LOCAVORE
Vol. 1 Issue 1
January - February 2018
Dive Deep Into The Local Cuisine
RISE AND GRIND
SEATTLE’S BEST
THE GOLDEN TICKET
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPS
THE ROASTERY EXPERIENCE
MCGUIRE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
THE BEST BRUNCH SPOTS
Locavore Volume 1 | Issue 1| January - February 2018
LOCAVORE IS A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF FOOD AND WRITING THAT SHOWCASES THE THRIVING FOOD SCENE IN CALGARY. IT’S MADE BY THE LOCALS AND FOR THE LOCALS.
Publisher of Locavore Magazine Lea Luciano Founder & Editor-in-chief Lea Luciano Associate Editor Lea Luciano Copy Editor Lea Luciano Art Director Lea Luciano Photographer Lea Luciano
Café Elio Roasting quality Italian beans Since 1983
Layout and Design Lea Luciano Director of Sales Lea Luciano Operations Manager Lea Luciano Brand and Marketing Lea Luciano Contact us at media@locavoremag.com Printed at Calgary, Alberta, T2V 2H8 For subscriptions visit us at locavoremag.com/subscribe Locavore magazine does not accept any unsolicited submission of artworks, manuscripts, and illustration.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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WORTH THE ‘GRAM A quick guide to Calgary’s popular coffee spots HOMETOWN GLORY Mcguire Chocolates
LEA EATS THAT Anatomy of a breakfast silog
IN THE KITCHEN Easy, peasy breakfast recipes
FOODSCAPE Seattle, USA
WHERE WOULD THE LOCALS GO Brunch spots in the city
THE PERFECT BREW How to brew the perfect cup of coffee: Vietnamese Style
FROM BEANS TO BREW How coffee came to be
WORTH THE GRAM:
A millenial's guide to the trendiest coffee spots around Calgary WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEA LUCIANO
Rosso Coffee Roasters Neighbourhood: : Tuxedo | 2102 Centre St. M to S: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Can I afford this place? If you have more than $10 in your bank account, sure. Instagram factor: 4 out of 5. Go get those likes, hun.
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What to try: Iced Americano & Chai Latte (Add a shot of espresso on your chai for that extra punch)
f there is anything that Rosso gets right, it’s their Chai Latte. I remember trying out Rosso for the first time a couple years ago. I ordered an iced chai on a sunny afternoon, and it gave me that summertime nostalgia feels that I never thought I needed. Apparently, I do now. I was never a fan of their coffee. I find it too acidic for my liking, sometimes it even tastes like water to me. But then again, I am a darkroast kind of girl, and I grew up drinking kapeng barako every morning.
Rosso has taken over the coffee scene in Calgary. Last year, it was awarded the ATB Small Business of the Year (2017). Rosso is one of the most popular local coffee places in the city. This location in Tuxedo is their latest addition to their growing company. The interior is a mixture of midcentury modern meets hipster plant lover. It is conveniently close to SAIT, so it’s a huge plus for students who want a place to hang out or do their homework during breaks and get some work done.
Alforno Bakery & Café Neighbourhood: Eau Claire | 222 7th St. SW M to F: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday: 8 a.m. to p.m. Sunday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Can I afford this place? I see dollar signs everywhere. Only go here after pay day Instagram-worthy: 5 out of 5. The decor is to die for and it’s the perfect backdrop for those #treatyoself posts.
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have been following Alforno’s Instagram for over a year now, and I finally had the chance to go here. Oh boy, it did not disappoint.
Alforno Bakery & Café is a hybrid of a coffee shop and a restaurant, a rare combination, but oddly enough it worked out. It’s the perfect place to take your visiting friend or family from out of town. With a mixture of marble counter-tops and wooden panels, your guest will surely be impressed with the chic décor of the place. On the second floor, you can find two comfy couches and a fireplace in the middle.
And I am telling you, that couch is the comfiest couch I’ve ever sat on. Alforno is tucked away at the corner of 7th Street and 8th Ave. SW. A hidden gem in the middle of the bustling city. It’s a great place to go to unwind after a long day of work or school. They also have a nice patio are opened during the warmer months. It’s also a good place to have brunch after a night of pure drinking to cure the hangover. On Sundays, they have $6 mimosas, and I have yet to try that.
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What to try: All of their pastries A nice cup of cappucino
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Weeds Café Neighbourhood: Capitol Hill | 1903 20 Ave NW M to F: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Weekends: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Can I afford this place? Honestly, it’s overpriced. You can do better. Instagram-worthy: It’s a 2 out of 5 because of the cool art aesthetic.
