Leftover Lunch - Korean food

In the last part of summer and early fall, we were on something of a Korean food phase, and it seemed like every other meal we made had some Korean ingredients incorporated into it. We bought a very large container of kimchi from Arum Korean Market on Bank Street, so this encouraged us to make other Korean dishes. The lunch above comprised of leftover soondubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) from the previous night's dinner.

 

As you can see, there is a fair bit of kimchi in it, so I'm not sure if it actually qualifies as a soondubu jjigae or if it is more of a kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew). Regardless, it turned out to be one of the best Korean stews I've ever made, since I finally made the effort to buy dried anchovies to make a proper broth. For this lunch, I heated up the leftover soup and added some Shin Ramyun instant noodles -- without the seasoning packets -- to bulk it up a little.

 

As a side dish, since I was apparently feeling quite fancy that day, I also made a kimchi omelette. I was a little overzealous and added too much chopped kimchi, so the omelette fell apart somewhat in the pan. It was still pretty delicious for a quick leftover lunch.

 Now that I am taking the time to come home for lunch, I have even more incentive to cook dinner. Great dinners typically turn out to be the best lunches on the next day. Now the challenge is to keep this habit up and continue posting about homemade food!

Lunches with Lucy: Panini and Subs – June 8 to 10, 2009

Unfortunately, I left my notebook containing my lunch notes at home in Ottawa. I won’t have any prices for the rest of the Lunches with Lucy series, and my commentary is going to be pretty vague. If you don’t mind suffering through the poor quality pictures and terrible descriptions, read on.

You have been warned.

~ * ~

Cream of Broccoli Soup and Ham & Brie Panini from Muffin Plus – June 8, 2009



I can’t say I remember much about this cream of broccoli soup. I know that crackers made everything taste better. Not within The Diet, but the other choices sucked. I don’t remember what they were, but if I picked cream of broccoli, they must not have looked or sounded very good.



The ham and brie panini was disappointing. The smoked ham flavour drowned out any other flavours, so I could barely taste the brie. A less salty, less smoked ham would have done better with the mellow brie. Also, everything in the sandwich (mustard, brie, ham, tomato, lettuce) was still cold, even after its little trip to the panini press. If a sandwich is going to get grilled, the insides should at least be warm. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the wait.



While I was disappointed with the panini, I gave it another chance at a later date. Muffin Plus was okay.

~ * ~

Spicy Italian on Honey Oat from Subway – June 9, 2009

At Subway, and only at Subway, I am very predictable in my order. It has to be a Spicy Italian on whole wheat with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, green olives, extra black olives, and mayo. Every now and again, I deviate from my regular order and change one of the ingredients. Lately, I’ve been forgoing the tomatoes for cucumbers (if I wanted I watery, virtually tasteless vegetable, I’d rather get cucumbers), and I think that’s a change I’m going to keep. However, on June 9th, I got my usual order but changed the bread for honey oat.



I have to say, it didn’t make much of a difference. I can’t see any olives in the picture, which leads me to believe that there wasn’t actually any “extra” olives at all. Also, the layer of deli meat (salami and pepperoni) looks rather thin. That’s unfortunate.



I washed it all down with a large chocolate milk. I normally get a small, so I may have been thirsty that day. Who knows?

~ * ~

Mesquite Chicken Sub from Quiznos – June 10, 2009

I started walking further for my lunches (as noted in The Diet’s rules), and I actually wandered all the way down to Bank and Slater to get a sandwich from Quiznos.



This mesquite chicken sandwich was disappointing, to say the least. All of the ingredients (chicken, bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and ranch dressing) should have been quite flavourful. After I placed my order, I was actually concerned that it would be too much flavour at once. I was so wrong.

It was so bland. Normally, a sandwich with bacon, cheddar, and ranch dressing would pack quite a salty punch, but this time, I was unmoved. I kept chewing and chewing, expecting something to hit me, but it never did.

I would not recommend this sandwich.

While this sandwich wasn’t Diet-friendly, I’ll include it for the 10-minute walk.

