REVIEW | BACKSTAIRS BURGER | EDMONTON

Backstairs Burger is a child born from adversity. A phoenix rising out of the ashes, figuratively and literally. They were once a burger pop-up run out of the back door of a restaurant called ?!Why Not¡¿, hence the name "backstairs." Unfortunately, the restaurant burnt down during the pandemic in 2020. Ten months after the fire, they re-opened inside of 5th Street Food Hall. They had a good tenure there but the food hall would close and re-brand after a couple of years. 

 

Finally, in July of this year, they found their new home just across the street from Southgate Centre. And since our visit, they opened up a second location in West Edmonton Mall, across from Simons in Europa Boulevard.

Backstairs Burgers is a super casual place with black walls, skull motifs, and fire-engine red picnic tables. Very rock & roll. It's set up like a fast food joint where you order at the counter, but the food is anything but. They have 7 different burgers, all chef-driven with housemade sauces and unique topping combinations. For those wanting something different, they also have a chicken burger, a vegan option, 2 kinds of cheesesteaks, and their famous #ducktots. Sides include several iterations of fries and 3 flavours of shakes to satiate any sweet tooth.

 

It was hard to choose just one burger, but we ultimately decided on the sugarskull ($14.00), a 3.5oz smash patty with bone marrow caramel glazed bacon, house pickled onions, thick cut tomato, horseradish aioli, and original Ruffles. The burger patty spilled out the edges of the bun and had a really good crust. The bacon was my favourite combo of sweet and salty. It was also super crispy with a satisfying shatter. The horseradish aioli was not too overpowering but the burger overall had a very peppery flavour. 

 

The burgers may be the main draw, but I was really here for the #DuckTots ($16.00). Oh, how I've missed you. This dish is an indulgent masterpiece that I've been thinking of since 2016, the last time I had it at a food truck event in the city. It's a giant portion of tater tots topped with shredded Thai braised duck, hoisin aioli, lime Sriracha, and garnishes of green onion, cilantro, and crushed peanuts. It's a lot going on, but everything combines in such a tasty bite. Crispy tot, tender duck, creamy aioli, fresh herbs, and a kick of heat from the Sriracha. I advise sharing, unless you enjoy passing out from a food coma.

Backstairs is elevating the game, one burger at a time.

Backstairs Burger

www.instagram.com/backstairsburger

11010 51 Ave NW

Edmonton, AB

(587) 499-0576 

- CT

REVIEW | GINTARO JAPANESE RESTAURANT | EDMONTON

 

The northside doesn't have a ton of choice when it comes to Japanese food, let alone good Japanese food. So imagine my surprise when Gintaro opened up shop in the middle of Caernarvon last winter. Could this new Japanese restaurant be the answer to my prayers?  

 

We've ordered takeout from Gintaro about 4-5 times before I actually dined in. Takeout is usually not the best representation of a restaurant but from what we've tried, Gintaro is great! Very, very solid Japanese food at a reasonable price. Probably our new go-to.

The restaurant, like I mentioned earlier, is located in the middle of a strip mall in Caernarvon. It's a decent sized place with a mix of booths and tables. Service is super friendly and food comes out in quick succession.

 

We started off with an order of assorted sashimi ($30.00), 15 pieces chosen by the chef. I think our order included salmon, sockeye salmon, hamachi, red tuna, albacore tuna, scallop, amaebi, surf clam, and octopus. From the pieces I tried, the fish was decently fresh. Nice presentation too.

 

 

Always a fan of ika sugayaki ($15.00), grilled whole squid with veggies and special sauce. The squid is chewy but tender with a good char. I only wished that there was more sauce to dip into.

We also really enjoyed the assorted tempura ($12.00). It comes with 4 pieces of prawn and 6 assorted veggies. The batter is light and really crispy. For the price, it's a great deal.

 

Onto the sushi rolls, we tried the aburi salmon ($15.00) first. This had cream cheese, avocado, and crab meat on the inside, with torched salmon and tobiko on top. Rolls are well-constructed here. Not too much rice and a good size. Not too big and not too small. I would probably ask to omit the cream cheese next time but it was still pretty good.

