Three Boars - Eat, Share, Love

It took me three tries to get into Three Boars Eatery but I finally made it. After being foiled by lengthy lineups on two occasions, we got smart and went early on a Tuesday at 5 p.m. (an hour after they opened).

If you're into craft beer or single malt scotch or bourbon, this is the place to be. You'll have to fight for one of the seats at the bar though; the place is tiny. However, now that summer is here (more or less) the patio out front has lots more seating and its a great place to sit, sip and people watch along 109 Street. 

Upstairs in the old house is where you dine. The decor is simple and rustic and you feel like you're sitting down to a good ol' feast in a country farmhouse. Very cool. 

The Boars are Chuck Elves, Brayden Kozak and Brian Welch -- three young men with the right stuff: thoughtful libations, and dishes made from locally sourced food in small plate style to share amongst friends. The menu changes often depending on what they find at the farmers' market or get from their suppliers, or in some cases, how popular a dish is. I caught this tweet a couple of weeks ago: 

Yes, they're "crazy like that". Being able to change up a menu mid-service shows the crazy talent of the chef. The night we were there, the Boars were on Menu #22 and they had only been open a month. 

The menu is set out in three whimsically-titled sections: Bar Snacks, Rabbit Food and Sharesies. Cute.  

We started with a plate of the patatas bravas (roasted fingerling potatoes with a sriracha mayo for dipping). 

These patatas bravas were crispy on the outside with enough give on the inside to please everyone at our table. The sauce had just the right sass to be noticeable while remaining subtle enough to not overpower the fingerlings. 

The sautéed mushrooms with egg yolk on toast caught our eye from the Rabbit Food section.  The Bar Snacks section also offers meatless dishes, so if you're an herbivore, not to worry, you can still dig in to lots of good stuff here. 

This is a dish that you will crave to have again. The creamy egg yolk over a mix of fried mushrooms on top of a toasted baguette (from Bonjour Bakery aka Treestone) was completely decadent. Next time I will not share this one. 

If meat is your thing, the Sharesies section is where you will, quite possibly, have an awakening. What impressed me is the use of off-cuts, like the lamb neck served confit-style over a mound of fingerling potatoes and cheese curds. Not for dieters, but everyone deserves a treat every now and then!

The boars got creative with their bánh mì as well, filling a crusty, chewy baguette with braised beef tongue, expertly julienned vegetables, homemade pate, that saucy sriracha mayo and sprigs of cilantro. I hope this one shows up as a regular on the menu because it is definitely something I'd crawl back for.

Also getting thumbs up from my dining partners was the Spring Creek Ranch flat iron steak with Gull Valley tomatoes and artisanal greens. Nicely done, Boars, nicely done! The steak was tender, grilled to a perfect medium rare and the large portion of salad dressed in a garlic confit balsamic dressing allowed some respite from all that juicy protein. 

One more dish that we couldn't say no to was the Cornish game hen:

Sprinkled with bits of lardon and nestled in a glorious puddle of sage-infused apple cider vinegar, this little bird was juicy and tender beyond belief. The exquisite roasting and the finishing with just the right smattering of sea salt is worth mentioning. The right amount of salt is an area where many a cook fails. Not here. 

Desserts: Take it or leave it - The Boars offer only one dessert nightly, but trust me, you should take it whatever it is. Fresh baked fig and chocolate cookies were on offer the night we dined and they were warm and wonderful with just the right chew factor.  The server recommended we wash down our cookies with a dark Belgian ale called Pannepot. I wouldn't have thought to do that on my own, so I'm glad she recommended it because the beer had deep chocolate notes which complemented the cookies to a T. 

Is the Three Boars Eatery worth the hype that has surrounded it thus far? Yes. Oh, yes. Go forth, Edmonton: eat, share, love. 

My CBC Edmonton radio review of the Three Boars can be heard here. 

Edmonton's Elm Café Proves You Don't Have to be Big to be Mighty

Last week I finally sat down at Elm Café -- not inside where four stools are available for patrons, but outside on the patio where more tables allow customers some elbow room and a place to soak in the sunshine and savour the incredible flavours coming out of Edmonton’s tiniest café.

