Elgin Street Eats: Pizza and Gelato

CL and I were finally able to get together after multiple failed attempts. The wait was definitely worth it.


We met up at Slice & Co. for some pizza on a cold windy autumn evening. I've always wanted to try this place. It was always packed full of customers throughout the NHL playoffs and the summer. Their patio looked really enticing.

The original plan was to check out El Camino. They weren't open that day though.




The pizzas we got were tasty. We both ordered Italian hand-tossed pizzas. They also had Chicago deep dish, California thin crust, and New York pan pizzas on their menu too.

Topped with tomato sauce, capers, red onions, olives, chili pepper, and mozzarella, the puttanesca pizza had a great combination of flavours. The bottoms of the pizza held nicely too.

CL liked her salsiccia pizza pie. There was tomato sauce, sausage, mushrooms, onions, chili pepper, mozzarella, and CL asked for olives. We both liked that the pizzas weren't overloaded with toppings.


We packed up the leftover pizzas and continued our conversation at Pure Gelato, just a block or two away.

I didn't know that they make crêpes, panini, and even hot food items. Good to know.




There were so many flavours to choose! I wanted 80% of them that night but ended up making a fancy peanut butter cup flavour combination of peanut butter and Ferraro (as in Ferraro Rocher). Definitely a winner! CL went with just the lemon which is never a bad choice -- I actually got it last time.




The two flavours that I got would've tasted perfectly fine by themselves. But they were meant for each other. Their friend, the waffle cone, unfortunately wasn't invited that night.

After we left Pure Gelato, I walked over to Lucy's place to chill with Richard, Andrew, and Lucy's fur baby for a bit.


They were actually just pulling into their garage when I got to their apartment. The three of them split a $40-something sushi platter. It sounded like it hit the spot.

The sushi pictured above was actually what was left of the platter. It was that good.

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Guest Post: It's More Fun in the Philippines

Hi everyone, this is Ritchie (Richard as the sisters call me)! You may have seen my name pop up now and again as I have the rare flash of brilliance in my experimental cooking - just enough that it impresses both Lucy and Christine (granted I find it hard to cook visually appealing food).

Recently I've started an internship in the Philippines where I will be living in Manila for the next year and a half. I hope to share with you all some of my culinary experiences as me and my tongue become more adventurous (some of the things I've eaten already are pretty radically-tasting - even for a guy who's known for loving stinky foods). Here's a sample of things to come!

Manila Polo Club

Since I'm a business development consultant, I get to meet many clients in pretty fancy places. This one particular occasion I was invited to the Manila Polo Club. Classy place, filled with classy people. The walls were lined with hand-written charts of the Polo clubs most decorated players and horses.

And of course these classy people need to be fed with classy food. What we ordered was three different types of pizza: margherita, vegetarian, and hawaiian. You can see the picture of the pizza above. As you can see, it's quite flat and tasted the same. The dough obviously didn't rise enough or had enough yeast and was quite dense. Not to mention the fact that it was overcooked that I couldn't even cut through with a fork and knife. Overall, the pizza was really mediocre.

But the saving grace was the fantastic salad. OMG. I had never had watercress in a salad before but it is the single most amazing-life-changing salad I have ever had. The dressing was akin to the mandarin orange dressing we buy from Loblaws - slightly sweet and just a tad acid. Along with romaine lettuce there was walnuts and craisins. So refreshing and delicious.

Then there was this bad boy. Grape juice. ACTUAL grape juice. You can see the skins in the glass. It was so refreshing.

Pampanga

A few weekends ago our friend invited us to her hometown out in the province of Pampanga to celebrate her fathers birthday. I'll have to tell you - living right downtown in a huge metropolitan city means that most of the food I eat comes from convenience stores and fast food joints - microwaved and deepfried "deliciousness". Which really bugged me since I had quite high expectations coming to South East Asia. So when I expressed this disappointment to my friend, she immediately scolded me. "Don't you dare say that in front of me," she screamed. "Come eat my dad's food and then talk to me."

ZOOM! Off to Pampanga we went. Getting there was quite easy - we took the MRT (main metro system) to Taft station and then transferred to the LRT (light rail system) all the way to Doroteo Jose station where we caught a bus straight to San Fernando. 

Once we arrived we were greeted by my friend's uncles who transported us from the main city to her village.

