June is one of my favourite months of the year. There's (mostly) no more snow, the temperatures are rising, and Summer officially starts! But another reason to love June is that it is Alberta Pork month. For the month of June Passion for Pork has collaborated with numerous restaurants in both Edmonton and Calgary to feature a pork dish and provide diners with the recipe to take home to replicate. Fun, right?

Josh Dissanayake, North 53
Sharman Hnatiuk is Edmonton's Passion for Pork blogger and she rounded up Linda, Chris and I for a crawl to a few Edmonton restaurants last week to check out their featured pork dishes. If this doesn't inspire you to have a pork crawl of your own, I don't know what will!

We started the evening at North 53, where Sous Chef Josh Dissanayake is serving up Alberta Pork buns inspired by those his mother made when he was young. Although he loved them, Josh would often take these buns and trade them for other snacks out on the playground. These sweet milk buns are filled with a savoury potato, onion, and ground pork mixture that reminds me of a shepherd's pie. It's a small morsel of comfort food, and at $4 per bun I'd eat a few of them in a sitting!

Our next stop on the crawl was at Tzin Wine & Tapas, where Chef Corey McGuire is serving up Pinchitos Morunos (Moorish Pork Skewers - $17). Pork loin skewers are seasoned with spices like saffron, cumin, and coriander to bring North African flavours to the plate. The skewers sit on a bed of dirty rice and are great to enjoy out on the patio.


Pinchitos Morunos
Although it isn't the feature for June, every visit to Tzin warrants an order of their Bacon ($16). A glorious chunk of bacon sits on a crostini with maple balsamic compote, apple mayonnaise, and a Calvados gastrique. This dish is arguably my favourite pork dish in the city. Tender, crunchy, sweet, savoury - this dish has it all.

After Tzin we headed straight to the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald to visit Executive Chef Serge Jost. With both the Confederation Lounge and Harvest Room under his watch, Chef Jost actually has quite a few pork dishes on the menu for guests to enjoy in the restaurants, or outside on the best patio in Edmonton.

The first dish of the three we tried that evening was the award-winning 1915 Stew. As the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald prepares to celebrate 100 years of history, Chef Jost put together this Alberta pork stew to celebrate the centennial. It's only fitting that it costs $19.15! A generous portion of tender pork with hints of chocolate is perfecty paired with the lightly charred cornbread and a beer of your choice. It's unbeatable value for the price.

Next up was the Soy and Maple Glazed Pork Belly Sandwich ($17) available at the Confederation Lounge. Seemingly inspired by Vietnamese banh mi, the sweet and savoury pork belly sits with pear & sweet onion jelly, pickled cucumber, daikon slaw, and cilantro inside of a baguette. While the side of fries wasn't much to write home about, this sandwich was substantial in size and full of flavour. I did find myself wanting more vegetables to contrast the heaviness of the sandwich, so perhaps skip the fries and replace it with a salad for lunch!

From the Harvest Room came the feature Pork Duo ($36) with cardamom crusted nagano pork tenderloin on a yukon gold potato pave and slow cooked caraway citrus pork belly on mustard greens. The entire dish was refined, presented beautifully on a bed of cilantro yogurt, and each component worked well together. And for all you pork belly lovers, Chef Jost is your guy. As he said himself, he "loves to put pork belly in everything!"

Our second last stop of the evening was a visit to Share restaurant inside of the Westin. For pork month, Gold Medal Plates winning Chef Ryan O'Flynn created an appetizer, pairing pork belly with arancini and smoked morel mushrooms ($22). The pork belly was well seasoned and the arancini was golden and oozing with cheese, but I did wish for the morels to play a bigger role on the plate.

With our bellies at the point of bursting we drove across the river to Packrat Louie, our final destination for the evening. Chef Andrew Cowan recently took the helm at Packrat, and he put together a Pork & Foie Gras Bratwurst. Not only is the foie mixed into the sausage, but the bratwurst is served on a bun with sauerkraut, pickles, and more foie slices on top. Talk about indulgence! The tang from the sauerkraut and pickles were more than welcome to cut the fat of the bratwurst, and the cold potato salad on the side made this dish quite substantial in size.

So there you have it, a pork tasting crawl to five restaurants spanning a five hour timeframe. You bet we were ready to pass out in a food coma! Hopefully this crawl inspires you to have one of your own this month, or at least gets you to try out some of the fantastic pork features available in Edmonton until the end of this month. On top of the 5 restaurants we visited, 11 others are participating: Ampersand 27, Canteen, Hart's Table, Hardware Grill, LUX Steakhouse & Bar, Red Ox Inn, RGE RD, Rostizado, Solstice, The Marc, and Zinc. Check them out and collect those recipe cards!

While Alberta is known for beef, it's time for pork to shine too! In conjunction with Pork Month, Porkapalooza is happening this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday June 19/20/21 at Borden Park. The event is free to attend and there's lots of great events going on. Bring the family down for some fun and enjoy the weather!

*Disclosure: Alberta Pork/Passion for Pork invited me to attend and sample Pork Month dishes. Views expressed in this post are solely mine. I was not expected to feature this crawl on my blog, nor obligated to do so. This post is 100% my opinion, and as always, my priority is to you, the reader, to present an unbiased, thorough review.

If there's one major food event I look forward to each year, it's Indulgence, which celebrates Canadian slow food and wine. Each year this sold out event brings together Alberta chefs, food producers, and Canadian VQA wines. Chefs are given the task to create a dish highlighting the products from a specific producer, and additionally the wineries/breweries suggest a beverage pairing for the dish.

