Ottawa Fashion Week!

Hello my O'valleyers,

I know you are all busy this weekend between Halloween parties, trick-or-treating and just plain old looking forward to dressing up at work... but it's OTTAWA FASHION WEEK starting on Friday October 29 2010 to Sunday October 31 2010!

Check the site for more details of the schedules and locations.

Hope to see you there!

mangia! mangia!

If you are downtown in Ottawa and looking for really good Italian food, made simple and delicious, I highly recommend Tosca. I discovered this place online when I was looking for a nice restaurant to take my frind out for her birthday last year. We returned again almost one year later and had a great time, as usual!

The prices are not very cheap, but well worth the portions, the food and the experience.

I usually know right away that I am going to have a great time when the waiter brings bread and water when you first arrive. In this case we were brought some bread with oil and balsamic dipper, black baby olives and pickled hot peppers (my fave!).

We started munching on this stuff and enjoyed a much needed cocktail. I think that was the pupose of our visit in the first place.

I had the grill calamary (NOT FRIED NOR BATTERED!!), it comes with a spicy tomato paste. DELICIOUS! It's always cooked to perfection, and the texture is not rubbery at all, it just slices perfectly in your mouth.

For my main course I had the Fettuccini domenico, which in hind site was allot to have with the calamary, but it made a nice lunch at work the next day! The fettuccini tasted really fresh, and maybe even home made. I asked them to serve it with rose sauce and they were more than happy to do that for me! They said, anything you want can be made rose!

My friend ordered the mussels, which were good. I am not a huge fan of them, but they were tasty and the portions were very generous!

Although I saved my leftovers, I WAS STUFFED! I hate and love that feeling both at the same time.

The service is really great. They were very patient with us and helpful to make our selection.

I really hope you get to try this one out!

F.Y.I. I was looking into their space for a function last year and noticed that they have a cute little private room available. I know they also book parties there too.

I appologize I did not have my camera with me, so I borrowed some pics from their website :)

a social place

Last night I had a reservation at Social. I had never been before and wanted to try it out. They have a birthday coupon emailing list that you can subscribe to on their site. So it was a perfect opportunity to redeem my free desert coupon and try a new place!

The buidling and decor are spectacular! Beautiful art hanging on old brick walls, chandeliers and drapery hanging everywhere. Chandeliers are like jewellery for decor. I mean you can wear a nice dress and have makeup on, but your jewellery is what makes you sparkle!

We were greated by a very handsome waiter at our table, which is always nice:)

We both started off with a glass of Rosé (Domaine Roncée, Chinon AOC, 2009). It was very fresh and so perfect for the hot weather. We aslo tried a delicious peice of multigrain bread and butter.

The menu is simple and straight to the point. They offer you minimal selection but using a distinct variety of proteins for each dish. I had the duck confit with green mango salad and my friend had the pan roasted salmon with quinoa and greens. My duck was very well flavoured and very well cooked. The mango salad was fresh and herbal and the cashews gave it a nice crunch! The jus poured on my duck had an orange essence to it which was tart and fresh, it paired well with the dark meat.

The salmon was cooked to perfection and had a nice crispy skin which was not wet on the plate.

It was cooked medium rare (their recommendation).

And for desert, I had my favorite... Crème Brulée, and my frind had the chocolate desert. This is definately one of my top best crème brulée's that I have had. I love it when the vanilla beans are all sunken at the bottom of the ramekin. The sugar crust was crunchy and hard, which is perfect! And the texture of the cream was soft and creamy.

We were there on a Tuesday night, and it was PACKED! Which is a sign of a very good place. They aren't even affected by the construction on Sussex! The food was really tasty and the portions of meat were enormous. Definately a place to make your man happy if you are going out for a night on the town. I wish I was more dressed up, but we went right after work, so I tied my hair differently and slapped on some lipstick.

I will definately go back or recommend it for a function. They have lots of different private spaces that have a unique decor to them and that can accomodate different parties.

I hope I haven't made you too hungry :)

Bon appétit!