You gotta eat this stuff up

There's a main course of culture being served up in the Lac La Biche region this week. Ten area restaurants have created special cultural dishes to help the region celebrate Alberta Culture Days from Sept. 25-27.
Check out the POST this week for a complete schedule and details of all the Culture Week activities taking place in the community, plus the mouth-watering selections from 10 local restaurants. What are they serving up... and why should you give 'em a try? Korean barbecue? Tasty stew? Mediterranean delicacies? Tasty and sweet Greek desserts? C'mon, our restaurants are bringing culture right to your taste buds.
For starters, that new little coffee shop across from Scotiabank isn't offering a coffee special for Alberta Culture Days.
Instead, the talented folks at Eats & Sweets have found a way to capture caramel heaven, fluff it up into a creamy, sweet liquid and pour it into a cup. It's called a Caramel Machiato Coffee. Wow.

"How do you like it," my pleasant server asked me as she handed me this week's Eat's & Sweets Culture Days special.
"It's tasty. Yep. It's nice," I said ... on the outside, the words apparently coming out of my lips, although I couldn't hear them over the screaming in my brain of "Drink More! Drink More!"
Not wanting to let the busy lunchtime crowd bare witness to my tears of joy and pleasure ... I said my goodbyes, complimented them on their service and hurried outside.
"This coffee is soooooooooooooo GOOD!" I said a little too loudly, causing an older lady to shuffle a little further away from me on the sidewalk.

It doesn't get much better than this coffee, I thought, as I went to Bill's Burger Baron to drop off the special placemats the POST printed for the 10 restaurants taking part in the Culture Days food event.
The Baron himself, Bill Abougoush, came over and took some time away from his busy lunch-rush kitchen to tell me about his Chicken Shawarma, Mediterranean Satoosh Salad & Hummus special. I wasn't feeling Shawarma-ish, but I was intrigued by the salad.More so, the word Satooosh. I'm not a big salad guy (for the record, I AM a big guy, and that's probably because I don't eat a lot of salads) I took the container full of leafy goodness and figured I'd go and sit by the lake, re-introduce myself to some vegetables and roughage ... and finish my delicious cup of caramel wonder.
I opened the container and drizzled on the light vinaigrette dressing and shuffled my fork through the crisp veggies and green leafs. Sitting in my vehicle with the windows down, I noticed the first of the seagulls float down on the wind and perch alongside my car. I figured he must know I'm not a salad guy either. I will apologize now to Bill ... and the seagull. I practically licked the container clean. My first bite and I was swept away by the tastes ... lemon, vinegar, crisp veggies ... is that a trace of sage? The lake's blue-green murkiness, the residual of a summer of algae was now glimmering like the blue green azure of a Mediterranean bay. My little seagull friend (and the four that had joined him were now tropic birds of paradise - flamingos, toucans, macaws ... the faint drone of the regular and annoying lunchtime CN train through town became the dull throb of the waves crashing against large rocks at the entrance to my remote Mediterranean cove. Even the port-a-potty, the yellow one that's partially hidden, but by no means invisible that sits under the autumn yellow leaves of a McArthur Park tree - it was transformed as well. Although admittedly, it's hard for any food, no matter how amazing, to turn an outdoor biffy into anything exotic, but with a few more bites, I actually started to think of it as a cabana, nestled within a grove of ocean-side mango trees.

My Mediterranean lunch was a feast for the senses. They say you are what you eat .. and for the short 10 minutes it took me to inhale every morsel, I was everything Mediterranean. You really have to try it. I'll be going back for more.

As full as I was, however, my day's lunchtime dining experience had one more pleasant surprise. The Penalty Box at the Bold Center is serving up Beef Stew and Bannock for its Culture Day special.
Hearty. That's a word. Super-friggin-hearty is a better one. There were some chunks of delicious, tender beef that were bigger than my spoon! The broth-slash-gravy-soup'- that housed the beef, carrots, peas and delicious flavours was like someone had taken me out of Mediterranean beach and plonked me down in front of a body-warming fireplace inside a cozy cabin as a winter storm swirled outside.
As I sat in the Bold Center parking lot, shoveling spoon after spoon into my demanding mouth, one of the Penalty Box staffers came out of building.
"It's good, right?" she said, before taking a quick, but noticeable double-take as I looked up, a little wild-eyed, the spoon clutched in my hand.
"I feel like I want to go hunting in the winter, or go check trap lines in minus-40. This is sooooooo good," I said.
With just a few more spoonfuls to go, I tried to slow down and savour the stew. I tried to feel the textures of the bannock as I wiped it around the remains of the bowl. It was hard not to tip the bowl up and drink the last few drops. Delicious.

I hit the trifecta of foods on Wednesday afternoon - and I found them all in our great community. I fully realize this little review might seem waaaaaaaaaay over the top, and you might be thinking that I'm exaggerating ... but I'd disagree. I was, and am, truly blown away by the choices and service in our little town. Sure, there are days when a dining experience might not be all that it should be. But that's life. There's probably a few days when even your closest friends or family don't really like something you've done. But overall, this place has some real treats. Call them diamonds in the rough, call them our little secrets, but please ... just call them. From my first taste-test of these specialty items, I went from a sunny warm beach to a cold winter's forest, all with a beautiful caramel aftertaste. Where will our cultural food choices take you? Try all 10 of the participating restaurants; Eats & Sweetsw, Bill's Burger Baron, The Penalty Box, The Almac, the Lac La Biche Inn, LaBones, Homemade Delights, Tom's Steak & Pizza, the 881 Grill, Portage Collge. Not only will the staff and management at these locally-owned places thank you, but so will your taste buds. Your bellies will never knew culture tasted so good.

The Alberta Culture Days food event taking part at participating local restaurants is hosted by the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce and has been promoted by The Lac La Biche POST www.laclabichepost.com and Big Dog 103.5.

As a Nova Scotian living in Alberta, there are very few things here that truly remind me of home, but the Culture Days special donair from the 881 Grill had my taste buds paddling dories and singing sea shanties.

Now, I can’ t say that the 881 donair is better than what I can get at home, lest my Maritime membership card be revoked, but what I can say is that their donair had all of the characteristics of what makes a great mystery-meat wrap. The meat was spicy, sliced thin enough to bend but thick enough to have some weight to it, and was glistening with just the right amount of translucent orange grease any donair-lover has come to expect.

It had an appropriate amount of lettuce and onions, which is to say it wasn’ t overloaded with either - you can’ t have the rabbit food getting in the way of that spicy, spicy meat. One thing that was definitely different than back home was the substitution of mushrooms for tomatoes - I’ m still trying to figure out how I feel about that, but it did go rather well with the donair sauce (or as you all insist on calling it here, sweet sauce), I garnished the wrap with.

All in all, it was a pretty great effort by the folks over at 881 Grill - I give this donair seven mournful bagpipe solos out of 10.

The Culture Days specials will go this week until Sept. 27. Oh, and I forgot to mention. There's another incentive apart from the great grub. Anyone who tries one of the advertised specials will be entered into a draw for a mitt-ful of gift certificates from the participating restaurants. The draw boxes are in each restaurant.
Check the restaurant ads in this week's newspaper. Your stomach will thank you ... and so do we.