Sitting in these bad boys felt pretty amazing since your butt is literally a few inches off the road. We arrived maybe around 5 or 6 in the afternoon so it was still light out. The food wasn't ready yet so all her cousins decided to take us on a tour of the village area.

We got to cross this fancy feat of human engineering. When the concrete bridge collapsed during a flood, the villagers built a makeshift bridge from bamboo. The bamboo bridge has been there ever since and no one feels the need to build a concrete one. Pretty sturdy but jumping is still not advised.

Past the bridge a bit we met up with my friend's great aunt. This was my first taste of the Philippine life as she brought us fresh green mangos that she grew.

Our mom would always buy green mangos in these vacuum-sealed bags and would love snacking on these sour bad boys. Now I understand why. The tartness that just makes your cheeks squeeze together is just so pleasant, and dipping it in fish sauce with salt really made it taste like home.

Oh and these guys. Fresh guava from the trees. They taste nothing like the super sugary guava candies that our mom loves to eat. You eat them like apples, skin and seeds together and the seeds are quite crunchy but I'm told that's where all the nutritious stuff is. It has a very mild sweetness with a creamy texture.

When we got back to the house, a feast was set out for us. Oh the food was amazing and it's really hard for me to describe what it tastes like because I've never had anything like it before.

First up was pork minudo. Stewed pork and potatoes and carrots. The sauce had many spices flavoring it but was quite mild (similar to the stewed meat dishes we Chinese make). Juicy hunks of pork and vegetables. YUM!

Some Filipino-style fried chicken. Juicy, crispy - filipinos really know how to do fried chicken.

Kalderetang manok. Another stewed dish made from tomatoes, chicken, and a bunch more mild spices. The meat fell right off the bone and the sauce went so well with rice.

And this stuff. Palabok. Let me tell you - here in the Philippines they are OBSESSED with pancit (read: noodles). They have a huge eating culture and actually take time in the afternoon to have merienda (mary-enda: read afternoon snack). This is one of the many common meriendas to have. The noodles for palabok are a little smaller than udon and the texture is quite strange - as you bite into them they kind of snap. So they don't really turn to mush while you're eating it like the noodles I'm used to eating. It definitely took a while for me to get used to it. I'm not sure what the sauce is made from but it has shredded chicken throughout and deep-fried garlic and sliced eggs sprinkled all on top. It wasn't my favourite dish for sure but it was still quite tasty.

Walking around in the country side really made me homesick. It was time I was able to completely disconnect from work and the busy concrete jungle of Manila and was able to take in my situation. The country air and food cleansed my spirit and rejuvenated my energy. I can't wait to return again!

Toronto Marathon Weekend 2013

My weekend was spent in Toronto for work. I helped cover the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon as a sports photographer with the MarathonFoto company. You can read more about what it's like to work the event [link]. This post is about all the food.

Tennessy Willems - Remarkable Pizzas in Ottawa

It’s been so long since Lucy and I have had some sister time. Last weekend, I made some reservations at Tennessy Willems one hot evening. Having previously eaten here with some friends, I recommended that we go have the pizzas at the restaurant in Hintonburg. I didn't know that Hintonburg began on the east side of Island Park Drive. I just assumed Hintonburg was part of Westboro. Woops.

We sat right by the large window and enjoyed the cool breezes. Lucy wanted to get everything off their specials menu but decided to get the carpricciosa pizza in the end. I wanted to try the wild boar. I tried the duck confit pizza last time. It was really good, but I wanted to try their other pizzas.

Iced tea for two.

Pizza Bagels

When my stomach began to grumble in the afternoon on Monday, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. After scavenging around the kitchen, I made myself a pizza bagels. I didn't crave pizza or anything. If we had cold cuts, I would've made an open-faced sandwich or the like. But alas, our fridge was full of condiments and sauces.


There was half a bagel, some passata (unseasoned tomato purée), some wilting basil leaves that I accidently left out yesterday, and some mozzarella cheese.

I toasted the pizza bagel in our toaster oven on the "2 slices of toast" option. When the toaster oven beeped, I broiled the pizza bagels to get the cheese golden by using the button beside a photo of a roast chicken.



As the pizza bagels toasted and broiled, I worried that the watery passata would make the bagels soggy.   I should've added a little butter or something to prevent the watery tomato purée from absorbing into the bagels, as OP once told me. When I took the bagels out, it looked like the bagels could've been a wet mess.