~ * ~

Le Muffin Plus
45 O’Connor Street, 100 Queen Street, and 111 Albert Street
(World Exchange Plaza food court)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 232-0416

Subway
45 O’Connor Street, 100 Queen Street, and 111 Albert Street
(World Exchange Plaza food court)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-7015

Quiznos
139 Bank Street
(Bank and Slater)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-7770

Lunches with Lucy: Tomato Vegetable Soup, Chicken Souvlaki Pita, Banh Mi, and Pasta Salad – June 1 to 5, 2009

I don’t remember much about these lunches, so I’ll just type my notes out.

~ * ~

Tomato Veggie Soup and Veggie Panini from Café Deluxe – June 1, 2009

On June 1st, I had just started with The Diet. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll write a separate post about the rules of The Diet. There’s a quick explanation here.

Anyway, needless to say, eating lunch downtown can be hard on anyone with a diet to stick to.

I started by eating more soup because soup is a great way to eat more vegetables in a non-boring way. I noticed that many soups are really salty, which is bad for The Diet.



This soup, however, was almost perfect. It was salty and tangy without being too salty or tangy. The large chunks of vegetables were definitely filling. I totally inhaled this soup because it reminded me of my mum’s tomato vegetable soup.

I also ate a grilled vegetable and feta panini, but I didn’t take any pictures. This is one of my favourite sandwiches. It contains grilled zucchini and eggplant, red peppers, red onions, tomatoes, and feta cheese. If you’re lucky, your sandwich may be overflowing with feta because the amount you receive is wholly dependent on who made your sandwich.

The grilled veggies were mushy to the point of being creamy—not good. The sandwich was packed with herbs and seasonings (oregano and something else I can’t place), but it needed a smidge more salt. It did match well with the soup, which was a tad salty. The feta wasn’t evenly distributed throughout the panini, so some bites didn’t have cheese at all. Those bites were sad mouthfuls. In the end, I liked it, and I even wrote, “Mouth is happily stinky!”

This cost $7.86 with tax.

~ * ~

Pita Extreme (As I Like to Call It) – June 3, 2009

For some strange reason, I keep calling Extreme Pita “Pita Extreme.” Maybe working around Francophones has finally rubbed off on me, but I do end up sounding a little stupid when “Pita Extreme” slips out.

Anyway, convinced that soup will help me stick within The Diet, I had it again from Extreme Pita.



I got a small cup of Italian wedding soup. The pasta was mushy, but that was to be expected. After all, it had been sitting in a vat all morning. The meatballs were flavourful and yummy, but the texture was too bouncy and ended up feeling overprocessed. The spinach didn’t taste like anything. It did make me feel like I was eating a little healthier, though. The soup itself wasn’t too salty, which surprised me. I inhaled this little cup of soup, too. When I looked at the Extreme Pita website, I found out that the soup is from Campbell’s. This explains its general deliciousness because I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Campbell’s canned soups! That sounds gross, but I don’t care.



As a little aside, Extreme Pita has a neat way of packaging their wraps. The paper is perforated halfway down, and you’re supposed to peel off the top half to access the pita, instead of taking it out of the wrapper and making a huge mess of things. The instructions are even printed on the napkins! I still managed to make a mess, but that was entirely caused by my slobbish manners rather than a lack of insructions.



I ordered the most delicious-sounding thing on the menu: the chicken souvlaki wrap. I only found out later that day that it also happened to be the wrap that had the most calories. Oops!

The pita itself was half whole wheat and half white, which I thought was neat. It certainly didn’t affect the flavour much. The wrap was lukewarm by the time I ate it because the chicken heated up the toppings. That made it rather meh. I would have liked more feta to perk it up, but I always want more cheese.

The chicken got lost in all of the vegetables, and I barely tasted it at all. The generic black olives were boring. It’s supposed to be a Greek pita, so shouldn’t they use good, Greek olives? The tomatoes were flavourless gobs, and they probably should have been chopped instead of sliced. I had a lot of problems trying to bite through them without pulling the entire slice out of the wrap. I think part of the blandness of the wrap could be partially attributed to the dressing they used. It felt a little oily, which could have easily muted the other flavours in the pita.

