Duchess Bake Shop - Incredible Baked Goods (Edmonton 30 in 30)

As I write this post, I am again reminded of how astounding a meal I just had. There are few restaurants that can, colloquially, live up to the often lofty expectations set out by the community and food scene. I have been hearing about the wonder that is The Duchess Bake Shop for many years with my friends and family members raving about the astounding desserts and baked goods available. What initially piqued my interest has become a firestorm of excitement as each positive review, post and conversation about the little bake shop on 124th popped up. Surely I had to see what the fuss was about and so on a Sunday morning I gathered a group of old friends to what would become one of the best meals of my life.

Located on 124th Street and 107th Avenue, the Duchess Bake Shop is an imposing and attractive figure featuring a large banner that is both confident and welcoming. Clearly the community has noticed too, with a large line snacking its way from the door even before opening and the entire bake shop's plentiful seating filled to the brim within minutes of opening.

Like most bakeshops, The Duchess recruits your visual senses and throws them into overdrive with their assortment of baked goods and desserts. Handsomely presented and displayed, the de facto menu consists of a number of classics (like The Duke or The Duchess Cakes), a rotating lineup of macaron cakes, a ever-changing list of seasonal macarons and baked goods. On top of these, the bakeshop also offers lunch and offers a monthly quiche, tartine (open faced sandwich), patard (sandwich) and soup.

Starting off, the Brioche Pepin was divine. Buttery brioche dough envelop a vanilla white chocolate pastry cream to create a perfect contrast of sweet and savoury. The hint of vanilla is the key here as it adds both a complimentary flavour and aroma to the entire dish.

Cheddar Pepper Scone was delightfully flaky and had a nice combination of sharp cheddar and crunchy black pepper. Importantly, the scone was perfectly cooked, flaky but not doughy and became the vehicle onto which the cheese and pepper worked. Make sure to add in a wedge of salty margarine to complete the entire dish.

Wanting to try a bunch of items I split a Meat Tartine with Parsnip Puree Lunch Combination with one of my dining companions. While one expects their baked goods to be excellent, my squeal of delight from the incredible tartine was hard to miss. Slightly tart from the cider marinated chicken, slightly sweet from the sun dried tomato, slightly savoury from the bacon and slightly sour from the grainy dijon mustard all combine to a unison of umami. Not to be outdone, the parsnip puree was also delightful with a slight crunch from the roasted hazelnuts working to contrast the warm and creamy soup.

The Vegetable Quiche was incredibly rich and one of the creamiest versions I have tasted. The custard like interior surprisingly took on a creamy buttery consistency that was contrasted by the slight bitterness of broccoli and sharp saltiness of the cheddar. Luxurious and decadent indeed.

Their Meat (Turkey) Patard was the most standard of the dishes we had with turkey breast and provolone adorning the interiors of the crusty bread. In truth, the bread, akin to a baguette, is the key to the dish with its crispy exterior but pillow soft interiors that magnificently holds all the ingredients inside. Compared to the previous dishes this patard, although solidly tasty, lacked any exciting or extra-ordinary factor.

In my research of this dish, I learnt that the Paris-Brest hails from the 1890s. The two layers of pastry house an praline (a sugar candy from nut) mousseline (a variant of Hollandaise made with whipped cream) and finished with candied hazelnuts. The chefs do a wonderful job in making a smooth mousseline while still keeping the flavour and slight texture of the candied nuts, which in turns works well to contrast the slight crisp pastry halves.

Sour Cream Cherry Pie was tasty but simply average. The pie had a excellent filling featuring whole and reduced cherries to create both a tart and sweet interior. Frankly, we were a bit underwhelmed by the hard and extremely flaky crust that seemed a bit overdone which resulted in us having to bounce between mouthfuls of tasteless crust and savoury cherry.

The Duke Cake is beyond superlative. The cake is dense with an immense but not overwhelming chocolate core with a dark chocolate ganache. The addition of salted caramel was a welcomed one that worked to add a flavour contrast to the sweet and chocolatey core. Beautifully presented, incredibly tasty and splendidly priced, this was an instant crowdpleaser.

The Duchess Bake Shop deserves all the accolades that it has amassed. Serving exceptional desserts and baked goods, Duchess has cemented itself as the de facto champion of Edmonton bakeshops. While normally this would be enough for most bakeries, The Duchess also creates delicious savoury lunch options on top of these dessert choices, adding further to its mythos. The truth is, The Duchess Bake Shop is incredible and no amount of superlatives can accurate describe them. Do yourself a favour and just go.

