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Discovering the Perfect Canadian Mix: Ottawa and Gatineau By
George Medovoy, Editor Canada's capital, the charming community on the banks of the Rideau Canal, is a thoroughly first-class food city in every way - from creative, chef-owned restaurants partnering with local producers to the world-class Le Cordon Bleu, the renowned restaurant and cooking school on the edge of Ottawa's leafy embassy district. Good food in attractive surroundings plays an important role in making Ottawa, a city of about 2 million people, a wonderful destination. And when you combine the forests and lakes of Quebec's Outaouais region just across the Ottawa River -- and no more than 15 minutes from downtown Ottawa -- it's really the perfect mix for a special kind of urban-country vacation. On top of it all, it's a relatively short drive north of the U.S.-Canadian border, making it a great find for U.S. tourists!
(Le Cordon Bleu is housed in a lovely old Ottawa home) We started our food odyssey with dinner at Signatures, Le Cordon Bleu's intimate,CAA Five Diamond restaurant, located in an old Ottawa home, whose Provencal yellow walls, classical music and warm glow of candlelight set the stage for a 4 ½-hour dinner with wine pairings - the essence of a French "degustation," or "tasting." To start off our meal, what could be more fun than a selection of parmesan cookies? There were just a few of these light darlings, but they were so good that I could have eaten them non-stop like potato chips! An amuse-bouche of truffle aspargus soup topped with apple foam was a thorough delight, with the pinks and greens of the ingredients looking neon. Gazpacho soup with lobster in brown butter sauce and white asparagus was artfully presented on a glass plate and served with three Canadian wines. Canada has very brief, intense summers, but it also gets cool in August, yielding the freshness needed for a good Sauvignon Blanc. The first wine was a 2006 Peninsula Ridge Sauvignon Blanc from the Beamsville area of the Niagara Peninsula. Next we sampled another Beamsville wine, a 2006 Cabernet Franc from Fielding Estate. The wine had a dried fruit component along with some oak and maple. Great Pinot Gris And finally, we tasted a rose-colored, 100 percent Pinot Gris from Tinhorn Winery in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. This oaked wine was full-bodied, very aromatic and does well with lobster and butter sauce. As the meal progressed, we were served a variety of wonderful breads, including black olive bread, sun dried tomato bread, and a baguette…all with some tasty, triangular-shaped butter. Our next course, a sea bream fillet, was perfectly cooked in a spicy red pepper coulis and served with egg plant and slow-cooked fava beans. With this dish, we were served a 2005 Henry of Pelham Cabernet-Merlot, whose bit of acidity went very well with the sea bream. Next
on the menu was a serving of Quebec and New Brunswick cheeses, which everyone
should get to know, they are so good.
(Buy gifts to recall your visit in the little shop at Le Cordon Bleu) For dessert, well, what could be more wonderful than Signature's Chocolate Trilogy, which we enjoyed with two Canadian wines, a first-frost Vidal late harvest wine, Muscat in character, from Huff Estates and a late-harvest, full-on sweet Riesling from Cave Spring of Niagara. The next day, we re-visited Le Cordon Bleu to find out about its educational programs and its student-run restaurant, Bistro Bleu, where you can enjoy a lovely lunch with wine for $30. Le
Cordon Bleu is a respected culinary training institute with branches throughout
the world and origins in 16th-century France. People enrolling in these courses from the U.S. have come from Boston, New York and as far away as San Diego. Some short courses include a stay at either the Chateau Laurier Hotel or the Lord Elgin Hotel. Next on our Ottawa culinary exploration after Signatures were three of Ottawa's up and coming new chef-run restaurants. These are located around the city's Byward Market, one of Canada's largest and oldest public markets (founded in 1826), where many chefs buy the freshest of fruits and vegetables from local farmers. Byward, incidentally, is also the name of an eclectic neighborhood that surrounds the market with museums, nightclubs, bistros and boutiques.
