Food

Taste The City - Calgary - was an amazing foodie adventure!

I've lived in Calgary for 30 years, and thanks to Joanna Pariseau's Taste The City, I'm still discovering amazing places to dine in unexpected places.

This past Thursday, my friends Yrol & Rob invited me to explore a Taste The City tour. The experience is a "foodie magical mystery tour" where you are initially texted a restaurant location to arrive at a designated time that you choose when you book. At each restaurant, you're (sometimes) served a mocktail and a sample appetizer/small plate dish (for each person), chosen by the restaurant. You can buy boozy drinks if you'd like, but those are not included in the fee when you register for your experience.

At the start, you only know the first restaurant (of 5) where you're to arrive at the given time. Each successive location is texted to your phone after you're finished each dining experience, each one lasting about 20 minutes.

Our tour's 5 locations were:

Milpa - to 17th Ave on 5th Street SW. It's an uber-modern looking Mexican restaurant where we had delicious Quesabirria with Basil Lemonade as the chosen mocktail; a nice light starter for the food tour. This restaurant is new to Calgary, opened in January of 2023. The interior decor is striking, with layers of arches that made me think of being inside a whale. The servers were very welcoming, and gave us a great background on the restaurant.
Mister M. - a bit of a walk up 5th Street to 8th Ave downtown, we entered the very big and modern decorated restaurant where we were taken to a nice comfy booth in the back of the restaurant. Here, we were brought a tasty passionfruit mocktail (not listed on their menu), and braised & glazed pork belly appetizer as the sample menu item. We also ordered some boozy cocktails - a Hot Passionfruit margarita, and their Grand Margarita. Sadly, service here was a bit slow for a time-sensitive experience, and we ended up waiting for 1 of our 4 appetizers quite a while, and we ended up getting our text for our next location while we were only half-done. So we ended up having to rush through our cocktails to stay on schedule for our next location, which was....
Da Vinci Steakhouse & Lounge - on the north side of 8th Ave beside the old Uptown Theatre / Barron Building, I think this space used to be occupied by Escoba Bistro & Wine Bar. We arrived and were brought to a comfortable bar-height table. There was no mocktail here, but the chosen dish was a delicious homemade lobster ravioli appetizer served with warm fresh herb garlic bread to soak up the delicious ravioli sauce.

After our 20 minutes here, we got our text to head nextdoor to....
Untitled - this speakeasy-style champagne bar been here for about 6-7 years, and feels full of character. Upon entry, we were led to some comfy couches and low stools set around a couple of low round cocktail tables. We were able to choose our free drinks from a menu of mocktails, which were all delicious. This was our dessert course for the evening, where we were each brought a smoked chocolate mousse that was absolutely rich and delicious. At this point, all of our were starting to get fairly full. The menu has 3 pages of bubblys which I definitely want to go back and sample. They also have live music (although it was not there this Thursday evening).

Then we were texted our next location which was...
Calcutta Cricket Club back on 17th Ave...
...HOWEVER...Joanna texted me directly just as we had started walking back down to 17th saying our next location was actually...
The Wednesday Room further down 8th Ave. Upon entry, we were led down into the basement which is an exquisite 1970's style mid-century modern cocktail lounge, reminiscent of the decor in the hotel in in the movie The Shining. There were no mocktails included at this location, but each of us ordered a mocktail from the menu. But, we had a choice of two dishes - one savoury, one sweet. We all chose the savoury dish, which was a potato rosti with caramelized onions, truffle, chicken thigh and chicken gravy. This was like a warm hug at the end of the evening, truly a tasty comfort-food. At this point, we were all very full, and were happy to have a walk back to our vehicles to help us digest.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to explore downtown Calgary a bit, and discover some great independent & delicious restaurants, at a reasonable price. Also, I was super-impressed that she intercepted us directly after our 4th stop to correct where we should be going. I'd definitely do the tour again to discover more great places to eat in Calgary!

I love Chinatown!

Before the pandemic, when I was still working downtown, most days I would go out with my co-workers to have lunch in Chinatown. There are many restaurants there that have great food at a reasonable price, and you get FED!

Some of my favourites that I'm really missing right now because of the pandemic:

Calgary Court - their daily specials are usually awesome, and always include soup, main course, and a drink. You get a lot of lunch for about $15.
Pho Hoa'i - a great Vietnamese noodles & soup house that I've been going to since I was a co-op student back in the 90's. The same family runs it! But over the 25 years I've been going there, the price of the #15 Pho Sate has gone from $5 to $15.
Moon - this used to be "Vietnamese Village" at the end of 3rd Ave on the North side at the end of the block. Moon has great Korean food, and an all-u-can-eat offering as well.
Han's Taiwanese Restaurant - a very small 'hole-in-the-wall' place with maybe 10 tables. It's the only Taiwanese restaurant I know of in Calgary. Their Fish Filet with Topan Sauce is to-die-for-good, as it their Mapo Tofu with Minced Pork & Rice,
U& Me Dim Sum - my favorite Dim Sum places have morphed over the years. Silver Dragon has been there for a long time, but can be a bit too "gwai-loh". Dragon Dim Sum was good for a few years, but their chef changed, and things went downhill. U & Me has always been reliable authentic Dim Sum, with large pieces, and always fresh.
Great Taste - Northern style (spicy) food. Their Salt & Pepper Eggplant is out of this world. And if you can handle the spice, their Spicy Fish soup is outstanding.
Tang Dynasty - This has been described to me a northern-style / Mongolian street food. Lots of lamb dishes (lamb skewers are a favorite as is the Lamb Soup), and they make hand-made super-wide noodles which are superb. This is where ABC Bakery & Restaurant used to be.
Bubble Wafe Cafe - a fairly newish addition to Chinatown, they have a mix-and-match menu of soups, meats, and drinks, along with the "egg puff'" waffles for dessert.

I hope to return to my favourite Chinatown lunch places soon!

Dim Sum Dishes

Har gow - Steamed Shrimp Dumpling	Siu mai - Steamed Pork Dumpling	Cha so bow - steamed BBQ pork bun (you can also get chicken buns)	Dja har gow - Deep fried shrimp dumplings with mayonnaise dressing
Foon gor - steamed seafood dumpling (shrimp / scallop)	Fung jao - Steamed chicken feet	Ga lai mak yu jai - Steamed cuttlefish (usually curried)	Now bak yeep - Steamed pork tripe Now jap yeep - Steamed beef tripe
Fried Beancurd shrimp rolls	Lo mai gai - sticky rice wrapped in Lotus leaf	San jook now yook - Steamed beef meatballs	Jai har - Ground shrimp wrapped around sugar cane
Yueng nai gwa - Eggplant stuffed with ground fish / shrimp.	Seaweed shrimp roll. Regency Palace in Calgary does a Seaweed salmon-with-peach roll that is my favourite anywhere!	Sin-jyook-kyun - Steamed bean curd roll	Hack jui pai gwat - Black pepper beef short ribs
Si jiu pai gwat - Steamed pork spareribs	Gai bao - Baked chicken bun	Dai ji gao - Steamed scallop & shrimp dumpling	Yueng chang jiu - Green pepper stuffed with ground fish
Har chung fan - shrimp rice pancake (served with sweet soya)		Lo mai fan - No mai rice bowl.	Other Dim Sum items that I don't have pictures for: Now Jap - "bowl of guts" (actually translates to 'beef junk') Dau fu fa - blended tofu with sugar syrup (dessert) Great to settle the tummy! Mongo bo dien - Mango pudding (usually served with condensed milk) Now bak yeep - Steamed pork tripe Chun gyun - Spring Roll

Burger Baron Locations - Past and Present - Last Updated November 15, 2020

Beaumont, AB - 5009A 52 Avenue- Closed 😥
Bonnyville, AB - 5326 50 Ave
Carstairs, AB - 853 Centre St
Drayton Valley, AB - Dave's Burger Baron - 5303 50 Ave
Edmonton, AB (4 locations still open at last update)

9908 70 Ave NW
15250 111 Ave NW
12425 118 Ave NW
7920 118 Ave NW - VISITED
7007 82 Ave NW - VISITED (after it was closed)

Fairview, AB -11213 101 Ave - Closed 😥
Hanna, AB - Jerry's Burger Baron - Hwy 9 W
Maskwacis (Hobbema), AB - Highway 2A
Kelowna, BC - 140 Rutland Rd N - VISITED
Lac La Biche, AB - Lee's Burger Baron (formerly Bill's Burger Baron until 2015) - 10215 101 Ave
Lacombe, AB - 4925 46 St
Lamont, AB - 5403 50 Ave
Mayerthorpe, AB - 5004 45 Ave
Onoway, AB - 4904 49 Ave
Raymond, AB - 189 Broadway N
Red Deer, AB - 45 Gasoline Alley E - Closed 😥 VISITED
Redwater, AB - 5208 49 Avenue
Regina, SK (2 locations) - both locations - Closed 😥
Rocky Mountain House, AB - 4840 45 St
St. Paul, AB - 4522 50 Ave
Sundre, AB - 211 Main Ave W
Swan Hills, AB - 4951 Chalmers Ave
Tofield, AB - 5016 46 Ave
Valleyview, AB - 4609 50 Ave
Wabasca, AB - 979 Mistassiniy Rd S
Wainwright, AB - 1105 10 St
Whitecourt, AB - 3909 37 Ave

* not sure if these locations are defunct, name-changed, or are just named "Burger Baron" by coincidence. Such is the nature of independent small businesses.

It's fantastic that we've had Burger Barons in the West since the 1950's! Seldom does anything Canadian grow so successfully in the shadow of American mega-chains.

Long Live Burger Baron! To all the Burger Baron owners, thank you for all these years of great food!.