Archive for the 'eating out' Category
I’ve been tardy writing this because I felt like I wouldn’t do the whole justice. Or I’d come across as overly gushy (I’m not afraid of that part anymore, but consider yourself warned) or not gushy enough. Our Sunday dinner this past weekend was truly one of the best of my life. I could tell by the fact that I spent much of it focused on not bursting into tears. (See? I’m doing it already.)
Remember last week, when I rambled on a bit about the concept of a potluck, and offered up $25 gift cards to anyone who wanted to do something swell with one of them? Just to spread some happiness around at a time when the world seems to sorely need it? (I still have more, by the way, if you have an idea. Let me know in the comments and I’ll email you.) I got an email from Adrienne, who lives out here in Tofino, who was inspired to organize a potluck with her daughters to not only bring people in the community together to share a meal, but to raise funds for the Canadian Red Cross in support of Japan. They reserved the hall, planted the seed (mostly via email and social media), enlisted the help of a graphic artist friend to make up posters and others to contribute things like hand-made origami flowers that required 12 pieces of paper apiece to create. I’m so grateful that she was able to pull it together so quickly – in under a week – so that I could be a part of it.
People arrived in the late afternoon to decorate – mismatched linens from various homes to cover the tables, with glass jars, bottles and vases holding greens, flowers and handmade Japanese flags.
They put origami paper and instructions on each table to give people something to do as they waited for their turn at the buffet. Adrienne fretted that people wouldn’t come – or perhaps too many would. Of course they did – a trickle at first, and then waves of neighbours bringing pots, bowls and trays of homemade food. Soon everyone was jockeying for space on the table.
This is my idea of a potluck. If you plan it, they will come.
In true West coast fashion, the tables were divided into “meat-free” and “wheat-free”, the gluten-free baking outnumbering the wheat-based kind. There was much vegan, and those that weren’t were labeled, almost as an anomaly.
Everyone happily unpacked their own plates and forks once they settled at a table, many choosing Japanese-style ceramic bowls to eat out of.
The four folding tables barely accommodated the food that was brought – samosas, pasta dishes, buckwheat noodles, scalloped potatoes, fried rice, sushi, lentils with apples, nut loaf with nut butter gravy, shrimp and scallops and salmon, cheesy polenta…
dips and spreads and breads and hard boiled eggs in a spicy tomato sauce – there were no duplicates, and everything was totally unique and completely fabulous. (In fact, the menu was varied enough to make a great cookbook, I think. But I’m afraid to ask Adrienne to hunt everyone down and ask them for their recipes.)
The food of course was a personal extension of everyone there. We were all feeding each other, nourishing that appetite for good company around the table. Everyone talked about what they were eating, asking about those dishes they were interested in – who made it? how? what’s in it? – a great reminder of how skilled and creative home cooks are.
Before we ate, Adrienne reminded us all of what’s happening in Japan, and asked for a moment of silence. She read a bit from one of her favourite children’s books, Imagine a Day by Sarah Thomson:
imagine a day…
when the peace of a forest
and the strength of a mountain
become a cathedral
for your heart.
imagine a day…
when we build a moat
not to keep strangers out,
but to welcome them in.
(A part she didn’t read:
imagine a day…
when your sand castle
can withstand
even the highest waves.)
And then we dug in. Rarely have I felt such a strong sense of community. (And yet we were outsiders, geographically speaking.) The age range was under a year old to over ninety, and everyone laughed and chatted as if it were a huge Christmas dinner with family they hadn’t seen in years.
Over the course of the evening the conversations frequently turned to “doing this more often” – as much as anything, it was a powerful reminder of the importance of sharing a homemade meal with those people you share your community with, and how easy it is to ask everyone to bring something, and what an amazing spread you wind up with when you do it that way.
There was even dessert.
