Beavertails

In winter. 

In summer. 

Continuing on with the heart attack material is the deep fried treat known as a ‘beavertail.’ It’s wholewheat pastry that is deep fried, then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, or with sliced apple on top, or nutella or even cheese. We had one that was sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar and served with a wedge of lemon to squeeze on top. It’s called the Killaloe Sunrise. We’ve also tried to apple one and the chocolate one J. They are shaped like a beaver tail (I haven't seen a real beaver with its tail, so I cannot confirm if this is accurate), hence the name. 

Ooops, I couldn't wait! The beavertail doesn't come with a bite mark like this one...

There is a stand that sells these year round and I walk past it almost every day on my way to work and observe the many tourists that line up for this tasty treat. Apparently in the past you could only buy these once a year at Winterlude, but now you can get them any time. Well, up until about 10pm at night, 11pm on weekends. Though the Winterlude ones were actually a little more expensive! So definitely get them from the Byward Market! Did I mention it's super touristy?? 

Snippets of Ottawa - eating Greek style

Apologies as my blog posts are kind of tapering off as we prepare ourselves for the next adventure! The last couple of days have been filled with packing and trying our best to sell furniture. Then after Saturday the blog posts will be completely sporadic as I don't know what our internet access will be like :( 

Yesterday, however, we did take some time off to go eat some Greek food with one of my best mates, here, Maria. Her family is from Crete and with her, we've had a tour of Greek eateries in Ottawa, including her parents' restaurant (see the blog post on Arnprior). Here are a few pics - I didn't actually take the camera and I forgot to ask her to take a pic of the actual pitas, but trust me, they were yum. 

I had the pork pita (like I did the first time we went here, sans Will) and he had the lamb. So good. Also we had Greek fries which are fries doused in olive oil and sprinkled with crumbled feta and dried oregano. 

For anyone that lives in Ottawa and wants to try it out, The Souvlaki Shack is on Bank Street, just past Lisgar. :) 

Apparently the Greek symbols in the name are s's not e's. Grssk. 

Poutine

Posh poutine we had just last night! Our friend ordered it and when we saw it, we couldn't resist. Smoked pork belly poutine. Amazing. 

This dish is definitely a heart attack waiting to happen, but it is sooo good! It’s pronounced ‘pu-tin’ by the locals (not poo-teen as Will and I originally thought). It’s a French-Canadian dish. It’s especially good in winter when all you want is some tasty, hot comfort food. Or some quick Candian fast-food. Or if you’re hungover...

What is it?

It’s basically French fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. Special poutine gravy. And if you want to go gourmet, you can get meatlover’s with smoked meat, vegie, with obviously vegies on it and so on. Apparently some places around Ottawa have 40 different types of toppings!

Apologies for the next three pictures - they were taken with our iPod Touch, so the quality is not very good. It's just a little more subtle than our big Nikon and I don't always carry my little Olympus with us! You get the idea though. And yes, we have had a couple of different types - my waistline has not been grateful for this new culinary discovery! 

Poutine in Bancroft.

We first had poutine at a chip wagon on the highway from Sault Ste Marie to Ottawa. Since then we’ve tried a few different versions and have even made our own at home. We did use a sachet of gravy mix, which you add to water and boil, but apparently you can also make your own homemade version with beef stock.

Homemade poutine. Looks a little like ice cream and caramel sauce though - someone was a little carried away with the cheese curds! 

Smoked meat poutine at The Works. 

It doesn’t look that pretty, but it does taste amazing. And this is coming from someone who hates Aussie chips and gravy! 

Yum! 

Chicago - Willis Tower

I'm still hanging on to the wall of the building! 

Throughout our travels in Europe in 2010 and then North America this year and last, whenever an opportunity presents itself to climb something high we usually do it. The basilica of St Peter’s in the Vatican, random church towers in Florence, (not the Eiffel Tower, but only because it was CLOSED when we were there), some tower in Istanbul, the Empire State Building in New York, etc. The highest building in North America was certainly no exception!

They have a skydeck, which, of course, scared me a lot! I didn’t want to let go of the wall of the actual building when I went out on it and looking down was out of the question. I did laugh when a mother and her husband and kid were taking pics and the mother did NOT want to go out there. She eventually did, and she looked awesome, crouching and not looking down. It was pretty funny, just before she crawled out there, her kid was jumping up and down on the skydeck and her dad was very firmly saying ‘DON’T DO THAT!’ Will was a lot braver than me. It’s not fun being able to see the street hundreds of metres below you. Who knows how thick that glass is? Or how strong it actually is!!

The actual skydeck was opened in 1974 and is on the 103rd floor, which is 1353 feet or 412 metres above the ground. Apparently you can feel it sway on a windy day, but I am glad we didn't go up when that was happening! As it was a reasonably clear day we were able to see a fair way - the plains of Illinois, across Lake Michigan to Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. I assume that that was we could see! It took about 60 or 70 seconds to zip up the tower, which was pretty quick! The glass balconies can take 4.5 metric tonnes (who wants to test that out) and were opened to the public in 2009. 

Eek! 

So brave. 

Definitely a great place to take pictures of Chicago from on high. As with the Empire State Building, lots of tourists all jostling for the best picture-taking spot. :) 

Chicago - Lincoln Park Zoo/Chicago-style hotdog

 I know my posts about Chicago confused some people, so apologies for that! We were actually there in early April - hence the jumpers (sweaters for you North Americans).

It was an epic walk to the Lincoln Park Zoo from where we were staying in Chicago. But we did it. Approximately 18 kilometres of walking to get there walk around and then walk back! All in my new red Toms. My feet were pretty sore by the end of the walk! Best part about this zoo? It’s free! And we even saw some wallabies to remind us of home.

The Zoo itself was great even without the seals. We saw huge gorillas, giraffes, a crazy polar bear that scared me and various other cool animals. One minute the polar bear wasn’t there and the next it was!! Looking right at me through some suddenly-not-so-thick glass! For lunch we had our one and only Chicago style hotdog. The photo is courtesy of Will – I know you can hardly see the actual hotdog, but we’ve had words about that since. Anyway, although I will eat them, I don't really like hotdogs. The lengths I will go to try new things! :) 

Huge gorilla that refused to actually face the crowd. 

Looks like he'd be pretty handy with his feet. 

This guy smashed up his huge ice cube to eat, then rolled around for a while. 

Unimpressed wallaby. 

Uhh spot the hotdog. FAIL.

Will was even interviewed! It was by some St Paul University film students:

Interviewer -  'What's your favourite animal and why?' 

Will - 'An elephant because they make cool noises and because they are big.'

Interviewer - 'Can you make a noise like an elephant?'

Will  - [proceeded to make a possible elephant noise (one who was dying) and even moved his arm like a trunk]

The camera guy and I nearly peed ourselves laughing. Silently of course, so there was only one take. :) 

I don't think I'd have much hand left after high-fiving a lion. 

Above and below is a REAL reaction. The polar bear disappeared over to my left and I was leaning right in to see where he had gone when he just APPEARED in my face! I got a little bit freaked out! Remember that this is after I had seen how small my hand was compared to a polar bear's paw and also how small I am compared to a whole polar bear!! Will could not stop laughing. He is still laughing now. 

New Toms, halfway into our epic walk!