The Ottawa Bagelshop - Bagel Special Until February 28

There is new math this week at the Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli at 1321 Wellington Street West.  Buy a dozen bagels and receive 14.  This deal ends Friday.

When it comes to bagels, we prefers the Montreal-style bagel. Wood-fired baked, no salt and a light sweetness from being boiled in honey water. As it turns out, there is a family connection between our favourite bagel shop in Montreal, St. Viateur Bagel, and the Ottawa Bagelshop.  We can get the same chewy, dense goodness without leaving town.

The Ottawa Bagelshop's wood-burning oven was out of commission for a few days last week.  While it didn't cause full-scale pandemonium, faithful customers such as ourselves were feeling the withdrawal. Happily they are back in business.

The bagels freeze well. Cut in half first before packing.

Get them while they're hot!

Breakfast For Lunch

If you stare at my Breakfast For Lunch, you will see either: the portrait of a man - wild and wiry hair, weepy crossed-eyes, sharp pointy nose, droopy red tongue and a crooked smile OR you see a beautiful feast.

I choose to see a feast.

BREAKFAST FOR LUNCH
2 pieces romaine lettuce
1 half sesame bagel from The Ottawa Bagelshop, lightly toasted and lightly buttered
Morbier cheese -  a semi-soft cow's milk cheese from France with a wee bite
Avocado slices - ripened to perfection in a brown paper bag for a number of days
Oven-dried grape tomatoes - thawed and brought to room temperature
Soft-boiled egg cut in half
Basil pesto - homemade and stored in the freezer in 125 ml jars

Stack the ingredients and eat with a fork and knife.

HOW TO COOK A SOFT-BOILED EGG
Place large eggs(s) straight from the fridge into a small pot and cover the eggs with cold water.  Bring the water to a boil on high.  Reduce the heat to medium but continue to boil for 4 minutes.

Immediately immerse the eggs in ice-cold water to stop them from further cooking.  

Peel off the shell as soon as the egg is cool enough to handle.

Use right away.

Food Trends for 2014. My Hopes and Dreams For You And Me.

As the final hours of 2013 tick down, who isn't writing a post about the food trends coming and going on the cusp of the year's change.  I find flatulating about trends and fads as tabloid fodder.  Perhaps I am taking a bit of a snobby stance.  It just seems that what is 'in' and what is 'out', is more about social belonging than saying anything respectable about food.

As I headed to the kitchen to build my lunch today, it was just a wee bite I had in mind. New Years Eve feasting was on the horizon and I needed to pace myself.

A soft-boiled egg captured my thoughts.  I longed for the soft texture and the solid protein.  But I could also visualize it on my plate.  Bare. So utterly bare as two jaundiced-coloured eyeballs of half eggs would be staring up at me.  So I needed to create a canvas for it.  A half bagel didn't seem too much.  We keep Ottawa Bagelshop's bagels sliced and in the freezer for such occasions. But that would mean carbs and so maybe I could balance that out with some veg.  The fridge doors opened and out spilled my choices.  Freshly washed romaine lettuce, a week old avocado at the height of ripeness, oven-roasted grape tomatoes, recently thawed homemade basil pesto, a partial red onion, chives, dill, a small piece of Quebec's Le Douanier cheese.  I ended up passing on the onion, dill and chives, but everything else was piled on.

As I reached for the salt and pepper grinders, I also grabbed the ristede løg (crisp onions). My tower of flavours and colour was taking on a life of it's own and now I was REALLY looking forward to my 'wee bite'.

That's when I realized that I too have hopes and dreams for food in 2014.

1. Be authentic.  Eat the food you love, not what people tell you is hip and happening.  If you don't like or get food trucks, it's okay to say so.  If you aren't a card carrying member of the pork belly protein club, that's okay too.  Your food is still good, even if you aren't foaming it or pho-ing it.

2. Don't waste food. Learn a food's life cycle and how to stretch it.  If you have tomatoes sitting on the counter pushing past their prime and no good plans for them, they can be given birth again by roasting them and storing them in the freezer to be used for another day.

3. Share your food experiences. Share them because it was a special moment for you, not because you need to build converts or crave a compliment. Many are genuinely interested in what you are doing in the kitchen when you tell your story, no matter how non-Michelin your creation.  Seeing others cook, learning and exploring for learning's sake, inspires the rest of us. Stay humble in your sharing.

