Indian Fusion on Bank – and I’m not talking nuclear

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Restaurant
Nov 22, 2008
The Waffle
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Humphrey’s on Bank is located in the old New Delhi Restaurant in the Glebe.  At the corner of Glebe and Bank street, in fact.  I first went a few weeks after they opened, and I was pleasantly surprised by their menu, which we could qualify as Indian fusion, especially what I thought ought to be their signature item: Tandoori Chicken Wings.  Ya, they kept the tandoori oven and were selling these delicately flavoured and nicely cooked wings.  I loved them and I did enjoy them a few times. Lots of their dishes are actually cooked over charcoal in the traditional tandoori oven.

We were enlisted with The New Strongs  for the World Trivia Night at the Aberdeen Pavillion at Landsdowne Park, and we decided that Humprey’s would be a good spot to stop for a light dinner beforehand. 

The place was fairly quiet – a nuclear family to our left, a small group at the back, and the little jazz stage in the corner was empty – it was still early.  I do enjoy the feel of the place, though, open but cozy and warm.

But I was quickly disapointed – gone were the Tandoori Chicken Wings from the menu!  I expressed my displeasure loudly to the staff, who politely and with some embarrassment explained that they were simply not selling enough to keep them on the menu.  That is really too bad.

Still, we had to eat.  We started with some naan.  The equivalent of two breads, cut in thick slices, and sprinkled with sweet paprika.  They obviously make it on site, because it was very fresh, soft and warm.  Some purists might not like it, but I didn’t mind them.  I was also starving.

Melissa decided to get the red pepper and curry soup.  It came with a generous portion of naan-like sticks, but crunchier.  There was also a generous dash of cream to garnish the concoction, and I would argue a little too much.  The soup was really thick, but it didn’t need to be that thick.  They had the good idea of serving the soup with a quarter of fresh lime on the side, which gave the soup a fresh tangy zip.

For myself, I ordered their chicken quesadillas.  It was a smaller portion than most establishment in Ottawa, with only four pieces.  The chicken was alright, and the quesedillas were also filled with coriander and mango.  Dipped in the hot sauce and the sour cream served on the side, it made for a light and fresh snack.

I have to say that I was satisfied with our meal, even with the banishment of the Tandoori chicken wings.  But I have heard a lot of bad things about the service there, and even though I’d never witnessed anything myself, I figured I should mention it, and web reviews here seems to confirm what I heard.  But again, I never had any problems.

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Humphrey's on Bank on Urbanspoon

A pizza in a Cage

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Just back from my sports road trip, I thought I needed a little more sports. And I really didn’t feel like cooking after such a long drive.  So we settled for La Cage aux Sports in Hull.

La Cage aux Sports was founded in 1984. Regrouping 48 restaurants throughout Québec, La Cage is now well established in the Quebec Sports/Food scene.  Although the newer Cage seem to all be built on the same model, each Cage has a unique interior and all of them have an atmosphere focused on sports.

I don’t mind the Cage in Hull.  The bar in the middle is quite big, with lots of TV screens all around. There are plenty of booths available in the restaurant area, lots of TVs too but sometimes they are hard to see.  It can get very packed in there for big games, especially when the Habs or the Sens are playing.  It is a little more quiet for other sports, usually.

Tonight, they were showing on their main system the Habs playing the Hurricanes.  Go Canes go, I said.

La Cage’s menu is quite diverse.  Their wings are famous (Buffalo or 9-1-1, they are small but tasty – and they are only $0.49 each on Thursdays afer 4pm), but you can also get chicken, ribs, steaks, sandwiches and hamburgers.

But today, we took advantage of their “Tuesday Stars”. Starting at 11 am, all pizzas are $9.99, and so are pitchers of Molson Export.  So pizza it is.

I picked the Grilled Chicken Pizza.  It is basically a breast (half a breast?) cut in strips, deployed on the pie, with red pepper strips in between each piece of bird.  That’s it.  The pizza is of a nice size, for a personnal portion.  Not too big, yet filling.  The crust is well done, quite thick but light at the same time.  The sauce is a tad sweet for my taste – but I suppose it is hard to go too spicy with chicken and red peppers.

Mel went for the classic all-dressed.  Pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers AND red peppers too.  Nice touch. Again, a nice pizza. Probably better balanced than the one I had, the sauce working well the toppings.  The mushrooms were nicely dried out, not squishy at all, and it is very pleasant to look at.

We left with a $40 bill.  They gave me an extra $3 off because I showed my CAA card.  Thank you, CAA!

Even better, the Hurricanes won!!

La Cage aux Sports on Urbanspoon

The Road to Ralph Wilson Stadium

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General
Nov 18, 2008
The Waffle
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After a pretty successful two-day stop in Pittsburgh, we had to leave the city of steel for Buffalo, an All America City.

