The Best Thing I Ate This Month

The Best Thing I Ate This Month – February 2026
SpicyMAN, 958 Merivale Rd, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Authentic Sichuan and Northeast Chinese cuisine.

SpicyMAN, 958 Merivale Rd, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Authentic Sichuan and Northeast Chinese cuisine.

The Best Thing I Ate This Month is usually about one dish, one bite that refuses to leave your mind. It is not designed to survey an entire menu. But this time, any attempt at restraint felt dishonest. I found myself thinking about this meal for days afterward. I told people about it unprompted. This is not my usual habit. I am typically an eat it and move on kind of guy. This lingered.

SpicyMAN sits next to a barbecue spot in a stretch of Merivale that feels more practical than picturesque. You could miss it. Open the door and you are greeted not by a dining room but by a mountain of stairs. No explanation. Just a climb. So many steps that my friend, already inside, texted to ask if this was truly the place.

Climb them.

At the top, the space opens wide and bright, all exposed ceilings and visible pipes, an industrial expanse that feels unexpectedly airy after the awkward entrance. It is unadorned but confident, as if to say the spectacle will arrive on the plates.

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THE BEST THING I ATE THIS MONTH – January 2026
Skillet-Fried Chicken

Skillet-Fried Chicken recipe by Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, Bon Appétit magazine, February 2012.

The Best Thing I Ate This Month
Skillet Fried Chicken, the Bon Appétit recipe that never lets me down

There are fancier things to cook this time of year. Dishes with pedigrees. Garnishes that require tweezers. Sauces that simmer for hours only to reduce into a glossy whisper you can barely taste.

And then there is fried chicken.

Not just any fried chicken, but the skillet fried chicken from Bon Appétit, a recipe I have been cooking for more than a decade. It has been with me so long it no longer reads like instructions on a page. It feels more like muscle memory. Like tying your shoes. Like calling someone you love without thinking twice.

Every year, I make it for my annual Southern Dinner with friends, a loose, comfort heavy spread that leans Southern in spirit but fully Canadian in execution. The table is gloriously crowded, bottles, bowls, and elbows fighting for space like nobody bothered with a seating chart. This chicken is the centrepiece. Not the mac and cheese. Not the dessert. Not whatever sad green vegetable I toss in to look like an adult. The chicken. (more…)

The best thing I ate this Month – January 2020
Lost in the Woods Pizza, Art-is-In Bakery

Lost in the Woods Pizza, Art-is-In Bakery – Maple fennel sausage, caramelized onions, cremini mushrooms, sun-dried tomato jam, warm honey, whole milk Mozzarella, basil, sesame crust.

A family member had been steadfastly hounding me to try Art-is-In pizza. Ottawa pizza? Meh. I’m admittedly a pizza snoot. Nothing comes close to New York pizza with its thin, foldable crust, ooey-gooey mutz and slices as big as your head. In my opinion, it’s peerless.

Then I tasted Art-is-In’s Lost in the Woods pizza. What do you know? New York pizza might have a long lost Canadian cousin, eh? (more…)

The best thing I ate this month – April 2016

Don’t be fooled by the amateurish photograph. It was dark. A discerning eye will be able to see through the pixelation and easily surmise that these pork chops are haute cuisine. Not shocking since they were from Montreal’s Joe Beef, currently ranked as the #4 restaurant in Canada (but #1 in my heart).

At Joe Beef more is more. This place is not for the faint of heart. But is it all too much? Au contraire mon frère. The intensity of the experience of an expertly seared piece of meat should not be dismissed out of hand. Biting into the crusty exterior led to the pale-pink tinged and tender interior which imparted a rich, meaty flavour.  These pork chops were seductive. It is not mere hyperbole to say that they left me mesmerized. And they were most definitely the best thing I ate this month (and maybe ever).

The best thing I ate this month – February 2016
lemon_pudding_cake

Photograph by Carl Tremblay – America’s Test Kitchen

A two layer cake with one batter? Lemon pudding cakes are a desert that should be beset with any number of issues. Yet during baking, the egg whites miraculously rise to the top in soufflé fashion, while the lemon pudding skillfully sinks to the bottom—just like magic! But how is this achieved? Carefully and with expert guidance from the fine folks at America’s Test Kitchen.

