Author Archives: bcorbett907

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About bcorbett907

I'm a Calgary-based writer who enjoys exploring the landscapes, and menus, of western U.S./Canada

Instant Backcountry Meals: Heresy or Simple Efficiency?

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Boil, stir and serve: Instant backcountry dinner

Boil, stir and serve: Instant backcountry dinner

Over many years of backpacking and other mountain adventures, I’ve participated in a lot of group dinners where you take turns preparing supper. And these meals can get quite elaborate, to the point where you feel obliged to live up to the delicious organic chicken penne with homemade ragu sauce the person made the night before. Which means spending a lot of time preparing and dehydrating the meal at home, then rehydrating it in camp, stirring endlessly to keep things from burning to bottom of the stainless steel pot and timing everything to be hot at once.

There's no beating this homemade chile. But it's a lot of work, with two stoves going in camp

There’s no beating this homemade chile. But it’s a lot of work, with two stoves going in camp

But as I get older and wiser (lazier?), I’m increasingly tempted to go quick and easy. And if that means not living up to the competition, so be it.

So, you can spend your winters preparing and dehydrating meals for the summer’s backpacks and canoe trips or the spring’s ski traverses. Or you can let someone else do the work for you.

The secret is going instant, i.e. pouring boiling water over various ingredients, maybe simmering a bit and letting sit for a few minutes. Voila! Dinner in five minutes.

I know “instant” is heresy in some backcountry circles, perhaps stemming from the days of cup-of-soups and quick ramens laced with artificial ingredients and MSG. But now, with a wee bit of searching and ingenuity, you can concoct quick meals that are both healthy and quite tasty. And it’s a lot cheaper than buying packaged backcountry meals.

The other day, for example, I prepared a quick black bean dish based mainly on ingredients from my local health food store. I took a cup each of instant black beans and instant, organic brown rice flakes, added a handful of freeze-dried peas and a teaspoon of red chile powder for zip. In camp, I poured all this into about three cups of boiling water in a non-stick aluminum pot, stirred in a package of coconut milk power, let sit for a few minutes and served with grated parmesan cheese. The result was a flavourful meal for two hungry hikers, three with smaller appetites.

By contrast, here's my instant black bean supper ingredients, ready to be boiled and served

By contrast, here’s my instant black bean supper ingredients, ready to be boiled and served

Sure, the consistency kind of resembled porridge. But the good thing about working up a hearty appetite in the great outdoors is everything tastes a little better than at home. And if it saves me many hours of labour, I say sign me up.

And the hungry customer isn't complaining... at least not to my face

And this hungry customer isn’t complaining… at least not to my face

Backpacking Reward: Hearty Burgers in Lake Louise, Alberta

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There's nothing like a week-long backpack into southern Jasper National Park to work up an appetite

There’s nothing like a week-long backpack into southern Jasper National Park to work up an appetite

It’s the end of a week-long backpack in southern Jasper National Park, and the one thing that keeps our feet plodding down the last muddy trail to the car, and civilization, is the mental mantra ham-bur-ger, ham-bur-ger. So it is with stiff legs and famished appetites that we stumble into the Outpost Pub in the darkened bowels of the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, on our way back to Banff. It’s swanky upstairs with a 25,000-bottle wine cellar, but down here—despite the linen napkins and fine European service—they don’t seem to mind my muddy trousers or heavy stubble. And we don’t mind the Lake Louise premium of $15 and up for a burger, especially when it’s six ounces of dense sirloin and a mountain of thin-cut fries, washed down with a pint of Big Rock Traditional. The preliminary basket of chewy, sourdough buns is excellent and somewhat better than the house-made burger bun. But when you’re this hungry, any quibbles are nigh insignificant. For about 10 minutes, the only sound from our table of six is chewing. Or is it inhaling?

Yes, that's a massive sirloin burger behind the mountain of fries at the Outpost Pub in Lake Louise

Yes, that’s a massive sirloin burger behind the mountain of fries at the Outpost Pub in Lake Louise

Outpost Pub in The Post Hotel
200 Pipestone Road, Lake Louise
Monday to Friday 4:30 pm-midnight, weekends noon to midnight
Outpost Pub on Urbanspoon

Sorry, We’re Closed. We Just Didn’t Bother to Tell Anyone

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Sorry, we're not open, and you couldn't find this out till you arrived at our front door

Sorry, we’re not open, and you couldn’t find this out till you arrived at our front door

On a recent Thursday in August, I struck out on three central Alberta restaurants. It wasn’t a series of bad experiences. I just couldn’t get in the locked front doors.

It started with a considerable drive to a north Edmonton breakfast café. But the anticipated pancakes were not to be, since a sign on the door said they were closed for August holidays.

