Farming + Money = Problems

Bottom line is most Ontario farms don’t make any money on the farming, and that’s totally messing up the farming eco-system in our area.  This is somewhat heinous, considering Ontario has well over half of Canada’s Class A farm land.  About a third of it is within viewing distance of the CN Tower.  Despite the availability of inexpensive, high quality local food, food travels a lot before it gets to us.  On average food travels about 4400 kilometers before it gets to our faces. That’s a lot of wasted money, time, and gasoline.

Supporting the local food production economy is good for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is maintaining the local economy and farming ecosystem.  From a personal benefit, local food is more likely to be of higher quality, nutrition, and have less preservatives sprayed on it, due to lower transport costs.  And it tends to taste better, as it’s not a requirement that the produce ripen in the dark, container truck. And if you look around, it can be cheaper and delivered in a very convenient way.

There are no guarantees of reducing environmental footprints, especially if you’re driving around town for 2 hours just to get your groceries that could be gotten locally from Sobey’s.   Thus, local farmers have to organise and distribute food in such a way that makes sense financially, environmentally, reduces waste, etc.

Where to Source Local Food?

This is where a Food Box or CSA programme comes in.  It “connects farmers with eaters,” gives farmes predictable income, and eaters predictable, high quality, well-priced local food.  There are a bunch of food box options in the area, some are pre-packaged, some are market-shopping-style.

Check Ontario CSA Directory to find a local CSAs.  These are some ones K/W:

• The Commons Market
• Fertile Ground
• Transpire Organic
• Garden Party – Year-round, nice.
• Stevanus Family

There’s a local food search engine, FoodLink, online as well in case you’re looking for specific things like eating local, organic sheep or something.

High Tech Online Shopping!

If you’re not down with food box programmes, but are keen to order local food online, there are options:

• The Commons Market- Super sweet, but hard to find off The Working Centre website, so here’s a link.
• Bailey’s Local Foods

These ordering options also include access to meat, cheese, diary, eggs, and that sort of stuff.

What’s Local?

We discussed what “local” means … especially given that Waterloo Region has more brutal winters and more bugs than, for example, Windsor or Niagara.  Windsor gets peaches, Niagara gets raspberries, Waterloo gets leek.  So depending on the time of year, it’s worthwhile to cast a broader or more narrow net for your definition of “local.”

This makes this blog officially legit.  Especially since it’s now the #5 most popular* food blog in Ontario!  Watch out #4, Ubiquitous Food Cravings from Kingston. You better be ready for the loudlunch pain train, jerkface!

More reviews coming up this week, including my new love, Northern Thai on Queen Street at Charles in Kitchener. In the next few weeks they’ll be some guest pieces on street food from around the world, including Greece and Puerto Rico. Stay tuned!

* Accurate as of 12:09am on April 5th, 2010.

There is a poster hanging on the cork board at work, but no URL to share. Looks pretty sweet!

A Taste of Downtown at City Hall

The text goes like this:

A Taste of Downtown
Here’s your chance to discover downtown Kitchener restaurants – and sample some of their delicious menu options!

Monday March 29
11:30am – 1:30pm
The Rotunda, Kitchener City Hall
Free Admission

More than 20 restaurants attending.

Updates

Great event! Really well attended, so the local restaurateurs were obviously busy.  The Best-of-Show goes to Botanica, the Indian restaurant at the Delta Hotel.  Honorable mention goes to the generous coffee, desserts, and smiles from Coffee Culture.

Scene at City Hall

I’ve heard mixed reviews about the service.  Well, they weren’t mixed, they are universally so-so.   To be quite frank, it’s a cafe that deals mostly in dessert and sandwiches, so I don’t expect much in terms of service.  I’ve had coffee at a cafe in France and wanted to knock the server out with a punch to his mouth. I’ve dined in the Southern US where I wanted to hug everyone that worked at the diner.  Symposium falls somewhere in the middle, and that’s about right.

All Day Breakfast and Burgers, Together at Last!

Our table ordered two breakfasts, and I had the Symposium burger.  Everything was good-to-go, nothing to write home about, but the burger was much bigger and tastier than I expected. The fries come with some garlic mayo, and it’s a great touch.  I should’ve asked for more.  Jeff ordered a side of sausage, and he got a really tasty treat.  It’s not the lame, pinky breakfast sausage you get at most places, it was some sort of large, tasty, spicy sausage that he had wrapped up to go.  Get the sausage, skip the bacon, if you’re ordering breakfast!

The cafe is, of course, popular for its fancy coffee.  The cafe mocha I ordered was not what I expected .. much sweeter and richer (more rich?) than I was ready for.  If I can make one suggestion to the barista: unsweetened chocolate would take it down a notch and make the drink less Tim Horton’sy.

