What to Eat in Edmonton

LOX & EGG SANDWICH Rosewood Foods $11 | 10150 100 Street NW | www.rosewoodfoods.com

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WORDS BY JOE GURBA

There aren’t enough pages in this magazine to highlight all the killer meals being whipped up in Edmonton’s best restaurants. Here’s a short list of three dishes you do not want to miss this month. They hail from tireless chefs who’ve beaten back the worst of our pandemic blues with stunning and satisfying recipes for the hungry and discerning.

Rosewood has given the downtown breakfast and lunch crowd a reason to rejoice. Husband and wife industry vets, Jesse & Angela Gado, have combined their pedigrees at classic Edmonton joints like Leva, Corso 32, Lockstock, MRKT, and Under the High Wheel to create this institution-in-the-making. Not only is Rosewood’s execution fast and their prices immensely reasonable, but their dishes are out of this world. Their Lox & Egg Sandwich is a case in point, a marriage of skilled technique and excellent ingredients that creates a meal that stands proud in its simplicity.

The day before you arrive, they’ve already shaved down enough steelhead trout for tomorrow, curing it overnight in a pastrami inspired dry rub. The next morning they’re up early, baking a divine milk bun that’s so fluffy and sumptuous you could eat it on its own, but when sliced asunder and flash-toasted, this chewy crunch is created. That perfectly caramelized gluten. Sweet, sweet gluten. Poor, poor celiacs.

When you finally arrive for your sandwich, that’s when they start soft-scrambling some proper eggs (fluorescently orange yolked eggs!), folded layer by layer until, at the last moment, like an angel tapped them on the shoulder, they fold in some sweet caramelized onions they’ve had going the whole time. Then, to make your mom proud, they top the lox and eggs with kale tossed in an anchovy and mustard vinaigrette. And that’s it. The result is nourishing, delicious, and sure to become an Edmonton classic in its own rite.