Words at the bottom of the enamel mugs are one of the many nice touches at Calgary’s Monogram Coffee.
Build it splendidly, and they will come.
That’s certainly the case at Monogram Coffee, situated in an isolated strip mall in Calgary’s Altadore neighbourhood, miles from any centre of commerce. Yet the obscure location hasn’t stopped local java aficionados from finding and frequenting this little cafe, which has already expanded since opening last year. It doesn’t hurt that it’s handy to a dog park, with space outside to hitch the pooch while getting your caffeine fix. Continue reading →
The brioche bread makes this scintillating croque monsieur at Calgary’s Manuel Latruwe bakery
The conventional image of a croque monsieur is a béchamel-soaked ham sandwich, baked till the blanketing cheese (say a Gruyere) bubbles over.
But it took a trip to Calgary Belgian baker Manuel Latruwe for me to realize the essence of this caloric confection is the bread. Which in this case is a wonderfully soft, house-made brioche, offsetting the sandwich’s crunch (croque) and adding a layer of richness to this French standard. Continue reading →
Everyone’s a critic when it comes to online restaurant reviews. Which can lead to some hilarious bloopers
When researching potential places to eat and drink during my long, intensive road-food trips, I spend considerable time reading online reviews from TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zomato (nee Urbanspoon) and their ilk.
Occasionally, I run across some unintended zingers, often the result of a fortuitous spelling mistake, no doubt committed while typing with thick thumbs on a smartphone with a mind of its own. So here, for your consuming pleasure, are some of my favourite online reviews. The sources shall remain anonymous, to protect the guilty. Comments in italics are mine.
The coffee here is excellent, which is likely the most important thing about a coffee shop (lol)… for me personally, I’m not a coffee drinker.
I only had iced tea (preceding a six-paragraph, five-star review).
Full disclosure (after a lengthy review): I did not eat here.
The hours are kind of strange, as they close before a person under 60 would even consider eating dinner….I wish this place were a Filiberto’s style late-night place, but alas, I’ll be forced to eat here sober.
I don’t feel right writing about a bakery because I rarely eat bread and don’t have much of a sweet tooth (in the midst of a five-paragraph review).Continue reading →
I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t simply exercise your way to weight loss. Indeed, calories consumed (or not consumed) are much more important than calories burned. For example, if I reward a 40-minute run (475 calories burned) with a cheeseburger, fries and pint of beer (1,150 calories consumed), I have a net gain of 675 calories. Gulp!
But there are obvious reasons for exercising. It leads to better fitness for strenuous activities I enjoy like hiking, mountaineering and backcountry skiing. And from a weight-loss perspective, exercise makes me feel better and less likely to a) eat bad things and b) excessively snack, primarily out of boredom. So in a roundabout way, exercise does help me eat better and keep the pounds at bay.
The problem is that in the dead of winter, I’m not inclined (too lazy) to run outside. The trick, then, is finding sufficient motivation to run around a gym track, hamster style, for dozens of laps. The solution, for me, is listening to tunes, on an iPod and headphones, sufficiently upbeat to keep my legs churning for 40 minutes.
So here’s a favourite workout soundtrack, all based on songs released in 2015. No tedious classic rock for this aging boomer.
1. Grimes: Kill V Maim
This is pure fun from my favourite 2015 album. Wakes me from the dead.
2. Kurt Vile: Pretty Pimpin
A great song for propelling me around the track.
3. Sharon Van Etten: I Don’t Want to Let You Down
Rhythmically hypnotic. Continue reading →
Listeners to CBC Radio’s Alberta noon program weighed in on their favourite road-trip food picks
I was on CBC Radio’s Alberta at Noon show the other day, talking about my new Marathon Mouth ebook on great road-trip eats in the western U.S./Canada.
But the real stars were the province-wide listeners who called in or tweeted to champion their favourite food stops near or far from their homes. And despite my extensive research trips, many of their picks were places I’d never heard of. So this post is dedicated to their suggestions (I hope my spelling guesses of their names is reasonably accurate).
