Dinner in the Yellow House

Arni Psito at Victoria's Greek Festival

Every year I see the signs and hear the ads on the radio, but every year the last week of August is too jam-packed with events for me to visit the Greek Festival.  This year, with my spouse and daughter out of town, things have quieted down, allowing M'hijo and I to take in this meaty extravaganza.  Vegetarians, look away now.

Arni psito (Greek-style lamb on a spit):

Here is the lamb guy, holding the fruits of his labour. 

I'd love to be able to tell you his name, and how long he cooked the lamb, and where he got the lamb, and what spices he used, and how much he misses his mother in Greece and all that, but you try taking an overactive 20-month-old to a loud and exciting ethnic festival and see how many questions you get to ask people.  Aside from "Did you see a baby run by here?", I mean.

My mom and I were very clever and ordered both the lamb and the spanakopita dinners, then split them both.  Everything was very tasty, aside from the tomatoes, which were a little hard and tasteless.  It's August, yes, but it's been a rainy and cold August and my backyard tomatoes haven't ripened either.  I feel your pain, Hellenic Society.

Here is the lamb plate:

and here is the vegetarian plate:

The dessert menu offered a choice of kourambiedes (shortbread), baklava, loukomades (little honey doughnuts), and koulouria (butter cookies), along with Greek coffee.  I tried the coffee, the kourambiedes and the loukomades and liked the loukomades best.  The coffee, I think, may be a developed taste.  I found it way too strong and it also kept me up half the night.  Which wasn't so bad, actually, because it allowed me to watch more of Zorba the Greek, which I couldn't resist picking up at the video store on the way home from the festival. 

My Moss Street Market Haul

Hello!  I am still alive!

Very sorry to have taken two weeks off blogging unannounced.  Every day I thought I would find some time to blog and I just didn't.  You see, since August 17, my spouse has been travelling, making me a temporary single mom.  Somehow, that, combined with a big work project, has resulted in my having very little time for myself :)

But I'm back now and with lots of foody things to report on.  The first is my haul at the Moss Street Market yesterday.  Moss Street Market is sort of a miniature urban farmer's market (not that the farmers are urban, I mean, the market is in an urban location) with a bunch of crafts and stuff thrown in.  I don't go there much, but when I do go, I always love it.  My two favourite things about it are the International Women's catering co-op tent (always a huge line for their delectable samosas, empanadas, curries, and more) and the playground.  Whoever came up with the idea to have the market in the parking lot of Sir James Douglas school, with a playground right there, was a genius.  Even fiesty little anti-shoppers like 20-month-old M'hijo can be cajoled into visiting a market like this.  Here's my little monkey right after he took the pint of baby squash I bought and poured them all over himself.  He's also holding a bear-shaped bottle of B's honey.

Apart from squash and honey, I was thrilled to find, for the first time ever, rapini.  I have read about this dark leafy green, also known as broccoli rabe, and wanted to try it for a long time.  But I've never seen it for sale.  The closest I've found is something called broccolini, which is less leafy, more broccoliesque.  I'm hoping to cook it up with some Galloping Goose Italian sausage tomorrow.

I also bought a spider wort plant, having fallen in love with the electric purple blooms the day before when I saw them for the first time in a garden.  But the pièce de résistance was this:

TAMALES!

Real good Mexican tamales!  Hot to eat right away or frozen to take home!  3.50 a piece!

Mole, salsa verde, and poblano!  For sale in Victoria, which is located, don't forget, in the Great White North.  A real miracle find, to be sure.  I was so excited that I forgot I hardly had any cash left.  Luckily, the owner of the tamale stand, called, appropriately, Mexican Tamales, took pity on me and gave me a two for one deal.  He also had agua de fresa (strawberry water), a glass of which he gave to the very thirsty and grateful M'hijo.

So, quite a good little shopping trip, if I may say so.  There were plenty of other tempting veggies (bitter melon and Japanese eggplant among them) and plants (fig tree), and I didn't even get around to visiting the International Women's Catering Co-op, so I'll be returning to the Moss Street Market soon.

Mon Petit Choux, Nanaimo

The highlight of an otherwise dull trip up to Nanaimo a couple of weeks ago was the discovery of a wonderful new restaurant on Commercial Street called Mon Petit Choux.  It was the basket of baguettes in the window that drew us in, and boy were we glad that it did. 

