Category Archives: Alberta

Lovely Lebanese Pita Pies in Leduc, Alberta

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Kassem Fedda (left) and sone Hassen own the delightful Pita Hut Bakery in Leduc, Alberta

Kassem Fedda (left) and son Hassen own the delightful Pita Hut Bakery in Leduc, Alberta

It’s a bone-numbing winter’s day (-35 Celsius with wind chill) as I step inside Leduc’s Pita Hut Bakery, south of Edmonton. So I’m enviously eying the woman stationed in front of a large, metal gas-fired oven. It’s like a pizza oven, complete with the long-handled paddle. But instead of pizzas, she’s tending made-to-order pita pies and stuffed pies, the latter a Lebanese version of a calzone.

For a bargain $4, I get a half-and-half pita pie—zatar (oregano, sumac, sesame seeds and olive oil) on one side and Lebanese cheeses on the other. These savoury mixes are enhanced by my choice of additional briny toppings, including crunchy, pickled turnip. I top things off with some delightfully crispy and slightly oily pita chips and garlic dip and a piece of complementary baklava.

Half zatar, half cheese pita pie for only $4 at Pita Hut Bakery

Half zatar, half cheese pita pie for only $4 at Pita Hut Bakery

Pita Hut is a friendly Lebanese family affair, with father Kassem Fedda assembling the food in the kitchen, his wife tending the oven and son Hassen kibitzing with takeout customers at the front counter when I visit. It’s a great, inexpensive new place for a delicious light meal just two minutes off Highway 2.

Pita Hut Bakery
Unit 40, 4916 50 Avenue, Leduc, Alberta
Monday to Saturday 9 am-7 pm
Pita Hut Bakery on Urbanspoon

Rockin it in Balzac, Alberta

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The Rockin Horse Cafe in whistlestop Balzac is a good place to stop before hitting Calgary

The Rockin Horse Cafe in whistlestop Balzac is a good place to stop before hitting Calgary

Entering the Rockin Horse Cafe, in tiny Balzac north of Calgary, I look at the specials’ menu board and spot Portuguese soup. “I’m a writer,” I say, erasing the second “u” with my finger. Out comes the cellphone, Google is consulted, and I look for a place to hide…. or order beet-red soup.

Rockin Horse owner Raymonde Boisvert not only knows spelling. She also knows soup. Every day, she and her son scratch make three soups from a roster of some 40 in her little cookbook. Today’s choices include macaroni and, of course, Portuguese, the latter a sturdy, tasty mix of chorizo sausage, potatoes, cabbage and beef broth. The regulars, including cowboys and truckers, usually combine the soup with a BLT or clubhouse, but I go for another standout: her mother’s recipe of cinnamon-raisin bread pudding with caramel sauce.

You've got to try the cinnamon-raisin bread pudding, from an old family recipe

You’ve got to try the cinnamon-raisin bread pudding, from an old family recipe

The Rockin Horse is a good last-minute place to stop for breakfast or lunch before hitting or passing through Calgary. It’s less than a minute west of Highway 2 and within spitting distance of the city’s encroaching northern suburbs.

It’s also a good place to work on my spelling. Think they’d let me add an ‘ to Rockin or an é to Cafe?

Raymonde Boisvert runs the show, with the help of son Sean

Raymonde Boisvert runs the show, with the help of son Sean

Rockin Horse Cafe
100 Main Street, Balzac, Alberta
Weekdays 7 am-3 pm, Saturday 8 am-3 pm
Rockin Horse Cafe on Urbanspoon

Country Cooking in Millarville, Alberta

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Quiche and hearty soup feed the country soul at Corner House Cafe in Millarville, Alberta

Quiche and hearty soup feed the country soul at The Corner House Cafe in Millarville, Alberta

Sitting in The Corner House Café feels like being in a farmhouse kitchen. It’s partly the location—in the rolling foothills southwest of Calgary near Millarville, home of Alberta’s original farmers’ market and its century-old horse racetrack. But it’s also about being in this cozy, old house at a table right next to the open kitchen. There, four women are peeling potatoes, manually grating carrots for soup and fixing breakfasts, while chatting amongst themselves and with the regulars.

