Category: Uncategorized
Uncategorized posts
None of that fancy stuff —the lamb burgers or rib eye burgers at sit-down diners.
This was a hunt for the best mass-produced burger in town.
The burger had to come from a well-established chain – McDonalds, A&W, Harvey’s, Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, Burger King.
Fat Burger, in Canada since 2005, got in under the wire.
The burgers had to be comparable — no specials of the month, either one big meat patty or two doubles, always with bacon and cheese: Tested out were a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, DQ Grill Burger, Harvey’s Angus Burger, Burger King’s Double Whopper, A&W Poppa Burger, Wendy’s Bacon Deluxe Single and a Fat Burger Baby Burger.
They weighed more or less the same, 250 to 300 grams, with the two-patty ones adding an extra 50 to 100 grams.
Calorie-wise, most clocked in at 900 to 1100 calories. Even without fries or onion rings, that’s still half the daily recommended calories for a smaller adult.
Didn’t matter the b ...
Read the rest of entry »
Something is very wrong with this picture.
A convenient, inter-city bus terminal is essential to any self-respecting city.
Buses are the most easy-to-use and economical way of mid-distance travelling, other than shoehorning seven people into a mini-van.
Inter-city bus stations function best in, or just off, downtown cores, as in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.
So why is Greyhound Canada (besides Red Arrow, the only major scheduled inter-city bus line in Alberta) talking about moving its downtown depot into the deep southeast, south of Wagner Road off 75 Street?
The only transport connector is the southeast LRT station (Davies) that’s at least five years away, and it would be blocks away from the potential Greyhound site at that.
Why? Because nobody – the city, Greyhound, private land developers - has grabbed this bull by the horns.
Greyhound’s lease on the crummy but functional downtown Greyhound bus terminal at 103 Street and 103 Avenue will terminate ...
Read the rest of entry »
Sushi Sugoi Japanese Restaurant
2874 Calgary Trail NW
587-524-4335
www.sushisugoi.com
seven days a week, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, just food – basic $30, loaded $50
Is it damning with faint praise?
An acquaintance asks about a restaurant.
You say, “not bad” or “pleasant enough” or “pretty good” with a shrug of your shoulders.
That is how our party left Sushi Sugoi Japanese Restaurant, on Calgary Trail between 34 Avenue and 23 Avenue. Sushi Sugoi actually took over the old Outback Steakhouse, made no changes to the exterior but transformed the interior into a reasonably classy sushi restaurant.
We had lots of food — 14 dishes for seven of us— and variety.
It was all pretty good, but was there an appearance, taste or texture that would stick in your memory for weeks?
Not really.
Actually that’s not quite true. Sushi Sugoi&rsquo ...
Read the rest of entry »
It seems as if a new hotel is popping up in or around Edmonton every other day.
Holiday Inn, Hampton, Days Inn, Hyatt, Marriott, Ramada …
They all look the same - six or seven floors, about 100 rooms, minimal services other than a place to sleep.
They like each other’s company. They cluster, across Hwy 2 from the International Airport in Leduc/Nisku, at Ellerslie Road and Calgary Trail, at the Whitemud and Calgary Trail, in the West End, downtown and lately in Sherwood Park.
The numbers tell the tale.
In 2000 there were 10,000 hotel rooms and 110 hotels in Greater Edmonton.
By the end of 2015, according to Canadian hotel tracker PKF Consulting, we’ll have 15,500 rooms in 145 hotels.
The 2015 growth rate will be 5%, with an expected 2% to 3% in the years to follow. The national hotel room growth rate for 2015 is 1% to 1.5%. Greater Vancouver, by comparison, expects a 1% growth rate in 2015.
What’s going on? Didn’t the pundits once predict the Internet&rsqu ...
Read the rest of entry »
Max’s Restaurant —Cuisine of the Philippines
11650 142 St.
780-453-8008
www.maxschicken.com
seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., weekends to 10 p.m.
Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, just food – basic $25, loaded $40
It’s been a genie in a bottle.
We have hundreds of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Korean restaurants in Greater Edmonton.
But in a city with over 40,000 Filipino-Canadians, Filipino food has never caught on.
The ingredients have long been in place. Differentiated by an emphasis on garlic, onion and vinegars, Filipino food isn’t far removed from the popular cuisine of its Asian neighbours. As an American protectorate in the first half of the 20th century, fried chicken and bistek, or beef steak, are everyday foods.
