Category: Calgary
Spirit of Calgary – Part 2
Well Calgary, you have impressed me again. I’ve just finished the two days of the best volunteer experiences in my lifetime.
This morning, my new friend Penny picked me up and we headed back to Bowness. We got our assignment at the Sportsplex and headed to the address. The homeowner was not around so we went down the street in search of opportunity. We found Joanne, who was emptying her basement. She had a lot of help already, but appreciated the extra hands. I finally got the chance to get dirty! I got to muck a basement. There was a few inches of water down there. The water went past the ceiling and into the first floor. As a result, the drywall came off really easily, but was heavy due to being waterlogged. We shoved the mess out the basement window. It was quite the experience.
I returned home with time enough to grab a snack. Emily left a message saying she needed help and equipment in Sunnyside. I packed up a shovel, crowbar, garbage bags and wheelbarrow. We were cleaning the basement of a friend’s condo building that was the victim of a sewer backup. It came halfway up the wall. This was harder to deal with than the previous assignment. The bottom part of the drywall came off easy, but the top foot was dry and needed to be scored and ripped off. There were no windows, so everything had to be hauled up the stairs. They needed a generator to power the lights. Hard manual labour, but I quite enjoyed it.
The highlights for today:
- Meeting one very grateful homeowner in Bowness
- Removing the ceiling of the basement and having water pour out
- Getting covered with mud, and…
- Getting caught on camera by Shaw while visiting their water station
- Meanwhile in Sunnyside…
- A family walked by offering us free chili and peanut butter and jam sandwiches
- A lady pulled up in her SUV and offered us sandwiches, juice, fruit, carrots and snacks
- Shaw person walked by offering us free flashlights
- People who I just met treating me like family
- Finishing the afternoon event with a beer in hand on the sidewalk. Bylaws drove by. CPS drove by, rolled down the window and chatted. Beer drinking continued.
Back to work tomorrow! If I wasn’t working, I would volunteer again.
Spirit of Calgary
I’ll admit I didn’t know what I was getting into when I showed up at McMahon Stadium this morning. One thing, I knew it would be an adventure. I baked some carrot muffins last night and thawed some GF banana bread from the freezer and took it with me. It took some time to organize; we all had to fill out an information sheet (waiver). We lined up, got our forms signed and waited to board the buses. They couldn’t accommodate all the people on the buses so they had us split into groups of 100 and given an address. My destination was Bowness. I met a random group of people and we piled into a vehicle for the drive there.
When we got there it was a bit of chaos. Those in charge were not expecting 100 volunteers that were not residents of the community to show up. But people spoke up and asked for what they needed.
- 10 people to help the military with administrative duties until 10pm
- Helping a homeowner at xxx address to clean up
- Helping resettle evacuated residents of a seniors home
The local Sportsplex was set up as a central command centre. There was a place to register volunteers, an area for those who need help to pick up supplies. And a ton of donations. Rona brought in a ton of pails and garbage cans. I helped offload donated clothing and rags that a local chiropractic office had collected.
Our first assignment of the day was to help a homeowner cleanup. We entered the red zone. The red zone is an area where it has not been cleared for the evacuees to return home. Traffic into the affected areas is controlled by police. There is no power, gas, and possibly water. Nevertheless, in areas where the water had cleared, homeowners returned to start the cleanup. As we drove to the affected area, I could not help but notice all the drywall, furniture and personal effects on people’s front lawns. We passed a house with “no power, no gas” and a cat sitting in the window. The roads were either muddy or dusty. We passed by a building that housed some 911 equipment. It was surrounded by sandbags and booms. When we arrived, we were put to work cleaning with bleach and drying items just moved out of the basement. The guys were helping with the heavy lifting of the appliances out of the basement. Then they gutted and removed the drywall.
After that assignment, our motley crew went in search of more work. Everyone we passed by seemed to have all the help they needed. So we went back to the Sportsplex to help out.
Our next assignment came when one of our group helped a lady who was shell shocked and not sure of the help she needed. So six of us went over to her house and helped her clear out the garage. There was a lot of stuff in there, most of it was mud soaked and we took it out. She really struggled with throwing out her possessions.
