Spring!

I was sitting here in my basement cave listening to the Flames-Wild game on the radio (1-0 for the good guys, early in the 2nd period) and saw a cat outside the window doing some bathroom-appropriate activity, or preparing to, so I opened a window to shoo it away, and I noticed these:

Yes, those are the very first TINY (maybe a centimetre out of the ground) shoots of tulips, on the sunny side of the house, February 24, Calgary. Calgary, Alberta. Sure, they’re 5 inches out of the ground in Vancouver (and spring is breaking out everywhere there), but this is still pretty cool.

Speaking of Vancouver, I had a great time, mostly. I had some really amazing meals- Gyoza King as noted earlier (a second visit there was just as good), some delights (with a gross ama ebi, though- raw shrimp ain’t my thing) at Hapa Izakaya, and a SUPERB dinner, a 3 course prix fixe (with an amuse bouche and a little “pre-dessert,” it was actually five courses, three full ones and two tiny ones) at Gastropod in Kitsilano. It was creative and great depth of flavour in everything; my main was a tuna belly done confit style but poached in olive oil (not “tuna fat,” which would have been interesting); it was on a bed of diced veg and black eyed peas (!!) and just shot through with a fennel broth. Appie was 3 BC oysters with horseradish “snow”; dessert was french toast made from brioche, vanilla ice cream and a little piece of real honeycomb. Incredible. Since I’d had a migraine the day before I eschewed alcohol and the $25 wine pairings, so the bill came to $50. You cannot find this sort of value in Calgary these days.

After this repast I went to see Juno. I loved it. It’s great to see a movie with a strong, young female lead that’s not a “chick flick” (not that I hate chick flicks, but you know what I mean), and not one where the lead has to be some sort of male fantasy ninja chick (cf Kill Bill) who is hot (by hetero male standards) but who fights and stuff. Juno gets pregnant and is cool. I’d want to be like her, minus the pregnant part.

Gyoza King: How life should be

I’ve been in Vancouver since Friday, so am three days into this Reading Week excursion, and in the midst of some fine (dry, if a bit cold) weather, I have to report that I just had one of the best meals of my life. It was at Gyoza King, 1508 Robson and just a few steps west of my hotel (the Empire Landmark, 1400 Robson). I had an order of “seasonal pickles,” a small order (six) of shrimp, pork and chive gyoza (pan-fried Japanese dumplings), and an order of pork and kimchi fried rice.  To drink, I eschewed the interesting list of Japanese-y cocktails and had plain iced oolong tea.

It was magnificent, every bite, every morsel. The pickles were a sort of mild kimchi (I say this as it was pickled Chinese cabbage), but with a sprinking of what I think was shiso. It was delicious and mysterious. Next came the fried rice, served on a plate with a spoon as I’ve become accustomed to with fried rice Japonais. Addictive from the first spoonful; the pork was tender and the kimchi was a perfect spicy accent, rice perfectly crisp-chewy, superb!

About half way into my rice came the gyoza, gossamer things with … ohhhhhhh, just… God. Words fail me. The whole meal was a revelation.

I’ve had many, many good to great meals in Vancouver, including a $150/person feed at Diva at the Met a few years back, and this was the best one I’ve had in this city and one of the best I’ve ever had, period.

The bill? $20 and change, $25 with tip.

Every break is a coffee break: Calgary coffee news

Exciting times! Links to all mentioned below (well, most) are at my “places I like” page.

1. Caffe Artigiano is OPEN. Well, just about. A fellow chowhounder posted a portion of a press release delivered (to whom? not sure) yesterday from the corporate folk to the effect that Caffe Artigiano Downtown Calgary is now open for business! So I traipsed downtown (gorgeous day after a small but pretty dump of snow last night) for a macchiato and a lamb panino, and there was a sign on the door: water main break, open tomorrow.

Shit.

I might be able to stop in tomorrow after my afternoon class, but seeing as I am departing for a week in Vancouver Friday morn, I will probably have to wait until after the 23rd. And ironically I will be drinking plenty of Artigiano in Vancouver, but it’ll be nice (to put it too mildly) to have one here. I did get a little tour on Monday and espied a 4-group La Marzocco FB-80 and a Clover by-the-cup brew machine. Huge space, for a coffeehouse.

Caffe Artigiano is at 332 6th Ave SW on the 3rd St side. It’s open seven days, 6-6 M-W, 6-7 Th-F, 7-3 Sat, 8-3 Sun, 403-699-9855.

