Food Notes for October 12, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Mack and I were treated to a wonderful dinner at Kim and Shane’s house last night – somehow, turkey just tastes better when it’s cold out, doesn’t it? Anyway, I hope you all had a great holiday weekend as well!

  • Though the City Centre Market just celebrated its last weekend, some of the vendors will be taking part in the Olde Time Fair on the Square on October 17, along with traditional carnival games, horse and wagon rides and roving entertainment.
  • Also this weekend is the North of Nowhere Expo, which, among other social justice themes, will be examining food security. On their October 16 opening night, which happens to fall on World Food Day, head to the Stanley Milner Library for two food-themed films, a complimentary buffet and a food security and organic trade fair. More information here.
  • See Magazine had a great piece about local farms, and whether or not they would be able to feed the city. Definitely worth a read.
  • The Green & Gold Garden (which I visited back in August) was a success! The project raised over $16,000 for Tubahumurize, a non-profit organization that helps support marginalized women in Rwanda. Check the website for their plans for 2010.
  • I was sad to have missed the Slow Food Edmonton backyard apple pie party – Liane’s writeup made it look like a lot of fun.
  • I was happy to see Paula’s review of the new restaurant Urban China (in the retooled Rosie’s, 10604 101 Street) on Yelp. From the looks of it, I may want to take my parents there for dim sum some time.
  • If you’re curious about which restaurants in the city serve gluten-free dishes, check out this article in Avenue Magazine’s October issue.
  • This is neat – Canon gave 13 celebrity chefs cameras and asked them to create images around the theme of “food for thought” over a 6 month period, and as a result would donate $25,000 to Food Banks Canada. Chefs that participated included Michael Smith, Anthony Sedlak and Susur Lee.
  • Speaking of Susur Lee, Eater NY has placed Shang, what was supposed to be Lee’s divine introduction to the Manhattan hoards, on deathwatch.
  • What will Ruth Reichl do after Gourmet? Well, write a book of course.
  • The online food love the Duchess Bake Shop has been shown is unprecedented – since it opened on October 2, there have been no less than six blog posts about it: Eat My Words, Crazy White Girl with a Kitchen, Brulee Blog, Foodie Suz, Cream and Sugar and well, my own. I am happy to see a local small business get so much press, but who knew macarons could get the city’s bloggers into a tizzy? Anyway, my sister requested a banana cream pie for dessert at our family’s hot pot dinner, so I obliged, and put a pie on hold the day prior. Good thing I did – when we arrived at Duchess on Saturday afternoon, the dessert case was absolutely cleared. We asked for our triumphant hold, and brought the vanilla-bean flecked whipped cream wonder home. The pie received a mixed review though – Mack and I loved the velvety custard and my Mum commented that the sweetness was just right, but Amanda said she wished the crust had been baked a touch further, and my Dad said still preferred his pie from Bee Bell Bakery. So as with most things – you’ll just have to try one and make up your own mind.

Banana Cream Pie from Duchess ($18)

Solo Lunch: Holt’s Cafe

Sometimes I am forced to be timely with my restaurant reviews, particularly when new establishments open up. Other times, my good intentions never pan out, and reviews are pushed back in favour of different posts. My recap of a solo weekday lunch at Holt’s Café falls into this latter category.

In late summer, when the weather was more reasonable than it is now, my first choice of lunch at Fo Guang Tea House was dashed with the temple’s closure for a special event. I thought about my nearby options, and settled on Holt’s Cafe inside Holt Renfrew, which like Fo Guang, is essentially only open for lunch. I had been there once before several years ago, and though I found the meal satisfactory, haven’t been able to return because of their limited operating hours.

So book in hand, I settled down at my table and watched as the downtown lunch crowd trickled in after me. I should note that the waitress was particularly great – she was warm, and made conversation without ever overstepping her boundaries (for example, she saw that I was reading My Life in France and asked if I had seen the movie). At the end of my meal, when I requested more water, she brought me a  pretty wine glass filled with ice water – a nice touch.

