Jack Astor's Lansdowne: Zomato Meetup

Have you been to the redeveloped Lansdowne Park recently? Do you remember what it used to look like? My memories are a bit foggy. I vaguely remember going down for the SuperEx and going to 67's games. Gone are the empty lots. Now there are places like Whole Foods, Lindt Chocolate Shop, Winners, and Cineplex Cinemas. Among the new shiny establishments, Jack Astor's can be found by the Aberdeen Pavilion. Earlier this week, I had the privilege to be invited to the third Zomato Meetup in Ottawa.



Once we were all introduced to one another, we went on a brief tour around the restaurant. We learned that Jack Astor's has added more of a local feel at both their Lansdowne and Hunt Club location. At this specific location, they have coasters that feature local personalities, arena lights that used to light the old Civic Centre, pictures and memorabilia of Ottawa's sports history. Don't be shy to ask the staff if you're curious about the decor.

Appreciation Lunch

Since our company was swamped leading up to Christmas and following the holidays, we didn't have any parties or lunches until quite late. The management organized a lunch for us earlier this month. Most of it was purchased from Costco.




There were plates of cold cuts, cheese, sandwiches, veggie platters, crackers, bread, fruits, drinks, and cake.


One of our assistant managers even made a mean vegetarian tortilla soup.


V and I ended up making ourselves simple prosciutto sandwiches. The apples made a great palate cleaner. But as I'm writing about this now, it reminds me of a prosciutto, goat cheese, pesto, apple panini I had years ago in Toronto. Ah that was one mighty fine sandwich.


Strawberry shortcake and chocolate layered cakes for dessert.

Anyway, most of us were exhausted both physically and mentally from the crazy holiday crowds. The appreciation lunch came at the perfect time.

Apple Crumble Pie

Mom made a bunch of different desserts with the golden delicious apples from our apple tree. We had the desserts for our Thanksgiving dinner.


The apples were peeled, cored, sliced, and then tossed into a bowl with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of salt.


The pie pastry was made with Tenderflake and some unsalted butter. Mom docked the pastry crusts with her long nails. Usually you dock the bottom of the crust to prevent the dough from rising too much.






The seasoned apples were spread into the crust and then topped off with another sheet of pie dough. Then Mom crimped the pie crust, pierced the top of the pie dough to allow the steam to escape, brushed an egg wash on the top.


There was apple crumble as well. The crumble was made with flour, oats, brown sugar, unsalted butter, and a little salt. We kept it simple.

Mom had set aside an apple pie without the pastry top. I don't know why she did it and neither did she. I'm sharing this with you because she had actually made an apple crumble (crumble on the bottom and on top). Then we had leftover crumble in the bowl. Now, I was planning to use the crumble for the sweet potato mash but why not top off the lone pie with the crumble topping?




No problem!

There were four apple desserts made in total; two were frozen and the other two were baked for consumption after dinner.

The golden delicious held beautifully even after being baked. They were still firm which was nice. The apple crumble pie was devoured within the first two days.

And now to end with some more photos of the desserts.

Canadian Thanksgiving 2013

Happy belated Thanksgiving to our Canadian readers! And happy early Thanksgiving to our American readers!

Unlike past years, we just had a small family dinner with our immediate family earlier this week on Monday, October 14th. On the menu: smoked salmon cream cheese appetizers, prime rib roast, pan-dripping gravy, sweet potato mash, buttered carrots and corn, and dinner rolls. We were going to have three kinds of homemade desserts: apple pie, apple crumble, and cookies.


The day started off slowly. I didn't end up going downstairs until 11:30am. It was nice to sleep in after a hectic week at work. My brief morning began with open-faced peanut butter banana sandwiches and a cup of coffee.


We began our prep work by making pies and cookies once everyone had a bite to eat in the morning. The apples actually came from our Golden Delicious apple tree, which Dad planted about 10 years ago. Mom made the pie pastry out of Tenderflake and some butter. The apples were peeled, cored, sliced, and seasoned with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of salt. Then some oatmeal crumble was made for apple crumble. There was a little confusion in the kitchen and we ended up making apple pies, apple crumble, and even an apple crumble pie. I'll touch more on that in another post. (Update: Apple Crumble Pie post is up.)


