DezH's Profile
Pizza Construction in Canmore
Love them- we saw the delivery car all over the place, thought the sign was cute and ordered just to try once and we're fans. My mom lives in Canmore and that's our pizza of choice when we go down there. Actually wish they had one in Edmonton, because the pizza is no great hell here. I like the Swiss one.
I echo the praise of the Summit- it's our favorite breakfast place in Alberta. Solid mexican inspired brekkies, great coffee and always something good in muffin selection.
The little convenience store next door has got some nice baked goods as well. The fresh donuts are particularly evily delicious...
I have not tried the Thai place- my hubby has a shellfish allergy, so we're pretty careful about Asian food (as in he pretty much can't eat it).
Banff - americanos, breakfasts and dinners
My favorite brekkie place in Canmore is The Summit (on the other side of the highway and up the hill). Great coffee, lots of breakfast options (including lots of Mexican influenced options) and always a couple of terrific muffins (pumpkin choc chip, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry cornmeal, raspberry lime, mango- usually one traditional and one creative).
crab rangoons
Panda Hut Express in Edmonton (23 Ave and 109 St.) has Crab & Cream Cheese wontons, if that's the same thing. I had them once at a work lunch.
I only have Chinese when my husband is out of town as he's allergic to shellfish. Panda Hut is fairly Americanized, but veggies are not overcooked and their service, including delivery drivers are extremely friendly and gracious. My delivery driver the last time I ordered thanked me about five times.
Sorry I can't offer any tips on Calgary- I can hardly offer many on Edmonton, due to being a solo diner.
Famoso Pizza coming to Calgary
I recommend the famoso salad- absolutely delicious:
"Crisp romaine lettuce, spicy sopressata, fire-roasted
chicken breast, prosciutto crisps, matchstick carrots,
chopped cherry tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, tossed
in Dijon-balsamic vinaigrette."
Went with a large group at the downtown location- was very zoo-ey. I live on the south side, so was delighted when they opened two locations near us in Mcgrath and South Common.
Love the mozza balls too. They had a great temporary special of a duck pizza that was very tasty.
Edmonton's Best Hidden Gems
I never found any great fish & chips places in Vancouver in eight years of living in BC. I'm from the Maritimes, so I'm picky on that score. First few times we went to Brit's I was very impressed (best I'd had out west), but I agree it can be greasy and has gotten worse lately.
We like Simon King at 51st Ave and 91 St for Donair. Hubby has tried their chicken shawarma and enjoyed it.
Italian, have not found a pasta or full italian dishes that we love, but Famosa Pizza has lovely thin crust pizzas and best salads I've had in Edmonton. The downtown location was insane and don't know if it has eased any since they've opened up locations at South Common and Terwillegar/McGrath.
Cora's has good food (Calgary Trail and 23rd) but they need to work out a few kinks and get an expediter. The kitchen is slooooow but they are still new.
Other breakfast spot I like is Fresh Start Bakery next to the TD on Rabbit Hill Road. Love their breakfast burrito.
Finally got to try Chicken for Lunch today: just barely made it in under the wire. The noodles were a little bottom of the barrel but the rest was excellent! I will have to try to get away for lunch earlier. Amy is a little tazmanian devil- she never stops moving! Love her!
Other places we like- love New Asian Village on 34 Ave- no messing around with endless waits, reliable food, excellent service.
We like Mary Brown's chicken when we're in a total junk food mood, although unlike KFC, it is recognizably used to be a chicken. Crispier and doesn't totally become stomach turning smelling if you don't eat it within five minutes- it's ok on the ride home. Newfoundland favorite are available at the little store next door on 50th street- Purity Cookies!
We like Chicago Deep Deep Dish Pizza on Whyte, but they are super slow on delivery, but if we call just before leaving downtown, it's usually ready to pick up by the time we get there.
Sunterra has great dips and bakery and terrific meat counter (pork from Canmore).
