Food Notes for November 28, 2016

Mack finally relented to decking the halls this weekend, so it finally feels like Christmas at our house. Hard to believe Christmas is less than a month away! On to this week’s food notes:

• 104 Street’s annual Customer Appreciation Day is taking place on December 1, 2016, with most businesses participating with deals or in-store treats.
• Canova (rebranded from DeFazio Gourmet), is celebrating its fourth anniversary from December 1-4, 2016, with 15% off their panettone, biscotti and pastries. Do yourself a favour and pick up some vanilla cornettis!
• I’m all for pop-up markets – Prairie Pigeon’s éclairs will be available at a pop-up market in Abbey Glen Park (Jasper Avenue & 102 Street) on December 3, from 11am-3pm.
• I remember when Downtown couldn’t seem to sustain one bubble tea cafe, and this year, we have 3 within a 5-block radius: Gong Cha’s location in the Ultima Tower (10236 103 Street) is now open.
• Grain of Rice, a new Asian restaurant located at 1312 Webber Greens Drive, just opened up on the weekend.
• Some locations just seem to be a revolving door of businesses, and it’s hard to say what will make it stick: Alibi Pub has opened up shop at 17328 Stony Plain Road.
• Northern Chicken garnered two reviews on both ends of the spectrum from Cindy and Jonny.
• Linda tried the food at Alberta’s first Popeye’s.
• CTV joined in on the fried chicken fray with a quick sampling of Northern Chicken, Popeye’s, and Seoul Fried Chicken.
• Jonny checked out Calle Mexico’s expanded storefront location.
• Vue Weekly reviewed Latino’s Restaurant, recently installed in McCauley at 10708 98 Street.
• Chris and Linda shared their experience at Halo Bar and Bistro, located at the Renaissance Hotel at the Edmonton International Airport.
• Twyla has compiled a list of 5 restaurants you should try right now.
• Chef Lindsay Porter will be moving to Woodwork in early December.
• This year’s recipients of Edmonton’s Best Bar None awards were recognized last week. Congrats to the winners and the newly-accredited bars!
• Food for thought: until Iconoclast’s series on packaging in the coffee business, I never really considered the type of material that goes into packaging good quality coffee beans.
• Mack and I shop at the Italian Centre on a weekly basis, so it’s great to hear they’ve partnered with grocery delivery company SPUD so their products can reach even more people.
• Great to hear about Calgary-based Uncommon Cider, “Alberta’s first quality driven, small batch urban cidery”.
• I can never have enough soup, so while in the area on Sunday, we stopped by Ninja Club to warm up.

Tonkotsu ramen at Ninja Club