Edmonton

Edmonton, oh Edmonton. My liver is pickled and I smell like cow poo, what am I going to do about you? That was a fleeting attempt at poetics, which didn't go so well, but that happens on occasion, and I like to roll with it instead of erasing the potential embarassment. When you work on a feedlot, you don't smell yourself anymore, but later on you realize that other people likely do, so it would be perhaps gentler to society to wash. En route to Edmonton, we were delighted to find we would be staying with some family friends of mine. A delightful couple by the name of Ian and Terri Lynn, who were not at all grudging about having two dirty cooks in the house. When we arrived they were already cooking and sipping on prosecco, so that worked perfectly into our grand scheme of food. I didn't realize how long it had been since I had seen them until she didn't immediately recognize me at the door. This is only permissible because I am now sporting a righteous beard and most people think they are being invaded by vikings when they see me. After the initial fear of conquer and pillaging, they were extremely hospitable. We were shown to the basement suite, which was literally the entire basement to ourselves, and awesome. We both showered and when we came upstairs dinner was minutes away from ready. Ian was already prepping for tomorrows dessert and we were told to kick back and relax, maybe drink something, so we did. We're always happy to abide by that request.

We were slightly impromptu guests, so they had pork chops whilst we dined upon roasted chicken, all with potatoes and salad (from the garden, which I will extrapolate on later) to keep the estomach happy. Great dinner, and a decent start to our little Edmonton experience. After dinner we caught up a little and then decided to tear off to bed, as they were up beyond their typical curfew and we were exhausted still from Calgary.

The following day we spent the morning plotting, then hit the streets in search of gastronomic adventure. We took a bus and a train to downtown, where the 'Taste of Edmonton' festival was being held. It sucked. Like, badly. There was barely a person there adhering to any sort of quality, and even on it's face it was not the towns more prestigious places serving up fare. I hate to say it, but the taste of Edmonton is not Chinese and Indian food. That's the taste of Vancouver, and Edmonton can never steal it! We decided to give some of the food a shot. We invested in fish cakes, perogies, and bbq short ribs, deciding the latter two were representative enough of the region to be edible. In case you didn't know, all the prairies have a huge Ukrainian heritage, and they are proud thereof. The story runs that the Canadian government actually sent people to Ukraine promising as much free land as they could clear themselves, and a stipend to build a house. The Ukrainians swarmed at the opportunity. This was good because it meant the land was settled and the US couldn't just carve massive swaths of land out of Canada. O how crafty were thou, John. A. Moving on, the only good things at the Taste festival were the fish cakes, from some random Korean vendor. The perogies were more empty than full, and the dough was soggy, and the short ribs were barely tender and tasted like a sauce that you buy in a 40L pail at Costco. Depressing, but we were strong, and rallied. Then we left.

Wandering downtown Ed is a singular experience, it is at once boring and still somewhat exciting. Though the vast majority is cold, grey buildings, there are shots of flair, the art gallery and a few others. Another shot of flair was a random topless woman walking around downtown, acting like it was the most normal thing ever. I was impressed, that takes balls, of which she clearly has none by genetic default, so where she acquired them, I don't know. There was, needless to say, people running around and getting excitable, but whatever, it is legal after all. Shortly after seeing the exhibitionist, we found a shop called Healthfare. Pretty post-modern, nice interior, super sustainable build, and food comes with prices and calorie content. I don't care about calories, as most of you can probably tell by the food I've been eating, but it was a good thing to see, as it signifies thought about food, which is never bad. Unless its thinking about the pizza your going to devour all by yourself because your totally wasted, and even though you ate a big dinner your hungry for some reason. I swear I've only done that like, two dozen times. Anyways, Healthfare is a pretty decent spot, and we returned the next day to eat there, the food was pretty alright. Nothing mind-blowing, no epiphany food, but still likely some of the better food you can get at the price point, and fast as anything.

That night we returned to our abode, which was minus Ian, as he is also a chef and works proper chef hours, like 10-11. That sounds like a joke, but it's not. We made dinner for ourselves and Terrie Lynn, with a 'satay-sauce salad' and chicken fritters. Basically a peanut butter vinaigrette and chicken cakes the same way one would make crab cakes. Tasty. The greens were once again from the garden, which I must now delve into. Terrie Lynn is technically a doctor(having received her doctorate just this past thursday) and works for the university and consults in some field as well. Her proper title is actually farmer. Her back garden is jammed. Herbs, vegetables, berries and even a weird olive tree with no olives. I thought it was pointless too, but apparently it's decorative. The plot is no bigger than the average suburban back yard, but she has like 6 varieties of tomato, zucchini, parsley, basil, lemon thyme, marjoram, radishes, beets, raspberries and a ton of other delectables in there.
It's a wild scene to say the least. Every night we ate there, we ate something from the garden. They also keep a cool list of par stocks that they should have in their fridge, so they never really run out of wicked stuff to do with food. Upon Ian's return, we dove into some saskatoon berry pie. I shit you not when I say this was the best pie ever. It was so goddamn good it should have it's own post, which will follow this one, and just be a picture you can all look at in reverence. His secret is in his pie dough, and the fact that he doesn't make pies too sweet. I was so pumped about this pie I had to internally chill out, so I didn't scare my hosts off. Seriously, Ian should open a pie company, and become a millionaire. Before you become too astounded that a chef can make such a stellar, mouthwatering even now that I'm only thinking about it pie, you should know that Ian is a double threat, as he is also a classically trained pastry jock. Stupid good pie.

The following day, if I remember correctly, was market day, to be followed by relaxation day, then visit the farmer day. Market day was great. Edmonton has a large and well-established farmer's market, which was kind of a blindside hit for us, because we had no idea. However, we went there with the main intention of talking with Andreas and Mary-Ellen of 'Green's Eggs and Ham', as they were a contact of Ian's and dedicated to the local movement. We ambled through the market, watching people do yoga mid-street, listening to a jazz quartet play renditions of everyone's favorite techno, and admiring the produce on display. We were shopping for dinner tonight, which was to be the 'Tongue and Cheek' meal. Very Thomas Keller, if anyone gets that. We procured some veggies, cucumber, horseradish, and a few other tidbits. One thing we almost had to buy was this conical cabbage on sale at a cabbage vendor. It was seriously so pointed it appeared like a seashell, patterned by it's veins. Pretty amazing vegetable. We chatted with the farm folks, and decided we would visit them Tuesday to get a handle on what they are trying to do.

Afterwards we went and ate at Healthfare before returning home to the basement for some quality time with the computer. Fabian tried to drive to Safeway to procure more Clamato, but took a roundabout route which involved being pulled over. No ticket though, so good luck there. We slowly began dinner prep quite early, so that we would be well ready to plate and execute by the time Ian got home from work, early this time.
This dinner was pretty ridiculous. We did a similar salmon dish to Victoria's, because they sprung salmon on us last minute. With avocado, wasabi, toasted sesame, and grapefruit. It was pretty delish, but not as much as the following course. Shaved tongue with a cucumber and horseradish relish, as well as a potato and radish salad and "devil's salad" as the German calls it. Spicy beef cheek, with carrots in salad. The tongue was braised for about 3 hours, sliced super thin, then reheated with relish and stock in the microwave. It sounds ghetto to use a microwave, but this application was perfect. The meal was stellar, and a nice little cap off to our Edmonton exploits. The following day we relaxed until around 4:30 p.m. before heading off towards the farm.