Monday, April 30

Edmonton Foodie Experience

The title 'foodie' is likely inappropriate for the likes of me.  I dislike fancy food with with fancy ingredients and can't seem to get into wine or beer (no matter how local).  But I do love to eat out and sample the ethnic cuisines the city has to offer.  Unfortunately a massive chunk of my (engorged) food budget this month has gone to the hospital cafeteria.  Besides hospital soup a few places have me already planning my next visit.

The Maha....
Something.  I can never remember the name of the place (probably not a great business decision on their part) but I can easily find it about 10 small blocks west of where I live.  DIW and I hit this place up last weekend to satisfy a pad thai craving.  We decided to maximize our selections and split two dishes and a dessert and it was the perfect amount.  The mango salad had a subtle sweetish/sourish dressing, the pad thai tasted like it had tamarind in it and generally had all the requisite ingredients for a good pad thai - egg, glass noodles, fresh sprouts, crushed peanuts - all except for their strange choice of a lemon slice instead of the usual lime.  The homemade iced tea was nice although not quite sweet enough for a sweet tooth like myself.  And the deep fried bananas were tasty, although not worth writing home about.  And you get to sit in the hull of the giant asian canoe - win!

Savoy's
The dysphagia jedi master has promised to introduce me to quite a few of the (in her opinion) best things Edmonton has to offer.  We aren't talking glamorous but it is fantastic south Indian food.  The cafe itself is in a strip mall and seats 20 people if you squish.  The chairs don't match and the plates and mugs were purchased from thrift stores or from now defunct eateries.  They offer health shakes with a giant sign proclaiming to cure scurvy (if only 16th century sailors had known about the Savoy!) and various other ailments.  But we skipped the health and went straight for dosas with lentil soup.  ALWAYS ORDER THIS.  Basically a savoury crepe all rolled up (and a little crispier than the French type) with curied veggies inside PLUS a bowl of the best.lentil.soup.ever.

Punjab Sweet House
Not much to say except bring some insulin.  Then order one (or two!) of everything in a silvery box and sit in your car and stuff your face.  I mean...enjoy slowly.  Try the unnatural orange things full of honey (jalibbees?) and definitely some gulab *blob* jamun (aka Indian timbits) and just about everything else to find out what you like.  Definitely worth a drive into the "sketchy" part of Edmonton.

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