Calgary Farmers’ Market West

When the wife decided to post onto our little blog again, she informed the husband that he had to dust off his writing skills and make a few contributions as well – so with that in mind, hi, I’m the husband! This is my first foray into the blogosphere, but since I’ve been along for the ride of these culinary adventures, I feel I can make a meaningful contribution to the subject (under supervision, of course).

We decided to try something a little different and review a food hall, as opposed to a single vendor, so we’ll be recapping our adventures at the Calgary Farmers’ Market West location. For those who might not know the history, the Calgary Farmers’ Market started in 2004 in a historic airplane hangar in Currie Barracks, itself a former Canadian Forces Base in southwest Calgary. The market relocated to southeast Calgary near Blackfoot Trail and Heritage Drive in April 2011, where it continued to be a popular destination. The Calgary Farmers’ Market opened a second location in northwest Calgary in the summer of 2022, conveniently located just off the Trans-Canada Highway near Stoney Trail. We’ve had the opportunity to visit it a few times as it offers options for food to take home or a Food Hall to enjoy a prepared meal.

In our more recent visits, we’ve had opportunity to try Sabores Mexican Cuisine, Gemstone Grass-Fed Beef Kitchen, and Margarita’s Dishes – all of which are seafood free! We have also enjoyed Pie Cloud and Deepak’s Dhaba, which do have some seafood offerings so it’s best to avoid anything deep fried, but which still offer plenty of non-seafood options that are safe from cross-contamination. If you really want to avoid any risk of seafood, there are also vegan/vegetarian options. Admittedly we haven’t tried V Burger or Hearts Choices at the Calgary Farmers’ Market West, but we have been to their stand-alone restaurant locations in the past and would recommend both. There are others that we hope to review as they didn’t have any seafood on their menus, but alas, there is only so much one can try at a time!

Gemstone Kitchen Roast Beef sandwich

Tacos from Sabores

Combo plate from Margarita's Dishes

Seafood-free friendliness: As it is a market with a wide variety of offerings, there is seafood on the premises, whether from in the Food Hall or a fresh seafood vendor. However, neither the husband or the wife have experienced any “fishy” smells or other airborne triggers, like you might find in similar markets in more coastal areas, so we were free to wander the market and enjoy bright and open seating areas. There are a variety of seafood-free options, so whether we’re making it our destination or grabbing a bite on the way to the mountains, this is a diverse culinary option.

Perogy Boyz Food Truck

This is a food truck that the husband has been wanting to check out for a while and we finally did it on a drizzly day near the university.  After seeing Perogy Boyz Food Truck on Eat Street, it seemed like it would be a good opportunity to try unique perogy fillings that aren't easily found at restaurants or stores (side note: the husband really, really likes cottage cheese perogies but has not found them readily available in Calgary - any suggestions?).  The irony is that in the end, the husband went with the traditional perogies so that he could see how they fared against past perogies he's had.

Considering the fact that getting a perogy fix in Calgary is limited, the husband deemed his traditional perogies to be good; however, they didn't necessarily taste that different from our favourite store-bought perogies.  The wife's perogies were more uncommon although she was confused at first because she forgot that the sauerkraut was a filling and not a topping.  The strange thing is that she didn't realize this until a few perogies later, which meant that there was almost no taste differentiation between the sauerkraut perogies and the traditional perogies.  Despite this, we did appreciate the amount of bacon and sour cream we received which lasted until the end of our meal.  The sausages on the other hand were a little small for our liking and accompanied by a mustard that was so strong that we abandoned it.

While the meal was filling enough for a lunch, we did find it to be quite costly and the wait time was much too excessive as it was 45 minutes of standing in light rain, something that might not even happen in a sit-down restaurant (the time it took, not the weather conditions).  Since most people get a limited amount of time for lunch, Perogy Boyz needs to become more efficient in order to attract and retain the lunch crowd.

The husband's traditional perogies and knackwurst sausage.

The wife's sauerkraut perogies and Kielbasa sausage.

Seafood-free friendliness: What's positive about Perogy Boyz is that they don't have seafood on the menu at all.  What's negative is that it felt like we were paying "market price" for our food and waiting for them to catch it live.

Edelweiss Village Café

Today was a good day for us to begin our food blogging fun although we acknowledge that this post isn't too allergy-related.  We were able to have lunch together (a rarity these days) and after watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last week when a German restaurant was featured, the husband suggested that we return to Edelweiss Village Café for our lunch date this week.  We have eaten there before although not as frequently as the husband would like, hence the not-so-subtle suggestion.

One thing that the wife has learnt since marrying someone of an Eastern European background is that the cuisine from that part of the world typically does not highlight seafood, which was confirmed when we looked at Edelweiss' online menu.  As allergy sufferers, we really appreciate online menus so that we can at least determine whether we can eat at the restaurant or not.  While this menu didn't list the ingredients of their food, the only seafood we saw on there were the clam chowder soup and the North Sea fish cake, neither of which seemed prominent when we arrived for lunch.

This was a relief especially in dining at places that offer ready-to-serve food where cross-contamination is very possible (such as when the same serving utensils are used for different foods or different foods are prepared on the same work surface).  Thankfully, the warm foods that were placed together were items such as perogies, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and bratwursts - foods we didn't need to worry about and enjoy anyway.  The fish cakes might have been in the same vicinity but it was not touching the other foods; hurrah!  The only suggestion we have might be that each food has its own serving utensil but this would be minor compared to other things we've faced.

In the end, we both decided to have the Schnitzel plate (husband-pork, wife-chicken) and it was delicious (and filling as you can see below)!  We're grateful that German food is usually a good option for seafood-free eating and that for once, we don't need to draw attention to our "special" needs.  That, and how can you go wrong with red cabbage, German potato salad, and schnitzel?

The wife's chicken schnitzel plate - and yes, she did share.

Seafood-free friendliness: Very!