ottawa foodies

A close up of the epic Sausage Flight.

The Sausage Flight ($30) with sauerkraut is truly epic. More than enough for two hungry people, it's a great way to try the whole inventory of sausages. Unsurprisingly, I didn't like the sweet ones very much and I absolutely loved the smokey, porky, and homogeneous ones!

Goes well with beer. Grimbergen recommended. :D

On my third visit here, I decided to give the sausage plate a second chance. Sure glad I did! All the components were markedly improved since what I had last July.

The bun was no longer cut in half nor sweet; it was fresh and crusty. The potato salad was warm in perfect German style and nicely dressed. The sauerkraut was crunchy and tangy, with a light sprinkling of caraway seeds.

The star of the dish, the sausage, was excellent! This time I chose the Weisswurst, which arrives bathing in a bowl of its poaching liquid. Excellent flavour, and I was thrilled that it lacked the parsley flecks that seem ubiquitous in Weisswurst in this town. Highly recommended.

My experience on July 23 was similar to lemontart's. Excellent beer, cool atmosphere, really disappointing food. I opted for a basic Bratwurst just to establish a baseline. The sausage that arrived had little in the way of flavour and the interior was mushy and moister in the very center, almost as though it had been cooked from frozen a little too quickly. The potato salad was also bland and too sweet for my taste. The sauerkraut was fine. The dry and (again) sweet housemade bun was inexplicably sliced in half hamburger-style. After eating the sausage with potatoes and sauerkraut, I ended up smearing liberal amounts of the good grainy mustard on the dry bread to get it down. That bread either needs a new recipe or lots of butter.

The draught Innis & Gunn beer was absolutely fantastic.

I would return for another beer and to try the $8 pretzel. :-)

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.

We started off the evening with the appetizer plate of local artisanal sausage. I was not really sure what to expect, and when it came to the table it ended up being an assortment of dry-cured salamis and such - all of which were extremely yummy. There was also a dab of dijon on the plate, and a good 3 or 4 tablespoons of a really interesting pickle/chutney. At 10 bucks a bit pricey for the amount you got, but we were celebrating and decided to splurge :-)

Honey Garlic and Barrhavenfest Sausages are my favorite!
...not greasy and very tasty!

HOT ITALIANS

Although they were very yummy, we did not find them to be as "hot" as ones we normally buy from the the Loblaws Butcher counter.
:-(

We will probably give them another chance (just incase we got a batch that just happened to be less spicey than usual).

Information from the Piggy Market website: thepiggymarket.com

January 18th, 2010
Dave will be hosting a sausage making class at the Urban Element. For more information, www.theurbanelement.ca

I fully concur with zymurgist. I've eaten my share of sausage, and these are honestly the best sausages I've ever had! We tried three varieties: honey and lime, the breakfast sausage and the smoked pork. All of them were fabulous, although, I may be leaning towards the breakfast sausage as my favourite. They were so good that I had to eat more than one! The texture and the fact that they are perfectly seasoned makes them sensational. I can't wait to go back for more : ) Oh, and for those who are true sausage die hards...the owner offers classes on sausage making. He's currently booked up until November 2009, but if you're interested in sausage making it sounds like you would be learning from a master. I think I may give it a try.

Wow! I picked up some of the Sweet Italian sausage, and I can confidently say without hesitation that this is the best sausage I've ever had in my life! Including some of the other local sausages I've raved about here, as well as anything I've ever had while living in Germany. The particular combination of herbs and spices is bang-on! Well done!

hmmm
Jag, these, I must try

My mother and I went to The Piggy Market and we tried out samples of various sausages.

*The Beau's Worst; Brautworst with Beau's in it, beautifully complex flavour. Not normally smoked, but he stated that he was bored.
*Jalapeno and Chive Sausage; a subtle burn that accumulates with samples, and it has a very nice chive flavour backing it up.
*Kiabasa: Awesome, the most flavourful of the sausages.
*The Westboro; Very nice collection of spices which I found as quite unusual. Allspice, Nutmeg and something else.

I grabbed the sweet italian sausage for my home as it was the one I had not tried. :)

I had a smoked pork sausage tonight. Moist, flavourful, with a nice texture.
My father said he would have preferred if we had heated it up, but I thought it was perfect as it came.

In a mere 2 months or so I'll be firing up the smoker again, so I've been going through the deep freeze clearing out "old stock" leftovers from last summer. Mmmmmmm. Smokey, AND left-overy. I had a pack of 3 left over from the sausage that some friends brought over and that I posted about in the only other "buzz" item here on Adam's. Dang they make good sausage!

Wow! These things are incredible! Some friends brought over a few varieties last night : dried smoked, Bavarian Weisswurst and Hot Italian. They were all extremely yummy, and although the Weisswurst was not authentic (oh, if I could find authentic Weisswurst in Ottawa!) it was still extremely good. They seem to have over a dozen different types of sausage for sale.

Sausages were very yummy! Lean and mapley!

Didn't make it out to Wheeler's this year, but I always order an extra side of maple sausages to go with the ones that come with the "two pancakes and two sausages meal." They really are that good.

I forgot to talk about the sausages when I posted last time....
Even though I don't eat meat, my bf's mom ordered the maple sausages with her pancakes. She thinks they are really yummy (just like zymurgist does!) I wanted to mention them because I read on their menu that they are 100% pork AND homeade! I'm guessing people probably don't find many breakfast sausages homeade anymore, at most restaurants.

Bought 2 hot italian and 2 spanish chorizo sausages for the BBQ yesterday....the italian sausage I found to be waaaay too salty, but had some nice kick to it. The chorizo I liked much better but I'm still reminiscing about all beef smokies from Saskatchewan! I asked at Saslove's if they had any, and of course they had never heard of them, or had any sausages that weren't pork. Oh well....

Great variety of fresh sausage from breakfast to BBQ and everything in between. A bit pricey but well worth it!

Following a poster's recommendation, I stopped in to check this place out. I had passed it many times but their street side advertising put me off enough that I didn't stop. I will look back on that time of my life as truly wasted. When I did stop in I was so impressed that I spent way too much dough on all sorts of sausages. The ones I've tried so far have been excellent. In no particular order: kielbasa, garlic sausage, Cuban habanero, and awesome English bangers. I only have one small complaint; they do not mark on the packages what they contain. When you go overboard like I did and buy a lot of different types, it would be helpful to have them clearly labelled especially if you are going to freeze them. Tomorrow? The bacon.

They have some very good Italian sausages. She said they were medium and that was right on the money. These had great texture with the medium grind they use. When I asked if they were hot she replied medium but if you like hot try the habanero. That will definitely be the next purchase.

"Hunt Club" is the name I gave to the entire region of Ottawa that's East of the Rideau River and south of "City South". I arbitrarily chose Walkley as the divider between "Hunt Club" and "City South".

I'm open to suggestions for better names -- I agree the "Hunt Club" one isn't very good! :-)

The best Italian sausages in town. No fillers or muck (good news for sufferers of celiac disease looking for gluten-free sausages). They also have several different types of home-smoked bacon they will slice to your specifications (it's not at Hunt Club though - just south of Walkley).