New waffle cart on the streets of Edmonton!

Last week, I went for a walk with a friend during lunch and spotted a new venue on the street: A new waffle cart! I took a quick glance, but did not purchase one as I had eaten prior.

 

I went back this week with a co-worker and it was there again! My co-worker and I were curious as we were hungry so we decided this time to make a purchase. As I chatted with the vendor, Wannawaffel first originated in Victoria, British Columbia. According to their website, the business is relatively new. It was started in 2009 by Belgian family. The owners of this waffle cart in Edmonton recently got approval to puchase the franchise here.

At $4 a waffle, it's quite pricey.

 

Eva Sweets might be their only competitor in the city (that I'm aware of). Though the flavour of the waffle was sweet and aromatic, the carmelization of the pearl sugar wasn't as prominent as the waffles from Eva Sweets. The Wannawaffel was less dense, and alot smaller than the Eva Sweets waffle I am used to. At $4 a piece, I was a bit hesitant to pay the price. Nevertheless, it was worth it to try it once. Eva Sweets upped their $3 a waffle last year to $3.50 this year-which isn't a huge difference. Also: the wax paper got stuck to the sugar on the waffle, which was slightly inconvenient.

 

I will give Wannawafel credit for their cute and innovative cart, but I am still a loyalist. Eva Sweets waffles all the way.

Verdict: pretty scrumptious!
 

Downtown City Market now in full swing!

I am sooo happy that the downtown farmers' market is now in full swing. My boyfriend and I walked there last weekend and what a splendid day it was. A few new products I tried: MoNA organic mushrooms, Irvings Cumberland sausage patties, English cukes from Gull Valley, turkey jerky from Greens Eggs & Ham, and the usual, Eva Sweets waffles and kettle popcorn. My boyfriend isn't particularly fond of farmers' markets (he can list up to 7 reasons), but he agreed to keep me company regardless.

I took my mom for the first time today and absolutely loved it! Although it was a bit windy, the sun was shining. There were also various performers today in on centre stage for the Chinese festival, right on the intersection of 104 street and 101 avenue; Chinese lion dance dragons and fancy dress performances. There were also martial arts performers showing each of their own special moves. Very interesting. Unfortunately, I did not have my fancy camera with me so I wasn't able to capture any shots. The next event is the Al Fresco Block Party, June 11th.

Soda Jerks-a confusing concept of being modern and retro

My boyfriend and I decided to go out for lunch yesterday. I still had a Good News coupon for the Noodlemaker, so we decided to go there. It was a good thing I read the coupon closely because it said to make reservations. Upon calling, I found out the restaurant wasn't open-they are closed Sundays. With that idea shot, I remember reading an article in the Edmonton Journal about a new restaurant serving up delicious burgers and 31 different flavours of sodas. Without hesitation, my boyfriend and I headed to Soda Jerks.

I am not sure when this restaurant opened on the city. It is located right by the Best Buy in the Westpointe Centre, just off of 100 avenue and 175 street. I don't drive by the part of the city too often, but I believe it is relatively new as their main sign above the door is still vinyl, fastened with gromits.  Upon entering the restaurant, it takes on the atmosphere of the former vendor (East Side Mario's and Ric's Grill, according to a reader). I had imagined this restaurant to be a retro-feel sort of diner, 50's or 60's type diner. Instead, it was a diner with a modern twist with barely any residue of retro-ness. The focal point of the restaurant was definitely the display of sodas. Right when you walk into the restaurant, there is a wall-display of 31 different types of sodas your left, ranging from Jones, Boylan to Fentimans. 

The display of sodas: an astonishing array of them.

Walk over the corner to your right, on your left is a continuation of more sodas. My boyfriend and I were seated in the dining part of the restaurant, which was made up of comfy booths. The dark interior of the booths, accompanied by the wood panelling on the side of the walls gave the restaurant a modern feel. 

My interesting botanical soda pop.

Now to the important part: the food! Upon first glance at the menu, I have to be honest that it didn't sound anything special to me. The food being served was pretty basic; the usual burgers (they call them sandwiches on the menu), salads, build your own (sandwiches). For drinks, I ordered the Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock soda, while my boyfriend ordered Jones Bubble Gum flavoured soda. I enjoyed my unique botanical soda-it tasted much like Jagermeister, minus the alcohol. My boyfriend's soda was good, but it was a bit too artificial tasting for me. I couldn't decide what to get, but I know I didn't want beef again as I had a huge steak the other day. I decided to order The Original burger, which consisted of housemade beef patty (I got turkey instead) topped with corned beef, havarti, mixed greens, tomato, red onion, sauerkraut and roasted garlic mayo; served on a sesame seed bun. My boyfriend opted for the Cowboy burger which consisted of housemade beef patty topped with cheddar cheese, chili, smoked bacon, an onion ring and coleslaw; served on a sesame seed bun.

