Gluten-free Eats at “Truck Stop”

The words “truck stop” bring to mind the Irving gas station in Aulac, New Brunswick. It’s a traditional stopping-place on the drive between Halifax, NS, and PEI, a drive my family made many times during my childhood and one I later made many times on my own.

I believe the gas station/restaurant combo in Aulac is officially called a “big stop”, but there were always many long-haul semi-trailers parked there when you pulled in, drawn by the enormous and super-high Irving sign beckoning you off the highway just past the NB border.

We rarely ate in the restaurant in Aulac, usually pulling in just to gas up, go for a pee break, and grab some road trip snacks. But as soon as you walk in the door to the convenience store and restaurant, you’re greeted by a tall glass case filled with mile-high cakes and pies, topped with clouds of puffy meringue or frosted with drifts of white curlicues. Strangely, even when we did eat at the diner, I don’t remember ever tasting one of those concoctions.

The truck stop I attended yesterday was of an entirely different nature. It involved food trucks rather than semi-trailers. These truck stops are organized by two local foodies, Sharon Yeo and Mack Male, the team behind last summer’s super-popular What the Truck?! festivals. This season they’ve expanded and teamed up with the Old Strathcona Business Association here in Edmonton to offer smaller, weekly food truck events throughout the month of May. The larger festivals will return this summer.

I think Sharon and Mack have done an awesome job capitalizing on the burgeoning food truck scene here in Edmonton, making more people aware of these trucks, and giving the truck owners a chance to meet and serve new customers.

I was especially excited about the event when I saw the menu posted online. It’s not always easy to find gluten-free options at food trucks (there are usually lots of sandwiches), but Molly’s Eats was offering an almost entirely GF menu. Checking back to the May 3 event, Molly’s had some delicious-sounding GF items then too. Go Molly! My friend Kathryn, who also eats GF, and I were pumped to try the food.

The truck stops are held at Wilbert McIntyre Park, right next to the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market just off Whyte Ave. It’s a great location, with plenty of room for people to line up and benches to sit and eat. Though it was a chilly evening on Thursday, there was a pretty good turnout, and when the sun shone it wasn’t too cold. I’m sure the event would attract even more people in really nice weather.

Kathryn and I both ordered the spicy tomato seafood soup ($6.50 for a small), and I also tried the hush puppies ($5) while she went for the fries duo ($5). At the last minute I decided to splurge on a chocolate sandwich cookie ($4). They looked divine.

After a 10-minute wait, our food came out and we went to sit on a bench to eat. The soup was delicious, with just the right amount of spice and several tiny shrimp. I expected more visible clams and crab, but I think they were chopped up quite finely. The hush puppies had a great texture, crunchy without being greasy, though they were a little bland in spite of the green onions, bacon and cheese. They came with a tiny cup of pesto, which helped amp up the flavour of the balls of dough. Kathryn’s fries were good, though some were soggy instead of crispy.

My favourite item was the sandwich cookie. Just the right amount of chocolatey sweetness, with a perfectly firm, chewy texture. The filling was a white chocolate ganache, but I thought I tasted mint, which I love. I haven’t yet been able to make a GF cookie like this and I really wish I could.

By the time we finished eating my hands were freezing and despite the sun, it was pretty cold. So we retreated to a cafe for tea for the rest of the evening.

It was a great outing, more of the kind I’ve been enjoying with all my free time lately. If this baby hasn’t popped out by next Thursday I may go to the truck stop again! Check out the schedule here – there is some change in which trucks are there from week to week.

Elm Café, Edmonton

My first week of mat leave has been awesome. It feels kind of weird and surreal to have so much free time – it’s like this strange transition period between my old life and my new life.

I’m really enjoying being able to decide exactly what I want to do with my days. This week we got a lot of stuff done around the house, including organizing all of our files and reorganizing the closets to make room for baby stuff. The baby’s room is almost entirely ready, which is so exciting!

I also did a bunch of grocery shopping and stocked up on staple pantry items and ingredients for all the freezer meals I plan to make – that’s on next week’s agenda. Our pantry has never been so full, and it feels great.

We also took some time to relax together this week since J wasn’t working much either. On Tuesday we went to Elm Café for breakfast. This is one of J’s favourite spot in the whole city. It’s a tiny cafe in the Oliver neighbourhood, opened a few years ago by Edmonton chef Nate Box. It’s been getting a lot of attention lately – both in a feature in Vue Weekly and on Avenue Magazine’s 25 Best Things To Eat in Edmonton list.

I suggested to J that he go to Elm for his espresso fix when he started working at the Edmonton General hospital last year. Though it’s six blocks away from the hospital, it has the best coffee in the neighbourhood. J fell in love with their sandwiches, and now he often leaves for work 45 minutes early just to walk to Elm.

The sandwiches are made on crusty, glutenous bread, so no tastes for me, but they look and sound divine. J will come home from work with a dreamy look on his face, remembering his breakfast sandwich: fried egg cooked perfectly, with the yolk slightly runny, Irving’s farm bacon or sausage, arugula, sometimes pickles, cheese, or some other enticing combination of ingredients.

