Take a bite of your city | thetomato.ca 01 02 2020 The mindful pleasures of winter What’s the best thing Tell us about your favourite thing to eat or drink you ate We’ll add it to our list of the 100 best things to eat in Edmonton last year? Enter January 6 – January 31. Here’s how: • Visit thetomato.ca and click on 100 best things to eat It could be: • Send us a message: • a restaurant dish facebook.com/thetomatofooddrink • a farmers’ market specialty Tag your photo: @tomatofooddrink • a product from your • Email us: [email protected] favourite local farmer • Mail us a letter: 9833 84 Avenue, Edmonton, T6E 2G1 • a snack food • a condiment The top 100 best things to eat and drink will be featured in the Whatever makes March April issue of The Tomato food & drink. your mouth hum! * For the purposes of this competition, Edmonton includes Sherwood Park, St. Albert and surrounding communities — we’ll drive for food! Enter January 6 - January 31 Tomato guy illustration created exclusively for The Tomato by Darcy Muenchrath, www.darcymuenchrath.com. Editor Mary Bailey Contents [email protected] Publisher BGP Publishing Copy Editor Shauna Faragini Contributing Writers Peter Bailey Features Tom Firth Steve Grubich Jan Hostyn 6 Seasonal warmth à La Cité Francophone Iain Ilich In the depths of a prairie winter | Steve Grubich Myles Mellor Illustration/Photography 10 Eating mindfully and well at Rge Rd Benjamin Lemphers With Dr. Alda Ngo and chef Blair Lebsack | Mary Bailey Nature’s Light Romy Yamsuan 12 The cat’s meow Design and Prepress The growing appeal of non-alcoholic cocktails Bossanova Communications Inc. WebMeister 16 How to make risotto Gunnar Blodgett, COPA Jurist With chef Alberto Alboreggia | Mary Bailey Printer 18 What’s on top At the Alberta Beverage Awards | Tom Firth Distribution Greenline Distribution Departments For editorial inquiries, information, letters, suggestions or ideas, contact Te Tomato at 780.431.1802 5 Dish or email [email protected]. Gastronomic happenings around town For advertising information call 780.431.1802. 8 Beer Guy The Tomato is published The near beer is here | Peter Bailey six times per year: January/February 20 Feeding People March/April Seriously picky produce person | Jan Hostyn May/June July/August 22 Wine Maven September/October Mary Bailey November/December by BGP Publishing 25 Kitchen Sink 9833 84 Avenue What’s new and notable Edmonton, AB T6E 2G1 780.431.1802 Subscriptions are available 26 The Crossword for $25 per year. Myles Mellor thetomato.ca On the cover: La Cité Francophone’s annual Flying Canoë Volant Festival, photo: [email protected] The Tomato | January February 2020 3 When it’s cold outside - we’ve got everything you need to keep warm and cozy, inside! Grocery. Bakery. Deli. Café. Italiancentre.ca EDMONTON Little Italy | Southside | West End Fox Tower • 10228-104 Street bundokyeg.com @bundokyeg CALGARY Willow Park Modern Canadian Cuisine Dish gastronomic happenings around town feeding the satisfy your cravings freezing father at smokey bear Peter Burgess, his wife Te new Strathcona eatery Smokey Bear (8223 104 Candace and son Ben lost Street, 587-759-0209, smokeybearyeg.com) is delicious daughter and sister Elan in and lovely. Te open kitchen houses a giant wood- 2007 to a sudden illness. fired contraption with several levels allowing the cooks Tey know from personal to adjust by moving food nearer or further from the experience the difference the flames. Te result? Beautifully charred meats and Stollery makes in people’s vegetables with varying degrees of smokiness in the lives. Peter is camping out flavours. Stand outs: Gruger Family oyster mushrooms again to raise funds for the in an umami-rich glaze, the shareable Bear and the children’s hospital. Several Flower pork chop and an irresistible flatbread with local chefs and restaurants spicy ’nduja. (Oh yeah.) Tere is something atavistic are providing breakfast and and absolutely compelling about the warmth of that fire dinner to the freezing father: on a cold Edmonton night. Todd Rutter, A Cappella Smokey Bear has the makings of an Aussie culinary Catering; Serge Bélair, invasion—head chef/owner, Riley Aitken, sous Edmonton Conference Centre; Lindsay Porter, Campbell Evans, chef de partie Denis Martin and London Local; Rylan Krause, NAIT; Charles Rothman; sommelier/general manager Ashleigh Smith are all from JP Dublado, River Cree; Steve Buzak, Royal Glenora the land down under. Chef Aitken (originally from Club; Paul Shufelt, Workshop Eatery; Gregg Kenney, Edmonton) spent several years cooking in Denmark, Vivo and Doreen Prei, Zinc. Bali and Australia, most recently at Biota Dining with To help the family raise funds for Stollery, visit Peter James Viles where he fell in love with open flame at campsite #29 at the Rainbow