Edmonton's Originals

I'm not one to celebrate the convenience of franchises and box stores. When I can, I'll go out of my way to support the little guy, or try something unknown. I'm not a purist about this - I enjoyed a Wendy's value burger quite recently - but it is something I enjoy, and I think if everyone tried to stay away from the franchised restaurants even just once in a while, the world would be a little bit of a better place. I happened across this little site recently - Original Fare - and thought it was kind of a neat idea. It's a simple site put together by a collective of original restaurants here in Edmonton. I think I'm going to try to all 15 of the sponsoring local restaurants over the next year if I can. I started last weekend with Col. Mustard's...
I went with my wife and two-year old son, and we had a great time. We ordered the Sam Man, the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich and a Grilled Cheese. I enjoyed the Sam Man immensely - when I think back to the shaved turkey, corned beef, bacon, Russian dressing and tomato on Rye, my mouth waters. It came with a sizeable pickle spear, and was a decent portion of lunch for $7.95. My wife's simply named meal was a savory grilled bell pepper, egg plant, zucchini, artichoke sandwich topped with basil and asiago on a toasted loaf. If I had to guess by the look on her face when she took the first bite, I'd say her vegetarian preferences were quite pleased. Her sandwich was also $7.95 and also accompanied by the obligatory pickle spear.
My little guy didn't miss a bite of his grilled cheese - he also had several bites of the Sam Man, and a taste of the veggies. His sandwich was 'sans' pickle, but the price tag - $2.95 - was just what a toddler should be spending on a sit-down sandwich, if you ask me. If you haven't figured it out, the specialty here is sandwiches. Good sandwiches. They do have a few other items on the menu - soup, salads - but the sandwiches are what will bring me back.
So...if you're heading west of downtown Edmonton, thinking about a sandwich, and Subway just doesn't do it for you...check out Col. Mustard's. While you're in the neighbourhood, I'd also recommend Steep's for tea, and Elephants Never Forget for that certain je ne sais quoi.
Tip: the Colonel isn't in on Sundays.

The best food I tried on my vacation:

click here and scroll down to find 'The Wacko'

The best beer that I tasted on my vacation.

Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss

CONCERNED ABOUT TOO MANY CARBS IN YOUR DIET?

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health.
It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you

mmm coffee...

tonight I tried a half cup of cold hazelnut vanilla coffee + a 2/3 cup of chocolate flavoured 'So Good' soy beverage + a little skim milk...not too shabby, I must say. next time I'll use more coffee, and probably no skim milk...

coffee seems like a good topic...

I'm the only member of my household that drinks coffee. I have a 12 cup coffee pot...it was a well-intentioned gift. After receiving this coffee-pot-gift roughly 6 years ago, I quickly learned how to use it to make 4 to 6 cups at a time, since 12 cups is a little too much for one man. But lately, I've been making a full pot, drinking one or two cups, and refrigerating the rest. I've been drinking the cold coffee mixed one to one with milk, and it's not too bad. I've experimented a little with the amount of milk and with adding a little sugar (brown and/or white), but I haven't got it quite right yet. I'm a big fan of the canned coffee drinks that are available in most oriental-type food stores, and bigger grocery stores with a good 'ethnic' (whatever that means) section, but I haven't been too successful at matching the tastes with the homebrew. Is there anyone reading this that shares in the enjoyment of cold coffee? Any ingredient suggestions to get my flavour right??

Coffee

On Tuesday night, it's quite possible that I tasted the worst coffee. Ever.
And I drink a lot of coffee.
And I'm not picky.
It was bad.

a food puzzle...

Here are the ingredients for last night's dinner for four:
Spinach (uncooked)
A Splash of Lime juice
8 ounces of Cream Cheese
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3 Avocado
Brie
2 Pears
1 TBSP Sugar
3 Bottles of Stella Artois
1 Can of Refried Beans
1 Cup of Sour Cream
Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
1 Baguette
Juice of 1 Lemon
2 Red Peppers
Roasted Sliced Almonds
Blue Corn Tortilla Chips
2 TBSP Raspberry Vinegar
Roasted Pepper Tabasco Sauce
1 Yellow Onion
Shredded Colby Cheese
Olive Oil
Mashed Raspberries
1 Bottle of Sawmill Sauvignon Blanc
1 Anaheim Pepper
1/8 Cup of Butter
4 Roma Tomatoes
4 Heads of Garlic
Worcestershire Sauce
1 Field Tomato
1 Glass of Mission Hill Cabernet Sauvignon
Sea Salt
Pepper

It was SO good, but the garlic aftertaste may last a few days, can you guess what the 5 dishes were?

