“Cibo molto buona” at Cucina

Top Chef Canada Season 3 Contestants Danny Smiles,
Nicole Gomes, Jonathan Goodyear (Dennis Tay not
pictured but he was there), Moo and my female human

Although we arrived in Calgary in the afternoon on Saturday, we still wanted to try to hit Cucina for brunch as we’d heard good things about them from our foodie friends in Edmonton, and @littlemissandrea’s review spoke highly of their brunch. The Teatro Group, who also own Teatro, Vendome Café and Carne – a seasonal street meat stand that I visited on a previous trip to Calgary - owns Cucina – Italian for kitchen. The restaurant was a short distance from the hotel we were staying at, Hotel LeGermain, making it easy for us to dash from the Red Arrow office downtown when we arrived at noon, check in at Hotel LeGermain, meet our friend @bluebirdsy, then head on over to Cucina.

So So Co Co Di

Hommus with feeb

My Grammie bought a Groupon for dinner for four at Co Co Di so off we went one evening. The Groupon included a glass of wine for everyone, two appetizers and four entrees. The restaurant itself was enormous with booths along both walls, quite a lot of tables in the middle, the bar to the back left and the kitchen to the back right. The décor itself was fairly generic, with only the hookahs at some tables to indicate it was a Mediterranean restaurant.

Mr Moo's Adventures Second Anniversary

Kara and Nevin Fenske  Food Angels

To think May 13, 2013 is only my second year writing this blog. I have met so many people, eaten so many incredibly things, been to many interesting and highly praised restaurants, and even gotten to travel.

I thought that I would share a few of my highlights from the last year with you all.

• Female Human’s Hernia Surgery – In May 2012, the female human had abdominal hernia surgery after two years of waiting and was unable to go anywhere or eat much of anything for two weeks. She was in so much pain the first week of surgery that it was a choice between taking pain killers that made her so nauseous that she wasn’t hungry or would throw up if she ate (not a good thing to do when you’ve just had surgery on your abdomen) or not taking them and being in so much pain that she wasn’t hungry. The only thing she managed to keep down was bits of bland unbuttered toast or saltines. Luckily for her, after talking with the male human, angels Kara and Nevin Fenske of Drift Food Truck started making her bread sandwiches – basically toasted buns with the same spread they use on their pork belly sandwiches - allowing her to eat something that wasn’t so disgustingly bland that she wanted to throw up. It helped her get and keep her strength up enough to start getting off the couch and moving around on her own, with her first visit to the outside world of course being to Drift to thank them.

SWICH Pop Up - Mighty tasty sandwiches coming soon!

Mimosa

If you missed the SWICH pop up, I hope you had a great Mother’s Day! But you missed out on some moolicious food! No worries though, Alexi, the owner, operator and chef of SWICH, is due to hit the streets of Edmonton hopefully before the end of May or early June.

He’s partnered with siblings Tom and Monica Lim, whose family owns and runs Lan’s Asian Grill near NAIT and T.H.I.S Place, which is downtown, for his mobile sandwich venture. Their trailer will be open for business during lunch on weekdays, although their locations are yet to be announced, he indicated that they will have two spots, one located downtown and the other on the Southside. As well, they hope to cater to businesses and at event.

Samosas - Another Lesson in Indian Cooking with @michpetersjones

Samosa Filling

I always love eating Indian food, but not being even a mediocre home cook, it’s not the type of food I would ever try to make myself as I find the recipes are often fairly daunting. Fortunately for us @michpetersjones of The Tiffin Box and @BigAddie had been planning to make samosas this week, and we were lucky enough to be invited over to learn how to make them. Learning first hand, being able to actually see and participate in the cooking under someone’s direction, makes it less scary to attempt to make recipes that appear complicated. Now, making samosas can be labour intensive and @michpetersjones and @BigAddie admitted that in India, most people don’t bother making their own but instead go out to their local bakery and just purchase them.

Enchanted at Niche (CLOSED)

PEI Mussels

We hadn’t been to Niche in over a year and decided to revisit it during Downtown Dining Week. We began with an amuse bouche of beets, strawberries, and goat feta, which was one refreshing bite. Next we moved onto appetizers, which included a large bowl of perfectly cooked and tender PEI mussels with roasted red peppers, basil, paired with corn bread and honey butter to soak up the fragrant and light broth. The male human opted for Bison Carpaccio with soy vinaigrette, parmesan, sesame oil powder and arugula, which he said had a very mild bison flavor to it and melted in his mouth. Least to say both dishes were devoured without delay.

Marvelling at Borough Market and The Greedy Goat

Enjoying prosecco with Winston von Bark

One of our first stops in London was Borough Market with my favorite canine comrade, Winston Von Bark and his lovely female human, Lindsey, and his male human, Stuart. The market was a ways from where we were staying in London, but was well worth the trip.