2. Java Jamboree’s new venture in the beltline, Kawa Espresso Bar (”Kawa,” pronounced “ka-va” and not to be confused with either Sushi Kawa or with kava-kava, is Polish for “coffee”) is coming along. Signs announcing its opening, likely some time in March, are plastered all over the windows as seen above. JJ/Kawa have started pulling 49th Parallel instead of Vivace, which is just fine for me, although this puts Calgary in the odd position of having three cafes selling 49th just a few blocks from one another (Artigiano, Bumpy’s and Kawa), but that’s not a bad problem to have. Besides, if every indie coffee place in Portland can use Stumptown, we can do with a handful that use 49th.

Kawa looks like it’s going to be a nice, bright, big space; it’s on the ground floor of the Dorchester Square office building, NW corner of 14 Ave and 8 St SW.

3. The only really new thing at Bumpy’s is their recent acquisition of an Elektra Kappa espresso machine and mmm mmm does Ben (among other baristi I’m sure but this guy has skills) know how to get the best out of it. He made me a world-class macchiato the other day (with 49th Epic), and really, it’s what ends up in the cup that matters.

I’ve been curious to see how the recent developments will pan out for Bumpy’s, especially the opening of Kawa a mere 3 blocks south, but I honestly hope and expect that the pie is only going to get bigger so that every new artisanal shop will be able to grab a piece of it. Bumpy’s didn’t go under when Phil and Sebastian opened; they still pack them in despite being downwind from two Starbucks on 8th; and when Beano transformed into a more or less quality shop, Bumpy’s still held on and (to my eyes) thrive. The pie just gets bigger as Calgary consumers demand more. Good for all of us.

4. I haven’t been to the Farmers’ Market for a couple of weeks but ran into barista Will from Phil and Sebastian and he informed me that P&S is scrapping Hines and fashioning a new, proprietary espresso from the artisans at Novo in Denver. I can’t wait to try this- I’ve only had good luck with Hines, but the idea of a true “Phil and Sebastian espresso” is too cool.

Phil (of P&S of course) recommended I check out Blue Bottle Coffee in SF, and I did, in fact I got to their new cafe three times in two days. It was superb, but I actually think our coffee scene in little ol’ redneck Calgary holds at least as much promise as SF’s does.

Exciting times.

Foodie weekend: Golden Inn for a lunar new year feast, Village Pita Bakery for the best chicken shawarma I’ve ever had, and Bite Groceteria for delicious odds and ends in Inglewood

It’s Lunar (aka “Chinese,” but it’s not only celebrated in China) New Year and our too-kind friend Swee had a gaggle of us out to celebrate with a HUUUUUUGE meal at Golden Inn, and it had us screaming “Gang Hee Fat Choi!” with great exuberance. I can’t recall everything that we had but it was a spectacle (and yes the dragon made an appearance). Let’s see: I remember soup of corn, chicken and egg; huge grilled prawns; ginger beef for the Gwai Lo in all of us; absolutely stunning crispy fried chicken; clams with black bean; black cod; one of those potato baskets with shrimp and chicken; a whole platter of lobster and crab; red bean “soup” for dessert; and a tonne of good coversation and conviviality. I had no camera, which is too bad, because it was a real sight. Golden Inn goes into our rotation for sure.

Yesterday we headed out to pick up me new chair (a genuine Herman Miller Aeron that Brian had ordered for my birthday last month) and since we needed the car for that, we took the opportunity to head east for a couple of places that we rarely (being southwest siders) get to visit. So we had lunch, first thing, at Village Pita Bakery, which is in an interesting culinary island called “Short Pants Plaza,” on 28 St SE north of Memorial Drive. I was prepared to get what I always get: a “meat pie,” which is actually a sfeeha, crispy and delicious and cheap- partner and I usually get three and split one (ie, one and half pies each). And they are SUPERB. Well, today I noticed “chicken pocket” ($6.95) on the menu and tried it while partner got 2 meat pies.

Out comes the “chicken pocket” and it looks like a sfeeha but with sliced chicken inside- it was toasted like the meat pies are, folded in half; then the lady behind the counter unfolds it and asks if I’d like “everything.” I don’t know what “everything” is but it turned out to be diced tomatoes, pickled wild cukes, pickled turnip, hot peppers, and tons of what turned out to be garlic sauce. This is what it looks like, more or less, with a few bits missing:

It’s not huge, so for $6.95 it might not seem to be great value; here I am to give you some sense of proportion. I do have pretty big hands…

Regardless of price: oh. my. God. It was delicious. It was different from any shawarma I’ve had, in part because the pita was pizza-crust crispy, the pickles added this sublime, complex taste (it didn’t just taste of vinegar or whatever despite having three different pickled things), and the garlic sauce was incredible, with a tiny bit of sweetness to it. It was pure pleasure. Next time, I’m getting two.

I’ve had perfectly amazing shawarma in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, and at places like Tazza and A&A in Calgary. I’ve never had any this delicious. So this was, needless to say, an amazing find.

