Live to eat or eat to live...........?

Do you live to eat or eat to live…………..?

After surfing ottawafoodies.com and torontofoodies.com, I have come to realize that there are certainly some nice pictures in the websites of the food being served in various restaurants. The commentaries are also interesting in that everyone has their own tastes and idiosyncrasies; and that always works its way into the reviews.

It is nice to see that there are so many people interested in good food, like to eat and do it often enough that the cost benefits have to make sense.

In Ottawa, there is quite a variety of restaurants, what with the Foreign Service, embassies and consulates here. It is quite surprising to find though that there may be one or two decent places that spring up… and then the business is just not there, and the owners move to Toronto. A good example is Chinese suckling pig, which is only really available in Toronto. There are a set number of good chefs that move within the city, like the one from Beckta’s to Par-fuym, Westin to 4cuisine etc, and ones who retire, but there are also those who end up moving away. It is those who move away that really shows Ottawa as not being a real foodies city. The remainders seem to be able to command unreasonable prices for mediocre food.

So, despite the variety of restaurants, aboriginal food, veg Thai, etc and the interest in food and eating by Ottawans, this place is just not set up with decent places to eat. There is no real Buddhist vegetarian food for example, or Taiwanese, Shanghai-nese, Bengali, or Burmese food. The Szechwan food here sucks and even the Beijing dumplings places have closed off.

So for those who eat to live…Ottawa will do fine, but for those of us who live to eat…. It’s time to move or complain loudly so that restauranteurs will hear. For those foodies in Ottawa, it’s time to stop eating at places that are mediocre and encourage the ones that merit our attention by telling them they are way too expensive compared to Tor or Mtl.

Sorry I don’t have any nice pics to show you guys. Am working on it.


2007 06 06.