Life in Cowtown

I love road trips. I love traveling in general, but road trips have a special place in my heart. Something about waving goodbye, hitting the open road and watching the scenery unfold is pure magic. A part of it is certainly the lack of formality – no timing airport arrivals, no security checks, no agenda and fighting with rental cars or cabbies. Just a car and a seemingly endless stretch of pavement that places you right in the middle of the story, not simply an observer hopping from A to B.

I love stopping in tiny towns with a main street and a few hotels. I love exploring odd little beaches, and asking locals for their favorite restaurant. I love scenery that leaves you speechless, and I will always, always take a detour to see something interesting.

Like many people we don’t travel as much as we’d like to, but we’ve had some epic road trips over the years. A drive down the pacific coastal highway was so impressive that we did it twice, and intend to drive it again. A simple visit to BC coincided with the lightning storm that grew into the massive fire that devastated Kelowna the next day. There was nothing like the experience of driving the tiny dirt road (with no guard rails) for 6500 feet up to the Seven Devils in Idaho (and surreally seeing a momma cow with a calf near the top). And driving the road that happens to be one of Canada’s coolest highways is an adventure in speed and scenery each and every time.

Oregon coast - pacific highway

The beauty of road trips is that you hardly need to go far. Plenty of times we drive twenty minutes out of town to have a coffee in the neighboring town of Bragg Creek, or an hour for a lunch in Banff. Each trip leaves us invigorated by the new scenery and energized by getting away from our busy but mundane lives.

So in the spirit of road trips, we are embarking on another small one – to the neighboring province, to go spend a few days on a ski hill near Vernon. In the summer Silverstar converts to a mountain biking destination, with the village uniquely, halfway up the mountain, and it’s a very cool place to visit. We visited for the first time last summer and loved it. Not only did they have awesome hiking trails:

Silverstar - the village

Hiking trail

the view from the trail

But also one of the best little bakeries in the world. Which I don’t have a photo of, as I was too busy drooling to operate a camera. Seriously. Every single thing I had from that bakery rocked. Not just the homemade croissants and pastries, but also amazing soups and wicked sandwiches. I lived at that bakery from nine to noon. I woke up early to get to that bakery before they were sold out of my faves, and people, that’s no small feat.

So this time around I’ll wear a drool bib if I have to, but I’ll take some photos of the amazing sumptuousness, and you can drool along with me. Please feel free to share your amazing road trip stories, if you’re into that sort of thing, as inspiration for new destinations is always welcome around here.

It’s quite… unpatriotic of me to say so, but I generally find a dearth of culinary treasures in Calgary. I know there are SOME, and I know the situation is improving every year, but in general many things that are raved about here are rather mediocre. Part of that is our short growing season necessitating expensive and unripe imports of produce and part of it are just basic lack of sophistication of the local palates despite all the traveling of the citizens. For instance, it’s well known that there’s a comparative lack of good asian food here. The stuff in some greasy spoon in Vancouver will rival any of our respected establishments. There is one, ONE count ‘em, decent Mexican restaurant in town. We can’t get a good Montreal smoked meat shop going despite many attempts. Yes, some are edible, but none are fantastic. And many of our high end restaurants are rather laughable with their prices and pretentiousness and still a persistent lack of quality and consistency. With that in mind, I would like to talk about a few items I’ve discovered that really stand out. Whether for their quality of food, the awesome value or regional uniqueness in an area of decent homogenization.

A great place to start is A Ladybug Organic Foods and Belgian Bakery. They do have a tiny café at the Currie Barracks Market, but given a choice I usually opt to go visit them at their relatively new store on Aspen Stone Blvd. I’ll be honest, I can’t write an enormous amount about their offerings for two reasons. First, I can’t ever get up early enough to visit them before they’re entirely sold out of most of their breads and croissants. And people, I’m not talking about rolling out of bed by noon and arriving at the market in the afternoon. I mean they sell out by ten thirty or sooner and despite my best efforts that’s about as early as I’ve ever made it.

A second reason for my lack of experience with their amazing products is the fact that what I have bought so far has garnered such loyalty in my mind and house that I can’t wean myself off my regular purchases to try much new stuff. At the Currie Barracks location I adore both their sweet and savory crepes I tend to buy at the very least a whole grain baguette, a gorgeous, salty focaccia which is amazing as a fodder for sandwiches, a rye bread, perhaps some frozen croissants or pain du chocolat and at least two of their phenomenal lemon tarts.

The lemon tarts have been called legendary with good reason. I don’t have the world’s biggest sweet tooth and my experience with lemony desserts left a great deal to be desired, but if I could marry this lemon tart and have its tartlets I’d seriously consider it. The crust is perfect – crumbly, buttery, rich and the perfect foil for the heavenly filling. Aaaah the filling. It’s almost transcendentally good with a creamy and bright flavor, silky smooth texture, a perfect little circle of caramelized sugar and is too good for words. Legendary indeed.

At their new location they serve coffee, tea and lunch which I’m sad to say I haven’t tried yet. The sandwiches and paninis all look great though and I trust them to not mess up the sandwiches, waffles or salads they offer. I did have a café Americano served in a cute French press and found it had the right richness, flavor and strength. Overall I respect A Ladybug for their commitment to freshness, organic foods and above all else quality. If you’ve been there tell me your favorites and if you haven’t, run don’t go to the best little bakery in town.

A Ladybug Organic Foods & Belgium Bakery
2132, 10 Aspen Stone Blvd. S.W. 403-249-5530