I also worked on these DoubleTree chocolate walnut cookie dough too. Once the cookie dough was done, I put the bowl into the fridge to firm up.

I've been thinking about making these beauties for a while now, well, since I stayed at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton. They gave us warm cookies when we checked in. So amazing!


Around that time, Lucy arrived and we began to snack some more. She put together a Ritz cracker with smoked salmon cream cheese, half an olive, and some dry dill. Looks good, doesn't it? Lucy even took this, and a few other, photos with my dSLR.

Costco had one of their smoked salmons on sale the during the week. Cream cheese was also on sale a week prior. So we stocked up on both of them. Dad chopped up some smoked salmon and mixed it with the cream cheese for a nice kitchen hack. The real smoked salmon pieces were so wonderful!

I was planning to make either a spinach dip or caramelized onion dip, but we loved the smoked salmon cream cheese so much that we didn't need anything else. True story.


For the sweet potato mash, the sweet potatoes were peeled and boiled. They were mashed with half and half cream, cinnamon, powdered ginger, salt, butter, and freshly cracked black pepper. There was a carrot left behind.




Once the mashed sweet potatoes were seasoned, they were spread into a baking pan and then topped off with marshmallows.

I'd use less ground ginger and add more black pepper next time. Maybe I'd bake the mashed sweet potatoes for a bit before topping with marshmallows next time. That way the mash would be hotter.


This is the prime rib roast out of the oven. The burned parts is just the cap of fat. The prime rib was baked to rare and then we had to pop it in the oven for more time. By the time it was taken out, the prime rib was medium-well.


I grabbed my camera and went back to the table but Lucy blocked me off from taking the photo. She wanted the first shot. Alrighty then. After she took the picture, I swooped in to take one on my camera.


That's most of our spread. The dinner rolls, ginger ale, and red wine are missing.


Having prime rib was a nice change to turkey. Maybe we'll try making lamb next year.

Jimmy really enjoyed the prime rib. "How do you make something like this?"

"First, you need to buy a high quality of prime ribs -- high quality. Then you just season it however way you like it; like with steak spice or salt and pepper." Lucy chimed in.

As for the desserts, I'll be writing about the apple crumble, apple pie, and apple crumble pie separately. Here are the DoubleTree chocolate walnut cookies. I based these cookies off Food Geek's recipe.

The cookies taste the best when enjoyed just like the hotel serves their cookies: warm. That way the chocolate chunks are still gooey. The proportions of walnuts and chocolate chunks to cookie dough was a bit off. I remember the cookie was chunkier. I'll have to try the recipe out again. Until then, I'll hold off on sharing it.

Cooking and baking with the family does get noisy, but that's because we all have our different ways of doing things. Things get done however elaborate the meal is. And that's because we all know how to cook and, to some extent, bake. The underlying lesson is to learn to cook and bake for yourself and others. It's a life lesson.

Birthday Brunch at Art Is In

We were going to head over to Benny's Bistro for brunch last Sunday. There were six of us though. KG suggested that we head over to Art Is In as a Plan B. At first, I thought we might be able to wait to get a table together and if we weren't able to get one, then we'd just walk to Le Moulin de Provence or something. But after a couple of busy days at work, I just wanted to keep things simple so I changed the plans the night before. Sorry guys!

We arrived around quarter after ten. The outdoor tables were full and there weren't many tables available inside. I was unfamiliar with how it worked. It looked like people at their tables had numbers, so I assumed we had to order and pay up at the front and then find a table. There was quite a bit of a line but the line kept moving. We didn't have much time to look at the brunch menu.




I was thinking of either the french toast stack or the benny.

Luckily, the people at the table by the open garage door looked like they were just finishing. They were very friendly and had a random conversation. Apparently it was national coffee day. Good thing I had ordered a cappuccino.