Calgarians are exceptional. In all my years of volunteering, I have not seen a grassroots movement this large. Let me list some of the high points:
- 2500 volunteers showed up at McMahon Stadium for their assignments (they were planning to sign up 600)
- Mayor Nenshi was there, firing up the crowd and thanking everyone for their help
- One person stood up organized a random group of people. We counted to 100 as a group so we could be given an address to go to
- Don’t be a Nenshi noun! (Don’t be an idiot)
- How can I help? Was the motto for the day.
- I met a guy from England that has been in Calgary for 3 weeks who volunteered. He started a job at the UofC. I told him this isn’t what you would normally expect in town.
- I made at least 5-6 new friends today. One of them is picking me up tomorrow to go back to Bowness
- Shaw set up a station to hand out food and snacks for the volunteers on a street in Bowness
- A homeowner who was flooded, set up a volunteer registration and food station on her front lawn
- Food trucks were handing out free food at McMahon.
- The volunteer station on Bow Crescent was happy to receive the carrot muffins and GF banana bread
- The organizers made sure the volunteers were well fed and watered in the community
- A shout out to my new friends, Hugh, Rick, Faye, Penny, Pheobe and Sandy
The lack of formal organization compared to the amount of stuff that got done was truly amazing. There is a lot of humanity and compassion in Calgary, that shows up in situations like this. People just took the initiative. So many donations, in the way of supplies and food for the volunteers.One person in our group asked how the homeowner was feeling, and paused to listen. Some homeowners were grateful for the number of volunteers that spontaneously showed up.
You too can help. Visit the page yychelps.ca, check out calgary.ca for volunteers ops, find friends that have just returned home and see if they need help, or show up at one of the community muster stations. As for me, I will be headed back to Bowness tomorrow morning. Then back to work on Wednesday. I’m proud to be a resident of this fine city.
Calgary, I love you, even more today.
Open Range
Open Range is the sibling of Big Fish. Next door and owned by the same restaurant group. I love Big Fish; I think I would expect the same from this restaurant. When we arrived, we were the only other party in the room. I’m guessing Monday nights are a bit slow.
I started with the wild mushroom soup. It was thick and full of flavour. The elk “Dianne” was lovely. Deep, meaty flavor balanced by the acidity and sweetness of the red currant demi glace. I choose the rice pilaf instead of the potato. The green beans were young and crisp; the parsnip and onion were tender.
Hubby really enjoyed his corn and jalapeno fritters, the beef tenderloin and the dessert.
The service was attentive and friendly. Open Range is to the land what Big Fish is to the sea. I love seafood; so I prefer Big Fish, but Open Range definitely is a home run.
Double Zero Pizza
Friday night, the place was very busy and loud. The last time I was in this spot, it was the Elephant and Castle pub. Wow, that was a long time ago. We were happy to get a reservation half hour after we called; other places we tried, we were not so lucky.
We settled in to watch the Pens and Sens playing while waiting for our order. We started with the arancini. The little fried rissoto balls were hot out of the fryer. The creamy rice and crispy exterior paired well with reggiano and peppery rocket.
The three of us shared the sausage and margherita pizzas. The crust was super thin on the bottom, with puffy crispy edges. The toppings were thin and flavorful, as you might expect from a thin crust pizza. I don’t normally take satisfaction in eating pizza crust, but I do have to admit that I enjoyed this one.
Our server was friendly and attentive. The only knock on this place is the volume. Not recommended for a first date.
deep fried breaded risotto balls, herb and garlic aioli, reggiano cheese
housemade italian sausage, green onion, artichoke
Margherita
fiore di latte, basil, tomato sauce
Forest Lawn Bakery
I found this little gem while shopping at Lucky Supermarket next door. I’m really used to visiting Chinese bakeries with all the predictable Chinese favorites. I suspect, this bakery caters to Vietnamese and Filipinos. They had an assortment of western bread, cookies, pastries and cake. But they also had various sweet rice desserts, and cassava cake. My friend was so happy to find a rice cake that she hadn’t eaten since childhood. They also had the Vietnamese equivalent of lo bok go, steamed daikon cake.
Indonesian Kitchen
I’m on a mission to try all the southeast Asian restaurants in town. Well, mostly the Malaysian and Indonesian ones. Indonesian Kitchen is a small family run restaurant located on the ethically diverse International Avenue. Not much to look at from the outside, but the interior is warmly decorated. There are also shelves of crafts from Indonesia and a small selection of dry groceries. If I were more familiar with Indonesian cooking, I would have picked up some.
