Jooooosé, José, José! Joséééé! Joséééé!

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My friend Scott, a Rapidz fan, invented this sauce in honour of Jose de los Santos.

I don’t know why exactly, but there it is.

De Los Santos Sweet and Sour Sauce
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Time: one hour

Ingredients:

Four tomatoes, diced
Half of one large white onion, finely cut
Two cloves of garlic, diced
One cup of pureed tomatoes
Half a cup of white wine vinegar
Two cups of stock
Tablespoon of sugar
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Sautée garlic and onion for two to three minutes, then add diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes and stock.
Simmer for 40 – 50 minutes.
Cool.
Blend on high for one minute.
Place back on heat and add white wine vinegar and sugar, warm for 5 minutes.
Serve with chicken or pork.

The next America-Russia summit

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General
Aug 29, 2008
The Waffle
1 Comment

So, while I was doing a panel on CFRA, Senator John McCain announced that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would be his vice presidential candidate.

Now, this could be a very smart choice for McCain and help him in his bid to resist the Obama-mania.

If McCain does indeed succeed and becomes the next President of the United States of America, what will happen when he goes to Russia?

Well, we would have the McCain-Poutine summit.

Hmmmmm…  Not sure how tasty that would be.

(Yes, I know, in english he is Putin. And he is no longer the President.  Stop being a bunch of nit pickers.)

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By-election Blitz, part II

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Election
Aug 24, 2008
The Waffle
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I continue my review of my by-election food aventure.

Here is what my second week looked like –
Sunday, August 17 2008:

Lunch: Nothing fancy, I went to St-Hubert for a chicken breast.  I love St-Hubert.  I could drink the sauce.  Eeer.  I do, most times.  The fries were quite tasty, fairly crispy, and the chicken was succulent.  Their coleslaw wasn’t as vinegary as it should have been, though.  I love St-Hubert.

Dinner: I enjoyed some Jazz at Les Jardins Nelson in Montreal with my friend Marika.  We shared their breaded calamari strips, which they bake.  They were golden and crispy, nicely done. Not a greasy ball of breading, as we often see.  We followed with Pizza, Si Si Si – I picked the Gambari, she went for La Charcutière.  They were fine, but nothing exceptionnal.  Nancy Martinez was the guest star for the night, and she clearly loves singing.  Too bad the crowd was barely noticing her and her band.

Monday, August 18 2008:

Breakfast: Had breakfast with Richard Marois and Jean-Claude Rocheleau, NDP candidate in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, at Le Petit Québec.  It was huge, the scrambled eggs were not overcooked, and there was tons of meat.

Lunch: I had lunch with a prominent Montreal columnist at Les Belles Soeurs on Le Plateau. I had not been there in years. He had an omelette, but I couldn’t resist going for the Belles Soeurs burger, with their excellent fries.  Although I was reasonable and had only half a serving, the other half was a salad.

Dinner: I ordered some pizza from Jacques Cartier in Longueil, a meat lovers and an all-dressed.  It was 2 for 1, so no choice.  The meat wasn’t overcooked, the bacon not too salty.  Not too bad.  However, it took them over an hour to deliver.  At 10 pm on a Monday night, that is uncalled for.

Tuesday, August 19 2008:

Lunch: The NDP Leader was in St-Lambert for a Transit announcement and we had a working lunch at Les Cigales with members of the Chamber of Commerce.  Their fish soup was excellent, classic.  I followed it with a very nice bavette de boeuf, I just love that french cut.  I wish the schedule hadn’t been as tight in order to really enjoy the great french cuisine.

Dinner: Left over pizza.

Wednesday, August 20 2008:

Lunch: Grabbed some fruits and nuts at the campaign office.

Dinner: Went to La Piazetta in St.Lambert with a Radio-Canada reporter.  I enjoyed their cannelloni al’emiliana as an appetizer and then went for La Diabola pizza. The cannelloni were a bit flat, probably because there was so much – too much – cheese on top.  La Diabola was good, but could have been spicier.

