P&P Canada

I don't dine out much in Ottawa compared to Toronto because of 3 strikes: more expensive, smaller portion, and less tasty. Though there are some cheaper options that I visit semi-regularly. The other reason were the home-cooked meals. But early in the week, my parent was staying a few days at my grandma's to keep her company. So I took the opportunity to check out Pit Stop for dinner.

A convenience store is not my typical choice for a meal. But it recently changed owner and the new one had installed a shawarma shop in the back. A regular falalel wrap was a reasonable $6.99 but I struck out again. Usually, the ingredients are packed into a pita shell. But it was a small one here so they tore it apart to form two overlapping discs. I have never seen the like so two strikes: undersized and pricey. Then I saw that, like other shawarma places in Ottawa, they had pre-cooked the falalel. But it wasn't just a 3rd strike but a total swing-and-miss because the falafel was salty almost to the point of being inedible. Maybe someone who just picked up a cookbook a week ago should be this bad. Not people who spent money buying commercial kitchen equipment.

On Saturday, it was my turn to visit my grandma for lunch. Usually she has prepared something. But this time, I stopped off in Chinatown to buy a few extra snacks. Since Covid, my uncle has not visited the area so she has been missing some favourites. A small grocery store like Phuoc Loi, hammered by large suburban competitors like Fresh Green and T&T, now only offer a small vegetables section. The bulk of their staples was convenience-store-like items such as ramen and canned food.

However, they also stock home-made food on the week-end. These offerings are procured from an older generation of private cooks looking to make some extra money. So like a gentrifying Chinatown, they will eventually disappear. My grandma was thrilled with fried sesame balls/banh ran($4), shrimp tapioca dumplings/banh bot loc($5), pork balls/banh it tran($5), and flour rolls/banh cuon ($7).