Cafe Mocha, Half-eaten Burger, Jeff with Breakfast

But yeah, overall the experience was positive (it has been every time I’ve gone).  Decent food, decent prices, decent coffee, decent service … the whole being more enjoyable than the sum of its parts.

The Loss of a Close Friend

As some people in real life (irl)  know, I have this favourite mug that I stole from someone some time ago.  The mug has a picture of Spongebob Squarepants going to the office, all disheveled and unshaven, toting his little briefcase.  He’s all fucked up, obviously had a big weekend.  On the other side of the mug, it simply says: Mondays.  This mug is perfect.

Correction, was perfect.  Until I dropped him down the stairs at the office, trying to get my stair-ercise in for the day.

Obviously, it happened on a Monday.  Have a great week everybody!

Rest in Peace, Spongebob Monday Mug

Help Me Help You! (by finding patio bars)

If anyone knows of any sweet, underrated patios between downtown Kitchener and uptown Waterloo, please share! I will update this list as I find awesome places.  They will be in my unscientific order of preference.

Kitchener Patios

• Bobby O’Briens – Large patio right dowtown, complete with beach volleyball court and a bar right there on the deck. Good lunch specials.
• One Eyed Jacks – Sketchy and cheap, convenient location, inexpensive deliciously greasy food.  Great for after-softball.  Opens for the summer season only.
• City Cafe Bakery – Small, quaint, and super busy on nice Saturday afternoons.

Waterloo Patios

• Ethel’s Lounge – Great patio with questionable service. Taco Tuesday is the best day ever, weekly. The long patio season and a diverse crowd make for a local success!
• Heuther Hotel – 2nd Floor – The serious local favourite.  (Thanks CJ)
• Symposium Cafe – Out the back of the cafe, which has great breakfast and fancy coffee.
• University Plaza – McGinnis Front Row, Mongolian Grill all have fun patios. (Thanks Dave)
• The Bombshelter – On campus but still a great patio (Thanks Dave)

This restaurant truly is a bright spot for Kitchener lunch. There is widespread recognition of that amongst people at the ol’ office, especially those who like “good” food.

Big Smiles

The first thing that I want to note is Elvis Ellison’s, the owner and chefs, welcoming and cheerful demeanor. This restaurant is one of the few places where you can talk to the chef about what you’re eating, how things are, and feel that you’re doing something appreciated by dining there.

Big smiles abound, especially amongst the guys coming in for the famous lunch-time take-out special. The lunch menu seems like a great value in general, but the take-out specials are worth exploring if you’re just passing by and only have a $5 bill.

From the lunch menu, I had the jerk chicken with some rose-hip tea. The chicken was a great bang-for-buck, but I sincerely regretted not starting with the pumpkin soup. Jeff let me try some of his; yeah, order it, it’s fantastic.

Jerk Chicken, No Soup for Me :(

Get Busier

The only thing I would like to see happen is for Ellison’s to get .. busier.  More people need to eat here, as the food is delicious and the restaurateur vibe is real.

Part of the solution is for the community to show up to eat at place like this.  But this restaurant needs to meet people half way.  I have a question about the take-out special: Why bother?  Every time I’ve gone in there to get the take-out special, the restaurant is quiet.  Let me just eat there, at that price.  I promise I’ll buy more (a drink, an appetizer, dessert etc.) if I sit down.  Hopefully sometime soon, when I’m looking for the best Caribbean food this side of Toronto.

Blak's in Windsor is the Champion of Ontario

Why Pastries? What are Pączki?

The idea is that Catholics used to give up things like lard and sugar for Lent, so they would splurge and make a whole ton of sweet things to eat for Tuesday thru Thursday.  The most popular of these desserts, at least in North America, are pączki.

If you’re wondering where there are Polish bakeries in Kitchener/Waterloo:

• Nougat Bakery on Queen, east of Highland. Just the best fancy deli/cafe in town.
• Mike’s Deli, Lawrence near Victoria and Belmont. Never been, but the butcher in me is curious.
• Glogowski Euro Food on Highland near Westmount.  It’s a very large grocery store that carries a lot of Eastern European bread, deli, pastry, dairy, etc.

If you’re in Guelph, there are several there as well:

• Klops Meat & Deli – 500 York Road, 519-837-8705
• Romex Deli & Meat – 11-130 Silvercreek Pkwy N., 519-836-0307

If there are any other sources for good paczki in town, on Mardi Gras or otherwise, feel free to comment!

The casualty of this down-home goodness is, alas, the presentation and general dining experience.   Finding a Carribean place that you would willingly take a new girlfriend to for Saturday lunch is … often challenging.  Rest assured, Rainbow Caribbean Cuisine suffers from all of these conditions, especially the dripping rich, homey food part.   We went for lunch this week, and lost one on the way because the place looks like an expensive cafeteria.  Once we finally ordered the “small lunch” for $9, seriously enjoyed the soup on a cold winter day, and barely finished our meals we knew we did the right thing.

