We were back in Edmonton to visit relatives and friends. We mainly ate at their home and our times out with family were guided by their preferences. So we didn’t have as much opportunity to explore options on our list.
Our first lunch out was with family and was at Julio’s Barrio, a longstanding and dependable Tex-Mexish place on Whyte Ave. It’s a good place to go where less adventurous eaters will be happy and the food is overall tasty.
The coconut margarita was tangy and not too sweet. The regular margarita was bland.
We shared the nachos, which were fine but not distinctive. They had tortilla chips with ample mild cheese, green peppers, onions, black beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and black olives, with salsa, sour cream, and guac on the side.
The sopa de tortilla has a nice tomato broth, to which you added feta cheese, avocado, multicolored tortilla strips, cilantro, and not-at-all spicy chipotle paste.
The Vegetarian Mexi Bowl included grilled zucchini, corn, jalapeno, shredded cheese, guacamole, tomatoes, black beans, pickled onions, lettuce, and cabbage, on a bed of “Mexican” rice. Salsa, sour cream, and pico de gallo accompanied. An enjoyable mix of veggies.
The Mexican Fried Ice Cream featured French vanilla rolled in a crunchy cinnamon coating and served with overly-sweet raspberry sauce and whipped cream. A decent take on this dessert.
A family member’s wish to have Chinese food like he used to have (i.e., Chinese-Canadian) led us to Rishun Happy Diner, a relatively new place in our neighbourhood. This was definitely not an old school Chinese-Canadian place, but one that was both catering to people of Chinese background and those expecting chop suey. This led to the odd experience of having Chinese-Canadian dishes that were somewhat upscaled.
The dinner for 8 package was a great deal. It came with a huge tureen of won ton soup (freshly made dumplings in a very good broth, with broccoli and carrots), 8 spring rolls (greasy, but tasty), 2 chicken fried rice (more like the lightly flavoured fried rice at Chinese banquets than the soy sauce laden version at Chinese-Canadian places), and 8 dishes of our choosing.
Mushroom egg foo yung was nicely fried, but came with a thickened broth instead of glutinous gravy from a mix/can. Chow mein (both House Special and vegetable for the vegetarians) came with the meats and veggies atop a crispy fried nest of noodle, instead of the mixed together old school mess. Ginger beef, sweet and sour pork, and chicken balls all had a similar-tasting red sauce, with excellent frying (crispy edges). BBQ pork chop suey was perhaps the only dish done correctly retro, with loads of bean sprouts and a bit of onion. We also tried the non-Chinese-Canadian beef tenderloin with honey and black peppercorn, which was delicious.
Lunch with friends took us twice to The Butchery, the meat shop run by RGE RD (a place that we would love to try, but is not favoured by our family). The small menu showcases their meats in sandwiches and other guises. Everything was delicious, from the house-baked breads to the charcuterie.
One day the charcuterie plate included fragrant mortadella, very good pastrami, a richly flavoured bison hunter sausage, dill havarti, Lakeside farms peppercorn Gouda, Bleu D’Elizabeth, a wonderful haskap compote, light and chewy focaccia, buttermilk biscuit, Brassica whole grain mustard, dried cherries, and pumpkin seeds. The other time it included a tasty salami, the same hunter sausage, a fabulous duck and pork Andouille sausage, tangy blackcurrant compote, garlic pickles, with the same cheese, breads and garnishes.
The best sandwich was the Maple Brown Sugar Candied Bacon BLT with heirloom tomato, butter lettuce, pesto aioli, on pillowy country loaf (and potato chips!).
Nearly as good was the roast beef sandwich on a buttery toasted bun, jalapeno cheddar, mushroom melt, with a rich apple whisky BBQ sauce and grainy mustard.
The soup was a large bowl of creamy mushroom with potato and port - deliciously balanced flavour and not too rich. And the sausage roll had delicate pastry and flavourful meat inside.
Just around the corner is Delavoye, a bean-to-bar chocolate maker who got his start during the pandemic. The chocolate itself is dark, with great fruity tones. You can get it in single-origin bars as well as various flavoured options. There are also tangy dried fruits (plums, peaches) dipped in dark chocolate. They also have a variety of chocolate drinks, the most interesting of which is the carbonated juice made from the cacao fruit, covered with a juniper egg white foam, dotted with Token smoke bitters and graced with a smoking rosemary spring.