In the end, about 140 people showed up and $2105 was raised for Japan. Including the contents of Toby’s piggy bank. And the evening has inspired me to go home and plan a great many more potlucks. I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks to everyone who helped out and attended the dinner on Sunday. I do hope you have more.
April 06 2011 | eating out | 18 Comments »
I never told you about my amazing meal at Taste, the teeny restaurant on 1st Street that it seems not enough people know about yet. Which is a shame, because it’s really great. I was invited to try out their new menu last week, and as we sat in the small, bright, cozy space and looked out the window at tired commuters leaning into the freezing rain and snow, the food was fantastic -
- sharing food like duck fat popcorn (with little bitty scraps of duck), a tomato salad with basil mascarpone and balsamic
seared scallops with crispy pancetta on a bed of braised cabbage (yum)
lamb popsicles with a pistachio crust and balsamic/truffle reduction (bliss)
beef tacos on crispy wontons with carrot slaw (ditto)
mini espresso cupcakes, and some really great guys in the kitchen making it all.
Can’t wait to go again.
March 25 2011 | eating out | 11 Comments »
I’m so excited that the space that once was Nectar Desserts, conveniently located a few blocks from my house, is now Without Papers (a play on the fact that Angelo and the guys making the pizza are true Italians) Pizza, owned by the folks at Sugo. It’s open (Tues-Sun) from 11 till 11, has a wine menu and Steam Whistle on tap and long comfy benches and padded stools. Not only do they make fab pizza in a nail polish red pizza oven, they
make their own ice cream.
There are (silent) movies projected on the walls – yesterday it was Barbarella.
They make everything in-house – like warm spiced olives.
And the best meatballs I’ve had in ages.
And the aforementioned ice cream – in a cherry cola float. Or root beer. Or ginger ale.
And yes, there’s pizza. Mike’s favorite was the Hogwild: spicy wild boar sausage and prosciutto, braised rapini, friulano, roasted garlic panna. Above is the Parma: prosciutto di Parma, fresh arugula, bocconcini, tomato sauce.
Welcome to the ‘hood!
February 17 2011 | eating out | 14 Comments »
I do love working from home out of our wee extra bedroom. But one of the downfalls about this arrangement, besides the slight Twitter addiction (it makes the self-employed feel like they’re somehow in an office environment, I think), and too-strong incentive to live in PJ bottoms, is the lack of separation between work and home. There’s always work around, and always something that should be done. So when weekends come along, particularly during a deep freeze, and especially when there are PD days scheduled on Friday and Monday, sometimes you just gotta get the hell outta Dodge. This was one of those weekends. Some people pay big bucks for high-priced hookers – I’m willing to pay for a night with a bed like this – crisp sheets, turn down service, and no need to fight for the best pillow.
Also, I adore the Banff Springs. When it’s been too long, especially over the winter, I get homesick for it.
As kids we often made day trips to Banff, sometimes staying at the Springs during a ski weekend. My youngest sister used to go from ballroom to ballroom, looking for the king. When W was about three, he was terrified to go inside, and cautiously peered up every spiral marble staircase, worried that a dragon was lying in wait for him to come around the corner.
Ben had never been, and so we told them on Friday that we were going to to Banff and stay in a castle, one with suits of armor and a bowling alley, and that we’d stop at the candy store on the way, spend lots of time at the pool, and go for a breakfast buffet Monday morning. They fake fainted.
It was a stunning, sunny, snowy drive. Banff is the perfect distance, I think – not long enough to drive anyone squirrely, yet long enough to seem like a special event. And the Banff Springs, despite its worldwide fame and regular visits from Hollywood stars and royalty, is really not at all snooty (the opposite, in fact). It’s very accessible, and big enough that you couldn’t possibly get cabin fever even when the temperature drops to -29. I could spend days wandering through the castle and grounds, sitting in chairs in nooks and just hanging out in my favourite bathroom in the world (below) – I brought W in to see it and he said, “it smells like girls in here”, and promptly left. (It has a dusty perfume that reminds me of my great aunt.)