The short menu features omelettes and Highway Crossing oatmeal at breakfast—chased by Fratello coffee or lattes—and chile, sandwiches and quesadillas at lunch. I’m not usually a quiche person but am intrigued by one with sweet potato crust, which indeed is sweet and crumbly soft. The airy quiche is easily matched by the accompanying bowl of spicy soup, chockfull of sausage and greens in a flavourful broth.

Sitting in the Corner House Cafe is like being in a farm kitchen

Sitting in The Corner House Cafe is like being in a farm kitchen

The building, at the junction of Highway 22 and the turnoff to the Millarville Farmers’ Market, has been owned by the Lee family since 1927. Lorraine Vernon and Tracey Rigon took over the restaurant two years ago and are doing a bang-up job of feeding folks and preserving that laid-back country feel.

The Corner House Café
549 Highway 22, Millarville, Alberta
Tuesday to Friday 7 am- 3pm, Saturday, 8 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday (and all of January 2014)
Corner House Cafe on Urbanspoon

Just down the road in Black Diamond, Jacquie Gabriel and daughter Jan Morgensen have recently opened JnJ Tea Infusion. It’s definitely worth checking out for a wide selection of loose teas—to buy or to enjoy in their Tea Shoppe—along with great muffins and pies baked by Angela Boznianin.

Jacquie Gabriel is serving up great tea and baked goods at JnJ Tea Infusion in Black Diamond

Jacquie Gabriel is serving up great tea and baked goods at JnJ Tea Infusion in Black Diamond

JnJ Tea Infusion
126 Centre Avenue West, Black Diamond
Tuesday to Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday 9 am-4 pm, Saturday 10 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday

Culinary Delights in Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass

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Coleman is an old coal-mining community in Alberta's historic Crowsnest Pass

Coleman is an old coal-mining community in Alberta’s historic Crowsnest Pass

It’s not just the wind that blows through Crowsnest Pass, in Alberta’s southwest corner. Most travellers, too, just breeze by, other than to briefly gawk at the immense boulder rubble from the Frank Slide, fill their gas tanks and maybe get a coffee and blueberry-lemon muffin at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Café (8342 Highway 3). But there’s plenty of mountain scenery and rich coal-mining history to soak up here, plus a couple of first-rate, distinctive eateries to hit along a short stretch of Highway 3 in Coleman.

Good muffins and cinnamon buns at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Cafe in Coleman

Good muffins and cinnamon buns at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Cafe in Coleman

I’ve finally found an opportunity to use the old line: “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup.” To do so, however, I’d have to buy and then drop a tied streamer into my chowder at *Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop, a unique combination of food and fly fishing. One half of the light-filled, wood-floored old house is devoted to flies, rods, reels and cleated boots, the other to dining tables.

Pick up some tied flies at lunch at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

Pick up some tied flies while dining at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

The meals are definitely no afterthought here, with owner Susan Douglas-Murray crafting scratch-made breakfasts and lunches in her small, open kitchen. My generous bowl of steaming, slightly spicy soup is chockfull of roasted root vegetables, while the accompanying wrap is pork tenderloin marinated in a black bean sauce, baked and then rolled inside a lightly toasted tortilla. It’s terrific stuff, especially if I need fuel for an afternoon’s fly fishing with her husband, guide Alan Brice (“trout psychologist”), on the storied Crowsnest River.

Excellent roasted root soup and pork tenderloin wrap at Crowsnest Cafe

Excellent roasted root soup and pork tenderloin wrap at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop
8501 Highway 3, Coleman, Alberta
Winter hours Wednesday to Sunday 8 am-5 pm
Crowsnest Cafe and Fly Shop on Urbanspoon

I’m not sure what’s more unusual about *The Blackbird Restaurant—the authentic Mexican cuisine it’s serving in the tiny community or the high ceiling, 1905 church this new dining spot is located in. Is it further blasphemy when bearded co-owner Brock Jellison arrives at my lunch table and, without asking, starts pouring from a wine bottle into my glass? Actually, it’s just water (turning wine into water?).

Service is not just on Sundays at The Blackbird Restaurant

Service is not just on Sundays at The Blackbird Restaurant

This just sets me up for the next surprise: the excellent tacos that chef Alejandro Verdi is turning out from his small kitchen. There’s one with tender chunks of chicken and a piquant house-made green mole sauce and another with marinated flank steak that’s cooked a perfect medium rare. Sure, the $4 price tag for each is higher than at a streetside taqueria down south, but the size and quality of ingredients and preparation make this darn good value in the frozen north. Even if they have to deal with customers asking for forks.

