A Greek-Inspired Wrap – July 24, 2009

I briefly considered skipping over this post since it’s only a sandwich, but then I realized that simple foods like this were the driving force behind The Diet. I would have starved to death if I couldn’t eat such flavourful and healthy meals.



Start with a single chicken breast. Slice it in half so that you end up with two smaller chicken breasts with the same spread. Continue to slice it thinly until you end up with many thin strips of chicken breast. Marinate in a splash of soy sauce, splash of balsamic vinegar, a few spoonfuls of non-creamy salad dressing, salt, and pepper. Set aside.



Prepare the vegetables. Slice zucchini and eggplant lengthwise into quarter-inch thick strips. If they’re too thin, they’ll cook too quickly over the grill, and you’ll lose the tender bite. Quickly throw together another batch of the marinade above, and toss in the eggplant. Clean and slice the red pepper into quarters.



Slice cucumbers into sticks, thinly slice red onions, and bring out the condiments (zesty Italian salad dressing, red pepper hummus, feta cheese, and my special garlic mayo).



The garlic mayo was nothing more than four or five cloves of garlic, minced and stirred into a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise with a squirt of Sriracha hot sauce. It’s one of the smelliest sauces I’ve ever encountered, and it definitely leaves you with terrible breath. I don’t recommend this to be eaten around anyone else but family.



Assemble with warmed pitas and a little bit of everything. This was awesome straight off the grill, but it tasted good the next day, too! I found that the vegetables tasted flat after they cooled, so I stored them in a container with leftover marinade. The grilled vegetables soaked up the liquid, lending it a different flavour the next day.

I really enjoyed this because it filled me up without too much junk. Of course, the feta and the garlic mayo probably weren't great for The Diet, but it's all about using them in moderation for the flavour. Next time I make this, I'll cut the zucchini and eggplant thicker for a meatier bite to the sandwich/wrap. The thin slices turned mushy on the grill, and the texture turned me off a little. On the whole, this little dish was one of my favourite Diet-friendly recipes last summer!

Almost-Vegetarian Tomato Vegetable Soup – September 15, 2009

When I first started The Diet, I got into a month-long soup kick. I realized that soups were one of the easiest way to pile in vegetables without missing the meat. I made many variations of this vegetable soup, with whatever vegetables we had on hand, because it’s so easy and filling.

The title of the post is “almost-vegetarian” to reflect the fact that I use chicken broth powder to give the soup more depth. Feel free to substitute it with vegetable stock powder to make it completely vegetarian.

I added a scoop of leftover rice to bulk it up a little bit. The starch also thickens the soup, which makes it look better.

Unfortunately, Jimmy and I devoured this soup, and I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Just imagine a red soup with chunks of vegetables.

It only took me 20 minutes to make this soup in the morning, and I think it was a nice alternative to the usual cereal, toast, or congee for breakfast.

~ * ~

Tomato Vegetable Soup



2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup diced onions
¼ cup diced carrots
¼ cup diced green zucchini
¼ cup diced yellow zucchini
Few shakes of Italian spice seasoning (if you have dried herbs on hand, use oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and basil)
2 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
4 cups water
3 tsp chicken broth powder
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup cooked rice (optional)
Squirt of Sriracha (optional)
Grated parmesan for garnish

Heat up oil in a pot, and sauté garlic and onions until the onions are clear. Add the vegetables (except for tomatoes) and spice seasoning.



Once the carrots have softened, add chopped tomatoes. Stir constantly until about half of the tomatoes have disintegrated.

Add tomato sauce, water, and chicken broth powder. Bring to a boil. Add cooked rice, if desired. Adjust the seasoning. Add Sriracha hot sauce, if desired.

Ladle into bowls, and sprinkle with grated parmesan. Serve hot with crackers or bread.

Birthdays: Another Reason to Eat Too Much Food – August 2, 2009

My extended family (20-ish people) gathers almost every weekend to have lunch or dinner (or both). These weekend dinners are hosted by a different family each week, so it gives everyone else a chance to relax a little bit. Normally, these dinners feature whatever food was on sale that week, and we make simple dishes.

When we get together for a family member’s birthday, however, we go all out. This year for my brother’s birthday, we decided on having a striploin steak dinner. These steak dinners usually include two different types of vegetables (sometimes two salads, or a salad and steamed vegetables), mashed potatoes, and gravy.