My Original Burger.

The Cowboy Burger.

I have a tendency to ramble on about my food experiences so I'll just cut to the chase on this one: my boyfriend and I were disappointed with the food. Not that it wasn't tasty, but it just didn't taste like anything special to us. My turkey burger didn't have any turkey taste to it and none of the flavours in the burger really stood out. Though my boyfriend didn't mind his, he agreed that no particular flavour in the burger stood out. The prices were overpriced, too. $3 for a Jones soda... We can get Jones soda half that price (well, a little less than half) at any speciality grocery store. With that being said, we felt like the restaurant conveyed a confusing concept of retro-modern, without any retro feeling at all, except for the sodas. The restaurant seems like it is trying to portray a retro experience in a modern way. With nothing special to the menu and without a clear concept to focus on, I'm not sure how long this restaurant will last. 


Verdict: not-so-scrumptious!

Feeding my macaron obsession...

It came with a flavour booklet, too!

I apologize for those of you who follow me on my blog. I have been bad and haven't posted anything for weeks! Aside from being busy, I almost forgot that I have eaten at a few new places and didn't even think about blogging about them. I am silly. Anyway, to break that habit, here's a little treat. My friend was in Montreal last week and she offered to buy me some macarons since she was getting them as well ( a big fan as well). How could I pass up on that offer? These macarons, from La maison du macaron, were considerably larger than Duchess (I forgot to take a picture, even though I had Duchess macarons in my fridge! Of course I realized that after I ate them all). The Montreal macarons were very similiar in size to the ones I had in Calgary. They were good, but I found the fillings to be less buttery and creamy than the ones at Duchess. Nevertheless, I was still impressed. And for $17/dozen, that works out to be ~$1.42 each which isn't bad at all.


Flavours from L to R-strawberry & rhubarb, raspberry, lemon, hazelnut, cafe, pistachio, coconut, chocolate, maple & peach, mango & amarula, green tea and salted caramel. My favourite was salted caramel, mango & amarula and maple & peach!



Food & drink after work at Corso 32

We went out after work on a Friday to celebrate a friend's belated birthday. After doing some restaurant research, the birthday girl decided to go to Corso 32, the new restaurant opened by Red Star's chef, Daniel Costa.

Corso 32 opened a few months ago in the heart of downtown on Jasper Avenue (10345-Jasper Avenue to be exact). Seems like they have been pretty busy the last little while. I walked past once during the evening and they were packed full. And this time, my first time going, will also be packed as my friend tried making a reservation for a table of four, but was only able to get seating at the communal table.

Can you speak Italian?

The restaurant is very small in width and narrow in length. With modern furnishings of plastic white chairs, wooden chopping board-like table tops, simple yet sophisticated lighting and a large picture mural of Daniel Costa's family in Italy, it is a relaxed environment. The restaurant is named after his family's home address in Italy-and what a great picture it is! The restaurant filled up quite quickly as friends trickled in one by one as well as other guests. Not long after, the restaurant was at it's full capacity.

I started the night off by ordering the corso campari-a 'before' drink that consisted of vodka, limoncello (that's what got me), campari, juice of a blood orange (that's what also got me), squeeze of lime, rocks. I'll have to be honest that it sounded a lot better than it tasted. It was more bitter than I thought it would be and was rather a small drink priced at $10. We all decided to share appetizers amongst the four of us. Their menu changes frequently,every few weeks, depending on the season and the produce so the returning customer will never get bored of their menu. We opted for the smoked pork arancini, oyster mushrooms & fontina, house made goat ricotta, maldon sea salt on crostini and stinging nettle & egg yolk ravioli, parmigiano.

Clockwise from top: stinging nettle with ravioli, smoke arancini cheeseballs and crostini.

The smoked pork arancini appetizer was nothing like I expected: it was deep fried. There were about 7 of them shaped into balls. They were fresh from the deep fryer so I couldn't bite into it right away, but upon the first bite, it was alright. It was too salty and there seemed to be small bits of rice mixed into the oyster mushroom and fontina cheese filling. I don't think I would order that next time. Next up was the stinging nettle & egg yolk ravioli.  I was very curious about the stinging nettle as I've seen the episode of Glutton for Punishment.Bob Blumer was to eat as much stinging nettle in a short duration of time. Stinging nettle has a chemical in the leaves that emits 'stinging' sensations when chewed in your mouth. However, I had heard that once cooked, this chemical gets broken down so there isn't a stinging sensation anymore. And true that was. When I bit into the ravioli, the nettle simply tasted like tougher spinach, while the ravioli burst into my mouth with egg yolk. It was tasty, but there really wasn't anything special about it. The last appetizer to try was the house made goat ricotta on crostinis. The crostini was toasted crisp, drizzled with olive oil. The house made goat ricotta was delicious, with a hint of sweetness.

