REVIEW | AARDE | EDMONTON

** This restaurant is now closed. **

Chef-driven brunch. It's a thing. And I'm a fan.

In the restaurant business, brunch can be quite lucrative. Although there's been an increasing trend with people staying in and having food delivered (a la Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, etc.), nothing brings millennials out of their houses (that they can't afford) and into restaurants quite like brunch can.

With chef-driven brunch, you can expect the classics, reinvented. It's an opportunity for chefs to flex their culinary muscle so to speak. "Look what I can do with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce!" For customers, it's also a win -- a taste of the chef's skills at a usually more affordable price tag.

Jumping on the chef-driven brunch bandwagon is a relative newcomer to Edmonton's dining scene. Aarde (Dutch for 'earth') opened last November on 4th Street Promenade.    

Headed by Chef Guru Singh, Aarde offers "regional European" food, inspired by his travels across Europe. By not honing in on a specific country or cuisine, he's able to play around with the menu, focusing instead on the seasonality of local ingredients. 

Half of the dinner menu is vegetarian, but to build a full meal, you're meant to order a few plates and share (because sharing is caring). Brunch is also a new adjunct of the restaurant, served on weekends from 10am-2pm.  

The space is simple, modern, and clean. Hanging plants and a feature wallpaper give the room some much needed character.

With only two other parties seated in the restaurant when we arrived, we were given our pick of tables. Our server did warn us beforehand that sitting by the window would be a bit chilly, but KN is all about that *natural light* for photos.

As per usual, we decided to order a couple of plates to share. First up, the classic eggs Benedict. Done the Aarde way, the fried chicken benny ($15.00) starts with a base of thyme and crushed pepper biscuits. Crispy chicken thighs and poached eggs (soft, medium, or hard) are dressed with Grand Marnier hollandaise and yellow chimichurri. The dish also comes with a side of house potatoes and fresh fruit (in our case, slices of honeydew).

It was a bit of a wait for our food, but only because they ran out of biscuits and had to bake some on the fly. Good textures, good flavours. Potatoes were seasoned well, with a peppery finish. I don't know why I was briefly reminded of KFC seasoning, but I was. (That's not a bad thing.)  

Our second plate was the Canadian Dutch baby ($12.00) with house-cured gravlax, spinach cream, confit tomatoes, pickled onions, and two eggs (any style). The kitchen ran out of confit tomatoes, so just imagine that they're there.

A Dutch baby pancake is pretty much a popover on steroids. It's a neutral canvas that lends itself well to both sweet and savoury preparations. The Dutch baby was fluffy, with an almost fried exterior. Loved the salmon with the pancake, but I didn't think the spinach cream added much to it as it was already creamy from the eggs.    

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the brunch offerings at Aarde. The menu is small but focused and concise. It's chill and laidback, perfect for when you want a reprieve from the wait at OEB. Considering you're dining downtown, it's also a very affordable way to start your weekend morning right.

Aarde

aardecuisine.com 

10184 104 St NW

Edmonton, AB

(587) 881-7891

P.S. Their freshly squeezed orange juice is pretty fantastic.

- CT 

SNAPSHOTS | HONG KONG 2018 | DAY 6

We woke up this morning to pouring rain. Thankfully the weather had only started to take a turn for the worst during the last leg of our trip. My dad was feeling a bit lazy to venture out so my mom and I decided to brave the weather and walk around to find breakfast.

After walking ten minutes through torrential downpour and huge puddles that went up to my knees (I'm short, okay?), I never felt more relieved to arrive at the restaurant. We had decided on a place closeby called Sea View Congee Shop.

Nothing warms you up quite like a bowl of steaming hot congee. Looking back, it was actually one of my favourite meals of the whole trip! (Probably because it was an ordeal to get there.) We also got a side of youtiao (Chinese long doughnut) and ja leung (Chinese long doughnut wrapped with steamed rice roll).

When we were finished, we packed up the leftovers and ordered another congee bowl for my dad. We were thinking of taking a taxi back to the hotel but thankfully the rain had stopped by then.

After changing out of our wet clothes and waiting for my dad to finish breakfast, we officially started our day on the MTR to Causeway Bay.

Causeway Bay (CWB) is another bustling area of Hong Kong, famous for its shopping. It was here that we had our first sighting of the Hong Kong trams, otherwise known as "ding dings" to locals.

Not counting the multiple trips to Uniqlo and Muji stores, I actually didn't go too crazy with the shopping in Hong Kong (surprisingly). Although you could easily spend the whole day in CWB, we ended up only going to SOGO department store and Hysan Place.

I swear I didn't even plan it but we stumbled upon a small Hello Kitty cafe in Hysan! It wasn't quite open when we found it but looking at their menu, they served mainly desserts. 

Giant gold statue of Rilakkuma anyone? Must be nice to have this much disposable income. 

On the household goods floor in SOGO. I found it hilarious that there was so many makes and models of rice cookers. You know you're in Asia when ...

For lunch, I thought it would be nice to take a break from Chinese food. That is why we ended up at kikusan, a Japanese fusion restaurant in Hysan Place.

Considering the decor of the restaurant and how Japanese cuisine is typically on the expensive side, everything was quite reasonably priced. The item that seemed to have the most value for money (ingredient wise) was their signature kikusan roll ($68 HKD = ~$11.50 CAD). The base was a simple cucumber maki, but they layer on minced fatty tuna, sea urchin, and salmon roe.

Assorted sashimi -- salmon, red tuna, scallop, yellowtail, and sweet shrimp. Quite fresh and beautifully arranged.