Clockwise from top: Gull Valley Tomatoes | XIX Nineteen x Four Whistle Farm chicken liver pate
The Marc x Gull Valley pan seared frog leg | NAIT x The Cheesiry Fresco tart
Tickets for Indulgence this year went on sale at 9AM sharp on May 1st. The Junior League of Edmonton has been the beneficiary of ticket sales for the past few years, supporting the incredible work they do in the community. Tickets typically sell out within the hour, and I'm not surprised! At $80 per person for unbeatable food & wine pairings, and supporting a local organization, it's hard to say no to buying a ticket.

Throughout the evening there were may dishes eaten and wines tasted, but a few dishes stood out above the rest. The prettiest dish for the evening for me was from 4404 Delta who was paired with Rock Ridge Dairy. Onion confit infused goat cheese was served on a bed of truffle honey caviars and a tempura fried zucchini blossom, and garnished with a beautiful orchid.


Clockwise from top: Kitchen by Brad 'Bubbles & Balls' - Irvings Farm Fresh bacon & pork ball
Vivo x Sundog Organic Pizza Rustica & Italian savoury tart | Tzin Wine & Tapas x Nature's Green Acres ramen terrine | Slow Food Edmonton x Reclaim Urban Farm greens & radishes
The most unique dish of the evening would have to go to Chef Corey McGuire of Tzin Wine & Tapas. Taking the hot ramen trend and turning it into a terrine was something I didn't imagine I would ever eat. Marinated bamboo, pickled wood ear, scallions, handmade noodles, Tamworth pork broth aspic, smeared marinated egg yolk, pork belly, and a smoked porkfat and nori dust all made it onto the plate. This was definitely a labour intensive dish!


Clockwise from top: Royal Glenora Club x Vesta Gardens duck & greens crostini | Searzall action
Rostizado x Tangle Ridge Ranch Tamales de Barbacoa y Queso

Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse x Strawman Farm Bison - bacon wrapped bison top sirloin steak

Clockwise from top: Hundred Bar Kitchen x Crooked Lake Farm seared outside round on pretzel crostini
Ampersand 27 x Sunworks Farm chicken galantine | Lux Steakhouse + Bar x Alberta Bison Ranch striploin tartar
Zinc Restaurant x Sylvan Star Cheese Farm gouda grilled cheese
So what was the best dish of the evening? I had a few favourites, but the people's choice award for this year went to Ampersand 27 for their chicken galantine with char siu sauce, charred scallion aioli, sweet sesame snap and micro coriander. As the winners of Indulgence, $500 was donated on their behalf to Camp fYrefly - another fantastic organization here in Edmonton. I also quite enjoyed the pate from Nineteen, gooey grilled cheese from ZINC, and the fresco tart from NAIT!


Clockwise from top: Doef's Greenhouses | Belgravia Hub x Doef's puff pastry vegetable napoleon
Toast Fine Catering x Mo-Na Foods Alberta lamb with smoked morel mushroom
Red Ox Inn x Greener Pastures BBQ pork steam bun
With so many different dishes to eat throughout the evening, I was absolutely stuffed at the end of the night. Congratulations to the Indulgence committee for hosting this fantastic event for 15 years, and thanks to all the chefs, producers, wineries and volunteers that made this night possible. Indulgence really is a must-go-to food event, and if you missed out this year, keep an eye out for tickets for 2016 and I hope to see you there!

I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to find good, authentic Malaysian food in Alberta. Very few restaurants in Edmonton serve Malaysian food, and for those that do, I find that the food isn't overly impressive or consistent. Instead of being frustrated by the local options, I took my search to Calgary and found a great spot thanks to a recommendation from a friend.

Banana Leaf Tropical Cuisine - 3330 32 Street NE - Calgary AB

Milk Tea with Grass Jelly
Tucked away near the industrial area of Northeast Calgary, Banana Leaf is in an obscure location but is well worth the effort to find. I stopped by with my parents for an early lunch on a weekday and snagged the last table in the busy restaurant. The restaurant is brightly lit and has a fair amount of seating, but given the small space it fills up quick during the lunch service.

To start our lunch we ordered the Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Nuggets with Garlic and Onion ($8.95). These aren't your McDonald's chicken nuggets, they're a cut above. Chunks of chicken thigh meat are battered and deep fried, then tossed in a mixture of garlic, onion, and green onion. The result is a mountain of crispy chicken nuggets full of flavour that you can't stop eating.

We ordered the Roti Canai with Curry Beef ($13.95) which came with some peanuts, sliced cucumber and egg. For those of you unfamiliar with this version of roti, the dough is made with copious amounts of clarified butter in flour and water. The dough is stretched into an extremely thin sheet before being folded and fried, and the result is a crispy, puffy, layered roti. The roti canai at Banana Leaf was golden in colour, and crispy with just the right amount of layers. The curry beef was rich and fragrant, delivering a good amount of heat with each bite. The beef cubes were tender and flavourful, making this a solid dish overall.

The dish I was most looking forward to ended up being the star of our meal: Seafood Curry Laksa with Vermicelli ($11.50). A generous portion of fish, fishballs, egg, and puffed tofu swam in the fragrant curry and coconut milk broth, and the layer of red chili oil gave a punch of heat with each bite of noodles. The laksa was authentic and is the best I've had in Alberta. This noodle soup alone is worth the visit to Banana Leaf.

It's great to know that Calgary has a restaurant serving up delicious, authentic Malaysian dishes. Banana Leaf is definitely a hidden gem, the prices are affordable, and I can't wait to be back to try out some more dishes on the menu. If you're in the general area, it warrants a visit! If you don't want to wait for a table, make sure to arrive early and get a big bowl of laksa!