Working My Way Through the Works: First Date

A popular gimmick for food blogs is to eat and review every item on a restaurant's menu. This blog is no exception. These are the observations I've had while eating my way through the burger menu of The Works, a Canadian burger restaurant with locations across Ottawa and Ontario.

The WORKS Orleans (900 Watters St.)
Burger Description: "Sauteed mushrooms, diced tomatoes, garlic & brie cheese"
($16.18)
August 13, 2019
Having celebrated my anniversary early this month completely influenced my decision to order a burger called the First Date. I'm not sure why it has this name. Is it a good burger to order when on a first date? Are the toppings supposed to impress your date? Sauteed mushrooms are always good on a burger, and tomato and garlic always go well together, I guess that shows you have a grown-up palate; the fresh tomatoes conveys your health-conscious, which a lot of people look for in a potential partner. I still remember how I meet my wife. It was the summer of 2002. After texting one another on Lavalife (the Tinder of its day), we had agreed to meet face to face to see "Men in Black II". I remember spotting her when I arrived at the theatre, she was seated at a table, deeply engrossed in a book she had brought. The book intimated me. I was already feeling nervous meeting this woman with the striking profile picture that caught my eye, I feared that she would pull out her book and go back reading at a moments notice during our date if I didn't make a good impression immediately. What impressed me about my hamburger was the size of my patty, this was easily the biggest hamburger patty I've received to date. It was so large my burger fall apart on me, with the wetness of the toppings not helping matters. That aside, everything came together nicely with this hamburger. As for my first date with my future wife, I must have been particularly charming, as the book was put in her purse after I introduced myself and didn't make another appearance for the rest of the evening.

3.5 out of 5 stars - It just may be the best part of your date.

Legends of Canadian Pastry - The Blueberry Grunt

The Sweet Canada: Domestic stamps series

When it's time for some baking therapy in Atlantic Canada, some people like to make blueberries grunt. The grunting comes from the sounds made when cooking this dessert of tea biscuit dumplings cooked in blueberries. Also known as a “slump” or “fungy” (this dessert gets the short end of the stick when it comes to names), the blueberry grunt was first made either by early colonial settlers as an adaptation of British pudding using local ingredients, or as a food cobbled together by the Acadians from what they foraged in the area.  In any case, this recipe is a tasty way to take advantage of the anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidants, vitamin C and potassium that blueberries have to offer.

Ingredients

400 g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
280 g flour
225 g sugar (To cut back on sweetness, use 3⁄4 the amount instead)
115 g butter
14 g baking powder
4 g sugar
2 g salt
120 mL milk
5 mL lemon or lime juice
1 egg

Note: Measurement conversions from Cook It Simply/ 

1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Pour the blueberries into an oven-safe deep-dish pie plate and add the citrus juice and the larger amount of sugar. Stir well, then place the pie plate in the oven and bake uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes if you are using fresh berries, 20 minutes for frozen berries. 
2. While the berries are in the oven, whisk in a large bowl the flour, baking powder, salt, and the remaining sugar. Break the butter into small pieces and add to the mixture in the bowl. Combine the butter into the flour mixture with a fork until the butter and mixture have formed small crumbly pieces. Crack the egg into a measuring cup and top with milk until you hit the  3⁄4 cup mark. Mix the egg and milk together with a fork, then add it to the flour mixture and blend with a fork until everything is combined — mix in any remaining dry bits by hand. 
3. Take the blueberries out of the oven. Using a  1⁄4 cup measuring cup (or your largest spoon), scoop out the biscuit dough from the bowl, and arrange on top of the hot berries - you should get about 11 biscuits. Carefully cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and put it back in the oven to bake for 15 minutes. 
4. Remove the dish from the oven and carefully remove the foil, then place back in the oven and continue to bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are lightly golden. Take the dish out of the oven, and allow it to cool for 10 minutes or so —the longer the grunt sits, the more blueberry liquid the biscuits will soak up. Serve hot or warm, ideally with either ice cream or whipped cream either as a dessert or for breakfast.