How about some chicken and flank steak tacos?

How about some chicken and flank steak tacos?

The Blackbird Restaurant
7914 20 Avenue (Highway 3), Coleman, Alberta
Daily 11 am-9 pm, except closed Tuesday. Cash only
Blackbird Coffee House on Urbanspoon

Long Live Longview, Alberta

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Mounir Berrah and his wife run the lovely Rustic Artisan coffeehouse in Longview, Alberta

Mounir Berrah and his wife, Yasmine, run the lovely Rustic Artisan coffeehouse in Longview, Alberta

Longview, a whistle-stop community along Highway 22 southwest of Calgary, used to be known as Little New York during an oil boom of the 1930s. These days, it might well be called Little Morocco, at least from a culinary perspective.

Longview is in the heart of southwest Alberta’s cattle country, so a steakhouse makes perfect sense. But one owned and lovingly operated by a Moroccan family? It doesn’t matter. Just go. As one online reviewer notes, if it’s a choice between a popular beef chain close to his Calgary house and a one-hour drive through the gorgeous foothills to the *Longview Steakhouse, it’s a no brainer. He’s getting in his car. Yes, it’s that good.

My $16 open-face steak sandwich might be the best lunch money I’ve spent this year. The locally sourced steak is a huge strip loin—with a red wine and pepper sauce—that flops over a hapless piece of bread, whose main function is to soak up all those juices. “My God, that’s huge,” I say. “You’re a hungry guy,” replies my friendly, lanky server, Samir Belmoufid.

Massive, tender steak sandwich and amazing apple-rutabaga soup at Longview Steakhouse

Massive, tender steak sandwich and amazing apple-rutabaga soup at Longview Steakhouse

Tender and flavourful as this slab of meat is, the real highlight might be the accompanying bowl of apple-rutabaga soup. There’s some magic going on in this unusual medley of flavours and underlying stock. Well-priced sirloin burgers, a Monte Christo sandwich and a Moroccan lamb sandwich round out the day’s lunch offerings, with tenderloin and New York steaks heading the pricier evening line-up (dinner reservations recommended, especially on weekends).

The Belmoufid family brought a long culinary history when they moved from Calgary to Longview in 1995. They’ve since run this high-end steakhouse in an unpretentious ranch house-style building, though they’ll soon be moving to a new, close-by building. A couple of brothers, their parents and a cousin are involved, and it shows in the close attention to quality, food preparation and personable service. You’re not likely to find a better steakhouse in the big  city.

Longview Steakhouse
102 Morrison Road (Highway 22) Longview, Alberta. 403-558-2000 for reservations
Lunch Tuesday to Friday 11:30 am-1:30 pm, dinner Tuesday to Thursday 5 pm-8 pm, Friday-Saturday 5 pm-9 pm, Sunday 5 pm-8 pm. Closed Monday
Longview Steakhouse on Urbanspoon

The family reach in Longview doesn’t stop at the steakhouse. A short walk down the road, sister Yasmine Belmoufid and husband Mounir Berrah have taken over the old Navajo Mug and turned it into *The Rustic Artisan, a great, cozy little coffeehouse. It features Phil and Sebastian beans that, strangely, seem to taste better here than at P & S outlets in Calgary—at least the double-shot Americano (hold most of the water) that Mounir expertly prepares for me. Maybe, it’s the mountain air. While there isn’t a proper kitchen, the owners scratch make the breakfast paninis, sandwiches, chile and chicken pot pies. “My wife is a trained pastry chef, so why wouldn’t we make our own pies?” Mounir says as he slides a big slab of apple-cranberry pie into a takeout container for me.

Could you resist a slice of this apple-cranberry pie at the Rustic Artisan?

Could you resist a slice of this apple-cranberry pie at the Rustic Artisan?

The Rustic Artisan
140 Morrison Road, Longview
Opens 8:30 am Tuesday to Sunday, closes 6 pm Tuesday, 7 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 8 pm Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday. Note: Closed most of December 2013 and January 2014
The Rustic Artisan Longview Coffee Shop on Urbanspoon

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