Another set of friends took us to Seoul Fried Chicken. The frying on the chicken was excellent, with a crispy coating and moist meat, even the breast. Although the SFC BBQ (our friend’s favourite) was good, with a nice sweet sauce, we preferred the Golden Kari, with a delicious curry rub. The fries were thick cut and good. The mac’n’cheese pesto was OK as was the kimchi. The biggest downside is having exclusively disposable packaging, though at least it is mainly cardboard.
A family dinner brought us to The Harvest Room at the Fairmont MacDonald. We have had decent meals here in the past and the terrace patio is lovely. However the meal this time was disappointing overall for the price.
A glass of Long Shadows Poet’s Leap Riesling, Washington USA was quite dry and amazingly limey. A bottle of Louis Latour, Pinot Noir, Burgundy, 202, was fine but not as interesting. Some lovely warm buns with herbed butter were also brought to the table.
Bison Carpaccio with blackberry emulsion, macerated grapefruit, Grizzly Gouda, watercress, sourdough crisps was very tasty - lovely soft meat and nice fruit flavours.
Seared scallops came with spinach and cauliflower purée, and smoked boar bacon. The scallops were nicely seared but perhaps not the freshest. The boar bacon was the best part and should have a dish built around it.
Alberta lake trout was a bit overcooked and yet only some of the skin was crisped. The accompanyin crushed new potatoes, grilled asparagus tips, and herb emulsion were good overall.
Sablefish was perfectly cooked and went well with buttery sweet corn purée, beluga lentils, grilled corn and pepper succotash.
Peach and Local Berry Dome featured a somewhat dry strawberry mousse, good lemon olive oil cake, cooked peach, peach vanilla compote, and strawberry gel - only OK.
Lemon Olive Oil Cake was the same cake as above with honey mascarpone cremeux, vanilla poached pear spheres, and honey lemon gel - there was a strong lemon tang from the gel, which made this more interesting.
A walk through Mill Creek Ravine eventually brought us to Kind Ice Cream, which we had been meaning to try for years. Haskap was superlative, with a nice sour tang and chunks of berries. We were recommended the cookies & sour cream, which was good but not as sour as we were hoping.
Our last dinner out brought us to La Petite Iza, the favourite restaurant of another friend. The have a lovely rooftop patio that overlooks the river valley and the downtown. Our server was the effusive Marjorie, who made us feel right at home.
For a cocktail, we tried the Passion D’Amour: Ciroc vodka, Passoa passionfruit liqueur, lemon juice, champagne, and a half passion fruit - fun and cute. We then shared a bottle of the Trimbach Riesling, Alsace, 2021 - dry and light, peach and lime.
We ordered a number of things for the table to share:
The charcuterie board included tasty saucisson mortadella with lots of black pepper, salami chorizo, supple St. Paulin, and a not-quite-ripe Brie de Meaux, with raspberry compote, whole grain mustard, and 4 slices of baguette.
The Salade d’Endives mixed together endive, thinly shaved fennel, apple, cherry tomatoes, shaved Comté, with a champagne citrus vinaigrette - fresh and a nice counterpoint to some of the richness to come.
Vichyssoise was cool and creamy, but was a bit bland.
Better were the house-smoked East Coast mussels with rosemary and parmesan crackers, chives, espelette, herbs - charming and delicious.
Fries, nicely fried in duck fat, were medium-sized, salty, and good for mopping up other sauces.
Duck confit could have had crisper skin, but was otherwise very tasty. It was accompanied by couscous, and cassis and berry jus.
Pacific halibut was cooked just right and served with blanched asparagus, sweet roasted cherry tomatoes, and a saffron beurre blanc that was oddly like a thick paste.
For dessert the profiteroles had a good choux pastry and were filled with sour cherry ice cream that could have better emphasized the sourness of the cherries. They came with a not-too-sweet chocolate sauce.
Tarte Tatin was instead a nice apple tart with a good shortbread crust and delicious caramel ice cream.
For petit fours we were given coconut chai cookies and passion fruit strawberry gelée.
