Metro News Lunch Rush Column Monthly Recap: April, 2012

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     Brewsters Brewing Company, calgary, eating out, Fat City Franks, Metro Calgary, Mhyre's Deli, Sushi Ichiban, Trawlers Seafood

Check out the great places I featured in my Lunch Rush column this past month!

Sushi Ichiban

Sushi is always a reliably quick lunch. Although, it’s hard to find really, really great sushi during a quick in and out business lunch. Regardless, sometimes, you just need that unagi fix, you know?

At Sushi Ichiban, I ordered the Tempura Udon for lunch ($8.50). The soup (udon) itself was fairly average and a little bit on the saltier side, but I appreciated the amount of tempura vegetables the restaurant served with the dish.

For under $9, that is one heck of a deal.

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

Mhyre’s Deli

I am almost ashamed to say that I have never been to Montreal. Also, I am equally ashamed that I have never tried a Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich before. What is wrong with me? This week, I decided that this had to change.

I weighed my options. It was between flying out to Montreal to try the sandwich staple, or just finding one in Calgary and saving $700. Stay here it was!

Myhre’s Deli is located in a little strip of shops just a couple blocks north of 17th Ave. I stayed traditional with my choice and went with The Montreal Classic ($9). It was a sandwich that was loaded with smoked meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo.

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

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River Cafe: A Visa Infinite Brunch (Fit For a King)

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     brunch, calgary, eating out, local, River Cafe, Visa Infinite Dinner

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to attend an amazing collaborative dinner at Rouge courtesy of the Visa Infinite Dining Series. This culinary experience takes place all across Canada (you can check out upcoming dinners in Vancouver, Montreal and Cambridge here), so it’s always a treat when a Calgary restaurant is able to host one.

Last month, I was invited to a (seven course) brunch at River Cafe. Known for it’s locally focused menu, this is a place where the subtle details and every ingredient on the plate really counts. The brunch was hosted by local food critic, John Gilchrist and, man, that guy is hilarious! Well, I already knew that, but he was really on this particular morning. The humorous highlight for myself, personally, was when he informed the room that spot prawns are actually hermaphrodites. Seriously, who knew?

Well…enough with sexual ambiguity of shrimp. Let’s get to the food! River Cafe’s executive chef Andrew Winfield created a brunch that was nothing short of amazing.

After the initial canapés, oysters and champagne finished flowing around the room, everyone took their seats. We were welcomed with Lois Lake Steelhead Trout Lox. Served with smoked chèvre, blood orange and caviar this fresh little salad was almost too pretty to eat. Of course, I ate it anyway!

Next up, (the aforementioned hermaphrodite) Spot Prawn served on grilled brioche, leek, brassica mustard and a house made chorizo sausage (sausage kind of hidden in the back there). The sweet brioche and the smoothness of the leeks helped to balance out the spicy chorizo.

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Metro News Lunch Rush Column Monthly Recap: March, 2012

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     calgary

I’ve been meaning to get around to doing this for awhile now. I have a weekly food column in the Calgary edition of Metro News. My Lunch Rush column features my experience while dining out for lunch at different restaurant each week. Sometimes the food is great, sometimes it’s not, but such is the nature of this kind of column. Here are the places that I visited for lunch is past month…

Halo Restaurant and Lounge

I’ve passed by Halo many times. It has a pronounced location on Macleod Trail (very) South.

It’s one of those places that I’ve always wondered about. Well, this week, I finally bit the bullet and stopped by for lunch with a friend.

This is a perfect example of an establishment being just ‘OK’. It’s relatively nice inside, the service was prompt, although the food took a while to come out…

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

Kaffir Lime (Kingsland Farmers’ Market)

Inside the Kingsland Farmers’ Market on Macleod Trail lies a little exotic gem that cooks up some amazing Indonesian cuisine.

Kaffir Lime is located by the seating area of the market. There is always ample seating and if you just follow your nose, you’ll find it!

This was my first time experiencing Indonesian food. If my tastebuds could talk, they would probably describe the taste of the Black Pepper Lamb ($10.99) that I ordered for lunch as…

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

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My Steak is Better Than Yours Part Two: Charcut, Rouge and Raw Bar (and a very full stomach)

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants, Thoughts     calgary, CHARCUT, Connie Desousa, eating out, raw bar, Rouge, steak

After having a string of steak-related dreams, I woke up in a bit of a panic. The first evening of my steak adventure had been nothing short of amazing (and filling), but today our group would be stopping by three different restaurants…all in one night.