Considering the lack of breakfasts around the hotel, we decided to hit the road and get out of town before getting breakfast.  We also knew that the weather would get nasty near the lake, so giving ourselves some extra time wasn’t a bad idea at all.
A bit less then 60 minutes out of Pittsburgh, we decided it was time to stop.  Portersville was the next exit on the I-79 North, and we followed the sign for Brown’s Country Kitchen.  It was a couple of miles off the highway, but it was certainly worth it.
Portersville is a very little borough of less then 300 souls.  There was nothing much there that I could see.  But Brown’s Country Kitchen was open for business, and there were a few locals having breakfast when we showed up.
The two sixty-something ladies who were operating the place were in full control, in a very efficient yet friendly fashion. One of them must have been Gretchen Brown, co-owner with Harold Brown, but I didn’t ask.  It didn’t matter.  What mattered: the prices were cheap, but would the food be?
Not at all.  Everything was fresh, very hearty and classic American comfort food.  Jerry went for a classic breakfast, eggs & sausage.  I decided to be a tad bit more adventurous:  Steak and Eggs.  For 8$, are you kidding?  I couldn’t pass on the opportunity.  I was even more adventurous when she offered me the option between a classic strip or a Country Fried Steak, and I went for that.
I never had a country fried steak before, but I figured Brown’s Country Kitchen was the perfect place to try this delicacy.  A Southern US dish, country fried steak is usually made with round or flank steak, which you tenderize before dipping in a milk and egg mixture, before breading it in seasoned flour or bread crumbs.  You then fry the steak in a skillet, although it can be deep-fried.  In fact, it is often called chicken fried steak when this technique is used.
My food arrived, and it smelled fantastic.  It was greasy, but I don’t think it was deep-fried.  The meat had really been tenderized, so tender in fact it almost looked like ground beef.  The breading was slightly peppery, but not too much.  My steak was served with scrambled eggs, which were respectable, and delicious home fries, fresh, chunky and crispy.  I highly recommend you stop by if you are in the area – much better stuff then the fast-food breakfast you can find along the Interstate.

Well-fed, we were on our way to Buffalo, an All America City.  I had one goal in mind – make it.  The weather got nasty here and there, at some point we could only see 20 meters ahead.  But we made it, although it took us longer then expected.

Next step:  lunch!

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Brown's Country Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Are you ready for some Football?

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General
Nov 18, 2008
The Waffle
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We finally made it to the ultimate goal of our journey…  Monday Night Football in Buffalo.
Ah, the Ralph Wilson Stadium…  The proud fans…  Tailgating with the whole family….

Burning grocery carts with anything you can find in the parking lot.  Could there be anything better?

There are now 6 of us, all checked in at our headquarters, the Buffalo Airport Red Roof Inn.  A magnificent facility if there was ever one, we left as soon as everyone was ready because we didn’t want to indulge too much.
First stop:  supplies.  Jerry and I had stopped earlier at a scary cornerstore near Main Street, where I got three XL white T-shirts for 9.99$ and, most importantly, a case of beer.  18 cans of Coors, the Banquet Beer.  A Legend since 1873.  12$.  Fan-tas-tic.  Although this guy doesn’t seem to agree.
Now, in Canada, Coors is truly a legend as nobody has actually seen one lately.  Contrary to its Light cousin, the Coors never took off in Canada.
I remember when they were both first introduced – they were, in Quebec anyway, the first long neck bottles of beer on the market.  Which was really annoying for the little guy that I was, working in a “dépanneur,” because the single bottle beer racks were a tad too short for these long necks.  So it meant that we had to insert them slowly one-by-one in the rack, instead of sliding them fast to fill up the row.

At any rate, Coors is a very ordinary beer. Some call it “Rocky Mountain Spring Water”, and if that were true I’d move there, because it is very tasty water.  But it ain’t a very tasty beer.

It does have more taste than the Light however, which is to show what advertising can do to a beer brand.

The Coors is the kind of beer that can be drank all night long – especially if the goal is to not remember it.
I can’t comment on the appearance, as tailgating means drinking from the can, but I can tell you that you can almost taste corn in there.  Nothing memorable, though.
As for the food available for our tailgating, we did great.  We went to a Tops grocery store to pick things up – and on a top shelf, I spotted a fantastic unfolding grill for 5 dollars! We got that, some charcoal, some sausages, some buns, a couple bags of chips and some condiments, more beers, and off we went to the Ralph Wilson Stadium.

What a superb view we had from our parking lot spot!  After zigzagging through the broken bottles, we establish our camp and proceeded to crack a few beers.