 

Our favourite roll is the rock n roll ($16.00) with tamago, avocado, crab meat, unagi, salmon, potato flakes, and tobiko. The potato flakes add a nice crunch to break up the soft and creamy textures. Even though there's a ton of sushi rolls on the menu, we always make sure to order this one. 

 

 

We also tried the black pearl ($19.00) for the first time. This is one of their pressed sushi with seared BBQ eel, cucumber, tobiko, and eel sauce. This was okay. Just nothing more than eel on rice. Would probably try a different kind next time.

 

Gintaro also fries a mean katsu! We usually order the regular donkatsu, but since we were dining in, we tried the cheese katsu ($18.00). Deep fried layers of pork with cheese, salad, miso soup and rice. Dining in means you get a good, fresh cheese pull. It's a lot of cheese so it's a dish best for sharing. I find their breading really good. Nice and flaky. Also, shout out to their homemade salad dressing. We love it so much that we sometimes just order the green salad on its own.

 

 

Always reliable and solid. I'm probably due for a visit soon. 

Gintaro Japanese Restaurant

www.gintarokitchen.com

11850 145 Ave NW

Edmonton, AB

(780) 473-8300 

- CT

REVIEW | CASTELLA CHEESECAKE | EDMONTON

 

A trip to West Edmonton Mall can be a marathon. And if you're like me, sometimes you need a little sweet treat to replenish your energy. So where to go? Look no further than Castella Cheesecake, the new dessert shop in Phase I of the mall.

 

Castella Cheesecake originally hails from Vancouver. Edmonton is their second Alberta expansion following behind Calgary in Chinook Mall. 

 

Castella Cheesecake took over the kiosk that was occupied most recently by Ayco Bakery. Ayco still has a cafe downtown, but man, I'm going to miss having a little croissant break in the middle of shopping. You feel me?

 

In terms of landmarks, Castella is right below the escalator outside of Hudson's Bay on the first floor. It's in the middle of the mall but they do have seating! There's a handful of tables located just around the perimeter.

 

Castella Cheesecake has a relatively small menu of treats. Cheese tarts, Japanese souffle cheesecake, basque cheesecake, tiramisu, and cream croissants. I've yet to try anything else besides the cheese tarts but I'm sure it won't take long to go through the menu.

 

An order of 6 cheese tarts ($24.00) gives you the best value for your money versus paying $4.95 for a single. I don't think the cheese tarts are baked on premises but they do sit on a warming tray so they're still warm when you receive them.   

I was first acquainted with Castella's cheese tarts on my last trip to Vancouver. I tried one from a random bubble tea stall in the Aberdeen Centre food court. It was chilled so I don't think I had them at their best. You must try them warm!

When they're warm, the cheese tarts are still molten and gooey on the inside. Smooth and velvety, the filling is rich, creamy, lightly tangy, and not too sweet. The crust is flaky and buttery like a shortbread cookie. Firm enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to just crumble apart when you take a bite.  

If you do have enough self-control for the tarts to cool, the filling ends up being more set, especially if you refrigerate them. Same flavour but more of a firm cheesecake texture.

 

 

Glad to have more unique dessert options in WEM!

Castella Cheesecake (WEM)

www.castellacheesecake.com 

8882 170 St NW #1085

Edmonton, AB

(587) 520-1071 

- CT

SNAPSHOTS | CHICAGO 2023 | DAY 5 + 6

 

Our time in Chicago is sadly coming to an end. Despite the late night, we still woke up bright and early, ready to tackle our last full day in Chicago.

For a quick breakfast, we stopped into Good Ambler, a cafe, bakery, and chocolatier all in one. It's quite spacious inside and we saw lots of people setting up shop with their laptops. We had AYCE sushi on our lunch radar, so we shared a ham & cheese croissant to preserve stomach space. Still warm, the croissant was super buttery and flaky. Not a bad start to the day.

Next on our itinerary, we took an Uber over to the Garfield Park Conservatory. A coworker strongly recommended it and I'm glad we followed her advice. Tickets are free (donations welcome) but reservations are required. We simply booked one in the car on the way over.  

The gardens are gorgeous and absolutely stunning. The greenery is so lush and there's something to see around every corner. 

