Fork Fest an invite to YEG restaurants
Fork Fest is on this week and next, so make a reservation quick. This popular, tw ice-yea rly t rad it ion sees participating YEG restaurants put together reasonably priced menus to attract customers, new and old. It’s a great opportunity to visit a few new spots for a small cash investment.
Fork Fest runs from Jan. 19 to 23 and again from Jan. 26 to 30. Multi-course meals are available at lunch and dinner for either $25 or $45, depending on the restaurant. Restaurants from Select to Sabor Divino to Manor Casual Bistro are participating; check details online at live-local.ca
Have you ever made a recipe that didn’t turn out? Has missing ingredients? Or, is lacking a method? That happens to The Tomato editor, Mary Bailey, all the time, especially when she’s testing recipes for publication in her food and drink magazine. Together with local chef Brad Smoliak, Bailey has crafted a new cooking workshop, The Tomato Test Kitchen, to teach participants the best kitchen techniques, plus tips and tricks to make your cooking at home even better.
The first class is on Thursday, Jan. 23 when Bailey and Smoliak will be preparing Easter holiday sides, tasting olive oils and walnuts, and making crepes. The evening will be a hands-on preparation and cooking class with wine, prizes and giveaways for $125 per person. Email: marybee@telus.net with questions. Register through eventbrite.
Local food blogger Valerie Lugonja (a.k.a. A Canadian Foodie) is hosting a postChristmas cake tasting in her home on behalf of the local chapter of Slow Food Edmonton. She’s inviting those who have leftover Christmas cake at home (and who doesn’t?) to bring some to the event, which is between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, so that the gifts of the Christmas season can be shared just a little longer. All kinds of cake are welcome, light and dark fruitcakes, traditional and new age.
If you don’t have any Christmas cake, but want to come anyway — you are more than welcome. Valerie is among the most hospitable people I know and loves to have fellow foodies around her. For details and to register, email valerie@ acanadianfoodie.com. Find out more at acanadianfoodie.com
The hip and casual Blue Plate Diner is hosting a fourcourse meal featuring Alley Kat beer on Wednesday, Jan. 29 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The meal is $75 per person, including tax, tip and carefully paired beers with each course.
Starting with a beer and cheese soup (alongside Charlie Flint Lager), the menu moves through baconwrapped jumbo prawns (with Main Squeeze Grapefruit Ale on the side) toward the main event — a pork shank braised in beer, served with a wild mushroom and barley risotto infused with Full Moon Pale Ale and seasonal vegetables. Cascadian Dark Ale rounds off this course. For dessert, expect a pineapple upside-down cake, served in a cast-iron skillet with Aprikat Wheat Ale vanilla ice cream.
Call the restaurant at 780429-0740 to make a reservation. Blue Plate is located at 10145 104th St.; blue platediner.ca
Shovel and Fork — the DIY local food organization — is hosting Pop-up for the People, a fundraiser to help send a few Slow Food Edmonton members to the 2014 Slow Food Canada conference in Northumberland Shore, N.S. The event is at RGE RD on Sunday, March 23.
The menu looks amazing, featuring pizzas in the old Pizza Club style. Those of us lucky enough to have attended Pizza Club at Transcend, back in the day, will remember how wonderful this style can be. The value is very good at $45 per person for eight courses.
RGE RD is at 10623 123rd St. There will be two seatings for the fundraiser, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tickets are available on the Shovel and Fork website. shovelandfork.com