May the Schwartz be with you!

We recently made an excursion to Montreal to see L’s other kiddo in his natural habitat (since he always heads our way. Well, at least since I’ve known him!) and naturally in the course of a visit, one must eat, so we decided to hit up a legend in the smoked meat world: Schwartz’s! (when in Montreal, eat Montreal smoked meat… it’s a no brainer, though hometown Montrealer and vegetarian kid had never partaken before, and decided it was time to take the plunge and try a bit. That’s the power of the Schwartz!) We made our way there on a Saturday just before noon and stood behind a few people outside (it was a beautiful day… finally!) waiting to get in.  I was kind of surprised, as this place is the place to visit. Where were the masses I expected to see??? Is this place not all it’s cracked up to be?

So about 10 minutes later at the most we were led into the very small and very full restaurant, sporting decor that would support the claim of 80 years in business. Plain, not modern, but clean, and gets the job done of serving people well, and fast. As our table had 6 seats (most did) another couple was tagged onto the end, unexpected, but that’s how it works there, they fill every last seat and it isn’t designed for the leisurely or those who need their “space”.  Server arrived with pad, pen and waited for someone to say something! My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to order, I just knew there were terms for what to get and I had forgotten what they were.  During the awkward pause he asked us if it was our first time. YES!!!! So he explained that you order a sandwich lean, medium or fatty and that medium was most popular.  You also had to have the black cherry soda (kiddos did, we had our usual soda soda haha) and of course had to have the fresh cut fries… and he told us we were getting a pickle… and a coleslaw! It was funny to be told what we were ordering, but that’s part of the pageantry I think.

Food arrived fairly quickly and looked delicious (FYI there is no spicy mustard, just mustard. What would you want to screw it up with spicy mustard for, which I wanted to, but now understand why they don’t carry it.)  Now I have had lots of pastrami and smoked meat sandwiches in my day, but truly nothing compares to this meat.  It was rich and flavourful and, well, greasy isn’t the word, but it has a fatty taste (a good one!) that makes you instantly realize that the stuff you’ve eaten your entire life is now going to taste like crap! And what needs to be said about fresh cut fries, they are a wonderful treat as always and attempting to fool yourself into thinking you will just split an order is really just a big unnecessary lie that will only last until the plate is approximately half empty. One more order please. Pickle: top notch. Coleslaw: good, but was not the star of their menu.

Devouring took very little time, and we left feeling happy to have made it to another food adventure on our list, full of deliciousness…. AND GRATEFUL WE SHOWED UP WHEN WE DID! Now there were the masses I was expecting to see, waiting outside, saying with their eyes: hey, another table just opened up! Only 45 more minutes to wait now! The early superfoodie catches the smoked meat!

K&L

Dam Good Tail!

Beavertails! A staple of Ottawa’s “must experience” tastes, as evidenced recently when President of the US, Obama, requested one of the delicious fried pastries on his visit to the “great white (not always, we DO have summer ya know!) north!”  And as many times as I have been to our nation’s capital, I have never had one, nor had L.

So after we had stuffed ourselves silly at pretty much my favourite Ottawa pub, The Highlander, where we had the most phenomenal service, we started to walk back to the car… past the BeaverTails stand… and the suggestion was made.  It had already been made during the weekend, but after what we had consumed, I thought we’d give it a miss again.  But L was motivated and the decision was made.  If not, when!? Now was the time! Carpe BeaverTail! So after having passed this stand so many times over many years, up we went, and the order was placed while standing in a cloud of delicious deep fried pastry smell.  Chocolate spread and bananas was the choice of the day, though there were many tempting combos. And it was glorious! And suddenly… I had room to take as many bites as L could share.  As heavy as these big, flat paddle shaped treats sound, it felt nothing like that eating it.   

Finally my curiosity and L’s sweet tooth were satiated, and it was worth the detour.  So when in Ottawa, save some room, or don’t… apparently it doesn’t make a difference, and get some tail!

K&L

Another 1000 clicks = lababdar!

