Monthly Archives: September 2013

The Best Toast Ever? In Revestoke, B.C., of All Places

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Mind-blowingly good "healthy bread" toast at La Baguette in Revelstoke, B.C.

Mind-blowingly good “healthy bread” toast at La Baguette in Revelstoke, B.C.

Passing through Revelstoke, I stop once again at La Baguette, my favourite bakery/cafe between Calgary and Vancouver. Heck, its breads may be better than anything I’ve found in those two cities. This time, I order the Healthy Bread, a sandwich of toasted, round bread with melted cream cheese or three-berry jam in the middle. No ordinary toast, this is a magical blend of kamut flour, flax, coconut and dates—wonderfully soft in the middle and slightly crunchy from the oat-flake topping. It’s mind-blowingly good, and at $3.50 a steal of a light breakfast deal. Who needs eggs and bacon?

Of course, I blow my savings on a $9 loaf of gluten-free bread, a gift for a g-f friend. The server attributes the premium to the high cost of the ingredients. But weighing in at three pounds, it’s still pretty good cost-per-weight value. And it’s no doorstop, but instead a surprisingly moist, chewy loaf, quite wonderful toasted, as my friend can attest after wolfing down three slices.

This gluten-free bread, from La Baguette in Revelstoke, is almost wonderfully dense enough to bend my wrist.

This gluten-free bread, from La Baguette in Revelstoke, is almost wonderfully dense enough to bend my wrist.

All this healthy baking is almost enough to get me on the g-f bandwagon. Nah. We just need more of the world’s bakers to follow La Baguette’s lead. My bar for lowly toast has just been substantially raised.

La Baguette
607 Victoria Road, Revelstoke, B.C.
Daily 6:30 am-7 pm

Healthy, scrumptious eating at Calgary’s Community Natural Foods

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Lots of healthy, tasty choices at Community Cafe in Community Natural Foods

Lots of healthy, tasty choices at Community Cafe in Community Natural Foods

Hey, I’m hitting the road for a trip down the U.S. west coast (you know, Washington, Oregon, California), and the beast must be fed. If you have any good eatery/drinkery suggestions of places I “must” hit, please let me know. In the meantime, one last healthy Calgary meal.

I don’t know why, but I hadn’t eaten at Community Natural Foods in a number of years. Maybe it was the oh-so-serious vibe I was getting, at Calgary’s flagship health food outlet, about what people were putting in their bodies. But when I glanced into the store’s busy Community Café the other day, there were lots of relaxed-looking, regular folks (okay, there was one guy with dreadlocks) filling their lunch plates from the cafeteria-style stations. Better yet, there was a diverse selection of fresh, healthy food at reasonable prices. It all passed my eye test, to the point where I couldn’t decide between a $3 small slice of pizza, an $8 meat sandwich (yes, MEAT), wild rice cabbage rolls or one of the best salad bars you’ll find in the city. Both the hot dishes and salads are $2.49 per 100 grams, so there’s some incentive to not overeat, which is kind of the point, I guess, at a health food emporium.

I settled on a hearty chicken burrito ($8), which server Evan loaded with brown rice, mozza, spring mix lettuce, avocado, salsa, hot sauce and anything else my heart desired. It was a fine medley of flavourful food rolled tightly enough inside a large whole-wheat tortilla to permit only minor seepage down my wrists. My only criticism was the single cashier, causing a slight delay that could cool one’s food off during lunch rush hour. The only other problem was all the other dishes I could have eaten, like the pumpkin lasagna. Guess I’ll have to start making up for lost time.

It's by no means all vegetarian at Community Cafe, witness this hearty chicken burrito

It’s by no means all vegetarian at Community Cafe, witness this hearty chicken burrito. The fact it’s not swimming in cheese and sauce may make it less photogenic, but my heart appreciates the restraint

The Community Cafe at Community Natural Foods
1304 10 Avenue SW, Calgary
Weekdays 9 am-7 pm, Saturday 9 am-5 pm, Sunday 10 am-4 pm