• My latest Vue Weekly article, a profile on the man behind Origin India, Arvind Sawhney, was published last week. It’s also important to know that the restaurant offers wine pairings with their food. I reviewed the restaurant (albeit the buffet and not the recommended a la carte) back in October.
• Courtney of Take it and Like it reviewed her recent experience at the fairly new Kai Asian Grill – it seems to be on par with other casual upscale chains in the city.
• From Mack: Wildflower Grill made it onto Where Magazine’s annual tally of the 10 best new restaurants in Canada. See the entire list here.
• The “oldest wine festival in Calgary” is coming to Edmonton – Winefest, on February 28 at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• Walter Schwabe, one of Mack’s colleagues, launched the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge last week. The goal is to have one million pictures of one million Food Bank donations by next December.
• Information about the Food Security Conference on January 29-31, organized by the Edmonton Food Security Network, was released this week – the schedule of sessions looks great!
• On a related note, the theme of International Week 2009 is food: “Hungry for change: Transcending Feast, Famine and Frenzy”. It should be a good event, as usual.
• According to Canwest, the latest incarnation of Family Restaurant, a reality-show that focuses on a family-run establishment, will debut on January 8. As I mentioned a few months back, the family behind The Lingnan and Chicken for Lunch will be showcased.
• On the topic of Food Network, I have to say that the cheesy Food Network Holiday Special, that saw a number of Canada’s celebrity chefs “get together” to cook got to me. It was staged, but still cool to see them interact. Also, I may finally be jumping on the Top Chef bandwagon. Foodie Suz wrote about her love for the show earlier this week; I’ve caught a few episodes of the season here and there (my interest being more on the side of the NY location than the competition itself), but the individual personalities involved, and the cooking challenges have been quite enthralling.
• Starbucks will be debuting a new line of tea lattes in January. What happened to the coffee focus?
• For all the accolades given for positive accomplishments, how about a negative one: Eater just rounded up its search for the worst food porn on the internet. Take a look and judge for yourself.
• If you’ve ever called someone “beefy”, here’s the perfect gift for them – meat-scented spray from Burger King.
• I bought a cute little jar of Chicken Curry spice mixture from a coworker last week, with all proceeds going to an orphanage near Mumbai. Using the mixture, I of course decided to deviate from the recipe attached and use rotisserie chicken (instead of uncooked meat) to cut down on the cooking time, and added a can of diced tomatoes. As a result, the curry flavour was weaker than it was probably supposed to be, and the chicken was unfortunately dry. Guess I need to be reminded to follow instructions closely.

Mrs. Susannah John’s Chicken Curry mixture 

• I raided my emergency food drawer at work, on a particularly hungry afternoon. This ended up in my first encounter with microwavable Kraft Dinner in a cup. Thankfully, the sauce thickened up a bit after the following photo was taken, but I’m not sure I will buy it again – the styrofoam-like cup didn’t seem to be able to stand the heat of the microwave.

Microwavable Kraft Dinner

• The franchised Sbarro replaced the family-run Italian fast food  outlet (whose name escapes me) in Edmonton City Centre a few months ago. I tried their lasagna ($4.79), but it just wasn’t the same (or as inexpensive) as what I had been used to.

Lasagna from Sbarro

• I’m always happy when restaurant websites actually have content on them. So much so that it’s definitely something to note – welcome, Silk Hat, to the blogosphere!
• The Journal reviewed the random Rice Bowl Express (8926 149 Street) on the weekend.
• There was recent chatter on Chowhound about the whether or not the west end Julio’s Barrios has closed. Based on their website, and the listed locations, it looks like it is.
• Via Loosen Your Belt and Eat Around Edmonton, I learned that the space that was formerly Cafe Select on the southside will become a second Original Joe’s outpost.
• On the topic of blogs, I’ve noticed that the last few local food blogs that have come up are authored by duos. I wonder if this is a trend on the writing side of things – to offer multiple perspectives while splitting a time-consuming task.
• Sobeys is pushing consumers to think about having lobster in place of turkey at Christmas this year. I have to say, seafood just doesn’t convey the holidays to me as much as poultry.
• I’m pretty hard on most chain restaurants (particularly those selling the “upscale casual” idea), but some do escape my wrath. Milestones (1708 99 Street), for example, does a decent brunch, which I have written about in the past. Mack and I took his Grandma there prior to a movie this weekend. The menu has changed slightly since I had been there before, but the Prime Rib Hash ($12.95) looked good to me: slow roasted and thinly sliced prime rib tossed with crispy potatoes, bell peppers, sweet onion, roasted corn in our specialty hash seasoning, then topped with two poached eggs, real hollandaise, roma tomatoes and grilled herb toast. While it was all right, I probably should have gone with the no-fail Strawberry French Toast, which Mack’s Grandma ordered, as the kitchen was light on the prime rib, and the sauce flavouring the tomatoes was much too sweet.

Prime Rib Hash – so much food!

Strawberry French Toast

Grilled Shrimp California Benedict

• Mack and I also stopped by the Vue Weekly Christmas party on Saturday, where we met Hanne and Carlo from Supper In Stereo (Hanne is also a fellow writer in the Dish section). It’s always lovely to finally meet people you’ve been reading online for some time.

The spread (half eaten) at Vue’s shindig

• Mark your calendars: Fork Fest (Original Fare‘s version of “dine out week”) is scheduled for January 19-22 and 26-29.
• The Journal reported that Le Table de Renoir is temporarily closed because the owner is going through a divorce. It should be back up and running in January.
• Also in the Journal, a positive review for Bistecca, the new Sorrentino-run steakhouse.
• The 12-year old “food critic” from New York I mentioned two weeks ago in my Food Notes will be even more famous – Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to his story to be adapted into a movie or a television show.
• How’s this for the intersection of food and politics: December 3 was supposed to be declared “Yelp Day” in San Francisco, in honor of the popular website, but once the Mayor’s office got wind that negative reviews of businesses that supported Proposition 8 had been taken down, the proclamation was pulled.
• I was on the look out for this year’s incarnation of Starbucks’ “It’s Red Again” campaign, but it turns out the coffee company has decided to go the charitable route this year, partnering with the now well-known (RED) campaign: “For every purchase of a (STARBUCKS)RED EXCLUSIVE beverage – Peppermint Mocha Twist, Gingersnap Latte and Espresso Truffle – at participating stores in the U.S. and Canada, Starbucks will contribute five cents to the Global Fund to invest in AIDS programs in Africa.”

The (Starbucks)RED sleeve

• May and I had a bite to eat at Ga Ya, prior to a show at the Timms Centre last week. I had been meaning to return at some point to try something other than the Bee Bim Bob (which I wrote about before), and the Chicken Teriyaki ($10.95) hit the spot. The meat was nicely flavoured with a house marinade sauce, and there was a fairly generous amount included.

Chicken Teriyaki

• Needing a fast dinner option in South Common before checking out the new Future Shop, Mack and I headed to Ikea, past all of the tempting housewares and seasonal items and up to the cafeteria. I’ve written about my love for their cheap food before, but I thought it was worth noting that their quiche is pretty darn good as well. Served with a bowl of soup (or salad), it’s a meal that won’t break the bank at $4.99.

Vegetable Quiche with Mushroom Soup (orange juice extra)