ottawa foodies

I dropped in several weeks ago on my walk back from work. It was just a sad shell of its former self.

This store is now closed.

definitely one of my fave stores

anytime I feel uncreative I just run in
memories of my childhood comes flooding back and all the flavours involve
and then how can I fuze these with other new flavours recently learned

don't forget to go upstairs for cheap cooking stuffs like chopstix and the such

inventory is hit or miss on less popular items but so much is always available

tends to always be busy on saturdays and sundays
will see many embassy chefs there

Do you REALLY love beans? Grace Ottawa has 10kg (!) bags of dried beans (black, romano, white, lima), black-eyed and split peas, red and brown lentils - I'm missing a few types, no doubt - ranging in price from 9.99 to 12.99. Try and beat that. Brands are: NuPak and Mr. Goudas. These bags are BIG. Think: the bags they drop out of planes in famine-struck areas. Heave-ho!
I am a BIG fan of red lentils. They can be prepared incredibly quick from dried. I cook them with garam masala then, when done, firmly press to cover the bottom of a lightly oiled pan and fry. It gives you an excellent crispy delicious crust for other goodies to be piled on.
Other things, among many, at Grace that make it worth the trip: their selection of spices; lime leaves; the packages of flat flexible sheets of dried mini-bananas (smeared thin with PB and rolled like a Piroulline cookie - very good); and their large tubs of tofu (12 blocks/tub for 2.99), great for miso soup.

And for comic relief: the refrigerated beverage section. Example: Mrs. French's Vanilla Corn Drink. (shudder)
But this was about beans: Grace is my pick.
p.s. they do have smaller bags (~400grams) of all the above as well (also cheap)

any time I cannot make it to Chinatown for the goods but I am close to the core I know I can get them here
and the prices are pretty close
pictured are afew of my fave pastes and my fave brand of coconut milk

an essential in caribbean and central american cuisines

ripe, and fried, very nice
ripe, and fried twice, doubly so
green, also called "cooking banana" used in lots of Jamaican soups

used also for some "sofrito's"

It runs $1.69 a-bottle at Grace. You can't beat it on a hot day.

Edited: OK, from a non-alcoholic standpoint. :)

a carbonated drink from Jamaica
grapefruit flavour
grew up big and strong on this

diet is available but not always

for curry or roti

all I can do is smack my lips thinking of oxtail

cross section - a little light on the filling but the solid pastry crust makes up for it

baked

the reheated patties they sell at the counter for ~$1.25 are George's Tastee brand based in Markham (www.georgestastee.ca). you can also buy a box of frozen par-baked patties for ~$8.50/dozen.

Tastee's filling is a little sparser than Patty King brand (available in most major grocery stores) but the pastry is far, far superior. if you're a fan of heat i'd recommend the extra spicy as the 'regular' spicy (pictured herein) is fairly tame on the scoville scale.

Toronto made but still prettydemn good

can get ready to go (beef reg, beef spicy and chicken flavas) available during and around the lunch hour (hint: if there is no water in the tin at the bottom of the display case, pass)

and available frozen at a whopping price of 7.99 a dz in the freezer case

hmmmm Black Pomfret!!!!!!!!

Love it!
first had it while working at a Thai resto
love it grilled with lemongrass and lime

or deep-fried crisp and dressed with lime, Lao herbs, fried garlic and chilis

or steamed with fermented black beans (chili-garlic sauce on side for me!)

wow..I need to grab a couple this week and try it with my latest batch of Jamaican jerk paste

Huzzah! I found frozen, whole (heads-on, guts-in) black pomfret at my new favourite store. Haven't bought any yet, though, so how *good* the pomfret is will wait for another day.