My yummy gnocchi!

I wasn't going to order a supper entree as I had eaten a late lunch prior to eating the appetizers. However, when my friend's dishes arrived, my mouth started watering which triggered me to order what one of my friend's got-pan fried gnocchi with black kale and peccorino topped with spicy crumbs. THIS was delicious. As one of my friends said, we usually get gnocchi with sauce. This was a dry version-but it was probably one of the best versions I've ever had of gnocchi. The house-made gnocchi (they make all their pasta in house) was fried to perfection on the outside, soft on the inside. The texture of the pasta was excellent too;cheesy with the right amount of potato. The black kale was pan fried (or deep fried?) so that it was crisp to perfection. Topped with shaved peccorino cheese and spicy crumbs, this dish was my favourite so far.

My friends agreed that Corso 32 didn't do much for them-mainly because their food was too simple and expensive. I agree that their menu is a bit over-priced, but if you take into account that many of their items on their menu are house-made (cured meats, pastas, and some cheeses) then one's perception might change. Their food might sound like it is too simple but this is Daniel Costa's focus: simple Italian comfort food, made with the freshest, most local ingredients. I am willing to return a second time.

Verdict: scrumptious!

My dream of cream puffs came true!

Fresh'n natural cream puffs!
I forgot to take a picture of mine because I devoured it too quickly! :-S

If you are a fan of cream puffs, then you'll be happy to learn that the Japanese franchise, Beard Papa's, has opened in West Edmonton Mall. This may not be news for you, but it was for me. I learned in Only Here for the Food that Beard Papa's has already been opened for a staggering 2 months! How could I have not known this?! Anyway, without hesitation, I ventured there this past Tuesday as I was in W.E.M for a concert. To my surprise, the cashier informed me that it was 'Toonie Tuesday'. All cream puffs were only $2! How perfect! I got one for the go, and hey, what the heck, one for later on as well. They were delicious. And boy, am I happy that BP's has made it's way to E-town.

Verdict: soooo scrumptious!

Beard Papa's is located on the main level, near the ice rink, right behind the Body Shop towards the north side.

Downtown Dining Week Part II: Niche for Dinner

Sorry for the delay...I had other things to do :-S

My friend and I decided to partake in Downtown Dining Week on a Thursday, but given her change of schedule, we went on a Wednesday instead. The both of us agreed that the menu of Niche sounded superb.  

It is a tiny downtown eatery located right beneath the Hardwood Plaza complex just off of Jasper Avenue and 110 street (formerly Hardwood Cafe). It was a perfect location for me to have dinner that night as  work is a stone's throw away and indeed I was hungry after work. My friend and I got there early and we had no reservations. I called earlier in the day to reserve a table for the both of us. No one answered but eventually went to voicemail. The voicemail message indicated that they were no longer taking reservations as Downtown Dining Week was superbusy. And given that it is only a 32-seater restaurant, it's no wonder.

My friend arrived first and I arrived a few minutes later. We were seated right by the window close to the bar. The waitress arrived shortly to explain that this table that we were seated as was already reserved for a party at 7:00pm. All their tables were completely booked, but it wasn't until after 7:00pm would these people start showing up. My friend and I agreed that she didn't exactly make us feel welcome...and we understood that she had the table booked, but her tone wasn't exactly 'friendly'. She then told us that the kitchen doesn't start serving food until 5:30pm and it was just a little past 5:00pm when she told us. Our stomachs were growling with hunger, while we contemplated whether we should stay here or not. If the menu didn't sound as good as it did, we would of bolted out the door as we didn't really feel welcomed at all...however, we decided to stick with the original plan.

The Downtown Dining Menu consisted of a soup or salad/main entree/dessert.  The appetizers consisted of yellow lentil soup with braised pork or quinoa salad with roasted vegetables and spinach in a lemon tahini vinaigrette. The entrees consisted of Spring Creek braised beef cheeks in a wild mushroom sauce tossed with broad egg noodles; Confit of Brome Lake Duck with golden mashed potatoes with lemon thyme gravy; roasted pork loin in a blackberry gastrique; or curried cauliflower with sundried apricots and wild rice. And don't forget dessert-salted lemon brownie served with a lemon honey yogurt cheese.

I opted for the quinoa salad while my friend chose the lentil soup. Personally, my salad was way too oily because of the vinaigrette and that basically masked everything else; I didn't care much for it. My friend's soup on the other hand, was delicious! It was creamy without being too salty and the braised pork added a perfect touch to it. 

Quinoa salad on spinach.