Inside Elm Cafe

Looking out to the patio

The man behind the Elm is Nate Box, former head chef at the Sugarbowl Café, and now creative genius and flavour guru at this 195 square foot eatery. Almost two years ago, Nate opened up Elm Café on 117 Street and set the bar very high for other like-minded individuals thinking of getting into the bistro business. 

Craft sandwiches, healthy salads, exquisite soups, and muffins from famed Duchess Bake Shop are the offerings from the ever-changing menu. Nate believes in using seasonal fare from local producers and to find out what the Elm crew is serving, you must follow them on Twitter (@ElmCafe) or like them on Facebook.

On this first visit to Elm, "dill pickle soup" stared back at me from the menu board. This is something I’ve come across at other restaurants, but I’ve never been enticed by--let’s face it--liquid dill pickles. However, on this particular day, I was with good-food crusader, Jennifer Cockrall-King, who urged me to go for it.  Jennifer, who just published her first book, Food and the City, knows good food, and I'm happy to have caved to her prodding on this one. 

The silky soup was heartier than I anticipated and a bonus round of potato chips added just the right amount of salt and texture to the pickly puree.

The lunch sandwich of the day was a roast chicken cacciatore: a hefty portion of juicy roasted chicken, topped with greens, snuggled in the bosom of a buxom bun. Together, soup and sandwich cost about $14 -- a fair price to pay for a feed of locally grown products. 

Twenty-four hours later I returned for more food, with more people in tow. Good things need to be shared. 

The soup of the day was broccoli cheddar.  From the picture below, you can get an idea as to how velvety this soup was, and the flavour? Ridiculous -- and that's a compliment. 

We shared two sandwiches: the grilled cheese (cheese with roasted onions, additional crispy fried onions, fresh basil and a subtle horseradish aioli)...

And the "Italian" (my moniker):  layers of genoa, soppressata and prosciutto gussied up with an herb chevre, and a pesto-y tapenade.

Combining ingredients that not only play nice together but also play off each other is what Nate Box does best. It's hard to say what my favourite sandwich was, but I'm game to go back and taste again (in the name of research, of course).

Elm also cooks up an early sandwich for those people needing some good breakfast nosh. Here are some examples of past breakfast "sammies" (as they like to call them): 

1) fried egg, pork belly, banana pepper, provolone, spinach, dijon
2) fried egg, yam, ajvar, fruilano, spinach, fried onion

3) fried egg sandwiches with Irvings Farm Fresh Ltd pulled pork, tomato, havarti and spinach

4) fried Four Whistle Farm egg, smoked Irvings Farm Fresh Ltd ham, fontina, spinach, aioli.

And if you're looking for salads, they've got some beauties with one on offer each day, like: 

1) orzo, olives, feta, fennel, basil, cucumber, artichokes and greens with ricotta mint dressing, or

2) white beans, kalamata olive, radish, basil and lemon zest with a basil balsamic dressing.

I could wax on and on about the incredible fare made at this shoebox of a café, but trust me I would just be repeating myself, and I'd be wearing out my thesaurus looking for synomyms for words like "tasty" and "good".  What you should do is trust Nate and his staff and enjoy whatever they're putting out. This happenin' little joint is also a great spot to go and enjoy a wicked latte or a cool summer drink. 

Elm Cafe also caters, so folks, if you're looking for creative dishes, wouldn't it be nice to have something outside the box and made from locally-sourced ingredients? 

To listen to my CBC Edmonton AM review of Elm Cafe, click here.... and then head down to 117 Street. 

Crepe Symphony - Edmonton Restaurant Review

Life is too short; eat dessert first.

At the recently-opened Crepe Symphony  (Rice Howard Way in Edmonton), you can do just that because the delicious crepes they create are available at 9 a.m. Monday to Saturday. The Nutella Banana crepe pictured above, and the Tropicana crepe below (two of six dessert/breakfast crepes), are just fruit pancakes by another name, right? So put your guilt aside, and dig in.

Don't despair, the menu also sports a savoury selection: smoked salmon and cream cheese, spinach and cheese (vegetarian), chicken and mushroom, and ground beef with sun-dried tomato.