Thursday, August 21 2008:

Lunch: A very late lunch at Le Claremont after a successfull press conference in Westmount where Jack Layton and Anne Lagacé Dowson received the support of Charles Taylor, Julius Grey and other prominents Montrealers. I picked the quesadillas, I added some hot sauce to hit.  Their salsa was home made, but too young. The mango inside the tortillas gave it a nice twist.  My co-worker went for a salad, which looked very fresh.  It is a trendy Westmount bistro with a friendly and tatooed service.

Dinner: Left over pizza. Ya, I know.

Friday, August 22 2008

Lunch: ND and I grabbed a Club Sandwich to go from St-Hubert.  Did I ever mention that I love St-Hubert?  The sandwich was succulent.  But the fries do not travel as well as the meat and were a bit soggy, which is often the case with fries when you don’t eat in!

Dinner: Hot Dogs at Richard Marois’ campaign office!  We had a nice bbq going, I ended up on the grill.  We served six dozen nicely grilled sausages in crispy buns.  A big hit!

Saturday, August 23 2008

Dinner: Nice view of the river and the South Shore from the Verses Sky rooftop patio in Old Montreal.  Ordered a vodka-tonic upon arrial.  There was a bunch of us, and we all enjoyed a very nice meal.  I went for the Grilled Tuna, which was a tad small but nicely cooked, and served with crispy vegetables, which were actually the same for most of the entrees folks ordered.  the atmosphere was great, the weather perfect.

Sunday, August 24 2008

Lunch: Grabbed a junior cheeseburger at Burger King. Had to get back to Ottawa and was in a bit of a rush.  No time to sit down, had it in the car.

By-Election Blitz

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General
Aug 16, 2008
The Waffle
No Comments

Its hard to eat well when you work on a by-election, away from home.

It’s also hard to keep a blog updated.

At any rate, here is what my first week looked like –

Monday, August 11 2008:

Lunch: I reviewed my visit at the Terrazza Trattorria & Case da Carlo here.

Dinner: I wanted to get an an update on Westmount-Ville Marie, so I went with Jerry to the Bâton Rouge near the Bell Centre, in the old Moe’s Deli building.  We shared a Louisiana Spinach Dip before I digged in a grilled sirloin salad.    The dip was warm and creamy and came with sides of salsa and sour cream.  There was tons of chips, tons of dip, its a good think we shared.  As for the salad, it was made of mixed greens, grilled zucchini and roasted red pepper. The 7 oz sirloin was topped with warm walnuts and very lightly-flavored blue cheese. I asked for the blue cheese dressing to be on the side in order not to ruin the salad.  It was pretty good I thought.

Tuesday, August 12 2008:

Lunch: I engulfed a Baconator at Wendy’s.  Too dry.  It needs some bbq sauce to round it up.
Six strips of bacon, though.  Remarkable.

Dinner: I grabbed a few beers with a lightning strike survivor at L’Île Noire, then we went to Les Trois Brasseurs on St-Denis for some choucroute.  The sauerkraut at Les Trois Brasseurs is not anything special, but it is usually alright, and can feed an army.  I had the Royale, which included a frankfurter, ham and some pork shank.  The ham was ordinary, the frankfurter much better, and the pork shank very tasty – although you have to be careful not to eat all the fat or skin.   Les went for the 3 Brasseurs one, below, which included a frankfurter, grilled ham, a smoked sausage and potatoes.  He could barely finish it, which is rare for him, he said.  They served their own beer too, which had to the whole choucroute experience.

La choucroute Royale

Wednesday, August 13 2008:

Lunch: I went to the Suite 701 for a chat with a columnist.  We shared some crab cakes, which were smallish but lightly and nicely oven-fried.  We then both went for the Lobster Club, which was interesting as it came on a flavourful bread.  The side sald was fresh and crispy.

Dinner: I crossed the Champlain bridge to Verdun to meet a friend at le Garage Café in Verdun.  I had the turbo burger while she enjoyed the semi-automatic. My burger was made of lamb, nicely cooked, with a tasty mix of very nicely melted cheese, ementhal and gruyere.  The french fries were also quite tasty, and there was soooooooooooo much.

Thursday, August 14 2008:

Lunch: I forced the local campaign team to go to La Brasserie Renaud.  More about it here.

Dinner: We went for a few beers at Le St-Ciboire, but the food came from The House of Reggae next door.

