O'CONNOR's IRISH PUB ~ Kanata, On

O'CONNOR's is now CLOSED - RIP

Kanata.



No I'm not misspelling Canada. I'm talking about the city Kanata, 1 minute drive West of Ottawa. This place frightens me. Why? It's what I image what a city would look like if the Nazi's had won the war. You know, without the swastikas.



Ok I'm exaggerating. A little.





The city is one big planned community. There is no real history, no character, and no buildings past the 80's by the look of things. Streets are several lanes wide, plus bike lanes (with no bikes, because this is a commuter city, everyone drives). Lawns are well manicured, SUV's abound and there doesn't seem to be a ghetto or depressed area anywhere. There is no 'down town' or main street.







No, here, it's the KANATA CENTRUM. Box stores. Box restaurants. In the middle is a car free zone of cobblestone streets with shops and restaurants and the AMC 24 theatre. Right outside the theatre is one giant establishment: O'Connor's Irish Pub.





Inside looks like a swanky castle keep. Its cavernous, with a rock and wood motif; 'torch' lights, big barrels, massive fire place and no one in it. It was empty and not a soul was sitting inside the restaurant this week night.

I sat on the giant patio, which was pretty sparse too. On previous visits to the AMC Theatre, the crowd always looked young and rowdy. But on this evening, the crowd was 35+ and looked like they all just came from the office for a beer in their suits. The waitresses on the other hand, were dressed in black short shorts and tight black shirts - a style common to many pubs and 'upscale' casual restaurants I have dubbed "Hooters Classy."

My waitress Kathryn was attentive and polite but I wouldn't describe her as friendly. She did her job, but my dining experience wasn't enhanced by her. Sometimes a staff member can really make your visit. I think I weirded her out by dining alone - no one in Kanata seems to do anything by themselves. But she answered my questions and brought me wings quick.


There is only one size of wings to order from, a pound, which makes sense in some respect because some restaurants will add 2 or 3 pounds, but the price is just doubled. 9 for 1lb or 18 for 2lbs, why bother with the second; but if its cheaper to order more, well, then, there you go.

The wings are breaded (lightly). Actually they refer to them as breaded but I think dusted is more accurate. They had a very crispy coating that was delightful to bite into. And they were nice and saucy, without getting soggy.

The size of the wing was a medium. An average size wing. If these wings were truly breaded, it would have added to the size. The chicken itself was pretty meaty and tender. They might have come from frozen stock, but if they did, they were still a quality chicken product.

There were only 3 wing sauces to choose from: Hot, BBQ and Honey Garlic (so really only 2). I went with hot wings and a side of BBQ to sample.

The Hot sauce was a generic pub-cayenne hot sauce. And hot refers to the genre of sauce, not the heat temperature. They had no bite whatsoever. But they tasted not too shabby.

BBQ was bottle sauced. It was Diana's BBQ for sure. Sweet - no heat, no boldness, no zing. I used it to dunk my carrots and celery in (and where was the blue cheese dip by the way? Veggies with nothing to dip into?).

FINAL SCORE: The chicken was nice, the skin was crispy, the sauce was . . . generic. The place looks nice and there's lots, I mean LOTS of seating options. Vast. Endless. Kanata may be uncomfortably perfect, but I wouldn't mind coming back here. I guess.

O'Connor's Irish Pub
Kanata Centrum, 650 Kanata Ave. Kanata On.

oconnorsirishpub.com

WK's Destroyer Tandoori Wings

Several years ago I made an Indian inspired "The Devil's Tandoori" wing that I baked in the oven. It was good, but I wanted to go more authentic, more painful. The Devil wasn't enough. I turned to the Hindu faith and the awesome power of Shiva, 'The Destroyer', to make a spicy and flavourful wing.



I've also been addicted to some JB videos lately too. Inspiring the next episode of WKTV. Please excuse the worst Cajun accent ever. Also excuse the bad camera angles at the end, I was the camera person as well as the star:





INGREDIENTS

• 8 whole chicken wings
• 35 g (approx.) Tandoori Masala (you can make this, but I bought a commercial mix)
• 15 g (approx.) Cayenne Pepper (disregard if you can't take heat, increase if you can)
• 15 g (approx.) Crushed Red Chili Pepper (disregard if you can't take heat, increase if you can)
• 300 ml Sour Cream (or yogurt)
• 8 Bamboo Skewers (soaked in water for a while)

Instructions:

1. Mix sour cream and seasoning together into thick paste.
2. Wash & dry wings.
3. Place wings in resealable bag (ie Ziploc) or container and add paste. Mix thoroughly.
4. Refrigerate for 24 hours (or 2 hours min).
5. 24 hours later, remove wings from marinade and pierce wings with skewers so they are long (you can grill directly, but skewers stretch the wing and help grill surface area).
6. Heat charcoal grill to VERY high heat (hold hand over heat - if you can't hold longer than 3 seconds, that's perfect).
7. Add wings to grill - cook for 6-8 mins. Flip. Cook for another 6-8 mins.
8. Remove, and enjoy!