Chicken and Mushroom Crepe $8.35

Ground Beef, Sun-Dried Tomato $8.30

The crepes are light and come two to a plate. Those with heartier appetites might want to supplement their selection with a salad or home-made soup and finish off the meal with a slice of cake or dessert made by mama (the one whipping up the crepes in the kitchen).

What you need to know: this is an independent, family-run restaurant where you go up to the counter to order, and Gil (in charge of serving and social media) brings the food. The drink selection is varied and includes coffee, lattes, tea, juice and soda. A liquor license was in the works and could very well be approved by the time this post goes up. Desserts are plentiful and all home-made and like some of the soups (borsch), exhibit the family's Russian heritage. For those people with gluten issues, the crepes can be made gluten-free on request.

With proximity to great shopping, the Art Gallery of Alberta, Citadel Theatre and the Winspear, Crepe Symphony is a sweet addition to Edmonton's downtown area. To listen to my CBC Edmonton review of this new restaurant, click here.

East, Restaurant Review - Malaysian Street Food Fusion

Go far enough north on 97 street in Edmonton and you’ll run into East, a new restaurant touting “modern Asian cuisine with a Malaysian twist.” Richard Lim, who also owns Wildflower and Lazia, opened East in December in a new strip mall just north of 160 Avenue. The restaurant sits smack dab in the middle of retail purgatory with the usual fast food suspects anchoring corners of the parking lot. Hopefully, East can rise above the homogenously drab boxes that surround it.

Richard Lim greeted us with hospitable exuberance the night we stopped by. The menu is extensive and according to Lim, is a result of his wanting to bring Malaysian street food to Edmonton. East offers several familiar Asian dishes we’ve come to know in our city, but to my relief, several unique dishes also appear, like: Zen Yuan Poached Chicken, Char Kuey Teow and Silver Needle Noodles. The menu, rife with rice bowls, tofu offerings, vegetables and oodles of noodles, should appeal to vegetarians as well. 

Visual aids

The problem, then, was deciding what to order.  Lim was quick to help, giving us the history, the ingredients and the proper pronunciation of the dishes we were waffling on.  Without hesitation he suggested the Roti Canai (pronounced RO-tee cha-NYE) a dish that is apparently receiving a lot of praise from diners. The soft, pliable flatbread came to the table freshly made and served with a bowl of mild curry dipping sauce.  Oh, what a joy it is to eat something that has you dreaming about it later. Next time I will drink the dip and use the bread as an edible napkin. And no, I won’t share, although all the dishes we had that night were definitely large enough to share.

Roti Canai $6.95

The 3 Flavour Ribs followed the roti. You’re probably wondering what the three flavours are. I may have forgotten to ask, but if I had to guess I’d say “faith, hope and charity” or some other triad of loveliness. 

3 Flavour Ribs $9.95

Next up, Egg-Floss topped Shrimp.  Here’s one of those “never before” dishes I was talking about. A platter of lightly battered plump prawns topped with curry leaves and this crazy eggy floss. This dish will probably become East’s signature dish based on its popularity, and rightly so; its fun and just plain fantastic.

Egg-Floss Shrimp $17.95

The shrimp were followed by Fried Crispy Sweet and Sour Pork belly. I don’t think there’s ever been a time I’ve said no to pork belly on a menu. This belly was different though, according to Lim who described it as being more like bacon, sliced thinner than your regular pork belly, deep-fried and covered in a slightly sweet tomato sauce.  Different, but delectable.

Crispy Sweet & Sour Pork belly $13.95

Do not attempt to eat a full plate of this. As hard as it is to stop, just a few of those rich strips of belly will do ya’.

The Nyonya Fried Chicken in Kapitan Sauce was the last of the entrees, or as I call it now, the “nom-nom chicken.” Marinated in spices and ingredients too precious to reveal (tamarind, soy sauce, kaffir lime leaves perhaps?), this chicken is the bomb.  The Kapitan Sauce, in simple terms is a curry-type sauce with cinnamon notes and a coconut milk base.  Altogether fantastic.

Nyonya Fried Chicken $13.95

Dessert. We toyed with sharing the Momo Cha-Cha, a mixture of syrup, sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas, but that sounded too much like Thanksgiving dinner and I just couldn’t embrace that in March. I’ll admit it, all of the desserts sounded very strange to my Canadian ears, but life is too short to say no to trying new foods.  We ordered up the Black Glutinous Rice Pudding and the ABC Ice.

