Downtown Dining Week: I tried one of everything

Not being a foodie unless asked for my professional Scot’s opinion on how to prepare a just-trapped haggis, I was out of my depth last week when invited to the Downtown Dining Week media launch.

Organized for 15 years by the Downtown Business Association (DBA) to shine a light on the wide variety of culinary expertise in the downtown area, the event being held March 9 to 18 has attracted a record 37 restaurants.

Surrounded by chefs and young would-be journalists busy tweeting, I wondered the best way to cover the event. The portions weren’t massive and there were only about a dozen restaurants represented. So I sampled everything.

My taste buds were overwhelmed by a multitude of stunning flavours and I was forced to seek guidance from Katherine Hoy, the association’s marketing and communications manager.

“Participating restaurants are offering a set lunch for $18 and dinners for $30 or $45,” she said.

And making waves was Madison Grill chef Trevor Johnson’s dinner starter, mushroom arancini with a leek-cream and red-wine reduction.

“All chefs were requested to bring 50 servings of their dishes,” said Hoy. “Trevor brought about twice that and all were snapped up.”

Another lunch winner was executive chef Albert Tam from Cocoa’s Restaurant and Lounge in the Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel. Growing up in the U.K., I was always a fish-and-chips fan. But Tam’s halibut burger was so fresh I thought the fish could have had been caught that morning and rushed in supersonically.

Zinc Restaurant executive chef David Omar sought Alberta beef tenderloin to create a $45 main course show-stopping dinner winner, beef Wellington with a Mona mushroom ragout.

We Brits have always loved beef Wellington, a dish named for the British Duke of Wellington, who in 1815 defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, now in present day Belgium.

Fairmont Hotel Macdonald executive chef Mridul Bhatt had guests going back for seconds of a crunchy chocolate cremo pot dessert with a passion fruit gel.

Chef Bhatt was also offering what regular Harvest Room patrons know as Westbury crab cakes. This might be a bit of a “no, no” as chefs are not supposed to offer a dining week special from their regular menu.

But Telus Community Board chairman Bob Westbury, for whom the crab cakes are named, laughed when I told him his crab cakes were being featured, although listed on the dining week menu as “soft shell crab.”

“I protested to the hotel’s general manager Danny Crowell some two decades ago when crab cakes were dropped from the menu,” said Westbury, a recipient of both the Order of Canada and the Alberta Award of Excellence.

“I told Danny I loved the hotel’s crab cakes and dined regularly in his Harvest Room to enjoy them.

“Danny joked they would be returned to the menu and known as Westbury crabby cakes. They have now survived at least three general managers.”

To check Downtown Dining Week participating restaurants and menus, go to edmontondowntown.com

RUSSIAN CHEATS

Back from putting some Russians in their place at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics this last week was CBC Morning Show host Mark Connolly.

“There was long lineup waiting for the bus one day when a Russian who had pushed his way onto the full bus called to a friend behind me to join him,” said Connolly. “This second guy shoved his way by a number of people and as he went by me looking a little uncomfortable, I said ‘Don’t worry, we are used to Russians cheating.’

“We made hostile eye contact — but he didn’t falter.”

The broadcaster said the highlight of his month-long Olympic stay was calling the two-man bobsled gold medal for Canada’s Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz.

“They tied with Germany’s Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis for first place after all four runs were completed,” said Connolly. “Both sleds finished the 5.5-km course in 3:16.86.

“It was pretty incredible because 20 years ago in the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Pierre Lueders and Dave MacEachern tied with an Italian sled for Canada’s first ever gold medal in the twoman event.

“That had been the first time two gold medals had been awarded in an Olympic bobsled event and I was there to see history repeat itself.”

Connolly also took time to visit the DMZ (the demilitarized area between North Korea and South Korea) and went down a 70-metre tunnel the North Koreans had been digging in the 1970s.

“It was designed to get North Korean soldiers into the south for a surprise attack,” said Connolly. “You must wear a hard hat down there. Just as well. I bumped my head more than a couple of times. It was not a trip for the claustrophobic.”