The panic finally subsided when I came to terms with the fact that the evening’s trio of steak offerings would most likely be delicious. I’ve come to learn that ‘deliciousness’ is the cure for most things, especially panic attacks.

My heart beat slowed down just in time to enter Charcut in a composed, suave manner. I had been here before, many times…perhaps even weekly for Top Chef Canada screenings in the summer of 2011 (note: ‘perhaps’ = I was there every week). Instead of starting off the night by enjoying a cocktail or two (or three) in the restaurant, we were ushered upstairs into their prep kitchen and before we knew it, we were experiencing a blood sausage tutorial.

Now, I do not enjoy blood sausage at the best of times, so this ‘how-to’ experience was a bit hard to swallow for me. After copious amounts of blood were mixed with bread and spices and then put into casing, we watched Connie Desousa trim and portion some bison heart steaks. I had tried beef heart at their pop-up restaurant, CharPOP, in January, so was eager to taste the bison.

The heart steak arrived, medium rare, topped with crispy matchsticks and Charcut’s signature chimmichurri sauce drizzled on top. To make sure the table would leave nice and full, there were sides of duck fat poutine for all! Eating heart is basically like eating a fine grain steak. Once it’s trimmed, marinated and grilled, it’s amazingly delicious. The heart is on Charcut’s current menu, so I highly recommend swinging by for taste. I’ll even foot the bill if you’re not impressed!

Then, out came the blood sausage (picture at end of post). Flavour-wise, it was fantastic, but, this is a personal thing, I can not get over the texture of blood sausage. Though, like a true foodie trooper, I had three whole bites without fainting!

After politely declining the offer to pack up my blood sausage to eat later as a midnight snack, we headed over to Rouge for four beefy courses…Ugh, I am getting full again just recounting this…

Here, executive chef Michael Dekker offered us some non-traditional dishes like thinly sliced beef in elk broth, a take on ‘shabu shabu’, lamb sirloin with a foie gras and bone marrow spring roll and a beef tartar, amoung other things.

Our table was hosted by Rouge owner and chef, Paul Rogalski, who is always so enigmatic. He introduced each of the courses to us with descriptions just as appetizing as what was on the plate in front of me. We finished up our steak tasting here with a sweet honeycomb macaroon, then left for our final destination of the evening, Raw Bar in Hotel Arts.

Upon entering the hotel, we were warmly greeted by Shelley Long (no photo evidence, but not joking) before heading into Raw Bar. Sadly, she did not join us for dinner. Here we started with one of the bar’s signature cocktails, an Apple Cart Daisy which sounds like it’s just for ladies, but it packed an apple-y punch.

Now, I don’t want to say that this steak tour had saved the best for last, but Raw Bar’s chef, Duncan Ly, prepared us one (thankfully just one!) amazing plate of food. A very tender beef tenderloin with topped with pulled short rib and an herb crust.

An accompaniment of snow peas and coconut sweet potato puree graced the plate as well. The potatoes were sweet and smooth. Definitely my favourite potato side of our entire two day adventure.

Isn’t she lovely?

And that folks, is how you enjoy copious amounts of meat in only two days. I may have not eaten for a couple days after the fact, but was very thankful for the experience. As with anything, when you live somewhere, you always take for granted the things that make your city great.Yes, Calgary may be a ‘meat and potatoes’ kind of a city, but, when you have restaurants serving up food this, I have no problem stamping ‘I’m a meat and potatoes kinda guy’ on my forehead!

Here’s a few more photos from the evening…

Blood sausage with a fried egg from Charcut.

Myself almost fainting during our blood sausage session.

Tartar starter at Rouge.

‘Shabu Shabu’-esque dish with elk broth at Rouge.

Deliciously Spoiled: Visa Infinite Dinner at Rouge

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     calgary, eating out, Jonathan Gushue, Michael Dekker, Paul Rogalski, Rouge

Sometimes, I wonder if I was slapped in the face, repeatedly, with the lucky branch when I was younger. That’s the only reasonable explanation I give myself for being invited to certain events. The dinner I had at Rouge this past week was one of those experiences.

