Aladdin Bakery and Convenience: It's All About Their Pies

Lucy and I have been on a hunt for these meat pies (aka sfiha) and zaatar pies since elementary school. I've briefly written about our memories of the pizza days at Bayshore Public School here. Special days like pizza days or milk days were awesome, but it was also exciting when we had our regular snack and lunch breaks. We learned about different cultures through our friends' snacks and lunches. I remember that everyone was always envious of what other food people brought from home. I mean, Lucy and I brought stuff like lasagna and Chinese food (fried rice) in thermoses for lunch, but we also took sandwiches as well. While JL and I would bring toasted seaweed snacks, some friends (who were Lebanese) brought flatbreads topped with spices. Being introduced to other cuisines by friends was such an intriguing experience. Back then, I likened the flatbread to the taste of pizza.

Since then, I remember trying a bite of somebody's meat pie from a now-closed shawarma place near my high school. The flavours were familiar. I couldn't put my finger on it. I also found a place near Chinatown that sold zaatar, but they weren't the same. Something was off. I think I have photos of it somewhere. Anyway, I did some research on the internet and found read about the Aladdin Bakery. I made a mental note of it.

Fast forward to earlier last month; I was waiting at a bus stop on Carling Avenue and, unsurprisingly, the 85 Bayshore bus didn't show up on time. I checked for the next bus. A number of other people and myself, had to wait for another 10 minutes until the next bus came. That gave me plenty of time to check out the Aladdin Bakery and Convenience store, which was a few meters away. Local Tourist Ottawa wrote about the store two years ago. Read about their experience here.

There were plenty of pies behind the counter top. People in front of me ordered some pies, waited for the young gentleman to pop them into the oven to warm up, take them out and wrap the pies for them. Then the customers went to pay for the goods at the cash, where an older gentleman with flour still on his hands, arms, and apron, helped them out before going back to the kitchen to make more pies.


I ordered a spicy meat pie and a zaatar pie, then stood back and waited. The guy behind me ordered a spicy cheese pie and a spicy meat and cheese pie. Meat and cheese, you say? I thought to myself. "Actually, can I also get a spicy meat and cheese pie as well?" I asked the young gentlemen. He grabbed a meat and cheese pie, shook some red spice blend inside the folded pie and then popped it into the oven. "Thanks!" By that time, my other two pies were finished warming up. He wrapped them up and then took out the spicy meat and cheese pie, wrapped it, and then placed all three pies into a paper bag. I paid for the pies (about $2 each) and headed back outside to wait for the bus.

There was also spinach pies available too. I didn't see any on the counter. Maybe next time.


The smells coming off of the warm paper bag was intoxicating. I couldn't resist taking a look inside. The fluffy zaatar pie was screaming for attention. I tore a piece off and as I savoured the bite, memories of Bayshore Public came flooding back. I quickly texted Lucy and tried to convey my excitement in a couple of texts. One of them read something like this: "Just bought a bunch of pies from Aladdin Bakery on Carling. I love unexpected food adventures!"

Once the bus came, I found a seat beside an older lady. She commented how the small paper bag was so fragrant. I think I tightened my grip on the paper bag a bit. I smiled and told her that I got the pies from Aladdin Bakery, and that based on my tiny bite of the zaatar pie and the perfume from the store and the bag, the pies were delicious. She said she had tried it a couple of years ago and had been meaning to return for a visit. After a brief conversation, the friendly lady got off at Carlingwood Mall.


When I got home, I warmed each of the pies in the toaster oven and shared them with the family. My parents liked the meat pie more than the others. I enjoyed them all. The crispy thin base of the wonderfully spiced meat was remarkable! The zaatar pie had a thicker and fluffy base. It was equally remarkable. It was ten times better than the stuff I've tried over the years. Unfortunately, Lucy missed out and didn't get any. I guess I'll just have to go bring some back soon.

~*~

Address:
Aladdin Bakery and Convenience
1801 Carling Ave.
Ottawa, ON
613-728-5331

Homemade Hummus in Five Minutes

As long as you have a food processor or even a blender, you can make homemade hummus in about five minutes. We just made the basic hummus. You can tweak the "recipe" however you want. (I put "recipe" in quotations because our household believes that recipes are just guidelines.)

You’ll need a can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans).

A few cloves of garlic (we used five cloves for a spicier and stinky hummus), a few tablespoons of tahini (we used about 2 tbsp), a bit of olive oil, lime juice (we juiced one and a half limes), zest from half a lime, salt, black pepper and water. After a few pulses, you’ll have to scrap down the bowl. Everything was blended until relatively smooth. We adjusted the consistency and the taste as we went along.

That was it. All the flavours balanced well and tasted great with some fresh pita bread. I liked a bit more olive oil so I mixed some in at the top, though I should've just mixed it in a small bowl.

The small can of chickpeas was able to fill one of our round containers. It'll probably last us two weeks, unless we get more fresh pita bread, greek pita bread, or naan bread.

Arriving in Shanghai: Muslim Restaurant

When we touched down Shanghai that afternoon, I was a bit nervous because I had no idea who was picking us up and what the plan was. Dad said that the hotel would send someone to pick us up. We eventually saw a man with our last name and our tour company’s name. It was good that Dad knew Mandarin. We would’ve been so lost if he wasn’t with us. That said, he isn’t the best translator.

