Do you have your Canada Day plans yet? If not, make sure to check out ShareEdmonton’s list of events in and around the city. You can find me volunteering at the Heritage Chinatown Night Market, running from 4-9pm on 102 Avenue and 95 Street. Regardless of how you spend the occasion, Happy Canada Day! On to this week’s food notes:

• What the Truck?! is coming to Baconfest this Friday, July 4, from 5-10pm with six food trucks outside the Arts Barns, all serving-up bacon-infused dishes (think: bacon lobster mac & cheese, bacon poutine, bacon ice cream and yes, even a bacon milkshake). There’s no admission fee for the Truck Stop – just bring cash for food. See you there!
• World Cup fever has inspired many Brazilian-inspired menus or celebrations, including a four-course meal with beer pairings at Culina, and a special a la carte menu at Pampa.
• It’s been a rough month for 104 Street, with the closure of Lit and the impending closure of Sobeys on July 31, 2014.
• Meat was positively reviewed last week in the Journal.
• Rebecca posted about one of the newer food trucks, Dolce and Banana.
• Avenue has a great feature sharing the favourite eats of 25 prominent Edmontonians, including Mayor Don Iveson. Interestingly enough, the list is dominated by cheap eats.
• Transcend’s Poul Mark is the coffee columnist for CBC. Check out his first coffee column.
• Want to contribute to a cookbook “reflecting the evolution of Edmonton over the past century”? Check out the Edmonton Historical Cookbook project.
• Looking forward to the food at K-Days? Tempt yourself with some of their new items this year, including a 125 pound hot dog (why they don’t have better quality photos for the items is beyond me).
• Jason Foster wrote about the evolution of Big Rock back to its craft beer roots.
• It was announced last week that Lactuca moved to a one acre site at Northlands.
• Robyn attended Slow Food Edmonton’s Tangle Ridge Ranch event this weekend – looks like it was a fun evening full of good food and company!
• We’ve been enjoying the delicious wave of summer fruit these past few weeks. I can’t wait for blueberries!

Raspberries from Steve & Dan’s at the City Market

• Baconfest released their menu last week – from savoury to sweet, bacon lovers will rejoice. The event runs July 4, 2014, and tickets are $75.
• Savour Strathcona County, a celebration of food, is back on July 6, 2014, with nearly 20 restaurants and food trucks participating.
• What are you up to on July 19, 2014? Want to help build up Edmonton’s river valley food forest? Join Dustin Bajer and other Edmontonians who will be planting more than 1,000 food producing native trees and shrubs that day.
• Liane had a piece with more details about El Cortez, the forthcoming tequila bar in Old Strathcona.
• The trend of board game cafes are picking up steam in Edmonton, with The Hex Café moving onto Whyte Avenue.
• Phil’s latest Burger Odyssey post is up, comparing the offerings of Select and Cha Island Tea.
• Liv visited Meat for Dinner.
• Val posted a beautiful review of a recent meal by Chef Shane Chartrand celebrating Aboriginal cuisine at Sage. Their summer signature series is now over (their promotions never seem to run more than a week), but hopefully they bring it back again!
• Congratulations to the organizers of Porkapalooza, who reported that 25,000 people visited the three day festival. It will be back again next year.
• Learn more about Riverbend Garden’s CSA in Vue Weekly.
• Elaine Wilson, who many will know from her cooking classes and stall at local farmers’ markets, will close the current chapter of her life in favour of new beginnings. We’ll miss her in the hands-on role she’s played in Edmonton’s food scene over the years, but I’m sure she will still be out and about!
• Finally, another one of the vacant storefronts in Chinatown on 97 Street and 106 Avenue will be populated again – this time with a Korean restaurant, Lee House.

Lee House

• Our What the Truck?! team had a planning meeting at Packrat Louie earlier in the week. All of us ordered pizzas. Mine was all right, a combination of buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, spinach, mushroom and egg. I just didn’t expect that the egg would be hard boiled, or cold.

Prosciutto pizza at Packrat Louie

• Mack and I celebrated my birthday early on #yeglongday, taking advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather with a late dinner out on the patio at Tavern 1903. I’m happy to see they’ve eliminated the $1 charge on Q Water, and yes, their truffle mac ‘n’ cheese is still just as delicious as I remembered.