The menu had changed since my last visit, featuring some more upscale fare (and changed again in October). Though the vegetable fritters sounded like an interesting appetizer, my waitress steered me away from them, stating that they were dry. So instead, I chose the truffle potato chips ($6). For my main, the spring pea and lemon risotto with mascarpone and shiitake mushrooms ($15) sounded like the comforting dish I was looking for.

The truffle potato chips were merely fried potato crisps drenched in oil and sprinkled with salt. Unfortunately, the simplicity didn’t mean perfect execution, and it was overdressed in every way – the potato was barely discernable underneath it all.

Truffle Potato Chips

Thankfully, the risotto fared much better. The rice was creamy, accented nicely by the mascarpone with additional texture from the crisp peas and silky mushrooms.

Lemon Risotto with Mascarpone and Shiitake Mushrooms

If you’re looking for a restaurant in the heart of downtown for a solo lunch, or for a quiet place to catch up with a friend, Holt’s Cafe is worth a try.

Holt’s Cafe (inside Holt Renfrew)
10180-101st Street NW
(780) 425-5300

Friday Night Football: BC Lions vs. Edmonton Eskimos

When I told my family I had complimentary tickets to the football game on Friday, they laughed – they wouldn’t subject themselves to inclement weather even if provided with the opportunity free of charge. At half time, I started to agree with them.

Mack and I “bundled up” (in quotation marks because we did not have the a) winter boots, b) blanket, or c) long underwear that those sitting around us clearly did) and headed to Commonwealth Stadium after work on Friday to watch the Eskimos play against the BC Lions. I am not a football fan, but I haven’t been to a game in several years, so we went.

Before the start of the game, when we could still feel our extremities

The snow that fell just before the opening kickoff soon relented, but the wind did not, constantly reminding us about our mistake of under-dressing for the game.

Esks’ introductions

A flurried opening kickoff

At the end of the first quarter, we ducked into a heated concession area for a hot chocolate and a strange cheese-stuffed pretzel (enduring the cold translated into free reign when it came to greasy food, at least in my mind). The “mozzarella” had a consistency in between liquid and solid, and wasn’t all that pleasant to eat.

Mack with the pretzel

Half time meant hot dogs, and we made sure to take our time warming up. Though it was only around –10 with the wind chill, it felt much colder, sitting stationary and at mercy to the wind.

Other cold fans get warm at half-time

As for the football? The Eskimos trailed for most of the night, but with a minute left in the fourth quarter, managed to score a touchdown which vaulted them 31 to BC’s 27. If the Eskimos won, we figured the cold would have been worth it.

De-fence!

With 22 seconds left however, the Lions managed to deflate the whole of Commonwealth Stadium, with a touchdown that won them the game, 34-31.

Will the Eskimos make the playoffs? You’ll have to stay tuned. As for whether we’ll be back to another game soon – maybe, but a toque will definitely not be required at that time.

Mmm Pumpkin Pie: Fife n’ Dekel

This guest post was written by Mack, an Edmonton-based geek who fancies himself a part-time foodie. You can find him online at his blog, and on Twitter.

Like Sharon, fall is my favorite time of year. I love the brisk weather, the colorful leaves, and yes, seasonal treats! Perhaps my favorite is pumpkin pie. While driving in the west end this past weekend, Sharon and I stopped at Fife n’ Dekel to pickup a slice for me ($3.49). Sharon doesn’t like pumpkin pie, if you can believe it!

Pumpkin Pie

I opted to forego the whipped cream. I found the pie very tasty with great texture! Great pumpkin flavor. The crust was just right – not too soft, not too crunchy.

Pumpkin Pie

I had never been to Fife n’ Dekel before, but based on the pumpkin pie, I’ll be back!

Fife n’ Dekel
10646 170 Street (2 other locations)
(780) 489-6436
Monday-Friday 7am-4:30pm, Saturday 10:30am-3:00pm

The Cooking Chronicles: Harvest Corn Chowder

I’m still in shock of how fast winter descended upon the city, with the trees, yellow leaves still attached, frozen in a sad reminder of fall.