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What to try: Their daily coffee specials
eeds Café’ is pretty close to SAIT, and I thought to myself, this would be cool for students to hang-out. I went inside and the employees were like zombies. They were speaking in monotonous voice and they looked like they’d rather be somewhere else. Needless to say, it felt awkward. They serve breakfast and pastries among other things. Their coffee is not worth the price I paid for. Trust me. And the bagel? Nope. It was dry as dust. It tasted like it was freezer burned and then reheated. I should’ve gone to Timmies, but no, I have to do my job. To try out as
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many coffee shops as I can. I have never been disappointed with a coffee shop before, but this one takes the whole cake. If this is your vibe, then go for it. This place is perfect for aspiring writers or artist out there. It’s decorated with artworks from local artists and they play good music. They also have a nice patio, so that’s a plus during the summer. It was surprisingly full when we got there. I assume it’s a neighbourhood hangout place where they meet-up with friends after a long work week.
MCGUIRE CHOCOLAte From Beans to Bar TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEA LUCIANO
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e all know that chocolate is a word that is synonymous with a sweet snack.
“It’s so common to just think that chocolate is chocolate and it all tastes the same,” says Mark Mcguire, owner of Mcguire Chocolate – a homegrown craft chocolate business here in Calgary that he runs with fiancé, Victoria Myers. Mark developed an interest in chocolate making when he found cacao beans while backpacking through Central America. He brought some back to Canada. He then started to experiment with different methods to turn the beans into chocolate bars.
On the other hand, Victoria got into the craft of making chocolates because of Mark. “He eased me into it a little bit,” Victoria shares. She remembered during their first date that Mark brought her a chocolate bar and she told him that it was bitter. It took him three attempts before he finally convinced Victoria. “She took to it very well,” says Mark. “It takes a certain aptitude to see it all through. Victoria is very good at tasting the raw bean, and then deciding how to roast it because that’s the most important part of what we do.”
Mark and Victoria have turned their basem years, their business has grown exponentiall the time and care they p
ment into their chocolate factory. For the past two ly. What makes craft chocolate makers different is put into making their products.
“It was really nice because it shows that she could do it, and would want to do it, and would be good at it.” “It helped that he popped my tires,” Victoria jokes. After months of trying to learn and understand the basics of chocolate making, they partnered-up and made the chocolate business a reality. There are only two ingredients in their chocolate bars: fermented cacao beans and organic cane sugar. They source their beans from the farms of Central and South America, Africa, as well as parts of Asia. “It’s pretty rare to have really high-quality beans,” says Mark. “We try to bring in as many as possible so that we can have a good variety [that people can taste].” Chocolates are made out of cacao beans and each bean has its own flavour. It varies from region to region – from fruity to floral, to nutty, earthy, and rich. The process of turning raw cacao beans into chocolate is a complex process. It’s very tedious and time-consuming. Mark went to a school to learn more about it. Later on, he purchased his own equipment and set it up in his basement where made his first batch. “To turn [the beans] into liquid is ridiculously hard, you can’t just melt it,” he says. “You have to put the fats under pressure to activate them and turn them into liquid. So I was just kind of playing around for a few months.” They first assess how they want to roast their beans. By roasting the cacao beans, you can
easily peel them afterward. They use a small coffee roaster that evenly distributes the heat among the beans. “We like to sample the beans as they were roasting,” he says. The roasted beans are separated from their shells by hand or by using a winnower, a machine that uses air pressure to suck out the shells from the nibs. “I hand peeled the first two batches and it took 13 hours,” says Mark. They are currently using a winnower to make the separation process faster. When using a machine, you have to tinker with each batch and hone it. After that process is done, you are left with the nibs. A melanger is used to process the nibs and turn them into chocolate liquid. It has granite wheels and a granite base that help smoothen the liquid. Cane sugar is added during the grinding process so it can integrate better with the chocolate. The machine spins for 24 hours a day, and during that time, it produces heat that helps oxidize the mixture which allows flavour into the chocolate. The whole process takes three to five days. The longer the machine goes, the milder the flavour you get. “You want an intense chocolate, but you want it to be intense in the right way. Not too aggressive or offensive on the taste buds,” explains Mark. “Once we have them all ground up and ready to be turned into chocolate, we clean them out and put it on our melter.” Chocolate has to be at the right temperature before molding it into bars. To do this, the chocolate has to be put in temper. Tempering is the
Chocolates are made out of cacao beans and each bean has its own flavour. It varies from region to region – from fruity to floral, to nutty, earthy, and rich. Opposite page: The quality of the beans is really important when it comes to chocolate making. Mark and Victoria inspect every batch intensely. Victoria shows me how the nibs look like after it goes through the winnower. She checks it one last time to make sure all the shells are separated from the nibs before it goes to the melter. This page: A wooden map that shows all the countries where they get their cacao beans from.
process of making the smooth, even texture of the chocolate.
stirred, or else the temperature won’t be evenly distributed.