Friday, August 15 2008

Lunch: We went back to see Manon at La Brasserie Renaud.  Why not?

Dinner: Had a very late dinner at Fresco before going to see Star Wars.  We actually went there because Dominic and I wanted to grad dinner before the 11:30pm showing of The Clone Wars at the Mega-Plex Lacordaire 16.  We looked around, but there wasn’t much else that was grabbing our attention.  We were surprised by the quality of the offerings, and we both went for the Lobster Linguine, which was served with half a lobster, mussels, shrimps and scallops in a crushed tomato sauce.  Quite tasty, although the lobsters were a tad bit overcooked.  As an appetizers, I picked the smoked salmon, which was very nice and well accompanied, while Dom selected the snails, served gratted with lots of butter and garlic.

Saturday, August 16 2008

Lunch: I grabbed a sandwich at Cavallaro Westmount. The place is a neat little Italian grocery/deli/bakery place, and I got Genoa Salami sandwich with an extra grilled pepper to give it a bit of a zip.  They made it fresh before my eyes, asking what I wanted on it along the way.  I enjoyed it with a can of Brio Chinotto.

Dinner: I went with Anne-Marie to L’Académie as everyone else had gone AWOL that evening. As she filled me in on the action in Westmount, we both decided to go for la table d’hôte of the evening. The vegetable cream they served first wasn’t really inspired, but wasn’t despicable.  I went for the Lamb chops, served with a rosemary sauce and it was pretty good.  The meat wasn’t of the best quality I had ever seen, but it was cooked perfectly and very tasty.  AM went for a steak, which she ordered blue.  Well, it was blue, but it was also cold, which is a sign that they keep the meat in the fridge (freezer?) too long before cooking it, or that the fridge is too cold.  Too bad

An Italian lunch in St-Lambert

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I have been dispatched on the South Shore of Montreal to give a hand to NDP candidate Richard Marois in St-Lambert and also NDP candidate Anne Lagacé Dowson in Westmount-Ville Marie.

There is nothing like fighting the Forces of Evil in a by-election. So I’m told anyway.

And of course, you are then forced to eat out, or order in. At any rate, not much time (or available equipment) for cooking.

Might as well make the most of it. So I forced a few key members of the campaign team to get out of the office for my first day in the area, so I could get a feel for the riding and check out the competition a little.

The four of us ended up in a lovely Italian establishment in the heart of Old St-Lambert, Trattoria La Terrazza & Casa da Carlo.

It was a very nice day, se we decided to eat on the nice terrazza. Mind you, it is equipped with heaters, so that might not have mattered.

It was also very quiet – only another table was occupied, but thought that it was because it was Monday and a bit early for lunch. But it basically remained very quiet all the way through, which made for great service from our two Italian waiters.

Three of us decided to go for a table d’hôte – and we chose the meat ravioli with black olives and capers. Patrick decided to be distinct that day, and opted for the lasagna.

Nice bread rolls were served while we were waiting for our appetizers. Nicely warm, with a few different variety, they wnet quickly. We also enjoyed a fresh Birra Moretti – which is now apparently owned by Heineken – a light and bubbly italian beer, with a light hoppy taste, with some malt in there too. It also has a very nice aroma and is a very refreshing beer, and usually works well with italian food – especially if you go with spicy tomato-based dishes, not so much with cream-based ones.

ND and Pierre went for the Italian Salad, I chose the Zuppa. It was a cream of carrots, which was not bad but not really surprising or creative.

Our ravioli came: a generous portion of meat stuffed ravioli, topped with a generous arrabiata-type sauce, enhanced with black olives and capers. Our waiter offered some fresh parmesan and generously sprinkled my dish, a little too much even though I asked him to stop. “That is the way to eat the pasta,” he said. Fair enough. The ravioli were cooked well, tender and meaty enough to give the dish some depth – which was needed. The saltiness of the olives and capers was not out of control, but borderline. If the ravioli had been weak in flavour, it would have crossed the line. Which means that either the chef knows what he is doing, or that he was lucky. Somehow, I don’t think it was luck.

We ended the meal with a tiramisu, a fairly solid one, too. A nice discovery on the South Shore – and more people should enjoy it at lunch time – I can tell you that much.