Ken's Birthday Dinner at Sea King

With one of our younger cousins visiting from Toronto, a few of us got together for a small birthday dinner at Sea King. I headed to the restaurant after I was finished and met up with them (Andrew, Kevin, and Ken) there.

"Alright, what does everyone want to eat?" I inquired while getting settled into my chair. It didn't matter apparently. No one was picky. "Let's try something different then."


I knew I wanted to order the shrimp-stuffed crab claws as an appetizer. It was a special occasion, so why not? Sometimes you can find deep-fried shrimp balls during dim sum. This is the king of those -- the price reflects that too; $4.50 a piece.

The shrimp-stuffed crab claws arrived piping hot with a dipping sauce of an unthickened sweet vinegar sauce. They were super plump, bouncy, and juicy. Packed with sweet shrimp covered with fried vermicelli, dinner started off on a great note.


Kevin wanted to get the black pepper steak. I was thinking of ordering a casserole pot with veggies and vermicelli on the bottom. But Andrew said he wanted to get a vegetarian dish so we went with that.

Other than the steak being over-tenderized, everyone enjoyed the black pepper steak with their bowls of rice. The vegetarian dish had a strong canned bamboo taste. I was not a fan. This was the least favourite of our table.


The last dish I ordered was the stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp and egg sauce. I've read about the dish so often in other food blogs. I was eager to give it a try.

At first, it just looked like it was a plate of shrimp and sliced Chinese vegetables in a egg sauce. But there was rice noodles hiding underneath. The sauce was quite mild. The seasoned shrimps were the saltiest note of the whole dish, while the sliced Chinese greens added a textural crunch. I'm not sure if the dish was a true representation of how it should've tasted though. Is it supposed to taste so simple?


We wrapped up Ken's birthday dinner with some complimentary dessert of red beans.

When the bill came, I just laughed when I saw the breakdown of the pricing. The most expensive part of dinner was the appetizer. Yowzas! I'd still do it over again though. It was that good.

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Updated: Breakfasts at A&W

Our family has never been big fans of breakfast. Brunch or dim sum? That's another story. But when I have to open at work, I need to eat or else I'd be a sluggish zombie. I'm usually still waking up by the time I leave the house, so making breakfast is just not ideal -- whether it's the that morning or even the previous night. The sun is usually still waking up too.




And that's where A&W comes to the rescue. For a few months working at the Costco location in Merivale, I'd go to Tim Hortons for some morning coffee or tea. Some time at the end of summer, some one told me that A&W was open for breakfast. I was so excited! The last time I had breakfast at A&W was over 6 years ago in Kingston. Lucy and I loved their breakfast sandwiches made with hamburger buns. I knew what I'd order first.


Here's the breakfast sausage sandwich combo with a hamburger bun instead of an english muffin. The sweet fluffy bun provided a nice contrast to the salty sausage patties. The hash brown that was included was super hot and crisp. They were much better than the soggy thin hash browns at Timmy's.


One morning, I ran some errands before I went to work and so I was super early -- almost 2 hours early. So I tried out their classic breakfast and received a tray with my breakfast and a mug of coffee. The tray added something special. It was a nice touch. I got comfortable and enjoyed my classic breakfast while surfing the web on their free wifi.


I've since learned that their orange pekoe tea is a better option than their coffee.

Here's some bad news though. Earlier this past weekend, I planned to grab some breakfast at A&W before work but their signs were gone. I didn't walk up to the door. It looked closed so I walked across the street for some Timmy's.

There is good news! Their voicemail says that they've closed down their store temporarily from Nov. 11th to about Dec. 9th for renovations. Huzzah! I'm eagerly waiting until they're open for business again.

*Update on December 14th: I've heard that A&W has been reopened for a few days now. I can't wait to grab some breakfast soon.

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Ottawa's 1st Annual Poutinefest

Sparks Street has really been stepping it up lately with the sheer amount of food festivals being hosted this year.  Most people know about Ribfest, usually held in June, but the organizers also brought many of the same vendors back in October for Ribtoberfest.

Screen shot from Sparks Street Mall.

The newest addition to the food festivals on Sparks is Poutine Fest, going on NOW!  Although not completely necessary, I (Lucy) bought a $20 poutine pass that gives you five samples from the participating vendors.  They'll be great for sampling and figuring out which poutine we'd like to dine on, though it will probably mean that we'll be lining six times instead of just one or two.  These passes are sold in a small tent on the east side of Metcalfe and Sparks (block 1).  Otherwise, the vendors are selling the regular sized poutine at regular prices.

Poutine Fest is on now and runs until tomorrow night.  Check it out before it's gone, and make sure to vote for your favourite vendor!

Christine here:
Based on what I've heard, the lines are worse than Ribfest. It's probably because it's the first year for the event. But I think that Sparks Street will be more packed since there are vegetarian options too.

So here's my plan of attack. Depending on how busy it is, I might get the Poutinefest pass where you pay $20 and get five 8oz-small poutines from any of the participants. With that pass, I'll try to get poutine from 5 different places. I'll try to get one regular poutine (cheese curds, gravy, and fries), one with chicken gravy and, finally, a poutine that has unusual toppings. We'll see how that goes. Worse case scenario, we'll just go somewhere else for poutine.

I hear that there's also churros and mini donuts available for dessert too!

For those who have been to Ottawa's Poutinefest, what was it like? Which poutines were among your favourites?

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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