Mack @ Tavern 1903

Truffle mac ‘n’ cheese and KFC (Korean Fried Cauliflower)

Short ribs and parmesan frites

• We had my family over for dinner yesterday. Among the dishes were a simple but satisfying modified caprese salad, substituting asparagus for the basil.

Caprese salad with Gull Valley tomatoes and Edgar Farms asparagus (just one more week for local asparagus!)

• Kinnickinnick is hosting a gluten-free BBQ on June 21, 2014, with proceeds benefiting the Edmonton Food Bank.
• The 124 Grand Market has partnered with Taste Alberta to host a farm to fork culinary tour on July 13, 2014. Tickets are $55, and besides the tour, will include a family-style lunch by Brayden Kozak of Three Boars and Mike Scorgie of Woodwork.
• NAIT released their summer schedule of culinary boot camps, with the addition of a new course called “For the Love of Chocolate Boot Camp”.
• I can’t think this far ahead, but a new festival was announced today called Dig In, St. Albert’s Horticulture Festival. It runs October 10-11, 2014, and will feature hands-on workshops, sampling, demonstrations, and a kick-off gala.
• Liane has the details on Rostizado, the hotly anticipated new eatery from the boys behind Tres Carnales. It sounds like a series of unique “mini eateries”, the likes of which Edmonton hasn’t seen before.
• The Taste of Edmonton celebrates their 30th anniversary this year. They have expanded their Sip ‘n’ Savour workshop side of the event, growing it even outside of Edmonton’s bounds. They’ve also released their menu, which this year will feature items from twelve food trucks. Discounted sample tickets are already on sale. This year’s festival runs July 17-26, 2014.
• El Cortez Tequila Bar? Count me intrigued. It is set to open some time this summer at 8230 Gateway Boulevard.
• Cindy has one of the first Indulgence recaps up!
• It looks like Andrea was far from impressed by the food at Teapsy Café.
• Julio’s Barrio opened up their new extended patio last week. While the restaurant itself may not be my favourite, I applaud having more life on the sidewalks.
• On Saturday, Mack, Thom and I ventured to Giovanni Caboto Park. The Italian Centre was celebrating their 55th birthday, so we made sure to indulge in some free cake. The main event was the outdoor screening of the England vs. Italy World Cup match. Though the screen resolution wasn’t great, it was an opportunity to watch the game amongst passionate fans in a unique venue.

Happy birthday, Italian Centre!

World Cup in the park

• I have to say my impressions of Red Deer have been grounded in my visits to Gasoline Alley. On our way back from Innisfail on Sunday, however, Mack and I made sure to finally go through downtown Red Deer, and finally visit Dose Coffee, which we had read about some time ago. It’s a lovely space, and could easily be mistaken for a shop on 104 Street or 124 Street in Edmonton. It didn’t hurt that the lattes were delicious, too!

Dose Coffee

We’re coming up on our second What the Truck?! event this summer, taking place on Friday, June 13, 2014 from 5-9pm at Old Strathcona. Expect 15 trucks, from six new vendors to old favourites. Menus will be posted in a day or two – hope to see you there! On to this week’s food notes:

• Shovel & Fork is teaching a class on container gardening on June 14, 2014. The class will be taking place at the Bissell Centre, and proceeds collected will go towards helping the Centre establish their own rooftop garden. Tickets are $70.
• A reminder about Hawkers Market on June 14, 2014 from 6-11:30pm at the Mercer Warehouse.
• Dishcrawl is back! Their first event after the hiatus is taking place on 124 Street on July 15, 2014. Tickets are $60 and will grant you three meals at three restaurants.
• Congrats to Confetti Sweets whose storefront in Sherwood Park is now open.
• Looking for Sailin’ On’s massively addictive coconut bacon? It’s now stocked at the Italian Centre!
• It’s finally official: Earth’s General Store is moving to 104 Street, taking over the storefront formerly occupied by Pangea.
• I was surprised to hear about Chef Nathin Bye’s move to Murietta’s. I wish him all the best in his new endeavours!
• Phil’s latest Burger Odyssey post pits Delux against Local. Who comes out on top?
• Vue Weekly offers some background on the concept of Bar Bricco.
• The Journal had a great piece on Edmonton ex-pat Leanne Brown’s Good and Cheap cookbook, which helps people maximize their food dollar.
• Chef, a fictional film about the rise of a food truck, opened last week to positive reviews. I hope to check it out soon!
• Say it ain’t so: Top Chef Canada has been cancelled after four seasons. I know there will be other TV outlets for Canadian chefs to be highlighted (Chopped, Masterchef), but I think Top Chef had a tangible impact on raising the profile of the young talent who participated, and allowed Canadians to look inward, instead of only ever appreciating chefs south of the border.
• I’ve now stepped down from the board of the Downtown Edmonton Community League, but it was nice to finish off my term with the annual pancake breakfast. It was a little chilly, yes, but the sun made it a pleasant morning. Thanks to those who came out!

Pancake picnic in the street

Sarah and Milap were pancake flipping pros!

• All my Mum wanted for her birthday was tacos from Tres Carnales – we made sure she also had a side of celebratory sangria. Delicious!

Dinner at Tres Carnales

I hope you enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous weekend! It was easy to forget the rain that preceded it, but did it ever make a difference – it helped flip the switch to green. On to this week’s food notes:

• The JLS Night Market has rebranded as Night Market Edmonton and returns this summer in a new location: Beaver Hills House Park (Jasper Avenue & 105 Street). The market will operate every Friday night from June 6 to August 29, 2014 from 7-11pm.
• Though I haven’t heard the term “Super Saturday” used this year, Downtown will be one rockin’ place this Saturday with the Pride Parade coming through. But before then, start your day off at the Downtown Edmonton Community League Pancake Breakfast, taking place from 8:30-11am at our new league space (10042 103 Street). Alternatively, Oliver is also hosting a breakfast by Duchess Baker that same morning, a kick-off to their annual Oliver Community Festival.
• A reminder that the Red Shoe Crawl is taking place in Old Strathcona on June 8, 2014! They updated the list of businesses you can expect to visit, amounting to nearly two dozen. Tickets are still available.
• The Italian Centre is celebrating their 55th birthday with a party on June 14, 2014 at their Little Italy shop (10878 95 Street). I’m looking forward to the outdoor screening of the Italy vs. England World Cup match. Should be a good time!
• Also June 14, 2014 is the next Hawker’s Market at the Mercer Warehouse.
• Porkapalooza released more details about their first annual festival, running June 13-15, 2014 in Hawrelak Park.
• Tickets to Baconfest, taking place on July 4, 2014 at the Arts Barns, will go on sale June 4, 2014. Although tickets are necessary for the indoor component, there will be lots of free/no admission activities outside as well!
• Fort Edmonton Park has a cool new feature where you can pick up a pre-packaged lunch basket from the Johnson Café at the Hotel Selkirk – perfect to take and picnic on the grounds outdoors.
• The big news this week was the announcement that after a decade, the Wild Tangerine will be closing at the end of June.
• Transcend will be anchoring the new Mother’s Market (revised opening date: June 20, 2014) with an in-house café.
• Robyn had the chance to check out Popbar’s first Canadian location at West Edmonton Mall.
• An interesting piece in the New York Times about food truck associations south of the border.
• It looks like Tutti Frutti will have Menchie’s bookending it on (and just off) Whyte. Another Menchie’s is moving into the Marble Slab vacancy.

Menchie’s

• Mack and I spent the weekend participating in the third annual Good Hundred Experiment, a gathering of about one hundred people, all involved in projects that somehow better the community. The crowd was diverse, and endeavours ranged from environmental to political to artistic. It was a learning opportunity to hear about some of the wonderful things going on in the city, and to network with people I’d never met before. Kudos to Nadine and Tad for their wonderful facilitation and planning skills – getting strangers to feel comfortable with one another is not an easy task, but I feel that they more than accomplished that by getting conversations to flow and connections made. Bravo!

Good Hundred

• I had been craving pho all through our Toronto trip, but was not able to satisfy that craving. So of course, I made a beeline for Pho Tau Bay not long after returning home.