I noticed afterwards that it wasn’t overly stinky. It’s a good thing for most people working in an office environment, but I was having problems with eating a lot bland food. I need some element of stinky or spicy or tangy in order to enjoy food within The Diet.

The soup was $1.49 and the wrap (small) was $5.49. It wasn’t bad for a lunch under $10, but I could have gotten better food for the same price elsewhere. Also, the cashier didn’t attempt to upsell me to a combo which also includes another snack item or drink. Normally, this doesn’t bother me, but when I realized later that afternoon that I could have gotten more value for my money, I was annoyed.

~ * ~

Vie Bella and Homemade Banh Mi – June 4, 2009



I ordered a large cup of minestrone soup from Vie Bella, fully intent on eating within The Diet. It was chock full of vegetables: onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, green beans, corn, potato, wax beans, and peas. It was like eating a garden! It also had pasta which was mush. At the bottom of the cup, I found bits of ham. They were probably deli meat rinds. I normally don’t mind this, but if I were vegetarian, I would be pretty upset by this.

The soup itself was neither salty enough nor flavourful enough. It came off rather blah. It tasted healthier than the Italian wedding soup from Extreme Pita, but the Italian wedding soup tasted a lot better. The crackers made the soup awesome.



I bought the pasta salad from Vie Bella on a whim. I knew I had a sandwich waiting for me, but I was really craving the pasta salad. When I brought it back to my desk, I didn’t intend on eating it. The soup wasn’t interesting to eat, so I had a few bites of the pasta salad. Before I knew it, the pasta salad was gone! Another oopsie. Apparently the pasta salad was good that day, except for the overdone fusili, but the cheese and olives made up for it. I was almost full at this point.



The night before, we grilled some marinated chicken thighs for dinner. I used the leftovers to assemble an interpretation of a banh mi sandwich. I baked one of those half-baked, frozen baguettes from Costco, spread it with pepper pâté, cut up the chicken, and tossed in coleslaw and cilantro. I was surprised that it never occurred to me to make banh mi at home.

It didn’t taste quite the same as buying one from Toronto or Montréal, but it was still pretty damn good. Unfortunately, the large cup of soup and pasta salad completely filled me, so I only had a few bites. I left the sandwich in the fridge to eat for lunch the next day.



To wash it all down, I bought a bottle of green tea ginger ale from Canada Dry. I really love this stuff! I love ginger ale to begin with, so adding a hit of green tea made it super DUPER awesome! I think I have this at least once a week because it’s so good. I like to add water to it after I’ve already finished half the bottle, to water down the carbonation. It’s such a pleasant, mellow soft drink.

In total, I spent $7.50 on my lunch. The pop was about $2.00 and the small container of pasta salad cost $2.85 before tax. These pricey items are definitely a treat thing because I can’t justify spending that much on such small items all the time.

~ * ~

Café Deluxe’s Blannnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Soup – June 5, 2009



I still had the banh mi leftover from the day before, so I just grabbed a cup of soup. This time, I went to Café Deluxe for chicken noodle. The noodles were HUGE and were totally mush. The kind of mush that disintegrates in your mouth when it touches your tongue. The kind of mush that induces involuntary gagging.

The broth was flavourless and very greasy. It was also very hot, which definitely surprised me. I was upset because I burnt my tongue to shit for expensive, flavourless hot noodle water (Friends reference anyone?).



I found tons of pre-ground black pepper swimming at the bottom of the bowl. This perplexed me. How could there be this much pepper, and yet STILL have no flavour whatsoever? I was not happy with this and wouldn’t order it again.

The soup cost $3.94. Ouch.

On a much happier note, I loved the banh mi, but no surprise there.

