Mmmmmmeat!

We're on a roll, can you tell? A few weeks ago, before we had to leave town, A and I decided we should go out for dinner. I told A he could choose the restaurant, which he begrudgingly agreed to do. I was expecting a reservation to one of our usual haunts, but A called me and told me to get ready - that we were going to Murray Street restaurant for dinner.

Murray Street Restaurant
@MurrayStreetKWC on Twitter
110 Murray St, Ottawa

I was SO excited. First of all, my husband used to be fairly, ahem, predictable, in his food tastes. Anyways, Murray Street isn't so far from our comfort zone, since they specialize in making tasty meats tastier. And as the title states, we love meat!

It was difficult for me to decide what to have, as the whole menu sounded delicious. A and I were both stuck on the same two menu items, so we each ordered one so we could share with each other.

I ended up with the pork (tenderloin? I think, it was a little while ago... ) with beans and a cider reduction. First of all, the plating is fantastic. Everything looked so great, and tasted even better. The pork was perfectly seared, and was very tender. I think my favourite part was the cider reduction, as it added a nice bitterness to the softness and mouth feel of the pork and beans. A very classic dish taken up a few hundred notches.

However, A's dish was the real standout. He ordered the beef brisket with sour cream spatzle and mushrooms. As you can see, again, the plating is fantastic. The colour of the beef is making me drool right now. Anyways, the beef was fork tender, and fell apart easily. The spatzle was a great side for the brisket, it was creamy and soaked up all of the tasty beef juices. I know this because I'm pretty sure I ate half of A's dish as well as my own!

All in all, service was good, food was amazing, and it was a great night out with A. Sometimes that's all a girl can ask for!

-K

Mmmmmaple!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. K and A have been dealing with a family issue back in our home town, but we are back and the posts will be coming at you steadily again.

So being from Northern Ontario, we have an appreciation for good Maple Syrup and there is none better than that from Gilbertson's Maple Products located on St. Joseph Island. K grew up with a cottage (or as we call them back home, a camp) on St Joseph Island and her and her family frequented Gilbertson's yearly during the sap run. I had only been to Gilbertson's once prior to this visit when the location was basically a shack with bench seating and you had to sit with strangers, not that it was a bad thing. Recently the location underwent a major renovation, well a complete rebuild truthfully and now offers individual tables surrounding a lovely fireplace.

But enough with the location, I know you guys only care about the food!

K and I both decide to get the Gilbertson's Sampler $11.95, which consists of a 7" diameter, uber fluffy pancake, a piece of French Toast larger than my head, Pure Pork Maple Sausage made in Northern Ontario using Gilbertson's syrup, and a choice of Maple Baked Beans, which I chose, or a cup of fresh fruit, K's choice.

My Breakfast!

K's Breakfast.

As you can tell my the pictures, this breakfast was pretty amazing! K couldn't finish all of hers,wimp. I however, destroyed mine. The pancake is massive and super fluffy. The french toast is also massive and perfectly cooked. The sausages and juicy and flavourful and my beans were smokey and had a nice hint of maple.

Oh, there was one more purchase we made, and some of you may or may not agree with it, but we don't go home often and had to stock-up!

4 Litre jug of Maple Syrup anyone? It will only set you back $63!!

So as you can see, we really enjoy our visit to Gilbertson's and will be going back next time we are back home and if any of you ever want to go visit St Joseph Island, we can recommend other places to go and fun/nerdy things to do!

-A

Lucy returns

When we got Lucy, we didn't crate her at first when we were at work. She, like many pugs, and other dogs, developed separation anxiety. This manifested in many ways, the most amusing however, can be seen in the picture below.

Twenty dollar pet bed from Wal-Mart - destroyed. So we began to crate her and haven't had many issues since. I mean, really, how can you get too mad at a face like this?

Buh?

Happy Friday.

-A

Belonging to a neighbourhood

Since we moved to Ottawa, we lived in the Sandy Hill area, usually as close to the University of Ottawa as possible, since K was going to school there. Recently, last summer actually, we realized that we needed more room, and couldn't afford to stay in Sandy Hill. We looked and looked for appropriate places, and just kept coming back to this cute little house in Vanier, close to Beechwood/New Edinburgh. Although we had heard rumours about the crime in the area, we've not experienced any of that since we've moved here.

The neighbourhood is extremely walkable, and there are many great places within walking distance - including the Scone Witch on Beechwood at MacKay. Last weekend before K and I went to go get a patio set for the backyard, we decided we needed a filling, quick, healthy breakfast. Off we went to the Scone Witch.

K got her usual, a vanilla cream scone with half devon cream and half raspberry jam. I've never had devon cream, but K tells me it's similar to cream cheese, except way, way better. The best part about these scones, at least the vanilla cream ones, is that you can peel them apart layer by layer so you can slather each piece with cream and jam.

I usually get the full brunch special, which is a full omelette with a piece of ham, but we were in a bit more of a rush that day, so I got the egg sconewitch (get it? like sandwich?) that had fresh scrambled eggs and ham in a cheddar scone. They also put some fruit and a (very light) salad mix around the plate. It obviously wasn't much, but I appreciated the small touch of the greens. This was the perfect breakfast for us. It's really nice to have such a great spot in the neighbourhood, and we will be customers of this spot for a long time to come.

-A

The endless search for awesome pizza

Sorry for being absent... I was in Toronto for a few days for business, then I needed a few days for recovery. I've also updated the macaron post with pictures, so you can see the magic for yourselves, and know that I'm not a total liar.

One of our Twestival co-organizers coined this phrase "the hanger" which is when you are so hungry that you start to get angry. Does this happen to anyone other than A and I? I hope it does, or else we have serious issues... So. This one night a few weeks ago we were low on foods in the pantry, so I thought it would be nice to go grab some food. Except I couldn't decide on anywhere to go, and when I did decide, that place was completely packed and couldn't fit us in. Anyways, we drove in circles for about a half hour until I finally suggested trying to see if the new pizza restaurant in Hintonburg, Tennessy Willems. When A called, they said there were a few seats at the bar they could squeeze us into. We had a serious case of the hanger at this point, so we drove there immediately.

The place itself is adorable. I don't have any pictures of the decor, because as I've said, we were only focused on the food at this point. We decided to share an appetizer and a pizza, so we began with a charcuterie plate. It had prosciutto, some terrine, and a slice of smoked duck breast.

Looks good doesn't it? And it was. The bread was homemade, which was a pleasant change from the Art-Is-In bread that is normally served everywhere (even though it rocks!)... My only issue was that I found it a bit pricey for $11, not outrageous, but I would have appreciated a little fig compote or something to really make it a great plate.

And the pizza! This is the boar sausage pizza with apples and mozzarella. I really wanted to like this, I did. And it wasn't bad pizza - I really liked the smoke that was imparted from the wood burning oven, but it just wasn't as fabulous as I had read in other reviews. I liked the flavours overall, I just wished I had chosen a pizza with a sauce, and this one seemed lonely without any. I also found it a bit oily, which may have been from what appeared to be the pizza chefs drizzling oil on every pizza that came out of the wood-burning oven. I didn't think this cheese-y pizza needed that, but again, pizza is all about personal preference right?

So, it wasn't my favourite pizza ever. On a whole, it was decent pizza with friendly service. I think I will try Tennessy Willems again to find a pizza that I like!

-K