We had a special occasion staple: heart of palm salad. If you go back through our “Holiday” tag, you’ll notice this dish crops up frequently.



Christine and I prefer our onions to be more sautéed than sweated, but the rest of family doesn’t understand the difference. These were limp and soggy, and they were on the side for those who don’t like onions.



Our younger cousins love mashed potatoes, which is why we always have such a huge pot full of them. We hardly ever have any leftovers.



I don’t like using these dinner rolls for garlic bread, but they’re pretty cheap at Costco. I find them a little too crunchy and crusty, so I prefer garlic bread made with baguettes.

I didn’t get a picture of an assembled plate because I was too busy stuffing my face. I can guarantee that at least half of us ate too much that night. That night, I ate a small steak, a spoonful of mashed potatoes, a slice of garlic bread, and loads of salad, which worked well with The Diet. I'm glad these larger dinners always have a vegetable option.

I really wish I could get more photos of these weekend get-togethers to remember the moments, but I guess focusing on enjoying the dinner and company is also important. This is the main reason I miss living in Ottawa. I can’t wait until I move back to Ottawa in May!

Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch, Baby! – September 21, 2009

Because I grew up with my mum making everything from scratch, instant food had a magical appeal. I had Kraft dinner for the very first time when I was about 12 years old, and I fell in love with it. Canned soups were especially delicious because of the generous amounts of salt.



HOWEVER, my mum’s chicken noodle soup could never be outdone by instant food. I’ve tweaked her recipe to make it look more like the picture-perfect soups you see on television, but the same familiar flavours are still there. I like to eat this with a salad, to bring it closer to The Diet, but because I normally use a lot of vegetables in the soup, I would consider it part of The Diet anyway.

~ * ~

Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves four

1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrots
½ red pepper, diced
1 tbsp butter
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 tsp dried parsley flakes (for the look)
2-3 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
2 tsp (maybe more) salt
4-5 cups water


3 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups egg noodles

In a large pot, sauté the vegetables in butter, and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until onions are clear and carrots are soft.

Toss in parsley flakes and chicken. Saute until skin begins to brown.

Sprinkle the salt and add water to cover. Simmer on low for at least 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Skim off the scum on the soup’s surface, but don’t skim off all the fat. The fat is where the concentrated flavour lies.

Taste the soup and add more salt, if necessary. If it’s salty enough, but it still tastes thin, simmer the soup longer. The longer you simmer, the better the soup tastes.

When the soup tastes right, remove the chicken and chop the meat into large chunks. Discard bones and skin, and return chopped chicken to the pot.

Start another pot of boiling water after the soup tastes right. Sprinkle salt and egg noodles into the pot. Cook noodles according to the package’s instructions (usually 10-12 minutes).

Drain noodles, and set aside.



Once the soup tastes right, and the noodles are cooked, spoon the noodles into each bowl. Ladle the soup into the bowl, and serve piping hot.

Fin.

(Almost) Crazy for Homemade Chili - October 20, 2009

I can't believe how remarkably easy it is to make chili from (almost) scratch. From start to finish, this took me about 45 minutes, although I was moving quite sluggishly. You see, I woke up SUPER early (i.e. 6:00 AM) to start cooking chili for Jimmy's lunch. Between the vacant stares at a pile of onions and absentmindedly stirring the pot, this chili could have easily been made in half an hour or less.



For Jimmy's lunch, I packed about a cup and a half of chili, half a cup of steamed corn, and two fluffy Greek pitas, sliced into wedges. I should have given him more vegetables (to sneakily force him into The Diet), since this dish is (almost) all meat, but it was early and I wasn't thinking straight.

~ * ~

Homemade Chili
Makes 5-6 cups of chili (almost a full, regular-sized pot)

3 ½ cups ground beef
1-2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 ½ cups diced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
1-2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 jar/can of tomato sauce
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed
Sriracha sauce (to taste)

First, brown the beef on high heat, and break it up into little bits as it cooks. Toss in the salt and pepper. Once all of the water has evaporated, drain the meat in a strainer and rinse it to get rid of the oil. Leave the beef in the strainer.

Return the pot to the stove, heat on high, and add the vegetable oil. Toss in the onion and garlic, and fry until fragrant. Add chili powder and cumin. When onions are translucent, turn down the heat.

