This Week in Food

Will Ron Eade wake up with a head of lettuce in his bed?

First up is Ron Eade's column from Ottawa Citizen blogs, where he heaps some well-deserved praise on Kevin Mathieson (of Art-Is-In Bakery) for his bread. Eade says it's better than ACE bread (n.d.a.: no shit), and I for one am glad to note that the supply problems I was hurting from a year ago seem to be a thing of the past: whereas last year, getting your hands on Art-Is-In bread required much haste in returning home from the office, this year I find that retailers aren't consistently running out by late afternoon.

Eade calls New York Times' Mark Bittman's bread recipe a good replica of Art-Is-In's, which I have to humbly disagree with. Bittman's recipe is good, it's my go-to recipe for homemade bread, but I hardly think it's close to equal to Mathieson's.

I think it's awesome that he can get away with saying:

I'm not kidding when I say you need a six- to eight-quart heavy cast-iron Dutch oven with lid. Every kitchen should have one.

Yes, every kitchen should have one - but when I say anything like that, people roll their eyes at me. If you're a newspaper columnist though...

Amate

Got around to trying Amate (link goes to ottawafoodies.com) for some quick Mexican take-out. I came in a few minutes before they decided to shut down for the night, and ordered a tostada with some puerco pibil. Unfortunately, I only got a tiny spoonful, maybe 40g, of pork but hey, what I tasted was good. I think they're still going through opening pains and are a bit disorganized, so it's not fair to say more at this time - let's give them a few more months.

I'll probably try my hand at making puerco pibil myself (in more generous quantities) when I get a free afternoon.

Malak Pastry

I've lived in Westboro for over a year and had never tried Malak Pastry, despite it being right at Carling/Broadview - shame! It's a bakery offering up a range of baklawa (which I'll admit I know little about). I asked for the shopkeeper's recommendations and got a few samples to try before buying, and was incredibly impressed. Delicious! They weren't yet listed on OttawaFoodies, so I'm adding them presently.

foods++;

Finally, I've tried sauerkraut (at a corporate event at the office, no less), bringing my 100 Food countdown (previously blogged about) to 57% completion. Moving up 1% in two months is a rather pathetic pace, so I'm going to make a bigger effort.