~ * ~

Café Deluxe
77 Metcalfe Street
(Albert and Metcalfe, facing the bus shelters)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-2226

Extreme Pita
108 Bank Street
(Bank and Albert)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 680-7483

Vie Bella
87 Sparks Street
(Between Metcalfe and Elgin)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 230-0666

Lunches with Lucy: Souvlaki, Chicken Parmagiana, Italian Subs, and Pasta Salad

Chicken Souvlaki Platter from Café Deluxe – May 26, 2009

As I’ve mentioned before, I like getting my lunches from Café Deluxe. They’re a little pricey for lunch, but they offer a great variety.

I ordered the chicken souvlaki platter, which comes with a side Greek salad.



The chicken was slightly too dry and slightly too bland. Fortunately, the rice was awesome. Each bite was filled with chicken-y goodness. The rice was perfectly cooked, which is highly unusual for a fast food place.

The salad had romaine, onions, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I don’t remember much about it, except that it was overdressed.

I don’t remember the price, but normally it comes to $11-$13 after tax.

~ * ~

Chicken Parmagiana from Shakey’s – May 28, 2009



Shakey’s is located in the World Exchange Centre food court, so its line ups can be daunting. The menu is hit-and-miss, and sadly, this time was a miss.



I probably should have gotten a sandwich after seeing this stuff sitting in their giant trays.

The platter comes with the chicken parmesan (a fried, breaded chicken cutlet smothered in marinara and sprinkled with cheese), rice, and your choice of salad.

The chicken was atrocious. The cutlet itself was properly seasoned, but the sauce was overly salty and tangy. It was completely one-dimensional flavour. In any tomato-based sauce, there should always be a hint of sweetness. I definitely didn’t get any of that. Worse, I was unable to scrape off the sauce so that I could just eat the cutlet. The sauce soaked the breading right through. Blech.

The rice was overdone and completely bland. Totally different from when I had eaten the chicken souvlaki rice.

The pasta salad was the biggest disappointment. It was oily, flavourless, and starchy. The peppers were the best part of the salad because they were sweet and fresh. There just wasn’t enough of them to carry the salad. Once I ran out of peppers, I couldn’t continue eating the overcooked, mushy pasta.

Since getting this, I have avoided the platters at Shakey’s. The chicken breast sandwich is a better deal. I didn’t write down the price of this, but I imagine it came up somewhere between $8-$11.

~ * ~

Italian Sub #2 and Pasta Salad from Vie Bella – May 29, 2009

This is normally my stand-by sandwich place. I am completely in love with the spicy eggplant pickles, and would take one of these subs over a lifetime of Subway’s sandwiches.



Here, I got the #2 (prosciutto, spicy salami, spicy capicollo ham), all dressed. You pay about $5 for a quality sandwich that will fill you, unlike at Subway. The sandwich is quite substantial, and you can see all the toppings they jam in there. The bread is crusty and chewy without being so chewy that you can’t take a proper bite. They toast it, which makes the little shop smell amazing.

After a few bites, you realize that there is a slight, lingering spiciness. It felt like a warm glow in my throat, not a choking kind of spicy. I liked that part.

The service here is pretty fast because they have one person on cash, one person assembling the sub and putting it in the toaster, and one dressing the sub. Subway could learn a lot from this crazy efficient assembly line.



That day, I was feeling hungrier than usual, and I was craving a good pasta salad. I also bought a small container of their pasta salad. It has bits of red and green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, green olives, feta cheese, parsley, and red onions. It’s pretty expensive at $2.85, but it’s far more delicious than the crap salad I got from Shakey’s.

This time, however, the pasta was overcooked and mush, and there wasn’t enough cheese. The dressing didn’t have enough vinegar, which would have balanced the olive oil nicely.

The total for the day’s lunch came to $8.85. Definitely recommended!

~ * ~

Addresses:

Café Deluxe
77 Metcalfe Street
(Albert and Metcalfe, facing the bus shelters)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-2226

Shakey’s Deli
45 O’Connor Street, 100 Queen Street, and 111 Albert Street
(World Exchange Plaza food court)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 234-2244

Vie Bella
87 Sparks Street
(Between Metcalfe and Elgin)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 230-0666

Lunches with Lucy: Diet-Busting BBQ Chicken and Ribs – June 24 & 25, 2009

Ottawa’s International Chicken-Rib Cook-Off is one of my favourite events. Each year, competitors set-up their grills and smokers on Sparks Street, and the wonderful smells waft all the way down to the busses on Albert and Slater streets.