Add the tomato sauce, and scrape the bottom of the pot for any browned bits from the beef and onions. Continue to stir until the sauce bubbles. Add the drained beef.

Taste for flavour and spiciness. You may have to add more chili powder, salt, or Sriracha. When you are satisfied with the flavour, add the rinsed kidney beans.

Simmer on low for as long as you can wait to eat it! Serve piping hot with bread on the side and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

~ * ~

I didn’t actually garnish this bowl, except for the crackers. It ended up too salty to eat with the crackers, but that was because I was eating salted crackers (duh!). When I ate it with thick pita bread, it was more balanced, and all was good in the world.

Notes for Next Time!

This batch turned out okay, considering the fact that I made it while half asleep. I ran out of chili powder in the end, so I felt it was a little lacking. For the copious amounts of beef, I really should have added more spice. I ended up adding more cumin to help it along. I think if I had used twice the amount of onions, it would have tasted much better, too. Oh well. I could added some vegetables into the chili to bring it within The Diet, but the pot was already full of chili. There simply wasn't any space!



I ate this for lunch and dinner yesterday with my favourite spoon. I bought a set of Korean chopsticks and spoon from T&T this past summer completely on impulse. Just look at that cute turtle! I imagine they’re meant for children, but I couldn’t resist. Eager to show this off, I tried a bunch of weird angles, but there was too much glare from the window. This was the best picture. Oh, and the colour is a bit off, though I tried tweaking it in Photoshop Elements for about 20 minutes.

Now that I’m back in Kingston, I’ll start focusing more of the posts on cooking and my kitchen stuff. The summer posts can sit and wait until they magically inspire words to fill the screen.

Fin.

Toronto Trip #2 of 4 – August 15 and 16, 2009

This is the second of our four trips to Toronto during the second half of summer.

See Toronto Trip #1 here.
See Toronto Trip #3 here.
See Toronto Trip#4 here.

~ * ~

Jimmy and I used to start every road trip with Denny’s, but since going on The Diet this summer, I have blacklisted Denny’s. No one EVER needs to eat two giant platefuls of sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hash browns.

Now that Tim Hortons has breakfast sandwiches, I can also avoid starting a trip with McDonald’s. The idea is that while the breakfast sandwiches are available, I just might choose to have a bagel instead. This actually turns out to be the case most of the time.

But not this time. I was feeling a little cranky when I woke up, so I thought, “Forget The Diet. I’m going to Toronto for a wedding, so I might as well enjoy myself.” I’m not sure if that was how I should have dealt with my sour mood, but it was a good plan at the time.

Jimmy and I both ordered a sausage breakfast sandwich combo, which includes hashbrowns and drinks. Just when the cashier asked, “Will that be all?” Jimmy decided to add another breakfast sandwich, “for later.”



The sandwiches were okay. I find them twice as heavy as McDonald’s Sausage Egg McMuffin, and I totally blame the biscuits. You might as well serve sausage, egg, and cheese between two slabs of butter because that’s exactly what the aftermath feels like. It’s slightly sweet and very salty, so it does hit all the right spots. It’s actually why I prefer Tim Hortons’ breakfast sandwich over McDonald’s’ (what the hell do I do with that last apostrophe?).



The hashbrowns were not memorable. I think there were bits of dehydrated onion in there for “flavour.” Again, I prefer McDonald’s’ hashbrowns. They don’t muck about with extra ingredients.



I got a steeped tea with one milk and one sugar, and Jimmy got a bottle of their iced tea. It’s funny that he keeps ordering this because after he drinks it, he always declares that he hates this iced tea. It’s too sweet and doesn’t resemble a sweetened iced tea at all. Nestea is the way to go.



For $14, it wasn’t really worth it, but it’s convenient and familiar. It’s become so much a part of road trips that I think I might die if the ubiquitous Tim Hortons went bankrupt tomorrow. On second thought, that’s a little melodramatic. I would miss it, but I’m sure I’ll find something else to eat while travelling.

I have never had reason to complain about cashiers at Tim Hortons before because they were either competent and quick or just slow. This time, however, the cashier was so rude and incompetent, I was entertaining the idea of telling her off and speaking to a manager about it. The line went out the door and spilled onto the parking lot, so I restrained myself for the sake of maintaining peace in a Tim Hortons on a weekend morning.