Don’t expect your usual rice pudding here. It’s black, it’s runny, but strangely tasty. The smaller portion (in relation to all the other dishes on the menu) is deceiving; this too is a dish you can share.

Black Rice Pudding $3.95

The eight ingredients in the ABC Ice range from sweet corn to grass jelly but what you need to know is that all the ingredients combined result in something that tastes like jelly bean ice cream, which isn’t such a bad thing at all. 

ABC Ice $4.50

The space is casually chic, the service friendly and the food well prepared and refreshingly different making this experience an all round enjoyable one.  I’ll definitely return…I’ll be heading west from the east end; those in the west need to head east to East, and if you’re coming from the north, head south to East, and from the south, head north. Or just enter 16049 – 97 into your GPS and let technology do its thing.

My CBC Edmonton AM review of East can be heard here.

Eat Alberta 2012: I do, and I did.

What happens when 100+ curious, food-loving Albertans get together for a day of hands-on and educational food sessions? A whole lot of food-love, that's what. 


April 14th, 2012 was the day of the 2nd Eat Alberta conference hosted by NAIT, and organized by a whiz-bang team of local food supporters consisting of: 
Suzanne Dennis,
 Ming Franks,
Valerie Lugonja,
 Mack Male,
 Nicole Schroth,
 Allan Suddaby and
 Sharon Yeo.  The presenters’ list read like the family tree of a Bon Appetit sire and a Cordon Bleu dame. With a roster like that, ticket buyers knew this was going to be one heck of a food extravaganza, and it was. 

The day got off to an early start with breakfast and coffee held at Ernest’s. The buzz in the air was palpable.  Conversation flitted from table to table as attendees introduced themselves to each other and compared their class schedules. Now, let me say, choosing classes was no easy task. How can you choose between learning how to make sausage and learning how to make gnocchi? Or, would one really give up beer tasting for gleaning knowledge on safe mushroom foraging? Choosing the wrong beer could be disastrous! How about the art of baking sourdough bread? Is that more important than making cheese? One cannot live on bread alone you know, and who hasn’t wanted to learn how to cook bison properly? What about the knife skills needed to carve, slice and dice that animal.

The last time I had to make so many hard decisions was when I was had to decide on a shade of paint for my living room. Not easy.

At 9 a.m. all attendees assembled for the morning keynote session to listen to Shannon and Danny Ruzicka of Nature’s Green Acres farm talk about “Life on the Back 40”. We learned of the importance of moving animals from pen to pen in order for the land to renew itself; we leaned of how sensitive chickens are to change and what social animals they are; we learned of the importance of raising animals on grass instead of grain and without hormones and antibiotics; we learned that Ruzicka's pigs don’t wallow in their own poop, preferring the spa-like attributes of good clean mud and water, and lastly we learned why Danny doesn’t like bees. 

This is NOT Shannon and Danny, but I didn't take a picture of them at the conference, so consider this a stand-in photo.

Most importantly we learned that people like the Ruzickas work hard not only to put conscientiously raised food on their own table, but on the tables of Albertans as well. Hopefully now, more people will understand why someone like award-winning Chef Blair Lebsack supports this young farming family and why his Range Road 135 Field to Fork dinner on their property last year was a phenomenal success.

By 10 a.m. we were off to our first class, The Art of Sausage Making with sausage master, Allan Suddaby.

The Intense, Passionate Suddaby

I had, through the food community, heard about Suddaby and was aware of people’s adoration of the man, but I had no idea the level of knowledge he had, nor the passion he possessed for the product. Eat Alberta was wise in choosing this presenter for a class. We learned about the meat, the casings, the technique of stuffing and the science behind everything sausage. About two minutes into the session I became a Suddabite. One hour was not enough to soak up this man’s wit, skill and expertise.

Contemplative, yet daring to go where no sausage maker has gone before

Class two was chosen to ease away the stress and undo hardships of all that early morning sausage learning. Our second class was Beer Tasting with Jason Foster whose professional designation is Beer Writer. I would like to obtain a BW designation; I think that would be an awesome credential to have on a resume. Jason is also the beer columnist on CBC radio. Talk about a cool gig.