This unpretentious but chic little cafe/bakery consists of a large triangular room with a red floor, blue banquettes and two walls full of windows, as well as additional seating closer to the front counter.  The ceiling is high, but the space manages not to feel like an airport cafeteria thanks to Versaillesesque crown molding, stencilling, and lighting fixtures. 

On the morning we visited Mon Petit Choux everyone in the family was in the need of a little comfort, and we found it in their short and sweet breakfast menu and cappuccinos.  Sahsez (the picky eight-year-old) ordered the made-on-site granola, yogurt and fruit and Tobias ordered the bread pudding.  I agonized over the decision between a Croque Madame, which I'd never tried, or scrambled eggs with rosti, croissant, and fruit, eventually choosing the Croque Madame.  Everything was delicious, and we left having a much rosier view of Nanaimo than we would have had we been forced to eat at Smitty's, which was our unfortunate fate last year.

This past Sunday, we returned to Nanaimo and of course, we scheduled a visit to Mon Petit Choux.  Then we discovered a few more things about our new favourite breakfast spot: it has been open for just five weeks, it is open from 8-4 every day except Sunday, and the server has a great memory, noticing that Sahsez and I had had haircuts since our last visit.

I couldn't bear to try something new, enamoured as I was with my Croque Madame which, I am now able to report, is just like a Croque Monsieur, but with an egg on top.  The first time I ordered this, it was on baguette, the second time, on croissant.  Both ways are good.  The ham was black forest, the cheese was gruyere, and the egg was fried just enough to allow a nice little yolk-coating for the bread.  Yum.

Sahsez branched out and tried the scrambled egg and rosti.  I, of course, sampled from her plate.  The eggs were nice and creamy, but the rosti was the real star here: not too salty, nice and crispy, with a real potato flavour that hashbrowns sometimes lack.

Tobias stuck with his bread pudding, which they now make with leftover croissants, meaning that you might luck out and get some hunks of chocolate in your pudding, from the previous day's pain au chocolat. It was served with fruit, cream, and a little pitcher of maple syrup.

 

Both times we visited Mon Petit Choux, I gazed out the window at the folks across the street, eating their breakfasts at Charlie's Restaurant and wondered "Why would someone ever go there when they could be here?"  On the second visit, I noticed a sign that read "Full breakfast, only 2.95!" and had my answer.

While it's true that the prices at Mon Petit Choux are not bargain basement,  I feel they are still a good value, given that the dishes are prepared with care, and the breads, pastries, and granola are all created onsite.  The bread pudding was probably the best deal at 5.50.  The Croque Madame was 7.95; the scrambled eggs were 8.50; the granola and yogurt was 6.50.  Sahsez couldn't finish her breakfast and shared quite a bit with her brother, so really, the kids ate for 4.25 each.  I guess if I were feeding more than two kids and they were big eaters, I may not be able to take them to Mon Petit Choux, but you know, I always feel that really tasty food fills you up more than bland, dull food, so provided M'hijo (my 19-month-old) doesn't start eating like a trucker, I think I'll keep taking the kids for good, delicious, but not behemoth-sized breakfasts.

Which brings me to the topic of kid-friendliness.  Mon Petit Choux, by virtue of its friendly staff, open space, reasonable acoustics, and great food, is a great example of what I consider to be kid-friendly.  That said, I didn't notice any highchairs (but I didn't ask, either, so perhaps they have them) and there wasn't a basket of kids toys, like they have at Ottavio.  Also, no kid-specific breakfast.  To me, these things aren't a big deal, but other parents may like to see them. 

All in all, Mon Petit Choux is an excellent reason to get off the in-island highway and venture into downtown Nanaimo for a breakfast, a lunch, or for one of their amazing pastries and breads, including croissant, pain au chocolat, burnt-butter tarts, danishes, and of course, choux à la crème.

Mon Petit Choux
101-120 Commercial Street, Nanaimo, British Columbia
8-4 Tuesday-Sunday
Breakfast: $5.50 - $8.50
Lunch: $7.50 - $9.00
Pastries: $2.00 - $5.00