Numchok Wilai - Fantastic Thai (Edmonton 30 in 30)

There are some restaurants talked about so much that you feel the need to try it. When Avenue Magazine came out with their Top Restaurants of 2015, a quick perusal to the Thai section mentions Numchok Wilai as one of their top picks. Having never heard of it before, my interest, while piqued, was never sold enough to try it. That is until numerous other residents and colleagues mentioned it as well, raving about the authentic Thai food featured there. Indeed on a free lunch, having missed the boat already, I had to try Numchok Wilai.

The restaurant is located on 124th street at 106th avenue. The small eatery has a large red sign with handsome lettering inviting would be diners forward. I loved the accent of the watercolor-esque painting on the exterior windows, giving passers-by a conversation topic and intrigue to check out. The interiors are similarly picturesque with large paintings of Thai landscapes adorning the tables.

The lunch menu features set meals which offer their more popular curries and stir fries with rice and a few small appetizers for a reasonable price. The dinner menu is as you would expect with a large variety of Thai cuisine including curries, noodle dishes, rice dishes and stir fries.

Lunch starters include Lemongrass Soup and Veggie Spring Rolls. As advertised, the lemongrass soup had a lemony flavour to it and features a few slices of mushroom. The vegetable springs rolls were your average run of the mill fried variety and were served with a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce.

Wonderfully sweet and creamy this Green Curry Chicken might be one of the best I have ever eaten! The flavour base is coconut which delivers a thick creamy and sweet envelop that hugs the vegetables and thick slices of chicken. The bamboo gives a slightly tender crisp texture while adding more sweetness while the green peppers accentuate the dish with freshness and colour. Excellent balance of flavours.

Knowing that I must try their signature dish, the Pad Thai was similarly delicious. These thick tender rice noodles are dazzlingly tasty in the tomato based broth and accentuated with silky egg, large shrimp and succulent chicken. Adding in the peanut topping gives a textural crisp component to complete the dish. Umami indeed.

Numchok Wilai deserves its award in Avenue Magazine as one of the best Thai restaurants in Edmonton. Pairing authentic ingredients with luxurious sauces at reasonable prices, Numchok Wilai should be a go to for anyone interested in Thai food in Edmonton.

North 53 - Exquisite Shareables (Edmonton 30 in 30)

When they first opened their doors, North 53 took the Edmonton food scene by storm. Instead of creating another eatery, the owners and chefs took a venerable risk by crafting a restaurant based on a extravagant and ever changing tasting menu. Hoping to cash in on the economic boom of Edmonton (and Alberta), North 53 initially did quite well and began changing the food scene of Edmonton from meat and potato loving to fine dining folk. Well, fast forward nine months and how it has changed. While the restaurant still remains I am told the original chef moved on to different pastures. The restaurant then moved to the hands of a new chef, one who took the extravagance of the previous restaurant and toned it down for less adventurous folk, effectively opening the establishment up to a larger clientele.

The restaurant is located 124th street, a booming area of Edmonton. Benefiting from the new developments in the downtown core, 124th street is becoming a new age Whyte Avenue with plenty of young professionals, businesses and eateries taking up shop. The restaurant is on the corner of the aforementioned 124th street and 103rd avenue in a pretty two story brick building, of which the bottom floor has been retro-fitted to the restaurant. Arriving just after 9PM with a group of six, I was impressed by the number of patrons, mostly consisting of Millenials, wining and dining their way through the night. Indeed over the course of our two hour dinner, a constant stream of customers would flock through the doors to enjoy the loud thumping music and to sip one (or multiple) of their numerous cocktails.

While the restaurant itself has not changed, their menu is completely different. Gone is the tasting menu and what remains is a limited selection of snacks, small plates, two "large" plate options and desserts. Clearly pandering to the new age style of shareables, North 53 crafts these dishes with sharing in mind. What initially seems like a restrictive list of items actually shows plenty of range and variety, with simple starters like their crunchy salad to interesting small plates like an oxtail tart and large plates consisting of an entire roast chicken or a succulent hanger steak. Missing are the organs and raw exotic game meats of the previous North 53, yet what remains still amounts to an exciting menu that should satisfy most patrons.

We started with the incredibly tasty Popcorn Chicken. Each airy light ball are filled with succulent tender morsels of chicken breast and dusted with popcorn on the outside. A playfully named dish high on taste, these balls of goodness were lapped up quickly and whet the global appetites of everyone at the table.

We were pre-warned that many others table thought the Chicharron were polarizing. Completely the opposite for us, these Portuguese inspired pork rinds had a light crisp texture and were dusted with a hint of dried scallop and mussel flavour.  While these rinds were nicely prepared, the flavour profile simply was not as present as initially expected and was missing a coating or spice dusting to finish the dish.