My usual

• It’s been too long since our last visit to El Rancho – the Amigos Platter hit the spot!

Three of my favourite things (but don’t worry, I shared them with Mack)

• Our What the Truck?! team met up at The Next Act tonight to plan our event coming up on June 13, 2014. It was my first halibut sandwich of the year, but I’m sure – not my last.

Cornmeal-crusted halibut sandwich at The Next Act

Mack, Amanda and I had a great time in Toronto. I was happy I could be a part of Janice and Bennett’s special day – it was a beautiful ceremony and a rockin’ reception! And though Mack jokes that he will now need a vacation after his “vacation”, it was great (as always) to explore Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods. On to this week’s food notes:

• Elm Café’s next pop-up is another Austrian Sausage Stand on May 30 and 31. As always, the menu is extremely value-oriented, at 3 courses for $35: pancake soup made with smoked pork broth; a choice of sausage: Käsekrainer (cheese-filled sausage), Leberkäse (Austrian meatloaf), or Debreziner (spicy paprika sausage); and rhubarb strudel.Make sure to call ahead.
• The next Art Gallery of Alberta Supper Club is taking place on June 1, 2014. Tickets are $150.
• Do you have your tickets for the Mercer Summer Super Party yet? In addition to art displays and an On the Spot Pop Up Market, expect a Hawkers Market offshoot with food trucks! It all goes down on June 6, from 5pm – midnight at the Mercer Warehouse.
• The Edmonton Craft Beer Festival is coming up, June 6 and 7, 2014 at the Expo Centre.
• Next Act’s sister restaurant MEAT is now open! Vue Weekly has a great preview of the restaurant, and Cindy has already stopped by.
• A restaurant in Calgary made the news a few weeks ago after offering a family a “well behaved kids” discount on their meal. What do you think?
• Mack sent me a link to a piece about the history of ramen.
• I’m so happy that the City Market is back outdoors – every Saturday from 9am-3pm on 104 Street north of Jasper Avenue. We were out of town last week so missed the opening week, but I made it out early on Saturday and made sure to snag a few bundles of Edgar Farms asparagus and some tomato plants from Sundog Organics.

Edgar Farms asparagus

• Though I shouldn’t be too hard on a first-time event, I think Host Edmonton has a lot of work to do if they decide to repeat the conference in the future. It wasn’t clear who the primary audience was intended to be – industry professionals? Home cooks? Foodies? I was given the complimentary opportunity to attend two sessions on Saturday morning, and though it was only a taste of the range of sessions, the direction wasn’t clear. My favourite of the two was Chef Christine Cushing’s demonstration. Engaging and clearly passionate about food, I couldn’t think of a better speaker to present on stage early in the morning. That said, I found value in it primarily as a home cook – if I was an “industry professional”, I’m not sure it would have suited my needs. In that sense, Bal Arneson’s keynote was likely meant as an inspirational talk – and there’s no doubt her story (transitioning from a small village in India to a Food Network Star) is quite the tale. But I didn’t receive her casual name-dropping as well as others, and would imagine that her storytelling, interwoven through food, would have been more powerful.

Christine Cushing (an overhead mirror would have been helpful)

Roasted eggplant spread with flat bread and bergamot orange blossom panna cotta

I hope you’ve all saved the date for our first What the Truck?! of the season! It’s taking place on our home turf (104 Street) on May 24, 2014, from 5-9pm. We’ll be releasing the list of trucks participating tomorrow. Hope to see you there! On to this week’s food notes:

• Gail Hall will be hosting two farm tours this summer. The first is around the Kitscoty area, July 19-20, 2014, and will feature visits to The Cheesiry, Ribstone Brewery, buffalo ranch and a honey farm.
• The Valley Zoo’s special farmers’ markets last year have turned into a regular event – running June 17 – September 19, 12-6pm.
• Popbar opened its first Canadian location of the international chain at West Edmonton Mall on the weekend. It offers gelato bars in a variety of flavors.
• Congratulations to the winners of the second annual Yeggies, awarded at the Avenue Theatre on Friday. In particular, kudos to Valerie of A Canadian Foodie for winning Best in Food, and to Phil (@Baconhound) for winning Best Twitter Persona.
• Speaking of awards, I realize I forgot to link to Vue Weekly’s 2014 Golden Fork Awards.
• Andrea reviewed Hart’s Table last week – it sounds like the menu has undergone quite a bit of change since the restaurant opened.
• Duchess has a blog! Check it out for some behind-the-scenes photos of their cookbook photoshoot.
• Great to see Reclaim Urban Farm and Lactuca featured in the Edmonton Journal.
• Eater took a tour of a sriracha factory in California.
• For Mother’s Day, my family had dinner at Café Amore. It was a first for the rest of my family, and as expected, they were all defeated by the massive portion sizes. As usual, their hospitality was great.

Truffle chicken

• For dessert, I tried The Guardian’s recipe for tiramisu, which involved an extra step of separating the egg yolks from the whites and beating them separately for volume. I do think it resulted in a lighter cake that seemed much less dense than my previous tiramisu trials. Even my Dad, who isn’t much for sweets, had seconds.

Tiramisu

Oh, Raptors. Those last six second were heartbreaking, but it sure was a wild ride. Selfishly, I was hoping to partake in Jurassic Park myself when in Toronto next week, but here’s to the possibility next year! On to this week’s food notes:

• Outdoor farmers’ markets are back! Salisbury was the first on May 1, then Callingwood on May 4, and this coming weekend, the French Quarter on May 11. The City Market returns to 104 Street on May 17.
• The next Tomato Test Kitchen with Brad Smoliak takes place on May 8, 2014, and focuses on the art of grilling.
• Food trucks are popping up all over! Make sure to keep up to date with the Street Food App, but also check out Eva’s post about one of the newest, Perogy Princess.
• Speaking of food trucks, Liane has some details about Pampa’s forthcoming mobile offering as well, which will feature the same charcoal-grilled meat you know and love.
• Host Edmonton, a hospitality conference taking place May 22-24, is looking for volunteers.
• The Calgary Stampede released their 2014 food line-up last week. I wonder if the scorpion pizzas will also be making their way to K-Days?
• Mack and I attended the Iconoclast Koffeehuis (11807 105 Avenue) opening on Saturday. The event seemed to showcase the space itself as a venue rather than the coffee, but it was a good opportunity for us to get acquainted with the place. While it is walkable, it’s not exactly convenient, so I’m not sure how often we will be frequenting Iconoclast. But at the very least, it seems to be a good addition to the city’s coffee scene! Cindy has much better photos of the evening here.

Iconoclast Koffehuis grand opening

• I had a very good food week, starting with this beautiful charcuterie board at Hundred.

Charcuterie board (I had to steal Linda’s photo)

• Mack and I ended up at Three Boars on the weekend. It’s been too long since our last visit, so we plowed through several new-to-us menu items. Our favourite were the lamb neck croquettes, served over a delicious bed of curried lentils.

Lamb neck croquettes

• It’s been some time since dining at Quan Pho, but at a lunch meeting today, I found their vermicelli bowl to be much superior to the pho I tried during my previous visit. The grilled pork was particularly tasty.

Grilled pork and spring roll vermicelli

• It was a cold one this weekend, but we layered up and helped the Downtown Edmonton Community League pick up some trash in the neighbourhood.

Mack with his favourite new toy

It was a pretty food-full weekend, with our fourth Eat Alberta taking place on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who took part; I hope to write a full recap soon. On to this week’s food notes:

• The oldest greenhouse in the Edmonton area, Wallish Greenhouses in Strathcona County, is throwing a party on May 3, 2014 their 95th anniversary.
• Toast Catering in the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market is hosting a 3-course Mother’s Day brunch at the Market, with two seatings at 10:30am and 1:30pm. Tickets are $65.
• Phil has another YEG Burger Odyssey post up, this time pitting the burgers of a Fort Saskatchewan diner against that of Rockin’ Robyn.
• There’s a great piece about the Century Hospitality Group in this month’s TechLife magazine.
• Vue Weekly explores the rationale behind restaurant wine prices.
• Is it true? Calgary is envious of Edmonton for a change? This Calgary journalist wonders why there are no weekend farmers’ markets in downtown Calgary, when Edmonton will have not one, but two this summer.
• The Eat Alberta committee met up at The Manor for a post-event supper. They were able to accommodate us in a private room on a second floor, so we were able to meet (and eat) to our heart’s content. I also quite enjoyed the schnitzel that I ordered.

