Month: May 2009

Restaurant May 11, 2009 The Waffle 3 Comments A lot of ink and virtual ink has been spilled since the Dijongate broke almost a week ago, but in this corner we feel that we should weigh in with some analysis. The controversy arose when President Obama and Vice President Biden paid a visit to Ray’s Hell Burger, a famous eatery in Arlington, VA. Biden had a Swiss cheese burger with jalapeño peppers.  ”Do you put ketchup on it, or do we have to do that ourselves?” Biden asked. And here we have Obama, ordering his burger:   “Hi, I’m gonna have a, just your basic cheddar cheese burger, medium well.  I just want mustard, no ketchup.  You got a spicy mustard or something like that, or a Dijon mustard, something like that?” There you have it.  A spicy mustard, or a Dijon Mustard.  Not unsimilar to the mustard needed for W’s…

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General May 9, 2009 The Waffle 1 Comment This guy, a permanently drunk blogger from Quebec, is presenting his technique for grilling burgers on his BBQ. .

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Restaurant May 8, 2009 The Waffle No Comments After a lengthy and useful meeting with our advertising firm in Montreal, we ended up going for lunch with one of the partners to continue our discussions. After a short detour, walking around the “under construction” neighbourhood in downtown Montreal, he brought us to Nyk’s Bistro-Pub on de Bleury. Nyk’s is quite popular – the place was packed, even though it was already 12:30 PM.  The hostess welcomed us and charmingly informed us that we would be seated in two minutes, the time needed to clean a table.  Alas, it was two minutes Montreal-style, and the four of us finally sat down 10 minutes later. The place is very warm – mostly wood, some red brick, it is meant to look like an old-time Inn, but branché.  Quite a nice spot, on a prime location, they do squeeze a lot of people in here,…

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General May 6, 2009 The Waffle 1 Comment As promised, I supported Canada’s pork industry today in the East Block Courtyard. I showed up early in order to scout the location and chat with the reporters who were on site to cover the event – CBC had a live truck, RDI was also doing live hits; TVA, CTV, OMNI, CP, Maclean’s and the Hill Times were also on the spot. It seemed a bit disorganized at first – I showed up at 11:30 sharp, and they didn’t seem to be ready.   They were moving stuff around, setting up a sound system.  Worse, the BBQs weren’t blazing! Two long tables were set up with non-pork items – cookies, brownies, vegetables, cheese.  No sign of pork.  I started to get a little worried – did they forget to bring some hog along? A few minutes of waiting around and talking to…

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General May 5, 2009 The Waffle 2 Comments Collateral damage of the outbreak of swine influenza has been Canada’s pork industry –  they are worried about the short and long term impact especially since China has imposed a ban on Canadian pork. Canada exports over $2.7 billion of pork, from bacon to smoked ham. Pleasently, studies have estimated that Canada’s 13 million pigs produce enough waste to fill Toronto’s SkyDome every 25 days. That is probably why staffers and politicians on Parliament Hill just received this timely invite : ————————————————————————– Canadian Pork Producers Invite you to a “Pork BBQ” Wednesday, May 6, 2009 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. East Block Courtyard, For additional information Phone: (613) 236-9239 ext 232 E-mail: info@cpc-ccp.com Come show your support ————————————————————————– . —————————————– UPDATE 2009-05-06 9:47:57 I guess they are worried about people not showing up because of the weather. I just received a reminder: “We have…

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