EAT: Pelican Grill @ Ottawa

May 2, 2013 – 8:17 am

I wrote this back in October… and promptly forgot to publish it…. sorry…

One of my most favourite memories as a child is eating at seaside restaurants on some island back home in Hong Kong. Fisherman would bring in the catch in the morning, and the restaurants would display their catch in giant tanks. Our extended family would point at our choices, and minutes later we would have a pretty awesome meal with some seafood that was just in culinary purgatory moments ago.

Being nowhere close to the sea, Ottawa oddly has certainly got its fair share of restaurants cum fish markets. There are a few I can think of: Merivale Fish Market is one great example, with a fresh fish section attached to a family restaurant. The Whalesbone on Bank doesn’t have a fish market on site, but its supply location close by on Kent so it certainly qualifies in the category. I’ve been to the Pelican Grill several times, and it’s become my favourite fish joint in the city.

Our first visit was done almost on a whim, playing “Urbanspoon Roulette” and landing at the Pelican entirely by chance. What struck me about the Pelican (over time) is its consistent execution of its product time and time again, but it never seems to get old. The Pelican is a pretty casual joint, with the waiters always as cheery as its open and bright dining room. The fish always tastes fresh (as it should, since the fish market is literally on the other side of the dining room partition), and the execution is pretty quality time and time again. Oh, and there’s consistently a crowd, so same-day reservations are few and far between.
Our visits always start with a basket of warm multi-grain rolls, which tends to be a bad thing not because the bread isn’t delicious enough, but because they will refill the basket if you ask, and that’s just asking for trouble.

The ceviche (Pictured. Yay!), if available, is a great lighter option to their regular appetizer menu. The variant I had was made with snapper, and tossed with tomatoes, pea sprouts, cilantro, red onions, and a healthy portion of lemon juice. It’s fresh, light, and is delicious with their homemade chips. Their forte, however, is more skewed in favour of the “fryalator arts”, with their fried smelts as my personal favourite appy on the menu (Not pictured. Sorry). The smelts are lightly battered and flash fried to gain a crispy outer layer and sweet-and-tender texture on the inside. The tiny little fishies are a great sharable plate and a non-threatening introduction into tiny fish consumption. Just give the fish a dunk in the accompanying spicy mayo and consume from head to tail.

The fish and chips is consistently great, and at $16 for the haddock (and $19 for the halibut), is priced right for its execution. Continuing their strengths in the the fryalator department, the exterior of the fish is crispy without being overly oily, and the haddock (pictured) is steamy and flakey. They even keep the fries separate from the fish in its own separate container, which prevents either from becoming a soggy mess upon arrival.

Shifting from foods that came out of the deep fryer, my companion decided to choose the lighter special of the evening and got the a bowl of mussels and shrimps with vermicelli. It was a simple dish, with a clean consomme, and it was a good example of seafood done right that doesn’t require hot oil to produce.

With The Pelican being a full time fish monger as well as a full time restaurant, the place can get packed with people during the early dinner rush, so don’t be shy to push through the crowds at the fish shop to get to the restaurant.

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The Pelican
Cusine: Seafood
1500 Bank Street
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 526-5229
Pelican Fishery & Grill on Urbanspoon

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EAT: Gourmet Malaysia @ Toronto

August 11, 2012 – 6:46 pm

By way of the Torontoist and Spice City Toronto, I discovered Gourmet Malaysia in the heart of north Scarborough. I have grown up eating around the world, and more often than not our Saturday lunches would see us nomming on a few pieces of paratha and a nice southeast Asian style curry. When I read about a place that serves Singaporean-style street food (albeit, in a sterile and standardized setting as required by Toronto Public Health) in the city, Emilie and I  jumped at the chance to try it out.
The lack of an available parking spot in front of the establishment is always a good start (though there is ample parking just around the corner where a giant asian grocery is located). The next really good sign is the signature whiff of curry and lemongrass. Though the dining room looked pretty empty when we walked in, it filled up quickly with regular customers who were greeted warmly at the door.

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EAT: Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine @ Ottawa

July 20, 2012 – 6:52 am

After consuming truly excellent Ethiopian food at Habesha a few weeks back, our group decided to check out the other offerings around Ottawa. Our next stop was the Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine located just east of Ottawa’s Chinatown. We’ve heard about this restaurant through other food bloggers around Ottawa and it’s earned a very respectable 88% on Urbanspoon, so we anticipated a pretty smooth supper experience.

The dining room was relatively quiet on a Friday night so we were shown to a table pretty much right away. The menu is laid out by animal or mineral, with sections for beef, lamb, chicken, and vegetarian. We had intended on ordering the “kitfo special”, the raw beef mixed with kale and cheese, but  they ran out of cheese for the day so we settled for the regular kitfo along with our usual Ethiopian mainstays dulet and the vegetarian platter.
Blue Nile's MenuBlue Nile's Menu

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NERD: On-The-Verge – LeVar Burton = Geordi

June 28, 2012 – 11:07 pm

I got called to a last-minute meeting in Stamford, CT last week. Such trips from where I live in Ottawa usually necessitates a stopover in New York city due to airport transfer schedules. It just so happens that this trip coincided with the taping of “On The Verge“, the video talk show produced by the folks at The Verge, and it also just so happens that the headline guest this week is none other than Geordi Effing LaForge.