No big deal. I just went to plan B in downtown Edmonton, where after plugging $2 into a meter, I was greeted with a “closed for a four-day break” sign. Rather famished on the drive back to Calgary, I stopped at a Red Deer-area diner. Strike three.

Now, I have no problem with restaurants taking some time off. It’s a tough business, and owners and staff deserve a break, especially in summer when the weather’s nice and kids are on school vacation. Plus, the places I haunt are independently owned and thus free to maintain the schedules they want.

My issue is communicating these closures with prospective customers. To be fair, the first place I ventured to had a notice on its website, in red letters, that it would be closed for a specified period. My bad for not checking.

The other two spots, though, had nothing other than the “closed” sign on the door. One had no web presence whatsoever, the other a Facebook page that hadn’t been updated in months (believe me, both practices are surprisingly common throughout North America). Maybe the regulars were informed of these closures. But anyone, who like me, had heard of these places through Yelp or Urbanspoon and perhaps driven a fair distance to dine there, was s**t out of luck. And let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than a hungry diner scorned.

Now, it’s up to restaurant owners to decide if they want to spend the time and money to take advantage of the considerable advertising power that a website offers. But a Facebook or Twitter account is free and can be set up, and updated, in minutes. So to me, it’s a terrible discourtesy to both regular and potential customers to not take the few minutes—less time, indeed, than to cook a couple of eggs—to let them know you’re not going to be open. Because once burned, I’m not likely to give these places a second chance.

Your thoughts?

Raising the Bar in Brooks, Alberta

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Dinosaur Provincial Park, near Brooks, Alberta, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Dinosaur Provincial Park, near Brooks, Alberta, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

From a tourist perspective, Brooks is best known for its location on the Trans-Canada Highway, between Calgary and Medicine Hat, and for its proximity to Dinosaur Provincial Park, a World Heritage Site famed for its dinosaur beds and badlands. In recent years, Brooks has grown from a southeast Alberta farm town into a small city (population 14,000), with a considerable workforce from sub-Saharan Africa at a large meatpacking plant. The city’s cuisine has also expanded to include reputable Thai and sushi restaurants.

It's hard to see the Brooks Hotel front behind this monster sandwich

It’s hard to see the Brooks Hotel front behind this monster sandwich

But I’m in the mood for the old-time hotel bar scene that Alberta’s small towns are famous for. And the Brooks Hotel (“Established since 1909”) doesn’t disappoint. The wood paneling’s dark, the lighting dim, with the only glow coming from a row of automated gambling machines. Early-afternoon patrons are nursing bottles of Bud, Miller and Kokanee and digging into mountainous sandwiches. Which is what I’m here for. The waitress rattles off half a dozen varieties, and I pick a loaded roast beef, stuffed between two ridiculously thick slices of fresh, soft French bread. It’s $6 for a pound of food, $1.25 more if I add soup. While I’m waiting for my takeout, she asks if I want a glass of ice water or soda: “Slice of lime or lemon with that?” Unpretentious, friendly, incredible value and the kind of roast beef sandwich your mother used to make. What’s not to like?

Where's the roast beef? Buried inside these massive slabs of French bread at the Brooks Hotel

Where’s the roast beef? Buried inside these massive slabs of French bread at the Brooks Hotel

Brooks Hotel
111 1 Street West, Brooks
Daily 10 am-2 am, except 1:30 am Sunday

Lovely Lethbridge, Alberta and its Surprising Food Scene

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The spectacular High Level Bridge spanning the Oldman River Valley in Lethbridge, Alberta

The spectacular High Level Bridge spanning the Oldman River Valley in Lethbridge, Alberta

Lethbridge is my favourite mid-sized Alberta city, with a burgeoning population that’s topped 90,000. Above all, it boasts the spectacular Oldman River Valley, incised by weather-shaped coulees and populated by giant cottonwood poplars on the river flats. If you’re travelling between northern Montana and Calgary/Banff, it’s well worth spending a couple of hours exploring the valley’s half dozen parks, linked by walking/cycling trails.

The valley is also home to two stunning landmarks: the Arthur Erickson-designed University of Lethbridge, built right into some coulees, and the old, long High Level railway bridge. Finally, there’s a considerable Mormon and Japanese influence, so you know things are generally tidy. Yeah, there’s the steady breeze, but not so bad as Crowsnest Pass to the west.

The Lethbridge restaurant scene is now catching up to all this natural splendour. Most mid-sized Alberta cities tend to be culinary wastelands, dominated by chain restaurants in new malls and tried-and-true steak and pizza joints. Not so LA north (Lethbridge, Alberta), where a growing number of independent places are devoted to excellence, local products and generally supporting their community.