Here are the spices. I would have added more cayenne and chili powder for heat but I was afraid it would over power the tandoori masala. I was wrong. Next time, I would crank-it-up.

Sour cream. Yogurt is traditional, but I think sour cream is a better consistency.

8 Chicken wings whole. That's 16 wingette's and drumette's. I keep them whole because, well, they look cool skewered and stretched out. You can score the chicken to get the marinade deep into the wings, but I didn't want to break the skin.

The tandoori marinade paste. Soo thick.

Marinade into Ziploc and wings.

As Rob Reinford would say "Smoosh smoosh smoosh"

24 Hours later its time to skewer the wings. Look how in diagram 2 how stretched out the wing is. Lots of surface area to grill.

Skewers ready to be grilled. If only I had a tandoor oven.

Grilling. On high heat charwood it only takes 6-8 minutes per side.

And flip. That char looks burnt, but its not. It actually gives the wings a nice flavour.

No really, its not burnt.

What Would I Do Differently Next Time? Not a whole lot. I would definitely add more heat (cayenne & red chili pepper). While there was a growing heat, it never reached "Destroyer" levels. Well that's not true. Late that night, my throat erupted in an acidic fire that burned dry and painfully. Tears formed, coughing was uncontrollable. All of this was out of nowhere and I was on the road, with nothing to quench the fire. So beware.

Also, cooking in an actual Tandoor oven instead of a grill would have made these the best, but both use charcoal and the grill gives it a more smokey flavour. Overall, I was pretty happy with these wings.

Remember, tune in next time for another exciting episode of:

WKTV

SAME WING TIME
SAME WING CHANNEL

International Chicken Wing Week? More like, weekend . . .

I have 2 sources on this: HERE & HERE. No real info though.


National Unassisted Homebirth Week: 1-7
Freedom Week: 4-10
Be Nice To New Jersey Week: 5-11
Sports Cliché Week: 5-11
Nude Recreation Weekend: 6-12
International Chicken Wing Week: 10-12
Sinclair Lewis Week: 12-18
National Parenting Gifted Children Week: 13-19
Rabbit Week: 15-21
National Ventriloquism Week: 16-19
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week: 18-25
Captive Nations Week: 19-23
National Independent Retailers Week: 19-25
National Baby Food Week: 21-25
Lumberjack Week: 23-25
Moby Dick Week: 31-8/1
National Get Out of the Doghouse Day: 20
National Hug Your Kid Day: 20
National Lollipop Day: 20
Health, Happiness With Hypnosis Day: 22
Cousins Day: 24


Well you know what that means?

I WILL BE CELEBRATING!!!!

Keep watching for posts . . .

Contest winner shares tips for making great chicken wings

This event happened back in June too, but the article only came out this week. Down in Webb City Missouri, Executive Chef Damien Tiregol makes award winning wings for the "Emancipation Park Days Committee King of Wings."



Now his award winners are mango wings. Mango. I can't say I care for fruit being in the same title as award winning wings, unless its "award winning fruit wings". But he has some solid wing cooking tips that I agree with.

• Soaking the wings in a brine is the key to a great wing.“When you brine the wings it makes them plumper and juicier.”
• Tiregol deep fries them until golden brown.
• He recommends that you test a wing for doneness before pulling the whole batch out of the oil.
• Once the wings are done, he drains them.
• Instead of tossing them in a bowl with his wing sauce, he puts them into a tall plastic container, pours the sauce over the wings, covers the container with a plate or lid and spins the sauce into the wings.
• Spinning, he said, allows the sauce to be more evenly distributed over the wings.
• Once the wings have been spun in the sauce, he places them into a salamander broiler to glaze the sauce onto the wings.

I pretty much agree. Brine is good. Deep fry is good. In my opinion, tossing and spinning is pretty much the same thing, but covered container tossing of the wings for sure get better coverage. And broiling after can have good results with sauce. But I prefer my wings saucy.

Taste of Joliet

This was from June 28th, and something I intended on posting, but just didn't. HERE is the article on the festival in Joliet Illinois (just outside of Chicago), that included a wing eating contest, but I can't get over the picture of Keith "the dog" Kratky.