Valley camp ground, cooking. Tere is a tidy wine list featuring primarily from Sunday, January 5 to Friday, January 10 or donate organic and biodynamic wine producers plus craft beers at freezingfather.org. Funds raised this year support and cocktails. Choose from a few stools at the bar, Stollery's Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) 12 seats at the kitchen counter and 55 seats at tables. team. “CISM positively impacts patient care and Well-lit and very comfortable. Te plan is to change the satisfaction,” says Candace. “When care givers menu often depending on what looks good in season. are exposed to particularly difficult situations in Closed Monday and Tuesday. carrying out their work, CISM becomes integral to supporting them.” what was the best thing you ate last year? a little samba Tell us what made your mouth with your cofee water, what you loved, Check out the new Bite of Brazil what you couldn’t stop (10114 104 street, abiteofbrazil.com) talking about. Was it a for delicious things like pão de queijo dish at a restaurant? Was (gluten-free) cheese bread; coxinha it a drink? A snack? A (chicken fritters); latte de doce de leite condiment? Something (caramel latte); truffle-like brigadeiros and from the Farmers’ coffee made with Brazillian beans locally Market? Something from roasted by Roasti Coffee Co. Susana your favourite farmer? Let and Beatriz started at the Downtown us know between January Farmers’ Market. Now, they have teamed 6 and January 31, for the up with Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse TomatoTop100. Details online at and chef João Dachery to offer a taste of thetomato.ca. Brazillian culture every day. “It’s all the things we love back home, and we believe Edmontonians will enjoy as much we do,” From top: Peter Burgess, the Freezing Father, Smokey Bear’s luscious chop; says João. Te room is a delight, a touch of South American warmth at a colourfully modern space Bite of Brazil; chowing down with The Tomato’s Top 100. perfect for a casual nosh. The Tomato | January February 2020 5 Seasonal warmth à La Cité Francophone Steve Grubich Nature’s Light photo 6 January February 2020 | The Tomato In the depths of a prairie winter, Cournoyer took on the executive where do you find warmth? director role in 2012 with clear intentions to transform La Cité You could head south to a resort, cruise Francophone into a true cultural center. or snow angel community. Or, you “We could be firmly Franco-Albertan, could go to Edmonton’s French Quarter. open and hospitable.” His hands Warm winter experiences are waiting animate the transformational vision, there for you. tightly cupped for the office building era “Bonjour,” she says as I step forward and palms up and stretching out when to the counter to scan the overhead describing the idea of a welcoming La menu board. It’s in French. In this Cité. Te bistro café was part of that moment, I wish I had taken French vision. beyond the required first year of high I’ve been to Café Bicyclette many times school. “Ummm un café s’il vous plaît?” since that first encounter. Tis is where I She smiles. “Would you like something visit with friends, read, meet with clients to eat with your coffee? Tat moment and snack on the best poutine in town. was my first contact with on-purpose, A variety of francophone sounds fill the Franco-Albertan hospitality. air courtesy grandmère’s HiFi playing I discovered Café Bicyclette on a vinyl records. Sometimes I chat with morning walk, shortly after moving to people at an adjacent table. Tis is how Bonnie Doon, a mature central-east I met Pierrette Requier, local poet and neighbourhood just south of the North Strolling Poets Society organizer. Saskatchewan River. Not only was 2013 “Art happens there,” she says about Café a transition year for me, it was also one Bicyclette. Tis is true. I go to a lot of for La Cité Francophone, the home of live theatre. When in people-watching Café Bicyclette. mode, it’s common to see familiar artists Over two decades La Cité Francophone in a working meeting at the café, then had developed in reputation and feel later that year, live on-stage together. into an office building. Te office Welcoming artists and dignitaries is part building vibe was a symptom, a by- of Requier’s leadership role (including product of where the local Franco- Edmonton’s Poet Laureate 2015-2017). Albertan community was headed, to For French speaking visitors, the first becoming a closed community. Even stop after the airport pickup is Café with a performing arts theatre, “the Bicyclette. Tey are amazed. “It’s as if building was alive for only 20 minutes this café was transported whole from before and after shows,” said executive Montréal,” she says. director Daniel Cournoyer over a late afternoon coffee.