Revelstoke Rules!

Leave a reply
Terra Firma is the latest in great Revelstoke bakeries

It hardly seems fair that the B.C. mountain community of Revelstoke enjoys such advantages. Aforementioned mountains. Stellar powder skiing. Charming houses with steep metal roofs to shed all that snow.

Okay, there are a few downsides. Often gloomy skies in winter. Soaring real estate prices (like many B.C. cities and towns). High-density developments threatening the charming neighbourhoods. Lack of affordable housing for tourism-industry staff.

But there’s a reason for this Revelstoke boom. It’s simply a great place to live.

Perhaps the most obvious sign of this unfairness is an abundance of places to eat and drink for a town of 8,200 residents. A quick sampling: fabulous Woolsey Creek Bistro, Paramjit’s Kitchen (Indian), Village Idiot pizza and Mt. Begbie Brewing, one of B.C.’s early craft beer makers.

But it’s the plethora of bakeries that pushes Revelstoke over the top. Modern Bakeshop & Café has been churning out great baked goods since 2005. And I’ve stopped at La Baguette more times than any other place in all my Marathon Mouth travels. Indeed, it’s one of my favourite bakeries in western North America.

Now, there’s a third contender: Terra Firma Kitchen. Ostensibly, it’s a farm-to-table restaurant, with plentiful ingredients from its nearby farm. But it’s the bakery we’ve come to check out, specifically its naturally leavened sourdough bread, of course featuring local ingredients. I devour an excellent savoury scone and start tearing into the fabulous loaf before we even leave town.

Think you could refrain from tearing into this sourdough loaf?

Our last stop is at Local Food Initiative, a block-long, outdoor Saturday farmers’ market that can rival most big-city markets. There’s Stoke Roasted Coffee at one end and the lined-up Monashee Spirits Distillery at the other.

There’s a lineup to buy bottles of Monashee Spirits

In between are three or four (I lost count) vegetable growers, where we load up on big bags of various organic salad greens from market fixture Wild Flight Farm, out of Mara, and local First Light Farm. They’re harvesting these greens in early June, when the seedlings in my Calgary garden are scarcely peeking out of the ground.

A great mix of lettuces, harvested at Wild Flight Farm in early June

It’s really isn’t fair. Damn you, Revelstoke!

Terra Firma Kitchen
415A Victoria Road, Revelstoke, B.C.
Daily 7 am-4 pm
250-805-0646

Local Food Initiative Farmers’ Market
First Street East between Mackenzie and Orton Avenues, Revelstoke
Saturday 8 am-1 pm till mid-October

The Golden Age of Beer

Leave a reply
We’ve never had it so good when it comes to local beer

I think most people would agree the past couple of years have been the worst of times. Let’s see: A never-ending pandemic, lawless blockades, travel restrictions, Russian invasion of Ukraine, through-the-roof inflation, out-of-control guns and courts to our south. Did I mention climate change and the threat of heat and smoke this summer? It’s all pretty depressing.

Which is why it was so cheering, the other day, to see the cashier at my nearby Calgary Co-Op liquor store look at the diverse selection of local ales I was buying (for reasons why, refer to the paragraph above) and declare: “It’s the golden age of beer.”

I can certainly drink to that.

Gardening’s been pretty great, too

Jimmy’s A&A Still an A-plus

Leave a reply
Jimmy’s A&A still boast the best chicken shawarmas in Calgary

Usually, I’d rather crawl over broken glass than wait in line at a restaurant. My line-busting strategy includes showing up when the place opens, arriving at the end of a meal cycle (such as 2 pm for lunch) and never going for weekend brunch.

But as Covid restrictions reach their meaningful end, it’s kinda nice to see folks at 11:30 am lining up for lunch at Calgary’s beloved Jimmy’s A&A Mediterranean Deli. It’s a testament to the loyal following for the colourful Jimmy and his giant, excellent shawarmas. “It’s the bomb,” says a waiting fire fighter.

All walks of life line up at Jimmy’s

Not much has changed over the years, other than metal siding replacing the stucco of this former corner store. The long, darkened interior is still jammed full of Middle Eastern foodstuffs, more than most delis. Jimmy’s is also still primarily a takeout place, with most folks ignoring the smattering of plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk.

Just a smattering of the deli offerings

Like most restaurants post pandemic, prices have gone up. But when my “medium” chicken shawarma tips the scales at a kilo, the $14.75 charge still offers great value, especially when this food bomb essentially feeds two. But of course, I’ve devoured the whole thing within minutes of getting back in my car.

A one-kilo “medium” shawarma

Jimmy’s remains one of the best and most colourful cheap-eats experiences in Calgary.

Jimmy’s A&A Mediterranean Deli
1401 20 Avenue NW and one other Calgary location
Monday to Saturday 10 am-10 pm, Sunday 10 am-8 pm
403-289-1400

Not So Rapid Covid Test

2 Replies
The not so rapid Covid test kit

“You’re on your own now.”

That’s pretty much been the message recently for anyone trying to figure out if they have Covid and what, if anything, they should do to treat or recover from it.

This laissez faire attitude certainly applies to rapid self testing for Covid, which is essentially the only test you can get, unless you end up in emergency and get a professional (PCR) test instead. Even your family doctor doesn’t really want to see you in person.

