Hometown Ottawa!

After being on the road for a little more than two months, it's a pretty great feeling to be home. Because I knew it would be such a great feeling, I didn't call ahead. I'm spontaneous, preferring instead to call my parents at work from their own house, to which I handily still have a key. They both noticed. Sly devils. Anyways, we were home, and we unloaded our stuff before hooking into the internet to take care of some business. I saw a couple people I hadn't seen in a while, including first and foremost my family, but also lots of people from around the neighbourhood. My dad soon returned home and we relaxed with him awhile before going out and about to play frisbee with my friend Chris, get our dose of sun, and go swimming in the legendary pond. All was good. Upon our return home, mother had arrived and it was great to have the rents around again. Has been a while. We made plans to go mushroom picking, ate a bbq-ed dinner, and had a very laid back evening.

The next day was a lazy one as well, we blogged about and ate sandwiches before going out to dinner at Zen Kitchen, the hottest new restaurant in town and the subject of 'restaurant makeover'. It was interesting to see, but I don't think it was as good as I'd been led to believe by reviews. It was quite expensive, the food was decent but not at all amazing, and I thought the appetizer's were small. This is a matter of opinion, so please nobody send me anything saying you had a good meal. I'm not saying Zen Kitchen is bad, I'm saying that I can barely believe that it's a hot spot like it is. There are way better vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants in Ottawa. Irregardless, the experience was of an unwarranted cost. We made plans to go mushroom hunting with my fungus-faced father the next morning, and put ourselves in his hands. He delivered. We hit the woods with a vengeance, gathering pounds of mushrooms and envisioning the meal that lay ahead. After a much need waltz in the woods, and a solitary(by myself) swim in the waterfalls, we hit the dusty trail. On our way back, we visited Ian at Mariposa farms. For the record, the backdrop of the title of the blog was our days haul minus the duck breasts. Not bragging, just saying.


Ian Walker is a wild scene. Though rough around the edges, he shows a pretty decent deal of intelligence and good wit. He also sees opportunities in places some might not look. In us, for example, to move his pig fence. Smart, but some farmers wouldn't have the balls to ask. We don't mind at all. Takes five seconds. Anyways, he gifted us some beets, told us a little history, introduced us to a local cook that works on the farm in the off days, and generally showed us the farm. We also chatted with his wife about Quebec cheese, and the dairies worth visiting. It was a great experience and we even grabbed a couple duck breasts from him to round out the evening's meal.

The full menu would turn out to be lobster mushrooms and caramelized fennel on croustini, followed by duck breast, peaches and chanterelles, and finally knudel with a mized mushroom cream sauce. Tasty stuff and good company. Sadly we ran out of wine by the end, but alas, thus is life. Our lovely dinner companions also gave us a slew of information on New Brunswick, where I am right now, and where I will be working in an eel fishery for the next couple days. It was a great night, and I can't wait to get back into Ottawa. The culinary scene is heating up there quite a bit.