Schnitzel from The Manor

• Mack and I took in the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts tonight. It was one of the best I’ve seen yet – a tight set, and some wonderful performers. Though I will always have a soft spot for Sugar Swing, Ariane Mahryke Lemire took my breath away, even though I couldn’t understand the words to her French song. We ended the night with some tastes from Elm Café – I devoured the vegetarian crostini!

Ariane Mahryke Lemire (loved the animated Jason Blower backdrop, too!)

Tastes from Elm Cafe

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! On to this week’s food notes:

• It’s your last chance to nominate your favourites for Vue Weekly’s annual Golden Fork Awards. Fill out your ballot online before April 28, 2014.
• Mark you calendars – Indulgence will start selling tickets this year on May 1, 2014.
• Barbecue lovers, rejoice: Porkapalooza will take place June 13-15, 2014 in Hawrelak Park, and will offer demonstrations, barbecue competitions, and of course, lots of food.
• The big news this week was the forthcoming launch of a second farmers’ market downtown in the building that formerly housed Mother’s Music (10251 109 Street). They are hoping to launch mid-May, right around the time the City Market returns to 104 Street. Based on the CTV story, it doesn’t sound like the organizer of Mother’s Market will be focusing on locally-sourced products, but I’ll wait and see.
• Farrow (8422 109 Street), Three Boars’ new sandwich joint, opened on April 16, 2014.
• The Act Out & About won’t be hitting the streets this summer, unfortunately, with The owners of The Next Act focusing on their new restaurant, MEAT, to open this spring. That said, their truck won’t be sitting idle, as Big City Sandwich will be taking it over this season.
• Vue Weekly reviews the new Three Amigos location downtown.
• Twyla posts one of the first reviews of Hart’s Table, the newest of the Century Hospitality restaurants.
• Speaking of Twyla, she had a terrible experience at Craft Beer Market, and unfortunately, the higher ups have failed to rectify it.
• Phil’s latest Burger Odyssey post is up, pitting The Burger Joint up against Rodeo Burger.
• Curious who will be participating in this year’s Gold Medal Chefs battle in October? Liane has the news.
• Valerie’s newest Canadian Food Experience round-up highlights local food heroes across Canada.
• There was an interesting piece in Grub Street last week, asking the question – why aren’t more restaurant critics women?
• I finally caught Three Chocolate at the City Market this Saturday (Edmonton’s coming up chocolate it seems, with Pinto Chocolates also being a fairly recent addition to the scene, and news of Jacek Chocolate Couture’s expansion with a second storefront). Three sources all of their cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic, and their name is derived from the number of ingredients in their dark chocolate – cocoa nibs, cocoa butter and sugar. They will be vending the next two weekends at the City Market, but will not be transitioning to the outdoor location.

Three Chocolate

• After a successful trip to a bridal salon in Sherwood Park where my sisters finally agreed on a bridesmaids dress, we headed to the nearby Sumo Sumo for sustenance. It was relatively busy for a Wednesday evening, but if there was anything to be said about our meal, it was that portion sizes were very generous. The udon soup I ordered was just $13, but it really could have fed two people.

Tempura udon from Sumo Sumo Sushi

• Mack, Thom and I had a pre-Rush game dinner at The Common over the weekend. Though we enjoyed our initial visit when it first opened, the kitchen has been inconsistent since then. The umami burger I ordered this time was disappointing – both the patty and focaccia bread it was served on were quite dry.  

The umami burger from The Common

• At District Coffee Co. today, Mack and I noticed bottles of Upson’s Classic Cordials for sale. We didn’t know such a product was being made in Edmonton! The fruit drink concentrate is meant to be mixed with sparkling water or spirits for drinks, making it something to consider especially now as the weather warms up.

Upson’s Classic Cordials