Papusa Festival

On the September long weekend my folks were visiting and Bonnie had heard about the Papusa Festival taking place at Brewer Park.  So we dragged Mom there as she had never had a papusa.

 

Papusa's are an El Salvadorian dish, their version of a corn 'pastry' stuffed with something.  We got our initiation into papusa's from a small restaurant close by Bonnie's which was run by an El Salvadorian woman.  The breakfasts which she made were incredible and Emma and I were some of her last customers prior to the restaurant closing.  There is nothing like a chicken papusa and refried beans for breakfast and the delicious creamy sauce that was drizzled on the beans was incredible.  Like the best bechamel sauce I've ever eaten.  We were very sad when the place closed up.

 

So the day ... which was beautiful, sunny and warm started out with a bit of a negative spin.  I was already nursing a very sore heel and was in a lot of pain walking.  As we were crossing (behind) the soccer field to where the food stands were set up ... and I got hit HARD right on the back of my leg and heel with a soccer ball.  It hurt so much I actually fell down.  I think Bonnie thought I got shot I went down so fast!  But ... whether it was a healing hit, or my foot was on it's way to being back to normal on its own, by the end of the day I was walking much better and no longer in pain by the next day.  Maybe all my heel needed was a good, swift kick in the soccer ball! 

 

 

Anyway ... we were there for the food.  And there was plenty of it.  All South American specialties.  Bonnie started with a sweet empanada; I had a taste ... it was some sort of dessert empanada.  It was too sweet for me, but Bonnie liked it.  She didn't realize when she bought it that it was a sweet, so she thought she would have preferred it after having eaten our savouries.

 

I started with the chicken papusa, happily from the woman that used to run the restaurant that introduced me to the papusa.  It is served with a zesty cabbage slaw on top along with the chef's version of some kind of tomato topping.  This one is a tomato puree with (mild) spices.  And its absolutely delicious.

 

 

The corn pastry is flattened by slapping it from hand to hand.  You would not believe how many absolutely adorable older El Salvadorian moms and grannies were there making their version of the papusa.  They they are baked, typically these days on a panini press but at the festival there were some very creative cooking ideas, from barbeques, toaster ovens, panini presses and deep fryers.

 

I also wanted to try the tamales too because I see Bobby Flay and Aaron Sanchez making these or featuring them on one of their ... what? 100?? shows on the Food Network.  The tamale is a corn husk filled with a corn meal mixture.  They can have fillings of meat or cheese but the one I got was just corn.

 

corn tamale ... still wrapped

 

Honestly, the tamale was disappointing.  It was just a kind of wet corn bread.  It definitely needed a tomato topping or some meat.  It was quite bland and the texture was a bit odd.  For someone who LUVS corn bread/corn meal muffins, I wouldn't be rushing out to try these again.

 

Finally, at the recommendation of a young El Salvadorian cutie we decided to try some savoury empanadas.  He was definitely giving the hard sell on the cheese empanadas (don't know if it was his granny making them) but the line up at her stand also suggested to us that this granny's food was the real deal authentic El Salvadorian.

 

 

We got two cheese empanadas.  They seemed to be filled with a mixture of a sort of ricotta type cheese and maybe a cream cheese.  They were very good ... Bonnie being the bigger cheese fan than me LOVED them.  You see this version has a chopped tomato kind of salsa fresca rather than a tomato puree as an accompaniment.  The other empanada that we tried was the beef one.  I definitely preferred this one. The beef was mildly spicy and flavourful. The empanadas were deep fried and were nice and crispy on the outside.

 

 

I believe this was the second year for the Papusa Festival and they advertised it with "even more" food vendors than last year.  They certainly delivered on that.  It was a nice day and there were several soccer matches going on throughout the day, which I'm sure lots of the community members came out to watch.  But besides the food and soccer (oh and some outrageously loud El Salvadorian music) there was not much else going on.  It was good to kill an hour of time and sit outside on a gorgeous sunny day, and eat some yummy food that we don't get a chance to have often.  However, for us, we could not have spent any more time there ... not being interested in the game ... oh and all the announcements being made in Spanish so we could not understand anything that might be going on!

 

Brothers Beer Bistro

Ok ... I'm doing my best to get caught up on my bloggings ... I'm only one person!  And it seems that I eat A LOT!!!!  Moving on to the end of August, my two former students Caitlin and Ivana and I made plans to get together one Sunday night.  At the last minute, Ivana decided to bail so that left Caitlin and I.  We decided to check out Brothers Beer Bistro in the market, at the corner of Dalhousie and George Streets.

 

I had driven by a number of times and I loved the look from the outside so I was glad when Caitlin suggested it.  Of course I also love that its a "Beer Bistro" ... I don't exactly know what that means except:  beer goooooood; bistro goooooood!

 

I arrived first and suggested to the hostess that we would like to sit at one of the tables in the front window.  Clearly the place was not packed (being a Sunday night in the market and all) but she did tell me that they had reservations at 9pm (it was only 7pm) so we would have to be gone by then.  Uuuuhhhhmmm ... unless there is some huge back up in the kitchen that shouldn't be a problem ... and really that that's kind of on them!  But alternatively, perhaps we could be seated at one of the other two window tables???!!!?  Seriously.