4. Enjoy and respect your food ancestry.  Some might think pea soup is peasant food but if it was your favourite dish growing up, serve it and serve it often. A dish does not have to have a pedigree to deserve to be on your table or shared with guests.  

4. Embrace the littlest food moments.  Even if it is JUST a piece of toast, make it with love.  Serve it on a special plate.  Cut it just so. Eat it at the table, not over the counter or sink. Chew it slowly and enjoy each and every bite.

5. Play with flavours and play with colour.  How often do we find that mixing flavours we love individually make an even bigger impact when mixed together. Fuss a little bit with your plating. It doesn't have to be auctionable art, but well presented food does taste better. It will likely make the cooking experience more enjoyable too.

6. Know that food is meant to nourish. Many of us have the luxury to eat for pleasure, but food's primary role is to nourish.  As you chase your sinful food passions, balance it out with lots of healthy choices.  We aren't being truly good ambassadors for food if we don't speak to both sides.

7. Give what you can of your food wealth. Too many do not have access to healthy food on a regular basis and question where their next meal will come from. Share your riches. Your food knowledge. Your food talents. Your food dollars.  We all deserve this basic necessity of life. Your food enthusiasm will be infectious.

8. Live in food communion with others.  One of our kindest gifts we can give is to have others to the intimacy of our dining table.  Invite others in and regularly.  A friendly cup of coffee and a biscuit from the freezer is still a very large gift just because you are there and giving of your time. It isn't the size and the grandness of the banquet but the size of your heart that will determine how good the meal tasted.

Wishing you all the best for the new year. As we continue our food journey into 2014, I will continue to reflect on my hopes and dreams for what's food trending. How about you?

Lunching: Bagel with Cream Cheese, Tomatoes and Cucumber

As the heat and humidity of summer pushes in, I like a more refreshing bite for lunch.  Cucumbers own 'refreshing' in spades.

If I am going to make a sandwich, I prefer it open-faced.  Not just for the pretty but to also manage those carb calories. I think the look adds a bit of class too.

Today's lunch was a simple one.

• Half of an Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli sesame bagel, toasted if preferred.  I keep them pre-cut in the freezer.  
• A light smear of cream cheese, instead of butter.  
• Cucumber slices. I don't like the full rind, so I peel it away in haphazard strips to create a variegated look.  
• Sweet Cocktail tomato slices - Product of Canada!  
• Salt and pepper for seasoning.  
• Finishing with the ubiquitous sprinkle of chives.

Cucumbers are one of my heat busters. What's yours?

Modern Day Smørrebrød - Chèvre, Avocado, Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

The Danes are well-known for their open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød). There are many tried and true recipes that have been handed down through the generations. Preserving these recipes is an important part of our culinary heritage. My food friend, Marcus, is doing a superb job of that on his food blog, Danish Open Sandwiches (Smørrebrød).

The underlying principle of smørrebrød is to provide a healthy meal, using the local delights on hand from the fridge and pantry, and allow the flavours to stand out boldly but to also complement each other. Bread is minimized and serves as the canvas. (The traditional bread used is rye bread.) Danes also take great pride in making their smørrebrød visually pleasing and much fuss is made of food styling. It is healthy, flexible, affordable and food life cycle friendly.

As is the Danish custom, smørrebrød is eaten with a knife and fork. It is considered a civilized way to approach the meal but it is also very practical as some smørrebrød can be vertically challenging.

The choices in our fridge and pantry in the 21st century, especially here in Canada, is so much more culturally diverse. It makes the possibilities endless for the modern day smørrebrød. Maybe even more favourful! (Some of the foods on today's lunch are more associated with Jewish, French, Mexican and Italian kitchens.)

Today's smørrebrød lunch was made using:

• half of a sesame bagel from the Ottawa Bagelshop, toasted
• chèvre from Clarmell on the Rideau, a nice spread to cover the bagel all the way to the edges (a smørrebrød rule)
• arugula
• avocado slices
• oven-roasted tomatoes
• salt & pepper
• sprinkling of chives

If I had pesto on hand, I would have put a smear on the goat cheese or a few dollops on the tomatoes.

The best smørrebrød shops in Copenhagen, like Ida Davidsen, have a two week wait to get a reservation.

My dream for the Ottawa restaurant scene would be to have an adventurous and creative chef embrace smørrebrød and begin Ottawa's Smørrebrød Revolution.

