Category: Uncategorized

Restaurant May 16, 2009 The Waffle 5 Comments We went to the ByWard Market, wandering and wondering where to go for dinner.  Buskers were performing on the William Street Mall, and the laughter and applause from the crowd attracted our attention to the area.  That is when we noticed that Oregano’s successor was finally open. Oregano’s Pasta Market had been there for almost 30 years, and was very popular with tourists, with its red-and-white checkered table cloths, and its inoffensive if uninspired Italian comfort food cuisine.  I did enjoy Oregano’s lasagna, I admit.   But the owners of the popular Empire Grill and Metropolitain (I talked about the Met here and here) wanted to expand their branché empire in the Market, and they took over Oregano’s lease in August. Nine months letter, Gary Thompson, John Borsten and Dave Mangano gave birth to their new baby: The Grand.   Appartently, they named…

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General May 14, 2009 The Waffle No Comments Today, the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of  Jerusalem and the  Canada-Israël Committee were hosting a reception on Parliament Hill, Celebrating Partnerships in honour of Israel’s 61st Anniversary. Hundreds of guests, including parliamentarians from all parties, were mingling and enjoying the tapas-style creation  of Israeli  Chef Ovid Alfia while Israeli Opera Star, Yevgeni Shapovalov, was impressing everyone with the strenght of his voice while Ernest Shteynberg was accompanying him on the piano. The best two hors d’oeuvres were the beef roulades on a bed of avocado and covered with strips of marinated vegetables (right); and a spicy tuna on artichokes served raw with a milder sauce and sprouts(bottom). Both dishes were delicious, and they were freshly prepared before our eyes during the event, which was a nice change from the usual fare on Parliament Hill. The catered meat meal was supervised by the Ottawa Vaad Hakashrut. All meat…

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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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