Surprisingly for a tropical country, hot (as in spicy) foods are rarely found.
The genie exploded out of that bottle when Max’s Restaurant — Cuisine o ...
Read the rest of entry »
Johnson’s Café,
Hotel Selkirk, Fort Edmonton Park
(Fox Drive and Whitemud Drive)
780-496-7227
www.fortedmontonpark.ca/hotel-selkirk/johnsons-cafe
Seven days a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 2.5 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, just food – basic $50, loaded $80
Graham Hicks
780-707-6379
Ggraham.hicks@hicksbiz.com
www.hicksbiz.com
@hicksonsix
It still remains a culinary secret, even though Johnson’s Café has been open for over 10 years in the Hotel Selkirk at Fort Edmonton Park.
Why would this very good dining room, in the height of summer, only have a few tables occupied on a lovely Thursday evening?
Location, location, location.
It’s the café’s biggest strength and weakness. The historic Hotel Selkirk is in Fort Edmonton Park, accessible by a side road after the park closes. The site is so beautiful, it’s Jasper without the three-hour drive.
But desti ...
Read the rest of entry »
It’s been a nice surprise.
For the economy, business, government, the stock market, for the country itself.
The worry about a tsunami of penniless retirees descending upon the social assistance safety net and the health system is quickly diminishing.
Of course some baby-boomers continue to work out of necessity – i.e. they need more money.
But so many of the post-60 crowd are healthy, mobile, have positive attitudes, sufficient pensions/savings … and choose not to retire!
At least not entirely.
To the relief of Alberta companies needing all the skilled personnel they can find, large numbers of retired 60-to-70 year olds have no problem going back to work.
It’s just not conventional work. It’s on contract, maybe three days a week, or two days one week, four the next, or full-time for three months working on a particular project. And all on the understanding they could be gone two months in the winter.
Edmonton Sun freelance columnist Marty Forbes, who writ ...
Read the rest of entry »
Three cheers for the Taste of Edmonton production team.
The grand snack-until-you-drop food festival, running through Saturday at Churchill Square, boasts 63 restaurant booths, food trucks, beer and wine gardens, entertainment, culinary workshops and sip ‘n’ savour events.
What’s most impressive is the ongoing, year-over-year, serious improvement of the food quality on offer. The deep fryers are being used far less often, there’s far more choice, much of it is adventurous, most of it is delicious.
The other change, and it’s a slight shocker, is a deliberate price correction.
Last year, there was push-back from the public on the prices — more and more of the small-plate items were being pushed out for four or five tickets @ $1 each.
The smart response: The per-ticket price has been pushed to $1.25, but almost all the 2014 booth food prices are two or three tickets ($2.50 to $3.75) thus representing good value.
This year marks the festival’s embracemen ...
Read the rest of entry »
Yianni’s Backyard Estiatorion (Restaurant)
5524 Calgary Trail South
780-758-6161
Yiannistaverna.ca
Seven days a week, lunch and dinner
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, just food – basic $40, loaded $70
Graham Hicks
780-707-6379
Yianni Psalios is such a larger-than-life character, such a dominating personality within the 12-plus restaurants he’s owned and operated over three decades, that we forget he’s one fine chef.
He’s owned restaurants big and small, always Greek, always under the Koutouki or Yianni’s banner.
This time around, while daughter and son-in-law Dina and Chris St. Denis run Koutouki 124th Street, and son Theo operates the Koutouki Little Village food truck, the patriarch has gone back to small.
Yianni’s Backyard is a 50-seater on Calgary Trail for ease of address, but on the corner of a tree-lined avenue. Along its side, a fenced and secluded patio is a slice of shady ...
Read the rest of entry »
What we are watching in Alberta, Canada, under interim Premier Dave Hancock is quite unique, yet will never be fully reported.
Hancock is a self-described “policy wonk.”
He’s never had a big political ego. His interest in government centers on policy. “It’s where,” he says cheerfully, “I do my best work!”
Thrust by circumstances into the premier’s role, until a new party leader/premier is elected September 6, Hancock is having a great time behind the scenes. He’s tackling long deferred policy initiatives, left simmering on the back-burner while the Conservative government was preoccupied with its internal political drama.
Alberta’s “innovation” system serves as an example.
Read the rest of entry »