Flavourful Saskatoon May 9, 2011

Foodie news and events in and around Saskatoon – White Birch Catering, Melipal wine, cupcakes and cake balls, Korean BBQ

White Birch Catering
White Birch Catering, Saskatoon’s latest special events catering company, is under the direction of Chef Moe Mathieu and his wife Reola.

Moe is a champion of local foods and was formerly part owner of The Willow on Wascana and Beer Brothers in Regina. Reola is the mastermind who coordinates all the logistics and administrative details of their events. They are joined by Lindsay Adams, a Professional Cooking Apprentice.

In addition to catering, White Birch hosts a monthly dinner club. The most recent was held in a flower shop and upcoming dinner themes include Mushrooms, Mushrooms and More Mushrooms in June and an Orchard Dinner in July. I attended a dinner with a beer theme last year and thoroughly enjoyed it (here's my article).

Top of the Hops – Grapes and Grains
– May 26-28, 2011
Top of the Hops will be held at Prairieland Park from 6:30 to 10:30 pm on May 26, 27 and 28. Tickets are $22.50, and there will be over 200 wines, spirits and beers to sample – from Kung Fu Girl Reisling, to Chase English Potato Vodka and Beyerskloof Diesel Pinotage, to Dead Frog Nut Brown Ale and Cracked Canoe Premium Beer. Gotta love the names – I haven’t got a clue what any of them taste like!
Luis Manino, Bodega Melipal
The POW City Kinsmen Charity Winemaker Dinner will be held on the Saturday night and will feature local foods paired with great wines from Bodega Melipal in Argentina.

Proceeds will go to Farm in the Dell, a non-profit organization providing residential and vocational opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities in a rural farm-like setting.

Luis Manino, Export Manager for Bodega Melipal, will be at the dinner to introduce his company’s wines. I met Luis last year when he was in Saskatoon for Premier Saskatchewan (here's my article). He’s a delightful advocate for Argentina and Melipal wines, and I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to explore several different wines from the same winery.

Sweet Trends –
     Cupcakes, Cake Balls and Pie on a Stick
Crave Cookies and Cupcakes
I’m always intrigued to see how food trends wax and wane. I would have thought that cupcakes were a dying craze but apparently not as Crave Cookies and Cupcakes will be opening shortly at 802A Broadway Avenue (across from Bulk Cheese Warehouse).

I’m not a huge fan of cupcakes so I was interested to learn that they also sell cookies. Double chocolate pistachio sounds very good. There are also oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, ginger snaps and more.

Crave is an Alberta company started by two sisters who grew up on a farm just outside of High River. They bake from scratch using real eggs and butter – excellent!

Sphere-Licious, The Chocolate Cake Ball Company
A local variation on cupcakes is cake balls – homemade cake blended with homemade icing and dipped in a rich chocolate coating - from Sphere-Licious, The Chocolate Cake Ball Company.

My friend Karen says they’re “yum” and I trust her judgment on all things chocolate. There are a wide variety of flavours from chocolate and toffee to lemon, pina colada and chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

Check out their website or visit their kiosk at The Centre Mall during mall hours on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until June 30.

There’s also an interesting article in The StarPhoenix on how Celeste Bodnaryk started her business.

Pie on a Stick
I don’t think that anyone in Saskatoon is selling pie on a stick, but this seems to be an emerging trend and is sure to be of interest to the many pie lovers out there. They are available from the Sugar Pie Bakery at Calgary’s Kingsland Market (via Only Here for the Food).

Or you can make your own – here’s a lovely visual recipe and photo from Luxirare.

Sura Korean BBQ
Sweetsugarbean has a very helpful review of one of Saskatoon’s newest restaurants – Sura Korean BBQ at 1517 11th Street West. Sounds like the meal was a hit – a bit too heavily meat oriented to interest me, but I’m sure that carnivores will love the table grills where you can barbecue your own meat.

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. Email me if you have products, events or places that you would like me to include.

Flavourful Saskatoon May 2, 2011

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