Well this past week went by quickly and got a lot of stuff accomplished for our return to Ottawa later this summer. The best thing was the find of this beautiful apartment, totally unexpected. After seeing many substandard apartments advertised in what can only be called as misleading statements and photos, I found a great place for us in an area of town known as the Golden Triangle by the Rideau canal. We had a great agent Eric helping us and he did a very good job answering our questions and getting the information I needed. It pays to visit properties and not go on info solely provided on paper or on the internet.
Ottawa has changed a lot, the city has matured in the last 7 years and it is much different than when I left.
It is still a very clean city, lots of beautiful parks, very green and quiet. Met with old friends, went out to dinner. Looked for and compared prices on food etc... this gives me a better idea of what it will be like on our return in 8 weeks. Dining out in Ottawa is still expensive, more so may I had than in Rome or Vienna, if you look at the 13% tax and then the obligatory 15% service charge added to the final bill, not to mention the price of wines and liquor in restaurants which can easily be 500% of the retail cost at the liquor store. So we will not be doing much dining out. I also found that a lot of foods served in restaurants does not appeal to me. Too many flavors, every chef wants to be trendy, any given menu item has a long description of what the dish is about, to the point of incomprehension. It seems that food has to be trendy, as if that would equate with good taste or savoir-faire in the kitchen in the hope of attracting the monied crowd. At the moment you have a lot of cranberry sauce with balsamic vinegar and chipotle onions. Last night per example I had duck breast for dinner it came with what was described as duck confit, it was not, wrapped in rice paper to make it look Vietnamese with wild rice and vegetables and again this sweet and sour combination sauce, this was not an Asian restaurant but a trendy neigborhood one. Not very pleasing at all. The only fish on most restaurant menus is salmon steak, do we not have other fish to serve, it appears not. The desserts also tend to be very heavy, Ottawa is still stuck in the Cheese cake era and in hot weather a total turn off. So we will eat at home probably replicating what we had in Rome. A good friend of mine described Canadians as people with damaged palates with over stimulated taste buds.
Groceries stores are interesting, you have the superstores and then the local specialty ones, some offer all natural, organic, biological, fair trade, grown in the shade (whatever that means), gluten free, free of dairy products, no eggs, peanut free, products. The variety is impressive, expensive and sometimes a tad funny, you wonder if we need all these choices, but it seems to reflect a certain affluent hypocondriac mentality preoccupied with lifestyle and correctness.
Ottawa also has horrendous rush hour traffic problems now as people try to leave the city centre by the main roads out towards the suburbs, it starts around 3pm until 7pm and on some streets like Bronson it is an all day and late into the night traffic jam. The Queensway, the only major east west highway in Ottawa is a parking lot in both directions at rush hour. This is why I can happily say that I can actually walk to work in 20 minutes and do not need a car from our new home, I am very happy about that. The walk will also be very pleasant mostly through beautiful park land smack in the city centre. This is one of the very nice features of Ottawa.
Today its back to Rome for the pack up in 16 days the countdown is on. We have movers but we will need to make decisions on what we will take with us and what will be sent with the sea shipment.
Ottawa has changed a lot, the city has matured in the last 7 years and it is much different than when I left.
It is still a very clean city, lots of beautiful parks, very green and quiet. Met with old friends, went out to dinner. Looked for and compared prices on food etc... this gives me a better idea of what it will be like on our return in 8 weeks. Dining out in Ottawa is still expensive, more so may I had than in Rome or Vienna, if you look at the 13% tax and then the obligatory 15% service charge added to the final bill, not to mention the price of wines and liquor in restaurants which can easily be 500% of the retail cost at the liquor store. So we will not be doing much dining out. I also found that a lot of foods served in restaurants does not appeal to me. Too many flavors, every chef wants to be trendy, any given menu item has a long description of what the dish is about, to the point of incomprehension. It seems that food has to be trendy, as if that would equate with good taste or savoir-faire in the kitchen in the hope of attracting the monied crowd. At the moment you have a lot of cranberry sauce with balsamic vinegar and chipotle onions. Last night per example I had duck breast for dinner it came with what was described as duck confit, it was not, wrapped in rice paper to make it look Vietnamese with wild rice and vegetables and again this sweet and sour combination sauce, this was not an Asian restaurant but a trendy neigborhood one. Not very pleasing at all. The only fish on most restaurant menus is salmon steak, do we not have other fish to serve, it appears not. The desserts also tend to be very heavy, Ottawa is still stuck in the Cheese cake era and in hot weather a total turn off. So we will eat at home probably replicating what we had in Rome. A good friend of mine described Canadians as people with damaged palates with over stimulated taste buds.