This haunting, smoky aroma ruined my diet.

First, I should explain why I was on a diet at all. Two weeks before the wedding, I had a major freak out when I realized that I no longer fit in the dress I planned on wearing to a friend’s wedding. I decided to go on a small diet and start exercising for the remaining days.

I ate more vegetables, drank more water, cut down on salt, ate until I wasn’t hungry (and not until I felt completely full), took the stairs, and walked more. This was a big deal because I loooooooove eating stuff that is bad for me, and I have never even attempted watching what I eat before.

The Tuesday before the wedding, I tried the dress on again, and it fit! I was ecstatic! I knew that I just had to maintain my weight until the wedding. I figured it wouldn’t be difficult. I was so wrong.

Those lovely smells from Ribfest tempted me when I got off the bus in the morning. When I went out for a walk, all I could smell was smoky barbecue. Co-workers walking into the office after being outside brought some of the smell with them. By 11:00, I just couldn’t take it anymore and decided to head over to Sparks.



I saw a promising line (a lot of excited people) at Bibb’s BBQ, so I joined the line. I waited about 20 minutes for my first taste of Ribfest.



I decided on a half-rack dinner for $17, which was a half-rack of ribs (duh), coleslaw, and beans.

The beans were creamy and rich. There was a sweet smokiness infused into the beans. Oh man, these beans taste NOTHING like Heinz canned beans, which I actually enjoy. There’s just no comparison there.

I actually hate mayo-based coleslaw, so I didn’t even plan on eating it. I briefly debated asking for a double serving of beans instead, but decided to keep an open mind. I ended up LOVING this coleslaw. Though it contained mayo, it was only there to temper the sweet vinegary tang.

Now onto the ribs themselves. When I first saw them, I knew that they weren’t going to be my favourite ribs. I prefer a saucier, sweeter rib, and these ribs looked pretty dry. They were a tad too salty, but they were still delicious. The dryness of the ribs allowed the flavour of the meat to shine through, which I appreciated. When I ate the crusty, dried bits of ribs, I was in heaven. The flavours were so concentrated in a single bite!

Then I ate all of it together, and it all made sense. The sweet beans, the salty and smoky ribs, and the tangy coleslaw harmonized in my mouth. I was sooooo happy!

And that was precisely the moment when I knew my diet was done.

The next day, I attempted to resist buying ribs again, but a distant memory of the perfect rib and sauce haunted me. Two years ago, I ate the best ribs EVER. They were slathered in a sweet and spicy red sauce. It was an eye-opening experience.

I walked down Sparks, driven by this urge to eat those ribs again. I checked out some of the other vendors, but none of their ribs looked the same as those from two years ago.



I ended up joining the line for Silver Bullet BBQ because their ribs had a red sauce. The line was ridiculously long, much longer than the day before. This must be because I went to Sparks around 12:30, lunch rush hour.



I thought it was neat that they had put a sticker on the takeout box. I don’t think any other places did that. Good marketing idea.



I meant to order the half-rack dinner, but I ended up saying “half-rack combo” instead. It was too late. I had accidentally ordered the chicken and rib combo. This cost $15.

At first bite, I thought I had found the vendor that had that elusive sauce. I even wrote “Spicy! I think I found it!” in my notes. It was sweet and spicy, but it didn’t have the write background flavours to it. I definitely jumped the gun on that one, so I crossed it out.

The ribs themselves were gross. There was way too much connective tissue and cartilage to navigate in order to get to the meat. I was disgusted by how much cartilage I crunched into. There was actually more cartilage than bone! Gross.

The only saving grace was the dried, hardened, crusty bits. They were so dry and packed with flavour, it was like eating jerky!

As for the chicken, I didn’t like it at all. It was too dry, so the meat was mealy and dissolved in my mouth. The skin was delicious, of course, but I ate through the skin too quickly and was left with a bunch of dry meat. I couldn’t finish it.

