Food Notes for April 15, 2013

I can hardly believe the time for Eat Alberta has already come upon us! It’s going to be a great day on April 20! On to this week’s food notes:

• It’s great that the River Cree dreams up festivals of all sorts to try and entice diners to their relatively isolated locale. First it was tomatoes, now, lemons! The Lemon Festival is taking place on April 25, 2013, serving up a 5-course meal for $60.
• Smokehouse BBQ’s Edmonton location on 124 Street is close to re-opening after a fire shut the restaurant down last November.
• RGE RD’s website is up! The restaurant might still be months away, but you can tempt yourself now!
• Zembaba, a new Ethiopian eatery, was reviewed by Vue Weekly.
• Liv reviewed The Cavern’s sandwiches – I can’t wait to try one of their grilled cheeses, too!
• Twyla posted about Bistro Saisons, and was impressed by their commitment to sourcing ingredients locally.
• The Shutter: 104 Street Grill has been sold. Liane reports that you can expect The Burg, a burger bar, to move into the vacant space in June.
• Linda wrote about Chef Andrew Parker’s interactive Couples Cooking Night – it sounded like a lot of fun!
• It will be cheaper for local restaurants to open up a patio this year, though it sounds like the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission won’t be changing rules to permit serving liquor in patios not connected to an establishment.
• It’s amazing the number of successful restaurant chains that got their start in Edmonton: Earls, Booster Juice, and Boston Pizza, just to name a few. The Journal wrote about some of them, in addition to a few up-and-comers.
• I loved Lillian’s comparisons between her U of A chicken eggs bounty with regular supermarket eggs.
• I’m sorry to hear that the Alberta Avenue Farmers’ Market will not be returning this season. But given the influx of other markets, it isn’t a surprise.
• Montreal has finally opened the gates to food trucks! It may be a pilot only open to existing caterers or restaurant owners, but hopefully, it can grow from there!
• The Globe and Mail had an interesting article about the rise of dining aggression – not from customers, but from chefs directed at customers, including one who tweeted about customers being a “douche”. Too far?
• Golden Orchid will be replaced by a new Vietnamese eatery, Uyen Uong on April 15, 2013.

Uyen Uong

• Just down the street, a new Chinese bakery opened up in Chinatown last Wednesday. Shan Shan Bakery (10552 97 Street, 780-974-7788) has all of the favourites I was looking for in a sparkly, clean space (I appreciated that the tongs and trays were kept in a closed cabinet).

Shan Shan Bakery

• I had no idea there was a Lindt outlet store in South Common (2011 99 Street)! Needless to say, I loaded up on my share of discount chocolate.

Inside the Lindt store

• I returned to Oil Lamp for a work lunch last week. I ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, and though the kitchen was generous with the cheese, it wasn’t nearly as good as the same dish from my beloved Route 99.

Pizza from the Oil Lamp

• After some shopping, May and I headed to Joey’s nearby for lunch on Saturday. The beef dip sandwich itself was tasty, though the accompanying au jus was extremely salty.

Beef dip