So another 1000 clicks on the blog… K&L get a special scooby snack! Thanks to all of our visitors! This time it was in the form of delicious Indian food from our all time, can’t be beat, Indian restaurant: The Indian Kitchen, located in Thornhill, and I believe they have opened another Toronto area location, but I am not sure where.  Their old website link doesn’t seem to work, but the yelp link I have provided shows some delicious pics of their dishes.

We picked up the usual favourites: lababdar (creamy, tomatoey goodness with a slight heat), murgh multani, which I just call green chili chicken (a dry, tandoor, very spicy chicken dish), and finally decided to try their tandoori chicken, which I had only had there once, a long time ago.  Foolishly, we did not indulge in any breads (the paratha is the best I’ve had anywhere) or rice… which always leads to a puzzled response from the staff… I’m sure that very few order the food without those accompaniments, and I do recommend them highly, we were just keeping a bit restrained for that visit.

Since we decided to just get the food to go, it was a long ride home with the tasty cargo in the back seat, but well worth the wait when we served it up along with a nice red wine. So after sufficiently stuffing ourselves, we enjoyed immediately retiring to our living room, instead of having the long, full drive ahead of us. All in all an excellent celebration of racking up another 1000 clicks. I will mention that the prices do seem to have gone up a bit since we were last there, but with it being a place we only visit a couple of times a year, it’s still worth it for the quality of the food.  As for some of the bad reviews I have come across, I have been going there for over 10 years, and the familiar group of staff that were there for a long time seem to be gone, but I have no real complaints about the service relative to anywhere else.  I would always recommend it as a top spot for delicious Indian food.  If you do go, be sure to ask for extra mint chutney that they usually bring with the poppadums, it is outrageously tasty! Looking forward to wherever we end up after the next round of clicks…

K&L

superproducts!

This will be a fabulous new category of short and sweet posts about the most delicious product finds that will make your life more tasty or healthy or helpful… or any combination of those.  Hope that you enjoy them as much as we do and if you want to see them exclusively just click on the superproducts! category.  Soooo let’s get the fun rolling and start with a very new treat on the block: Fruttare Banana and Milk Pops!  We love banana and these are so creamy and soft with bits of banana in them, all for 120 calories a stick! Bought at Sobey’s, don’t remember the cost, 4 to a box. I’d pay anything they ask, they are superior! GO!

Connecticut… you’re out of order!

Totally out of order! Because we have to go waaaaay back to October 2012 for the goods on this post, despite already writing up the new years festivities. So…we had designs on revisiting friends and food down Connecticut way again, as we had the summer before (see posts Connecticut Connections and Hangover Town: Table for 2 ), but the summer got away from us and October ended up being the last month in the calendar that we were willing to make the drive before the risk of snow was in the mix.

Plans fell into place and we set out on the road early on a Friday morning, late October. The travel was long, but without issue and we got to try subs from a place called Jreck Subs, recommended by some contractors in Home Depot just after we crossed the boarder and thought there may be a Subway in there like there are in Canada. Now let me just say that in the states on the highway, there is a Subway about every mile it seems, so no problem finding our old familiar friend, but why not try something different. We thought they were saying “Direct Subs” so it’s lucky we actually found the right place! Italian subs on jalapeno sub bun… very delicious and different.

After many hours of driving, including locating a wine store near our destination to procure important supplies, we arrived at the hotel.  A quick beverage and freshening up and off we went to visit friends and critters. We got an awesome welcome from all! Then off to haunt the Black Duck again… this time I remember the food, but forgot to memorialize it with pictures.  All I can say is make sure you have their blue cheese dip, never had one as good as theirs anywhere! Great food and company and some late night visiting.  Turns out I’m allergic to something at the new place our friends moved to, but it was so warm that we could actually sit on the porch, which was the only way I would have been able to stay.

*Unfortunately, about a week later the Duck was almost under water due to Hurricane Sandy, and our friends were without power for quite a few days. They of course got through it with their usual sense of humour and if you can’t change it, just get on with it attitude!

