breakfast blogger

It was too frikken cold to go out last weekend so I decided to make something unique. I offer you, Bacon Pancakes:

I put down strips of pancake batter and then placed bacon which I had prepared earlier on each strip.

Flip!

Oh my, I’m gunna enjoy this:

Bacon and butter.. together at last. Homer Simpson would be proud.

A couple of weeks ago I got a chance to try out the bamboo steamers that I got for Christmas. I picked up some frozen Dim Sum the day before at a market on Somerset between Breezehill and Bayswater. I can’t remember the name of the place off the top of my head but they have an impressive collection of Asian food.

Someday I’ll make my own, but not today.

We were pretty impressed with most of what we got. The BBQ Pork Buns plumped up verrrry nicely:

Here’s some Har Gow, pork Shu Mai and some seafood thingies:

Not quite as good as The Great Wall here in Ottawa or the Kam Fung in Montreal, but still a treat to have Dim Sum at home! Most of it was ready in 10 to 15 minutes, but the sticky rice took quite a bit longer.

A few things to remember if you try this: put parchment paper under Dim Sum that doesn’t have some already and don’t let your wok run dry!

Because I do on occasion eat meals other than breakfast, and I do lean towards healthy, sustainable eating, I would like to let you know that I will be contributing to a blog called The Ethicurean.

My handle is Nosher of the North.

My first post was uploaded today - check it out!

Dim Sum is a numbers game. Two people can’t really accomplish anything, and nine people can’t fit at one table. Most Dim Sum dishes are comprised of 4 items - usually dumplings - which would make a party of five an awkward experience. A part of four is a delicate situation and would only succeed if all four members were to eat the same meal, which works against the real purpose of the Dim Sum experience. I suppose the ideal number might be somewhere between 6 and 8.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, because I’ve been trying to get people together to go for Dim Sum. I’ve been slowly scouting out my friends, and even friends of my friends, to see who would be up for a Sunday Dim Sum excursion. It was pretty slow going at the start, but the momentum seemed to have caught fire last week when all of a sudden I had enough people interested. I set the date for the next Sunday and put the word on the street. Before I could decide between Ruby Rouge and Kam Fung, I had about nine people interested. Uh oh . . . too many. Will even more rsvp? Will we have to split into two tables? Will I get stuck at the mostly vegetarian unadventurous table? This can’t be happening…not to me…

I decided to just relax and ride it out, and sure enough, by the time Sunday rolled around we had enough cancellations, hangovers, illnesses, and dental surgery victims to narrow the party down to six - the magic number. We all met at 11:30am at Kam Fung, which has moved into the 2nd floor of a mostly Asian shopping center in Chinatown. I say “mostly Asian” because there is one non-Asian space in the mall: the Romanian consulate. I wonder if Romanians have a thing for Chinese food, or maybe it’s just a coincidence and those Romanian delegates are sick of Asian food. Food for thought, literally.

Our party was comprised of myself, my Very Special Ladyfriend, the brothers Bertrand (an architect and a film sound editor), a friend who was a welcome last-minute addition to the party, and a surprise re-entry: the dental surgery victim. We had to wait approximately 15 minutes, with about 50 other people, until our number was called. The hostess, a middle-aged Asian woman, would bark out the numbers as the tables became available - on an extremely loud sound system, which is not what you want to hear on a Sunday morning. Here is what it looked like from the hallway:

Because of the ear-shattering volume of the sound system and the thick Cantonese accent of the hostess, it was almost impossible to hear exactly what numbers she was calling. Luckily, the brothers Bertrand had lately been reaching themselves Cantonese, but even they had trouble hearing the numbers. To be honest, because the speakers were of questionable quality and the volume so high, the sound was so badly distorted that it was difficult to tell if the numbers were being called in English or Cantonese.

Here is what we had:

Vegetarian spring roll
Shrimp/pork dumpling and Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce
Sticky rice
Shrimp, pork & Chinese chive dumpling
Pork, nappa and ginger juice dumpling
Seaweed roll with shrimp and crab
Seafood dumpling with mayonnaise
Vegetarian treasure bowl
Rice noodle roll with shrimp
Crab claw stuffed with shrimp
Fried squid

It went unspoken, but at this point I am pretty sure we all had had enough. That egg tart up there symbolized, in my mind, that this meal was over. In fact, I’m pretty sure the words “Dim Sum” translate as little morsels or light snack - but we had crossed that line a while ago.

Although I should admit that I, and quite possibly the brothers Bertrand, may have been trying to decide if the meal was over, or were we just taking a break? That’s when we decided to finish off what was left on the table. And that is also when, mysteriously, more plates of food were suddenly appearing. I don’t know who ordered them, but there they were.

Hot water chestnut squares
I have no ideaSesame balls with lotus pasteCoconut pudding

Here is the aftermath

And the money shot:

There were so many dishes that whizzed by so quickly that looked so delicious, or so weird, that I think Dim Sum will become a long-term commitment. I will try to have a Dim Sum Excursion once a month, and I will try to find more Dim Sum locations in Montreal. I already know about Kam Fund and Ruby Rouge, and I have heard talk of a large Dim Sum place on the south shore, which may be my next pick - if I can convince 4 other people to pile into my car and roam up and down Taschereau blvd looking for Dim Sum.