Anyway, the dip in temperature means it is officially soup weather, so I made a harvest corn chowder based on a recipe I clipped from the Edmonton Journal a few weeks ago. Because we are still swimming in potatoes from the Great Potato Giveaway, I substituted them for the sweet potato called for in the recipe.

While it was tasty, and not too heavy, owing to the fact that the majority of the liquid is chicken stock and not cream, it seemed there was something lacking in the soup. Perhaps the sweet potato was indeed the missing link?

Harvest Corn Chowder

Volunteering for Homeless Connect 3

The third Homeless Connect took place this past Sunday, and Mack and I were there along with about three hundred other volunteers to lend a hand.

At the volunteer orientation

If you are not aware, Homeless Connect is an event organized by Homeward Trust. Homeward Trust coordinates one day in the spring and one in the fall where numerous organizations gather at the Shaw Conference Centre to provide free services and information. In an effort to provide a “one stop shop” of services for underprivileged individuals, this time around, over 60 groups offered everything from haircuts, dental care, immunizations, clothes, reading glasses, and of course, a hot meal.

At the last Homeless Connect in May, we were blurry eyed after just returning from a weeklong vacation in DC the night before, so I am happy to report that we were better adjusted for the daylong shift this time around. It also helped that this incarnation seemed more organized: the large group orientation started relatively on time; the team orientation was conducted in an enclosed space with a microphone (instead of yelling in the auditory vacuum of the hall); and volunteers had an opportunity to ask questions. Both Mack and I ended up on the registration team (the same position I held last time, but different for Mack), and would be one of the first contacts guests would have as they entered the hall. Our team leads went through the registration form with us, and as a result, I actually felt prepared for the task at hand.

Readying for the doors to open

The day started briskly; people had started to line up an hour or two before the doors opened at 10am. The voluntary registration form we had to administer did not collect names, but did ask details about the person’s current living situation. The big change from the previous form was the extremely tedious list of agencies that clients had to either acknowledge that they were aware of, or had used. While I understand that the answers would be extremely valuable for the agencies in understanding whether or not they are connecting with their target population, it was a cumbersome inventory to get through with some guests. Also new this year was a wristband guests received to indicate that they had completed the registration process, meaning they could bypass the registration area if they had to step outside the hall for whatever reason. Such a small detail, but much appreciated and thought-through.

Our registration table

As this was my second round as a registration volunteer, I was once again struck by how the face of homelessness is not a middle-aged male. There were numerous families with young children, and more than a few guests that were my age. It reminded me to take nothing for granted – many of them, I am sure, could have been on the other side of the desk next to me if not for certain circumstances.

Each guest received a bag with personal care items

In the volunteer rest area, I met a fellow volunteer who said that a year before, he was one of the guests, strung out and in dire need of addictions counselling. It was at the November 2008 Homeless Connect that he was introduced to a program that would change his life – he will be celebrating his one year anniversary of sobriety in just over a month. He was at the event as a client wanting to give back, hoping that his own story might convince others to take the path he did.

The final count of guests was somewhere around 1100 – less than half of what the organizers had prepared for. Somehow, I had thought that the colder weather might have encouraged more people to attend the event, but there are so many factors that influence turnout that it’s hard to pinpoint just one.

Regardless, Homeless Connect is a great event – bravo to Homeward Trust, Shaw Conference Centre and the service providers for another successful day.

You can read Mack’s post about the day here. Alex Abboud’s post about volunteering is also worth a read.

Edmonton’s Newest Bakery: Duchess Bake Shop

Life is all about the little things. Watching the leaves fall from the trees in autumn. Drinking in the mid-afternoon sun. Savouring that first sip of morning coffee. Or, finding that a new bakery opened up in your neighbourhood.

Thanks to Nate Box (who will be opening his own restaurant, Elm Cafe, soon enough), I found out about Duchess Bake Shop, located in the High Street area within walking distance of Mack’s place, and right along my homeward bound bus route. I stopped in on Monday to check them out, and found that they had only been open a whirlwind three days.

