Canada Day 5 - Ottawa, Part 1

We'd arrived in Ottawa in the wee early hours of the morning and were fortunate enough to stay at the lovely home of C's best friend from high school. The next morning we were up and raring to go...

Here we were in Ottawa, the capitol city of Canada, the second largest city in Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the world...

Armed with several tips on where to go, we headed out in search of food and adventure...

Dessert at Chopin

Hey everyone! Yes, all 3 of you! Ha ha!

We're still in the Roncesvalles neighborhood of Toronto...trolling for dessert.  This street is also named Roncesvalles and there are a bunch of Polish places on this street. We just had our awesome home style dinner at Cafe Polonez. Now, we were going to walk a few paces down to Chopin!

It was still light out and the street was quiet...

Chopin is literally just steps away from Cafe Polonez. Chopin, if you don't already know it, is named after the Poland's beloved native son, the brilliant piano composer, Frederic Chopin (that's his face is on the menu, yo). I remember having to play some of his pieces when I used to take piano lessons. My favorite is the "Raindrop Prelude".  He's very difficult to play and I pretty much just play it like I have wooden hands!That's how good I am.   Pause for effect.  Ha ha, there's no way I can play "Fantasie Impromptu"! Give me the simplified version instead!

(from wikipedia's entry on Chopin):

"Chopin's Polish biographer Zdzisław Jachimecki notes that "Chopin at every step demonstrated his Polish spirit — in the hundreds of letters that he wrote in Polish, in his attitude to Paris's [Polish] émigrés, in his negative view of all that bore the official stamp of the powers that occupied Poland." Likewise Chopin composed music to accompany Polish texts but never musically illustrated a single French or German text, even though he numbered among his friends several great French and German poets."

Right on Freddy! Represent for the Poles!

We were only here for dessert...they didn't really have a lot of choices. Sorry this photo is blurry too. That's what I get for not using flash in the dark!  And notice it says "Live Entertainment" on the menu cover?

When we walked in, a waitress came over and told us we could sit anywhere we wanted. So, we chose a table in the back, by the bar and also near a TV where a few patrons were watching bits and pieces of the World Cup. At the same time, a bespectacled little old man wearing a brown shorts pulled high over his waist came slowly shuffling over...

He passed us by, sat himself down and began playing the piano as if his life depended on it. Yes, this man was THE advertised "Live Entertainment"!

In addition to Chopin, he expertly played other more modern/popular songs and intermixed them with the classical music which I thought was quite ingenious! I wish I could remember what he played; it was really cool to hear him play so effortlessly at the piano which was in sharp contrast to his painstaking shuffle. Here is a nice article about the woman who owns Chopin; I included it because it has a picture of the piano player!

So, here is the crepes with cheese that we ordered as our topper for tonight. There were three triangular cheese filled crepes topped with whipped cream and garnished with berries. I felt that the chocolate squiggles were a little too much though since the dessert was already sweet enough as it was.

It was the perfect dessert to share to such a long ass day of sightseeing and sampling different types of foods plus wine. Here's the view of Chopin as we left...

Time to head back to our hotel which was in the Financial District. Bert was able to get us a good rate because of the LuminaTO Festival (more info here). Apparently, this festival was going on that month and the rate was nearly $100 cheaper than it normally was. Well, hot dayumm!

Acording to wikipedia's entry on "LuminaTO":

"[LuminaTO]is a publicly-attended, multi-disciplinary arts festival held annually for 10 days each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.



Launched in 2007, Luminato features local, national, and international artists from a variety of genres; including, classical and contemporary music, dance, theatre, film, literature, visual arts, and design. Events take place in multiple indoor and outdoor locations throughout Toronto’s downtown core..."

Luminato 2010 ran from June 11–20. We actually saw stages scattered throughout the city for the festival. However, we didn't see any actual performances.

So, uh, yeah, he told the hotel reservation person that we were definitely going to be there for that!    Not!    On another note, we were fortunate to even get rooms being so close in time frame to the G20 Summit which is happening now as I type this.  So, thank you LuminaTO Festival for we were able to save some $$$!

One of the TTC streetcars...

I have no idea if this place is any good, the Gladstone Cafe. I snapped the shot because the sign advertised "poutine"!

And here's another Tim Hortons...they're all over the place!

I took these shots back at the hotel. These were the Polish candies they gave us with the dessert bill. Actually we haven't even eaten them yet!

I just realized something...these Canada posts are going to take forever! These were just two days worth! If you are patient and don't mind a few palate cleansers now and then (i.e. upcoming posts on Harar Ethiopian buffet and the brand spanking new Convoy Noodle house in Chula Vista), I'll be slowly getting through the Canada posts as best as I can. There is waaaay more to come! Stay tuned!