It's a really nice place.  Hardwood floors and exposed brick wall.  It's warm and inviting and the waitress (who Caitlin knew from UOttawa) was friendly and pleasant.  She gave Caitlin a beer sample when she was unsure what she wanted to order.  Oh, and they don't brew beer at Brothers but virtually everything that they prepare is made with beer.  To start, they brought us some fresh baked bread with house made herbed butter.  OMG ... good good good.

Surprise, surprise Caitlin ordered the mussels.  I told her that if she orders mussels the next time we go out I am never going to go out for dinner with her again!  She just really loves mussels apparently.

 

They had beef tongue in them ... which she delicately picked out and declared they were delicious. Whatever.  I do enjoy the 'take out' container of fries that was served on the side.  The beer that the mussels are made with is Camerons Cream Ale.  They also make beer pairing suggestions ... which neither of us followed!

 

I choose the Kitchesippi fried chicken.  It comes with a cornbread waffle and house made coleslaw.  Obviously, it is cooked with Kitchesippi beer.  The chicken was outrageous.  It was soooo crispy on the outside but so moist and tender inside.  I think this is possibly the best fried chicken I have ever had.  The cornbread waffle was crispy and flavourful.  I loved it.

 

 

The only thing I would have changed was the malted honey that was poured over the waffle.  I found it very sweet and somewhat fruity in flavour.  It wasn't bad, it was just too sweet for me and I've never been a big fan of maple syrup/honey.  If I ever ordered it again, I'd ask for the syrup on the side.  In fact, there is a side of gravy that comes with the fried chicken which was EXCELLENT.  Caitlin dipped some fries and was totally in agreement that it was super tasty.  If there had not been any honey on the waffle, I would have been super happy to just pour the gravy on it!

 

 

We had an excellent meal.  I would definitely go back again ... and I see that they have already changed their menu so there are new choices to try (although it will be really hard to NOT order that chicken again ... mmmmmmm, yum yum yum).  The food is excellent, the beer selection is top-notch, the service was very good and the atmosphere is warm, inviting and friendly.  As we were heading out, Caitlin ran into someone else that she knew, so clearly Brothers has the support of the market neighbourhood residents.

 

Post script:  I have been out for dinner with Caitlin since and she didn't order the mussels so we are all good!

Big Rig Brewery

 So the last week of my summer vacation Marlene and I headed out to check out the new brewery "Big Rig" which opened near Ikea in the old Le Bifteque Ottawa location.  This place is owned by an Ottawa Senator (hockey player not member of the Senate) and don't ask me which one because I don't know and I don't care.  Look it up if you want to know!  Its a good location with a HUGE patio and it was a sunny day (prior to our arrival) so we decided to sit outside.  Oh, and being a week day, it seems the patio is a business man's luncheon spot.  Marlene & I were the only table of women; there were two tables of couples and every other table on this massive patio were all mans!  We didn't mind that!

They have a beer sampler, which we chose to get a good overview of the beers they make.  I mean it's beer ... of course I loved them ... some more than others and ironically the ones I preferred were Marlene's least favourite and vice-versa, so that worked out perfectly.

Marlene decided on the club sandwich. 

All the sammies are served with cole slaw and your choice of a variety of sides.  Marlene and I both had the fries which are hand cut and crispy.  Really good, homemade fries.  And the cole slaw is fresh and zesty with a hint of cilantro which, of course, I really loved.

Marlene said the club house sandwich was good.  It looked pretty good and it certainly is massive ...

 

witness:

I had the Philly's Grilled Cheese and Beef.  The description of this really intrigued me:  slow roasted beef and mushroom gravy between a grilled cheese sandwich.  The menu suggests that you are going to need a knife and fork to eat it ... oh its gonna be messy!  Now there is a huge trend in the States (at least on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) to serve 'anything' between a grilled cheese:  burgers, grilled chicken, westerns, etc., so I thought I better check this trend out and see if it's worth all the hoopla.

 

In fact, the beef is not sandwiched between the grilled cheese.  It is sitting in a pile on the plate with the sandwich arranged around it.  There is no connection between the sandwich and the beef - it seems as if you've ordered two entrees.  The beef, although the menu claims to be slow roasted, it tasted to me like deli sliced beef.  There was very little flavour.  The mushroom gravy (what little there was of it) had a decent flavour but it was over-reduced and was thick and verging on gelatinous.  And the grilled cheese:  the menu states that it is made with aged cheddar.  In fact it was some sort of herbed cheese ... if I were to guess I would say it was herb and vegetable Havarti, which would have been totally fine with me had there been more than a one millimetre thin slice on the sandwich so you could actually taste it.  This was a definite rip off, for the price and poor description in the menu, and really ... it didn't taste good.

 

As we proceeded to eat it began to drizzle lightly.  We were able to snuggle under the patio umbrella and the waitress was perfectly happy (and very pleasant through our whole meal) to let us stay on the patio in the rain (unlike the Barley Mow!).  We appreciated that, and especially because very shortly the rain blew over and the sun was back out.

 

 

There is no question despite the food and a bit of unpleasant weather Marlene and I had a great time together, as we always do.  There is barely time for eating when we are together because we (well admittedly mostly me) never stop talking!  If you want some beer and good fries you can check out Big Rig, but otherwise, don't bother.  Marlene and Issie went one other time and Issie had the burger which he said was terrible.  In fact, when he questioned the waitress she admitted that they get their burgers in frozen; they don't make them in-house.  Fail.  Seriously, don't bother with Big Rig.  It's not worth it.