 

 

Like the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton, there's different "rooms" with different climates and plants.

 

I highly recommend visiting the Garfield Park Conservatory! Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city and get lost in nature for a bit. Especially since it's free!

After the conservatory, we took an Uber over to Wicker Park. It's a cool neighbourhood with lots of trendy shops and restaurants.

 

 

Lunch was at Sushi Taku, a popular destination for AYCE sushi. Lunch was a very reasonable $22.99 per person while dinner is $31.99.

 

Unfortunately there's no sliced sashimi options on the AYCE menu, only sashimi salad. They do give you quite a bit of sashimi so no complaints there. There's a few wisps of mixed greens underneath but the salad is mostly made up of chopped cubes of salmon, tuna, and yellowtail. Most likely scraps and tail-end pieces. The sashimi was fresh, dressed with soy sauce and wasabi aioli. LT also wanted the seaweed salad which was pretty standard but they also give you quite a bit.

 

For appetizers, we got the tempura, soft shell crab, and takoyaki. The tempura came with 2 pieces of shrimp and 4 vegetables. I wish that they could've been ordered individually because it ended up being a struggle to finish. The dipping sauce was quite bland as well. The soft shell crab and takoyaki were definitely better options.

 

For sushi, we ordered 2 unagi, 2 salmon, and 2 yellowtail nigiri. The rolls we chose were the color dragon roll and the fire phoenix roll. All of the ingredients were fresh and they didn't pack too much rice. However, we still ended up super full and had to tap out out after the first round. I think the move for next time would just be ordering as many plates of sashimi salad as our stomachs could handle.

 

It ended up being a beautiful day for exploring and walking! Wicker Park definitely reminded me of a much bigger Whyte Ave.

 

We didn't really have a plan and just stopped into random bookstores and shops that caught our eye.

Our final stop was Eli's Ark for ice cream. Lots of unique flavours, but the main draw is their animal decorations! You can choose between a bear, monkey, dog, panda, koala, pig, llama, or unicorn. They use chocolates, candies, cookies, marshmallows, and meringues to make your ice cream come to life.

I chose a pig while LT got a panda! My ice cream flavour was pretty in pink, roasted wild strawberries, yakult, and rose essence. Although it wasn't super creamy, the ice cream still had good texture and wasn't too sweet. LT got the kookie monster with a panna cotta cream base, oreos, biscoff, and nankhatai cookies.

 

We rested back at the hotel before our final dinner reservation at Girl & The Goat. Girl & The Goat is owned by Stephanie Izard, who won season 4 of Top Chef, the first female chef to do so. I remember watching Top Chef religiously during earlier seasons and was excited to try another Top Chef alum's restaurant.

 

We booked an earlier reservation so that we had time to pack later that evening. The restaurant was quite busy and bustling. Our server recommended getting 5-6 dishes to share, but we stuck with 4 and was already quite full by the end. 

The roasted pig face ($24.00) is the signature dish of the restaurant and my favourite of the night. The dish is prepared using, you guessed it, a whole pig's head. The cheeks, snout, and tongue are rolled up like porchetta and braised. They slice it up and crisp them in their wood oven. The two medallions get stacked with fried potato sticks and a sunny side up egg. There's an array of sauces including a tamarind vinaigrette and a red wine-maple gastrique. The pork medallions are so tender, fatty, and unctuous. The potato crisps were basically like hickory sticks, providing some good texture, while the creamy egg helped combine everything together.

 

We had to try a 'goat' dish and went for the goat empanadas ($19.00). They were garnished with pickled kumquats, piparra peppers, and idiazabal cheese. If anyone is weary of eating 'goat' meat, I would say it tasted pretty indistinguishable in the empanada. In fact, the flavour reminded me of Zap'ems. You know, those microwavable taco bites? Of course, these were way better than microwave dinner, but I couldn't help be reminded of the taco seasoning flavour. 

 

I also had high hopes for the sautéed green beans ($18.00) which are highly lauded online. The green beans are sauteed with shallots, drizzled with a fish sauce vinaigrette, and topped with toasted cashews. The green beans had some good char and wok hei, but tasted overcooked and over-seasoned. They were quite limp and mushy and a bit too salty. 