Back to hotel… LATE! But up at okay time. Found a squash court/fitness centre to enjoy so we spent some time there “detoxifying”… I mean working out. We then decided we were too hungry, and it was too late to go back and get ready to go for lunch, so we went straight to the Valencia Luncheria, the delicious home of arepas and guasacaca sauce noted in our hangover post. And it wasn’t there!!! Is this another Snacky’s??? Nope, the arrow said it was just down the street and bigger and better than ever. And now licenced! Woo hoo! Batidos and sangria please! Along with all the other favourites from last year.

Later on, we had another visit where we were introduced to one of our now favourite cheeses: bellavitano balsamic vinegar , try it! Then we tried to go to  Wilson’s BBQ featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives, but they were closing. So we found a pizza place, oddly named World’s John’s Best Pizza, and ordered a large so we could have some for breakfast, but ate the whole thing… it was that good.

The next morning found us at Super Duper Weenie for our second visit before hitting the road for home.  We had a Chicago dog again, tried a Californian dog, and had some of their fresh cut fries.  Very tasty, but not the level of deliciousness of our experience the year before, when we wolfed our first Chicago dog in the jeep. A good base however for the long trip ahead.

Made it back to the great white north safe and sound. Very much enjoyed Connecticut 2012! Should we get an unexpected urge to drive about 20 hours in the span of a couple of days, we would go back there for sure! Hopefully the Duck is dry!

K&L

New Year? New Post to Toast!

Happy 2013 everyone! Well another year has flown by, and 2013 is likely to do the same, but it will be filled with superfoodies adventures that we will keep sending your way.  New years for me and L was somewhat the same as last year, but with A LOT less food. We rang in the year before stuffing ourselves silly before the work of 2012 was to begin.  L could not stuff even one more tiny bit of food in by the time we were through with the full on gluttony! It of course included the core meal that I have had for years: filet mignon (which is French for “cute fillet” or “dainty fillet”). Can’t remember the last new years that I did not enjoy my favourite steak, and L is now onboard with the tradition. As I mentioned though, it also contained many other foods like hot dogs cooked on our fabulous dog roller, chips, and any other snacks we came across in the course of the night. We couldn’t move and naturally felt awful, and we were at our heaviest. But we did enjoy it.

Starting the next day, our project began.  Get in shape! Hello treadmill in the spare room! Sorry about the extra gravity I will exert on you since we last met. And in addition to that old/new activity, L and I started playing squash 2 times a week, weights 3 times and watched what we ate for the majority of time, but splurged when we needed to or could. We stuck with the program through thick and now thin, through our wedding, gym closures, holidays, superfoodies food adventures, etc. pretty much without fail.  We can count the number of workouts we have missed mostly on one hand. The payoff? Well of course we feel better, we’re stronger, we’ve cleared our wardrobes of the clothes that no longer snugly encase us after shedding around 30 lbs each… the list goes on! A year later we are even more motivated to continue, and the evolution of what we do keeps us fascinated.

Which  brings us to new year’s eve this year.  We had a delicious, but super scaled down version of last year.  Started with some seared scallops. I have been trying hard to perfect a cooking method for these little suckers.  I think I have found one, check out the pic below and this recipe. The 2 keys are follow it closely (thoroughly drying the scallops works wonders) and buy fresh instead of frozen if possible. Now I know it looks overly “seared” shall we say, but trust, they did not taste that way, and they were not overcooked either.  I will use this method next time for sure.

Now onto the coveted main course! The day before I had melted some butter, mixed in a fair amount of dried tarragon flakes, and popped it into the freezer in little metal sauce cups. I cooked up a couple of potatoes (ugh, in the microwave, sacrilege I know!), and some fresh brussel sprouts, (which I pop under the broiler with some Club House Parmesan & Herbs just before serving.) Finally I pan fried the steaks to a perfect rare (don’t knock it till you try it) Assembled all on our plates, placed the frozen butter pats on top of the steaks for delicious tarragon flavour on the filets, and sat down to a treat of Amarone wine which L had poured earlier. Aside from not letting the butter defrost a bit before putting it on the steaks, everything was brilliant, and we love staying at home and not fighting crowds, getting the foods we want, how and when we want and enjoying a special bottle of wine without the worry of driving home.

