ottawa foodies

Hey oh,

Does anyone know where one would find some high quality gum arabic, aka acacia gum?

Thanks,
Matt

Those are crickets I'm hearing...

Give the guys at Powder-To-The-People a shout they are local and should be able to help you out.

Customer Service
Please direct any inquiries to info@powdertothepeople.ca
You may also reach our head office by writing to:

Powder to the People
A division of Atelier Inc.
540 Rochester Street
Ottawa ON K1S 4M1
613.321.3537

Montego Bay, caribbean store in Orleans has gum arabic.

Impressive HungryPete.... you're the winner!

Now the next question... what is TPD going to use it for?

Not sure Michael, but there seem to be a lot of non-food uses for it, some of them a bit frightening.

All sorts of Indian sweets!

my guess would be for a arabic gum syrup for cocktails. similar to simple syrup but more viscous.

check out the paternal drunk's blog.

www.thepaternaldrunk.com

Thanks Hungry Pete and MichaelGA! I called Marc Lepine at Atelier/Powder to the People, but sadly he doesn't carry it. I'll have to check out Montego Bay, Hungry Pete. Do you have an address? Google is failing me - just giving me loads of flights from Ottawa to Jamaica...which would be awesome right about now, come to think of it.

And Eastcoast.chef is right - gum syrup.

8 oz filtered water
16 oz Demerara sugar (by volume)
37 g gum Arabic
1/2 oz 151 proof rum (preservation agent)

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Oh, and thanks Eastcoast.chef for the blog plug! :)

Cool stuff!

thanks for sharing

Montego Bay is at 2211 St Joeseph, a bit west of Orleans BLVD. I never really pay attention to the side streets so I just looked it up on Google Streewview.
It's in a little strip mall on the north side. I was there on the weekend, and I noticed they had gum arabic because I remembered seeing your cry for help. It's in small packages attached to a pillar in the middle of an aisle . . . I'm giving you specific directions because the store is a bit of a nightmare, and even the people who work there may not know what they have. They have a lot of great Caribbean stuff. I buy roti shells there, but they have an incredible variety of spicy sauces, powders etc.

Awesome. Thank you kindly, Hungry Pete - my cries for help were not in vain!

I'm a bit late to this party but another place you could try is Artistic Cake on Clyde. This stuff is used in cake decorating so they may carry it.

TPD, I hope it's what you're looking for.
BTW looking at your blog sure made me thirsty.

Is Gum Arabic similar to Mastic that is used in Lebanese sweets?

If it is , I know someone who can sell you some. They own a bakery and use it for some of the ice creams and pastries.

It's not a ingredient store, but they have sold me ground up nuts before (I think they are much fresher than the grocery store ones here)...