Ottawa Wine & Food Festival

Last weekend was the Ottawa Wine and Food Festival. 

I missed it last year, so you BETTER BELIEVE I was all over it this time around. 

My friends and I attended the Saturday afternoon Tasting Floor Pass. Held at the Ottawa Convention Centre, hundreds of exhibitors set up shop offering samples of wines, beers, spirits and foods from around the world - and around Ottawa. 

I WAS PUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Firstly, I was totally diggin' the crowd. Young professional men in suits (meow) and ladies in dresses. It felt like more of a club at times than a convention centre. A friend of mine told me to dress up, and I'm really thankful they did (I probably could have even dressed up a little more). I was worried I would be waiting in lines, but there weren't any!! Hooray. 

Now, to the food. 

We ate ourselves sillyyyy. GO BIG OR GO HOME. Amirite?? The one thing I was surprised to see, was quite a few chain restaurants and pubs. Like Real Sports, The Clocktower Pub... not exactly fine dining, but still fun! I think everyone agreed that the best thing we ate all day was the lobster... POUTINE!!, from Petit Bill's Bistro. 

Who knew such a thing existed??? It was awesome. But to be fair, I've never had a poutine I didn't like (poutine tasting for me usually goes down at 2:30 am, post bar library). I've never been to Petit Bill's! It's been added to my to-do list.   

The award for most interesting thing I ate has to go to the bison and wild boar on a stick. 

I love how straight up they were. They could have classed up the name, like "wild boar sausage hors d'oeuvres with a dijon butter".... Nope. Just wild boar. On a stick. 

I've had bison before (bison burgers) but never wild boar. I liked both! To be honest they both kind of tasted the same to me. Maybe I haven't developed my wild game palete quite yet. Lulz.  

Also, CHEESE!!!!!!!

Specifically, RACLETTE!!!! 

Raclette is a type of cheese, and a Swiss dish based on heating the cheese and scraping it off (racler = to scrape). 

I don't care who you are, melted cheese is DA BOMB!! They could have scraped it onto a shoe and I still would have tried to eat it. Not ashamed. 

Finally for dessert, blueberry cheesecake. With a chocolate crust! Deeeeeeeeelish. 

I obviously ate (and drank) way more than this, but these were the foods worth mentioning.

Apparently they're planning a spring edition of the festival! Come at me wine & food!