Interior

The shop has a chic, sophisticated feel about it, with hardwood floors and a dominant white interior. A chandelier and a handful of tables and chairs round out the space, helpful for those looking to stay and pair their indulgence with something from the bakery’s cafe menu.

Owners Garner and Giselle Beggs have been thinking about opening a bakery for years. Fresh from a four year sojourn in Tokyo, they decided the time was ripe to return and make their dream a reality. Although Duchess offers many French-inspired treats (croissants, macarons, madelines), Garner says they aren’t restricting themselves to a French repertoire, with apple and banana cream pies also available, among other treats. Everything is made from scratch without preservatives – even the food colouring they use is from natural sources.

Macarons

I picked up two croissants ($1.50 each) for Mack and I to serve as a savoury bridge to dinner. They smelled of butter, and on first bite, had that crispy-crunchy texture I look for in a croissant. Mack didn’t like it as much (he prefers the softer variety), but I’d buy it again.

Croissants

Duchess also serves croissant sandwiches, which would make it an interesting destination for lunch. Or, like the couple who filed into the shop after me – for those looking for something to “make a bad day better”. I will be back.

Duchess Bake Shop
10720 124 Street
(780) 488-4999
Hours as of October 26, 2009: Wednesday 9am-6pm, Thursday-Friday 9am-8pm, Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-5pm, closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Food Notes for October 5, 2009

Mack and I damn near froze to death at the penultimate City Centre Market day on Saturday. We decided to walk, which was actually not too bad, but by the time we got there, the wind picked up. We bought our groceries as fast as we could and left, but the poor vendors had no choice but to stay! Anyway, this coming Saturday is the last day of the City Market for the year – though I know there are other year round markets, it’s my favourite, and I’ll be stocking up as much as I can!

  • Foodie Suz gets the quick draw review award – she visited the new Edmonton location of Cora just three hours after it opened.
  • Liane sampled some of the menu items on Hardware Grill’s new lunch menu this week, and also wrote about two vegan restaurants – Refresh and Misella Delite in Stony Plain.
  • Isabelle from The Little Red Kitchen will be reviewing restaurants every two weeks on CBC radio! She is actively seeking recommendations by e-mail.
  • Vue had a piece about Cake Couture’s Annie Dam last week.
  • Workshop West’s upcoming show The Seed Savers sounds like a worthwhile production to take in. The premise: “Mindy and Joe have spent fifty years on their farm, their family and each other, but when genetically-modified canola gets into their prized crop, much more is at risk than the ancient right of farmers to sow their own seed.” The show runs October 30-November 8.
  • I read about Localicious, a two week-long World Wildlife Federation venture to promote local foods with restaurant specials taking place in select Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and Calgary. Why not Edmonton? I would think there are enough restaurants serving local food here that would be happy to participate.
  • The Globe & Mail had an article on the national green-washing trend, which the majority of local food advocates interviewed for the piece support.
  • Via Eat. Drink. Better., a calculator by an American organic company that lets consumers see how much synthetic nitrogen, herbicides and pesticides they would prevent by choosing their organic dairy products. An interesting way of getting the point across.
  • After 68 years, Conde Nast is pulling the plug on Gourmet Magazine. I’ve been reading stories over the last few months about the possibility of either Gourmet or Bon Appetit, so it’s not really a surprise. I’m still a little sad though.
  • The reviews of Starbucks’ instant coffee, VIA, have been lukewarm. I actually haven’t tried it yet – Mack has, and said he could have done without the sludge-like residue at the bottom and near the top of his mug.
  • The FTC ruled that bloggers must disclose any freebies (when posting reviews, etc.) – I had no idea they were even considering this as an area of possible regulation.
  • Mack sent me a short piece about the seemingly common disorder of food aversion (one man has apparently subsisted on cheese since birth).
  • Annie and I refuelled on an indulgent cinnamon bun from CinnZeo (which should really be called Sin-Zeo) at Kingsway last week. And yet, at $4.25, it was worth every icing smothered bite. Yum.

