I’ve tried hard over the years, to make it to the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. I decided to take Friday and Tuesday off of work and visit Ottawa AND Montreal. This particular blog post will be dedicated to the Ottawa segment of the trip.

As always, the first thing I did upon arriving in Ottawa was to stop at Golden Palace (2195 Carling Ave) for an egg roll (or two). Please google “best egg rolls in the world”,….guess what appears?

It also dawned on me that I hadn’t been to Perth for a while so on Saturday we headed to this charming city to visit their farmer’s market.

Naturally I wanted to buy something and this product intrigued me. I’m thinking of putting it on a piece of salmon and then baking it. What do you think?

I didnt’ buy this Loon Kombucha but I should have! #next time

After the farmers market we drove back to Ottawa and went directly to Dow’s Lake to visit the tulips. Please forgive me but I’m going to bore you with a few photos of some beautiful tulips.

See what I mean? One flower is more stunning than the next one!

I can’t decide which photo I like best.

I had a little bit of energy left to drop by Seed to Sausage (729 Gladstone) to pick up a bottle of this root beer syrup by Michael’s Dolce. I had been seeing this product on Instagram and was waiting to return to Ottawa to pick up a bottle, so I was thrilled that I have my hands on it!!

 After our quick trip to Ottawa, we proceeded to Montreal.

Stay tuned for Long Weekend: Montreal – Part 2.

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As always I have just returned from another trip to Ottawa. As you know, I visit regularly (every 6 weeks) and on each trip I discover something new that delights my taste buds (and sadly my waistline too).

Here’s a few highlights:

1. Harvey and Vern’s Ginger Beer. Hands down the best ginger beer I’ve ever had. Sadly I only bought one bottle. WHAT WAS I THINKING (please don’t answer!!). Next time I’m picking up a half dozen bottles. Seriously.

2. Callaloo Jamaican Patty from The Piggy Market: (400 Winston Ave, Ottawa) I love something interesting and this was indeed something interesting!! The pastry was perfect and the filling was flavorful too. So glad I dropped by this amazing store.

3. Hummingbird Chocolate has joined forces with Michaels Dolce Candied Ginger ….to make the perfect chocolate bar. It was introduced to the public at the Ottawa Farmers Market on Sunday Aug 4th and I’m confident that others will also give it a THUMBS UP!!

4. Albacore Tuna Crudo with Lemon Truffle Oil, Puffed Rice and Young Cilantro from Supply and Demand (1335 Wellingston St. W. Ottawa) Many thanks to @simplyfresh for tweeting me about this dish. Can you say “heaven?”.

5. Ministry of Coffee. Again, many thanks to @AMWATERS for tweeting me about this brand new cafe that opened up on Elgin St.  I enjoyed a wonderful “Cortado” which is a shot of espresso with both cream and milk. Will definitely be returning for more!!

6. Bombs from It’s a Matter of Cake (Ottawa Farmer’s Market) These are not cake pops. Not even close. They are simply dense and delicious. My mom bought a bag of 6: Chocolate Peanut Butter, The Split, Oatmeal Nutella, Maple Carrots, Smokey Bacon, and the Dark Horse. When we got home…the knife came out and we started to split each one in half. Then we started  saying words like: “ohhhhh” and “ahhhh” and “freaking h” and “unfreakin believable”. Clearly we loved each and every bomb!!

Can you tell I had another amazing trip to Ottawa? I’m already looking forward to my next trip in September!!

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Like Tea? Want to learn  more about Tea? Here’s your chance!! Toronto will be host to its first Tea Festival at the Toronto Reference Library on Saturday Feb. 2nd, 2013. Momwhoruns will definitely be there to check it out and I hope you get a chance to check it out as well. I think the timing of this festival is perfect seeing as the entire week has been rainy, grey and miserable!! (Don’t get me started about the weather).

The Tea Festival will feature:

• Tea and culture
• Tea service items and equipment associated products and services
• Food and tea pairing ideas (think tea and chocolate, tea and cheese, tea and Michaels Dolce Jam)
• Tea-related food and drink 

Here’s the flyer.

What a great idea!!

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Just returned from a whirlwind trip to Ottawa. Nothing quite beats spending Canada Day in Ottawa. Naturally I started off celebrating Canada Day at the Ottawa Farmers Market. (now located at Brewer Park and not at Landsdowne Park). The trip  to the market was highlighted by the fact that I saw Toronto Foodies: @AS_Toronto and A Food Gypsy there!