Anyway, it was an ominous start to the trip.



Once we started driving, I drank more of my tea. The flappy thing on the lid wouldn’t stay open or shut; it just stood straight up. This is a major pet peeve of mine, so I drank the rest of it in one go. This was bad thing number two.

Not long after that, traffic was backed up on the 401 West. It turns out there was an accident involving a transport. My friends were actually an hour ahead of Jimmy and I, so they were part of the traffic that had to back up to take the emergency detour route. Anyway, after about 15 minutes stuck in traffic and not knowing what was going on, Jimmy took the next exit, and we detoured into Brighton. We’re now up to bad thing number three.

For all of my many years of travelling to Toronto, I have never taken Highway 2 to get there. It was really quaint because we drove through so many little towns I never knew existed. It was a big change from driving the 401. There were a lot more Cadillacs and Lincolns, haha.



We stopped in Brighton, in a tiny little restaurant, to look at the map. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s beside the Mac’s convenience store. Anyway, I ordered a coffee and a slice of lemon meringue pie while Jimmy figured out our route. The meringue wasn’t baked long enough, so it was too spongy for my tastes. The curd, however, was perfectly sour and sweet. It definitely made me pucker and squirm, which automatically makes it an awesome pie. I don’t remember the crust much, but it definitely wasn’t homemade. It lacked something, I’m not sure what, that homemade crusts all have.

After four hours, we finally made it to the GTA. Jimmy was starving at this point, so we stopped by Mr. Sun’s Noodle House in Scarborough. Though the outside signs remained the same, the menu and the interior (the ugly green was painted over) were different. I noticed that they changed the name on the menu (Mirage?) and pointed this out to Jimmy. Ominous sign number four.

We went ahead and ordered two beef noodle soups, a side of stinky tofu, and some seaweed salad.



When the beef noodles arrived, they looked different. We started eating, and it was apparent that they were not the same noodles we loved. The soup didn’t have nearly as much depth of flavour as before, and it was overwhelmingly spiced (as in, too much anise and cloves). Because the soup was off, the beef was off, too. Even the noodles tasted inferior. There wasn’t any bounce (or QQ) to the noodles, and they were definitely overcooked. It was a pretty disappointing bowl of noodles. We’re up to five bad signs now.



The seaweed salad was interesting. It wasn’t exactly what Jimmy remembered it to be in Taiwan, but I still thought it tasted okay. Its spiciness surprised me (in a good way), and I was immediately grateful for the slices of cooling cucumber in the salad. We barely touched this.



Jimmy said the stinky tofu didn’t taste the same as before. I took one bite, and I finally decided that I didn’t like it. He insisted that I would like a proper stinky tofu, so I guess I should say that I don’t like the Taiwanese-Canadian version of stinky tofu. I did enjoy the pickled cabbage, though that didn’t taste quite the same either.

We paid the still ridiculously cheap bill and headed towards downtown to our hotel. Well, we got stuck in some major traffic on the DVP (Don Valley Parkway for those not familiar with Toronto), and we spent at least 45 minutes in gridlock. When we finally exited, we got lost looking for the Delta Chelsea. This part was entirely my fault, since I mixed up the directions with a different hotel. We eventually found the hotel, but as we were parking, I realized that I didn’t have the parking voucher, which entitled us to a discounted rate. At this point, we were dangerously close to being late for the wedding ceremony.

Now all of the bad things that happened culminated to this: Jimmy forgot to bring his shoes! We were travelling comfortably, so we were dressed casually and wearing flip flops. Poor Jimmy had to wear flip flops with his suit! At first I was SUPREMELY annoyed, but then, I just had to laugh. All of these weird signs were telling us that something was terribly wrong, and we totally ignored them! The next time the signs point to bad things, I will definitely trust my gut.

The wedding ceremony was short and sweet, and I didn’t have a chance to weep. The pre-reception cocktail hour was fantastic! Cups of alcoholic and non-alcoholic punch and hors d’oeuvres floated around, supplementing some fantastic conversation. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of any of the food from the cocktail hour and the reception.

The main course was chicken with shrimp skewered on sugar cane. It was quite delicious, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. We had Jackson Triggs wine (red and white) served with dinner, and then had an open bar. The dessert was a revelation: layered chocolate mousse pyramids with raspberry wine sauce. Now everyone said that the sauce was VERY heavy on the alcohol, but I didn’t taste it at all. However, I was already more than slightly tipsy, so that was a contributing factor.

