Food Notes for May 24, 2010

I’m almost ashamed to admit we slept as much as we did these past few days, but it was clear we needed it – and what better time to rest and relax indoors than a grey and rainy long weekend? On to this week’s food notes:

• Mark your calendar! The second annual Al Fresco 104th Street Block Party is taking place on June 12 this year. Expect two sound stages, a Portuguese BBQ, a crostini bar from Red Star’s Daniel Costa, and a screening of Chocolat – all underneath a canopy of stars! Mack and I went last year, and enjoyed ourselves.
• Looks like Wild Earth Bakery has made the move to the revamped portion of their cafe. Check out Marianne and Cathy’s posts for a peek inside.
• Vue Weekly published a piece on the renovated Parkallen Restaurant this week. It seems as if the owners are trying to woo a younger clientele.
• There’s a new Edmonton food blog on the scene – welcome, Steph of Crisp & Chewy!
• From Valerie: Jeff Sutherland has started an Eating Paleo in Edmonton group, which is a “meetup of like-minded people to help you achieve optimal health by eating real food! Share recipes, tips, advice, support, and inspiration. Maybe most importantly, help each other source real food that is local, ethical, and sustainably produced.”
• Upside-down gardening seems to be all the rage right now – this NYT article is a good primer on the trend.
• On the subject of the upcoming World Cup – a few local bars have applied to open earlier in order to accommodate potential viewers; and deVine’s is hosting a World Cup-themed tasting on June 19.
• Heading to Vancouver soon and needing pointers for good eats? Check out Vancouver Magazine’s 2010 restaurant awards.
• Hellmann’s is providing $100,000 in Real Food Grants to “support initiatives that bring Canadian families and kids together with real food in their community.” Deadline to apply is June 30, 2010.
• I have never seen pancakes as intense as Jim’s. Think I’m kidding? Check out this three-dimensional ferris wheel.
• Some things should never be made vegan, like KFC’s Double Down sandwich, for instance.
• Flavours (10354 82 Avenue) on Whyte is no more – Pour House will be taking its place.

Pour House

• “The legend returns”, or so proclaims the sign outside the former Ivory Club downtown (10304 111 Street), which has been reclaimed and will once again become the sports pub Overtime on July 1, 2010.

Overtime returns

• We stopped by the original Transcend over the weekend to pick up a bag of beans, and was confronted by a line up a dozen people deep. Nice to know the business hasn’t slowed at that location since T2 opened up! We joked around with some patrons behind us that there should have been a “beans only” express line, but no dice.

Love the new vacuum-sealed packaging!

• Mack and I are suckers for novel-flavoured chips, so we couldn’t pass by a display of PC’s Ballpark Hot Dog chips ($2.50) without picking up a bag. From the description on the bag, we were expecting hints of hot dog, mustard and relish, but unfortunately, the chips tasted predominantly like relish, or a variation of dill pickle.

PC Ballpark Hot Dog chips

• One of my coworkers moonlights as a cake decorator at a local bakery. For a potluck at work, she demonstrated her talents with two brilliant desserts – a tiered Coca-Cola can and a giant hamburger. She even had tiny little hamburger cupcakes, made with layers of white cake (the bun), chocolate cake (the patty), and orange, green, red and yellow icing (for cheese, relish, ketchup and mustard). Too cute!

Beautiful cakes