Richard microwaved a curry bun and needed a plate so he used mine. As I was about to take photos of the pizza bagels, he placed a basil leaf atop his snack. I guess he wanted me to take a picture. So I did. Like a squirrel, he took his snack and went upstairs to eat.




I quietly put down my camera and took a bite. The cheese slid a bit, showing the concentrated passata. I grabbed my camera for another frame and then finished the rest.

Other than this snack, I'm not sure why I've craved pizza so much over the past few months. I guess it's just a phase, just like my pho phase a few years back, or my chicken phase in second-year college.

Now that I'm looking at these pizza bagel photos, I'm craving some pizza. I think I have a problem.

Joe's Pizza and Subs: One of Our Favourite Pizzas in Ottawa

Our family has been eating the pizza at Joe's Pizza and Subs for almost 18 years. Wowzas! It all started with pizza days at Bayshore Public. I remember the school always ordered extra pizza and students and teachers would be able to walk down by the gym and buy some slices of pizza. Pretty cool idea.

My favourite thing about Joe’s Pizza is their sauce. Lucy and I used to love the giant bubbles in the crust, but we haven’t been lucky enough to get pizzas with them lately.

After checking out the small farmers’ market at Bayshore, Andrew and I were hungry for lunch. We weighed our options in the car: food court food, Indian lunch buffet, shawarmas, Tim Hortons, or Joe’s (as we like to call it). We decided we’d pick up some pizza, buy some drinks, and head over to Britannia Beach to eat.

The friendly owner, Sam, gave me permission to take some photos of him masterfully making our two pizzas. Their sauce used to be so dreamy! I feel like their sauce is saltier and less herby than I remember. It’s still good, mind you.

Bacon, pineapple and extra sauce. Sam then topped it with cheese and tossed it into the oven to bake.

At the beach, we found a nice shaded area and sat on the grass. Grandma commented, “If I had known we were coming here, I would've brought a hammock!” I would’ve brought a blanket or something to sit on, but that didn’t matter. Dad, Andrew, Grandma and I all liked the bacon and pineapple pizza even though the toppings slid around. The sour and sweet pineapples broke up the salty bacon and sauce real well.

The chicken and onion pizza, it was good but the flavours didn’t jump out. If there was some pineapple and bacon on the pizza, it would’ve tasted amazing! It’s a bit weird saying that. I used to revolt Hawaiian pizzas because of the pineapples.

As we savoured every bite of the two pizzas, a couple seagulls stood nearby and tried to beg for food. We didn't feed them of course. After we ate and sat back, Grandma amused herself by tossing little pebbles and branches towards the seagulls. She laughed when they fought over what they thought was food. I think this was the first time I saw Grandma troll. That explains a lot. Both Mom's side and Dad's side like to troll!

The golden slightly blistered buttery crumb crust was so fragrant. Do you see the dark cheese cooked on the crust? Love it. The pizza was really well made. I expected nothing less from Sam. 

When a bunch of our relatives from Australia came for a visit back in December, we had a large pizza dinner. I’m talking about feeding a large extended family of 15 stomachs. Uncle HT asked if Joe’s was still around and laughed manically when I told him that it was. He said that he missed Ottawa/Lebanese-style pizzas. The pizzas in Australia just weren’t the same. We ordered from Joe’s and Lorenzos, since they’re our favourite Ottawa/Lebanese-style pizzas; medium to thick crust, sauce, lots of meh toppings, lots of cheese. Once we got back home, Uncle HT hyped it up and then proudly watched everyone enjoy their pizza. He quietly savoured his slices before manically laughing in enjoyment again. Needless to say, the two large pizzas from Joe's were the first to be devoured.When I asked my cousins how the pizzas compared to the stuff back home, they simply responded with “it’s nice.”

Sometime in April, Lucy and I were craving something greasy. Joe's came up in our discussion. We didn't get to enjoy much of Joe's pizza when the Aussie's came to visit.

So we called Joe’s and ordered two pizzas. We picked up the pizzas and then went to buy drinks at Bayshore. I don't know why we didn't just buy them at Joe's. This pepperoni and bacon pizza was really salty.

How about some pepperoni and mushroom pizza? I actually don’t mind the mushrooms, although the larger clumps are still off-putting.