All you can eat

Many people believe that quality is one of the most important aspects of a meal. I am not one of those people. I think that when it comes to a good meal, the most important thing is quantity. The amount of food is directly related to my enjoyment of the meal and so it is more important than quality. I love nothing more than to go to an all you can eat night and gorge myself.

Recently I went to all you can eat ribs at Montana's (wednesday night). While the ribs were excellent, it was the quantity of the meal that satisfied me the most. Now, the danger of an all you can eat night is getting excited and eating too much too quickly. The secret is to pace yourself. I spent a good two and a half hours at Montana's and I managed to polish off nearly five racks of ribs. To give you an idea, there are usually 10-12 individual ribs on a rack. Needless to say I couldn't really do much after eating such a meal but was it worth it....oh ya.

More all you can eat adventures to come.

slow cooker and a steamer

Is it possible that slow cooked meat and steamed vegetables are the best combo? I slow cooked a bison roast yesterday with a 1/2 jar of pepperocini peppers - mmm, good! Some steamed asaparagus with a little lemon and some onion rolls made a great meal. Today is braised short ribs in a barbeque sauce simmering all day, perhaps with steamed broccoli and some pan-friend potatoes. (but I don't know how to do it on a stick!)

Food on a stick

Does anything beat food on a stick cooked on an open fire? I made bannock this weekend at a family day festival downtown. I have no hair on my knuckles anymore, but that's the price of cooking with fire I guess.

people and food

I think it is possible to reveal one's personality through a comprehensive dinner menu. Generally three to four courses is best. For example, "the advisor" might be:

* lightly broiled cod on salty crackers with capers and lemon
* oyster, shitake, and button mushroom salad with scallions, oregano, and olive oil, topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese
* peppercorn T-bone steak with a side of potato pancakes and a vegetable medley of green beans, yellow peppers, and glazed carrots
* baked Alaska covered in whipped cream and shaved German chocolate

mmmm

For those who know "the advisor," would you agree?

DT

Franks & Beans.

Some folks always use the same recipe, some like to change it up every time. Some recipes are simple and ready in minutes, some are complex and take days to get just right. I like to change it up everytime...and today I was looking for something quick and simple.
My family has been hit by some nasty cold bug that's going around, so Z and I were looking for some comfort food while his mommy tried to take a nap. We decided on some simple wieners and beans. We weren't looking to invest a lot of time, but we weren't willing to sacrifice flavour either. I pulled out the Heinz Maple Style Beans in Sauce With Pure Quebec Maple Syrup and the Schneiders Grill'ems (fully cooked smoked sausages) with Cheddar. I just heated the sausages in the toaster oven for a bit, cut 'em up and threw them in a big bowl with the can of beans. I nuked the whole thing for a minute and a half and we were ready to eat.
I experimented in college a bit with wieners and beans...I spent a lot of time trying to get it just right. Some of the ingredients included bacon, various mustards, honey, worcestershire sauce, Frank's RedHot Original, every kind of baked bean you can think of, brown sugar, mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, pepperoni, even corn! I've tasted a lot of other folks recipes too, there are just so many varieties!
Do you have a variety of Franks & Beans that you like to make? Click on 'Comments' below and share your recipe! If you're not already a Food Panel member, you just might earn yourself an invitation... (The best Franks & Beans recipe received over the next year will win the first 'good eats' t-shirt if we ever actually make them...the t-shirts that is)

Red Robin: A review.