I love it not only because of his look, or the wing sauce all over his face, but the size of that chicken wing!!! Why can't I get a wing like that around here?

First Deep Fryer Hot Wings of the Season '09

I totally forgot about posting this. I guess things got busy last week and it wasn't until today that I found these pics on the camera. Normally I download all my photos within a day of taking them - I have a terrible fear of losing my camera or something happening to the memory card - so I download them ASAP. Today I found them and a bunch of other photos I never got around to clearing up.

Anyways, last week I dusted off the deep fryer and decided to make some hot wings. Almost Buffalo style, but the sauce was not authentic. They are the first of the season mainly because I keep the deep fryer outside to fry because of the smell. Now that the weather is pretty decent, it's time to get down to making real hot wings.

The old Rival Deep Fryer. Chicken wings split but tip not removed. And a metal bowl to keep the wings in. I find it keeps the wings warm as you cookin' in batches.

First batch in. Are you as excited as I am?

No dusting or breading. Just naked chicken drummies and wingettes in all their crispy glory.

The sauce. I started out with Buffalo sauce: Frank's, Vinegar, Margarine. But Sriracha and some misc other hot sauces made this hot wing sauce.

Pouring that delicious red sauce over the wings. The anticipation is killing me!

Final Product.

It was worth the wait. Everything was good, but the wings were not very meaty. I could have dusted them in some flour for extra texture. Meh, I was very happy with this lunch.

Canada Day 2009 Con't

So Canada Day was pretty good on my end.


The Flag Raising Ceremonies and Changing of the Guard etc was a bust. We got there late waiting for a bus. I didn't screw my water bottle cap on tightly, so it spilled in my bag. I discovered this on the bus as water trickled down my leg. My bag is heavy leather, so it acted like a big water bladder, holding it all in. Then when we got to Parliament, there was a huge crowd (expected), but you couldn't see ANYTHING because there were bleachers blocking the view, even of the jumbo screens. So we went home.

I didn't have wings, but I did grill burgers outside. Another plus was the thunderstorms that were called in the forecast never came.

In the evening, we headed out to a remote little island I found Urban Exploring one day, but it got crowded by the time of the fireworks. But our seats were still pretty primo and here are some of the photos of the excellent firework display over the Ottawa River and Parliament. Half way through the fireworks, the crowd on the Island broke out into "Oh Canada."

Oh Canada indeed.

Happy 142nd Birthday Canada !!!

Here's wishing everyone an awesome Canada Day!

This year I hope to get to flag raising ceremonies and fireworks this year, but the weather calls for heavy rain. Maybe I can get some Canada Day Chicken Wings?

Ottawa Ribfest 2009 - Rib-Chicken Reviews

I had very mixed feelings about the event overall. I had read negative press from Ottawa Citizen food editor Ron Eade who said "the travelling rib BBQ road show on Sparks St. is, well, a sham" & "the rib fest is just a travelling show to sell ribs. Chicken done in ovens, only finished on grill." In 2007 he worked behind the scenes and wrote about it, then re-wrote the same article again this year. It seemed like overkill attacking the event. It was a healthy dose of cynicism.





His main beef's as I saw them:

1. While ribs are smoked, the membrane on the back is not removed due to volume of rib selling.
2. Chicken is roasted in ovens and tossed onto the grill at the last minute.
3. Propane is used to cook most of the meats with wood added for smoking or last minute grilling.
4. Judging isn't professional: there's no how-to's, no criteria, and no drink prohibition to affect flavours.

So were these cursings substantiated or was this the rantings of a BBQ food snob? Let's get to the meat of the issue: the rib tasting.

Make that rib/chicken/pork tasting. We didn't have a lot of time, or money to do a broad sampling as my gang does normally in London. And we were also looking to try more than just pork ribs, as this was a 'Rib-Chicken' cook off. There were several crews that don't visit the Forest City, so narrowing down the list to choose to try was a bit easier. We hit 2 establishments, Camp 31 & Billy Bones BBQ, and got their rib-chicken-pulled pork combo and did some sharing.






CAMP 31
Camp31.com


I've heard a lot about this place and its ribs. And by place, mainly the restaurant in Paris Ontario. You might think, Paris Ontario can do good, Southern BBQ? Well they can, and that's because they are really from Alabama. AND they do some ribfest circuits as well.




By far they had the best looking outfit - with smirking pigs, warning signs, wood motifs; they were a visually interesting booth.

Camp 31 was last years champs, which definitely caused big line-ups waiting for their product. Even when it was empty on Sparks Street on Saturday morning people were still flocking early. I was a little put off when I stopped by at 10:30 and asked what time they opened, and I got a snarky "11:30" by one of the crew. But at 10:55 people were lining up and being served. I got in line and waited for some well sauced meats. Their big feast is known as the "Tree Hugger Special."