We then proceeded to set up the grill.  One might think that a 5$ grill would be easy to assemble, but the geniuses that were with me took their time to figure it out, and even tried to take some shortcuts by, for instance, not screwing the legs on.  A breeze brought everything down, of course.

But they figured it out eventually.  Then, we proceeded to light it up.  Not as easy of a task as some might think, as Ian and Glen almost set a car on fire in the process. It was a windy day, however, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.  But soon, Matty was working the grill.  The nice smell of the meat in a tube started to spread around our little camp, slowly taking over the underlying odour of cold urine, spilled beer and other human-produced fragrance.

I have got to say that our sausages were pretty good.  Juicy, tender, well cooked, they warmed our soul and gave us the necessary courage to get inside the stadium.

We, of course, were already very well liked, thanks to the chicken wing hat I had previously purchased.  It is a Buffalo classic, and when you wear it, they instantly recognize you as one of them.

A Bills’ game is always an excellent adventure. One never knows how many fans will get arrested or thrown out of the stadium.  The fans can get very rowdy in Buffalo, and on Monday Night, they’ve been entertaining themselves all day and are still going strong.

Some games, the action is in the stands, not in the stadium.  The yellow coats of the security crew are running around the stadium faster than the Bills receivers.  But this year, it was cold, and the fans were calmer then usual.  We, however, miraculously avoided the snow the poured all around the area all day, but the skies over the Ralph Wilson Stadium held on.

Buffalo QB Trent Edwards poured even more cold water on the fans as he threw three interceptions in the first quarter.

Still, the fourth quarter began with a 16-13 score.

Cleveland scored a TD first, but on the following kickoff, Buffalo returned the ball for a TD.

The Browns added another field goal to give the Brown’s a 26-20 lead, which was then followed by a Buffalo drive leading to a TD, 27-26 for the Bills.

The next Cleveland drive brougt them down the field to a spot that gave their kicker a chance to win the game with a 56-yard field goal. Kick is GOOD. 29-27 Browns.

The Bills didn’t give up, and another drive gave the Bills kicker Ryan Lindell a chance to be the hero, from 47 yards out.  Perfect snap, perfect hold. Kick is… WIDE RIGHT, WIDE RIGHT!!! Bills lose. 29-27.

Still, a great time.  And better yet, we didn’t have to go out and enjoy Buffalo’s lively night life.

Also, a movie is coming out about the day, but there has been some delay. The fans are eagerly waiting.

Football day in Pittsburgh – Post-game show

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General
Nov 17, 2008
The Waffle
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Game over.  We decided to go celebrate the Steelers’ victory with the locals and went looking for a place to do exactly that.
Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 was even more packed then before, we could  barely believe it.  But we had no interest in lining up again, so we kept going down the street towards PNC Park.  The Ugly was too loud, 3 Deuces uninviting.  So we walked on into Firewaters.
We weren’t sure at first.  The place was kind of small, and was kind of packed. It is an odd place – they have two bars – one right at the front entrance, where 20-25 people can sit, and a second bar at the back, the door being on the side street. The two bars are kind of separated by a dining area, where about 40-50 people can eat.  We walked around for a bit, and moved towards the exit. But a representative from Budweiser really wanted us to stay, and he offered us two things:
1 – if we ordered their new American Ale, we could keep the Steelers’ glass in which it was served.
2 – if we ordered their new American Ale, he would offer us the next round.
The place was packed, but hell, free beer?  I’m in.  So we parked ourselves in an area with a short wall for us to rest our beers on, and we waited for a table to free up.
Two Bud girls showed up late and blamed it on stadium trafic.  We decided to commisorate, hoping to get more freebies out of them.  And we ended up with a Steelers’ Jersey beer holder.
Awesome.
So we enjoyed our American Ale while watching the Sunday Night game. The Ale is Anheuser-Bush’s attempt to break into the looking-for-a-better-beer then the “King of Beer tm” market.
The American Ale is a light amber, thin on aroma, with some hops right in there.  It has a slight caramel finish. It is not a very complex beer, and will disapoint true amber lovers, because as its lager counterpart, the American Ale is a very smooth beer.
That is what Budweiser is all about, in fact, so I was actually pretty surprised that they went there in the first place.
Some will argue it is simply Budweiser with red dye, but that would be overly simplistic.  Worth a try, especially when you get one for free or with a free Steeler’s glass!
At last we got a table.  We ordered their nachos, which came fairly quickly.  As almost everything involving cheese in Pittsburgh, it was topped with that processed cheese sauce they throw everywhere.  There could have been more, though.  It wasn’t bad, but it was very late and we were really in there for the American Ale.  The place was the festival of deep fried food, and the nachos were probably one of the healthier options.
We called our shuttle from the Radisson.  It came quickly, so we chugged our third Ale and were on our way to bed, with sweat dreams of Monday Night Football…
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