Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave (and the amazing ZenKitchen)


Have you ever felt like a complete idiot after finding out that something so great was going on right under your nose and you had absolutely no idea? That's how I felt this week when I was invited to attend the launch of a fantastic new TV show that actually began tonight at 9pm on the W Network (thank you so much Ian for thinking of me!).

The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave, owners of ZenKitchen, sharing all their joy, pain, frustrations and unconditional love of vegetarian cuisine with all of Canada. The trials and tribulations faced by this couple totally tests their resiliency. And to have met them in person and see them at this stage just made my heart melt. They are so genuine and kind I'm absolutely honoured to have celebrated the prescreening with them. Not to mention that after the first episode I'm already addicted to the show (click here for the complete show schedule).

I also had the unique opportunity of rubbing shoulders with some of the people that brought it all together. Heidi Helm of Urbanomic Interiors, who did the interior design of the restaurant, made us feel welcome immediately (we also happened to be discussing how much we loved the look of the restaurant without even knowing she was standing right next to us!).

I was also quite nervous to be surrounded by so many other Ottawa foodies that I hold in such high regard – foodiePrints and Nooschi I must say are amongst my absolute favourites. It was great to chat with them.

But my embarrassment stems from the fact that this amazing little gem is about a 10 minute walk from my house and I've yet to dine there. My husband and I did however, get to try some teasers tonight and we are now anxiously awaiting their reopening on January 19th. Here are just a few of the many appetizers that were floating around.

A warm, velvety cauliflower soup.

What had my husband and I ready to steal the entire plate – mushroom or caramelized onion dumplings drizzled with truffle oil. It's like heaven, in your mouth. I guarantee you've never had anything this good in your life.

New potatoes topped with a seaweed based vegan caviar.

Check out their menu if you don't mind starting to drool now!

4 comments:

nooschi said...

It was a pleasure meeting you!

Rachelle said...

And you!! I could talk about food for hours.

Don said...

As always, it was a pleasure chatting with you, however brief!

So happy to see some of my fav bloggers at events!

Starting to think Ottawa Food Bloggers should have an event of their own :)

Rachelle said...

I have to say, I was a bit timid around all you foodies! It'll be fun to see you more at other food events and break me out of my shell.