Italian Centre is a great resource for all kinds of European foods. Excellent deli.
I agree with another commenter- no good bagels here though. If someone has a recommendation for something like Solly's in |Vancouver, I'm all ears.
Very best cupcake recipe? (Just tried Sprinkle's recipe, and not impressed!)
If you`re not anti-Martha, she has a recent cupcake book and recipes from it have been heavily featured on the website.
http://www.marthastewart.com/cupcake-recipes
Maybe you will find something that fits the bill there. Four pages in the list of links- so I`m guessing about 40+ recipes. Plus Martha has fairly active commenters who make suggestions and describe the recipes so you might get a pretty good idea of what the recipe is like.
Not something I make more than once every five years, so no favorite recipes personally.
Calgary Safeways
I stopped shopping at one of the Safeways in Edmonton when there was a gag inducing smell that was near the hot food cart (chicken) or soup stand. It smelled like rotten meat mixed with nursing home with a sanitation problem. A brief return visit a month later, still there. Not an area easily avoided because it's right near one of the main entrances and at the foot of the dairy aisle.
Meinhardt Fine Foods - Calgary
Sounds like they have exciting stuff in the works- we lived a block from the store at Granville and 14th and it was our local for eggs, bread and milk. Yes, they have the expensive exclusive brands and the exotics, but they also had very reasonably priced basics considering the neighborhood. You just had to be careful to avoid the stuff at eye level like the $20 jars of spaghetti sauce. They also carry the ordinary brands and pricewise, it was on par with Safeway's prices when they weren't flyer items (ie. overpriced but not obscenely so).
I know Linda fairly well actually from a class we took and saw her frequently at the store. She is a really interesting person and glad to see the business flourishing. I hope she expands to Edmonton.
5 "Must Have" cookware?
We have a small kitchen as well, so there are a lot of things I would love to have (Paderno puts an enormous stockpot in their bi-annual sale at 70% off that I keep saying "when I have a proper kitchen) but don't because I just don't have the room. One thing that I have that I really like is a large, high sided skillet (called sometimes a texas skillet) that I make do for a frying pan, stir fry pan and for cooking batches of chili or spaghetti sauce.
Other things I love my Paderno egg pan- it's a rectangle about 4x6 inches (a little larger than a cue card- http://www.paderno.com/products/product.cfm?ID=797) and it's great for a couple of eggs or a mini omelet or just warming up a bit of something.
If I had to narrow it down to just a few more things, can't live without my dutch oven (for pasta, casseroles) and two saucepans (although I use the larger one more). I have a small rice cooker- it's maybe a space luxury, but once you've used one, can't cook it in anything else. I have a crock pot, but I don't use it as much as I should. I use it maybe once a month and if I was smart, I would use it twice a week. I just can't get into it.
The main thing is figure out what you can't live without. If you buy a set, you often wind up with at least a couple of things you just won't use and when space is an issue, it's a real waste. I would recommend going with the same brand for open stock pieces, so there's a better chance you can nest them. I also recommend going with items that can go in the oven, to give you more flexibility and save you having to buy casserole dishes that will take up space.
Favourite beer?
Have you tried the Keith's Red? We thought it was a mythical beast when the billboards first went up, but was talking to a manger at Liquor Depot and he said they way underestimated how it would sell. There's more Maritimers in Alberta than there are back home and the stuff just flew. We laid hands on it Thanksgiving weekend and bought two cases (the second because we liked the taste of the first bottles and we saw they had the birthday mugs at Sobey's). I like it. My husband is deeply suspicious of calling it Keith's- his feelings are that if it didn't come from AK's recipe book, it isn't Keith's but he's been drinking it anyway.
Suggestions for Calgary's best bread?
I was a bit disappointed with the selection at the Sherwood Park COBs store on a Saturday morning- it was not especially early. They bake fresh every day, but apparently they're not of the start at 4am variety of bakery. There seemed to be quite a lot in the shaping and proofing stage, but only a few varieties were ready by about 11am. They had the basics ready to go, but were missing most of the fancy items and the fruit bread.
