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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

Photo by Google Street View

I’d driven by Szechuan Restaurant a few times before, but was never sure whether it served real Chinese food, or just another place that specialized in ginger beef and lemon chicken. But after recommendations from fellow food blogger Shannon and my personal northern Chinese cuisine expert Ray, I was excited for some authentic, spicy Szechuan food.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

I’d been curious about Red’s Diner ever since I saw them renovating the former chiropractic clinic after my tap classes at DJD. Since it opened in the spring, my perennial brunchmate Tiffany and I had always meant to go, but we didn’t make it happen until yesterday.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

I’d heard good things about Famoso, the Calgary offshoot of an Edmonton-based franchise that specializes in Neapolitan pizzas. The only other place where I’d had a Neapolitan-style pizza was at Pulcinella over a year and a half ago, and I didn’t really enjoy the charred, burnt-tasting crust. Since then, I’ve become more familiar with the idea of a Neapolitan-style pizza, and the fact that Famoso is the most “talked about” Calgary restaurant on Urbanspoon right now made me curious to give it a try.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

If you’ve been following me over at my other blog, you’d know that I’ve been staying at my boyfriend B.’s for the past month while most of my family was away on vacation, which meant more cooking, less eating out, less Chow Down in Cowtown (sorry!)

For my last night over at his place, he decided to treat me to dinner out – we’d heard good things about Sushi Hibiki, a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant that occupies the space that used to house Café de Tokyo, so we decided to give it a try.

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For those of you who aren’t spending your weekend at Prince’s Island Park for Folk Fest, this weekend is playing host to not one, but two FREE Latin-themed festivals!

Fiestaval is happening on both Saturday and Sunday at Olympic Plaza. The website is very vague about what time the festival is actually going on, but performances run from 12 PM-9:30 PM on Saturday and 12 PM-8:15 PM on Sunday. There will be dancing and singing by performers from Calgary and abroad, space for people to dance and of course, food and other vendors.

As Irene mentioned on Wednesday, the Sun & Salsa Festival is happening this Sunday in Kensington (the strip of 10th St NW between 5th Ave and Memorial Drive will be closed to traffic, as well as Kensington Rd between 10th and 14th Sts) from 11 AM-5 PM. The main attraction is the Salsa Competition, which I wrote about last year – bags of tortilla chips for dipping cost $3 each or $5 for two and all proceeds go to the Brenda Strafford Centre and Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids Society. This year there’s a bit of a twist, as in addition to local businesses, four mayoral candidates will also be entering their salsa recipes into the competition, which includes a total of 42 entries – including one for dogs! But just because the main attraction is food doesn’t mean the Sun & Salsa Festival is short on Latin flavour! There will be seven mainstages featuring local dance and music performances, as well as the Miss Sun & Salsa pageant!

Get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

I seem to have this horrible habit of telling you about festivals after they happen, forcing you to wait impatiently for a year (and most likely forget about it), so I’m going to try to break that habit right now by letting you know that the Folk Fest is kicking off TOMORROW NIGHT at Prince’s Island Park.

Calgary Folk Fest is one of my favourite festivals in the city, where people from nearly all walks of life head out to Prince’s Island Park to see their favourite bands and discover some new ones at the same time. Folk Fest has gotten to be so popular that organizers have extended programming to Friday afternoon, so festival goers can enjoy an extra two-and-a-half hours of music. Also, for the past few days leading up to the festival, bands have been performing on C-Trains to help promote the event. This year I’m only going to be there on Saturday, but in past years I have taken in all four days of the festival, including some early mornings where I had to help “run the tarp”. The mainstage performances are always fun, but I like the side stage shows more, where different musicians come together for 80-minute jam sessions, often playing together for the first time.

While you’re certainly allowed – and it’s probably cheaper to boot – to bring your own food into the festival or even head over to the food court in Eau Claire, there are lots of vendors at the festival offering international cuisine that are worth a try, many of whom are “exclusive to Folk Fest”. And really, who doesn’t like the novelty of eating off of a Folk Fest plate? (That you should return to get your $2 back.)

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but these are the booths I usually hit:
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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

I didn’t go to Stampede this year.

I know, I know, how terrible of me, since there’s supposed to be all this “weird and wonderful” food down at the grounds that I’m sure all of you wanted to read about – Everybody’s been talking about the mini donut ice cream from Mackay’s Ice Cream; Fiasco Gelato teases me everyday with their tweets about their crepes and unique gelato flavours (Helloooo Maple Bacon, Caramel Apple, Pancakes & Maple Syrup and Root Beer Float?), and how come no one has reviewed the cricket pizza and alligator pizza yet?

But to be honest, aside from Stampede breakfasts (including one by the India Canada Association of Calgary serving authentic Indian food) and wearing jeans to work, there is very little that appeals to me about Stampede anymore, and with all the people who use Stampede as an excuse to be lewd and belligerent, the animal deaths every year and now kids getting hurt on rides, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s becoming a little disenchanted with the “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth”.

So when I saw a banner advertising the Calgary Turkish Festival, I thought it would be a nice change of pace, and having recently tried Turkish food for the first time in Montreal, I was eager for more.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the most awesome things about Calgary is what’s waiting for us just outside the city; and La Belle Patate is one of those places.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Calgary is Awesome.

I’m going to tell you now this review is only partial – I did not sample Heartland Cafe’s coffee (Not having coffee at a café! Terrible.) nor did I have any of their baked goods which are all adorably hand-labelled in the display case. I didn’t try any of their soups, salads or sandwiches (which all looked very tempting), but I did sample their weekend brunch choices.

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Chow Down in Cowtown is an (almost!) weekly account of Calgary’s most awesome eats from Ceci n’est pas un food blog.

Strangely, even though Sorrentino’s is just at the foot of my neighbourhood, my family has only been there maybe once years ago, often opting to go to Misato instead. Recently, however, Sorrentino’s has completely revamped itself, bringing on chef Giuseppe di Gennaro of Capo to create a more family-friendly (read: less expensive) menu that still stays true to its Italian roots. I don’t know if the interior has been redone as well, but the restaurant now features an open kitchen, and the main dining room offers floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Sarcee Trail mountains of loam in preparation for the construction of the West LRT. Despite the fact that it was late last Sunday, there were still many families lingering from their Father’s Day feasts, so we were given a booth off to the side.
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