Fish Sauce A reader of foodiePrints requested a recipe for “lotus salad.” The recipes that I found thus far are primarily Vietnamese, so that means my pantry is sadly lacking of a necessary ingredient: fish sauce. The picture on the left comes from flickr.com. Fish sauce is a characteristic condiment of Thai, Malaysian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese cuisine. Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cuisine as soy sauce is to Chinese cuisine. According to Kasma Loha-unchit, a Thai cooking instructor and author, genuine fish sauce is the water, or juice, in the flesh of fish that... | Continue reading article

Pots and Pans Just as experienced adventurers wouldn’t wander unprepared into a dessert, people shouldn’t outfit their kitchens without some basic gear. Between finding versatile equipment that has multiple uses and balancing quality and price, this is no easy task. Bittman’s List A food columnist for the New York Times, Mark Bittman, wrote a piece outlining what he feels a “minimalist kitchen” should be equipped with. The list is rather interesting. Accordingly, a minimalist kitchen can be well equipped for approximately $300 USD. Quite frankly, I don’t agree with many of the choices, so I... | Continue reading article

gentlemangourmand.com I just caught the Boston, Massachusetts ep. of The Hungry Detective with Chris Cognac. For those of you Alton Brown fans, you’ll recognize Chris as the detective Alton toured Los Angeles with during his last stop on the first season of Feasting on Asphalt. I’m guessing Foodtv execs figured that they could make a show around Chris and his talent for finding “off the beaten path” eateries in whatever city he visits. They figured right. The Hungry Detective is both fun to watch and quite informative. In Boston, Chris meets up with “Andrew”, the... | Continue reading article

Strawberry Toms Unlike the mutant sweet peppers from the weekend, these oddities are advertised in this week’s Loblaws flyer. Step right up ladies and gentlemen. Take a gander at strawberry tomatoes. You’ve heard of grape tomatoes. You’ve heard of cherry tomatoes. Now, you have tomatoes that grow like and resemble strawberries. It’s a product of Canada too. Here’s the last box from the College Square Loblaws in Nepean. Boxed Set More follows:

Ottawa Mag. For those of you in the know, the Ottawa magazine is semi-dedicated to providing good insight into the culinary landscape of the National Capital Region. This includes Ottawa and parts of Gatineau. It reports on the newest happenings, restaurant openings, restaurant closings, and any other events that could tickle the curiosity of a resident foodie. It also prints some very good reviews by some very knowledgeable people. Every so often, the Ottawa Magazine produces an issue that lists the best restaurants to dine in in the region, best upcoming restaurants, and restaurants with... | Continue reading article

St-Honore On my way down Somerset this weekend, I noticed that the second last dedicated Chinese bakery has closed its doors. The Golden Horse bakery, a former staple of Ottawa’s little Chinatown is no more. In its place is yet another Vietnamese pho noodle house: Pho Bo Ga La. This only leaves the St-Honore bakery, which is located at 363 Booth Street. Cake Sliced Serving Most people only know of St-Honore because it sells Chinese buns. However, it also sells Chinese-style birthday cakes as well. These cakes are both light and airy. They consist of... | Continue reading article

Geek Dish Ware I found this interesting piece of dish ware posted on digg.com. Does anyone else find it “convenient” that the value of pi is written on the lip of a circular bowl? Does this mean that someone is going to start marketing other geometrically shaped bowls with other things written on their lips? I wonder how well educational cereal bowls that teach children how to calculate the area and perimeter of the bowl as they eat would sell. Of course, if you look at the digg comments, people made the inevitable “pie plate”... | Continue reading article

Nachos Close Up Personally, I feel that nachos-making is a required skill. When the chips (pun intended) are down and you have a crowd to feed, nachos can be a very versatile dish. It is just one step beyond chips and salsa. It can incorporate meat to become a hearty meal. It can be served in a large communal dish on a coffee or picnic table. It can even be an a posh appetizer if you go so far as to separate, top, bake, and serve individual tortilla chips. More importantly, with some fresh ingredients,... | Continue reading article