u/BankStreetBites

Made some Shakshuka for my wife bday this week. I love the process of prepping everything to make it turn into amazing sauce and then adding the eggs.

Here is the recipe I used:

TOAST toast the cumin seeds and caraway seeds until fragrant (1-2 minutes), in a large saucepan or fairly large (14 inch) cast iron pan

ADD the olive oil and canola oil and sauté the onions and garlic until lightly browned

ADD the red & green peppers, chilies, and cook for another 5-6 minutes.

ADD the tomatoes, Aleppo pepper and paprika and cook down for 15-20 minutes on low heat.

Add water as needed to achieve a pasta sauce like consistency. Add the salt and adjust as needed. You’re looking for it to be fairly potent. Add your herbs.

ONCE the sauce is ready make 8 little cradles in the sauce to cradle the eggs. The eggs should not be on top of the sauce but cracked into craters of separated sauce. Season the egg yolks with a little salt and cook one low-medium heat for 10-12 minutes, essentially poaching the eggs in the tomato sauce

Serve this dish with crusty bread

Made some Shakshuka for my wifes bday this week. Turned out really nicely.

I was lucky enough to get a walk-in spot on the patio on Saturday evening and had a delightful meal and cocktail.

I started with the Tuna Tataki which came with albacore tuna crusted in sesame seeds, cucumber balls and a chilli kosho sauce and a jalapeno breeze sake cocktail.  This is one of my favourite dishes on Bank Street, the combination of zesty citrus yuzu in chilli kosho and crunchy fried garlic on top of the melt in your mouth albacore is next level. 

I followed that with the creamy fried brussels sprouts, which was a surprise as it returned to the menu after a winter hiatus.  The sprouts came in a balanced dish with tahini sauce, aged cheddar, puffed wheat and pickled onions.

Finally I had what is the flagship item on the menu the Beast Ramen with pork belly, ajitama egg, garlic oil and mustard pickles.  Paper Tiger often comes up in discussion for best noodles in Ottawa and this ramen is why. The broth was hot, rich and filled with umami flavour, the pork was nice and tender and the ajitama soy egg was perfectly poached with a jammy yolk.

10/10 experience and I cant wait to go back again. They had a bok choy special I didn't get to try cos I got excited about the return of the brussels.

I was lucky enough to have a night to myself last night and went out for dinner and had a "Beast Ramen" from Paper Tiger in Ottawa.

It was fantastic.

Last week as part of my continued journey to document the whole menu at Roberto's Corner, I went past try the number 3 sandwich on the menu, the Homemade Porchetta. This sandwich is a Friday-only special.

The Porchetta Sandwich consisted of seasoned roast pork and provolone cheese, topped with roasted peppers, banana peppers, jalapeños, and lettuce. I went with the recommended garlic mayo as my sauce. 

The pork was juicy but not particularly salty and I was expecting at least some crackling, I was a little disappointed in that regard . I did get a few crunchy bits, but none of the lovely spiced, salty crackling that defines a proper porchetta. The garlic mayo was fine, but when I think of roast pork in a roll, I want apple sauce and/or gravy.

I finally caved to the tactic of being sent past the dessert fridge to wait to pay and got a couple of cannoli. Crisp, fresh pastry dusted with icing sugar and filled with a lovely, slightly savoury but still sweet filling.  The Nutella Cannoli in particular was a home run with the nutty chocolate toppings really combined well with the light, fresh outer shell.

As I work my way through the menu, here's where things stand:

Roberto's Power Rankings:

1. Turkey

2. Black Forest Ham

3. Porchetta

 

It contains whole wheat and white flour, water, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, flax, poppy seeds, sourdough, fresh yeast and sea salt.

It was so tasty.

I stopped by True Loaf Bread Company located on Gladstone today to pick up some bread.  This is one of my favourite bakeries in the city as it focuses on savoury bread  products such as sourdough, ciabatta, seed loaf  and focaccia but does always have a few sweet treats available. 

True Loaf is a truly local family run business that bakes all of its bread fresh daily at the bakery on Gladstone, the attention to detail put into every loaf really make their products stand out. If you are a fan of fresh bread I cant recommend it highly enough.

I purchased a Seed Loaf and a Rosemary Foccacia, both were fantastic.

What are some of the other good bakeries for bread in the city? I rate Bread By Us and Art Is In Bakery as the other top options I have tried. I am also a fan of Cobbs even though it is more of a chain.

I've been walking past Kung Fu Tea on Bank in OOS for ages and finally went in last week. Took the family so we could try a few different things.

We got the Chocolate Slushy, Mango Yoghurt and Jasmine Green Tea. The Jasmine Tea was the my favourite, strong tea flavour, well balanced sweetness, sago pearls at the bottom. Everything is fully customisable (size, sweetness, ice, toppings) which is genuinely useful and not just a gimmick.

