First Bites: Popup Personalities

PATTY PERFECTION
What do two highly trained chefs do when lockdown takes away all their private party contracts? Well, if you’re Michael Hauschild and Jordan White, you start a Jamaican patty business. Hauschild is the owner of InHaus Cooking, a private chef service, and he is a veteran of Canada’s Culinary Olympic team. White also works at InHaus, and boasts a résumé full of Ottawa hotspots, including TwoSixAte and Amuse. The patties themselves are an old family recipe that White has tweaked to his liking. While Hauschild and White had featured the patties on a few private dining menus prior to lockdown, this was their chance to really treat them as a centrepiece. Using ghost kitchen space at St. Anthony’s Banquet Hall, White makes all the dough and the duo collaborates on flavourful fillings while sealing each patty by hand. Their traditional beef patty is by far the biggest seller, brimming with rich spices and flavours. For those who like it hot, a spicy beef version with more Scotch bonnet peppers in the mix is available. There are rotating, limited-time flavours as well, everything from a breakfast patty to buffalo cauliflower to chana masala chickpea. A fully vegan patty is also in the works, which will use seitan as its base. “We want to have something for everyone,” says Hauschild, “which is why we keep everything Halal.” With a growing roster of flavours, delivery and pickup options, and of course, handmade flaky dough, they seem to be doing just that.

Spice & Dough Co. 
Spiceanddough.ca/@spicedoughottawa

Find them at: Burrow Shop and online at the above URL

SOME LIKE IT HOT
Since 2018, Holly Laham has been working tirelessly to bring proper Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches to Ottawa. Holly’s Hot Chicken has developed a cult following in town among restaurant staff and foodies, despite having to cancel its last popup due to the rising pandemic numbers. “It was for the best,” says Laham of the planned early-April event. “I didn’t feel comfortable putting anyone at risk. The timing just wasn’t right.” Laham is no stranger to Ottawa’s hospitality scene. In addition to hot chicken, she works full time at the Merry Dairy, and boasts an impressive pedigree, having held positions at Nat’s Bread Company, Corner Peach and Holland’s Cake & Shake. “We’re reassessing,” Laham says. “I still want to bring hot chicken to everyone; I just need to find a different way to do it.” The chicken sandwiches in question are divine takes on Tennessee classics. Laham did her research, visiting the temples of hot chicken in Nashville, including Hattie B’s and Prince’s. Her own Holly’s Hot is the signature sandwich, using local chicken from either Mariposa Farms or Ferme aux Saveurs des Monts. The chicken is fried, then dunked in a spice/oil blend kept at a precise temperature to not make the chicken soggy. Then onto a bun, topped with lettuce and garnished with buttermilk ranch and bread and butter pickles, both homemade. Other flavours include the Honey Hot and the Plain Jane, for those who are spice-sensitive. Until Laham secures a brick-and-mortar location, hot chicken fans can follow on Instagram and dream of the next popup.

Holly’s Hot Chicken
@hollyshotchicken

Find it: Online via Instagram to find the next popup

DELICIOUS DUMPLINGS
Shuai Song and Bree Hastings have always had a passion for creating delicious food. The two met at Holland College in Charlottetown, P.E.I., while attending the culinary arts program. After graduating, they moved to Ottawa, both getting jobs in the kitchen of North & Navy (NoNa), one of Ottawa’s finest restaurants. When the pandemic reduced hours for kitchen staff everywhere, Song and Hastings realized they’d have the chance to work on a project they’d long dreamed of: sharing the flavours of Song’s Northern-Chinese childhood with the diners of Ottawa. With that, Chi Dumpling (pronounced Jī’è, meaning hunger in Mandarin) was born. Operating out of the NoNa kitchen in its downtime, Song and Hastings produce traditional pork dumplings, according to Song’s family recipe. There are other dumpling flavours as well and they change every two weeks. Shrimp & Chinese chive or Kung Pao pork are fan favourites, as well as the rotating vegetarian selection. You’d also be wise to treat yourself to their classic Hong Kong milk tea, a smooth beverage that pairs especially well with dumplings and hot weather. In the future, Song and Hastings would like to add wontons or noodles to their list of offerings, and have face-to-face popups when restrictions loosen. But for now, they’re content with sharing these delicate bites of Song’s childhood with all of us.

Chi Dumpling
@chi_dumpling

Find them at: Jacobson’s, Apothecary Kitchen, Burrow Shop and online through Instagram DM