ottawa foodies

Corny title, I know.

But out of curiosity, what are your food/music habits if you have any?

Radio on? Preferred dining music? Preferred cooking music? Do you dance whilst whisking and ask your partner to dip you while opening the oven (I hope not!)

The topic came about between my husband + I when we were at Black Cat Bistro on Saturday; the server created the playlist and I kid you not, the songs were all from CDs that we had in our car. We joked that we ought to double check the glove compartment before leaving.

On the playlist were
Bruce Springsteen
Leonard Cohen
Neil Young
Johnny Cash
Otis Redding

and others.

These are pretty much our standard favourites to lisetning to whilst eating and cooking, so it was one of many pleasantries of the evening.

When I try to bake something I am not really good at (pie shell, croissant for example) I listen to Amy Winehouse. I don't know why, but I become very positive and don't worry about the outcome from my oven when I sing along with her. Lastweek I baked 'rock hard' croissants :(

I am classical music lover. I love Chopin, Bach and Rachmaninoff.
My dream is to translate their music into visual pastry art, to create pastry which is inspired by their beautiful misic.
For example, when I think of Chopin's nocturne Op62-1, I come up with an idea making coffee sponge cake with rich chestnut cream and dark chocolate cream, or creme Patissiere... add hint of rhum or brandy.

When I made this lemon mousse cake, I was listening "Aria con Variazioni" by Bach, played by Glenn Gould. Famous foodie, Hannibal Lecter, M.D loves this song. In The Silence of the Lambs, he enjoyed his 'special dinner' with this song.

Usually, be it dinner party or general cooking, I'll fire up my "**** or above" playlist on iTunes, and shuffle the heck out of it. I have yet to commit the time to making "that perfect dinner party mix". One of these days!

While eating I alternate between watching tv (depending what is on) or a little background music. Dining music is usually something subdued like classical music (right now it's the Brandenburg concertos) or soft rock (Sade anyone?). While washing dishes I definitely have a cd playing and something more lively. (In my house I am the dishwasher so I need something to help the time go by faster-;) So it's usually Ella Fitzgerald, the Surreal Gourmet soundtrack, or Big Rude Jake. I generally don't put much thought into what I listen to while doing the prep work since I am generally not in the kitchen long enough to bother. Unless I am spending the afternoon in the kitchen cooking up a storm then it's usually an opera.

Master of Puppets is great for doing the dishes.

Here is my list:
'Let's Eat' - Nick Lowe from an early Stiff Records collection
'Chicken Cordon Blues' - Steve Goodman
'Home Grown Tomatoes' - Guy Clark
'Eggs and Sausage' - Tom Waits
'Cheeseburger in Paradise' - Jimmy Buffet
'Strawberry Jam' - Michelle Shocked
Skin and Bones -The Kinks
Jambalaya - Dr. John (and many others)
Eggplant - Michael Franks
"Strawberry Fields Forever" - Beatles
"Raspberry Beret" - Prince
"Suzanne" - Leonard Cohen (line: And she feeds you tea & oranges that come all the way from China)
"Ice Cream" - Sarah McLachlan
"Banana Pancakes" - Jack Johnson
"Caramel" - Suzanne Vega
"Lemon" - U2
"Red Red Wine" - UB40
"Shade and Honey" - Sparklehorse
"Cinnamon Girl" - Neil Young
"Pecan Pie" by Golden Smog
"The Lemon Song" by Led Zep (ok, just pretend it really is about lemons)
"Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" and "Chewy, Chewy", both by Ohio Express
'Jambalaya' by just about anybody.
'Barbecue' by Duke Tumatoe
'Beans & Cornbread' by Louis Jordan
'Rum & Coca Cola' by the Andrews Sisters
'Chicken Cordon Blues' by Steve Goodman
'House of Blue Light' by Alseep At The Wheel (& some others)
'Candy' by Big Maybelle
'McArthur Park' by Richard Harris
'I Want a Hot Dog for my Roll' by Butterbeans & Susie
'Memphis Women & Fried Chicken' by Dan Penn
'Fried Chicken' by Rufus Thomas
'Chicken Heads' by James Cotton (& many others)
'Polk Salad Annie' by Tony Joe White
'Too Much Barbeque' by Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows
'Cheeseburger in Paradise' by Jimmy Buffett
'Chitlins con Carne' by Kenny Burrell
'Greasy Greens' by Pucho & his Latin Soul Brothers
'Drinkin' Wine Spo-dee-o-dee' by Stcks McGhee
'Frim Fram Sauce' by Nat King Cole (but if you can find the Ella Fitzgerald version, she just a spot-on imitation of Louis Armstrong that is hysterical!)
'I Want Some Seafood, Mama' by Fats Waller
'Memphis Soul Stew' by King Curtis
'Chocolate Pork Chop Man' (!) by Pete 'Guitar' Lewis
'One Meat Ball' by Josh White (and also the Andrews Sisters, I think)
'Milkshake' by Kelis (although I suspect this isnt really about food)
'Green Onions' by Booker T & the MGs
'Call Any Vegetable' by the Mothers of Invention
'Everybody Eats When They Come To My House' by Cab Calloway
'Eggs & Sausage' by Tom Waits
'Your Greens Give Me the Blues' by Rev. Billy C Wirtz
'Angelina' by Louis Prima
'Cold Turkey' by John Lennon (I dont think this is about food either.)
'Grits aint Groceries' by Little Milton

AND THE BEST FOR LAST -MY KINDA OF COOKING AND DRINKING MUSIC !!!


