Eating up the Hill: French Dip Roast Beef Sandwich with Chips and Coleslaw

Yesterday's Roast Beef sandwich will be my last lunch in the Parliamentary precinct in 2016, although I do have several past lunches that I have yet to chronicle. It was a fittingly meaty ending to 2016, and likely my last lunch in Confederation before moving across the street to the Wellington Building early in the New Year -- looking forward to sampling the swanky new cafeteria there.

A good french dip starts with the bread, and this was a fresh and crusty French baguette. I went off script and asked them to toast the bread on the grill for me first, and this was done without hesitation. I think it really made a difference, allowing the bread to hold together better when dipped and giving it a nice crunch.

I began though with the Cream of Leek soup, sold separately. Not my favourite of their soups that I regularly buy, but it did the job on a semi-chilly Ottawa day -- it was only -12C, that's practically shorts weather.

The main, my French Dip Roast Beef Sandwich, came with chips and coleslaw for $6.45 before tax. Let's deal with the sides first. The slaw was standard slaw and tasted freshly-prepared, as opposed to that industrial slaw you'll get some places. The only negative was the vinegar dressing base; I prefer a creamy slaw. Still, it was a needed splash of colour -- and veggies -- on my plate. The chips were tasty when dipped in the Beef Jus.

But on to the sandwich. It may not look like it in the picture, but the beef was generously provided given the price. It was good, if lacking in a bit of spice. And I wouldn't have minded it a bit more pink, although I'm not one of those rare dripping blood roast-beef people. )Not that there's anything wrong with that.) With some toast on the bun, it was delicious when dipped in the jus -- which was flavourful, but would have been better were it pipping hot.

I give it a 4/5 --half-point deductions for not being a creamy slaw and the beef not being rarer.

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Eating up the Hill: Turkey lunch with the trimmings

I generally have turkey once a year: at Christmas. Which is just about the right amount for me, actually. Especially given that between different dinners and assorted leftovers, I usually have about a year's worth of turkey over the holiday period.

My first turkey of the 2016/17 holiday season came last week for lunch, when the Parliamentary cafeterias served their annual holiday lunch across the precinct. Being a patriotic Canadian, I gathered up some compatriots and we headed upstairs for a traditional Christmas lunch.

After starting with some perfectly adequate mushroom soup (sold separately), I dug into the lunch. And I have to say, for a cafeteria lunch I was pleasantly surprised. But let me start first with the disappointments. The carrots were under-cooked. It can be hard to get carrots right in a cafeteria setting, which may be why so many resort to the frozen bags of peas and carrots. I do appreciate the effort with the real carrots, though. Also, the mashed potatoes were fine I guess, but I don't really like mashed potatoes. Just don't get the point. Maybe that makes me a bad half-Irishman, but there you go.

Let's move on though, as I really did enjoy this lunch. The white meat turkey was as moist as you're going to do in this setting. I'm not used to stuffing in loaf format, but it was tasty. The gravy was hot and flavourful and provided generously. But the surprise highlight was the mini-tourtiere. Beef, I believe it was. Not a part of my traditional Christmas meal, but rich in flavour and truly delicious.

All in all, a hearty and satisfying Christmas lunch. I give it 4.5 out of 5.

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Eating up the Hill: Liberal caucus don't call it Christmas party

Last week was the annual office Christmas party. At my last job, each of the managers would bring in dishes they had prepared for an afternoon potluck. However, while I'm sure Marc Garneau's macaroni & cheese is amazing, the caucus leader's office opted to have the Liberal caucus holiday party catered by the Shaw Centre.

This party actually got some press earlier in the day, when a right wing pundit with a deadline and no ideas called the Liberal "holiday party" part of the phony war on Christmas. My friends, if there's a war on Christmas on Parliament Hill, Christmas is winning...

I can report, though, that in his remarks, Prime Minister Trudeau did wish attendees a Joyeux Noel. Hopefully someone can translate this for our friend from the Sun.