Soup Goat Love

I’ve been complaining a lot about the poor restaurant feel in Kitchener lately. The lunchtime vibe downtown is pretty weak unless you’re willing to shell out $20 every time you leave the office (ie. go to Bolero). And seriously, Rainbow is one of the worst offenders. It feels like a high school cafeteria, especially since there’s a crowd of people lined up at lunch getting styrofoam to-go orders.

Yet the reality is that there is a line-up. Every lunch, a crowd of young people come in for the most filling, non-deep-friend lunch special on King St (just north of Frederick St.). For $9+ you get a soup or salad (get the soup), plantain, and your choice of meat.  The choices are standard Caribbean fare like curried goat and jerk chicken. My friends got the chicken, I got the goat, and either way you can’t go wrong. It’s coupled with rice, noodles, and tastes very home-made.

Small Lunch aka lies.

What else is there to say?  The “small lunch” describes this feast poorly.  Get some Irish Moss if you like Mexican horchata (or milky seaweed products).  This is my third time here for lunch and I’ll be going back whenever I have a cold and feel the need for comfort food.  The soup alone constitutes a small meal.

Downtown Kitchener is actually blessed with two top-notch Caribbean joints, Rainbow and Ellison’s Bistro.  Ellison’s I’m a fan of (as are many people), and will write about a little later.  In the mean time, feel free to stop by Rainbow and congratulate them on how little their decor changed given that their storefront was torn down and replaced a few months ago.  And enjoy.

We got in the cars, called ahead to make 10-minute-ahead reservations (none needed), and found the place which arguably has one of the worst street-fronts I’ve ever seen for casual dining, but some of the best Greek food in Kitchener.

Location Location Location?

Not to be a jerk, but this place has a hilarious location. It’s in the basement of an mid-century office “tower”, sharing its space with the YWCA Resource Centre. Inspiring.

Once we took the elevator to the back door (there’s a much more inviting front door actually, as we found out later) and got into the place, my mood and approach to the place changed entirely. It’s great. It’s big, loud, tall, friendly, and accommodates a group of ten or more comfortably. The menu is serious but  not overwhelming, the wine selection is reasonable, and there were many  lunch-sized things that came out in good time. It’s not cheap nor expensive, with many meals available for under $10.

Oh There It Is, Hurray! White Sign, Left.

Greek Coffee and Salad. Oh something else.

With no offense to the kitchen, I regret getting the vegetable moussaka. Everyone else’s meals looked more interesting and from the sound of it, were delicious.  The moussaka was … bland and tasted like they used powder potatoes. The Greek salad was very nice, simple, tasty, and fresh. Easily the toast of the whole meal was the drink. The Greek-style coffee, with very fine grounds still at the bottom and lightly chalky texture, was delicious and got me in the mood for more Greece.

Moussaka, meh, salad, nice, coffee, amazing.

Despite the outer shell, Three Kretans is very much worth a visit, especially with a large lunch group.  On a related note: next time you’re at a Greek place, ask for a glass of retsina to start your meal. It’s wine that tastes like tree sap. Seriously, don’t judge until you try it ;-)

Burger at Bobby’s

So as many downtown drinkers know, there used to be this really popular pub called The Still in downtown Kitchener. It got taken over by those London/Guelphites at Partytown, renamed Bobby O’Briens, and boasts some pretty great daily specials!  The special wings are tiny, but the burgers on Wednesdays are a huge hit.

Their cheeseburger is called the Shanahan Burger, and at $4.99+ with fries it’s the best lunch burger ever a refreshingly great deal. The salad-substitution is a reasonable $1.50. Order a Rickard’s White to accompany and you have yourself some lunchtime conversation.

Six Burger Specials, Please!

Nougat Bakery, One Day

The Nougat Bakery and Deli, for those that are lucky enough to live in the Victoria Park area of town, is the hidden treasure on Queen’s Blvd that is not only popular for lunch, but has a solidly stocked Polish deli, a great cafe, and a wicked sweets selection.

I stop in for Illy coffee for take-out every once in a while and highly recommend it for a stop-over on the way home.  This blog will feature something about their lunch special at some point, I’m sure.  The KW Record published a great review of the cafe last spring.

Cross Cultural Food Love

My friends at the Toronto Review published a really great photo essay on food in Palestine.

TorontoReview.ca: Mana'eesh in Palestine

The attention to aesthetics and the social nature of eating is a nice change from Canadian working lunch reality, and the pictures remind me of street food at its finest. We need inspiration for more street food, and street vending, in this country.