barry takes a bite out of jasper.

last friday, a bud and i took off to the mountains for a day of hiking, kayaking, and cursing mosquitos. we not only conquered the alpine meadows hike at mt. edith cavell, but also managed to stay upright, despite massive blood loss thanks to the swarms. to celebrate we decided to head to the emerald lounge at the jasper park lodge for a quick drink.

its here that we met our server, jonas henriksson. i decided to take his advice and try jpl's signature martini. this turned out to be one of the best drinks i've had in a long while. of course, it probably helped that jonas actually invented the drink himself.

the infamous martini came into being 4 years ago when jonas first arrived in Alberta from his home in sweden. determined to try canadian ice wine, he began a mission to create the perfect hybrid of swedish and canadian spirits. what originally started out as a drink with equal parts inniskillin ice wine and straight-up vodka, morphed into ice wine and citron vodka, and finally as a mixture of absolut pear vodka and inniskillin, served in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. it goes for a cool $17, but it's worth the treat.

after our $17 drinks we decided to head into town to papa george's for supper. we chose this restaurant on my older sister's advice - she would not stop raving about their game burger, served with a side of potatoes fried in duck fat.

both of us opted to get this, but we started off with elk pot pie and pan seared scallops. we both felt that our appies missed the mark - great in concept, but not worth the price. my bud's elk was overcooked, and though my scallops were done perfectly, the faro patties that they were served with were over salted.

a mix of elk, venison and bison, the game burgers arrived promptly after our starters. we expected game burgers to have a stronger flavour. though these were cooked perfectly, they were bland for our tastes. the great service and beautiful ambience couldn't balance out our disappointment.

oh - and the potatoes fried in duck fat? superb.

barry learns some fun facts about tres carnales

only open for a week, tres carnales is already the talk of the town. all you mexican food lovers, rejoice!, because this place is the real deal.

chris - one of the tres carnales - gave me some fun facts to share about his new place:

1) 2 years ago in a small mexican town, 3 buds sat down with a bottle of flor de cana rum. by the end of the bottle, the idea and business plan of tres carnales was hashed out. really, wouldn't the world be a better place if all ideas came about this way?

2) these guys have some serious passion. all 3 (chris, dani and edgar) are right in the thick of things at the restaurant - chris and dani work the floor, while edgar tends grill. need a food recommendation, or a way to snag one of their elusive tables? just ask one of these guys and they'll hook you up.

3) all the meat is locally sourced within 200 km of edmonton, so feel good about supporting your friendly neighbourhood ranchers!

4) their menu is going to be changed up regularly. chris was already talking fish tacos (hell, yes), duck, and desserts. my response to this news? thank you, jebus.

***

some other things you should know:

1) come expecting to socialize with strangers. this place is small, and they emphasize communal eating (including a large communal table). after waiting in line for awhile, my bud and i ended up dining with the couple behind us in line. turned out to be a really awesome conversation about travels through mexico, the small-town feel of edmonton, and pink tacos. (don't ask.)

2) the chorizo is made in-house, and is pretty damn awesome.

3) the sangria is alcoholic. it might taste like juice, but by the second pitcher you'll suddenly realize it's not.

4) at first we were all a little disappointed that the hot sauce wasn't so hot. turns out the real stuff is made in-house and kept under lock and key in the back. ask for some up front with your food. you won't be disappointed, but your tongue might hate you just a little for trying to burn it off.

5) ordering is a cross between pampa and famoso. you initially order at the counter, but if you don't want to start a tab, you pay up and get your table sign clothespinned. (you'll get this when you go) otherwise you can keep ordering more from your table. like additional pitchers of sangria...so dangerous...

6) watch out for table cherry pickers. they kept coming in behind us, and cutting in front to wait for tables. give them the cut-eye, and be ready to grab a table as soon as you see people heading out.

go.

eat some tacos,

and be ready to make some new friends.

10119 100A Street
Rice Howard Way
Edmonton
780-429-0911

barry heads over to the cactus club cafe.

so, if you're feeling a little la-ti-da, and want to experience the creations of an iron chef, you should head down to the cactus club pronto. chef rob feenie has created some delightful concoctions that may or may not give him another win on iron chef, but if nothing else give your tastebuds a run for your money. and there is quite a bit of money trading hands. my buds and i started off with some beef carpaccio ($13), followed by our entrees of butternut squash and fried sage ravioli, vegetarian fajitas and beef dip (~$15 - $25). we then ended off the meal with a bang, and had his key lime pie (~$8), made from scratch with love. though the individual meal choices are not ridiculously expensive, they add up as you want to try more and more dishes. out of the entrees, my clear favourite was the ravioli, but the other dishes were lovely too.