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The best thing I ate this month – November 2015

The best thing I ate this month was yet again a creation from Allium Restaurant. This time around, it was their take on biscuits & gravy.

When I sat down and looked at the menu, I was a bit unsettled to discover this classic Southern combo north of the Mason-Dixon line. I nearly dismissed it out of hand. I mean, what do Canadians know about biscuits and gravy? It turns out, a whole heck of lot.

The rich and peppery smoked pork and mushroom gravy was perfectly paired with the biscuits, which were buttery and had an airy flakiness about them. The chicken was classically Southern-style and ideally cooked. Crispy, light and never greasy.  The apple jam and hot honey added just the right touch of sweetness. The pickled cabbage and peanuts were a nice complement, bringing freshness and crunch.

This dish was a triumph and a contemporary exploration on one of the most revered dishes of the South. And it was the best thing I ate this month.

The best thing I ate this month – October 2015
chocolate-chunk-pumpkin-seed-cookies-940x560

Photograph by Peden & Munk

“These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!” “Where did you get these?” “Who made these?” “Seriously, where do I find them?” For the most part, that’s how the interrogation began moments after unleashing the Chocolate Chunk-Pumpkin Seed Cookies upon my colleagues. Some of the cookies somehow found their way around the campus buildings and that’s when the deluge of phone calls, texts, and emails began. I was sought out and I basked in the glow of celebrity. I became Kardashian-like for the next few hours. And it was all unintentional. (more…)

The best thing I ate this month – August 2015

Recently, a lunch was had at Allium Restaurant to honour my birthday. It instead turned into an occasion to celebrate the birth of a most wondrous creation—a Fried Chicken Sandwich. Picture it. Crunchy and fantastically moist chicken topped with crispy bacon, a savoury cheddar spread, a slathering of hot honey, crunchy parmesan-kale salad, all held together by two warm and chewy waffles. Choruses of “Oohs,” “Aahs” and “Mmms” were heard, my birthday was almost forgotten and more napkins were requested.

After having left the restaurant and struggling to unlock the secrets to this delicious wonder, I reached out to the restaurant as well as to the Chef who produced this masterpiece. What I received in return was stone-cold silence. Rude? Annoying? Smart? It seems that Allium was hell-bent on keeping the secret to their mystical sandwich on the down-low. And, who can blame them? The sandwich is innovative, dramatic and tummy pleasing.  And, it was the best thing I ate this month.

Allium Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

The best thing I ate this month – July 2015

bhSliderDip

Day-tripping to Upstate New York recently led me to the grocery store where I spotted this gem: Bacon Horseradish Heluva Good dip. It has that creamy texture and addictive qualities that we’ve come to expect from Heluva Good dips. Best of all, it has an authentic bacon taste. You’ll want to dip again, and again, and again. When reached, a company representative said that there were no immediate plans to produce Bacon Horseradish Heluva Good dip in Canada. Too bad. Hopefully they’ll have a change of heart. The mouth-watering temptation of bacon and the zesty heat of horseradish blended together with real sour cream make for one unbelievably great tasting dip. It earned high marks in my eyes and was definitely the best thing I ate this month.

 

The best thing I ate this month – June 2015

the best thing I ate this month - June 2015

I’ve never brimmed with excitement at the thought of onion rings. But when the server enthusiastically praised this usually humdrum starter, I thought I’d give it a go. Who knew that onion rings would become an object of my obsession for weeks to come?

These ‘Playful Onion Rings’ are coated in chickpea batter and puffed quinoa which lend them their crunchy texture. I found myself ingesting one and then succumbing to the temptation of another and yet another. Crispy, airy and never greasy, this is a superstar dish all on its own. Sauced with a refreshing chipotle avocado dip as well as a spicy mayo dip, these vegan and gluten-free onion rings transformed into something unmistakably scrumptious.

This dream inducing and divine creation is courtesy of Pure Kitchen Ottawa. And it was the best thing I ate this month.

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