Visa Infinite hosts various dining events throughout the year in Calgary. Restaurants and themes always vary (i.e. Top Chef Canada dinner at Charcut, Model Milk’s executive chef, Justin Laboe and Vancouver chef Lee Cooper of Vancouver’s L’Abattoir, etc…), but the quality is always top notch.

On this particular evening, Rouge hosted a collaborative dinner between executive chef Michael Dekker and Jonathan Gushue (executive chef of Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario). With nine course total (if you count the palate cleanser), I knew I was in for a hell of a ride.

Rouge owner, Paul Rogalski, served as the host for the evening, making his way to each table, introducing himself and chatting a bit about the food we were about to experience. The vagueness of the printed menu in front of me left room for curiosity to grow.

Instead of printing the menu with full descriptions like (my imaginative example) ‘Poached Virgin Quail Breast with Blackberry Reindeer Foam and Essence of Gold’, each course was simply listed as it’s main ingredient (i.e. scallops, foie gras, beef, etc…).

When Paul came around to our table, he explained that with each course we’d get to put out our best guess as to what we were eating. So, kind of like a competition, but you get to keep on eating the prize. Needless to say, I was totally down for this.

Now, I won’t list off every single course to you, which even included a cheddar cheese tasting in-between our main dish and dessert (sometimes ‘all you need is cheese‘ before dessert right?), but here are some of the highlights of what we enjoyed during the collaborative dinner at Rouge…

Arctic Char with sea buckthorn berries in nori broth…The nori broth was a safe bet, but my guess fell flat when I thought the char was poached…and, as for the sea buckthorn berries, well now I know what they are!

Foie Gras and Pear Terrine with bee pollen and foie profiterole. I guessed ‘apple’ was the sweetness layered in-between the foie in the terrine. Damn, so close…

Sweetbreads Bratwurst on top of homemade sauerkraut, double smoked bacon and pesto…I guessed ‘kielbasa’! Damn, so close!

Crab Apple beverage with accompanying sorbet…Quite contrary to my guess of ‘Roasted lamb shank consume and pigeon blood sorbet’. Well, you can’t win ‘em all folks!

Finally, the dessert…A white chocolate brownie topped with chocolate and homemade marshmallow, which had a neopolitan kind of layering to it. I think I saw a few people at the table licking the glasses clean, but let’s keep that on the down low.

After the dinner service had concluded, both Chef Dekker and Gushue came by each table to hear any guesses and fill all the attendees in on what they had tasted throughout the evening. Although most of my guesses were not exactly on the mark, I really loved the opportunity to try and utilize my palate to identify each bite instead of having our food, for lack of a better word, spelled out for us on our menu. It also reminded me that, in this massive culinary world, I still have a lot to learn!

In honour of having this amazing dining experience, I want to pay it forward, and spoil a couple people too, by giving away a pair of tickets to Winefest next Saturday, February 25th (worth a total of $150). The Winefest will feature 236 wines from over 57 different wineries! Sounds like a blast, right? I thought so.

To enter to win the pair of tickets, either leave a comment on this post about my dinner at Rouge or share the link to this piece on Twitter, mentioning both Rouge (@rougecal) and Winefest (@winefest). On Monday, February 20th, I’ll randomly choose the winner from all entries!

*Note: You must be of legal drinking age (hopefully that’s obvious), the two tickets are only valid for attendance at Winefest on Saturday, February 25th, from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. and are non-transferable. The winner must pick up their tickets from will-call at the Winefest event location.

Working at CharPOP, Calgary’s Premiere Pop-up Restaurant

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants, Thoughts     Aviv Fried, calgary, CHARCUT, Charpop, Connie Desousa, eating out, Grant van Gameren

If you haven’t heard of CharPOP yet, I’m going to assume you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple months.

Here are the Coles notes: John Jackson and Connie Desousa, household names in Calgary’s food community, decided to partner up with Toronto-based chef Grant van Gameren and baker extraordinaire Aviv Fried to create a three day opportunity that would make anyone fight for a bite over.