beef carpaccio
you were the evening's highlight.
i want more, dammit!

sage ravioli,

simply done with truffle oil.
you were crazy rich.

refreshing with zing,
you were other's favourite.
get me some pie, bitch!

on a side note, our waitress gave us the skinny on the dress code for wait staff. all women must wear heels no shorter than one inch. umm....what? they're on their feet for how long, running around with our food and drink, and flats and low heels are out. can anyone say union?

barry gives you some advice on food from the shaw.

it's surprisingly good!

i'm a sceptic when it comes to eating things created en masse - things tend to be dry, rubbery, and only barely edible. but this is the third time i've had dinner at the shaw conference centre, and i have to admit that, overall, i like it.

our meal started off with homemade bread rolls, including some fantastic dill ones, followed by a curry butternut squash soup served with an apple fritter.

the main event was chicken supreme with coq au vin, steamed veggies and lyonnaise potatoes. the potatoes were thinly sliced and layered like scalloped, but without any flavour. the veggies were also a bit limp, but were tasty, as was the chicken and sauce, which were moist and delicious.

finally, we ended off with a very suprisingly delicious black forest cheesecake that had me craving seconds. mmm...

barry takes in a few tastes at the rosebowl.

and likes them.

desperately needed pizza after 11 pm one friday past, so a few buds and i headed to the rosebowl on jasper and 117 street. a lot has changed in recent years at the bowl, particularly with their décor, but the pizza still delights the senses. try their spicy mexican pizza or their refreshing can’t-quite-remember-the-name-pizza with a garlic butter base, melted cheese, and chopped fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on top.

i had the chance to speak with the manager, and even better news: they’re extending their menu this fall to include more pizzas, more entrees, and more drinks!

good food, extended menu…my only complaint was that the music was crazy loud, making it near impossible to converse with my buds. maybe earplugs would be a good starter for the evening.

http://www.rougelounge.ca/rosebowl/

barry's famoso haikus.

famoso pizza,
i’m sad you disappoint me.
flavourless and blah.


excited for taste,
prosciutto-arugula
combined disappoint.

STOP: fantastic greens!
a symphony of flavours.
you win me over.

barry's restaurant review: river cree's kitchen buffet and bistro.

friends, romans, seafood lovers, lend me your claw crackers. well, not really; those are provided for you at the river cree casino’s kitchen buffet and bistro for their friday night seafood buffet. this past friday, like every friday night, my little crustacean friends were brought in for the masses to consume. don’t worry about them – they’re not alone as salmon, shrimp, clams and mussels join them in their underwater dance to my plate, and they were also joined by some of their poultry and bovine friends.

the feast included a salad bar, peel and eat shrimp, smoked trout, clams (which one of our party commented, “tasted like the sea”), mussels marinara, paella, cheesy mashed potatoes, salmon, ginger chicken, a panache of vegetables, pasta pomodoro, clam chowder, and, of course, crab legs with little pots of butter to dip them in. this was slowly followed by a dreamy dessert bar of fresh fruit, hot fruit cobbler and various delectable cakes like tiramisu, black forest, and a deadly bitter chocolate mousse that was so rich, you could only eat a quarter of it before you started to sweat cocoa.

i know, but there’s more.

one of our group decided that seafood wasn’t for them, so instead ordered a steak. a juicy and succulent steak prepared by the bistro’s sous chef don, who graciously came out later on to see how we were doing. don’s steak soon became legendary at our table. it was created with a delicious sauce of cognac and portobello mushrooms, and accompanied with some deceivingly simple fries. they were the best fries i’ve had in a long, long time, and the steak was so tender that it seemingly melted in your mouth. this was a true masterpiece, and i highly recommend that you try it to see if it lives up to your expectations of good steak in the middle of beef country. trust me, it will.

but back to the main event. you might not think this would be a good place to meet new people, and yes, i was nervous to meet three new faces in the group when i knew i’d probably have food stuck in my hair, but how could you not bond over such a fantastic meal?! so what if crab shells were flying across the table as i hacked away with my claw cracker to get to the sweet crab meat? and so what if a shrimp tail accidently hit the stratosphere as i peeled my way to its juicy body, or that melted butter was dripping off my chin?

we swooned over the clams, shrimp and crab legs. we cried over the empty mussels marinara pan that was always picked over right before we got there in the buffet line, and we sighed over the not-so-great clam chowder or salmon because we had such high expectations from the rest of the dishes. the seafood buffet was a great leveler as we all got messier and messier in our quest for good seafood, and we all had to laugh at ourselves at the disasters that we left in. i now have three new foodies to discuss the ins and outs of world cuisine with. just don’t forget to order finger dipping bowls before you start – it helps to shake hands with clean fingers.