RIBS:

The meat was tender, but not quite fall off the bone.

The sauce (the key to this event) was, well, blah. I mean the colour was a cherry red and looked like it would be sweet and bold. In fact, the pork meat flavour came through more than any smoking, sauce or spices.

Maybe the first batch is not the best, but from my sampling I could not understand why people were flocking here. I would much rather try the actually restaurant.

CHICKEN:

They gave the option of light or dark meat, and I went with dark thinking it would be full of flavour. I was wrong. The bird itself was mediocre at best. While it wasn't dried out, it wasn't moist either. Clearly baked and not smoked. The skin wasn't even crispy.

I watched them put the birds on the grill and they looked naked (no spice rub, or very little if any) and then mopped the sauce for the 2 minutes I was in line. So nothing really made its way into the bird.

The sauce was slightly dark and peppery. They used real tomatoes in the sauce (not just ketchup or paste) because you could see the seeds. But totally passable as a dish.

PULLED PORK:

When I saw them spooning the pulled pork into the take-out container, I thought to myself, don't you need to sauce it first? Then I realized it was sauced.

Very dry, and overwhelming pork flavour (I'm saying overwhelming, but I mean dominant). It was slightly sweet, but we boxed this up and sauced it ourselves as leftover sandwiches at home the next day.

BILLY BONES

I know next to nothing about these guys. No website, no info. I did find out via internet research they are from Ontario. What drew me to their booth was their win for best sauce, the delicious aroma from their truck, and the saucy ribs seen from out front.

They have a monster rig for smoking and cooking. And I liked the 50's style advertisements and re-pigged movie posters out front. There was no line up (but really, no one other than Camp 31 had a line up at that hour) and I had our second meal in my hands in seconds.

Their meal was the "Big Daddy Special." Clearly presentation was not important.

RIBS:

The meat was very tender and it came away easily from the bone. A smoke ring was much more noticeable on these ribs, but I didn't get a strong smoke flavour from these either.

The sauce was subtle, but slightly sweet, slightly peppery. But just slightly. For winning last years best sauce, I was really expecting something bolder.

CHICKEN:

This was a white meat piece, as I really wanted the wings. But the same problems that plagued Camp 31's chicken apply to Billy Bone's: baked chicken with little flavour. No crispy skin. As LJ said, "the chicken was a waste of time."

The chicken sauce was also slightly sweet (in a ketchup sweet way), but everything was so mute that it was really hard to judge personally.

PULLED PORK:

This was it, this was the gold mine. Saucy (if not oily). Moist. Tender. Good.

There was the positive flavour of the pork, but the sauce made a really nice balance. It was BBQ sugary sweet, but far from sickly so, and there was spice that kicked it up. Their pulled pork just melted in my mouth.

==============

CONCLUSIONS

=============

When it came to the event, I wasn't impressed. Sure it was an interesting outing, but it just wasn't that great. That's how the ribs also felt. Looking back at Mr Eade's comments, how do I feel now?

• Because the event is JUST selling of meat, it wasn't that exciting (that sounds so crazy coming out of my mouth). So your food better be good. And it wasn't.


• I've always known you can't go by the trophies because everyone seems to win somewhere sometime. There is no professional competition here.


• The baked chicken is pointless. It's not BBQ, and it doesn't even get on the grill long enough to count.


• The membrane dealie didn't bother me. The ribs are cooked for so long that you don't taste them, and their texture wasn't terrible. That's not to say I want them on, but it wasn't a deal clencher for me.

So I agree with Mr Eade and have to bow to his experience. People should be aware that this isn't all authentic 'Que. And it wasn't that fun an event to begin with. And the food we tried was really weak. And yet the people keep lining up. I know London's Ribfest may not be light-years ahead in terms of the event, but I just found the food on the whole to be much better there, but then again I have had the opportunity to try more vendors.

As a celebration of ribs and chicken, this was a failed event for me. Billy Bone's pulled pork on the other hand was definitely worth the visit. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a sourpuss or a hater walking around, but for LJ who had never been to such an event, I really had to explain that this was not the same experience for what me and my friends flock to every year. I feel sorry for Ottawaians, this is the best they can get.

Ottawa Ribfest 2009 Event Review

RESULTS OF THE JUDGING for 2009:

Best Chicken: Boss Hogs
Best Ribs: Camp 31
Best Sauce: Camp 31

Either the judging was a sham, or I didn't get the same ribs from Camp 31. Kudos to Boss Hogs, I like their work.