Home Food

There's comfort food and then there's food from home. Whether it's your grandmothers chicken noodle soup, the neighbourhood pizzeria that has never been beat (in your mind) in all of your travels, or just that small restaurant that doesn't serve anything particularly special but every time you step in it your reminded of all of those times your parents treated you to supper or brunch there. For me, Kapuskasing, Ontario is the place of my HomeFood - check it up if you want to know how isolated a place it is.

There's Thong La's, a Chinese restaurant that is unparalleled (it helps that my father knew the owners which meant that we were eating some real Chinese food instead of the simple deep-fry and stir-fried Chinese Canadian food). There's Great Northern Pizza that makes massively loaded pizzas (such as the Wango Tango...mmmm) and panzorati's to rival any Italian mama. But the place in my mind that is more closely linked to the blue-collar, lumber town atmosphere of Kap is the Coffee Bar.

Consisting of no more than 10 benches arranged around a bar which looks upon the griddle and very minimalistic kitchen supplies, the whole being no larger than a medium sized bedroom, the coffee bar was primarily a place where people could go buy some milk from the Community Dairy that operated in the same building. Growing up, the coffee bar would be full (yes all 10 benches were occupied) of construction men or factory workers gearing up for a days work. Coming from a construction family myself, the Coffee Bar was a frequent meal spot.

Most famous of all in my mind are the westerns they make at the bar. It's nothing overly sophisticated. It doesn't cost $50 for every item. It doesn't come with a wine suggestion...just chocolate milk. All the western is is a thick stack of ham and onion omelet between two pieces of bread and the optional processed cheese slice or ketchup. They would wrap it in wax paper and hand it over to you in a brown paper bag if you were taking it to go. You could then sit on the job site and drip omelet and ketchup all over the place.

Like I said, HomeFood is more often than not very simple. It's linked to memory like no five course meal can be. It's comfort food at the ultimate level. Best of all, it's replicable.

Sausage Burgers, Omelets & Beer-Butt Chicken Sandwich

I know what you’re thinking, “Oh what beautiful cross-hatching!” The idea for these sausage burgers came from the fact that I only had hamburger buns and didn’t feel like eating sausages in their usual form. So, I simply squeezed out the meat and formed patties, topped them with slices of jalapeno pepper havarti and then served them with Dijon mustard and pickles. What I wasn’t expecting was that sausage meat, as compared to hamburg meat, takes longer to cook. The result? Raw centers. For those parts that were cooked, the burger was good and a not-so-bad idea.

Seeing as I’m still off (with pay) because of the fire at the building I work, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself. I got up this morning to cook an omelet for my loved one before she headed off to work – it sucks that she has to work to get paid… I’ve determined that when making omelets, it’s better to leave milk, cream, or water out of the beaten eggs. They hold together better and don’t have that weird texture which tickles the soft pallet.

For her omelet, I put a few leaves of fresh thyme in with the eggs. Once the omelet was flipped over, I added thin slices of red onion and some goat cheese, folding the omelet in half. For myself, I used leftovers of the gravlaxsas in the beaten eggs. I then put some gravlax, goat cheese, and onion sprouts between the soft fold of the omelet. Served with a tall glass of fresh apple cider, yet another day “off” had started beautifully.

After spending my morning listening to French chansons and reading the May edition of Gourmet Magazine (highly recommended by the way), I made lunch with some leftover barbecued chicken I had. Next time I’m making the now common beer-butt chicken I’ll post it. (For those of you not familiar with the process, a half-full can of beer is stuck into the cavity of the chicken which is then placed upright onto the grill with the lid closed for about 50 minutes. Some stores now sell special rigs that make the balancing act of the chicken on the grill much easier. The result is a very tender chicken which tastes so beautifully of barbecue smoke.)

The leftovers of this chicken make for a great sandwich. I sometimes mix some mayonnaise and green onions in with the shredded chicken but I opted for a less heavy pairing of grainy mustard and the ever versatile onion sprouts on a whole wheat Kaiser bun. With a strong cup of home-brewed coffee, the week just keeps getting better.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll go to the beach again. Getting paid while sitting on the beach….ah, that’s life…

P.S. I'm sorry for the crappy quality of my pictures. My digital camera needs a good thrashing.