It goes through a four-hour heat cycle and once it reaches the desired lucid state, it gets agitated against a cool marble slab. This method creates friction with the fat and it evenly suspends the other half of the chocolate.
“That means shorter shelf life. It doesn’t affect the flavour, but it affects the mouthfeel. It tastes grainier if it’s not in temper.”
Cacao bean itself is 50 per cent fat, so those fat particles have six phases that they can be in. While it is being heated, it has to be constantly
Most chocolate bars contain ingredients that help dissolve fat quicker such soy lecithin. They also add cocoa butter and other fats so they don’t have to temper it.
Tempering process is essential because it’s what makes chocolate, well, chocolate. It’s the reason why it’s shiny, and it gives off that ‘snap’ when you bite into it. Once the chocolate reaches 31 °C, it is put against a cold surface to agitate its fats. The procedure only lasts a couple of seconds. The agitated chocolate is then put into molds to be cooled immediately so it sets right. They would typically do 40 bars that include samples and minibars.
“Major manufacturers do this because it’s far more economical, but it takes away the flavour and the experience of the real chocolate.” The time and the care that Mark & Victoria put into creating each batch of chocolate makes them stand-out from the typical store-bought bars. “If we wanted to just rush through this process, add different oils, not do everything, we can make a batch of chocolates in a day,” relays Mark. It takes them one week to make a batch of chocolate. That includes 20 hours of hands-on manual labour, machines running for days, and making sure that each bar is perfect for the customer. “That’s why when you buy a Kit Kat bar it’s $1, but when you buy a craft chocolate bar it’s $10.” They have made over 40 different kinds of chocolate bars in the past two years. Right now, there are 9 bars available on their website. Mark and Victoria are very much involved in every step of making their products, from designing their labels to molding the bars and then packaging them afterward while juggling their full-time jobs on the weekdays. After being in the business for two years, they continue to improve and try out different methods to make their products even better. Their goal is to develop a loyal clientele and get their products out on the market. “We want to have the demand for the chocolate driving the plans for expansion.”
Right now, they are developing a relationship with a Colombian farmer who’s not very good at fermenting and are producing very poor quality beans. “We want to go in and help them build facilities and teach them how to ferment from the ground up,” says Mark. It helps out the farmers a lot because it allows them to charge more by making a quality product. “It’s nice for us too because we get to see things from the farm side.” After spending my Sunday afternoon with Mark and Victoria, who graciously took the time to explain every single detail that goes on in their factory, I developed a new appreciation for craft chocolate makers. He let me try out different chocolates that taste familiar yet there is a whole other layer to it. For every bite, I get to decipher the different notes and characteristics of each bar. As I let the chocolate melt in my mouth, I allowed myself to experience momentarily bliss.
WHERE TO FIND THEM: Coppeneur 805 1 St SW, Calgary The Cookbook Co. Cooks 722 11 Ave SW, Calgary Sought x Found 916 Centre St N, Calgary
ALMUSAL SA UMAGA Anatomy of a Filipino breakfast: Longsilog
Sliced tomatoes and atchara (pickled green papaya). These two side-dishes acts as a palate cleanser to avoid that full feeling we get when we eat greasy food.
Every silog has to have an egg and it has to be sunny-side up or it’s game over.
Filipinos love their rice. We love it so much that we eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast we usually use a day-old rice to make as garlic fried rice or sinangag. Plain rice will do if you don’t have time in the morning.
Breakfast is not complete without a cup of kapeng barako. The word barako means strong and kape is coffee in Filipino, hence the name. It perfectly describes the taste of the coffee. The smell alone can wake you up. This is one thing that I miss the most when I moved because it reminds me of home.
This is the main start of the show and it’s my favourite type of silog. Longganisa is the Filpino version of a pork sausage. It has different variations depending on the region. It’s very filling and packs a lot of flavour, it’s the perfect ulam to start your day.