Food Notes for April 9, 2012

I hope you all had a good Easter full of family and food! Mack and I had a pretty relaxing weekend, but are still trying to get some things finalized, such as the What the Truck?! schedule for the summer and fall (we hope to be more on top of things in the second year of this festival). In the meantime, like us on Facebook! Onto this week’s food notes:

• Jennifer Cockrall-King is doing a talk about her book, Food and the City, at the Queen Mary Park Community Hall at 7:30pm on April 10, 2012.
• Join Dee Hobsbawn-Smith at the Muttart Conservatory on April 26, 2012 for the launch of her new book, Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet. I flipped through the book today, and it looks like a great read and resource!
• Valerie recapped what looked like an amazing “Rge Rd in the city” pop-up dinner at Chai Pani recently.
• Courtenay, of the blog Messy Little Cook, has relocated (temporarily) to Amsterdam! She’s going to share her food adventures abroad – check it out!
• We spotted these adorable(?) vegetable and animal-themed buns at T & T over the weekend. My friend Annie picked them up and said the custard was pretty creamy on the inside – so perhaps worth the novelty factor after all!

Who says you can’t play with your food?

• Coming soon: more Vietnamese food in the core – The Phat Noodle (10347 Jasper Avenue) is moving into the space vacated by Sankyu 2 Go, next to Corso 32.

The Phat Noodle

• Speaking of Corso 32, I neglected to write about our experience two weeks ago, momentous only because it was Mack’s first meal there. Ramps were everywhere on the menu! We especially enjoyed the house made goat ricotta and the grilled cheese topped with egg.

G

oat ricotta

Grilled cheese

• Mack also joined me for lunch at Pho Tau Bay for the first time over the weekend (we actually met Callie from Revive Wellness there, as she wanted to feature us in their “Love to Lunch” blog series; you can read our answers here and here). Tau Bay is my go-to lunch spot when I’m not brown bagging it – it’s quick, consistent, delicious, and means that I can get a nice walk in over the lunch hour as well. Mack slurped up all of the soup and every noodle in his bowl – definitely a good sign!

My usual

Mack’s pho with brisket and steak

Good to the last drop!

• Our unconventional Easter dinner took place at East – I had been itching for a reason to return to the restaurant with my family, and the long weekend was it. The roti and potato curry was as good as I remembered it, and the egg floss-topped butter shrimp and sweet and sour pork belly was a hit with my parents. The Penang char kway teow didn’t have that smoky wok aroma that we were looking for, and we found the glaze on the K.L. BBQ pork on the sweet side for our taste. Still, the service was great that night, and we enjoyed the dinner as a whole.

Roti

Butter shrimp

Sweet and sour pork belly

Penang char kway teow

K.L. BBQ pork

• For a late lunch on the go this afternoon, we stopped in at Remedy downtown to try one of their butter chicken wraps ($8.75). It took over fifteen minutes for our order (we suspect because the kitchen may have dropped the ball), but the wrap itself made up for it. Hot and crispy, the wrap packed in a ton of chicken and the occasional pop of potatoes and peas.

Butter chicken wrap

• On Saturday night, Mack and I headed to the Breakfast Television studios for the first ArtsScene Edmonton event of the year, their Trip the Light party. It was such an unconventional venue, but in many ways, was perfect for such a gathering, with a built-in stage, lighting and sound equipment available. Mack wrote a detailed recap, but I have to say I particularly enjoyed the high energy Mitchmatic. Thanks again to ArtsScene for the invitation!

BT party central!

Mitchmatic in action

Photo booth!