Donair

Donair 3,
originally uploaded by KT in NB.

While we were in Halifax over Easter we tried a local culinary creation, the donair. A donair consists of finely ground, spiced and seasoned shaved meat, onions, tomatoes and donair sauce wrapped in a thick, soft pita. I cannot really be more specific about the meat. It reminded me of gyro meat so is probably lamb or beef, but I can only guess. The donair sauce is really something else. It is made largely of icing sugar and may also contain garlic, depending on who makes it. It is almost unbearably sweet, but people like it on everything out here: bread sticks, garlic fingers (cheesy bread sticks), pizza and the like. Pretty much anything I would dip into hot marinara sauce at pizza hut they dip into donair sauce. It leaves me shocked and appalled. Minus the garlic I may use donair sauce to dip cookies into, but that's about it.
All put together it is a very messy food. The sauce to meat and veggies ratio is nearly one to one and the pita I found to be about two times too small. We were even told to pick off about half the toppings and then attempt to wrap it up, which is kind of bizarre. It turned out to be very neccessary. I picked a bit then rolled and started, only to have my donair fall apart after two bites.
I ordered mine with the works, since I wanted the true Halifax experience. I know now that it was a mistake. As mentioned before, the works includes raw onions and tomatoes. They are not minced, nor julienned, but thick sliced and a great hindrance to my enjoying the experience. The mushy tomato, crunchy onion and puzzlingly sweet sauce were in direct opposition to the tasty, almost crispy meat shavings. Four bites or so in I was picking the plant substances out of my donair (to the best of my ability). A few onions were able to escape my notice, but I was very fastidious as to the tomotoes. Afterward, I enjoyed the donair more, but was still mystified by the much lauded donair sauce. I am aware of people mixing tastes together. People I am well acquainted with dip fries into ice cream. I am a big fan of sweet and spicy thaï chili sauce and sweet and sour chicken balls are almost their own food group. Yet I must draw the line at mixing meat with what can best be described as runny cupcake icing. It's like matter and anit-matter combining: destructive and unnatural.
If a donair was just the meat wrapped in a soft bread, I would eat one every day. If a donair did not come with onions and tomatoes I would consider having one every time I went to Halifax, but since a donair has the sauce, onions and tomatoes I will do my best to avoid eating one for the rest of my life.
VERDICT: Gross! Donair sauce is just plain wrong.

Flammeküche

Flammeküche (flam-KOOSH), also known as Flammkuchen (German) and Tarte flambée (French), is a traditional dish from Alsace, a region in north-eastern France along the border with Germany and Switzerland. It is comprised of dough topped with sour cream, onions and bacon, salt and peppered to taste. Although, the recipe varies regionally in France and worldwide.
This dish contains ingredients that I have varying reactions to individually. Dough and bacon are both awesome things, great things, wonderful things! I started out afraid of onions, but have come to appreciate them and, yes, even enjoy them in most circumstances. Raw being the main exception, but they were cooked so again no problem. The only remaining ingredient is sour creme. Generally, I'm terrified of sour cream. Sour cream dip: no thanks. Sour cream on a taco: definitely not. This made me apprehensive about trying flammeküche, especially since the dough is entirely coated in it. To try flammeküche there is no escaping sour cream. However, by not trying flammeküche I miss out on so much bacon.
Truthfully, it wasn't a very tough decision. There were two factors that made it a quick, easy choice. The first and less influential was that we were guests of the Bergers and I wanted to be polite. The second was bacon. Bacon  is very influential when it comes to food. It is just that good. I tried scallops because of bacon and that is saying a lot. It was definitely bacon that tipped the balance.
It was a good thing too. Flammeküche is awesome! The bacon is great and mixes very well with the onion. Surprisingly, for me anyway, it is the sour cream that makes the difference. It bakes into the dough, so isn't the  puffy, whipped stuff I find so nasty, and provides the perfect tang. An excellent combination.
Cornelia made a comment that if you're being polite you'll try one piece, if you like it you'll have two or more. I had more, much more. I wouldn't be surprised if it was over six. I was even "persuaded" to finish it off.
This has taught me that I like sour cream in cooking, but not alone as its gloopy white self. Interesting note to end: the direct translation of the original Alsatian flammeküche is "baked in the flames" since it was just laid over the coals when the oven was at maximum heat.
VERDICT: Make! I would love to make this in our very kitchen!

photo borrowed from http://ricettedifamiglia.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/flammekueche.jpg

For more information on Alsace click here and for Flammeküche here.

Doritos Cheeseburger

Welcome to a slightly delayed edition of I ♥ hamburgers. We were in New York and busy seeing the sights and doing the do-s. Much to my surprise I only had one hamburger in New York and it was from the Metropolitan Museum of Art cafeteria and was nothing to write home about, nor blog about either. Just a run-of-the-mill cafeteria burger, though it had fancy museum-type cheese.
The first thing that comes to mind for me when I see Doritos Cheeseburger is adding some (most likely nacho cheese) Doritos to a cheeseburger and having a flavour and crunch explosion, much like putting onion rings into a hamburger. While, that would be great and I have probably done something like that in my lifetime, the Doritos Cheeseburger I'm talking about now is completely different.
Doritos has a line of tortilla chips called Late Night. These are chips that do their best to accurately mimic the taste of what the bag says they taste like. One of the newer flavours is All Nighter Cheeseburger. We were stopped in the last town in Maine before the New Brunswick border getting gas and a little snack. I had already picked out a small bag of Salt 'n' Vinegar, but we walked by a Doritos display on the way to the checkout. They stood out like my eyebrows when I don't wear glasses. Some of the bags of chips said Cheeseburger! I couldn't help myself. I immediately set down my puny S'n'V bag and grabbed the cheeseburger chips.

I was barely back to the interstate before I asked Kristin if she could pass me a cheeseburger. (I'm funny like that.) I was kind of leary before first trying it. I've had pizza chips before and they just don't quite cut it, but I took a deep breath, kept watching the road and chomped down.
I was shocked. Aside from the crunchiness the experience was exactly like eating a cheeseburger. Kristin and I were both amazed. The beef taste was there along with all the condiments. It was realistic in a way that no chip I'd ever tried before was. If I wasn't driving and could have closed my eyes, I may not have believed that I was eating a chip. They are that good. Kristin figured they tasted most like McDonald's hamburgers and I thought for a while, while eating quite a few crunchy, triangular cheeseburgers, and decided that they taste most like Dairy Queen cheeseburgers to me.
 Doritos may put a little bit more mustard on their cheeseburgers than I usually do, but I'm not so picky anymore and love these chips. I really wish they were available in Canada. Another product to add to the please-bring-these-here list, especially since they are now my favourite Doritos flavour.

photo borrowed from http://www.everyview.com/2010/01/16/doritos-late-night-all-nighter-cheeseburger/