3 Toronto Foodies with Michael Sutherland (from Michaels Dolce)

We all seemed to bump into each other infront of Michaels Dolces Booth. After hugs, photos and introductions I had the chance to wander thru the market to discover Brewgels. What a awesome concept (in my humble opinion). I ended up my visit to the market by bumping into FoodiePrints. How perfect.

Can you read the list? Oatmeal Stout, Strawberry Fruli, Coffee Porter…

Notice the dark color of these bagels..due to the infusion of porter, stouts and more!!

ps Sorry didn’t taste the bagels as I’m still on this carb free diet! (argghhh)

On our way back downtown, we stopped into Bridgeheads’ new Roastery, which just opened this past week. (thanks Twitter for the update!!). I am so glad that we stopped here to see this 15,000 sqf space that now houses their head office, a coffee shop, and training centre. Congratulations Bridgehead!!

134 Anderson Street

What a great space for a tweet up!!

After enjoying our coffee it was time to walk by the Parliament buildings. No shortage of proud Canadians. Downtown was mobbed and it was GREAT to be there.

The perfect place to be on Canada Day

Then we went to the Byward Market to walk around and watch the soccer game at Smoque Shack.(129 York St).  The air condioning, great staff, amazing deep fried pickles and the beer – made it a welcome stop for us to get out of the sun and rest our feet for a bit.

On the stroll back to my parents condo we stumbled across this vendor on Sparks St. I just HAD to try it. I have never seen this “new way” of serving potatoes before, have you?

due to the carb free diet – I only had ONE potato slice. I swear.

At 10 p.m, we stood behind the Supreme Court building to watch the spectacular fireworks. Not a bad way to end a great day!! Hope you had a meaningful Canada Day as well.

PS. One more thing: I really meant to try two new restaurants: Brothers Beer Bistro (366 Dalhousie) and Big Rig BrewPub (2750A Iris St). Sadly didn’t have enough time, but these two restaurants will be on my radar for my next visit. Tweet Up anyone?

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My last visit to Ottawa was in December, which means a lot has happened in regards to new restaurants opening up!!  Therefore, I was on a mission to visit these new restaurants even though my trip was a quick one.

I had been tweeting with @AMWATERS about my trip and she suggested we have a coffee at Bread & Sons (195 Bank St). I’m always eager to visit new coffee shops even though I’m a huge fan of Bridgehead. While sipping coffee, we shared a croissant which was buttery and chewy and quite perfect!! I had my “eye” on the butter tarts but decided to try it on a future visit.

Cool presentation!

Then we met for lunch at a new Taco restaurant that recently opened called Taco Lot (995 Wellingston St. W). I inhaled a super fresh taco and can see why Ottawa has embraced this new restaurant as the city was kind of lacking a place to eat a really good taco.

Really. Really. Good.

Seeing as the taco was more of a “snack” – we headed over to Hintonburg Public House (1020 Wellington St. W). We shared an order of fish and chips and noticed that all the surrounding tables had ordered the same thing. Clearly this a a hit on the menu! We were impressed with the food, service and ambience – no complaints.

Perfect.

Due to the fact that Isobel’s was a few stores down, (1018 Wellington St. W) I went in to grab a vanilla bean cupcake with cream cheese dressing. I couldn’t resist.

I encourage everyone to visit Wellington St. West  – it’s truly a happening neighborhood. (referred to as Hintonburg). You can visit lots of fabulous stores and restaurants without having to move your car once!! SCORE.

In the afternoon, I headed over to see my foodie friends  at Michaels Dolce to check out their new kitchen facility. This couple is super interesting and super talented and I was thrilled to have had a few minutes to drop by.

Available in Ottawa AND Toronto!!

For dinner I headed out once again to Wellington St. W. I was excited to catch up with @FoodiePrints and they suggested we eat at Hintonburger (1096 Wellington).  I ate the falafel veggie burger while chatting with this lovely young couple about food, social media and more food!!

The next day, I made sure to visit 3 places very quickly before heading out:

1. Art-Is-An Bakery: to pick up 3 fantastic loaves of bread

2. Rideau Bakery: to pick up challah and rye bread.

3. SuzyQ Doughnuts: to pick up 2  (yes, only 2), salted caramel donuts. By the way – I was introduced to these donuts at the Farmers Market last year, but just recently they opened up a retail location at 991 Wellington St. West. I’m thrilled for them.

Next time Im buying 3.

It was a great trip that combined inhaling great food and spending time with family and friends. Even the weather cooperated. Looking forward to my next trip already.

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