While waiting, I scanned the tables to see what everyone else was eating. I had actually forgot what I had ordered once I sat down. A small table, off in the two o'clock direction, had ordered the french toast stack and I thought to myself, "Oh that looks good. Why didn't I order that?"


The egg wobbled when the plate was placed on the table. Awesome. So I had ordered the french toast stack after all! It was gorgeous to look at and was very tasty. In hindsight, I could've just opened up my wallet and checked my receipt.


VN asked for their Crispy Winniped Style Cinnamon Apple Jack. It was described to her, by the cashier, that it was a crêpe with apples. That's one hefty crêpe. 

I didn't get a decent photo of KG's pancakes or J's sandwich. VN and KG both had maple butter and loved it. They were surprised how good it tasted. It definitely was not healthy. Maybe that's why it was so addictive.


G and JL both ordered the eggs benny with bacon.


Silly me. I got an almond croissant to share with VN. We didn't have any space in our stomachs to eat this during brunch.

We learned a very important lesson during our brunch. Maple butter is godly!

~*~

Escape into Silence - Lilom Fish Sanctuary

Greetings from across the world! What a whirlwind summer it has been for me! Between work and sleep, it's been hard finding the time (and more importantly money!) to travel around the beautiful Philippines. 

Of course, I will try my hardest not to transform this into a travel blog and will stay true to the food.

So here is my latest trip! During the first weekend of September I was invited my a coworker to celebrate his birthday at a beautiful resort called Lilom. The resort is located in Batangas - what is considered the best region for snorkeling and scuba diving - in the small town of Anilao. 

I'm told that Lilom is the native word for Shade and it could not have been more mysterious. We arrived around 8pm due to a broken down car and some delays but it definitely added to the mystery arriving at night. 

Some brief history on the resort: originally it was a privately-owned resort that was also a fish sanctuary. As such, there were many restrictions about how many people could snorkel in the water at a time (15 max if you wanted to know) and what gear you could use. There was a sign but I was too relaxed to remember to take pictures. Within the year, the family opened up to the public and charge about 2000 Pesos (around $50) a night with breakfast, lunch, dinner and merienda (snacks remember!) included - what a deal! 

In order to get to the resort, we had to walk along the shore at low tide some distance from the parking lot and loading dock. In the picture above, you can see that it was no white sand beach but a rough kind of beach with coral reefs just 20 ft from the shore. 

We arrived just in time for dinner - buffet style. Oh man, this was some of the most delicious food I have eaten in the Philippines! On a bed of rice, I picked some teriyaki chicken: sweet of course but also just salty enough for my palate - similar to Mom's marinade for BBQ chicken during the summer but I think they shallow simmered the meat as it was quite tender.

I scooped up some delicious mushrooms stewed with pork belly and eggs. I guess this was the Filipino version of Three Layered Pork but the star was really the shitake mushrooms (or at least I think it's shitake - same texture but slightly sour flavour). Hard-boiled eggs were stewed in the sauce as well. And then, some delicious pancit (noodles!). These white, glass rice noodles were stir-fried with deep-fried garlic and some stuff that made it perfectly salty - just enough to linger on your palate and make you crave more.

What you're not seeing is the most delicious mangos I have ever eaten. I think we all consumed a good 10 mangos because they were the sweetest, creamiest, most melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness that has ever blessed my tongue. It tasted so mango-y you'd think it was pumped with mango flavour extract (I hope it wasn't!)

The next morning we woke up to overcast skies that finally gave way to an intense Filipino sun around 10am. Oh yeah, we slept in these amazing bamboo houses called Kubo's that are very traditional. I got a king-sized bed to myself and while the lights were out, the room was absolutely black. It was the soundest sleep ever and for the first time since Ottawa I was able to wake up to natural light (my apartment is facing another building so we don't get natural light ever, plus we live off a major road called EDSA...honk honk all the time...)