(There are fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, fish and meats, as well as a variety of gifts to buy at the ByWard Market)
(You can buy wonderful Quebec cheeses at the ByWard Market) Our first pick was Social Restaurant + Lounge, featuring Chef Mathew Carmichael's traditional French and progressive Canadian cuisine. The restaurant has a nice air of informality, yet the abstract photos on the heavy stone walls and the chic bar lends a kind of contemporary elegance that's just right. An outdoor courtyard is for dining in the summer months, and on Wednesday nights the restaurant offers entertainment, including jazz, acid jazz and blues, plus DJ's on weekends. Carmichael says he gained a great of inspiration for his cooking from his grandmother, who grew up in Calcutta, India. "I loved standing beside her at our family cottage," he recalls, "watching her make this incredible fish chowder. "She would place a dollop of rice in a bowl and ladle the chowder over the top. I would eat bowls and bowls of this stuff." My wife began with a wonderful mushroom soup, lightly creamed, with a parmesan crustini and white truffle oil to bring out the magnificent taste. Then she had a plate of garganelli durum wheat semolina pasta in a tasty fresh tomato sauce, with Mill Creek Farms spring peas, parmesan and basil. I chose an assorted beet salad - one of those wonderful choices where the beets are nice and chunky. The salad's taste was beautifully complemented by spiced walnuts, apple, Blu Benedictin, lettuces, and a tarragon vinaigrette. Steehead Trout from Bay Fundy For my main course, I chose the Bay of Fundy steelhead trout, which came with roasted beets, new potatoes, and gravadlax-style sweet mustard. For dessert, we shared two memorable dishes: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and ginger crystal ice cream, and a chocolate cake with vanilla gelato and espresso caramel. The next two evenings we sampled dinner fare at Domus Café and e18hteen. We started with Domus Cafe, chef John Taylor's exploration of Canadian regional cuisine, named the 2003 restaurant of the year by the Ontario hotel and restaurant association. It's an informal place with light yellow walls and white table cloths that fill an elongated room with the kitchen at one end. It all has the feeling of a neighborhood restaurant with lots of regulars who come for the simple, tastefully-prepared meals. On this night, we both went for the eggplant soup, thick and full of down-home lemony flavor. Of course, the goat cheese only livened up the taste. Next, the country salad, piled high with strawberries, greens and cheddar cheese was perfect for summer. Our main course of seared trout was perfectly seasoned and sat on a flavorful bed of green beans, peas, and chard, with beets on the side. Something Different for Dessert We each chose something different for dessert - a rhubarb clafouti served warm with stewed rhubard and ice cream, and fresh vanilla crème brule. Our final delving into Ottawa restaurants was e18hteen, a sumptuous place named after its location in a 19th-century heritage building in the Byward Market, with black-and-white-striped chairs and ceiling-high windows looking onto the street. The stunning bar came with mirrors on the ceiling, so that one had the effect of seeing the bottles above everything. Lending a carefree mood to everything were the strains of Louis Armstrong with "On the Sunny Side of the Street." Modern French Cuisine, Too This is also Chef Mathew Carmichael's place, with delights from modern French cuisine. Things began with an amuse bouche of pineapple with goat cheese and black olives in olive oil served in a spoon. Our main choice here was the honey-laquered, velvety British Columbia black cod, with carrot puree and sugar snap peas. There was also a perfectly-balanced tomato salad with goat cheese, olive oil, dried black olives and sweet basil. A sliced, several-grain baguette was very crunchy on the outside, but nice and soft on the inside. Other great dishes on Carmichael's menu include slow-roasted Berkshire pork tenderloin, with tangy pears, warm cherry tomato, new potato, goat's cheese, and bourbon pommery mustard sauce, as well as mariposa duck leg confit with potato rosti, seasonal vegetables, and pickled cranberry glaze. For dessert, we tried the Tahitian vanilla crème brule with butter biscuit and the milk chocolat apricot caramel with hazelnut croquant, apricot sorbet, and vanilla camomille drizzle - utterly decadent! Adding to the pleasure of discovering such wonderful cuisine is Ottawa's charm, which we first sampled on the way in from the airport, skirting the Rideau Canal along a bike and jogging path and some very elegant homes.