Well tonight was like every other night in one respect...after work, I was hungry. So I packed up the family, and we headed to Red Robin. Not exactly high end dining, but I had a coupon.
I ordered the Royal Red Robin Burger. According to the menu: "This is the aristocrat of all burgers because we crown it with a fresh AAA jumbo fried egg. In addition, three strips of hickory-smoked bacon, American cheese, crispy lettuce, tomato & mayo." After reading that description I thought to myself, "Hey...I didn't have a decent breakfast today, here's my chance to make up for it without missing out on supper!"
I also had steak fries and an iced tea...both bottomless.
The burger was mediocre. Not bad. Just mediocre. The toppings were acceptable; the eggs cooked the right amount, the bacon - not too crispy, not too chewy, fresh lettuce, juicy tomato, a healthy amount of cheese. The meat infortunately was nothing special. I was glad for the egg, cheese and bacon, they brought some flavour to the sandwich. Of course, I ate the whole thing.
I don't want to get too sidetracked by the middle of the road burger, what you really want to know is "How were the fries?" They were excellent. Excellent as a vehicle for the secret ingredient, that is. No, not the ketchup. The Honey Mustard sauce. You have to ask for the Honey Mustard sauce. They don't put it on the table, but it's an absolute requirement for the meal. Apparently it comes from a saucy place in Washington and isn't available to the Canadian public. When I finished off the first basket of fries, there was still some honey mustard left, so of course I asked for more fries...I wasn't hungry, but they were free. And was I glad that I asked! By the time you get to the end of the meal, you rarely notice that the fries had been gradually cooling off the whole time, but when you get the fresh steak fry refill, you'll be glad you kept eating!
Of course, you're probably wondering where I got the coupon, 'cause you don't want to pay full price for an average burger just to get to the 2nd plate of fries and the dipping sauce...check out the Red Robin eClub, they'll send you coupons by email. Buy one burger get one free for your B-Day.
The dessert menu looked pretty fine, but I didn't have a coupon for that...

Gooooooo Carbs!

Seeing the lemming-like fervour at which otherwise useful individuals flock to low-carb/no-carb/i-didn't-know-what-a-carb-was-before-i-bought-into-this-cult diets --- i have decided to release my own diet plan.

As many of you know - i have been following the "Watkins" diet for some time now. It goes a little something like this:

1)Find food that tastes good
2)Eat it
3)stop when you're full (NOTE: #3 is more of a suggestion)

I try to consume my body weight in dairy fat on a daily basis - and believe that the proper amount of carbs was taken in the other day when my diet consisted of: 1 large serving of Granola, 2 "CeCe-style" cinnamon buns, Pasta and a muffin or two before 3:00pm.

Watch for my upcoming book tour "I weigh a buck-seventy-eight - and I feel great" and my frozen snack entrees in your grocer's dairy section.

No wonder French food is so good.

Gateau and Cadeau definitely sound alike.

If you look at both words from a vocal production point of view, you will notice something very interesting. The first sound in both words is velar, meaning that it is produced using the soft palate. In gateau it is a voiced velar consonant, in cadeau it is an unvoiced velar consonant. The second sound in both words is the identical vowel. The third sound is alveolar, meaning that it is produced using the blade of the tongue and the ridge of the gum behind the upper teeth. In gateau it is an unvoiced alveolar consonant, in cadeau it is a voiced alveolar consonant. The fourth sound in both words, like the second, is identical. At this point you are probably hearing yourself say, “Who cares?”, to which I respond, “Let me continue…” If we compare the component sounds of each of these words, we find that both include the exact same parts: a velar consonant and an alveolar consonant, one of which is voiced, one of which is not, and identical vowels.

(For those of you who’s French vocabulary is not large enough to have that certain, je ne sais quoi, gateau means cake, and cadeau means gift.)

The obvious conclusion to be made is that the early speakers of the French language were wise enough to see that cake and gifts were either interchangeable and/or always present at the same time. Meaning that when a cake is required a gift will suffice, and vice versa. Or, of course, when a cake is required, it is to be implied that a gift is required also. And, if necessary, cake is to be considered a gift, unless of course, you paid for it.

You may at this time be asking, “When is a cake required?” to which I respond, “When is it not?”

So…if you find yourself in a situation where cake is present, but you haven’t been presented with the gift, remember that the cake can be considered as the gift itself. However, if you paid for the cake (which cannot be considered as the gift in this case), and there is no other gift to be seen, remember this simple phrase: “Je ne parle pas Francais” and that should save you any embarrassment.