Brunch was the most notable meal of the day. The boys were ecstatic to be able to serve themselves Froot Loops, smoothies and bacon. We ate vegetable frittatas, maple bison sausage (they also had a gluten-free chicken apple variety), creamed roasted mushrooms, baked apples stuffed with raisins and walnuts, crispy potato rösti (topped with a bit of corned beef hash!) and sticky, smoky maple baked beans. And a bit of yogurt with granola and berry compote, a wee Danish, coffee, the last of W’s grainy toast with cherry jam. They do the buffet every morning, and I’ve never seen it crowded. Every table has a spectacular view. Don’t you love supporting local business in this way?
I’m writing this in this little nook in the Mt Stephen hall – one of my favourite rooms in the world – one of these days, when I win the lottery or come into some big money or finally marry rich, I’ll throw a huge party here.
I so badly wanted to crash this party.
The boys are in the pool for the fourth time, their orange-sized jawbreakers bought at the Banff candy store yesterday wrapped carefully in the shower caps that come with the room – I always wondered who used them.
February 01 2011 | eating out | 28 Comments »
I love me a good bake sale. Don’t you think there should be more of them?
Today was the third annual Upscale Bake Sale to benefit the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank as part of the CBC Suncor Food Bank Drive. Every December we gather – a few of the best bakers in Calgary and I, along with a slew of volunteers – in the lobby of the Suncor building for one lunch hour and sell as many baked goods as we can muster, with all – one hundred percent – of the proceeds going to benefit the food bank.
Aviv Fried of Sidewalk Citizen Bakery was there with loaves, scones and freshly sliced bread with jam – blackberry from Salt Spring and the Best Damn Jam from the winner of the Bowness jam-a-thon.
The awesome Jennifer from Brûlée Patisserie brought her pecan and cranberry sticky buns (my undoing), wee fruitcakes, Russian tea cakes, shortbread and other delights,
The also very amazing Tanya from Urban Baker brought stollen, loaves of bread – including her rosemary-apple-flax, and vanilla bean marshmallows, sponge toffee, cookies and more.
Pam from Decadent Desserts brought a flourless chocolate torte, a chocolate raspberry-filled yule log, espresso shortbread and the mother of all cookie trays…
… and Toni from Buttercream Bakeshoppe brought cupcakes. EVERYTHING was donated.
All brought far more than that, but there was so much I couldn’t possibly remember every variety of freshly baked goodie. I’m so grateful to all of them for their generosity, for donating not only fantastic, beautifully packaged baked goods, but their time to come down, set up, sell and chat with people. I baked cookies and cupcakes that met their disastrous demise immediately before the bake sale started. I don’t want to talk about it.
The tally just came in – we raised $3492.80 in an hour – which of course translates to $13,968 worth of food for the food bank, since they can turn ever dollar donated into $4 worth of food. Thanks to everyone who came down and helped out, chipped in or bought a sticky bun for a good cause!
It’s been a long day. CBC. Slowfood Calgary steering committee meeting. Bake sale. Work for this magazine, and this one. And some stuff for the new Swerve Calgary website that’s about to launch at the end of this week, and I can’t wait to show you. And then this one had a Christmas party at Rouge. Silver lining: I got to hang with one of my favourite people. Don’t you love clicking on things? Are you procrastinating, too?
Tomorrow I’m meeting with Bernard Callebaut – I can’t even link to his store anymore! – to get the scoop on his new chocolate line. I know the name already, but I’m not telling. Crazy, though, that he’ll be going up against the brand he built for 25 years this holiday season.
Getting punchy. Must away to bed, but wanted to tell you about the bake sale, and thank all the participants (amazing people, all of them) before weeks and months slipped by and I found myself reminiscing in a post about it on some day in February. You know it could happen.
December 07 2010 | eating out | 11 Comments »
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