Ottawa Foodies

Great London Broils here. The kicker? Bacon in between the steak and ground pork!

Wow, now that is the type of innovation I like to see in small butcher shops! Who would have thought to put apple in sausage? My only complaint really is that I had a lot of trouble deciding what sort of condiment to serve on it. In hindsight I think some sort of relish might have been better than what I tried.

The apple chicken sausage is absolutely fantastic! Though I guess some people will balk because they told me they only sell their sausage frozen - the freeze it immediately after making it because they do not use any nitrates or other preservatives.

See my other post on just Brian's for more context - I was disappointed to discover that very little of the beef comes from O'Brien's. Only by special order. They are very proud to say they have been doing Alberta beef for some 27 years.

But I bought a couple of T bones anyway since I was already there, and cooked them up on the grill after work. They were tasty enough, though man it was something else getting used to grilling feedlot beef - flames everywhere from all the extra fat! Definitely not used to that with grass fed!

As far as the flavour goes I'd buy it again. But I won't likely be back for the beef anyway, simply because it is from Alberta. And expensive ($12/lb!) for a guy used to buying sides of beef from local farmers, at far less than that.

Thanks for the update monty - Brian's is right near where I work, and I'll be far more inclined to go there now that I know where their meat comes from. In fact, i'm craving a steak right now looking at that picture of yours ... :-)

cold smoked/BBQ'd bone-in ribeye

chef Obi - just realized i never followed up on your question. a lot of their beef comes from O'Brien Farms, iirc.

www.obrienfarms.ca/

All I can say is wow. Best steak I have had. Can never eat supermarket steak ever again. And that was the small one. It may be pricey but it is well worth it.

That is sweet monty!

I have to give Monty props for not carbonizing this one =)

monty as an apartment dweller with no access to a bbq I am suitably jealous! I am now off to wipe the drool off my keyboard-;)

i proclaim this...the summer of monty!

Much nicer looking Monty! Looks appetizing now =)

As an apartment dweller - I am jealous. We can't have any grills on the balconies since there's a risk I might poison someone with carbon monoxide or burn the place down or something, apparently.

Soon though, I'll be grilling just like you Monty! Another few months to go!

As far as char is concerned - I don't mind it on the fatty parts, but you definitely had some flare-up there ;) I'll have to keep Brian's in mind when we move, plus, I'll buy a rib roast & dry age it myself & break it down... will sell or barter if anyone is interested?

they do a mean tourtiere here, in addition to steak pies and chicken pies. all 3 have a nice crust and are chock full of meaty goodness. very simple "like mom used to make" stuff.

at about $7 a pop there's always one in our freezer.

love the chicken here and frequently buy whole birds and boneless skinless breasts.

i can't remember the name of the supplier but the butcher has remarked it's the best he can get, for the scale/# he needs, next to going to a local farm. i believe it's the same supplier The Piggy Market and a few other local shops use.

the chicken is incredibly moist and seems almost impossible to dry out when BBQing (a good thing!)