Maple Sugar

[Johann]

If you ever go to Ottawa Canada, go to the Byward Market.
They sell maple sugar bush products that are the BOMB.

real maple syrup, real maple sugar treats, maple butter, maple cookies, even maple-laced Icewine chocolates.

I always get the $1.50 big leaf of maple sugar. It melts in yo mouth!
Pure heaven.

Just suggestin'...

[oscar jubis]

Canada in summer sounds...delicious!

[Johann]

Oh yeah.

Farm-fresh food galore.
Veggies, peppers, berries, sweets, you name it, they got it.

The bakery (Moulin) has "florentine"- a dessert made of caramel which has two pieces of it sandwiching either white chocolate filling, regular chocolate or more caramel. They're 3 bucks each and insanely decadent. And the best praline I've ever had is at the other end of the hall, in Rocky Mountain Chocolate. They make it fresh every damn day- loaded with pecans. I think that's why recently I've had two cavities appear out of nowhere... :(

When Obama visited Ottawa back in 2009 he bought his daughters two maple leaf cookies and the bakery went berzerko nuts in a marketing blitz, re-naming the cookie the OBAMA COOKIE. Ridiculous if you ask me- the cookie is a RED maple leaf, with white piped icing around the edges- it is in no way connected to Obama other than the fact that he bought 2 of them.
The bakery has a huge sign out front with Obama's face as he tries to pay for the cookies the day he bought them- proof that he was there- you MUST buy an Obama cookie! Nothing says "OTTAWA" like buying the same cookie that the U.S. President did! Nothing more Canadian than that. And the look on his face is of sheer disbelief, because the staff refused to let him pay for the cookies!
He's holding out a twenty, and he actually said "C'mon...take my money" and they insisted that he get it for free.
Then the other cash-cow tourist bonanza enterprise in the Byward market "BEAVER TAILS", had a staffer (a black girl) go up to him and give him a free Beaver Tail- a deep-fried pastry loaded with whatever sweet dessert topping you can think of. He was only in the market for like, 15 minutes and businesses swooped down on him like vultures.. it was Obama-Mania, what can you do?
I think NOW, TODAY, they'd take his damn money.
Word.
LOL

Ottawa is funny. I live across the river now, and I'm so glad. I just go there to shop and hit the Emerald Buffet from time to time.
It feels like Nazi Germany to me just because of who the government is. Not knocking the people or the city of Ottawa, it just is what it is.
Quebec almost runs like clockwork, on some well-intentioned INSTINCT. They know what makes sense, what works.
It's European to me. And then you just go over the Alexandra bridge and WHAM, you're hit with this pervading air of constant paranoia and arrogance.
It's weird.
Ottawa is beautiful if you didn't look further into it's mechanisms. When you peel back and see what kind of people rotate through here (politicos and tourists alike) your perspective on what the city really offers hits you.
Parking control in the Byward Market is insane. They drive people out! Literally!
The biggest tourist attraction in Ottawa besides Parliament hands out parking tickets like McDonalds hands out french fries- constantly.
People give up and stay in the burbs, it's so bad. Fuckin' Parking Nazis, I tell you. I've seen 'em in action- they're on bicycles now- they're right on top of parking infractions Boy! LOL

Seriously, I reckon Ottawa is a lot like Washington D.C.
Angry teens from Federal parents, uprooted often, HANG ON! Whipping through again!
No one actually FROM here. The ratio may be 50 to 1
But what do I know?

Come for the maple syrup treats!
It's worth it for that alone!
:)

[oscar jubis]

I'm learning a lot about Canada from you here, in the Harper thread, and elsewhere. Great stuff J.
I love Canada's big cities because of the multicultural vibe and I love the country for its natural beauty. Never set foot in Ottawa. Only Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec. I wouldn't mind getting a teaching job in Vancouver when I'm ready, no sir, I wouldn't mind that at all.

[Johann]

I'll also be posting soon about my first trip to the National Art Gallery. I've postponed going there for 8 months and now I have no excuse:
Caravaggio's works are there until September 11th.
12 of them.
I simply cannot postpone it anymore.

[oscar jubis]

Looking forward to your posts. I just don't go out as much as I should. Just lunches with friends and colleagues and movie theaters. That's it. And the occasional dinner date. I hang out a lot at the library so you may call me a book worm, at least until I finish school. Miami has a lot to offer but I haven't taken advantage of it lately. I simply did not go to Art Basel this year. That's a first, and last.

[Johann]

Sad news: maple syrup producers here in the Ottawa/Gatineau region have been caught tampering with the purity of the maple syrup they produce.

Consumers were warned that they may not be getting 100% pure maple syrup. Some farms are cheating on the purity (how, I don't exactly know) and it angers me. I buy pure maple syrup every single month, and I haven't had any problems with the batches I buy (and I buy Amber #2, because it has more minerals in it, more maple flavour- it's dark syrup). And every seller in the Byward market has told me that they don't know who is doing the "lightening" of the purity of the syrup. Are they all guilty?

It's sad mang!
Don't tell me the maple syrup business is just as corrupt as the Conservative party!!