Moving back towards downtown, we stopped in a new foodie boutique called Bite Groceteria in Inglewood, which is a cool area east of downtown that we don’t get to often enough. This is a nice, characterful old space that was once a Good Earth cafe. It’s stocked with a seemingly random, but also interesting, beautiful, and appetizing assortment of foods and kitchen paraphernalia; a great place to do some discovering, with very friendly and knowledgeable staff. We went home with a small treasure trove including really good olive oil and fantastic hand-made Italian nougat. Inglewood needs places like this (until a couple of years ago it was lousy with antique shops and not much else), and we wish them well.

San Francisco, USA

This is, believe it or not, one of my favourite times of year. The light returns with strident speed in February, with gains of three and even four minutes per day. It adds up. Terrible winter weather as we are having today is more bearable with the light of spring at the end of the tunnel- and even with spring still a bit distant, there’s the light of sunlight that I just mentioned, and it’s IN the tunnel, sort of. And there is the lovely guarantee of a week off thanks to that Canadian version of spring break known as “Reading Week.” Ours is next week, starting February 17 officially, but I am visiting Vancouver (and taking a stack of papers to mark, but no biggie) from the 15th until the 23rd.

Wait, wasn’t I just away from home? Yep, in San Francisco from last Friday and returning later-than-expected on Wednesday night. This was for meetings for the team members to present their research reports for this litigation consulting project I’m doing, and that part was predictably arduous and time-consuming. But we (Brian and I) had the weekend to ourselves, booking two extra nights at the Four Seasons, which was probably the poshest hotel I’ve stayed at yet (though our few nights at Arc The.Hotel in Ottawa a couple of summers ago was right up there too). The Four Seasons has spiffy everything, including the toilet paper:

We didn’t have great weather; in fact it was pretty much pissing rain on Saturday and Sunday (weather on the work days was, natch, perfect), but we had a great couple of days. The doormen at the hotel gave us nice umbrellas gratis, which helped. Anyway, there were really two non-work-related high points of this trip (the work-related high point comes when I get paid…BA-DUM!). One was taking BART to Berkeley and having lunch at the “cafe” part of Chez Panisse. I’ve always been a little leery of this place, first because any restaurant that gets universally glowing reviews is a little suspect to me, and second because, in a city/metro area with thousands and thousands of restos, it’s the only one that pretentious academic (as in Berkeley academic) types, who populate my social orbit too much, can come up with when you ask for food recs. “Oh, you’re heading to San Francisco? There’s a restaurant in Berkeley that you MUST visit.” So I’ve resisted going there.

Well, needless to say, we went at Brian’s urging, and it was tremendous. Not a speck of snobbery, just perfect food and perfect service in a beautiful space that’s pure arts and crafts heaven. Here’s Brian before the temple:

and the two of us apres lunch:

The food was masterful, simple in that slow food sense but perfectly balanced and, in its way, complex. I had a salad of beet and cauliflower, room temperature thank you very much (I hate cold salads), a main of pan-fried, lightly breaded rockfish with TINY roast potatoes:

… and the most tender, succulent cole slaw I have ever had ever in my entire life, and desert of house-made (of course) coffee ice cream with toffee and biscotti. There was nothing challenging about the food at all, which is shocking since I’d never have expected to say this about Chez Panisse, but it was one of the most COMFORTING meals in a fine resto that I’ve ever had. Only criticism: the butter that came with the superb bread was too cold and hard, but since we were first seating (11:30 AM) I suppose this was forgiveable. The bill for two salads, two mains, and two deserts, with one glass of wine for B, was about $114. Much better value than one finds in Calgary these days, sad to say.

The other high point was my happy decision to visit my college friend Evan Rose on Tuesday night. Our client had organized a “team dinner” on that night but I wanted to see Evan as we missed one another last time I was in SF. Evan is an architect with SMWM, and they actually have a project in Calgary, residential attached to the Deerfoot Meadows “lifestyle centre,” which is a whole other topic. Evan and his wife Josslyn live in a very much my-style part of SF called Bernal Heights, in a very cool old house to boot with a professional kitchen that Brian would murder for (unfortunately Brian headed back on Sunday so he couldn’t meet them). We had superb grilled (indoor grill with hood! Class!) Ital sausages and then homemade ice cream, with good conversation and the sort of vibe that’s hard for me to find, usually. Great times.

So, what’s become of my love-hate relationship with “the city”? I have to say that my hate part is tempered. I did see a lot of the same social disorganization that I saw in SF on my last trip in ‘04. But I can honestly say that even in the Tenderloin (which I traversed on foot twice) is looking better these days. SF is still and always a pedestrian paradise. I had a great time. Not perfect, especially since most of this stay was about work and lots of it. But I can say something that I did not, could not, say after my last trip, which is that I look forward to another visit, this time NOT for work or a conference. And I’m happy to say that, and mean it!