You can't tell how large these slices actually are. They're quite substantial. You can probably eat two or three slices of Pizza Pizza pizza for every large slice of Joe's pizza. And that's the average slice. If you get one of the humongous pizza slice, unevenly cut, then you probably won't need to eat another slice.

I totally forgot about the crispy pepperoni edges! How could I forget? I remember watching the teacher opening the boxes of pepperoni pizza and seeing dough bubbles and crispy pepperoni edges. And the smell: Joe’s pizza and moist cardboard boxes (the boxes of pizzas were stacked on one another and somewhat steamed). If Mom was in a good mood, she’d send me to school with a can of pop on pizza days. My little elementary self struggled to finish a can of pop and slice of Joe’s pizza. I remember hearing the pop slosh around my stomach during recess. I found it so amusing.

As I write this, I’ve come to realize that Joe’s pizza has become my standard of good greasy pizza. The pepperoni pizzas of my Bayshore Public days have been ingrained into my food memory: fragrant crisp crust with a bit of cheese baked on, good sauce, pepperoni with crispy edges, and golden processed cheese. I think I prefer the fluffy breadier pizza dough at Lorenzos than the richer crumb crust at Joe’s though.

While I like Neapolitan pizza (see Pizzeria Libretto), sometimes I just crave a greasy Ottawa/Lebanese-style pizza made from Joe’s Pizza or Lorenzos. It might not be your favourite, but they’ve been around for three decades for a reason: Joe’s pizza is one of the best pizzas in Ottawa. Tennessy Willems, a small place on Wellington, is my favourite Neapolitan pizza in Ottawa.

When I was in Toronto, I discovered that Pizza Nova makes decent pizzas. It's a shame I realized it too late. Pizza Depot fed my pizza cravings during most of the two years of living there.

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Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored. I received no monetary compensation for writing about Joe’s Pizza and Subs – though if anyone from Joe's Pizza and Subs is reading this, I’d accept your deliciously pizzas.

Bruschettas and Naan Pizzas

Fresh tomatoes, garlic, flat leaf parsley, and a bit of lemon juice are an amazing combination. Lastly, it's seasoned with salt and black pepper and left to mingle. It's remarkably quick and easy to make. I'll probably wait and make this again when tomatoes are really plump and ripe.

We could've just toasted up some bread, topped that toasted bread with the mix and eaten them like that, but OP wanted to make cheesy bruschetta. So we added quite a bit of shredded mozzarella and old cheddar cheese to the mix. Isn't it pretty?

OP topped the buttered baguettes with the tomato mix and then threw them in the oven to toast up. We prepared the naan pizzas as we waited for the bruschettas to bake. OP said that by buttering up the baguettes, they don't get as soggy.

Although the bruschetta tore up the roof of my mouth because they were a tad over-baked, the bruschettas were very tasty. The warmed tomatoes and garlic were mellowed by the oven and could’ve been tasty even to tomato haters out there. The pain was worth it.

We needed to make something else for lunch and so we made naan pizzas. Using store-bought naan bread, we topped them with plain tomato sauce, pizza pepperoni, shredded cheese, fresh basil, thinly sliced garlic and Genoa salami as toppings. Nice and simple. The pizzas were baked on a sheet pan (aka baking sheet or baking pan) in the pre-heated 350 Farenheit oven. VN and I have made naan pizzas a few times, but it's been the first time I've done this at home.

The fresh basil that we bought from the grocery store was a bit on the expensive side. There were a few roots still attached to some of the basil. I'm gonna try to plant them and see if they'll grow so that I can make more homemade pizzas with fresh basil in the future. Hopefully I won't have to buy basil in the grocery stores again.

Once out of the oven, the warm smell of basil perfumed the kitchen. Ever since enjoying Margherita pizzas at Libretto, I’ve fallen in love with the simplistic flavour composition. So I made a Margherita pizza, but with the addition of thinly sliced garlic. Garlic on pizza may scare some people, but when it’s thinly sliced and placed on the tomato sauce, the harshness of the garlic is cooked out. It’s an amazing thing.

I’m not sure why bruschettas and naan pizzas aren’t regularly in our rotation, cause its a beautiful way to use up fresh tomatoes and basil. It's also really easy and quick to whip up. They’ll definitely be making more frequent appearances this summer.