Breakfast was AMAZING! We were served the BEST coffee I've had in the Philippines (they don't do coffee well at all) in a French press and banana pancakes which I ate with a heaping spoonful of butter and mango jelly. They also made a (canned) tuna omelette which was alright - I mean I needed an egg with my breakfast somehow...

With the beautiful weather shining down, we decided to go snorkeling for a good two hours. I wish I had an underwater camera or a waterproof phone case because snorkeling is absolutely breathtaking! The reef was literally twenty steps from the wading pool in the picture above and was filled with all sorts of exotic fish. After not too long, it was lunch time!

This soup is the most amazing soup I have had. From what I heard, they boil the crap out of chicken bones to get a deep-flavoured broth. Then they throw in young papaya and wild corn (more starchier than the corn I'm used to in Canada) and add young pepper leaves right before serving. I think I had three servings of the soup as it had that delicious umami that made me crave more.

When I pulled myself away from the soup, I got some eggplant and liempo (pork belly). The eggplant was first grilled (it had that charred flavour) then dipped in egg, topped with sauteed onions and then pan fried. The mellow flavour of the eggplant was nicely complemented by the saltiness of the egg and the sharpness of the slightly undercooked onions. The liempo was also delicious but really tasted like any other liempo I've had in Manila.

As if I wasn't full enough after three eggplants, I created this beautiful looking bowl of dessert. Local bananas (starchier than bananas I'm used to but not as starchy as plantains) were sauteed in caramel and served to us. We took it a step further and asked for some crushed ice and yelo (milk and sugar). I peeled some rambutans and assembled this beast that took me a while to crush. But as you can imagine (like everything I ate) it filled me with such happiness that I needed to nap to process it all.

After we all napped, we packed up and took a boat back to our car and returned to the concrete jungle of Manila. I really miss the fresh air and complete serenity I felt while at Lilom. Honestly, time slowed down to a crawl as you take in the beautiful scenery - I never felt an urge to check my phone. It is definitely the perfect place to escape to for a weekend, no more though because I feel like you'd get bored since all you really do is lounge and snorkel. If you're ever in the region, I highly suggest dropping by for a night or two of pure escape and relaxation!

Zhong Yuan Jie 中元節 2013

I'll be the first to admit that the history behind our Chinese traditions have been lost on me. I really should have paid more attention to my parents and grandparents when they explained the reasons for certain Chinese holidays and festivals. For example, the family gathered in August for Zhong Yuan Jie (中元節) or the Ghost Festival, but I'm not sure why. Wikipedia tells me that it's the day when the deceased visit the living.

 

What I do know is that we pray for good health and fortune for the family, and this usually involves a lot of food. I won't go over everything we ate, since we make mostly the same dishes for each festival. As you can see, we had some roast and BBQ meats, fruits, stir fry dishes, drinks, rice, noodles, and desserts.

 

I'm not sure what this dish is called in English, but it is basically a soy skin spring roll. It's stuffed with ground meat, pepper, and other vegetables, then wrapped in soy skin and deep fried until golden and crispy. Typically, we dip the sliced rolls in black vinegar. It's got quite kick, and isn't in our usual repertoire for festival food.

 

Clear soup with fish maw, fish balls, napa cabbage, shrimp, wood ear, and ground pork. A staple dish when celebrating at Grandpa's.

 

This mango roll cake is a family favourite for some reason. I've always found that it was lacking in flavour, sweetness, and texture. If I could modify this dessert, I would swap out the whipped cream filling for mango puree with chunks of fresh mango, and add more mango flavour to the cake itself. I do enjoy its mild fluffiness, which can be very welcoming after a very greasy lunch. It tastes particularly nice with a small cup of strong oolong tea.

 

While I didn't get to try all of the fruits, the lychee were exceptionally ripe and sweet. They were the first fruits to be devoured, and it certainly made me wish that I had visited Taiwan in the summer, if only to experience tree-ripened lychee. The next Chinese festival will be Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) in September, which usually tends to warrant a much larger feast. We'll be sure to share those yummy eats in the coming weeks!