Over the years Mr NQN has had to get used to me. When we first started dating he used to say “Do you have to get so dressed up?”. He is a country boy after all and there were mutterings of overdressing and I suspect too much makeup (although he was smart enough not to comment on that). There was the singing in public, the fact that I liked biting him because I thought he seemed tasty, the way that I’d enjoy my food a bit too much, the odd food that I’d make and the other strange things that I did that embarrassed him. Until one day he actually said to me

“Oh I like the way you used to dress”

This was of course after I had dressed more casually to try and not embarrass him. I looked at him and I smiled. Did he actually like me being me? Did I no longer embarrass him? Success! I had indoctrinated him into my world and he seemed to like it there (and a good thing because I don’t like having to do things any way but my own). Now he is used to shopping adventures where we travel to buy a good free range ham. He is used to buying bottles of root beer and pouring them over said ham. He is used to me inviting people over for food (he is naturally very shy and inviting people over just would not occur to him).

And speaking of that ham, this Christmas we were seeing  our families as we planned a small family dinner combining my family with Mr NQN’s. His family were all over the place (their natural state of affairs being chaos), and trying to find a date that suited everyone meant that Christmas was going to be on December 26th. I had to point out that December 26th was no longer technically Christmas so I invited whoever could come over to our place on December 24th for dinner. Christmas Eve is when the Finnish celebrate Christmas and this is when my family celebrates Christmas because quite honestly my sister and I couldn’t wait another night to open our presents and our parents just relented and it became tradition.

Aura Lily

Well it turns out that all of the family members could make it on December 24th after all (I guess it was that annual tradition of herding cats preceding Festivus that the Elliotts seem to delight in!). And suddenly our small family celebration burst out to a table for thirteen…around our table that seats 8! But not to worry, we had plenty of food. My ham was a 5 kilo beast-modest enough and covered in a crunchy, moreish breadcrumb crust and then basted in a flavoursome root beer caramel. I had made this many years ago before the blog and before Mr NQN and was so besotted by it that I vowed to make it again when I had a lot of mouths to feed. The ham is easy enough to do and just requires a basting every 30 minutes and then a coating of a breadcrumb crust. It is then baked and basted to glistening perfection before being sliced up with some of the breadcrumb mixture and the sweet, fragrant caramelised syrup.

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My days in Edmonton were so jam packed with a wide variety of food and non food experiences that I thought the best way to show these to you was to give you a list of the 15 most fun experiences that I personally had there. And of course being that I take loads of photos and go into detail about things (just call me your talkative friend that will not shut up), it was not going to fit into one post so my list of 15 Fun Things to do in Edmonton, Canada will be broken up into four parts. Of course since we were there for only four days, there is a lot more that the city can offer but call this a little taste of Edmonton. So without further ado, here are some delightful things to do in the city of Edmonton, in no particular order!

Eat at Sabor Divino

A popular place for dinner the elegant Sabor Divino serves modern European style food and is located in the centre of Downtown Edmonton. The restaurant is chic but not stuffy as we soon learn that Edmonton people are not the formal, stuffy kind but more down to earth. For our dinner here, everything comes out on share plates as we get a taste of their menu. The restaurant is known for its seafood and this, amongst beef loving Albertans, is a point of difference.

Purple rain cocktail

Ok yes I ordered this because I love Prince and the name Purple Rain reeled me in. But it’s a delicious cocktail and well worth a try!

Salt cod cakes

The salt cod cakes are light and crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside and are served with a spicy mayonnaise which we all adore as chilli lovers.

Charcuterie plate

There is a plentiful selection of cured meats including salami, prosciutto, pepper salami, a pastrami like cured meat, camembert, brie, gouda as well as cherry tomatoes with baby bocconcini and olives. This plate disappears fast as the selection is fresh and delicious.

Italian sausages

The Italian sausages look and taste just like chorizo with a firm, spicy bite to them and a rich, delectable red wine and fresh tomato sauce.

Prawns Cataplane

One of my favourite dishes of the evening the large shelled prawns was superbly cooked with a perfect texture to them highlighted with olive oil, garlic and wine.My kingdom for an endless plate of these!

Sauteed calamari

The sauteed calamari comes as cylinders of curled calamari, quite tender although there is a slight chewiness to them. There are tiny specks of chorizo to give it spice and flavour and the calamari sits on a bed of pureed white bean, coriander (cilantro) and lemon.

Fresh Salmon Meditterraneo

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“So anyway, I was wearing what I call my adventure pants” my friend Ute leans over and tells me.

“Adventure pants?” I ask.

“They’re cream linen pants. I don’t really care what happens to them so they’re my adventure pants.

I’m sitting at the bar of Neild Avenue at 6:15pm one Friday night. I was running late trying to find a park that lasted for longer than two hours (no luck) and Ute had arrived at 6pm when Neild Avenue opens. It is the latest eatery from Icebergs and North Bondi Italian’s Maurice Terzini and it is apparently the restaurant that everyone wants to be seen at. And from the long, tanned limbs and short dresses and long beach tousled hair, it looks like there are some lissome imports from Bondi here. Despite the fact that Ute was there at 6pm, that wasn’t enough to secure a table (there are no bookings here) and when I got there, there was only room at the bar. On a wobbly bar stool (best not attempted in heels).

The menu is shown to us (a stapled sheaf of pages) and a lovely young waitress from New Zealand takes our order. We ask her for recommendations on what seems to be an extensive menu. Each page is marked with a “No alterations to the menu” and we note that there are some very reasonably priced wines by the glass. There are a range of Mediterranean cultures represented from Turkish, Lebanese, Italian and Greek with sections broken down into small starters; grains, pulses & vegetables; ancient soups; more substantial starters and then a range of items from the coal grill and spit. We dither over the menu but then Ute utters the words that remind me of why I love dining with her. “Let’s order some things and I’m happy to start all over again if that isn’t enough and order more”. Music to my ears!

Complimentary bread

I look around. Open for just four weeks there seem to be people on every possible perching spot. I spot some television celebrities too. “It’s all very New York” Ute says surveying the room and it has that warehousy sort of vibe to it. The main dining area has high partitions and at the back is the kitchen where there are displays of meats, pastries and salads as you would see in a regular Turkish restaurant. The bread is an Afghan bread (Mr NQN’s favourite bread-he eats it by the yard) which is thin and slightly spongey. Here it is given the char treatment and served warm and smokey.

The kitchen with kebabs and breads in the window

Baked eggplant $17

Our starter is the baked eggplant covered with 12 hour cooked pork mince ragu and then topped with a white sauce of kasseri (Greek cheese) and pecorino cheese. It’s covered in a spray of parsley which helps give it freshness and the eggplant is soft and rich with the pork mince ragu and melted cheese topping although I don’t know if you say that it is particularly revelatory and I was hoping for one of those fall apart meat ragus rather than a mince one.

Fake Tabouli salad $12

There’s a large break between the eggplant and mains. One long enough where two people like us that can’t stop chatting actually notice that we haven’t had food for a while. The fake tabouli salad arrives and it is a moist salad made up of amaranth grain, tomato, cucumber flavoured with fresh coriander, parsley, lemon and a generous sprinkling of fried eschallots. On top of this is dolloped some hung yogurt which at first looks like hummus but has that unmistakeable yogurt tang. It’s wonderfully fresh and if this is what fake tabouli is, then I’m happy to have the fake.

Coal grilled leather jackets on the bone $35

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