It was great food, great drinks, great music, and great company for a great couple. I had a lot of fun (maybe a little too much fun) and really enjoyed myself. I should mention that I only shed a few tears during the speeches, unlike the last wedding where the tears were flowing freely. This was a big step for me! Anyway, Jimmy and I left the reception pretty early, around 10:30, because I was toasted and exhausted from a long, eventful day.

I suddenly got really hungry after getting up to the hotel room, so we went out in search of some quick food. We settled on Tea Shop 168 on Yonge. I think we ordered popcorn chicken, pork chop on rice, and udon. I had a watermelon milk tea with pearls, and Jimmy ordered lychee green tea with pearls. While the bubble tea was fantastic (watermelon is now my new favourite), the food was meh. The pork chop was overcooked and under-seasoned, and the udon was gross. The noodles were overcooked and mushy, and the broth was too plain. The popcorn chicken was okay, but I’ve definitely had better versions elsewhere. No pictures here because I was too drunk to remember to bring a camera.

I slept very soundly that night.

The next morning, I woke up to this scene from our hotel room balcony:



It was gorgeous, and the weather looked especially promising. Continuing our ramen quest from our last wedding trip, we decided to visit Kenzo Ramen. We read some positive reviews and Christine had heard good things about it.



When we arrived, they had just opened, so we were the only ones there. It was quiet and clean. Immaculate, actually.

I tweeted that it was the quickest meal ever. We were in and out in less than 15 minutes, no joke.



I ordered the shio (salt) ramen in the foreground, and the bowl in the back was the shoyu (soy sauce) ramen for Jimmy.

This was my first taste of ramen, but to me, my shio ramen was perfection. It was garnished with shredded green onions, thin slices of cha shu (roasted pork), and a slice of naruto (kamaboko or fish cake). The broth tasted distinctly of seafood and pork, and yet, they blended together magically. The noodles were cooked just right (QQ). I slurped it down in less than five minutes. The only complaints I had were that it wasn’t hot enough, and it was a very small bowl of noodles. The picture is a little deceiving because the bowls look huge when, in fact, the amount of noodles was exactly the same as if we made instant noodles.



Jimmy didn’t like his shoyu ramen as much as I loved my shio ramen. It came with a soft-boiled marinated egg, sliced cha shu, green onions, and naruto. The delicate balance present in my shio ramen’s broth was complete skewed in Jimmy’s shoyu broth. It tasted like there was too much going on. We both preferred the shio ramen.



After slurping our noodles, we decided we were still a little hungry. I really wanted to try an onigiri, a rice ball filled with something and then wrapped in seaweed. We ordered a ume (pickled plum) onigiri. I was expecting something spectacular after watching the Dotch Cooking Show episodes, but it turned out to be just okay. I think there should have been more ume in it. Otherwise, it was rather plain.



The bill was less than $20, another victory for the cheap travellers (aka Jimmy and me)! Yes, there is a typo in “custormer,” but whatever. They can misspell whatever they want if I can get a bowl of ramen for under $7!



On our way out of Toronto, we stopped in Scarborough to shop at T&T and grabbed some bubble tea from Assameia. Jimmy, of course, got two jumbo original black milk tea with pearls.

And the hectic trip to Toronto turned out to be a relaxing trip back to Ottawa.

~ * ~

Tim Hortons
1185 Division Street
(Division at the 401)
Kingston, ON
(613) 546-0454

The little restaurant near Mac’s Convenience Store
Near 13 Elizabeth Street
Brighton, ON

Mirage (formerly Mr. Sun’s Noodle House)
4186 Finch Avenue East, Unit 25
Scarborough, ON

Delta Chelsea Hotel
33 Gerrard Street West
Toronto, ON

Tea Shop 168
377 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 979-0168



Assamiea Tea
Steeles Road East
In Metro Square, near T&T Milliken (5661 Steeles Road East)
Scarborough, ON

Thanksgiving Weekend Hotpot – October 10, 2009

Since hotpot is pretty easy to bring together (if you have the ingredients on hand), we quickly pulled dinner together in about an hour.



The bubbling hotpot.



Fake crab, beef balls, and fried tofu puffs.



