have a smaller one elsewhere as well. The large bar area with stools and tables propped up on real Jack Daniels casks is cheery.
Flatties featuring sports abound. The opposite wall features a replica 1914 Harley Davidson. More Harley and Jack Daniels paraphernalia complete the decor. The bathrooms at the rear of the restaurant are marked by huge cans of Bud light and Budweiser. Fun, but the server has to explain to each customer which is which. Still, fun.
We are seated and I order Waupoos, which they don’t carry. They make up for this by having a small but decent beer menu including Rolling Rock and Shock Top. Fatboy’s also offers small pictures that hold two beers worth and saves you half a loonie. Rob and I both order a 1/2 rack each of St. Louis cut pork side ribs. We decide to share the Campfire Baked Beans, Kansas City Cornbites with Maple Butter, Tangy Coleslaw and Picnic Potato Salad. The menu features some other genuinely southern items like Fried Green Tomatoes Warm Cinnamon Apples, Catfish and Memphis BBQ Spaghetti. These are all items I will definitely be back to try.
Fatboy’s serves the sauce on the side. Memphis Traditional. They offer 3: Memphis BBQ (Sweet, brown sugar, molasses) Hillbilly Heat (Memphis BBQ with a nice mild kick) and Memphis mustard (yellow mustard and brown sugar, non traditional). Hillbilly Heat was the clear winner at our table where we tend to like a sweet heat style of BBQ.
Our food arrives shortly. The ribs look amazing. We dig into those first. They have great hickory smoke flavour, a nice rosy smoke ring and a most excellent bark. The real deal. With the exception of the potato salad, the sides are good but not outstanding. The beans are sweet with chunks and bits of brisket with little or no heat. Very traditional. They just were not as sweet as I like them and seemed a bit bland. As per my rule regarding BBQ beans, if they are not excellent I don’t eat more than a spoonful or two. I did not eat them. The Tangy Coleslaw was simply not. It appeared to be completely undressed. I loved the cornbread but it was not Rob’s favorite. Fatboy’s cornbread is of the cakey sweet variety. I also love the coarser, lightly sweet cornbread. I’m happy either way. I was however hard pressed to find any maple flavour in the maple butter.
The Picnic Potato Salad was by far the best side we tried. And one of the better potato salads I’ve had anywhere. The potatoes are just slightly undercooked and the salad is lightly dressed with chunks of bell peppers. The highlight of the meal was the meat and I would go back in a heartbeat for the ribs and some hillbilly heat. The sides are fine but we would probably opt for different ones next time. A notable missing component of all the BBQ joints in Ottawa is crunch. There is no crunch on any of the plates. In the south you are often served a few slices of pickle and sometimes a slice of red onion on the side.
Our server let us know that the restaurant was still experimenting with the dessert menu. Today they offered a Southern apple dumpling. Rob and I shared the small portion which was good but it was only marginally better than a PC frozen apple blossom. To finish we had a shot of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey. Awesome. Fatboy’s is one of the only places in town that carries it.
Ok. What you have all been asking. Which is better? Fatboy’s or SmoQue Shack? There is no better. They are both very different and both are welcome to fill us up with awesome BBQ. SmoQue Shack is a little more on the “boutique” side, offering a taste of world BBQ including Texas beef ribs and Jamaican jerk, with slightly more exotic ingredients gracing its sauces. Fatboy’s is down-home Southern: fried green tomatoes, catfish, and sweet heat on the side. Can’t wait for their patio to open! We look forward to visiting both for a long time to come.
Fatboy’s takes reservations. Buh-bye Baton Rouge. Ottawa knows better now.
Locavore Artisan Food Fair
On a sunny, but chilly December morning Maureen and I headed to the Locavore Artisan Food Market at Memorial Hall in New Edinburgh. Located in a tiny community centre, the room was brimming with local food vendors and patrons, all there to celebrate our local food business and the local food movement.
The room was small, but it was packed!
Cookies, salsas, ice creams, breads, spreads, mustards, sauces, jams, pies, spices, cakes, full meals and many other items were being sold at a brisk pace. By the time you read this, the event will be over, of course. However the vendors make their products available via many outlets in the city and sometimes directly. It really is worth seeking out these artisans and supporting their businesses. It helps to diversify the Ottawa palate, grow the local economy, bring together the Ottawa food community, and it’s damn tasty too. These items make terrific presents and also make form a more interesting table at home.
Jams from michaelsdolce
Pie and ready-made mincemeat from Life of Pie
Art-is-in Bakery wares. Hard to not want to buy everything!
We picked up more of Pascal’es amazing hot chocolate (and I hope to actually have some this time), some “Hot Toddy” ice cream, some michaelsdolce jams, Mrs. McGarrigle’s mustards, Yummy Cookies chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies and some smoked tomato jam from Just Wing’it. Yum!
Some yummy cookies from...well, Yummy Cookies.
Here’s a listing of all the local artisans with links to their websites. Please support them!
Everything looked so good.
Goodies galore.