 

Our final dish was the crispy braised lamb ($28.00), with 12 spice bagna cauda and grilled radicchio. The nuggets of lamb were indeed crispy and tender. The flavour of the sauce reminded me of bun bo hue, as it had a prominent five spice flavour. The beans were unexpectedly crispy too.
 

Banksy, is that you?

 

Before we called it a night, we still needed to use up our free dining credit at the hotel. We stopped in the lobby for dessert at Fora, a contemporary, global-inspired restaurant and patio. They're pretty much open all day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

 

We ordered the arroz con leche ($12.00) which is basically Mexican rice pudding. Rice pudding is a simple, humble dessert, but this was elevated into something much more delicious. Surrounding the thick and creamy pudding was a ring of passionfruit curd. It brightened up the dish with its tangy, sweet flavour. There was also some candied cashews for texture and beautifully caramelized bananas. I have an affinity for banana desserts and this was no exception.

The next morning, we woke up at 3:30am, checked out, and headed to the airport. We thought we needed to be at the airport 3 hours early, but it's probably not necessary that early in the morning.

 

 

Nothing hits the spot quite like a McDonald's breakfast.

Thank you Chicago for an unforgettable trip!

- CT

SNAPSHOTS | CHICAGO 2023 | DAY 4

Today was the day. D-Day (iykyk). I didn't actually plan on going to Chicago just for the pizza and architecture (although it was a bonus!). The sole purpose of this trip was to finally meet the love of my life. Or you know, see them perform in concert. Same thing.

 

We started the day nice and early to make it to this restaurant right when they opened. Kasama is a modern Filipino restaurant and bakery located in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. Run by a husband-wife duo, the name Kasama means "together" in Tagalog. They're actually the world's first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant with one star to their name. 

 

During the day, Kasama is a first-come, first-serve cafe, while dinner is a multi-course, fine-dining tasting menu. We arrived a couple of minutes past 9 but there were already a few people waiting outside. We were afraid that the restaurant was already full but the line was deceiving since they only allow one party at the ordering counter at a time.  

At the counter, you're greeted by a beautiful showcase filled with mouthwatering pastries. Seriously, how could you possibly choose?

For actual meals, Kasama serves Filipino breakfast, adobo, and breakfast sandwiches. There's even a Filipino twist on an Italian beef with shaved pork adobo and longanisa sausage.

We got the Filipino breakfast which comes with garlic rice, a fried egg, and your choice of longanisa sausage or tocino. We got a combo of both meats for $18. The longanisa is sweet and garlicky while the tocino reminded me of char sui. It had that similar sweet glaze on the outside and juicy, fatty interior. Overall, a simple, filling meal.

I wasn't overly impressed by the breakfast plate, but the pastries... wow. I now understood why they have a Michelin star. First up, the black truffle croissant ($14). Super buttery, flaky, and filled with black truffle and Delice de Bourgogne cheese. The cheese was super creamy and rich, while the truffle was fragrant but not overpowering. They also top the croissant with honey, truffle oil, shaved black truffle and pearl sugar. It's a textural masterpiece with the pops of pearl sugar. If you're a fan of sweet and salty, it's absolute perfection. Quite possibly my favourite bite of the trip.

We also got the ube and huckleberry basque cake ($7.00). They describe it as a pound cake filled with ube pastry cream and huckleberries, which are similar to blueberries but a bit more sour. Rather than a cake, it reminded me of a cross between a cookie and a tart. It was crispy and chewy and positively delightful. The ube wasn't super obvious to me but the huckleberries were sweet and tart. So good.

Straight from Kasama, we took an Uber over to 360 Chicago in the John Hancock Centre (now called 875 North Michigan Avenue). It's an observation deck located on the 94th floor of the building. We debated between 360 and Skydeck, but we thought 360 would have better views of the skyline and Lake Michigan. It was pretty pricey and I would recommend buying tickets online for a slight discount.

 

It was nice to go early since there wasn't very many people around. The views are unreal.

 

Here you can see Navy Pier in the background.

 

 

We definitely lucked out with the weather on this day since the conditions were very clear.

