Food Notes for May 16, 2011

Doesn’t it feel like summer just arrived without a real transition from spring? The trees are struggling to green up to match the sunny skies! Hope you’re out making the most of it too! On to this week’s food notes:

• Less than 100 tickets are left for this year’s Indulgence. Get yours soon if you plan on attending!
• Make sure you go and pick up an issue of Vue Weekly: it features the recipients of the 2011 Golden Fork Awards (how great is it that Transcend and Credo took best chain coffee shop and best indie?!). There is also a great spread on “Food: A Day in the Life” with snapshots of Bon Ton Bakery, The Wired Cup, MRKT and Hardware Grill.
• See Magazine released their Best of Edmonton winners this past week as well. The same issue features a profile on Josh Hockin and Ben Put of Transcend Coffee.
• Press’d Sandwiches is expanding: look for their second location at 11214 Jasper Avenue in mid-June.
• I’m a little late to the party, but congrats to Edo Japan, which just opened their 10oth store last week. I had no idea they were an Alberta-based company.
• Valerie and Liv both wrote about week 1 in the Century Hospitality Group’s Top Chef competition. Mack and I are on deck for judging on Saturday, and looking forward to it!
• The next Live Local dinner will take place at Accent European Lounge on May 25, 2011. To keep up to date on all Live Local initiatives, sign up for their newsletter.
• You may have read that Culina will be taking over the concession at the Alberta Avenue Farmers’ Market in June, but in case that isn’t soon enough for you, they will also be catering the Royal Bison on May 28-29, 2011.
• Sure, you may be familiar with vegetable-based CSAs, but how about fruit-based? Companies like Tree-Mendus Fruit in Michigan are renting out apple trees.
• Are cell phones killing bees? The answer is: maybe.
• Top Chef Canada was in the news last week for their episode tonight, which saw horse on the menu.
• Mack and I attended the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation fundraising breakfast on Tuesday morning, partly as an excuse to visit McNally (our old high school) again. At the breakfast, we learned more about the Foundation’s fundraising efforts towards implementing full-day kindergarten programs in 14 distressed communities. The event was so well done, and got all the little details right, down to the noisemakers and bubble blowers at the table, to remind us all of our inner child.

Our table

• Look for another Greek take out spot just down from Opa on Whyte and 103 Street, called Greek to Go.

Greek to Go

• I met up with May at the Whyte Ave location of Daawat for dinner last week. It was pretty good, and for both of us, it was our first encounter with their sweet coconut naan. It was interesting, but we prefer our savoury breads as a dinner accompaniment!

Daawat

• The weather was so gorgeous, the City Market at City Hall moved outdoors on Saturday! Let’s hope the weather holds up when the market returns to 104 Street on May 21 – see you there!

It was windy, but sunny!

Kuhlmann’s had fiddlehead ferns

Kuhlmann’s also had convenient salad bowls, already sprouting and good to go!

• Eva Sweet has a brand new trailer! It was parked at Churchill Square this afternoon, but they’ve been trying out some other locations downtown, including Rice Howard Way and 104 Street during the week. Follow them on Twitter to keep up to date on where you can get your waffle fix!

Eva Sweet