The shrimp tempura was also decent with a light crispy batter. Instead of individual vegetables, it also came with a tempura fritter of sorts, a mish mash of different julienned vegetables.

Another signature dish of theirs is the chili sesame & peanut soup ramen with minced pork and layered pork cutlet ($72 HKD = ~$12.18 CAD). The soup had a good kick to it, especially after mixing the chili oil in. It was also my first time seeing tonkatsu prepared in such a unique fashion. Unfortunately serving it right in the bowl made it a bit soggy.

Apparently our initial order wasn't enough to fill up my dad, so we tacked on a few of their grilled skewers. The pork belly skewer was understandably fatty, with a simple seasoning and a light char.  

Our last item was yakitori. Chicken skewers basted with teriyaki sauce. Simple but always delicious.

As we were preparing to leave after lunch, we happened upon an event taking place in the mall. A few celebrities were there promoting some sort of virtual reality game. We had no idea who these people were but after a quick Google search, we found out later that one of celebrities was Fred Cheng, who is a Canadian-born actor and singer. He seemed to have the biggest fan base there, as evidenced by all the people donning red shirts.

Our last CWB destination before we called it quits was Elephant Grounds located in Fashion Walk. Elephant Grounds is a popular cafe chain with six locations across Hong Kong. It's a pretty cool (ie. very hipster) spot that serves an extensive food menu along with coffee and other drinks. They're also quite known for their ice cream. We got two flavours to try -- Thai iced tea and Japanese taro. I really liked how all of their ice cream flavours came with their own unique topping or garnish. There was candied ginger for the Thai iced tea and a taro chip for the Japanese taro. Although the ice cream was a bit icy, the flavours were strong. We all agreed that taro was our favourite.

For dinner later on that evening, we actually had plans to meet up with one of my parents' friends. She decided to bring us to Tai Fung Lau Peking Restaurant located in Tsim Sha Tsui. The restaurant is definitely old-school but quite popular with the locals. They had lots of large tables with quite a few groups celebrating birthdays or other special occasions. The restaurant serves northern Chinese dishes and is famous for their Peking duck.

When people ask me what my favourite food is, it's hard to give them an answer because the list is just too long. But I will say that Peking duck is definitely up there.

Crispy duck skin + thinly sliced vegetables + (a generous amount of) Hoisin sauce, all wrapped up in a thin pancake. It's perfection in a bite really. The only thing I didn't like about the Peking duck at this restaurant were the wraps. They were made in-house but they were a bit too thick and tasted like uncooked flour.

Can't go wrong with dumplings of any kind! These were filled with pork and simply boiled.

I'm not very familiar with northern Chinese cuisine, so I have no idea what the other dishes were. I'll try to describe them anyways. The first one was a cold appetizer with sliced cucumber and jelly-like noodles. The other two in the back were meat dishes. The left dish was a saucy ragu topped with egg white and the other was a simple stir-fry.

We were stuffed to the brim and ready to roll ourselves home, but we were each given a sweet bean paste filled donut at the end.

With dessert, you don't have to ask me twice. 

- CT

REVIEW | CONFECTIONS CAKE CO. | ST. ALBERT

No matter how full you are, there's always room for dessert.  

Always.

That's why a place like Confections Cake Co. (CCC) comes in handy for those with a perpetual sweet tooth. Open until 10pm on most days, it's the perfect after-dinner (or after-whatever) destination serving macarons, cakes by the slice, and other sweet desserts.

CCC is located in downtown St. Albert, nestled right between Jack's Burger Shack and Cerdo Tacos and Tequila. Self-titled as a "dessert bar," CCC opened last May by pastry chef Brittany Allen and her partner Jarrett Delaney.

It's a cozy space with string lights, dark woods, and walls decorated with local consignment art. We visited on a snowy Sunday afternoon, right after having lunch at our favourite Sushi Park. It was actually perfecting timing since they were just finishing up cleaning after one of their baking classes. (If you're interested in a baking class, check their Facebook page for events! They have classes for both kids and adults.)

There's not very many dessert shops in the city that offers cake by the slice. I often wonder why, because sometimes you just want a fancy three-layer cake without buying a whole cake to yourself (I mean, you could) or settling for a cupcake (it's just not the same). CCC fills this niche with their three different flavours, including triple chocolate, fresh fruit, and caramel popcorn.

There are also ten flavours of macarons, berry cheesecake, freshly baked cookies and milk, and lots, lots more. They also have a drink menu, with coffee, cocktails, and wine by the glass. If you weren't in a sweet mood, CCC also serves some savoury food items, mainly appetizer-types like a charcuterie board, baked brie, and potato skins.

We decided to get the caramel popcorn cake ($8.00) which has layers of vanilla cake, caramel buttercream, caramel drip, and a heaping garnish of housemade caramel popcorn. The buttercream was rich and buttery, with just the right amount of caramel sweetness. Admittedly the slice we got was a wee bit dry, but I'll just chalk it up to getting a cake that was towards its end cycle.

Crème brûlée ($12.00) is one of my favourite desserts of all time so I knew we had to order it. Something about breaking into that crisp caramelized top to reveal smooth creamy custard underneath is so satisfying to me.

It was my first time seeing crème brûlée served in such a long, narrow ramekin but it certainly made for a cool presentation. We definitely inhaled it.

 Thanks to Confections Cake Co., St. Albert is a whole lot .... sweeter.

Confections Cake Co.
www.facebook.com/confectionscakeco

140, 15 Perron St.

St. Albert, AB

(587) 873-6502

- CT