I headed over to Ottawa last weekend in search of a new place and lucked out!
That’s right… BLUEBERRY BACON PANCAKES. They were awesome. I had a problem with my camera, so sadly I don’t have any good pictures of the pancakes themselves :-(
$8.95 coffee extra. map.
If anyone has noticed my silence lately, I will blame it squarely on a serious illness followed by a destination recovery. During my illness, which stumped my GP after three visits over a period of two weeks and landed me in the hospital, I ate no breakfast. I recovered in the nick of time, as the lady and I had planned a vacation to Florida long ago. It would have been a shame to miss it.
If there was ever a time to go south, this was it. This has been the snowiest winter I can remember since the mid-70s. I can distinctly see in my minds’ eye several school closings and even one or two snow storms that dropped so much snow on the city that my dad’s car was completely buried under a mountain of snow and he couldn’t go to work.
We arrived in Hallandale with a few St.Viateur bagels, took a swim in the ocean, and then made breakfast. I wholeheartedly dislike “Florida bagels” - if a bagel from the Sage Deli is considered an average specimen of a “Florida bagel”. The only bagels I have eaten in Florida (not counting smuggled Montreal bagels) were from the Sage Deli, and I will assume - from its reputation as a Jewish deli - that a Sage bagel is probably superior to most other bagels found in Florida. Still, a Sage Deli bagel is a big, round, stale bun with a dimple in it. When I eat one, my jaw is sore by the time the last bite is making its’ way to my mouth.
I am trying to design the brunch menu for an upcoming event we are having, so I made this:
First I toasted the bagels, which were from the day before. If they were fresh, I would have skipped the toasting. Then I dropped them into a frying pan coated (generously) with butter. I cracked eggs into the holes and waited a bit to get them started. I flipped them and threw on some smoked salmon, hand-cut at the Sage Deli.
I garnished with fresh dill and cherry tomatoes that were from Josh’s Organic Market. We had not really eaten any tomatoes since the fall, so this was a real treat for us, and well worth the sacrifice. Montreal tomatoes in the winter taste like cardboard, and these were like heaven. If you want to read more about Josh’s, check out my Ethicurean post from last year’s trip to Florida, or wait a couple of days for my new post to appear.
We are this beautiful meal on the balcony, overlooking the ocean - here is what we were looking at :
And here’s a shot for you dirty dish fetishists:
Replace bacony with snowy and you’ll get a good idea of what it’s been like around here today.
Pic via Nedroid.com. I’m a big fan of the comics there. I find myself sending the adventures of Beartato and Reginald to my work buddy JFlo now and then.
An another bacony note, here’s a delightfully gloomy comic where bacon is the anti-gloom.
Via Boing Boing Gadgets.
I know it seems like all I eat for breakfast is big and sweet and or gooey and more than likely filled with oh so delicious fat! I think if I really ate that way all the time, I would have already had my first heart attack.
This is a more accurate example of my normal everyday breakfast. I figure if I eat well during the week, I can let loose on the weekends and have some fun with breakfast without TOO much guilt. I call this Super Oatmeal!
You start off with 2/3 cup of oatmeal, add 1/2 cup all bran cereal, 1/4 cup 7 grain cereal, a pinch of salt and about 1 1/2 cups water.
Throw it all in a pot and let it bubble away on medium heat until thick and gooey. When I’m feeling particularly wild and crazy, I’ll add in a handful of raisins or dried cranberries.
A little handful of brown sugar and VOILA! Super Oatmeal! It has almost zero fat, low sugar (until you throw your brown sugar on top!) and about 90% of your daily required fiber intake. Add a piece of fruit and some juice or milk and you are good to go!
MMmmmMmmmMm FIBER-LICIOUS!!!
Burp!
Super yummy breakfast step one:
Make french toast batter (egg, a snosh of milk and cinnamon) and throw a few handfuls of mixed frozen berries with a bit of orange juice into a pot and bring to a soft boil.
Step two:
Dip bread of choice in batter and cook on griddle until golden. Don’t forget to take advantage of griddle space and throw on some bacon or turkon.
Step three:
While toast and berries are a’cookin, whip up some cream cheese, a little drizzle of milk and a little powdered sugar until desired sweetness is reached. Beat the living b’jesus out of it until it’s fluffy and creamy delicious.
Step four:
Assemble in this order. Important! Do not deviate from plans!!
Lay 1 piece of toast on plate, smear desired amount of cream cheese goo on toast (the more the better). Spoon on a good dollop of hot reduced berry sauce on cream cheese. Add one more piece of toast. Top with more cheese goo, more berry sauce, an orange slice and generous amounts of whipped cream. Serve with bacon or turkon on the side for a little salty contrast. Repeat until stuffed beyond capacity.
Burp!