The Carrot Salad combines lightly cooked carrots with goat cheese and pistachio. Handsomely presented, I was delighted by the firm texture of the gently cooked carrot and thought it went well with the smooth cheese and crunchy pistachio. The light flavours also allowed the inherent sweetness of the carrot come to the fore, which was accentuated by the aroma of and freshness of parsley.

A table favourite, the Clam & Scallop Fettuccine seems simple in concept but was masterfully prepared. Some on the table remarked the scallops were some of the most tender they have ever had, a strong statement for a restaurant in landlocked Edmonton. Indeed the combination of exquisitely tender scallop with the al dente pasta in a light white wine sauce elevate this dish above simple pasta into the spheres of fine dining.

I loved this Shrimp Chorizo. Playful, unique and utterly delicious, the "chorizo" is made up of ground shrimp meat which impart a soft sweet texture to the sausage. Pairing it with fried potatoes gives it a firm textural contrast while the ham broth gave the dish a rich sauce. Overall the exquisitely tender chorizo was the highlight of this dish and rank as one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten.

The description for the Beer Glazed Short Rib was enough to whet our appetites, and the dish itself did not disappoint. A large tender beef rib is cooked well to the point of fall-off-the-bone tenderness and topped with a sweet and slightly bitter glaze. The sinewy, fatty meat had a definitive beefy-ness to it which was accentuated well by the sauce. The addition of navy beans on the bottom was simply a starch add-on though and did little to contribute to the dish.

I was not expecting this when I order Pork Cabbage Rolls; even after being perwarned of LOTS of mushrooms did not do the dish justice. Nevertheless, the pork cabbage roll is smothered by a mushroom cream sauce, which was truly the main ingredient and star of the dish with the  rolls being a mere companion to the delicious sauce. Indeed, the combination of MANY mushrooms in a cream sauce, reminiscent of a straganoff, was a wonderful combination of sweet, salty and savoury.

Rutabaga & Oxtail Tart was intriguing as well with the seemingly random mix of ingredients. In actuality, the tart actually works! The base is a crunchy tart and filled, akin to a savoury pie, with a mixture of tender oxtail meat and delicate rutabaga. The addition of greens was thoughtful here as their freshness cuts through the gelatinous oxtail and slightly bitter rutabaga.

Deciding on which of the two mains to order was difficult but we landed on the Hanger Steak (22 oz). The large platter of pre-cut medium rare tender steak is paired with overseasoned mashed potatoes and silky smooth braised beets. Creating tender steak is part ingredient and part skill of the chef and North 53 has both. The steak, perfectly seasoned, was a phenomenal medium rare and melted in ones mouth.

Topping each portion of protein is a rosemary cream sauce, a rich and thick sauce with a strong aroma of rosemary, adds a savoury umami to each bite. Pity about the overseasoned mashed potatoes, otherwise this plate would have been perfection.

We forced room in our tummies for this elegant Cognac Ice Cream. Imparting a slight cognac flavour, this ice cream was the epitome of indulgence and had an addictive quality that quickly reeled the table in. Each bite of smooth cream is accentuated by the sweet and slight tartness of the raisin or the crisp crunch of biscuit into a rainstorm of flavours dancing in your mouth. Delicious.

Apple Tart was a bit pedestrian with a crunchy tart base, apple core and topped with vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, this ice cream seemed lackluster and simply average when compared to the previous cognac equivalent and while the tart was well prepared, there was nothing extraordinary in this dish to save it from the doldrums of mediocrity.

I had to laugh at the Blue D'Elizabeth, a playful dish consisting of a braised pear and a pear shaped wedge of blue cheese. Unsure of the reference to Elizabeth (Queen perhaps?), this dessert was more reminiscent of an appetizer with sweet and savoury pear and strong and aromatic cheese. One always has to be concerned about the potential of cheese overpowering a dish, and unfortunately the blue variant here was of such a quantity and offered such a distinctive flavour that it enveloped and cast aside the gentler pear.

It was not long after this meal before I started craving their food again (darn that popcorn chicken was good!). In truth, having been a frequent diner of the previous North 53, the new menu is improved, with a bevy of both safe and exciting elements that should appeal to anyone looking for quality cuisine. Located in a part of booming Edmonton, North 53 has everything that it needs to succeed: a beautiful building in a great location serving excellent high quality and, at times, imaginative food. Although it might not be the most refined of meals I have had, it remains as one of the more memorable and instantly ranks as one of my favourite establishments in Edmonton.