Best of Calgary Foods and Drinks

Calgary Farmers Market – South

A big data dump on my favourite Calgary eats and drinks that are independent and “reasonably priced”. Save this list for your dining out pleasure. Organized by category.

Coffee roasters: Devil’s Head Coffee, Sought X Found Coffee Roasters, Chronicle Coffee

Devil’s Head Coffee

Coffee shops: Q.lab, Sought X Found, Sierra Cafe,Rosso Ramsay, MobSquad Cafe, Qamaria Yemeni Coffee

Q.lab and Butter Block

Bakery bread: Begonia Bakehouse, Mari Bakeshop

Mari Bakeshop

Sourdough bread: Butter Bakes

Bakery pastries: Mari Bakeshop, Butter Block, Begonia Bakehouse, Yann Haute Patisserie, Otie Cafe

Begonia Bakehouse

Muffins: Butter Block

Ethnic bakeries: Erina Bakery, Village Pita Bakery

Vegan bakery: Canela Vegan Bakery

Sausage rolls: Yann Haute Patisserie, Blush Lane Organic Market

Bagels: Wayne’s Bagels, Bagel Daze

Basic breakfast: Blue Star Diner

Blue Star Diner

Omelettes: Galaxie Diner

Pancakes, French toast: Blue Star Diner

Eggs Benedict: OEB Breakfast, Sweatered Hen

Breakfast bowls: Diner Deluxe, Poached YYC

Breakfast sandwich: Sunterra Market, Apprentice Cafe

Breakfast burrito: ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen 

Brunch: River Café, Deane House, Park by Sidewalk Citizen

Deane House

Soup: Primal Grounds

Pho: Mot To Vietnamese Restaurant, Pho Dau Bo, Pho Binh Minh, Bee the BanhMi

Bee the BanhMi

Banh Mi: To Me Vietnamese, Bee the BanhMi

Ramen: Shiki Menya, Lonely Mouth Bar, Oishidesu Ramen Shack

Shiki Menya

Sandwiches: Meat & Bread, Grumans Deli, Lazy Loaf & Kettle

Krooked Provisions

Italian sandwiches: Scozzafava’s Deli, Lil’  Black Rooster, Peppino Gourmet Foods 

Steak sandwich: ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen 

Hot chicken sandwich: JinBar, Alumni Sandwiches, Cluck N Cleaver, Birdie 

Sausages: Spolumbo’s Fine Food, Paolini’s Sausage & Meat, Old Munich German Sausage House

Burger: Class Clown Hamburgers, Buchanan’s Chop House, Rocky’s Burgers, Small Bar Bridgeland, Austin’s Bar & Grill

Austin’s Bar & Grill

Drive Ins: Angel’s Drive In, Inglewood Drive In

Drive throughs: To Me Vietnamese

To Me Vietnamese

Eclectic: Krooked Provisions, Hearts Choices

Shawarma: Jimmy’s A & A, Jerusalem Shawarma, Basha Foods International

Krooked Provisions

Donairs: Uncle Moe’s Donairs & Falafels

Lebanese: Beirut Street Food

Beirut Street Food

Middle East Markets: Doughlicious, Basha Foods International

Turkish: Anatolia Turkish Foods, Turca Breakfast House

European: Edelweiss Village

Greek: 2 Greek Gals, The Greek Corner, Santorini Greek Taverna, Spiros Pizza

Latin Markets: Tres Marias Food Market, Fiesta Market & Restaurant

Tacos: Native Tongues Taqueria, Mestizo Taqueria, Tacos Mexico, Taqueria El Chefe

Native Tongues

Filipino: Amihan Grill + Bakeshop, Darwin’s Charcoal BBQ Chicken

Hawaiian: Aloha Modern Kitchen

Poke: Aloha Modern Kitchen, Oishidesu Ramen Shack

Nepalese: Calgary Momo House

Calgary Momo House

Peru: Pio Peruvian

Salvadoran: Que Chivo Salvadoran Street Food

Cheap appetizer: Sabores Mexican Cuisine ($5 tostada), Deepak’s Dhaba ($2 veggie samosas), Doughlicious ($4 zaatar pita pie), Chilitos Taqueria ($6.50 tamal de pollo)