(Taking a leisurely cruise on the Rideau Canal is one of the joys of a visit to Ottawa) But it wasn't until we boarded a tour boat near Parliament Hill for a slow ride down the canal that we really could appreciate this urban waterway, part of which is drained in winter and turned into the largest ice-skating rink in the world! The canal, which opened in 1832 to create a secure transportation route between Montreal and Kingston, Ontario, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and the oldest operating canal system in North America. The views along the way are lovely and include the Gothic Revival Canadian Parliament and the elegant Chateau Laurier Hotel towering above the city and so centrally-located.
(Soldiers stand guard next to the Canadian war memorial across the street from the majestic, castle-like Chateau Laurier Hotel, often called "the chateau," near the Rideau Canal boat rides) And while on the subject of the Chateau Laurier, a lovely Fairmont hotel which opened in 1912, it is ideally located between Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa River, the Byward Market and major arts and cultural venues in the city. One of these cultural venues is the National Gallery of Canada, a striking building on Sussex Drive, designed by the famed Israeli-Canadian architect, Moshe Safdie.
("Maman," the massive sculpture of a spider with 26 marble eggs by the artist Louise Bourgeois) Infused with natural light from massive skylights and glass, the gallery is perhaps best identified with Maman, the massive sculpture of a spider with 26 marble eggs by Louise Bourgeois and which sits in the plaza outside the entrance to the building. During our visit, we took in "The 1930's: The Making of the New Man," an exploration of the link between art and biology and how biology became a guiding and often destructive force, as in Hitler's deadly projection of the "new man." We also toured the Canadian Parliament and, just across the street from Parliament Hill, watched the changing of the guard in front of the Canadian war memorial, where the sound of bagpipes underlines the country's historic ties to Britain. In one of the more quirky aspects of visiting Parliament Hill, the public can participate in weekly yoga sessions on the hill. Now wouldn't it be something if they did that in front of the U.S. Congress! What often comes as a surprise to visitors is that Ottawa is actually tied to the city of Gatineau, a suburb on the other side of the Ottawa River, located in the Outaouais region of Quebec province. (Ottawa is in the province of Ontario). We took the Alexandra Bridge across the Ottawa River and, no more than 15 minutes from Parliament Hill, we found ourselves in Gatineau Park, over 30,000 acres of magnificent forests, lakes and streams at the junction of the Canadian Shield and the Saint Lawrence Lowlands.
(Gatineau Park in Quebec, just across the Ottawa River, has over 30,000 acres of forests, lakes and streams) A network of scenic parkways allows you to discover a wide area of the park in a short period of time. A hiker's paradise, the area is home to approximately 230 bird species and 54 mammal species, including timber wolves, white-tailed deer, beavers, and black bears. And all so close to urban Ottawa! No wonder the Prime Minister of Canada has his summer residence here. Of course, there was so much more to see in the Outaouais region, including the MacKenzie King Estate, which we visited for lunch at the northern end of the park. King was prime minister of Canada on and off for 22 years, from 1921 to 1948. A nature lover all his life, he fell in love with the wild landscape of the Gatineau Hills as a young civil servant and, in 1903, bought land near Kingsmere, where he built himself a modest cottage. Later, after becoming prime minister, he took steps to create Gatineau Park, a lasting testimony to his love of nature.
(An example of some of King's faux ancient designs, reflective of his colorful imagination) Our visit to his estate at Moorside, a larger residence in the park which he built after becoming prime minister, couldn't have been more pleasant, with a walk through his ornamental gardens and artificial Greek ruins.
(You can enjoy a leisurely lunch on the veranda of the tearoom on the MacKenzie King Estate) Later on, we sat down for a wonderful lunch on the terrace of The MacKenzie King Tearoom, located in one of King's former cottages. From under a green-and-white awning, we enjoyed the peaceful views of the gardens and partook of a lovely pesto pasta and vegetarian quiche, which was capped by apple pie and ice cream, covered in a chocolate dust image of the estate.
