Around Garneau

After a busy week at the shop, Charles and I were able to wander around Whyte Ave and 109th Street for the day, taking in the Antique Mall, the 'Return of the Magic' windows and, of course, some beer, coffee and treats. Here's what we discovered:

Firstly, it looks like Cally's Teas is setting up a "pop up shoppe" in their soon to be permanent local (10151 82 Avenue). Apparently her tea will be available this coming Wednesday for Christmas enjoyment.

The new layout 

After the Antique Mall, we decided to head over to Sugarbowl. We've been a few times since they released their new menu containing 44 new beer. That's right - 44. In addition to all the feature draught and bottles, there's much to choose from. While Charles went for a brown ale that I can't remember the name of, I went with a current favourite, the London Porter from Saskatoon's Paddock Wood Brewing. Ultra smooth and rich, it's perfect for cool days.

And no, the name of Charles' beer is not the one on the glass... Just in case you were thinking it, like I was.

On the way home we decided to drop into DaCapo to check out some recent renovations. The beer case is gone (don't worry, their excellent selection is lined up on the glass shelf above), and in its place is a new shelf currently holding many tins of panettone. Even more exciting is the recent addition of St-Viateur Bagels to their food line up. Bagels are brought in from Montréal once a week to be enjoyed in house or at home by the dozen. Charles was pretty ecstatic as he walked home munching on a sesame bagel.

So there you have it. A small Garneau update on an otherwise quiet blog. Hopefully we'll be back soon with some new food posts!

Carrot Dip and Carbs

My partner and I got through our presentation on the organic and local food movements this past Tuesday unscathed. Presentations are the worst for me... I get nervous days in advance, so I was glad this one went off without a hitch. We're finishing up our paper on the topic this weekend, so eventually (likely after exams), I'm going to try and summarize some of our findings here.

We had to bring food for our classmates that went along with our topic, so we decided on the Carrot Spread from "We Eat Together," and a loaf of organic bread from Tree Stone to go along with it. Everyone seemed to like it, but luckily there was some left for me to snack on today. I have to say, the carrot spread was better the second day, once the cumin and vinegar had a bit of a chance to mellow.

Leftovers for me!

Charles very nicely went to Tree Stone to pick up the bread Tuesday morning, and we did a fantastic hand off as I ran from my History of Modern Art class, down HUB, to Anthro of Food. Yvan was testing out bagel recipes that morning, and gave Charles two versions to try, asking him to report back in a couple days with thoughts. Since he's still working things out, I won't comment here on taste, texture, etc., but I will say that we ate them this morning with Maple Honey... yum!