I had the distinct pleasure of winning an all expenses paid trip to go to Vancouver to see the Canucks embarrass themselves on the ice not long ago. (We even left early, it was just too painful to watch!).
Now being in such a big city also gave me the chance to visit some new eateries!. Now my partner in breakfast had lived for a spell in downtown Vancouver and could not stop raving about a little place on Granville called the Ouisi Bistro. Really. Could not stop. From the time I had met him, he had spoken fondly, almost obsessively about the Ouisi (which when he said it, I thought he was calling it the Wheezy Bistro, it was later that I learned it was Oui-Si).There seemed no other option but to allow him to share with me that important part of his life.
We were lucky enough to catch some truly fantastic sunny winter weather while we were down there and even parked a little ways off to get some fresh air before breakfast.
I’m glad we worked up an appetite, the food was amazing. I had been told over and over again that The Ouisi was amazing and I was not disappointed.
It was just a little place tucked between an antiques shop and a large clothing store, but the deliciousness was not indicative of the size. Inside was like a small jazz club with a Cajun feel to it. The atmosphere was dim lit with a lot of the lighting being used to highlight the bright jazz-style art work on the walls. I particularly enjoyed the selection of hot sauces on the table. There seemed to be a different selection for each table.
The menu was totally unique from anything I have seen before. It took ages to choose something, and it all looked fantastic. See links for a better view of the menu and price lists.
I eventually settled on the Hash It Out which consisted of chorizo sausage, potatoes & creole sauce, two poached eggs and toast. I had no clue what creole sauce was, so I asked. It’s a Cajun tomato sauce, with spices, peppers and onion that they serve over their chunky home style potatoes. Let me tell you! Hash browns will NEVER AGAIN be complete for me with out a healthy spooning on creole sauce over top of them! It was BY FAR the single most exciting breakfast experience of my life (so far). I never knew breakfast potatoes could be soooooo good.
My hunky man opted for an old favorite of his, the Cowboy Breakfast: Two eggs, red beans, bacon, sausage, potatoes and toast. Because he is a wild crazy guy, he switched out the regular sausage for the chorizo.
EXTREME BEAN CLOSE-UP!!!
The pictures really don’t do our meal justice, but we were getting the hairy eyeball from some of the other patrons so i took what I could get without becoming too much a pain in the butt. I must say, the this was probably the best breakfast I have ever eaten. It was unique, flavorful, delicious and satisfied all senses. It’s only a shame that I will have to travel 400km to enjoy it again!
Burp!
Now there are quite a few variations of bacon scarves out there but this felted one takes the cake. Get one here. Super thanks to Marjorie for sending that to me!
In other news, I got an e-mail from YouTube telling me that they had received a copyright infringement notice from Fox about my posting of a short clip from The Simpsons about a good morning burger on our second anniversary. C’mon, the clip was like 8 seconds long… what happened to fair use?!? It’s not like this blog made any money off that. I should find another site to host that clip and put it back on. Those YouTube folks are real wusses.
Meanwhile, the surge continues and I welcome it with open arms!
GiR2007 is at it again…
It’s a follow up to his original Pancake video. Apparently, February 5th is Pancake Day! Thanks to Azureus for pointing out this video to me.
Holy Shamoly! Over 32000 hits last week because the Bacon Weave got picked up by StumbleUpon… people sure like bacon! I wish I knew who to credit for that pic~
I think we can all agree that a breakfast is usually better when you don’t have to cook it yourself. Let me offer example: Last Sunday.
I will never regret getting involved with a man that can cook. After being chased from my kitchen a few dozen time for wanting to help prep, I conceded and allowed him full control of the kitchen and my camera. This is what I was given to blog:
Step one: Get stuff. Namely eggs, good mozza cheese, chorizo sausage, fresh baby spinach, chopped red, green and yellow peppers and some buttuh.
Step two: Beat eggs and chop stuff up.
Step three: Heat pan, give sausage and peppers a quick little sizzle to release oils and flavors. Set aside.
Step four: Slap some buttuh in pan and add beaten eggs. Sprinkle spinach on top. Let cook for a bit on lowish heat. Add sausage over half and mozza cheese on top of that. Flip non sausaged half over sausaged half. Cook until cheese melts.
Step five: Serve to loved ones.
(Be sure to explore the EXTREME stringability of a good mozza cheese. Please be sure to stretch with caution!! I was stretching a forkful to maximum arm length and it snapped and hit me in the eye and went up over the back of my head!! Delicious but dangerous!)
Not only did I not have to cook it, but it was super delicious to boot. The spicy chorizo added just the right amount of heat to the omlette and with the crunchy peppers, soft gooey cheese and super nutrient rich spinach, it covered all of my breakfast needs.
Now if I could only get out of doing the dishes after….