I don’t know why more people didn’t sign up for beer tasting in the morning slot. Lightweights. A low class enrolment in the early session meant more beer for those of us who put a lot of thought into scheduling. Ha.

Jason Foster in action

I went into this class with what I thought was a lot of beer knowledge—after all, I’ve been studying it since I swiped a bottle of warm Bohemian from my dad’s storage room in 1975, so, I was surprised to find myself leaning in, intently listening to Foster explain the differences between ales and lagers, hops and malts, and why Czech beer tastes so good. I learned that I don’t like super-hoppy beer but could see it being more palatable say, if it was served with bacon and eggs in a morning session. (Maybe next year?)

the view from my desk

Fortified by sausage and beer, we headed to the dining area to have lunch. Us foodies needed more food, and NAIT stuck to the theme of local by providing lunch made with local products. Nicely done.

After lunch we found our way to our next scheduled session: How to Magically Make Mozzarella. If you have milk, a pot, a thermometer, and a tablet of rennet, you too can make cheese--it’s that simple. However, I was a bit busy tweeting and texting and my neglect towards my curds resulted in a pathetic blob of white "stuff". NAIT’s Chef Alan Roote, a very kind and patient instructor, said this of my cheese: “Well, I’ve seen worse.”  Bless him.

Doomed cheese?

We put our mozza balls into ziplock bags and placed them in the cooler to set until we could take them home at the end of the day.  When I opened the cooler door and saw everyone else’s perfect cheese balls lined up, I have to admit I was tempted to exchange mine with Carmen Cheng’s (@FoodKarma) whose mozza mound looked like it came straight from Italy. Damn that Carmen and her perfect cheese ball.  But somehow, through the miracle of science, cooling, and absolute fluke, my cheese transformed into a rather tasty, somewhat toothsome oblong mass of mozzarella. 

Our final class: Bison with Blair Lebsack where Lebsack had three cuts of bison on the go: brisket, sirloin roast, and striploin steaks. A huge pan of root vegetable hash was caramelizing its way to glory while Blair instructed us on the finer points of bison nutrition, versatility, trimming and cooking methods. I love Lebsack’s unwavering level of food integrity, his skill, his creativity and his commitment to conscientiously raised foods. I vow to have more bison on my table.

Blair Lebsack trimming bison striploin 

Cutting into bison brisket

By 3:45 we waddled into the final session where a panel of food warriors (Shannon Ruzicka, Amy Beaith, Kevin Kossowan, Jeff Senger, Allan Suddaby) expounded on How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse using personal methods of food preservation, caching, fermenting and storage techniques. It has to be said that no one on the panel has yet encountered a zombie, but I have no doubt that come the day of the Apocalypse, we’re all better off now knowing what to do to survive.  In all seriousness, we learned that it doesn’t take much to sustain oneself either by growing one’s own food, or trading with others who do. It takes commitment and heart; two things Albertan foodies have a heck of a lot of.

Warning: Members of the Panel Are Not as Docile as They Appear

After all that learning it was time to “wine down”.  The Eat Alberta team organized one last event to cap off the day with a wine and food pairing, giving attendees one last chance to compare notes and revel in what they had just experienced. Spectacular wines from Ex Nihilo, Barr Estate Winery, and Birds and Bees were paired with beautiful food mini-bites. The wine down was so wonderful that no one wanted to leave. It was one of those “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here” happenings, but home we went, our heads and bellies full of knowledge and food.

And all that for $125. I’ve been to conferences where I’ve learned less and paid more, and where the food was hardly fit to eat. This conference was outstanding. In fact, if the Eat Alberta team would have had sign up sheets for EA2013, I would’ve signed up right then and there. Thanks to the organizers, the presenters, the volunteers and to NAIT. For those interested in next year’s conference, keep your ears on the foodvine; tickets are going to be one hot item.


Speaking of tickets, be careful where you park. Right, Kevin?

Steve, aka Johnny Lawyer on the Spot, tending to a "Much Ado About Nothing" parking incident.

Much more erudite blogposts on Eat Alberta have been posted. Please check out my fellow food bloggers: Sarah at A Random Sampling, and photographer-extraordinaire, Maki, from In My Element.