Food Notes for February 2, 2009

I’m taking a break from recapping this weekend’s conference for my regularly scheduled food notes, and to tell my readers that I likely won’t be continuing with my monthly post of Edmonton events. I didn’t put one together for January, and though I had some intentions to keep track of things for the month of February, it didn’t happen. My energies have converged into these weekly food notes, and between my other commitments, I don’t think I can do a good job. Luckily, in a few months, I think there will be a resource even better than my monthly posts. Keep your eyes open for ShareEdmonton!

On to this week’s notes:

• The biggest news this week was Rob Feenie’s visit to Edmonton on Wednesday. He was in town to promote two things – his return February 11-13 to be NAIT’s first Hokanson Chef in Residence, and the mid-April opening of Edmonton’s first Cactus Club Cafe in West Edmonton Mall (I visited the Bentall 5 location last summer, and was blown away). The NAIT media team did an unprecedented job utilizing social media to engage the public, by live-Tweeting the event (answering questions live submitted via Twitter with the hashtag #naitchef), and taking behind the scenes video, which can be seen here. Be sure to enter NAIT’s Feast With Feenie contest on their website; deadline February 5.
• My latest article about d’Lish, the newest meal assembly studio in Edmonton, was published in Vue Weekly this week. It’s one of my favourite pieces that I have written so far, if not only because Amanda gave me so much content to work with.
• I came across a new-ish restaurant at the Taste of Alberta at the Today, Tomorrow, Together conference called Le Cafe Entre Amis (8627 91 Street, 780-395-0015), near the Faculte St. Jean.
• The Hat will be offering brunch on Saturdays from 11am-3pm starting February 6.
• I thought I might be able to write a full review of Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food, but with the way things are going, I won’t. So in short: I didn’t find it as readable as The Omnivore’s Dilemma (mostly because it reads more like an essay as opposed to a narrative), though it is just as valuable a resource for those looking for facts to support a change in the way that they eat. It also surprised me that the end of the book was as prescriptive as it was – yes, he intended it to be a manifesto, but what I liked about Dilemma was that he left it up to the reader to shift perceptions on their own accord.
• This is pretty cool: a printer that uses coffee grounds for ink!
• Open Table, the online restaurant reservation site, filed for an Initial Public Offering today.