Hope your night was as great as ours was and that 2013 lets all of us continue, or start some projects that keep us healthy and happy! Answer our poll under the pics and let us know how you like to spend your night!

K&L

Subway Hackers

There is a very interesting site (to superfoodies at least) on the interwebs called Ikea Hackers, where people take Ikea products, and do really cool, interesting, functional things to the original products. Brilliant stuff for sure!

So, in addition to our delicious exploratory food expeditions and culinary adventures, is our post workout staple: the Subway sub… cue the angelic music! What… not interesting enough?? sounds like the wrong thing to be eating?? Not the case!  It turns out to be a fast, yummy, calorically and nutritionally viable choice for us when we are done with the gym, if you pay attention to what you put on it of course. 

The bread is great for our carb intake, but cheese? Forget it, it has no taste from Subway… just a caloric fee for no flavour (sorry, that’s just the facts, and if you can taste their cheese buried amidst what you are probably eating on your sub, any standard meat sub, please correct me.) Meat choice is usually, but not limited to roast beef, and for L it is triple meat, which seems to CONFOUND most employees. We don’t know why.  Single is 3 slices soooooo triple, NINE! Easy math. There seems to be equal difficulty in how to charge for that particular request as well, every time/location, it varies. No sauces are added, just our choice of veggie compliments and some green olive slices for me and home we go.

This is where the “hack” comes in.  We have a massive arsenal of sauces and toppings that are all healthy and calorically friendly.  Once home, L makes 2 over easy eggs and adds them on top along with any combo of a hot sauce, or a Thai green chili mix that I make, some fresh green onions, cilantro and often some kimchi that we now make here… in mass quantities… since our restaurant that we used to get it from closed We have since perfected a very tasty, low sugar version of it.

I know it may not sound terribly brilliant, but for a reasonably healthy meal, that you can track the calories and nutrition of, try it yourself. Skip the cheese and sauces/dressings (mustard and  hot sauce excepted of course, no problem with those) and take your oblong treasure home and add the things you love from your own kitchen (that may even include a cheese that counts, a cheese with substance! Like a blue, some feta, a nice old cheddar, you get the idea) and enjoy! Food that you bring home from takeout can always be made even more delicious when you put your own spin and taste on it! Happy Hacking food lovers!

K&L

Is this the only Snacky’s in Aruba???? (Update!)

Yes! Well, it WAS the only Snacky’s in Aruba   Sadly, on superfoodies second trip to Aruba in October, we wandered down Palm Beach on Tuesday looking forward to a return visit to the little shack on the sidewalk. It was there, but locked up!  We dragged ourselves back to our hotel area and went back to Bugaloe Pier, which never disappoints.

Now the year before, the proprietor sometimes didn’t quite open at the times he said he would, so we had hope that this was the case, and were anxious to head back the next morning.  Which we did… only to find the same thing, Snacky’s very closed for business. Instead of continuing the daily torture, L popped into a shop near the shack and inquired.  They confirmed the worst.  Snacky’s don’t live here anymore.

You might think that being so close to South America it would be easy to locate another vendor of delicious arepas, empanadas and batidos, but you would be wrong and as disappointed as we were.

Fortunately since our first visit, we have mastered the art of the batidos and the arepa, so all was not lost, and L says he likes the way I make them better than anyone’s including Valencia Luncheria in Connecticut (which we did get to visit a few weeks after returning from Aruba, so we got our fix at last).  I choose to believe he is telling the truth

I imagine if we find ourselves back in Aruba, which I’m sure we will, we will have to check back, just in case it was a temporary spat between owner and shack… hopefully they have made up by then, and are making beautiful music… I mean delicious snacks…. together again.