So the rapid test is what most of us are stuck with. How accurate is it? Pretty good for indicating if you have Covid, but only middling if you test negative. In other words, you probably need at least two negative tests within a couple of days to be reasonably sure.

So, when I recently experienced a few ambiguous symptoms, I picked up a rapid-test box, which in exceedingly small type indicated there were five test kits inside. But the real shock was opening the box and discovering not just six bags of various gear but also a huge sheet of miniscule instructions.

Hope you brought a magnifying glass

Most of the verbiage, I’m sure, is to cover the manufacturers’ asses. But really, folks, isn’t the intention to make this test as simple and easy to understand as possible for people stressed out about if they have Covid?

Apparently not. “Insert the swab through the anterior nares in contact with nasal septum… until mild resistance is encountered at the middle turbinate.” Know what that means? Me neither, and I write for a living. How about “Gently insert the sterile swab into the nostril parallel to the palate… indicating contact with the nasopharynx?”

You have to sort through all this gear to perform the dozen steps of a “rapid” test

Good luck if English is your second language, you’re suffering brain fog from Covid and can’t concentrate, need to test without any hands-on help because, well, you might well have Covid or, like me, haven’t brushed up recently on the Latin names of nasal parts.

There is a laminated, illustrated card included in the kits, But I’d hardly call it a quick guide, as there are a dozen steps to be completed to find out, maybe, if you have Covid. And it still includes words like “nasal septum” and “middle turbinate”.

Thankfully, there are Youtube videos that more clearly, and in plain English, show the proper way to follow the numerous steps to a rapid-test result. On my Rapid Response box, there is a website (www.btnx.com) for finding said video, though again it’s in miniscule type.

And the instructional video is NINE minutes long. Good luck keeping up if you’ve got brain fog.

Would You Like Chips With Those Fries?

Leave a reply
Plate of fries a full-meal deal at Calgary’s Holy Grill

I once worked a summer cleaning clubs at an Edmonton golf course. The pay was poor, the work monotonous.

About the only perk was being able to order, from the clubhouse kitchen, an overflowing dinner plate of steaming fries and gravy, for the princely sum of, I think, 50 cents. Best fries I ever ate and a complete meal, even for a hungry 17-year-old.

Which is by way of explaining why I’m including an order of fries at Calgary’s Holy Grill as a complete lunch in this Calgary under-$10 lunch series. First, an order of hand-cut fries is only $4.95, a buck extra with a house-made garlic, chili and sour cream dip.

Second, you get a generous mound of fries, enough to satisfy a moderate noontime appetite. Third, these are damn good, hot, salty, made-to-order fries, worthy of your full attention, not some accompaniment.

The flagship Holy Grill location is across the downtown street from MEC

Yes, there are a few other, healthier under-$10 items—including a bacon, avocado, fried-egg crisp and a half, roasted beet salad (both $9.35)—on Holy Grill’s menu. Just missing the mark are an impressive blackened chicken burger ($10.70) and a solid list of paninis (all $11).

But when fries are this good, it’s sometimes worth moving them from a side-of-the-plate afterthought to starring attraction.

Note: The only place in all my road-trip food travels where fries were the featured attraction was Boise Fry Company, in the potato capital of Idaho. There you can order five types of potatoes in five cuts, including shoestring and curly.

Holy Grill
827 10 Avenue SW and three other Calgary locations
Opens weekdays at 7:30 am and weekends at 10 am
403-261-9759

Succulent Strawberries Grown in the Dead of Alberta Winter

Leave a reply
Fresh Dutchess strawberries galore at Sunterra Market

I’ve written recently about the growing trend of Calgary-area grocery and convenience stores selling a variety of locally produced foods. Now, Sunterra Market has taken things a step further with the introduction of superb strawberries grown locally in the dead of Alberta winter.

Actually, the provincial grocer aims to produce its Dutchess strawberries year round in greenhouses on the company’s farms near Acme in central Alberta. Unlike strawberries grown in, say, southern California or Mexico and picked when wooden and insipid tasting for their long journey to Canada, the Dutchess varieties are vine ripened and shipped to Sunterra outlets within a day of being hand picked.

Yes, they cost a little more than their industrial competitors. But one bite into these bursts of flavour, and you’ll never go back.

Bite into these succulent beauts and you’ll never go back

Let’s add up the advantages. Great flavour, locally produced, drastically reduced transportation emissions. I think we have a winner.

The Dutchess strawberries, like Sunterra’s pork products, are the latest instance of the company’s vertical integration; i.e. they control the entire process from farm to grocery shelves. Another recent example is vine-ripened tomatoes grown in Sunterra greenhouses.

Can’t beat these vine-ripened tomatoes

Sunterra’s nine Alberta grocery stores are also offering local veggies—like fabulous heads of lettuce from other local producers like Lyalta Gardens and Clearwater Ridge.

Local, living lettuce is all the rage

Promoting locally produced foods is hardly a new idea, witness the long-standing farm-to-fork and 100-mile diet movements. But given all the global disruptions from the pandemic to war in Ukraine, I foresee a much greater preference for buying local, whether it’s smart phones or vine-ripened strawberries.

Sunterra Market
1851 Sirocco Drive SW, Calgary, and eight other Alberta locations
Daily 8 am-9 pm
403-266-3049