Blech.

Thursday’s lunch was definitely disappointing. The dry chicken and cartilage-y ribs DID prevent me from overstuffing my tummy that day, so I guess it was a good thing.

Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that I fit into my dress on Saturday. Woot!

~ * ~

International Chicken-Rib Cook-Off
Annually held in late June
Sparks Street Pedestrian Mall
Ottawa, ON

Lunches with Lucy: Empanadas, Dolmades, Sushi – May 13, 20 & 22, 2009

* I’m going to start a new series for the summer: Lunches with Lucy. This will chronicle my lunch adventures while at work. I’ve set up a new tag called “Lunches with Lucy” for easier searching. Unless noted otherwise, all of the places will be in Ottawa’s downtown core. *

I have worked in the heart of downtown Ottawa for the past few summers. Now I can’t imagine working anywhere else. The bus ride isn’t too bad, and the collective pulse of the city is quite unique. Though Ottawa isn’t fully bilingual, you’re just as likely to hear a French conversation as an English one when you’re downtown. Ottawa is a government town, through and through.

Unfortunately, this means most of the food offerings downtown are purposely generic, in the hopes of appealing to the masses. A successful downtown (I’m referring to high-rise downtown, and not the Byward Market) eatery won’t be focused on authenticity or quality; it just wants to make quick, cheap food so they can serve more customers.

The lunch crowds are pretty crappy, too. Everyone takes their lunch at the same time, it seems. The lineups are the worst from 11:45 to 12:15. By 12:30, mostly everyone has been served, and you can see the lines start to shrink.

A small place I frequent is Café Deluxe at Metcalfe and Albert. A co-worker introduced it to me a few years ago, and it’s my standby lunch place when I don’t feel like eating the same old stuff. They have this great vegetarian panini that contains heavily herbed roasted vegetables. It’s so flavourful and substantial that you don’t miss the meat.

Their offerings change daily, so it’s like a roll of the dice each time I eat there.



This time, I ordered their chicken empanadas. It was served on top of Mexican rice, had a salad on the side (I chose sundried tomato dressing), and included three glops of guacamole, sour cream, and fresh salsa.

It was okay. I honestly can’t remember much, except for the creamy, unctuous guacamole and the perkiness of the salsa. The Mexican rice was appropriately salty, though not spiced, so it`s probably not authentic. The salad was totally overdressed, but it wasn’t soggy. Luckily, the salad was dressed just as the guy assembled the takeout container.

I think I ate each bite with all three sauces/condiments/whatever. I know this is gross, but I definitely finished off the rice by throwing a spoonful of sauce(s) and tossing it around in rice, making for substantial mouthfuls of saucy goodness. That part was fantastic.

The meal was a little pricey, coming in around $12, but it offers a nice change in pace. Eating lunch downtown can get you in a rut really quickly, so places that offer a variety of specials each day do very well.

~ * ~

One Ottawa favourite lunchtime haunt is the food court at the World Exchange Centre. Part mall, part office building, the World Exchange is always packed at lunch. Most of the time, I wander around until I get hit with a craving for something. This is where I end up getting my lunch 75% of the time.

This week, I didn’t want generic white food, so I narrowed it down to two places: Tasha’s Fine Foods which serves Middle Eastern-influenced food, and Kebob Kebob which specializes in, you guessed it, kebobs. Not much a selection here, but it was better than getting a burger or a sandwich from Subway.

I settled on Tasha’s Fine Foods because I felt like having my first shawarma this summer. Once I got in line, I had second thoughts. I had a few meetings that afternoon, and I didn’t want to be the idiot stinking up the room with my garlic and onion breath. I saw some dolmades and settled on that platter instead.



When I got back to my desk to eat, I suddenly realized there would be garlic in the hummus. I felt pretty stupid until I actually tasted the stuff. The garlic was so weak, I wondered if the hummus contained any at all. I guess the folks at Tasha’s Fine Foods were thinking of us office workers when they toned down the hummus. I think I was more disappointed that the hummus tasted more of lemon than of garlic and tahini.