And please don't take as long to open as Aamanns in NYC. It has been 'opening soon' since last October. I'm still waiting...

Sunday Bagel Goodness

This morning's breakfast for the mister looked simple enough but when you get to know the ingredients, they are a few stories worthy of being told. I started with his most favourite bagel - sesame. This treat came from the Ottawa Bagelshop on Wellington Avenue, east of Island Park. I toasted it and then covered it with cheese from Serious Cheese on Bank Street in Old Ottawa South. On the left is Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co.'s Petal Luna goat cheese and on the right is Beemster's Graskaas, a Dutch cheese with a gouda-like flavour. I topped the cheese with gourmet jams from a local food artisan, Michael Sunderland. The two jams I chose from michaelsdolce were: Blueberries and Lavender and then Strawberry and Balsamic. I also picked up the jams from Serious Cheese.

And now for a little background on the breakfast creation.

The Ottawa Bagelshop is well-known for their Montreal style bagels. They say their bagels are "rolled by hand, boiled in honey water, then baked in an old-fashioned, wood-burning oven. They have no preservatives, no dairy products or by-products, and no salt." Their varieties include the two classics, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. They also have such specialty bagels as cinnamon raisin, oatmeal raisin, whole wheat, lemon cranberry, seven grain, flax seed, and lastly spelt. The Ottawa Bagelshop has been serving Ottawa since 1984. In addition to their retail store front, they have a sit down area to enjoy their coffee and foods. They also do catering.

Serious Cheese is a new addition to Old Ottawa South. In addition to their many cheeses, they also sell breads from local bakeries True Loaf Bread Company and Art-Is-In Bakery, baked goods from their own in-house bakery, gourmet food products and kitchen wares. I have to do a shout out for their in-store baked ginger molasses cookie. It is the best I have ever tasted. And I make a pretty fantastic ginger cookie myself. And only 99 cents. If that kind of pricing is meant to lure me back, that technique will work!

Beemster Graskaas cheese is a true delicacy. It is a Dutch cheese made from the first milk of spring when the cows are released onto the fields following their winter in the barn. The cows graze on pesticide-free pastures, 20 feet below sea level in North Holland. These canal-lined pastures are the most famous Dutch ‘Polder’ and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. The milk from this early spring grazing is considered the creamiest milk of the year. They collect enough milk from this short grazing period to be able to make only 2,000 cheese wheels. The history of the production of Graskaas goes back to 1901. The cheese is aged for a month.

The Petal Luna hard goat cheese is from Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co. in Prince Edward County. This cheese took gold at the Royal Winter Fair in 2008 in the Goat Hard category and it took bronze at the Royal Winter Fair in 2009 in the Surface Ripened category. The milk has been infused with locally grown calendula petals! Fifth Town suggests that it is a good match with medium bodied fruity wines such as Cabernet Franc, so I was fine touching up their cheese with these delicious jams.

Michael Sunderland is behind michaelsdolce gourmet jams, new to Ottawa this year. The 125 ml pots of pure goodness come in 11 varieties and are being sold throughout specialty stores, as well as being used at some restaurants. Michael Sunderland uses local fruit for his product when available. In addition to his talents in the kitchen, Michael also has a love for photography.

As for pricing, the bagels are typical ($6.95/doz), the jams are 'treats' ($4.25 for a 125 ml jar) and the cheese is in the 'super treat' range ($63.75/kg for Petal Luna and $49.99/kg for Graskaas).

The mister had only good things to say about his Sunday breakfast. I suppose partly because it was made for him and delivered. But more than that, he just loved the taste of his toasted sesame seed bagel and both of the delectable cheeses. He was particularly fond of the Strawberry and Balsamic jam. No funny names in any of the ingredient lists helps to keep the tastes real. "It was all good."

Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli, Inc.
1321 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
613.722.8753
www.bagelshop.ca

Mon to Thurs: 6:30 am - 7 pm
Fri: 6:30 am - 8 pm
Sat: 6:30 am - 7 pm
Sun: 6:30 am - 6 pm



Serious Cheese
1189 Bank Street
Ottawa, Ontario
613-422-6090
www.seriouscheese.com

Mon to Sat: 10 am - 6 pm
Sun: 11 am - 5



Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co.
4309 County Road #8
Picton, Ontario
613.476.5755
www.fifthtown.ca

michaelsdolce
Ottawa, Ontario
www.michaelsdolce.com