Friday takeout meatballs at Kitchen by Brad, a quarter century of Sgambaro smoked fish, Open Farm Days, pick your own haskap berries, Café Bicyclette summer music series and pan-Asian flavours at Mini Kitchen
by Mary Bailey
sunny with a chance of meatballs
Chef Brad Smoliak makes really great meatballs. And you can enjoy three generous meatballs and fixin’s on summer Fridays. Walk up to the window (Kitchen by Brad, 10130 105 Street), order, and take to the park/office/golf course/deck. First come, first served, 11:30am-1pm. There will be sandwich pop-ups—like the rueben with Kitchen’s corned beef and Mrs. Kuhlmann’s sauerkraut, or lox on house-made bagels—and Wednesday take out. Those bagels, by the way, will be available by the ½ or full dozen too. Planning an event? Email info@kitchenbybrad.ca about dinners, meetings and private cooking classes.
Shelby Deep Photo
25 years of smoked fish
Robert Sgambaro was a chef who got bored. He had started cooking for clients in their homes and one day someone asked for a smoked salmon appetizer. “I can do that, I learned how in Montreal,” says Robert. He ended up hiring a steel fabricator to make a smoker, then started selling smoked salmon at Debaji’s on a trial basis. Now, in a production facility in the northeast end, Sgambaro’s Signature Seafoods smokes up to 12,000 fillets a week. He uses fresh Atlantic salmon and wild sockeye when he can get it in season (late spring) as well as fresh wild Artic char when available. Buy online via sgambaros.com and in person at all the Italian Centre Shops, Acme Meat Market, Bon Ton, The Butchery, Sunterra, Grapevine Deli, Mercato and the farmers’ market in St. Albert. Look for it in Calgary and Red Deer as well.
“I still love what I do, though this year it’s been different, as we weren’t able to sample. I love the feedback,” says Robert. “Hard to believe it’s 25 years. My kids aren’t kids anymore. It’s gone so fast.”
Charlotte Wasylik photo
open farm days is august 14 and 15
Open Farm Days is a lovely opportunity to get out of town. See how honey is processed, shop at a farm store; go to a fruit winery like Barr Estate; visit a worm farm. Or go to the Rural Roots Farmer Showcase at the George Pegg Botanic Garden; visit Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farm and stay for the Get Cooking farm dinner. Tons of possibilities. The difference this year? All visits and events need to be booked in advance at albertaopenfarmdays.ca.
oh a-berry-picking we go we go, a-berry-picking we go
The haskap, also known as the honeyberry, is an edible blue honeysuckle native to Japan, Russia and Canada. It tastes like a blueberry or a blueberry/raspberry cross and that dusky blue purple colour means that the berries contain beneficial anthocyanins. Very easy to pick, with no thorns to watch out for. Haskap berry picking at Rosy Farms has to be one of the best summer activities going. Visit the farm near Alcomdale, 9am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday. Bring the kids! Visit rosyfarms.com for directions and all the deets. If you don’t eat them all on the way home, make a crisp, bake some muffins or slather on ice cream.
music outdoors is the best music
Café Bicyclette is back with their popular summer music series, every Thursday evening until December 20. A few to note: Andrea House, July 15; Pascal Lecours, August 19 and King MuSKAfa, August 26. Visit cafebicyclette.ca/series-patio-series for the schedule and to book. Chef Joseph Vuong is the new chef at Café Bicylclette. Looking forward to trying the new menu.
love those pan-asian flavours at mini kitchen
Damini Mohan of Mini Kitchen is on a flavour mission. “We always did Indian and Thai flavours,” she says. And now? Japanese-inspired flavours. “It’s not as far off as you may think. Take massamam and panang curries—they were originally inspired by Indian flavours,” she says. “Katsu was a dish made by Indian freedom fighters trying to escape the British. I wanted to help people make a home-cooked version of dishes they have in restaurants—taking something they couldn’t make conveniently at home and making it convenient.” Mini Kitchen still produces their popular frozen samosas and pakoras, but everything else is now available in shelf stable packaging. There are four chutneys: Peach (with Okanagan peaches), Tamarind (with dates and sultanas); Cranberry and Saskatoon. The cooking sauces range from four Indian-inspired sauces including a Kashmiri-style creamy fennel; three Thai and two Japanese. All are peanut free, gluten free and plant based with no fillers or preservatives. Find online at minikitchen.ca, Meuwly’s, Popowich Meat Company, Uproot Collective, Amaranth Whole Foods as well as at several farmers’ markets monthly.