Groceries stores are interesting, you have the superstores and then the local specialty ones, some offer all natural, organic, biological, fair trade, grown in the shade (whatever that means), gluten free, free of dairy products, no eggs, peanut free, products. The variety is impressive, expensive and sometimes a tad funny, you wonder if we need all these choices, but it seems to reflect a certain affluent hypocondriac mentality preoccupied with lifestyle and correctness.
Ottawa also has horrendous rush hour traffic problems now as people try to leave the city centre by the main roads out towards the suburbs, it starts around 3pm until 7pm and on some streets like Bronson it is an all day and late into the night traffic jam. The Queensway, the only major east west highway in Ottawa is a parking lot in both directions at rush hour. This is why I can happily say that I can actually walk to work in 20 minutes and do not need a car from our new home, I am very happy about that. The walk will also be very pleasant mostly through beautiful park land smack in the city centre. This is one of the very nice features of Ottawa.
Today its back to Rome for the pack up in 16 days the countdown is on. We have movers but we will need to make decisions on what we will take with us and what will be sent with the sea shipment.
I dream about retiring to Canada, and I have never been to Ottawa
ReplyDeleteIt must be always a bit of a puzzle to return to a place you have not seen in a while - at some level of consciousness we want things to remain just as we left them.
Well yes this is true but also I know after 31 years on this job that life is an eternal beginning. So we return to Ottawa a city that has changed a lot and in many ways for the better. I am happy with that and with being with our old group of friends.
ReplyDeleteLaurent:
ReplyDeleteI now quickly look through a few posts to see that you return now to Ottawa. Such a big change, but it sounds like a good change overall. I'll try to stop in again soon and see how things go. So much to look after, I send good wishes for a successful and smooth transition.
--Mark B.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd I trust you've consulted Nicky and Nora on their new residence?
ReplyDeleteOf course I did, in fact the sunny location and south exposure of the apartment charmed them.
ReplyDeleteWow, here I am thinking that you're such a seasoned pro at switching cultures/countries in an instant given your work, but this entry reads like a serious reverse culture shock! Canadian dining is not as horrendous as described in this entry. I don't know Ottawa well, but given its status as a capital city with lots of people going in/out, I seriously doubt the food as bad as you described. Salmon is very common, but heck we have an upcoming restaurant festival coming up (Summerlicious, fix prix meals) and I see trout, grouper, perch, swordfish, bass, halibut, cod, and some other ones I don't even recognize. And Toronto's dining selection isn't even as great as Vancouver's! Desserts can be heavy here yes, but let's not forget what Italians eat (incredibly heavy, sweet, bad bakeries all around!). In my 3wks of trek throughout Italy, I was hugely disappointed with the food. Bakeries in Italy cannot compare at all to an average French or even German bakery. I've boycotted Italian bakeries in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteAs for the endless choices at grocery stores in Ottawa, I'm not one to buy organic or fancy stuff but at least I have a choice! European grocery stores are incredibly sad. Many remind me of bread queues under USSR. Unless of course you run around to 10 different small shops in one trip... who has the time for that? :)
Take a breath and calm down. Europe (as much as I love it) and Italy are not everything... I find it amusing that people return from abroad and try to replicate whatever they had overseas as if they live in some bubble...
Zocalo, thanks for the comment, it has been a long time. Well true enough that leaving here is a sad experience but then again we had a wonderful time. We will have to adjust to Ottawa and Canadian food, I just hope to not put on too much weight. Oh well we will be back home in Canada in 30 days.
ReplyDelete