Being the glutton that I am, one of the that things I love about Ottawa is all the food festivals…read more I'm only there once a month, but I've already been to a few in the past year.
When a friend was in town visiting my wife, we were looking for some food while doing a mix of tourist-y stuff and less interesting errands that I was running while in possession of a car. Always on the look out for trying new food trucks as I am, I gave the Street Food App a look, and saw that a couple were located in front of city hall. Knowing that this is where a lot of events occur, I delved a little further and found out that there was a mac and cheese food fest going on. This was going to happen.
The mac and cheese fest wasn't to the scale of poutine fest(s) or others that have been held in the same space. Maybe it was because it was just the mid-afternoon, but there was just a handful of slingers of cheese-y decadence, a couple dessert ones, and a lone leomade vendor to sate your thirst. The beergarden was empty, save one couple whose motto was likely "it's five o'clock somewhere" and the band soldiering on despite sound issues and the lack of an audience.
However, when you're there for a simple meal and not to engage in a full out day of pasta gorging, you don't need that much selection. I picked out Smoke n' Steam, a rustic-looking hut on top of a trailer, as they had several types of mac and cheese to choose from, and at a more respectable price point than some of their competitors. Among their options there was chunky bacon, shrimp, hotdog (for the young and young at heart), and what I ended up going with, the Reuben. There wasn't much of a line up, so we quickly had our orders in and then in hand, taking seat in the nearby colourful Muskoka chairs.
The container was generously filled with big hunks of smoked meat, sauerkraut, and pasta in a white cheese sauce that was presumably Swiss, in true Reuben fashion. It was the type of mac and cheese that called out to be mixed altogether, mostly since I'm not enough of a sauerkraut fan to want mouthfuls of just that. Everything came together quite nicely, as the sauerkraut cut through the richness of the cheese and smokey, tender meat, but wasn't too funky. The pasta itself was a tight spiral similar to gemelli, and was a nice al dente, which was pleasant to find, since pasta served at big events like this can often be over cooked from sitting in a heating tray.
I got an order of their smoked meat mac and cheese to take home to my studious wife, and look forward to trying Smoke n' Steam's regular menu of smoked meat goodness in the future.