I learned 3 things at the taping:

  1. LeVar is cool with people stopping him on the straight and addressing him as Geordi. If you run into the guy, I suggest trying it out. Chances of being decked or police called on you is apparently miniscule.
  2. The folks at The Verge put on a pretty tight production. It’s downright professional, with the exception the binge drinking on the part of the host.
  3. Speaking of the host, Joshua Topolsky, may not be a raging alcoholic, but he is a pretty down-to-earth guy. Upon finding out a small group of fans were waiting for him at the exit of the venue, he promptly made an appearance and chatted us up.
The highlight of the night was being seated beside Russ Pitts at the taping. We had a pleasant chat about the “up-scaling” of gaming journalism. Russ has some grand ideas of elevating the discourse of gaming, and while I think those ideas are noble, my argument is that playing by someone else’s rules of what is “Pulitzer quality” may be fruitless.

I ended up meeting Josh after the event and getting a bunch of Verge and Polygon folks to sign my iPad. Overall, it was a pretty cool night.
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EAT: Habesha Restaurant @ Ottawa

June 24, 2012 – 10:41 pm

Ottawa has great Ethiopian food… Mind-blowingly great.

I’ve always been partial towards restaurants that, for a lack of a more diplomatic explanation, can care less about their exterior appearance. One thing I’ve learned about eating in my native Hong Kong is that the best food comes from shacks, carts, and storefronts that look anything but “five stars”. Habesha’s less than exciting storefront luckily translates to some of the best Ethiopian food I have had. A preface: It’s best to approach Ethiopian cuisine with an open mind. It’s not steak and potatoes, and you’re eating with your hands, but if you are open to new experiences, you won’t be disappointed with Habesha.

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RfDB: Success!

May 28, 2012 – 8:08 am

The Ottawa Race Weekend has concluded, and I’m alive.

I have to admit, the excitement of running for the folks at Desert Bus got my blood pumping early… 4:00 AM early. I woke up at 4 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I said screw it to sleep and got up to prep for my 21km jaunt around Ottawa. Around 8:45 or so, my friends and I separated into our individual corrals to begin our race.

I was assigned the “purple” corral, where most participants would finish between 2:30-2:45. Since I was aiming for between 2:15-2:30, I snuck myself into the “green” corral without much trouble, except for this one gentleman for giving me a hard time for running faster than my specified corral.

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Track the Run for Desert Bus LIVE!

May 27, 2012 – 5:25 am

The run has a hashtag, it's #RfDB.
The Run for Desert Bus is about to begin! You can track my progress on my RunKeeper Live profile!

You can still donate to a great cause! Click through the ChipIn widget on the right to donate!

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RfDB: We’re in Triple Digits!

May 22, 2012 – 6:11 pm

Thanks to our first five donors who have pushed the donation tracker to over $100! Your donations have unlocked the “Runkeeper Elite” achievement! I’ll make sure the real-time link is up and running for the race!

Also…

The run has a hashtag, it's #RfDB.

… The shirt is made. I think it’s too late for me to back out now.

We’ve got 5 full days until the race. Feel free to donate to a great cause (and make those guys at Loading Ready Run bus a few more hours.

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RfDB: Training Down the Stretch

May 21, 2012 – 11:15 pm

The Ottawa Race Weekend is just under seven days. With so few days left between now and the half-marathon, I’ve decided to shut down my long-game training and just focus on staying loose. Today’s training was a 6km run around the Experimental Farm loop. I was tailing my friend James, a very seasoned runner who finishes marathons in under 3 hours, so it was a pretty tough run to keep up with his already reduced pace.

Tomorrow I’m heading to a shirt printer to customizer a new running shirt with some Desert Bus identifiers. It’s going to be sweet.
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RfDB: DMC Thinks I’m Cool

May 19, 2012 – 1:26 pm

I met a hip hop star, and he likes the Desert Bus.

On Wednesday I met Darryl McDaniels, otherwise known as DMC of Run DMC fame, at the Demandware Xchange conference. He’s certainly got an inspiring story to tell, so when he encouraged us bunch of nerds to “seize the opportunity”, I did just that.

While he was enjoying his lunch, I had a chance to tell him about the Desert Bus event and my Run for Desert Bus. He seemed really enthused about the idea of an event based on a bunch of nerds playing a crappy video game whose ultimate goal is to raise money to buy awesome video games for children’s hospitals. I gave him with some information and left him to enjoy his lunch in relative peace (or at least until the next group of fans approached him for photos).
Less than 24 hours later, Mr. DMC tweets about the Desert Bus campaign, and what I can hopefully consider as a strong celebrity endorsement of the Desert Bus event.





There’s less than one week away. I’ve got one final long run before the big one. If you’re reading this and haven’t yet pitched in to buy some awesome games for children in hospitals, what are you waiting for? That ChipIn widget on the right side will get you started!

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