Shrimp and squid.



Butane flames.



The spread.

Delicious and Diet-friendly!

Deli Sandwiches from the Golden Rooster - September 14, 2009

Yes, these sandwiches tasted as good as they looked.



Jimmy's spicy salami sandwich. Whole wheat bread, everything on it, pickles on the side.



My house pâté sandwich. Rye bread, everything but butter, pickles on the side.

I'm not sure if these were technically within The Diet, but the veggies were exceptionally fresh. This late lunch cost less than $10, making it a favourite in our books. In fact, I think I might drop by for a sandwich tomorrow!

~ * ~

Golden Rooster Delicatessen
111 Princess Street
(Between Wellington and Bagot)
Kingston, ON
(613) 549-6540

Vietnamese Food Roundup from June

Our family eats a lot of Vietnamese food during the summer because of the abundance of fresh produce and herbs. This summer was no exception. The best part of eating Vietnamese food was being able to eat what I want—everything is within The Diet!

~ * ~

Homemade Banh Mi – June 5, 2009

I realized that banh mi was actually a really easy sandwich to assemble. So I made it. And it was delicious.



Banh mi sandwiches don’t taste good without margarine and a large schmear of pepper pâté.



Then I chopped up some coriander…



… and some leftover BBQ chicken. I was afraid that the sandwich would be a little bland, so I tossed the chicken pieces in soy sauce.



Here’s the finished product: my own homemade banh mi. I baked two baguettes (Costco’s frozen variety), sliced them, stuffed them with the aforementioned toppings, and added cabbage and carrot coleslaw from the fridge. I snacked on these all week, and I brought them to work for lunch.

These homemade sandwiches were far better than the ones we bought in Ottawa’s Chinatown (see below). I still can’t believe I didn’t think to make these before!

~ * ~

Banh Xeo – June 7, 2009

We went over to our aunt’s house for banh xeo, Vietnamese crepes stuffed with bean sprouts and ground pork.



The best banh xeo have crispy and light edges. The yellow colour comes from the turmeric in the batter.



A heaping mound of bean sprouts. It looks like a lot, but it’s the perfect amount for 10-15 people.



On the side, we had lemongrass pork on skewers. We also had rice for dinner, but most of us ate the banh xeo.



I minced chili and garlic together for the sweet fish sauce. Normally, the chili and garlic are supposed to be separate, but I was lazy.



Freshly washed basil, cucumbers, and leaf lettuce. Basically, you take a little bit of everything (minus the pork) and wrap it in a leaf of lettuce. Then you dip it into the sweet fish sauce with ground peanuts. It’s a stinky meal, but so freaking delicious!

~ * ~

Goi Cuon – June 10, 2009

Another Vietnamese favourite in our family is goi cuon. This one relies on less fresh produce, so we eat this year round.



My mum fried dozens of spring rolls (which disappeared quickly), and we made a simple beef and onion stir-fry.





The produce (basil and cucumbers) and vermicelli noodles.



This is a new brand of rice paper. It stayed chewy, but you could still easily bite through it.

First, you dip the rice paper in hot water and place it on a plate. Grab a little bit of everything, wrap it up like a spring roll, and dip it in the sweet fish sauce with ground peanuts. It can get a little messy, but working for your food makes it taste better!

~ * ~

Ottawa Banh Mi – June 15, 2009

We were craving proper banh mi sandwiches, so Christine bought a bunch from Ottawa’s Chinatown. They were fail.



The banh mi was truly awful. The bread was unappealingly spongy and the meat didn’t taste like anything. In fact, there was barely anything there. Even with the toppings (cilantro, pickled carrots and daikon, and cucumbers), this was a disappointing sandwich. I would not recommend buying these from Ottawa—stick with Toronto and Montreal where crappy sandwiches like these would run the store out of business.

~ * ~

Out of all of the Vietnamese food (banh mi, banh xeo, and cuon) I just mentioned, banh xeo is my favourite. Either way, these types of dishes are fantastic for The Diet. There’s an abundance of vegetables, and Vietnamese cuisine is packed with flavour. If it weren’t for Vietnamese food, The Diet would have failed miserably. Though my family scoffed at The Diet, they encouraged me to eat more Vietnamese food.

Well, it’s now 4:00 AM, and I can’t figure out how to conclude this post. So I’m just ending it.