Some Calgary Hot Spots

On my recent travels to Calgary for my friend Barb's beta version of BlogCon, I went to a couple of other foodie places in addition to the sushi restaurant I mentioned here.

The first one was a Lebanese restaurant on Steven Avenue, right in the heart of downtown Cowtown. I haven't had any Lebanese food since I left Ottawa 5 years ago, and let me tell you, if I miss anything about that fracking city, it's Shawarma King - the Bank St. location. Holy crap was that place amazing. As my fellow bloggers were enjoying a WordFest event held on Steven Avenue, I went off to have a mall experience and walked by this falafel place called Falafel King. When we all met up again, peckish, we decided to go to Falafel King for lunch.

Awesomeness! Everyone but me had a falafel wrap; I had to have a chicken shawarma plate, which is what I always had at Shawarma King in Ottawa. Similar deal: shawarma chicken, pitas, rice pilaf, garlic sauce, hummus, and veggies. While not as completely awesome as the Ottawa eatery, this Calgary place was pretty damned good and it hit the spot. The guy who served us even gave me a bonus falafel, which was delicious. It was a huge plate of food, it was satisfying, and I left there a happy camper. We were even offered a sample of baklava for dessert, and it was fab! Great find; glad we went!

The other place of interest was Cookie Mama in Inglewood. Fellow BlogCon attendee, Sean, and I were looking for a cake place to purchase some cake for a belated birthday celebration for Barb. We eventually stumbled upon Cookie Mama after a fascinating trip to a second hand CD store in the same area. For specialty cakes, you need to give the bakers there about 48 hours notice, but they did have a wide selection of cupcakes to choose from, so we ordered a dozen of those. We chose flavours like Super Freak (lemon), Rocket Man (cookies & cream), Love Shack (chocolate & peppermint), Smooth Operator (red velvet), and Bohemian Rhapsody (ginger cupcake with cream cheese icing), amongst some others I cannot recall right now. They were excellent! Check out their menu on their web site, because if you are in Calgary, this is a good place to go if you want some really great cake action!