 

After we finished with pictures, we spent the rest of the morning walking around the shops and malls in the area. There's a particular street filled with all the luxury brands, some I've never even heard of. I've never felt so poor.

LT had to do a bit of work this day so we headed back to the hotel. I had a quick nap before we ventured out again late afternoon. For a recharge, we walked to Sawada Coffee, a chill funky cafe owned by world-renowned barista Hiroshi Sawada. We shared an iced oat latte, Tokyo style where they add a shot of molasses in. The coffee was sweet and bitter, and reminded me very much of Vietnamese iced coffee.

 

The seating area is huge and grungy. They actually share the space with Green Street Smoked Meats, a Texas style BBQ joint. This is where we had our early dinner since we needed protein to last through the night. Just head straight to the back where you order from the counter. They'll slice the meat right in front of you and prepare your platter. Everything else is pretty much self-serve.

 

 

We ordered a 1/2 pound of sliced beef brisket ($16.95), a pulled pork sandwich ($13.95), and elote style corn ($7.00). The brisket was pretty good, and the fattier parts were especially good. I felt the pulled pork sandwich was a bit dry and they definitely misheard me when I tried to choose coleslaw instead of pickles (#introvertproblems). The elote corn sounded promising on paper, but it was almost too cheesy for me. 

 

 

Here's a story for you. As we were walking back to the hotel, I got pooped on by a bird. No joke. It was quite traumatic. Thankfully LT had a wet wipe on her and it was just on the arm of my rain jacket. They do say bird poop is good luck. This came in clutch later.

To forget about my troubles, we popped into Do-Rite Donuts since it was on the way back. Do-Rite is a Chicago-based donut chain that also sells breakfast and fried chicken sandwiches. I didn't realize how much of a donut city Chicago is but they have quite a few homegrown donut shops.  

We got a cinnamon old-fashioned and a vanilla bean glazed. Perhaps the cashier sensed my bird poop trauma, but he only charged us for one donut! Thank you donut man! The vanilla bean glazed was our favourite of the two. It was your classic yeast doughnut. Soft, fluffy, and not too sweet. The old-fashioned had a crunchy exterior, although slightly dry. It was rolled in cinnamon sugar.

 

We had a quick refresh back at the hotel before it was concert time! It took forever to get an Uber, since the concert was at Allstate Arena, right by O'Hare airport. It probably took an hour to get there since there was tons of traffic. Do you see this line?!  Good thing we left early.

 

We actually befriended a couple of girls in line who travelled from Florida to see the show. The gates opened at 6:30pm and we got in around 6:45pm. We made a beeline to one of the merch booths upstairs. The line winded all around the small space and as the concert got closer, the anxiety kicked in. We literally reached the front of the line minutes before the concert was due to start. I had my hopes on one specific shirt but everything was pretty much sold out. Our new friends asked if it was possible to buy the shirts on the display and thank God they did! I managed to get the exact shirt in the size I wanted. Thank you bird for your lucky poop! After we paid, we literally ran to our seats halfway across the arena.   

 

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to ... AGUST D! 

TLDR; I'm a big, big fan. 

I'm been a BTS ARMY since 2016, during their Blood Sweet & Tears era. In the K-Pop world, it's customary (but certainly not necessary) to have a "bias," or your favourite member in the group. Since day 1, my bias has always been SUGA so it felt like fate that my first BTS concert experience would be his solo concert, under his alias AGUST D. We had plans to see BTS in 2020 (in Toronto), but we all know what happened next. (I prefer not to talk about it.) This felt like one of my last opportunities to see them before they all have to complete their mandatory military enlistment. LT also pointed out that we only had to focus on one person during the concert, rather than 7 people who can't stand still.

 

The concert was simply amazing and the crowd was deafening. Seriously, I might have permanent hearing loss. He played 22 songs in total with the concert lasting 2 hours. Life Goes On is my personal favourite, along with Snooze, Amygdala, Haegeum ... the list goes on and on. I never wanted it to end! 

 

We eventually did have to leave and walked with a bunch of people to a nearby hotel. It felt like a better chance to get an Uber from there than at the arena. Still hyped from the concert, I don't think I went to bed until 2:30am. I'd do it all over again if I could.

- CT