Creating a temporary world where culinary ideas collide and create a one-of-a-kind dining experience is something that foodies would fight tooth and nail over, Street Fighter-style if you will, for the chance to be a part of.

Last week, I spent some time lending a hand with CharPOP, what would be Calgary’s first pop-up restaurant experience.

The idea behind a ‘pop-up’ is quite simple; different chefs from different culinary backgrounds opening up a temporary dining experience in an unusual location. The chance to let creativity flow outside the typicality of their home restaurants’ menus.

The life of a pop-up is up for debate; some last a week, others a few days and sometimes ones only last for a few hours. I like the sound of this. Well, not only do I like the sound of this, but it also makes me hungry.

The days leading up to the premiere evening of CharPOP were very secretive, even well I was helping prepare components of various dishes the day before their first service, the entire menu was kept ‘hush, hush’. We had to take a vow of silence. Like monks, but ones that could still talk about anything besides the menu.

Arriving at CharPOP’s top-secret dining location (now, obviously, outed as Aviv’s bakery in south east Calgary), it was hard to imagine how the space would transform into a fully functional dining room. Fast forward to five hours later, magically, tables were set, candles were lit, and Charpop was ready for its first seating of the evening.

I (loosely) lent a hand expediting with John while Connie and Grant worked on the line. I liked the fact that the pop-up didn’t have any P.O.S. server systems or computers, just pen-to-paper orders. Handwritten. Just like the olden days, right?

As the orders came rushing in, I was surprised how smoothly the flow of the kitchen was. In such a small space, Connie and Grant, along with a kitchen team of three popped out dishes like this ‘restaurant’ had been open for months.

John let me put some finishing touches on a few of the plates, like skewering pickles for the ‘The Original Tongue’, which, visually, mimicked a Reuben sandwich stuck between two thick slices of brioche. Naturally, I may of ate a pickle or two.

Quality control.

I was also in charge of grating fresh nutmeg on top of Grant’s ‘Cabbage and Bone Marrow Soup’, which may of resulted in me dropping an entire piece of nutmeg into a bowl of soup. Hence, reminding me that I am not a chef. And…yes, for the record, I did spoon the chunk of nutmeg out of the soup.

While watching dishes flow out of the small cooking space with ease, I had my eye on one in particular…John and Connie’s beef cheek dish.

A very home-y dish comprised of slowly braised beef cheek, root vegetables and accompanied by one of Aviv’s never-fail savoury biscuits.

The only way to describe it, really, would to be as a ‘home cooked meal that your mother could never make’. Sorry mom. (On a side note, the picture absolutely does not do the dish justice. Not in the least.)

Aside from one starter dish, a beautiful croissant with lamb and mint (pictured left, it was so god damn delicious), Aviv’s major contributions came in the form of dessert.

In particular, one of CharPOP‘s two sweet dishes, his ‘Cinnamon Bun’, served in hot cast iron pans, were the perfect finish to this unique dining experience.

This is not the last you’ve seen of CharPOP. In the coming months, you may find it, well, ‘popping’ up in some new locations, with new exciting partnerships…and I’m not just talking about Calgary. They may, just may, be taking this venture on the road. Just saying…but, I digress…

Are you hungry yet? I am.

To stay up-to-date with CharPOP and their future events, head to their website, www.charpop.com, or follow them on twitter, @YYC_CHARPOP.

Ok, fine. Here’s a few more photos from the CharPOP experience…

Order up!

Chef van Gameren’s sweetbreads dish

Crispy Pig Ear Salad by Connie and John, topped with a sous vide egg.

Everyone’s favourite baker, Aviv Fried, serious and at work!

Grant’s blood sausage and foie gras dish, drizzled with bourbon gastrique.

Local food writer/cookbook author, Pierre Lamielle, being put to work slicing some brioche in the CharPOP kitchen.

Connie and John’s octopus dish. Easily one of my favourites on the menu. I love octopus!

Pierre and I proudly wearing out CharPOP work shirts, ready for service!

Scalloped potatoes made with pork jowl. Wait, what?

Pre-service meeting with the CharPOP kitchen crew.

Beef heart steak because, well, why not? Surprisingly delicious.

Aviv Fried’s cinnamon buns. Should this photo set end any other way? I think not!