City Daily Photo Theme Day: Comfort Food

 The first day of the month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for March, that theme is Comfort Food. Take a look at how others are interpreting the theme right here.

I start with this unassuming restaurant which makes good pizza. Centretown Donair and Pizza is in my area. From time to time I'll pick one up.

Their pepperoni pizza is delicious.

So too is their Canadian pizza- pepperoni with mushroom and bacon.

Perhaps comfort food might be characterized as Lindt chocolate.

Or a milkshake. From time to time, my fridge top shelf gets stocked with these.

Onion rings are a particular favourite.

Breyers is a brand of ice cream here. A few months back they started putting out Canadian dessert flavours. The butter tart is a quintessential Canadian treat. I had to ask a friend who comes from Newfoundland what blueberry grunt is. Essentially it's a cobbler, but one that's very well liked around the Atlantic provinces.

Poutine is a Canadian classic dish, definitely comfort food. At its most basic it's fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. I go to a restaurant called Great Canadian Poutinerie once a month for takeaway. They customize with extra toppings. In this case, the Sauce Boss, which is topped with chicken, barbecue sauce, sweet mustard, and garlic mayo. It was good.

This is the Canadian, topped with ground beef, bacon, mushroom, and maple syrup.

Di Rienzo's is a deli and small grocery store in Little Italy that's famous in the city and beyond. It's one of my primary food sources. They make ready made and deli panini sandwiches, and pastas to go at the counter, and it's always busy at lunch time, especially with a walk in customer base from the neighbourhood. On the day I took this shot, I picked up steak sandwiches.

Also in Little Italy: a Greek bakery called The Nutty Greek. I'll stop by once a week for something. On one such occasion, a sausage souvlaki in a pita, which came home with me. 

And of course there is the Beavertail, a classic Canadian pastry that got its start here in Ottawa, with its original location operating year round from the Byward Market. A beavertail is a flat fried pastry in the shape of its namesake, topped in various ways. During festivals, like Winterlude, portable locations are put out into various locations around the city. This one was on Sparks Street as I was returning in early evening to take in the ice sculptures in evening light. I got one with maple butter.

Finally, it was Pancake Tuesday several days ago. I'd been doing takeaway from restaurants during Covid, but for the first time since Pancake Tuesday in 2020, I ate in at a restaurant, Dunn's in the Byward Market, on what turned out to be a cold snowy day. Pancakes were the order of the day- with blueberries, strawberries, banana, icing sugar, whipped cream, and maple syrup. Definite comfort food, topped off with Earl Grey tea.