We started with the fried cassava. So good. Think of it as a spicy french fry. The chicken curry was up next. It was pretty average; I definitely expected more of a flavor hit. The mie goreng satisfied my craving for carbs after climbing. It was slightly sweet, which I was also craving. The shrimp chips and fried egg were a nice touch. Surprisingly, the tempeh was my favorite dish. Tempeh is a fermented soy product. I’ve cooked it before, and found the taste a little hard to swallow. But this version tasted good and combined with the sambal (chilli) sauce, was very tasty.
Worth a return visit, to try some of the other dishes.
Fried cassava lightly spiced
Indonesian curry chicken
Chicken and shrimp fried noodles served with Krupuk and fried egg
Tempeh sauteed with sambal sauce
Mimo
One area of town that I should explore more is International Avenue. There is a diverse range of food culture represented there, one of which is Portuguese. I’ve had Portuguese food once before; when I had a salt cod casserole. It was delicious.
Mimo is a family run place, for over 29 years. Mom is the chef and the daughters are servers and hostesses. We had a large party so we got to sample a few dishes. I found the flaming sausage quite entertaining. It was homemade; tasted smoky and spicy at the same time. I also had a nibble of the grilled squid which was tasty. My main dish was the paella and what a paella it was. Lobster, crab, shrimp, mussel and clam served in the shell. Also a braised chicken leg, squid and pieces of beef served on top of flavorful, buttery rice. I had enough to take home.
Our server was one of the daughters and she gave us a history of how the restaurant came to be along with memories of a thriving Portuguese community in what is now Little Saigon Mall. She was astute enough to notice that one of her guests left the chicken leg uneaten on her plate. It was uncooked in the middle. Another one of our guests had undercooked chicken as well. She offered to cover everyone’s dessert which I thought was really nice.
The dessert was good. I preferred the passion fruit pudding over the orange creme caramel. Only because the pudding was less sweet. Life would be complete if only I could find some Portuguese egg tarts. According to our server, best head to Edmonton.
Lazy Monkey
I’m always looking for new things to try. I am very unfamiliar with Taiwanese food so I went to satisfy my curiousity. Unfortunately, I did not have a photo taking device, so a description would have to do.
Lazy Monkey is a tiny, family run cafe. It looks like a place where Asian high school kids hang out to do their homework. Well, they were doing just that and Sir Winston Churchill is across the road. If you like bubble tea, this is the place for you. Being neither a high schooler nor a bubble tea lover, my friend and I sampled the regular courses.
I just had to try the chicken hearts. They came broiled, six to a skewer, with a light dusting of salt and pepper and a subtle taste of five spice. Who ever thought chicken hearts could be tasty. Next time will have to try the gizzards.
My friend had the egg wrap with curry rice. The curry reminded me of Japanese style curry. It was a good foil for the hearty serving of rice and egg.
I had the Hakka style pork. The tender pork slices were served over rice with a black bean style sauce. The pork was nicely salted and seasoned. There also was a hard boiled tea egg on the side. It was a substantial meal for lunch. Our main courses were served in takeout containers which I found a bit odd.
They had some rather interesting things on the menu, such as coconut thick toast. With vanilla ice cream. I’m trying to figure out if that is a dessert or snack item. I’d like to come back for the salted fish and curry casserole.
Teatro
Teatro is one of those places that have been on the periphery of my radar. One of those places, at some point, that I would get around to visiting. I finally did, lured by a vendor luncheon.
I was feeling less then well at the time, so I opted for something that I hoped to be lighter. I went with the caesar salad and the spatzle. The caesar was nicely presented and it tasted, like a caesar salad. The spatzle was rich, creamy and divine. Not very light, but very filling and tasty for a vegetarian dish.
I didn’t have the lamb, but almost everyone else did. It was a beautiful frenched rack, done to medium rare.
Cauliflower, white gold provolone, parmesan cheeses, tomato concasse
The butternut squash tart was delicious. I really enjoyed the gooeyness of the toasted marshmallow and the accompanying coulis.
cinnamon meringue, caramelized zucchini
The decor was very nice. We were in the Opera room, a room outside the main restaurant. The ceilings were high and the lighting looked as if they had installed two large full moons in the ceiling. I will have to come back for a more typical meal.