YAY:
• only $19.95 per person! i know!! and if you’re a senior, you get an even better price.
• the crab legs were incredibly sweet.
• the shrimp and clams were incredibly fresh.
• three words: steak and fries.
• children are welcome (just don’t take them through the casino).

MEH:
• they don’t take reservations. we got there after 8 pm, and were warned that it could be up to a 2 hour wait. luckily, it was only 45 minutes.
• the chicken was okay, but really, that’s not why we’re there.
• we missed out on the mussels because too many people liked them. go home mussel eaters and leave some for us!

NAY:
• the clam chowder.
• the salmon was overcooked.

River Cree Resort & Casino
300 East Lapotac Blvd

Enoch, Alberta

*website
*how to get there

barry's restaurant review: urban diner.

in an effort to save money, i’m trying to eat out only twice a month. as you can imagine, this is very hard for me since i love food. love. so, i try to make the outings count…and it’s such bitter disappointment when they don’t. take saturday’s outing to urban diner. i’ve never been before, but had heard ridiculously fantastic things about their brunch, so three buds and i decided to head over and see what all the fuss was about. it’s a cute place with lots of booths and tables, and though there was a line to get in, we didn’t wait long, and while we were waiting we had a fantastic view of pies. mmm…pies. we also had a great server who was very helpful, and a menu of gourmet breakfast dishes to choose from. the traditional eggs benny was a hit (great hollandaise sauce), as was the salmon and swiss quiche. the breakfast burger however…well, two of us ordered it, only one of us actually liked it, and it wasn’t me. you’d think a sandwich that had five (five!) proteins in it (ham, bacon, meatloaf, fried egg and cheddar cheese) would be heavenly. you would be wrong though. it was salty, the meatloaf was a funky texture (too soft) and was bland, and there was a red pepper spread. about the red pepper spread: you know when there’s a food you don’t like, olives for example, and there is the smallest portion of it in a dish you’re eating? all you taste is olives! well i normally like red peppers, but all i could taste was salt, bad meatloaf and olives. and by olives i mean red peppers. bad red peppers. it was so disheartening i had to get pie. i’m the kind of person who needs things to end on a positive note, like pie. damn good pie. between the four of us we ordered three desserts to share: banoffee pie, sour cream lemon pie and white chocolate orange-mint cheesecake. they sent our taste buds into sugar overdrive, and tried to erase memories of a bad breakfast from my mind. they didn’t succeed, but they did try, and i have to give them credit for that.

YAY:

• great pie.
• the eggs benny, and more importantly the hollandaise, was good.
• polite service.

MEH:

• the food was pricey; not a big deal if your meal tastes great, but it’s salt added to the wound if you’re not digging the food.

NAY:

• the breakfast burger (don’t do it, no matter how tempted you are!)
• there’s going to be a line to get in. you’ll just have to accept this fact if you’re heading there on a saturday morning after 9:30.
• very, very, limited parking.

Urban Diner
12427 102 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5N 0M2, Canada
(780) 488-7274

barry's cup o' joe.

so when the german came down to visit me last week, i knew that i would need some activities to keep him occupied, while at the same time making sure he was well fed. enter my dear caffeine-addicted friend who suggests we take the german down to new york bagel café for edmonton’s supposed best coffee. intrigued yet skeptical, we headed over to gateway boulevard through the frigid weather and, lo-and-behold, we really did have edmonton’s best coffee. i’m normally not a coffee drinker, but their house coffee was so flavourful and smooth you couldn’t help but be impressed. the process felt like a japanese tea ceremony as you added the brown sugar and the steamed milk on the side, making drinking coffee an event.
this was in stark contrast to the cappuccinos and espressos we had later in the day at da capo. although i normally rave about their authentic cappuccino (see my da capo restaurant review from november), we were underwhelmed by the concoctions we received that were bitter and unflavourful and the caffe itself was freezing.

sorry da capo, maybe next time.

in the meantime, you might want to try new york bagel for their heavenly house coffee to warm you up during this deep freeze.

barry says goodbye to an old haunt.

this is difficult for me to write. pharo’s pizza, a staple of the garneau community for years, is closing its doors in mid-to-late january. the 80-year-old owner wishes to retire, and so has sold the building. i know. it gets worse though.

the building, which includes the garneau theatre, has apparently been sold with plans to modernize the look of the two businesses. with this being one of the few art deco buildings left in alberta, it seems shocking that anyone would want to change the décor! according to pharo’s pizza waitress jill, the plan is for the theatre entrance to be moved to the side of the building on 87 avenue, and the whole façade modernized. i was very surprised that i hadn’t heard of this earlier, as i imagined that there would be an uproar in the edmonton community, but it seems that not only will we be deprived of mouth-watering popeye pizza and delicious greek salad, but we will also loose an edmonton landmark to modernization. there is one month left for locals to pay their respect to this fantastic eatery, so go out, grab a popeye pizza and toast this garneau landmark.