On our way home, which my VSL and I decided would best be accomplished by walking, we were saddened to see that the big Chinese grocery store on the northwest corner of St- Lawrence and de la Gauchetiere had burned down the previous day - it was still steaming. I used to shop there, picking up barbecued pork, duck, bok choy, frozen dumplings, and sweet packs of Pocky chocolate-covered pretzel sticks that I will sorely miss.

I hope they rebuild.

A couple of weeks ago I formed a small breakfast party and headed out with some notes on a scrap of paper with a list of new places to try in Ottawa. The first place we tried was closed for the holidays so we tried the next one, Caffé Zucchero on Queen Street corner Lyon in downtown Ottawa:

Great success! But we found out we were too late for their breakfast menu when we went in at a little after 11. :(

But after looking at the menu we found something perfect:

Turns out we all ordered the #2:

And going in for a fly-by:

Into my tummy you go.

Booya.

Very yummy indeed..

I’ll take two.

Link. More on how it works here and here.

Via BoingBoing and Random Good Stuff.

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year! It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but it’s not because I haven’t been going out for breakfast. I’ve got a few saved up that I’ll be posting soon.

Last Saturday was really sunny but cold.. a refreshing change from the weird warm weather we’ve been having around here lately. The Snug Pub is right next to the Heart and Crown on Parent Avenue in the Byward Market (the link shows the location in Google Maps, however it’s off.. it’s a bit closer to Clarence Street).

It’s pretty dark and cozy in the pub, but I managed to find a table where the sun was peeking through the window. Perfect for pictures!

I ordered the classic and relaxed with a Journal de Montreal and a coffee while the boys in the pub watched football (soccer) on the big screen.

Yum. One more shot, this time a little closer:

Again, yum.

I was cruising You Tube and came across this:

Doing eggs this way at low heat is the way to go.. it really makes for a nice texture. Just like the way my mum makes them!

This weekend we cooked up a real Jewish Montreal Breakfast.

Of course, when I use the term “Jewish Montreal”, I really mean to say ‘Hypocrydox’, which is the type of Judiasm that I, and most Montreal Jews, and quite possibly most North American Jews, tend to practice. We celebrate Hannukah by eating latkes and lighting candles for eight nights (except for when we go for Chinese food - another Jewish favorite), but we also happen to put cheese into our omeletes that may or may not contain salami. Of course, to make up for this transgression, we fast on Yom Kippur and are absolved for all of our sins - a lovely tradition.

I started out by sautéeing some diced onions until they were soft and transluscent, and then adding some boiled potatoes. Luckily, I had both of the diced onions and some boiled potatoes leftover from my turkey-pot-pie session the previous night, which I will eventually post on a website that is not fascistly breakfast-centric.

I then diced up some kosher salami. I am using the ‘Hebrew National’ brand of salami, which incidentally, is not kosher in Montreal. It is kosher in New York, as far as I know, and even in a few other places, but not in Montreal. This particular brand of salami, which I judiciously selected due to the fact that it was the only salami in my parents refrigerator when I raided it a few days earlier, is not certified by the Montreal Vad, which is the organization that charges exorbitant fees for kosher certification in the Montreal area. Fortunately, being a Hypocrydox Jew, I am allowed to eat this type of salami and still have the honor and privilege of being inscribed, and sealed, in the book of a happy life after abstaining from food for 25 hours every October.

While the salami is blissfully frying, and consequently secreting beef fat into my onions and potatoes, I crack and beat a few eggs. I like to use 5 eggs for a two person scramble to guarantee that each of us ends up with at least 2 whole eggs on our plates.

Once the salami bits are nicely browned on the edges, I pour in the eggs, which I have not slated due to the fact that thew salami has quite a bit of salt in it - I will salt to taste at table.

Let it sit for about 30-45 seconds, to let the egg start cooking. Once the egg mixture has begun to set, I start mixing it with a wooden spoon or some other such utensil. I’m sure even a pencil will do the trick. At some point, I added a heap of grated Parmeggiano-Reggiano.

I toasted our toast, challah - also part of the bounty from my raid on the family kitchen- and sliced up some greenhouse cherry tomatoes. I am trying to eat as locally as possible, so I am abstaining from buying tomatoes from California or Mexico or Pluto - have they started farming that yet? Maybe that’s why it lost its’ status as a planet….

Last year I didn’t buy any tomatoes in the winter as I was so endeared to the ones I grew myslef, as well as the ones that arrived in my weekly organic vegetable basket from La Ferme Cadet-Roussel. This year I already miss tomatoes so much that I will try the greeenhouse varieties, but I know I will be dissatisfied. You can’t have it all.

Now you see it:

Now you don’t:

I am sad to report that Shopsin’s General Store, a restaurant that I and my VSL enjoyed a special brunch at while in New York in October, 2006, has closed its doors.

The Shopsin family is opening a sandwich stand in Essex Market, which of course is a great thing, but still, I am sad.

I am so happy that I got to eat there, although I still haven’t seen the movie.

I am going to put my Muddy Waters “King Bee” LP on the stereo and weep.