These super-sweet tomatoes from Broxburn Vegetables are just the tip of the iceberg for locally produced foods around Lethbridge

These super-sweet tomatoes from Broxburn Vegetables are just the tip of the iceberg for locally produced foods finding their way onto Lethbridge menus

When I spend more than an hour in a coffee shop, it’s invariably because I’m glued to my iPad and its attendant email and Internet tentacles. But at *Cupper’s Coffee & Tea, I don’t even sit down and barely have time to sip one of the best coffees I’ve had in a long, long time—a formidably strong Costa Rican, carefully poured through a Chemex dripper by David. That’s because I’m locked in an intense conversation with owner Al Anctil about all things coffee. Suffice to say, he’s passionate about his craft.

David making a high-test Chemex pot of Costa Rican in Cupper's Coffee & Tea

David making a high-test Chemex pot of Costa Rican in Cupper’s Coffee & Tea

A former sculptor, Al—along with a thermodynamic PhD buddy and hot-rod building brother—built a complex roaster that allows the custom roasting of some 34 types of the world’s finest beans, none of which sit for more than three days. Cupper’s has only one, coffee-shaped table, with two chairs, so its espresso-based or drip coffees are mostly to go, though it does supply many local restaurants and cafes, including Anctil’s former business, Penny Coffee House. But it does have the most impressive collection of coffee- and tea-making machinery and paraphernalia I’ve ever seen. And it’s well worth picking up a pound or two of beans and getting on the mailing list. Cupper’s even ships beans to a financial company in Japan. It’s that good.

Cupper's owner Al Anctil and the sophisticated roaster he helped build

Cupper’s owner Al Anctil and the sophisticated roaster he helped build

Cupper’s Coffee & Tea
1502C 3 Avenue South, Lethbridge
Monday to Friday 9 am-5:30 pm, Satuday 9 am-5 pm. Closed Sunday
Cuppers Coffee and Tea on Urbanspoon

I’m not sure what’s better about *Round Street Café, the food or the story. First, the food. Let’s make it simple. Just order the grilled chicken, brie and avocado sandwich on multigrain ($8.50), the silky combination of flavours wonderfully complemented by the seedy bread. Add a soup or salad, if you wish, but make sure you leave room for a thick slice of fruit pie.

A marvellous grilled chicken, brie and avocado sandwich at Round Street Cafe

A marvellous grilled chicken, brie and avocado sandwich at Round Street Cafe

Now the story—this from Cupper’s owner Al Anctil’s perspective, since Round Street owner Bonny Greenshields is not around when I stop for lunch. A retired high school teacher, Bonny wanted to start a café and consulted Al, who spent the first two meetings fruitlessly trying to convince her not to. She ignored his advice and made the restaurant successful enough to be included in Where to Eat in Canada. But the real story is how she’s helped feed and otherwise help the city’s homeless and otherwise needy folks. So, the breakfast and lunch food is fabulous, but it’s Bonny’s contribution to community that’s the real winner.

Round Street Cafe
427 5 Street South, Lethbridge
Weekdays 7 am- 5 pm, Saturday 9 am-5 pm. Closed Sunday
Round Street Cafe on Urbanspoon

Mocha Cabana is another Lethbridge restaurant devoted to fine food and community. It uses lots of locally sourced meat, dairy and vegetables and employs chefs in or graduated from the Lethbridge College Culinary Program. On weekends, they’re free to create three-course dinners, with local musicians playing in the background. But I’m here for breakfast and a delightful Mocha Scrambler. Despite the somewhat leisurely service, the dish arrives from the oven smoking hot, the cheese nicely melted with hollandaise sauce into fluffy eggs, riding atop a nice medley of pan fries, bacon chunks and red onions. It’s a filling, flavourful meal, washed down by a couple of good mugs of Cupper’s coffee.

A smoking hot, fluffy Mocha Scrambler at Mocha Cabana

A smoking hot, fluffy Mocha Scrambler at Mocha Cabana

Mocha Cabana
317 4 Street South, Lethbridge
Monday to Thursday 8 am-9 pm, Friday 8 am-10 pm, Saturday 9 am-10 pm, Sunday 9 am-4 pm
Mocha Cabana Cafe on Urbanspoon

Heritage Day Harvest in Calgary

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Food Trucks gathered for Heritage Day at Calgary's Kingsland Farmers' Market

Food Trucks gathered for Heritage Day at Calgary’s Kingsland Farmers’ Market

Heritage Day, a holiday the first Monday of August, celebrates Alberta’s ever-growing multicultural roots. So what better way to honour that diversity than to head down to the Kingsland Farmers’ Market to sample produce and cheese from various vendors, order a plate of food from an ethnic restaurant stall or grab a Vietnamese sub or Cajun sandwich from one of half a dozen food trucks on hand for the day.

Nothing says ethnic food like a blackened catfish po-boy, served by the Sticky Ricky's food truck

Nothing says ethnic food like a blackened catfish po-boy, served by the Sticky Ricky’s food truck