I went to Paris. It was lovely. Although Parisians can be as stereotypically rude as advertised, they are not all and I managed to have a wonderful time. One of the things that makes Paris so fun to visit is their system of municipally subsidized bicycles. Known as “Vélib”, these bikes are found all over the city and are free for trips under 30 minutes, 2 euros per half hour over 30 minutes. Unlike Ottawa’s Bixi bikes, which are aimed at tourists, the Vélib system is very much used by Parisians and visitors alike. The... | Continue reading article

Last week we urged you to make reservations at pubs and restaurants, participating in this year’s A Taste For Life fundraiser. In total, there are almost 50 dining destinations, including one caterer (dinner-to-go), signed on. Each will welcome patrons, host volunteers, and donate 25% of sales to causes that support and house persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Proprieter Dave Loan announced ZenKitchen (634 Somerset Street W.) will even serve a special cocktail, a “Frozen Pineapple Daquiri,” $2 from the sale of each going to his restaurant’s donation. Eight hours ago, organizers of A Taste for Life... | Continue reading article

Fair warning, this post is going to be a lengthy one. Lions, tigers, and bears, there will be a recipe; our advocating cooking by mass; and a review of a kitchen scale. Seemingly disparate subjects, there is a connection. We accepted an inexpensive digital scale to test with our “everyday cooking,” so used it to measure the ingredients to make arctic char crudo with which we made “cowboy” maki rolls (translated: deep fried “tempura” maki rolls). It seemed the thing to do… To begin, home cooks are losing what makes them cooks, the skills and... | Continue reading article

By comparison Ottawa’s local economy is less turbulent than that of many European cities. Countries like Cyprus and Greece risk defaulting on their respective national debt. Still, the Government of Canada, the national capital region’s primary employer, is two-years into implementing austerity measures. It has rationalized both the services it offers and how those services are delivered. Continued employment uncertainty and budget cuts have resulted in an almost permanent lull in dining out. Put simply, already conservative diners are now skittish. Yet, in this challenging environment, no fewer than forty-eight restaurants have signed on to... | Continue reading article

Last Friday (April 12, 2013), Alan Neal sent out a tweet, promoting an informal “food-pairing contest.” Essentially, he and his producers were searching for a guest for his CBC radio show, “All in a Day.” The “winner” would be invited to participate in a “D is for Dinner” segment. Alan Neal (?@alannealottawa) – April 12th, 2013 1:34 pm: talking with @JuniperKitchen next about the [food-pairing] competition that could land you on D is For Dinner @foodieprints The contest: send Neal a recipe via e-mail, pairing either banana and clove, strawberries and cilantro, black tea and... | Continue reading article

Index: Atelier, Odile During the Easter weekend, we submitted our regional “ballot” to Vacay.ca for its second annual Top 50 Restaurants in Canada List. Needless to say, our suggestions for great food, ignoring service and decor, were somewhat specific to the National Capital Region, Ottawa and Gatineau. We considered the entire gambit of options from fast food to higher end fine dining, even food trucks. Coming to a consensus on the list, scoring the restaurants, and justifying our top 5 choices proved more difficult that we expected. When Vacay.ca asked us to be be part... | Continue reading article

I’m going to France next week. Tough, I know, but such are the hardships I am willing to endure in order to further my wine research! (It’s actually to speak at a conference on project, program and portfolio management but that hardly sounds romantic). Appropriately enough, I have been enjoying an oft-overlooked French white wine of late: Auxerrois. Truth be told, Auxerrois is also grown in Germany, Canada and the United States, but it is primariy a French grape with its origins in Northern France. A cool climate grape, I think it is the perfect... | Continue reading article

To everyone lamenting the slow approach of warmer weather in the Ottawa region, we would like to point to the receding ice and almost completely dissolved snow banks. We would like to point to the grass that is beginning to green. We would like to point out the windchill augmented subzero temperatures are limited to the morning commute. Spring has arrived. Last year’s early onset warm weather was an anomaly. It also wreaked havoc with fruit crops, causing trees to bud and bloom early. When more seasonal temperatures returned, blooms were destroyed by frost. Winemakers... | Continue reading article