Walking tours of farmers market replete with tasty treats
I’m a tour guide (on Saturdays) for Edmonton Food Tours, which launched a combination brunch and walking food tour (with mondo samples) of the City Market at the end of last season.
Edmonton Food Tours is expanding its culinary offerings with a second market-based tour. This one takes off on March 25 at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market. The tour starts at 11 a.m. with a fabulous morning meal (complete with a freshly squeezed grapefruit margarita) at El Cortez Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar. Then guide and guests move across the street to the market to visit 10 vendors — each one with a compelling personal story and tasty sample to share.
The tour ends at Situation Brewing, where we enjoy a private brewery tour, a tasting and a yummy dessert. Take-home gifts are included.
The cost is $115 per person, which includes all taxes and tips, for three hours of jam-packed food and fun with a heaping side of adventure and learning.
The OSFM outing, which also features tour guide and local chef Cindy Lazarenko of the Culina Family, runs from March 25 to May 13, and will resume again on Oct. 14 and run until May 12.
From roughly the end of May to mid- October each year, the Saturday tour moves downtown to the outdoor City Market for the 104 Street Feast. Tickets are available at edmontonfoodtours.com.
Brunch, it could be said, is the measure of a chef.
Is he or she content with a tired riff on Eggs Benny featuring smoked salmon, or spinach? (Yawn.) Or is the chef interested in engaging the daytime tastebuds with selections outside of the ordinary?
Chef Andrew Fung of Nineteen (ably supported by chef Rino Lam) is the latter sort of chef. His completely revamped brunch menu, sampled recently at the Terwillegar location, includes 10 items and is packed with variety while also offering standards (such as an omelette of the day) to please the more conservative among us.
Sure, chef Fung has a Benny on the menu, but it’s a Five Spice Bau Benny ($14) with a grilled bao bun and Bernaise sauce, instead of a tired English muffin and Hollandaise.
Seizing upon the toast trend, Fung has piled applewoodsmoked salmon, avocados and citrus cream cheese spread on a piece of grilled sourdough bread and topped it with cucumbers and pickled red onions for a fresh and stunningly attractive breakfast option ($15).
Sides include a freshly made cinnamon bun and Valbella sausage. Plus, there are numerous selections for dessert. (You may find this shocking, but there are restaurants in Edmonton that don’t bother with dessert at brunch, and this makes me very sad.)
Brunch is served at Nineteen’s Terwillegar location on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The St. Albert location serves brunch on both Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The long anticipated Ritchie Market (9570 76 Ave.) will open March 21, according to building owner Greg Zeschuk. But not all of the businesses to be housed within the 17,000-square-foot south side market will open at once.
First up are Transcend Coffee and the Acme Meat Market, along with Creekside Cyclery.
The Blind Enthusiasm Brewing Company brewery is scheduled to open at the end of April, along with a brew pub named Biera that features food by chef Christine Sanford.
Justin Blais (formerly of Cafe Bicyclette) will run the front of house at Biera.
Café Bicyclette (8627 91 St.) hosts sugar shack dinners on March 2425 and March 31 and again on April 1 and April 7-8. Organizers say the events elevate the traditional sugar shack experience, with a fine dining twist to celebrate the maple harvest season.
Cocktails are served at 6 p.m. and the five-course meal (featuring maple toffee for dessert) will be hosted in heated tents on the patio at La Cité Francophone.
Tickets cost only $69, including tax. Reservations can be made by phone at 587-524-8090, or via Opentable. A wine pairing will be available for an extra $20.
It’s mid-March — a great time to get outside and enjoy a patio.
The Foundry Real Estate Co., an Edmonton-based company, is cohosting its second annual Second Season Street Party on April 1 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. It’s on downtown’s Rice Howard Way, where local restaurants are opening their patios to welcome spring.
Watch for s’more kits and fire pits, free wagon rides, a bouncy castle, music curated by the Chvrch of John, and food and beverages from surrounding businesses.
Sherlock Holmes, Craft and the McLeod Tavern will extend their patios into the street for the day, while Tres Carnales will dish tacos.
There’s free parking at Westcorp’s parkade at 10135 100A St. The event is also transit friendly, with an access point to the LRT’s Central Station at 100A Street and Jasper Avenue.