As much as I’m not a fan of rainy days, we really need it to wash away all of the accumulated dirt and sand. So bring on the rain! On to this week’s food notes:
- Voting for Vue Weekly’s annual Golden Fork Awards is now on! You can vote until May 1, 2011 for a chance to win $500 in restaurant gift certificates.
- Cathy posted about the impending closure of the current location of Cally’s Teas on April 30. On the bright side – it isn’t the end of Cally’s, but their new location is yet to be determined.
- See reviewed Pampa this week – though service wasn’t quite up to par, it seems the management did their best to make up for it.
- Vue reviewed Cafe de Ville’s second location: different feel, but equally good.
- If you haven’t yet seen Eat Local First’s new website, check it out! I love that you can easily buy gift certificates online now.
- Sherene continued her series of Q & As with the judges of Top Chef Canada (which started airing today) including head judge Chef Mark McEwan and judge Shereen Arazam.
- Hurrah for street food: Vancouver just approved 19 more food carts.
- Mack snapped a photo of a forthcoming salad bar chain location called The Chopped Leaf in Commerce Place.
The Chopped Leaf
- Kathryn and I were able to pop by Battista’s Calzones for lunch last week before a meeting nearby. I am happy to say the meatball calzone was still every bit as delicious as I remembered.
Mama Mia calzone
- Before our second supper of alley burgers, Amanda, Felicia and I had dinner at Niche (which was reviewed in the Journal this week). It was packed, with many parties turned away, so reservations are a must. The full house didn’t cause service to slip up though (our server was fantastic), and our food arrived promptly. Amanda enjoyed her duck confit, and Felicia the dish of beef cheeks and pasta. I decided to try the braised pork and lentil soup and the bison short ribs. The earthy soup hit the spot, with a hearty texture befitting of a cool, spring evening. The short ribs were good, but in terms of meat satisfaction, I would likely end up ordering the beef cheeks again next time. The three of us shared the salted caramel brownie, and I am happy to say it was much better than the first one I had a few months back. It was warm, with flakes of salt evident underneath the whipped cream. Comfortable but refined, Niche will make a regular out of you!
Confit of Brome Lake duck with mashed potatoes and lemon thyme gravy
Braised Spring Creek Ranch beef cheeks in a wild mushroom cream and egg noodles
Braised pork and lentil soup
Bison short ribs on white cheddar crostini
Salted caramel brownie
With the sisters!
Only Here for the Food 
Great update. Interesting re Niche. Love that they source local. Menu far too small for my limited palate as I cannot eat meat. The soup was good – but that was it for me. Our table ordered one of each of the 4 mains on the menu and all raved about the flavours, but the portion sizes are very small for an Alberta plate. That being said, so many restaurants are too big. We all agreed there was enough meat, but the sides or veggies or potato portions were too small.
But, I don’t eat out much! ( 🙂 )
Valerie
Very nice photo of you and your sisters! Sounds like a lovely time 🙂
Valerie – yeah, vegetarians definitely have a tough go at Niche. Amanda actually said she wished for more potatoes :). Glad you finally got out, as you’ve been wishing for!
Ellen – it was fun. It was Amanda’s last dinner with us for a while!