K&L

MMMMilestones!

And we don’t mean the restaurant! We decided when we hit 5000 views/clicks we would indulge in either an old favourite we hadn’t had in awhile, or a new place we had been meaning to get to.  Oldest kiddo got a gleam in her eye when she heard this, and she was instantly instructed to not artificially inflate our numbers (though the unspoken offer of acceleration was appealing haha).

A couple of weeks ago we hit that number! (… as always, thanks for viewing!). We had already written the names of the places on pieces of paper, folded them up, and put them in a tupperware bowl, awaiting the draw.  L got to choose… well, he held the container and my younger kiddo plucked one out… which was quickly unfolded, and the winner was: SINATRAS!!!! a small Italian sandwich shop making a classic veal sandwich that we had not tried, but had heard a lot about.

L made a trip there while I waited at home.  I gave some input as to what I was looking for, but since he was picking it up, he had the final say. I will add that I was pretty sure what would be his input.  He returned with a sandwich-filled heavy brown bag full of delicious promise.  As I suspected, although the sandwich is already a monster, he still got double meat, and also had every topping available added as well.  I wanted an order of the spicy olives and they did not disappoint: firm, with a light oil and perfect level of spice.  Will be going back for those at the very least. He also got the soup of the day, pasta fagioli, which was good, but not the highlight.

So onto the sandwich.  It was huge and delicious, the veal was quite tender, the toppings were tasty, the only thing we would do if ordered again was get more sauce on it, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. We will Sinatras again another day, but not for awhile… it is a heavy hitting sandwich that needs pacing on it’s consumption intervals.  The name did not go back in the container, the rest still await, and we will draw again when we hit 6000 so click away and of course ”try the veal!”

K&L

Well Hellooooooooooo Dolly!

Welcome to our first “You Gotta Eat Here!” restaurant post! Back in the summer, which with the chill in the air seems soooo long ago now, we headed off to Ottawa for a visit with oldest kiddo and some good eats (and drinks of course). Besides a mandatory trip to Alirang as seen in a previous post, the other definite on the list was Stoneface Dolly’s.

The decor was clean and modern, with an open kitchen and we were quickly greeted and shown to our table. The service was excellent, my memory is slightly murky recalling our servers name, but she was a pro at her job for sure (she previously owned her own restaurant and hmm, I think her name was Deb??? So sorry for forgetting, I think it’s time for superfoodies to start taking notes!)

We started with some ravioli, a sun dried tomato goat cheese dip, and a couple of pieces of corn bread… that only L and I were interested in (oh well, more for us!) All worth having again, especially the dip. Then on to dinner.

Two of us had a dish called Veal Birds… I can’t tell you why they are called that… but they are incredibly rich, delicious solid meat wraps/logs (not a good idea to use “log” to describe food, but look at the pictures, it fits!) and tasted like nothing I’d had before! Everyone loved them, and they are still kind of haunting my tastebuds, whispering for me to come back. Rounded out the choices with a black bean pasta dish, and Jambalaya.  All well made, tasty, but not the very best Jambalaya I’ve ever tasted, but would order again. I was totally captivated by the veal though.

Now here is an above and beyond moment: we mentioned to the server that we were there specifically due to the tv show.  She asked why we didn’t order the “bobotie”??, which was a big feature. Told her that many reviews kept talking about how sweet it was, and I wasn’t liking that part.  She said we should come back and try it, but I mentioned that it would be months till we were back.  She disappeared and came back with a mini sample of it and 4 spoons! Now THAT’S service! It was great to get to try it, as I had regrets that we had made the call to leave it out.  Annnd, it was sweet.  A little too sweet maybe for my taste, others liked it, I would still order a full size one to try it again with all of the added bits on the plate that we may have missed, but I was right about the sweet.

So all that being said… do “you gotta eat here!”? I would say a big yes! Have those Veal Birds if nothing else, just make sure you live close by so you can feed your addiction to them after the first taste! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya…

K&L