ottawa foodies

My Wife and I just completed a monster road trip vacation from Austin TX, to Las Vegas, NV over two weeks, zig-zagging up and down Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. We stopped at a multitude of diners that looked like they had "soul" and were rarely disappointed. We also ate at some of the finest places Austin, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Tucson and Las Vegas had to offer.

We became absolutely addicted to the green chilies that find their way into stews, onto hamburgers, into soups and pretty much everywhere else. These are essentially fresh-roasted versions of the green chilies you get in the Old El Paso can. Has anyone found them here? Around the southwest, they're simply referred to as "Green Chilies"," or "Hatch Green Chilies" as most of them come from Hatch, NM. We were there for the Hatch Chile Festival on Labour day. About a bushel of green chilies, freshly roasted in a rotary drum roaster cost about $20. *sigh*.

The other food we'd love to source is the traditional Texas "Hot Link" Sausage. Has anyone seen these or know a reasonable facsimile?

Cheers,

Rob

RobR - Sounds like quite the trip, I've done similar travels myself and well, I believe I can help you out here. So to answer your questions: No (sometimes), and no. I haven't seen anything close to a fresh hatch chile in Ottawa but you can sometimes find dried new mexican chiles at Rainbow Foods and La Tiendita/Cabana. As far as hot links are concerned, I haven't found anything really close to that yet. Smokies are somewhat similar, but they lack the juicy bite & spice of the hot link.

Edit: You may want to try substituting the hatch chile with a poblano pepper as they tend to be more available through Loblaws & other grocers.

I have had good luck finding unique ingredients like these chilies at Mercado Latino on Montreal Rd. just up near the bridge to Rideau St.

Hi RobR - lucky, lucky you - those are some of our favourite places with great food....
You can sometimes order frozen roasted green chiles up from New Mexico, there are places that say they will ship to Canada.
We occasionally carry jars of flame roasted green chiles from Albuquerque, New Mexico at Chilly Chiles but don't have any at the moment. They are the closest ones to fresh that I've tried. (We do have 100 oz cans of green chiles, which will do in a stew)
If you see fresh Anaheim chiles, grab some - they are almost the same as the New Mexican green. Byward Fruit has them sometimes. Then you can roast your own!
Sorry, I can't help at all on the Texas hot links!

PLEASE let me know if you get jars of roasted ones in at Chilly Chiles! That would be awesome. 100oz is overkill, but we're determined to find them...

As for hot links... I'll probably have to order from the states...

Hi RobR I will let you know when more arrive. We do have a few jars left of New Mexican Green chile sauce from Santa Fe.
I'm totally envious that you were in Hatch for their festival!