This was just one of the edible highlights of a week that has ended on the couch with my laptop, some sangria (a good compromise between orange juice and wine-both!) and a box of Kleenex. And, ironically, Mike ordering pizza on account of the cold that has just snuck up and smacked me upside the head. From the inside. John Gilchrist, Tony Spoletini and I were enlisted to spend the week with Kristen and the BT crew in search of Calgary’s best pizza. Which meant a view similar to the one above at around 7 each morning – we visited Il Centro on Monday, Una on Tuesday, Tom’s House of Pizza on Wednesday and Without Papers on Thursday (the contenders were selected by vote, not by us), to sample a variety pies. A tougher job than I gave my gut credit for, actually. I could have very much used a nap each morning by 9. Without Papers in Inglewood won by a slice. This isContinue reading

I vote we all go on a field trip to Austin for some barbecue. Or rather, all y’all should come with me to Austin for some barbecue. (All y’all being the plural version of the singular y’all, which I find crazy charming now. Especially when someone uses it in a sentence like this: “y’all haven’t tried Free-toe Pah? p-EYE is a mathematical term. P-AHH is the stuff you eat.”) There was a lot of really great stuff in and about Austin, but I can’t fill you in on everything, so since my tired brain is strapped for adjectives anyway, I’ll focus on yesterday’s lunch. Because really, there are no words. We went to get in line at Franklin Barbecue at around 10:30, on the advice of some locals who told us it opens at 11 and is generally sold out by 1. Go early. You won’t regret it. If you go with 8 brand-new friends, the wait in line isn’t so bad. And when theyContinue reading

I’ve been tardy writing this because I felt like I wouldn’t do the whole justice. Or I’d come across as overly gushy (I’m not afraid of that part anymore, but consider yourself warned) or not gushy enough. Our Sunday dinner this past weekend was truly one of the best of my life. I could tell by the fact that I spent much of it focused on not bursting into tears. (See? I’m doing it already.) Remember last week, when I rambled on a bit about the concept of a potluck, and offered up $25 gift cards to anyone who wanted to do something swell with one of them? Just to spread some happiness around at a time when the world seems to sorely need it? (I still have more, by the way, if you have an idea. Let me know in the comments and I’ll email you.) I got an email from Adrienne, who lives out here in Tofino, who was inspired to organize aContinue reading

This weekend’s dining experiences were brought to us by Twitter. Heading to Edmonton for Saturday night and not up to date on the best places to eat in the city, I put the call out. This new-fangled social media thing sure can come in handy, can’t it? I was instantly answered with a flurry of #yeg dining suggestions – many for Culina, some for the patio at the Hotel MacDonald, a few suggestions for Indian, Turkish, Ethiopian and Japanese food, and some coffee shops. One for Tony’s Pizza, which a quick Google search showed to be directly between our hotel and Rexall Place, where Mike had to be to see Iron Maiden (the reason for our visit). We made haste as it was early dinner hour, and secured a spot on the patio. It was a hit. I took advantage of the fact that our trip up to Edmontown had nothing to do with me, meaning I didn’t have to be presentable or really doContinue reading

We’re back in BrownTown. I mean Calgary. I do love this place, but I’d love it more if I had a condo in Vancouver and a private jet. Wait right here while I go buy a lottery ticket. As usual, I’m seriously behind. This time I’ve been slacking in this department, not keeping you abreast of our meals. This wasn’t an actual holiday in that I brought my work with me – it’s been a kind of half working, half playing couple weeks, with the goal that I’d spend more time with W than I have been of late. So I have been working – just not as much – and I wanted to remind him that I do have a face and am (almost) as much fun as dad, and the computer isn’t an actual appendage. It might sound from your end of the computer that we’ve been living on crab, cookies and pancakes. And that’s partly accurate, but we’ve been eating out aContinue reading

If I’m to be perfectly honest here, yesterday was a bit of a dud. (Excepting, of course, the fact that we are in Tofino.) We spent the morning trying to rally the troops to vacate the house so that I could tape a segment for Good Bite, silly me, thinking I could evacuate ten people and hope for a half hour of silence and a dry towel to shower with beforehand. And when I finally managed to get it done at around noon, I had a phone meeting and spent an hour searching for lost car keys, thus missing out on a trip to the beach, and then spent until dinnertime trying to download and then upload my enormous video files using my Mom’s laptop and an internet connection that would time out or crash anytime I opened something else, or if I didn’t and the computer went to sleep, or if I blinked. By 7pm I had hardly seen the light of day, aContinue reading

Turning over rocks to find baby crabs. Playing with the baby Holsteins at D Dutchman Dairy (after vanilla and English toffee in a waffle cone). Checking out the barnacles, starfish and sea anemones at Chesterman beach. Grilled extra-old white cheddar on teeny baguette rounds, topped with melting slivers of perfectly ripe avocado. Hummus, baguettes and those grainy cookies from Beaches Grocery.