The dolmades themselves were okay. I can’t remember the last time I had any, but I’m sure it has also been toned down to appeal to the lunch crowd. They seemed to lack that unique flavour from the grape leaves that I love so much. I ended up smothering them in hummus. I’m sure that’s NOT how you’re supposed to eat them, but they were just so blah. Not bland, because they had flavour, but it just tasted one dimensional.

This platter also came with pickled turnips. The hot pink pickled turnips are probably one of my favourite pickled things to eat by themselves. I crunched on these happily.

Oh, and there was also a fluffy, samosa-looking pastry included in the container. I ate that first, curious about its filling, so there are no pictures. It was a soft, bread-like wrapper encasing a spinach filling (I think). It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. Mostly, I just liked the carbs. I dipped it in hummus, too.

In the top right-hand corner, you’ll see that there was some tabbouleh. I’m not normally a big fan of tabbouleh, but this time, it was tangy and refreshing. Instead of tasting like I imagine Astroturf to taste, it was bright and lemony.

It wasn’t what I expected, but it’s something I would order again if I had a craving for “something different.”

~ * ~

About a week later, I got another craving for “something different,” so I headed toward Sparks Street instead. For non-Ottawa-peeps, Sparks Street is a pedestrian mall with a line of shops, restaurants, take-out food places, and souvenir shops. It also happens to be another one of the go-to places to eat if you’re working downtown.

I went to Sushi Shop last year, so I knew what to expect. Part of what I include in my evaluation of a place’s authenticity is who actually prepares my food. A line of white males, who were bilingual to their credit, assembling makis doesn’t exactly ring “Japanese” to me. Of course, authenticity doesn’t guarantee deliciousness, so I kept an open mind.

Instead of getting a premade sushi box filled with the usual California rolls and futomaki, I found one that also included inari-sushi. I have always wanted to try it, but didn’t have the chance or didn’t feel like trying something new.



I bought the vegetarian combo which comes with an avocado roll, vegetarian futomaki, some sort of tofu roll, and two pieces of inari-sushi. This cost $8.95 before tax.



The avocado was very fresh and ripe, oozing buttery goodness with each bite. I never thought such a plain roll could be so delicious!

The futomaki, renamed Sumomaki at Sushi Shop, contained yellowish pickled daikon, red pepper, shredded carrot and cucumber, avocado, and a few squirts of spicy mayo (Japanese mayonnaise and Sriracha sauce). It was also better than I expected it to taste.

I also enjoyed the tofu maki (front and centre) more than I expected to. This maki had ginger tofu (I couldn’t taste the ginger), shiitake mushrooms, shredded carrot, green onion (I didn’t taste it), lettuce, and ginger and coriander sauce. There were a couple elements I couldn’t taste, but the roll had a fresh, bright flavour. It wasn’t until I looked at their menu that all of it made sense.

The star of the meal, however, was the inari-sushi, pictured in the bottom left-hand corner. A fried tofu pouch marinated in sweet soy stuffed with rice, green onion, slices of shiitake mushrooms, and sesame seeds. The flavours sang out to me in perfect harmony! It was the perfect combination of nuttiness from the sesame, sweetness from the mushrooms, and savoury from the tofu pouch itself. The sharp green onions cut the heaviness of it beautifully. It’s something I’ve been craving since I had it.

I would get this again for sure.

~ * ~

Buying lunch downtown can be really tricky sometimes. You have to navigate through the crowds, wait in long lines, and pay some extravagant prices, but even all this doesn’t guarantee a good meal. The only way to be sure you get what you want for lunch is to pack it yourself.

Alas, if only I had the time….

~ * ~

Café Deluxe
77 Metcalfe Street
(Albert and Metcalfe, facing the bus shelters)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-2226

Tasha’s Fine Foods
45 O’Connor Street, 100 Queen Street, and 111 Albert Street
(World Exchange Plaza food court)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 238-2524

Sushi Shop
140-A Sparks Street
Ottawa, ON
(613) 235-8686