JDK

I've got a media player hooked up to my stereo, so my entire music collection is at my fingertips for mood music. I have one playlist with Cowboy Junkies, and Mark Knopfler, and another with Van Morrison, Blue Rodeo, and Bruce Springsteen. The one with Van Morrison has maybe 8 of his albums on it, mmmm... I can almost taste the Tupelo Honey! I have to agree with Aisu, music + cooking = sensual harmony.

JDK: Oh wow, there are so many food related songs! I am going to chek your you tube link:)

Pete: Yup, that's a universal fomula, no matter what you cook.
One more thing, man should remember, lonely woman gets fat...Take care your girl, you know :)

Any Belle & Sebastian plus singing along is the most fun I can have whilst cooking. At the same time, any Serge Gainsbourg goes phenomenally well with eating/drinking.

Tupac... Backstreet Boys... clearly my music tastes are much less refined than yours :)

SL - If I was working in a windowless basement prep kitchen peeling seven hundred pounds of potatoes, I would so totally be listening to gangster rap about burning down zoos or the like. It's all about context.

Ok, I guess I'm showing my vintage - but in the summer, some blaring ACDC - back in black or Scorpions while the bbq is going, in the evening Jazz, and winter blues, clapton, sting more jazz, folk and world beat. While I really enjoy classical music - it doesn't do much for me while I'm cooking or eating.

JDK: Seems like "Lollipop" by Mika would fit right into this list... (There's a great animated video on youtube.)

Lollipop, Mika


Lollipop (Candyman), Aqua. Worth watching for those of us who grew up in the 90s.

Between "The Man" and I we like most music genres... his favourite however would be The Blues, so that is what plays most often. If we are having a dinner party we like to play either The Blues, Jazz or some old Crooners as we find all of these make good background music, and don't interfere with conversation.

I personally like to listen something more upbeat when doing prep in the kitchen... my faves would have to be early 60s Rock & Roll... stuff I don't really remember as a kid, but certainly get a charge out of... Mostly R&B stuff - Girl Groups, James Brown, Sappy Teenage Romance Songs (aka Splatter Platters), some British Invasion, Van Morrison along with some classic & new country - Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Roy Orbison, Alan Jackson, Blue Rodeo.

When I am in the kitchen I have to be moving to be having a good time... "The Man" and I tend to share the prep / clean-up duties, so sometimes we like to stop and dance around the kitchen... it's fun, and make the chores easier.

JDK - awesome list!

For dinner parties we love St. Germaine - very mellow vibe. Also old Aretha Franklin, Abby Lincoln, Joao Gilberto, and Nina Simone.

During kitchen prep, I watch The Food Network LOL.

If you have a little fussy eater, Weird Al Yankovic's EAT IT is very useful BGM.


I don't know how many times I sang this song to my son and shouted,
"Just eat it!"

lwb, food and music go together big-time for me and have for a long time. Add in the "dancing" around the kitchen for me too, F&T (to the eternal embarassment of my kids!) that helps loosen me up as I slice, dice, chop and cook (my aching back). This morning while waiting for another load of firewood to arrive I listened to something my daughter sent from England for my B-Day while I was chopping dill to freeze - a British band called Rodina, featuring an Irish songstress; it's kinda jazzy (and the first song had me thinking Madeleine Peyroux who's a dinner-time fave here). That reminds me that our dd sent my wife a CD a few years ago that is a favourite for me in the kitchen as well as my wife for exercising - The Ditty Bops, a young California girl duo that bring to mind the McGarrigles in their youth, a really excellent first album. However it's the blues that's my old fave (just came up from listening to Ottawa's blues diva Sue Foley who helped urge me on with the wood-stacking in the basement). Maybe the most played in the kitchen album of the last 5 years has been another Ottawa woman who I first saw at a concert in Winchester where there were 6 paying customers including me and the Vietnamese student who lived with us for a year - her name is Jennifer Noxon - she did an excellent show for the small gathering and I bought her first CD (she only has 2), Watch As You Walk, (with a picture of the India Food Centre on the cover!). Such a calming CD with good stories and some fun humour. My wife didn't see her (and liked the music too) so a year and a half later she gave me a Christmas present of a house concert by Jennifer for us, our family and friends - it was awesome, and so was the food.
OK, nuff said, getting too wordy here. Suffice it to say that music is important to me even though my wife says I have no rhythm (she's so wrong! - I've my own sense of it) and I've long used it in cooking to spice things up or to ease the pain or to calm an aching head (another good CD for that is Gregorian chants!) so I can get supper on the table.
Stop now...
Except I have to add that that lemon mousse cake is exquisitely beautiful Aisu! Bravo!

I have to compliment your lemon mousse cake as well Aisu.

As for music, I must be suffering from mid-90's nostalgia....I've been listening to At The Drive-In, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Shotmaker, Explosions In the Sky and The Mercury Program while cooking lately.

Andy: Why,thank you:)!!! Cake Decoration is so much fun, I think that's the best part of cake making. I made many design sketches when I made this cake.

Mousseline: Hello! I am going to study Baking and Pastry Arts at Algonquin soon.
I would love to talk with you about school and pastry sometime:)!!

Urbanroutine - Ha ha! Yes. French pop goes so well with dinner. Nobody knows what the heck they're saying, but you do get the occasional snippet of conversation.

And when you do understand what's going on, it's all "I put a tiger in my guitar" and you're all "Whaaaaaaaaat?"

Load the playlist up with Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, France Gall, and Michel Polnareff and go to town.