Pharos Pizza & Spagetti House

8708 109 Street NW

Edmonton, AB T6G 1E9

(780) 433-5205

barry's word of the day: pranzo.

my vocabulary was expanded this past weekend as my family and i gathered at the santa maria groetti community centre in edmonton for a traditional italian dinner (pranzo) sunday afternoon. wave after wave of food was brought to us, and in true italian style, we ate until it was physically impossible to eat anymore. we had two antipasti courses (cheese, meat and marinated vegetables and rice with a beef stew), a prima (rotini with a marinara sauce), pork chops and breaded chicken with gravy, roast potatoes, salad and mixed vegetables, and finally chocolate cake for dessert. i think that’s everything, but with so much food, you can’t blame me for forgetting something. my family loved this home-style meal.

i’m going to be honest: i didn’t.

the food was okay, and yes, there was plenty of it, but the sauces and chicken looked and tasted as if they were store bought, and nothing stood out in my mind as being extremely tasty or even tasting authentically italian. as my sister pointed out, nothing was wrong with the meal, and i have to agree with her; nothing was wrong with the meal. but when you go out to eat, particularly for a nice family get-together, do you want to have a meal with nothing wrong with it, or would you rather have a meal that was special and excited you, made you wish for seconds, or in this case, made you think of an army of italian grandmothers preparing this meal in the kitchen simply because of their love for food? i didn’t feel that way unfortunately, and was particularly looking forward to this meal since i had heard such wonderful reviews of the pranzi served up by the community centre.

maybe the cooks were having an off weekend, but after this meal, i feel that if you’re looking for a “nothing’s-wrong-with-it” meal, head on down to albert’s. it’s cheaper.

Santa Maria Groetti Community Centre
Sun (11 am - 2 pm)
11050 90 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5H 1S5
(780) 426-5026

restaurant review: da capo.

coffee-lovers (and haters) rejoice!

there is a place on edmonton’s south side that will make your taste buds soar with a single sip of their cappuccino. da capo caffe can safely boast to have some of the best coffee outside of italy, and will compel anyone to come back for another cup. this funky spot, located on 109 street next to the garneau theatre, has a fantastic ambience – think modern european coffee house, great service – food and bevies will be in hand quickly for you to dive into, and fantastic menu items! besides the cappuccino, you might want to try out their panini or pizzas, homemade biscotti, and you must, beyond a doubt, try their gelato. heaven! nothing outside of italy is this good. go overload on a taste of italy today. right now. go. why are you still here?

YAY:
· great food and beverages
· fairly fast service
· handy central location
· great ambience

MEH:
· parking is sometimes hard to come across

NAY:
· it can be expensive
· odd hours, so call ahead to make sure they’re open

phone: (780) 433.5382
address: 8738 - 109 Street

barry loves bruce.

…bruce, alberta that is.

yes, as a carnivore, i can’t help but love bruce, alberta. many would drive by this tiny community of three streets and two avenues without thinking to stop, take a deep breath and smell the beef, but friday nights at the bruce hotel is the place to be for one of the best steaks you’ll have in your life.

not to be forgotten are the unlimited salad bar, sweet treats and potatoes drowning in cream. even if steak isn’t your thing, there’s no excuse to not come by, check out the wood paneled walls, bingo hall chairs and luxurious paper plates. it’s a feast for the senses (and your belly) that should not be missed!

the bruce hotel: reservations are required: (780) 688.3922

YAY:
· really good, reasonably priced steak ($15.99 for a 8oz top sirloin and $21.99 for a 16oz steak the size of your face…prices include buffet sides, salads, coffee and sweets)
· terrific taco salad
· three words: dill cream potatoes. four more words: all. you. can. eat.
· at least 8 different freshly prepared salads
· dolly parton poster. as a youth. enough said.

MEH:
· a bit of a drive from edmonton (road trip!).

NAY:
· canned mushrooms have never been my thing.