(Apple pie and ice cream, covered in a chocolate dust image of the MacKenzie King Estate...how delicious!) In late July, the estate is visited by monarch butterflies, which delight in feeding on the milkweeds growing in the nearby moors. King also had a side to his life that was somewhat off the beaten track - he sometimes consulted fortune tellers and tried to reach dead relatives in séances. The next day, we continued our exploration of Outaouais with a stop in the village of Chelsea for some real relaxation - immersing ourselves in Le Nordik, a nature spa planted under a canopy of trees with outdoor hot tubs, Finnish sauna, steam bath, Nordic waterfalls, cold and thermal baths, outdoor and indoor relaxation areas and outdoor fireplaces. Le Nordik also offers relaxation massage, hot stone therapy and thai massage. The experience was heavenly, and as far as we were concerned, we could have been eons away from downtown Ottawa, yet in actuality, we were only 15 minutes away! At Le Nordik, we dipped into icy waters, but then retreated to the warmth of a very large, warm pool, where we could peer up at the trees. How wonderful it would be to come back here and do the same thing in winter! One can choose from a variety of meals either inside or in terrace seating, including the Wine and Cheese option, with one cheese platter, access to Nordic baths, and one glass of wine for $114 for two, or Le Nordik Package, with a choice of sandwich, salad and non-alcoholic beverage, and access to Nordic baths for $111. So Much to See and Do With so much to see and do, our visit continued with a stop at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau for a look at 1,000 years of Canadian history, including Canada's aboriginal people. Canada’s most visited museum, it is also home to the world's largest and finest collection of totem poles, many of which are displayed in the Grand Hall. The Canada Hall leads visitors on a remarkable journey across the country from east to west, covering 1,000 years of Canadian history in a series of life-sized environments. The next day, we slowly made our way to the charming village of Wakefield, about 30 minutes away on the northern edge of Gatineau Park, for lunch at the Wakefield Mill & Spa, a heritage-inspired former grist mill that has been turned into a country inn.
(The Wakefield Mill & Spa offers 27 guest rooms right by a 28-foot waterfall) The inn offers 27 guest rooms and a charming fireplace lounge. The inn's health spa has five treatment rooms surrounded by the original stone walls of the past, all nestled at the base of a magnificent 28-foot waterfall. Visitors can enjoy both warm-weather and winter-weather sports in the park, including snowshoeing, mountain biking, dog sledding, canoeing or hiking. And with at least 200 miles of groomed trails, Gatineau Park's cross-country skiing is world class.
(There is plenty of shopping, too, in the quaint village of Wakefield) The inn is also minutes away from alpine ski hills, golf courses, and the charming village of Wakefield in the Gatineau Hills. We began this story with wonderful food, so what better way to end it with more of the same, only this time the table was set at Le Baccara, a CAA-AAA Five Diamond Restaurant on the third floor of the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, one of several casinos in the province of Quebec. The restaurant's sumptuous meals are prepared in an open kitchen under the supervision of executive chef Serge Rourre. Guests can pair their meals with vintages from 500 different varieties, which are part of a 13,000-bottle collection. The restaurant's cellar has an exclusive vertical collection of Chateau Mouton Rothschild dating as far back as 1945, whose labels feature art work by such artists as Dali, Chagall, and Picasso. We
began our memorable dinner with light still shining on the lake below, but by
the time we got to dessert, the sun had set. The main course, the chilean sea bass with lobster, was served with a tapenade of olives over a layer of spinach. Our desserts were layers of fresh raspberries and lemon cream with a morello cherry sorbet and a honey-lavender crème brulee with apricot sorbet. Of course, we sampled each other's choices!
(The Casino du Lac Leamy is just a 15-minute drive from Ottawa in Gatineau) The Casino du Lac Leamy, about a 15-minute drive from Ottawa, is the perfect escape for gaming fun, wonderful food, and shows. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and includes almost 2,000 slot machines, 60 gaming tables from Blackjack to Let It Ride Poker, 12 Poker-Pro electronic Texas Hold'em machines, a Keno Salon, Royal Ascot electronic horse race track, touch bet Roulette, a High Limits salon and gaming area and private gaming salons. In addition to Le Baccara, the casino also features these restaurant options: Arome Seafood and Grill; Le Cellier, the Arome bistro; Banco, a cozy buffet; Le Café for a quick and tasty snack; and le Marina, for seafood on the patio overlooking the lake. Our visit to the Ottawa-Gatineau area ended just as it had begun - with wonderful food in a superb setting of Canadian urban and country life. WHEN
YOU GO… Here
is additional useful contact information for touring in the Ottawa-Gatineau region:
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