The chocolate slushy was solid too - distinct cocoa flavour, not overly sweet, crushed ice. Good on a warm day. Mango yoghurt was more of a smoothie, bright and fresh.

Place itself is small but nice - maybe 15 seats inside, a few patio spots, open until 10/11pm depending on the day. They also do instant ramen which I didn't try.

Anyone else been? Curious what other flavours are worth ordering.

I stopped by Sofia Vintage Motor Café at 1158 Bank Street in Old Ottawa South.

Featuring a constantly evolving menu of local and seasonal produce and espresso since it opened in October 2025, owner Dr Hassan Moghadam has developed the café to showcase his private collection of vintage cars in the community. His passion for cars and community really comes through in this unique café. The private car collection is on display in the back half of the room, separated by a glass partition; a feature car is on display in the café for a closer look.

The coffee was decent, a little hotter than I would have liked and not particularly strong, but it was well balanced and creamy. I would say this is more of a latte, but that might just be my Australian perspective. 

Overall, I had a very enjoyable experience at the café, even if the coffee wasn't fantastic. For car enthusiasts, this place is a must-visit, especially for one of the events. If you sign up for the mailing list and make a small donation to Hospice Ottawa, you can join the next tour of the vintage motorsports area.

Full review as well as other local reviews can be found on the link in my profile.

Picked up some Tuna steaks the other day and today the sun was shining so I fired up the BBQ. I marinated them for around 3 hours in dark soy, light soy, Shaoxing wine, maple syrup and sesame oil.

Cranked up the BBQ as hot as it got and then put them on for 3 minutes per side with the lid down for about half of it. They held together well and flipped pretty easily.

Served with a blue cheese side salad and some pita bread. Final touch was some sesame seeds, ponzu soy sauce and wasabi.

Following up from my Nicastro post from last week. Here is the picture of the charcuterie board, not a great photo or presentation I know. People were hungry there wasn't time for faffing about.

The cheeses I got were:

• Delices de Bourgogne - Cow milk triple cream from France. This was my favourite, extremely creamy and smooth, had it out of the fridge for a couple of hours so the texture was fantastic. Bottom right on the board.
• Roquefort Vernieres - Raw sheep milk cheese also from France. Blue cheese, extremely strong and salty flavour. A little too intense for me other then in very small pieces. Middle right on the board.
• Challerhocker - Raw cow milk from Switzerland. An almost sweet, nutty flavour and a little grainy. Still quite salty but good contrast to the Roquefort. Biggest one in the middle of the board.
• 6 year old cheddar - Raw cow milk from Quebec. It was nice and crumbly with a sharp salty tasty. Bottom left on the board.

The meats were(in order right to left):

• Citterio salame spianata - This was from Spain and the pick of the meats. Nice and spicy and with good balance of salt and fat.
• Salami Prosciutto - Kind of bland and generic to be honest, it was nothing special.
• Smoked salmon - Ended up just getting it from the supermarket (Independent). Nanuk brand. It was pretty tasty, I think it was out of the fridge too long for rolling nicely for presentation. It didn't hold together very well when I tried to take it out of the package. Still very tasty though.

I added hummus, bubba ganoush, olives, pickles, candied pecans and crackers. We also had some cut up veggies but they didn't make the picture.

Overall it was a lovely mothers day picnic at the Arboretum. Plenty of flowers are in bloom and lots of birds out!

Happy Mothers day to all of the Mothers out there!

I attended a the Best Fest Ottawa today and had some fantastic ceviche and an empanada

From a food festival in Ottawa

I ate some fantastic ceviche and empanadas from Barrio at the Best Fest Ottawa today. It made me think I will have to go check out the place in person.

Last nights dinner, the sauce was oyster sauce, soy and shaoxing wine.

I made beef and broccoli for dinner last night. Stir fried up with some oyster sauce, sauce sauce and shaoxing wine. It was pretty tasty but next time I think I will prepare the noodles separately rather than try and stir fry them as it got a little too oily.

Homemade beef and broccoli, cooked up in my wok at home.

Stopped by Nicastro on Bank street today to pick up some goodies for a mothers day charcuterie board and I was very impressed by the selection. Probably close to 100 different types of cheeses as well as plenty of deli meats and general produce. They even have fresh basil and other plants ready to go for spring time.

Now I just need to find some good smoked fish products for my pescatarian in-laws. Anyone got any good recommendations? I was going to check out Pelican but open to other options.

Ill post another pic of the complete sea/charcuterie board with the goods laid out if I remember to do it before indulging on Sunday.

I have rediscovered my camera and been enjoying taking some photos of the lovely murals on bank street in Ottawa. Credit to the artists

Create a Spark - Dan Metcalfe

Bench View - Ryan Smeeton

Chinese Aces Skate the Canal - Tia Wong

Morning Glory - Roll Her Sleeves - Bridgehead Coffee

Glebe's Garden - Dan Metcalfe and Pat Buck

Thanks so much for brightening up the city!