Dinner at Cafe Polonez

One great thing about being in Canada during the summer is that the sun sets at 9:30 pm!  Not 7:30 or 8:30 but 9 effing 30! We loved the longer day time hours here, especiall TC. I remember when we went to Vancouver several years ago in the summer, we enjoyed the longer daylight hours as well. Vancouver was pre-bloggng days. So here we are in the Roncesvalles neighborhood, which is known for its strong Polish presence.

(map courtesy of wikipedia, "Roncesvalles, Toronto")

(info from wikipedia's entry on "Roncesvalles, Toronto")"

"Culturally, the area is known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto, with prominent Polish institutions, businesses and St Casimir's Catholic Church located on Roncesvalles Avenue. The businesses along Roncesvalles have formed the Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area and hold an annual Polish Festival."

Here are some of the really nice houses we passed while looking for parking.

"There are a myriad of small businesses, most of which are independently owned and operated. These include specialty gift shops, pharmacies, grocers (including organic specialty), health food stores, clothing and shoe boutiques, cafes and restaurants, book and music stores, video stores, art shops, hardware stores and law offices..Roncesvalles is very well-known for the large number of small restaurants, cafés and specialty food shops of various cuisines. There are several bakeries and delicatessens found along the full length of Roncesvalles."

Here's an interesting factoid, which explains this statue (below):

(cont'd)

"Pope John Paul II visited the neighbourhood when he came to Toronto in 1984. He dined at the Sir Nicholas Tavern, which is now the site of the coffee shop Tinto. An enormous memorial was held on Roncesvalles Avenue when Pope John Paul II died, with standing room only on the street and sidewalks of Roncesvalles from Marion Avenue to Wright Avenue. The memorial was loosely centred around a statue of the Pope located at the St. Stanislaus-St. Casimir's Credit Union, a credit union for people of Polish descent. A tribute of candles and flowers around the statue continues today..."

Way to go Padre! Dude, they are Waaaay into Pope JP II here!

Since we can get Asian food any time in San Diego, we wanted to try Polish food, having liked it when we visited Chicago. Across the street, you can see Cafe Polonez, our dinner spot for tonight.

I checked on yelp and saw that this place came highly recommended and that is was family owned and run for about three generations.

I liked how the letters made shadows on the walls...

Their menu...

I wanted something different...

Bert suggested Cabbage Rolls...

I thought a Pork Schnitzel sandwich sounded pretty good...

The bread and butter was similar to the kind we had Country Style Hungarian...

Bert wanted a different Polish beer (he last had Okocim) so he asked the waitress for her recommendation and this is what she chose for Bert, the Zubr (rhymes with "goober", ha ha)...

Turns out the a "zubr" is a huge European bison. In this case, the Zubr is a Polish lager which contains 6.0% alcohol by volume and is brewed by Kompania Piwowarska SA in Białystok and Poznań.

We started off with the white Borscht (spelled barszcz in Polish):

The soup was nice and creamy (but not thick) with lots of dill floating around. According to the menu, the soup is a traditional Easter dish, known as "Barszcz biały or żur".

"White borsch is made from a base of fermented rye, usually added to a broth of boiled white fresh kiełbasa. It is served hot with cubed rye bread and diced hard-boiled eggs added to the broth, and horseradish is often added to taste." (wikipedia, "Barszcz")

In our case, there was no cubed rye bread nor was the hard boiled egg diced. In addition to the sliced hard boiled eggs, the soup also had a few slices of Polish kielbasa.

We also ordered the Placki kartoflane - which are potato pancakes usually served with sour cream. As you can see, these were quite large and were oh so good and melt in our mouth fantastic!

Here is the Pork Schnitzel sandwich that we all shared...I desperately wanted to eat something breaded and fried! I ended up deconstructing my portion of the sandwich and picked it apart like a rhesus monkey grooming it's offspring.

These were the Golabki, cabbage leaves stuffed with pork and rice served with sauerkraut and a variety of pickled vegetables (beets, carrots), mashed potatoes and sliced fresh vegetables (cucumber and tomato)...TC really liked the cabbage rolls. I, on the other hand, liked my soup with the potato cancakes more.

The service here was really good..efficient and friendly. The vibe was very chill too. Lots of couples and a few families were here that evening. We were near the kitchen so it smelled really good from where we were sitting.

After all this Polish comfort food that we had for dinner, it was time to have dessert! But no, we weren't going to have it at Cafe Polonez...Instead there was another small Polish place just a few doors down...

Chicago: Day 1 - Czerwone Jabluszko Polish Buffet

[This post actually written on Saturday 10/3 while in the Lobby of this waterpark hellhole in Wisconsin Dells. Can't wait to get back to Chicago tomorrow!]

This will be quick and I'll add more commentary later... [update 10/15....extra comments added!]

