ottawa foodies

Hello all

I was just eating a peanut butter cookie, and I realized something: I am addicted to peanut butter cookies. So I was wondering what food addictions my fellow foodies have. From chips and aioli to a tall glass of bold red wine and cheese. Anyhow, I'll let you guys tell me all about your tasty weaknesses.

My cravings change weekly! But the things I'm pretty much always up for:

- A really good dark roast drip coffee or espresso.
- Tortilla chips and salsa, especially salsa fresca.
- Dark chocolate. The really good stuff that you're meant to eat only a square or two at a time.

I'm too fickle for addictions! I rarely finish a bag of cookies, nuts, crackers, or chips before they go stale. Variety is the spice of life! ;-)

I love all the things you've talked about... peanut butter cookies, red wine, cheese, espresso, chips n salsa, chocolate. When it comes to food, I'm sort of slutty and fickle -- easily pleased but quickly bored.

Well, except for chocolate. If I ever tire of eating chocolate, I'm all ready to go again the next day!

Candice's cravings do change weekly. Or daily. Or by the time I get back from the kitchen.

My fix is Bridgehead date squares. They've ruined me for date squares everywhere else (except maybe Planet Coffee), though. Let's see, what else... Montreal-style bagels. Garlic fingers. Shawarma. Macadamia nut cookies. Coffee, but that's just a regular addiction. Instant oatmeal in overly-sweet flavours.

Oh, graham crackers. Oh, graham crackers.

Drink...mmm.. a really fine sipping tequila. Food.. I can't name a food specifically, but I can name an experience (as food and experience go hand in hand). Cooking a big roast of beef (Top Sirloin, or Prime Rib will do) on the barbeque rotisserie all afternoon, and sitting beside the bbq with a beverage (of choice that day) and slicing off slivers of beef to eat as it gets 'just done', like I'm going to make a schwarma in my belly! Ok.. the schwarma wasn't the right alusion.. but it's still quite the experience regardless.

Candice, you hit my top three as well. :)

Dark Chocolate - mmmmmm
Ice cream
salt and vinegar chips
almonds (natural or roasted)
ripe strawberries - almost in season yay (with ice cream and chocolate - or dipped in dark chocolate)
Cheese (old cheddar, brie, danish blue, goats milk, gruyere, feta....)
olives

Hmm, lets see

Dark Chocolate (me too!)
Pistachios
Salmon Tempura Sushi
S & V chips

I'm going to have to out myself here...despite my chosen career I'm not a chocolate lover, obviously I'm in the minority! I like chocolate with other stuff rather than on it's own, like coconut or nuts. Actually you get both in Almond Joy bars, and they don't seem to be abundant in Ottawa, so I buy one every time I see them whether I'm hungry or not. Chocolate with salt, like Korova cookies or chocolate covered pretzels, also good.

my food vices:

fingerling potatoes (god, I would eat these EVERY day if I could afford them)
sea salt (fleur de sel, the cheaper stuff from the Portuguese market, all of it)
cocoa nibs
the Bellini at Milestones (several kinds of alcohol in a peachy slush mounded in a big glass surrounded by a moat of sangria goodness)
Lychees, and lychee flavoured things

oh, and mushrooms, all kinds (ok...not the recreational kind!) my favorite treat as a kid was puffballs fried in lots of butter.

"the Bellini at Milestones"

I love these but the brain freeze from sipping too fast is killer!

Garlic bread, nutella, swiss chocolate w/ hazelnuts in it, stinky cheeses, fresh baked breads, fresh bagels (preferably Ottawa bagelshop fresh from the oven), dates, really high quality beef served rare, fresh squeezed OJ

Mangosteen...
Lobster sashimi...
Dad's famous "Bean Thread with Crabs in Hot Pot"... he's in HK... boo hoo... :(

Easier to obtain:
Summer tomato salad with fresh buffalo mozzerella cheese and fresh basil, drizzled with really tasty olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar...
Ben & Jerry Cherry Garcia ice cream...
Egg white and dried scallops fried rice a la Chu Shing on Somerset... (with or without the crabs on top)

-M.

Pete-in-Ot, you were talking about experiences. Well, one experience that I am a huge fan of and can't get enough of is Dim Sum at the Yang Sheng or the Yangtzee. I especially love the rice wrapped in a grape vine leaf, the thick rice noodle wrapper shrimp, spare ribs, pork sumai, shrimp sumai, egg tarts, chicken feet, sesame balls, BBQ rolls, pork balls, shrimp balls, well... just about everything. I guss I can say that I am addicted to food in general :)

Man, I have way too many food vices to list here, so I'll limit it to what I would call guilty indulgences - things that are REALLY bad for me, things that cost an arm and a leg and I really shouldn't be buying on my budget, or things that a foodie such as myself should feel embarrassed about liking:

-Imported procuitto
-Buffalo mozzarella
-Chip wagon poutine
-Cheese smokies - especially done on a BBQ, hopefully with KD on the side
-Peameal bacon sandwiches
-Junior Whopper with cheese, no onions, and onion rings at BK
-Can't start a road-trip without The Breakfast of Champions, that is some kind of McMuffin Meal.

Mmmm peameal sandwiches - I had an awesome one at the St. Lawrence Market in TO last fall - I can still taste it... Other food favourites include anything salty (chips, pretzels, whatever), grilled sardine sandwiches, bread especially from the Ethiopian guy at the Lansdowne Farmers market, and pasta of course.

beer

but then, you all knew that :-)

just about any authentic Germanic or Slavic food. Ham hocks! Cabbage rolls! Spaetzle! You get the picture ...

I used to have a major addiction to a type of peanut-butter bar made by a small bakery in my university town. Peanuts, sesame, honey and a few other things. At one point an employee I knew even gave me the recipe but I've sadly since lost it.

mmmm - I forgot about peanut butter - a definite vice.
Also Tim Hortons Blueberry fritters and Wendy's Big Bacon Classic and French Fries - can't forget the fries - especially thick cut chip wagon fries. These are definitely in the "posion" category.