 

Cinnamon Bun from CinnZeo

  • Mack’s Mum was in town this weekend, and we met up with her, and Mack’s siblings at Cactus Club for dinner before a double feature of Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D. We sat out on the patio, enclosed and heated in cool weather, which is really a great maximization of the space. My butternut squash ravioli ($17) was a lovely dish to have in the fall, and Mack enjoyed his cajun chicken burger ($12.50). Patti and Thom liked their pesto chicken quesadilla ($10) too. It was good to see everybody!

 

Enclosed Cactus Club patio

 

Cajun Chicken Burger

 

Pesto Chicken Quesadilla

Marathon Pho: Ninh Kieu

The ongoing chronicles of pho continued at Ninh Kieu, an establishment I have passed by countless times on my way into Chinatown, but never really noticed. The only reason it stood out at all was due to the fact that they had, at some point, put up a white vinyl sign which attracted my eye.

The restaurant is most notable because of their large windows, which enclose just about the entire dining area. As I am used to the shadowy corners of Pho Tau Bay, this was definitely a pleasant change. We could have done without the tinkering elevator music though, which although had the intention of providing a relaxing atmosphere, had the opposite affect.

Interior

As is standard, we split an order of green onion cakes ($4.75) to start, and opted for our usual benchmark bowls of pho – for me, the medium rare beef ($7.50) and for Dickson, the special beef noodle soup ($8.50).

Service was friendly and fairly efficient – we weren’t left waiting for our food. I would pass on the green onion cakes next time though – while crisp, the kitchen may have misplaced the salt while making the dish.

Green Onion Cakes

As I always order the smaller portions of pho when given the opportunity, I wasn’t ready for Ninh Kieu’s marathon version of pho. And it wasn’t just me – even Dickson had difficulty getting through the entire serving. However, quality is more important than quantity in the case of pho, and though we found the broth to be satisfactory, it didn’t make an indelible impression on us either.

Medium Rare Beef Pho

Special Beef Noodle Soup

Having the opportune location next to Pho Tau Bay, whose closure periods are hard to predict, I would consider returning to Ninh Kieu in a pinch. I would just have to prepare my appetite for a worthy opponent beforehand.

Ninh Kieu
10708 98 Street
(780) 429-8881
Sunday-Thursday 11am-9pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-10pm

The Cooking Chronicles: Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables

I adore fall – I revel in the brilliant golden hue cast by trees, find the crisp (not cold) air refreshing, and recognize that it is the one season that acts as a yearly reminder to live in the moment – because before we know it, winter will be upon us. On the food side of things (which it always comes back to), I think autumn speaks to me because what I love to eat corresponds most with a turndown in temperature. Light, warm-weather appropriate meals of salads and the like are far from being my favourite. Instead, curries, stews, and lovingly braised meats appeal more to my palate. While I know I need not justify my preferences to anyone, I feel the harvest season is when it all comes together.

So, utilizing some of my farmers’ market bounty, I set to create Mark Bittman’s cassoulet with lots of vegetables, another gem from Food Matters. Unlike some of the other dishes that I mistakenly label “one pot wonders” (somehow, I never consider the rice cooker to be a “pot”), this recipe truly is contained to one vessel. The large saucepan I chose, however, turned out to be not quite large enough, and as a result, I wasn’t able to include all of the recommended stock. The variation turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the sweet tomato juice (I used canned tomatoes) thickened wonderfully as the beans naturally cooked down. I was also afraid that one pound of sausages wasn’t enough considering the large quantity of vegetables, but actually, there was more than enough meat, and more than that, the fact that they were immersed and finished cooking by simmering away in liquid meant that they ended up moist and full of flavour.

Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables

The cassoulet was a hearty, satisfying dish, and like stews or chilis, was even better for lunch the next day. We ended up with six good-sized servings, which helped save me an evening of cooking – always a bonus! This recipe is definitely a keeper.