Our driver eventually figured out where he parked the bus and he drove us to our hotel. It felt like VIP service, since we were the only ones who were picked up. On our way to our hotel, we witnessed some typical China driving. It was only a teaser though.

Just before we pulled into the hotel, we saw a Muslim restaurant that was packed with customers. The restaurant actually had a line out the door. I wasn’t sure if this was a tourist trap or not.

We pulled into the Ramada hotel, checked in and then took a stroll outside. It was sometime after 8 pm and when we left the hotel. We weren’t very hungry at that point, but how could you land in a new foreign city and not have food? Exactly.

We walked by the Muslim Restaurant (I'm sure the name was different in Chinese) and noticed that there was someone who was grilling skewers of lamb meat, chicken, and a variety of innards. The air was filled with a fragrant smell of fat being grilled. Dad really wanted to try the lamb. He said that he really liked the lamb skewers back in Singapore. There was a large garbage can full of empty skewers. That must be a good sign, right? I wonder how much they grill in a day.

After waiting for a table, we sat down and slowly read over our options. Like I mentioned before, we weren’t hungry but we were intrigued with the large photos of the dishes. The restaurant was definitely made for tourists. The menu is a dead giveaway – that and the fact that it was around the corner from a Ramada hotel.

First up, China beer. It was nice and cold; watery, but cold.

Mom chose the braised beef tendons with french beans (58 RMB). This was really spicy and had a good flavour, so I was told. Since I was just discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours ago, everyone told me that I should avoid eating too spicy, too greasy, too much, etc.

After-Dinner Snacks on Dalhousie: Shawarma and Bubble Tea – June 18, 2009

After our Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival volunteer orientation session, Christine and I were disappointed to see that the food vendors weren’t completely set up yet. Lame. We decided to head downtown for some quick snacks.

Since Kingston doesn’t have a shawarma place I enjoy, I was ready to sell my soul for a proper spicy-salty-sweet-spicy-savoury-sour-spicy wrap. Just thinking about it again makes my mouth water.

Ahem.



We settled on getting something from Marroush, one of my favourite shawarma-eries in Ottawa. It’s a small place, strategically located to sate the hunger pangs of the drunk clubbers and bar-hoppers pouring out into the street after last call. Hordes of obnoxiously loud people descend upon these tiny little takeout shops. It’s scary. To avoid this scene, don’t go looking for food downtown after 1:30 AM if you’re sober. It can be a traumatizing experience.

Anyway, I digress. Christine and I went on a Thursday evening, past dinner time, so we had our shawarmas in about five minutes. No crowds to fight off, shout over, or shove over in order to get our food.

When the man behind the counter asked how I wanted my shawarma, I enthusiastically replied, “All-dressed!” But then he continued to ask me if I wanted each topping, which puzzled me.

“Onions?” “Yes, please!”

“Hummus?” “Yes, please!”

“Hot sauce?”

At this point, I was confused. “Yes, please! But why do you keep asking me if I want each topping after I asked for ‘all-dressed’?” I asked. “I like everything on my shawarma!”

“Because no one actually means ‘all-dressed.’ Once I start putting on the toppings, people start getting upset about hummus or hot sauce. No one ever wants the hot sauce,” he told me. “You’re the only person to ask for ‘all-dressed’ and then actually eat an ‘all-dressed’ shawarma.”



We all laughed about it, but then we realized he wasn’t joking. Three or four more people came into Marroush (separately) while Christine and I were eating, and all of them ordered their shawarma “all-dressed.” Sure enough, while the man asked them if they wanted onions, hummus, and hot sauce, each customer modified their order. One of the orders were so particular that it totally defeated the purpose of ordering an all-dressed shawarma to begin with!



Judging from this picture, I think my shawarma had pickled turnip (the hot pink stuff), pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hummus, sweet sauce, and hot sauce. There might be something else, but I think that covers it. I just know that I like my shawarma all-dressed, with garlic and hot sauce. When I’m feeling frisky, I ask for sweet and hot sauce instead, which is what I had here.

This totally hit the spot. Hot pita from being in the sandwich press to heat it up, fresh toppings, lots of sauce and stink. I could have died then and there and would have been happy.

Christine customised her wrap, since she doesn’t like all of the toppings. I’ll have to wait for her feedback on it, if she remembers.

Bellies full of stinky, chicken-y goodness, we walked a little further down Dalhousie for some bubble tea from Bubblicity.



I guess I was feeling pretty good that day because I didn’t order my favourite—large lychee iced green tea with pearls. Instead, I ordered a regular strawberry iced green tea with lychee jelly. It was interesting, but way too sweet. It would be nice on a hot summer day, biting into the lychee jelly, because the jelly doesn’t weigh you down the way boba (pearls) would.

Christine may have ordered the classic black tea latte with pearls, but it could have easily been an almond black tea latte. Ah, the pitfalls of posting about food almost two months after the fact.

This was one of the most successful food adventures we’ve had because we were happy with everything we ate. I guess it wasn’t really a food adventure since we visited places we’ve already been to, but sometimes, it’s just comforting to eat what we like, crave, and know what to expect. Who says routine has to be boring? I only wish things like shawarma and bubble tea were within The Diet....

~ * ~

Marroush International Shawarma
160 Rideau Street
(Rideau and Dalhousie)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 321-6990

Bubblicity Tea Shop
379 Dalhousie Street
(Dalhousie and Rideau)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 562-8388

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