But on to the food! Unfortunately, I neglected to snap a photo of the starter: a truly delicious soup. It wasn't potato but was something similar and cream-based. Simple, hearty and warmed the innards. A fine start to the meal.

A fine start unfortunately let down by a disappointing main of airline chicken. Really, that's what it's called. This airline chicken was dry. I will take blame for it not being hotter, as it was served while we were in the line-up for photos. But it was still overcooked. The brown sauce was delicious, but it wasn't plentiful enough to overcome the dryness of the chicken. The asparagus, however, was on point.

Always end on a high note, I say, and the third course did this. The desert was excellent. There was some debate at the table as to just what it was. I say it was ice cream. Others disagreed. I admit the consistency and temperature was a bit off ice cream, but it was darned close, and the fruit compote and sugary faux-cookie complemented it nicely.

So I didn't leave my third caucus holiday party hungry. And unlike my first caucus holiday party way back in 1997, no one did the Macarena. So a winning night all around. And thanks to caucus chair Francis Scarpaleggia and his team for all their hard work organizing the party.

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Eating up the Hill: Wicked Thai Style Soup with Chicken

Generally, I'm not a big soup guy. Usually I will take the salad over the soup in an appetizer scenario, but there are certain soups I am adding to my must-have list when they come up in the Parliamentary soup rotation. And Friday, the list grew by one.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the seafood chowder on this blog before, but it is delicious and is a must-have when it comes up on offer in the caf. And since I learned that yesterday's soup of the day also sticks around as a second choice the next day I have been enjoying two days of chowder (say it right -- chowdah). Also on my must-have list: chicken corn chowder. You can spot the theme here I'm sure.

But Friday, not being keen on the special and deciding I needed something to accompany my chicken burger, I decided to lift the lid and take a look at the Wicked Thai Style Soup with Chicken, not really expecting to be tempted.

How wrong I was. Immediately the delicious smell of the fragrant broth overtook me, and I unconsciously leaned in for a closer sniff. I picked up the ladle to confirm it was a hearty soup, generous with ingredients, and grabbed a take-out container to bring it back to my office to commune with in quiet contemplation.

In addition to the incredibly flavourful broth, the soup was generous with chicken, rice, mushrooms, peepers and tomatoes, all nicely complementing a complex broth that included cream, tomatoe paste, basil, cilantro and garlic. It was truly and unexpectedly excellent.

So now I have three favourite Parliamentary soups.

P.S. This coming Monday is seafood chowder day.

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Eating up the Hill: Lasagna and Cesar Salad

No one makes lasagna like Mom, but she's not here and I still need to eat lunch. So I headed up to the Confederation Building cafeteria on Thursday to try the special of the day: Lasagna and Cesar Salad.

First, the lasagna. On the positive side, the portion size was generous, and I didn't get cheated on the cheese on top. And I was pleased by the presence of mushrooms. After that, it was kind of downhill. The ground beef, while in decent if not generous quantity, was not of high quality. It could have been saucier. And if there was cheese on the inside, it had melted into nothingness. No evidence of ricotta or cottage, cheeses I would usually expect to find in my lasagna.

The lasagna filled me up and was cooked appropriately, but was definitely cafeteria lasagna.

On to the Cesar salad. Too often, a side salad at the caf is just spring mix and a dressing of your choice. That's not a salad -- that's lettuce. A salad involves other ingredients. Toss in some cucumber or something, people. Thankfully, this time they had the appropriate ingredients on hand to make your own Cesar salad. I asked for my romaine on a separate plate to give me more space to work with, and proceeded to add croutons, bacon bits, Parmesan cheese and dressing. The croutons were good and the dressing garlicky goodness. The bacon bits were delightfully real and not simulated, which made the decision to cheap out with the powdered Parmesan instead of the shredded a bit puzzling.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the salad -- perhaps more so that the lasagna.

Restaurant: Confederation Building Cafeteria
Meal: Lasagna and Cesar Salad
Price: $8.61 including my Diet Coke, inclusive of taxes

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