This was dinner our first night in Chicago, Czerwone Jabluszko, also known as the Red Apple Polish Buffet! See the yelp reviews here and a post by local Chicago foodblogger, the lovely Joelen from What's Cookin' Chicago? (Joelen's Culinary Adventures with Friends and Food). By the way, I had the opportunity to exchange emails with Joelen prior to our Chicago trip and we were able to meet her for dinner. That will be a separate post in a few days!

After pondering our many dinner choices in Chicago, we decided on a cuisine we hardly ever see in San Diego, Polish...And after reading about Joelen's recommendation, we had to go here. Bert is all about meat and potatoes. Check out the waitress on the left hand side...She was in her 50's, Polish, and a total riot! She also had on some sort of "outfit" or perhaps national costume...A really short skirt with a vest and white blouse. I wanted to see her carrying to huge beer steins in each hand. Seriously though, it's like the Polish Hooters here.
There were a lot of locals there, as well as people speaking in different languages. Some of them, I presume, were Polish because they were conversing with the waitresses. This is the bar area. One of the waitresses (seen below) was a cute young girl with a pixie haircut. The flat screen was showing some sort of Polish soap opera.
The buffet was quite extensive..I actually took these pix after dinner (not before getting dinner) and also when no one was in line. I felt so self-conscious with my camera. The reddish glow comes from the heatlamps. There was a lot of meat and fried stuff. I mean A WHOLE LOT OF MEAT! AND STARCH! AND MORE STARCH!

The middle row had (from the top) broccoli, then beets, and dumplings in a white sauce. The row on the left (from the top) had Pork Stew (the sauce was really something else! Loved the seasonings in there) and then you had Fried Liver with onions (which I had and liked). The row on the right had "schnitzel" (bread and fried ground pork) and I don't really remember what was below that. I wanted to try everything but exercised restraint because I wanted to sample just a little bit of what I'd never tried before. One thing I did notice, there's a lot of "brown, beige and white" food here! Everything is stewed, fried, or boiled until it is (colorless) rendered colorless.
There were some Polish sausages (middle left), then chicken wings (is that Polish?), at 5 o'clock were meatballs in sauce and at 7 o'clock, sauerkraut.
More of the buffet line. They also had a salad bar but I didn't get anything because the vegetable selection was kind of small and the produce didn't look that great to be honest. There was also a fruit bar, ditto on the fruit selection and quality. I think the heatlamps pretty much kill the "fresh" factor. Their "Hawaiian" salad looked a bit gross - it was marshmallows over pineapple and it was pink and green. Think of preppy Izod shirts from the 80's with the collar up. Or better yet, Le Tigre!
This photo was taken by TC - I had her doing some of my dirty work. The buffet actually continued in another room. They had the potato pancakes there as well as apple fritters, cheese blintzes, and some other items that I can't recall.
Remember the waitress earlier? She asked Bert (in her Polish accent), "You like draft or bottle"?" and without waiting for a response, she said, "I get you bottle". And off she went! She brought him Okocim, a Polish beer (pronounced "Oh-Koh-Cheem", accent on the last syllable). She leaned in closely toward's Bert and emphatically declared, "Okocim!"
Our super nice waitress started us off with soup. There were two kinds - the first was Ukrainian Borscht (beet soup)...this was really tasty on a cold day. The soup had bits of beets, onions, and red beans and was quite hearty. The other soup was your standard chicken noodle soup (this was TC's).
My plate - clockwise at 10 o'clock, Liver & Onions, Stuffed Cabbage, Pierogis (cheese and meat), mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, in the middle was a piece of broccoli (duh) and at 6 o'clock was one meatball with white sauce and then a piece of salmon.
Another plate of mine had the pork schnitzel, a potato pancake (I loved these! Very thin and crisp and flavorful!) and a cheese blintz.
Bert's plate - at 9 o'clock we have Pork stew, then pierogis, some breaded thing (not a schnitzel), I don't know what was below that (but it was delicious), and mashed potatoes.
My 2nd plate - See? Another potato pancake! Then beets, mushroom gravy, a piece of pork from the pork stew and a meat piergo at 6 0'clock. Not sure what was on top of the beets though. I didn't grow up eating beets so I try to eat them whenever I see it. The beets actually had a sweet quality to them and were grated.
We sat next to the dessert case...Lots of mini pieces of cakes with creamy fillings. There was also a gritty jello dessert with fruit inside. Another type of dessert was cake with cherries in the middle. Since I only had one piece, I can't really tell you about the other desserts. Sadly though, my one tiny piece of cake was too dry.
This was my cake bite - coffee'ish cake layers with caramel and cream...Here's a list of the other Polish beers offered...
Posters near the entrance. Oh yeah, Bert told the waitress that he liked the "Okocim" and she said, "See? I told you!"! She was like a kindly and slightly pushy mother! Everyone here was very nice and friendly...
Here I am under the Red Apple sign! I wish we had a joint featuring this kind of Polish comfort food in San Diego!
That's it! Our first day in 3 parts...More to come!