Bernie won a free download of the book for suggesting The Last Straw in Libby, Montana. How often do you find hand-pressed, fresh burgers made from your choice of Angus or longhorn beef or bison? Or, at breakfast, corn beef hash for under $7? It’s apparently great stuff, especially for a small town off the beaten path on Highway 2, between Bonners Ferry and Kalispell.
Buying in bulk is one good way to trim rising grocery bills
You know things are grim when #$8Cauliflower becomes a trending hashtag. Such is the perilous state of Canadian grocery prices, which have soared recently thanks to a plunging loonie (much of our produce comes from the U.S.), distressed growing conditions and tight beef markets.
Add never-ending layoffs in the oilpatch and, lately, the newspaper business, and more Canadians are inching towards Food Bank handouts to feed their families. But there are some cheapskate solutions (beyond clipping coupons) to trimming one’s grocery bill.
So for today, Marathon Mouth’s traveling, eating-out blog post is being handed over to his stay-at-home brother, Mister Miser. Note: All prices listed here are from Loblaws Superstore, unless otherwise indicated.
Tofu is a healthy, dirt-cheap source of protein. Why, if you doll it up, it’s even palatable
Tackle tofu – I know, tofu is bland, maybe even gag worthy. But it’s one of few protein sources that’s dirt cheap. Would you believe $1.99 for a 350-gram brick (57 cents/100 gm), enough to feed a family? Here’s a trick to make it more palatable: Cut into small cubes, marinate briefly—in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and hot sauce—place on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet and broil close to the oven flame till crispy. While that’s happening, sauté some onions and veggies and add some stock, tomato sauce or a splash of cream. Sprinkle with last-minute sesame oil, and you’ve got a nice stir-fry, ladled onto a bed of brown rice ($6 for a 1.6 kilo sack). An even cheaper vegetarian protein is beans or lentils (29 cents/100 grams dry or 49 cents/100 grams canned).
Where’s the beef? – These days, beef is expensive, as in $37.48 per kilo ($3.75 per 100 grams) for a rib steak. A much cheaper red-meat option is pork, which sells for $11.28/kilo for rib-end chops. A more direct comparison is tenderloin: a whopping $42.99/kilo for beef versus $15.48/kilo for pork.
Bulk up – You can potentially save lots of money by buying larger packages of meats and then freezing them. At Superstore, for example, a single t-bone steak weighs in at $31.98 per kilo. A Club Pack of three t-bones is a relative bargain at $22.98 per kilo.
Cheaper cuts of meat are generally tougher but, unless they’re incredibly fatty, no less nutritious or tasty than prime cuts. A slow cooker or pressure cooker can render that inside-round beef roast ($9/kilo) fork tender and save you considerable coin. As for chicken, you’ll pay an arm and a leg for breasts ($10.48/kilo for bone-in, $13.20 for boneless), though it’s still a lot cheaper than beef. But the savings multiply if you instead choose one-quarter legs ($4.98/kilo) or drumsticks ($6.48), both which I find moister and more flavourful anyway.
Frozen veggies are cheaper than fresh, with no wastage, unlike that bag of forgotten spinach slowly rotting in a back corner of the fridge. A three-kilo bag of mixed, frozen veggies is about $8, or 29 cents/100 grams, about half the price of equivalent fresh.
Go generic – At Superstore, a can of Unico black beans is $1.48; the No Name equivalent is 97 cents. Could you tell the difference in a blind tasting? Or 57 cents/100 grams for Ketchup, versus 25 cents for the President’s Choice version.
Consider Costco – Yes, there is an annual membership fee of some $50, but you’ll quickly recoup that in food savings. On the fresh greens front, for instance, it’s about $3 for a one-pound bag of washed spinach and $4 for two pounds of no-waste broccoli florets. Cheese, nuts, chips and in-store-baked ciabatta buns are all considerably cheaper than at the typical grocery store, as is anything with a Kirkland label. When cash flow is really tight, I’ll even succumb to a two-pound-bag of Kirkland coffee beans (Starbucks) for $12, instead of about $18 for one pound of locally roasted. I get jittery just thinking about the savings.
Yes, it’s not as fresh or flavourful, but a big bag of Kirkland/Starbucks coffee beans is certainly much cheaper