And unless they've got a really specialized bread slicer with no adjustability (which would surprise me because anything I buy there, they offer to slice-not just the ones baked in a pan, but the more free-form items too) they should just be able to turn it around and slice it lengthwise.
Vancouver nibbles...
Our experience with 942 (not recently- around 2002-3) was that they served "small plates" that they sent out one at a time and claimed they were "tapas" to excuse the fact that they can't get an entire table's order out at once. Except that the menu as it was (and a quick check online reveals it's still the same) is that it's not tapas as I've ever had it- ie. individual dishes of meat or starch or veg- it's little complete mini-meals. And even if it were traditional style tapas, you would expect you wouldn't have to wait 10-20 minutes between each individual plate being delivered. We tried it twice and while the food was great (once it arrived), my experiences with a group of three or four were frustrating. I don't mind taking a taste off my husband's plate, but from what I remembered, they just kind of delivered one plate that looked like a regular meal and kind of expected us to all dig in at once.
Edmonton Bagels
Yeah, it's the shipping that's the killer on that one though- almost $100 total for overnight shipping of six dozen, so more than $16 a dozen.
And it does not get any cheaper to order more to save on shipping.
And they are best when freshly shovelled out of the oven.
Edmonton Bagels
Hey, hubby was just saying "I feel like something. Maybe a bagel. Unfortunately in Edmonton, this is a difficult thing."
So, suggestions, please. Most of the ones we've tried are too big and bready. Doesn't need to be spot on Montreal style. Our faves from Vancouver were Solly's which were moderate in size and chewy on the outside and even textured and dense on the inside.
Thanks.
"Hotel Room Gourmet" contest - with only a coffeemaker & a microwave
OK, now I know why the last pot of coffee I made in a hotel room tasted like boiled boxer shorts. It's all the trout, bologna, eggs, broccoli and scallops that have come before.
With out question - the best cake I've had
I wish I liked bananas- it sounds interesting. Just can't even smell them though. I wonder could you somehow substitute pumpkin?
Two great meals in Burnaby/Vancouver
We've been to Samba a few times and it's always good. I agree that the salad bar is kind of hit and miss, but my hubby particularly likes the beans/rice/cheese thing.
Did you get a dance performance?
Best breakfast joints in Western Canada
My faves and my favorite things there if I can remember what they are:
Vancouver:
Sophies: I usually have either the veggie omelet or one of their mexicanish eggs dishes and I steal part of hubby's pancakes (buckwheaty? with a little cinnamon flavor I think- awesome). We made sure to go when we were in town for the weekend.
Elbow Room: any of the creatively named omelettes or egg dishes.
DeDutch Pannekoek House: perogy pannekoek of some variety.
Victoria:
Olive Olio's (Cadboro Bay- below the UVic campus): best cinnamon buns ever. Many other tasty baked goods, as well as lovely coffee
John's Place: nothings terribly fancy, but terrific service, excellent eggs benny (with delicious ham) and we haven't found a place we like as well in Edmonton or Vancouver.
Edmonton:
Still exploring Edmonton, but so far we've tried
High Level Diner: good food, long wait, but good service once you get in. Love the fruit smoothies, omelets a little too much like I make at home- very free form.
Blue Plate Diner: good food, good service, menu was small and heavily salsaed.
Best Pizza in YVR?
Flying Wedge has barely OK pizza and the delivery service is so flaky as to make it fall off the list of possibilities. I think the last straw for us was when they called us back 40 minutes after we ordered and said "Uh, y'know, can you come pick up your pizza. Our delivery guy's car battery just died." Uh, no. We don't own a car. We can't come get our pizza you bloody gits.
Anyway. We liked Martini's on Broadway. Especially the Special, which has smoked meat on it (among many other things) and my choice of Spinach Feta and Tomato.