Deepak’s Dhaba

Hangouts: ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen, Lina’s Italian Mercato, Calgary Farmers Market West, Our Daily Brett Market & Cafe

ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen

Character places Deerhead Café

Institutions: Blackfoot Truckstop Diner, Spolumbo’s Fine Foods, Coco Brooks, Jimmy’s A & A, Peters’ Drive-In, Boogie’s Burgers, Glamorgan Bakery, Hy’s Steakhouse, Spiros Pizza & Greek Taverna

Fish & chips: Corner Street Cafe, Pelican Pier, Chippy Dude

Golf course restaurants: Lynx Ridge Golf Club

Italian: Pulcinella, Villa Firenza, Rea’s Italian Cucina

Noodles: Nan’s Noodle House, Niubest Hand-Pulled Noodles

Sushi: Ryuko West Japanese Kitchen

Ryuko Wesr

Chinese: Central Grand Restaurant, BBQ Express

BBQ: Tool Shed Brewing, Prairie Dog Brewing

Salad: Una Pizza + Wine, Seed N Salt

Vegetarian/Vegan: Hearts Choices, Padmanadi, Nan’s Noodle House, Vegan Street

Hearts Choices

Happy Hour: Native Tongues Taqueria, National Westhills, Buchanan’s Chop House, JinBar, Lonely Mouth Bar, Last Best Brewing, Vegan Street, Citizen Brewing

Pizza: Una Pizza, Coco Brooks, Noble Pie Pizza, Azzurri Pizzeria, Pizza Culture Napoletana, Italian Super Market

Beer and Pizza: Two House Brewing, Last Best Brewing, Eighty-Eight Brewing, The Mash, Tailgunner Brewing, Cold Beer & Pizza, Trolley 5

Pita Pies: Village Pita Bakery, Azar Bakery, Doughlicious,

Two House Brewing

Beer and Burgers: Annex Ales, Trolley 5, Citizen Brewing, Bitter Sisters Brewing

Bar food: Trolley 5, National Westhills, Citizen Brewing, Last Best Brewing

National Westhills

Craft breweries: Annex Ales, Cold Garden Beverage, Cabin Brewing, Two House Brewing

Beer: Tokyo Drift (Last Best), seasonal small batch (Annex Ales)

Beer markets/neighbourhood pubs: National Westhills, Austin’s Bar & Grill, Wild Rose Brewery

Pie: Pie Junkie

Doughnuts: Wow Bakery, Doughnut Party, Crème Cream Puffs

Creme Cream Puffs

Ice cream: Amato Gelato, Made by Marcus, Village Ice Cream

Carrots: Beck

Neighbourhood market: Bridgeland Market

Farmers Markets: Crossroads, Avenida, Calgary Farmers Market West and South

Food Court: First Street Market

Spices: Silk Road, Spice Merchant

Dips: Jerusalem Shawarma, Stock & Sauce 

Thai: Thai Siam Restaurent, Hungry Thaiger

Hungry Thaiger

Southeast Asia: Expat Asia

Indian: Deepak’s Dhaba, Calcutta Cricket Club, Leafy Grill, Kondattam Indian Kitchen, Masala Bhavan Indian Restaurant

Korean: Rendezvous, Hankki Korean Street Food, JinBar

Best mac and cheese in Calgary… the known universe?

If you’re expecting an ode to KD getting me through university, you’re sadly mistaken. Instead, here’s a tribute to an epic mac and cheese from the brilliant hands of Krooked Provisions, at Avenida market. This version recently earned owners Leanna and Lyndon an award for Calgary’s best mac and cheese. How about the world?

The winning formula is a magic mix of Scooby noodles, four-cheese sauce, kimchi, cheese curds, aioli and an inspired topping of grated Dorito chips. The $20-price tag might seem a little high, until you consider it’s a two-meal deal… except you can’t stop taking delicious bites until it’s all gone.