Besides sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, Elm offers a daily soup and salad, yogurt with fruit and granola, muffins, coffee from 49th Parallel in Vancouver, and other hot and cold drinks. And they serve it all from a 195-square-foot-storefront tucked just off Jasper Avenue. There are a few chairs at a narrow wooden counter inside the cafe, and in nice weather there are several tables set up outside too.

The other morning J chose the Early Sandwich with fried egg, Irvings’ Smokies, horseradish mayo, cheddar, and spinach, and a pina colada muffin. I went for one of the only GF things on the menu, local Bleswold Yogurt with grapes and blackberries, and a cappuccino. It was all delicious.

It was such a treat to share a meal in the middle of the morning, and to eat it outside – I think our first outside meal of the year. It was one of many small, sweet moments this week as we savour our last days as a childless couple.

Tonight a few friends are coming over to celebrate J’s birthday, and I took advantage of my time off to prepare a dessert extravaganza: two kinds of cookies, whoopie pies, and homemade gelato. I’m pretty excited! Hopefully I can share the results with you in the next little while.

Elm Café
10140 117 st, Unit 100
Edmonton, AB
www.elmcafe.ca

Lists

I am all about making lists these days - which is really nothing new. I've always been a list-maker. Now, along with my weekly grocery lists and constant to-do list, the other lists have to do with baby things. Things to buy and things to do. I feel like there is still lots to get done ... but, I trust that this baby will wait long enough until I have time to do it all! (Or at least the really necessary things.)

Here are some of the nicer things on the list

} Get a haircut (long overdue)
} Visit the art gallery (also long overdue)
} Go for brunch with J – maybe to Culina?
} Make these cookies - one of my favourite flavour combinations
} And use the extra egg yolks to make this amazing curd again
} Organize all the adorable baby clothes we have received

And of course there are some things that will be not so much fun ... but I'll feel so good when they are done!

} Reorganize our filing system (talk about overdue ... I have been meaning to do this since we moved last September)
} Purge stuff taking up space in the baby's room
} Clean out the freezer (to make room for food we can eat after the birth)

About that last point ... I am planning to make a bunch of meals that I can freeze so we don't have to worry too much about food in the first crazy days after the baby is born. What are your favourite meals that can be frozen? I am thinking lasagna and other casseroles, and soups, but I don't have too much experience freezing stuff. We don't have a deep-freeze so room is limited. If you have suggestions please let me know!

Gluten-free in Banff

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend in Banff with friends. It was a really nice getaway, especially as the birth of our baby gets closer and closer. We hadn't been to the mountains since last summer, and I always feel like I need to take advantage of their proximity while living here in Alberta.

Banff is a very gluten-free friendly town for tourists. Here are a few of the highlights:

We stayed at A Banff Boutique Inn, a B&B on the edge of town. I'd definitely recommend it. We got a deal on our rooms so it was a very reasonable price - not sure we could afford to stay here in the high season. It's an old house built in the 1940s, and the rooms have retained some old-fashioned charm. There are hardwood floors, big windows, and simple, classic furnishings. Our room had a cute little built-in vanity with two closets on either side. The rooms are comfortable but not big, and we were in a wing of the house with a shared shower/sink and shared separate toilet. It worked well since our friends stayed in the other room of the wing.

The breakfast they offered was fantastic. It was continental but quite deluxe: all kinds of breads and bagels, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit including berries and pineapple, homemade granola bars and banana bread, cereals, nuts and dried fruit, coffee, and a good tea selection. And ... gluten-free bread and cereal! Unfortunately there was only one toaster so I didn't take a chance with the bread, but the cereal (Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise with raisins) was delicious, especially with all the nice toppings. I also enjoyed delicious chocolate mint rooibos tea from the Banff Tea Company.

There's a wonderful bakery in Banff, Wild Flour, that sells many gluten-free baked goods. We went there twice in two days so I could sample their treats. The mint "rawreo" (in second photo above) had a delicious mint flavour, though the texture of the cookie was a bit weird - I guess that's because they're raw. The next day I tried a ginger peach muffin which was a bit dense, but otherwise really good. Sadly I didn’t feel like I could indulge in the Mexican chocolate cookie or the brownie as well. The bakery also makes a delicious cappuccino and a yummy lunch, with lots of GF options for soups and salads. And of course, there are plenty of gluten-filled baked goods and fresh-baked breads.

We went to the Bear Street Tavern for supper because I read online that they have gluten-free pizza. I chose one with wild mushrooms, pine nuts, and pesto, which was just as delicious as it sounds. The crust was thin and crispy, with none of the beautiful puckering and air-filled holes of the gluten version, but still good. J unfortunately was disappointed with his pork belly mac and cheese, since the pork was rubbery and the flavour nothing special. But we all enjoyed the atmosphere of the place – casual and trendy.

We also had a taste of home in Banff at Cows Ice Cream, the company from PEI. We introduced our friends to the joys of 16 percent butterfat and whimsical flavours like Gooey Mooey (burnt sugar with chocolate caramel cups) and Wowie Cowie (vanilla with english toffee swirl, chocolate flakes and Skor bits).

When you enter the store, the intoxicating scent of freshly baked, sugary waffle cones (with just a hint of almond) hits your nose. Sadly, I can't eat the cones anymore, but my cup of Chunky Chocolate Mint was still delicious, and reminded me of summers on PEI.

The next time we visit the mountains it will be with our baby. With our baby! I still can't quite believe it.