The magic mix

My only suggestion: Put this outstanding Mac Kim Cheese on the full-time menu. Otherwise, rush down soonest.

While you’re at the market, stop at Bee the BanhMi for a fabulous, enormous chicken Vietnamese sub, a definite two mealer for only $15 ($2 more for beef).

Fresh & Local Market and Kitchens
12445 Lake Fraser Drive SE, Calgary
Thursday to Sunday, opens at 11 am

BBQ Express

This may be the most colourful lunch experience in Calgary. Also, one of the cheapest and fastest. With business mostly conducted in Chinese.

At tiny BBQ Express, in north-central Calgary, you line up in front of a display case of hanging ducks and other meats. If you’re following the standard of ordering the lunch combo, you’re asked to choose two meats (roast pork, barbecue pork, duck etc.).

And now the colourful really begins: a cleaver-wielding worker starts hacking your chosen meats into bite-sized pieces. These are all stacked atop a mountain of white rice in a takeout container now weighing 29 ounces. And costing $11, cash only.

Because there’s no seating, you’re quickly out the door, with the choice of messily eating with a little fork in your vehicle or waiting till you get home, where it will easily provide two meals.

A little fatty? Sure. But still one of the best lunch deals in the city.

BBQ Express
1403 Centre Street North, Calgary
Daily 10 am-6 pm, except closed Tuesdays

Here’s my big idea: Have an Olympic Games every year.

This means, say, a Winter Olympics one year, a Summer Olympics the next year, a Winter Games the year after and a Summer Games the year after that. In other words, there would be an Olympics of some kind every year. This would replace the current, longtime practice of a Winter Olympics every four years and a Summer Olympics the same.

But why change?

First, there’s an insatiable appetite for televised sports, especially for an immensely popular, iconic event like the Olympics. It nicely fills in “dead” space in the sporting calendar, like the depths of winter or the dog days of summer. What would you rather watch in mid February: the Olympic hockey final (with its 10 million Canadian viewers) or two irrelevant NHL teams going through the motions? Even if you have to get up at 6 am for the former.

But, you might argue, the Olympics are already horrendously expensive for host countries to stage. Wouldn’t a doubling of Games just exacerbate that. Especially when many freshly built facilities are torn down or repurposed right after the closing ceremonies.

Here’s my solution: Have three permanent hosts for each of the Summer and Winter Games, plus a rotating fourth for one-time hosts. So for the Winter Games, your three permanent hosts could include Salt Lake City, the French Alps and Beijing, with Toronto snaring a one-time fourth. For Summer Games, how about London, Los Angeles, Tokyo and a one-time  Brazil? Permanent hosts could reuse their facilities, plus maintain a large pool of professional managers and trained volunteers.

Double-down Olympics would also be a tremendous boon for competing athletes, who spend year years training, developing skills and gaining experience. Under the current format, athletes must wait four years between Games. But what if, on the appointed day/s, they’re too injured or sick to compete? Or get run over by a Korean speed skater or forced to ski in a sudden blizzard? Too bad. Just four more wasted years of their prime,

But under my two-year cycle, they might squeeze in four or five shots at Olympic glory.

Currently, fans quickly form attachments to their nation’s athletes and keenly follow their successes or failures. But once the Olympic lights go out, the fans don’t see, or think about, these athletes for another four long years.

Shorten that wait to two years and stronger bonds are formed. Being in the spotlight every two years could also help these athletes make more money, attract more sponsors and perhaps form professional leagues, like women’s hockey.

Under my two-year Olympic formula, sponsors, advertisers and television networks could conceivably make twice as much money, while higher licensing revenues could help organizers defray costs. Alas, it would also probably lead to more money going to the venal IOC, which frankly should be abolished.

A higher profile could perhaps also prompt national governments to increase spending on their Olympic athletes, who bear the brunt of entertaining we fans. The Canadian government hasn’t increased funding for Olympic athletes since 2005, athletes who often spend $100,000 out of pocket per year. Shameful!

But annual Olympics? Who says no?