| One of the great pleasures of summer is abandoning the kitchen or staff-room table and enjoying food in the fresh air. Droves of working folks bust out of office buildings at lunch hour, bearing witness to the fickleness of our Calgary sunshine and the simple fact that food tastes better outside.
On days off and holidays like Canada Day, it’s the picnic that provides the portability to venture beyond the balcony or backyard. Curiously enough, the further you roam from the convenience of home, the more the meal is directly defined by the food. That’s why providing anything beyond the Safeway deli drop-in or bucket of KFC makes you a picnic god. Relax. This doesn’t mean a picnic requires prayer and miracles. I offer the fuss-free, cook-less picnic for two.
The first rule of simplification is eliminating the need to cook anything. Hats off to those who are ambitious enough to do it, but I prefer periodic eye contact during a picnic date. Likewise, don’t head out with anything hot, as bacteria grow exponentially as food temperature drops. Speaking of food safety, try not to poison your date with sun-rotted mayonnaise. Skip it altogether. Besides, you lunched yourself to sleep with tuna and egg salad all winter.
First off, you’ll need a picnic basket. A reasonably sized and sturdy one is currently $17.99 at Linens ’N’ Things, which includes paper plates and not-too-ugly plastic cutlery and stemware for four.
Janice Beaton of Janice Beaton Fine Cheese (JBFC) and Gail Norton of The Cookbook Co. Cooks, two Calgary food experts, make ingenious product suggestions that will elevate a picnic to gourmet status. Take your basket to one of JBFC’s two locations (1708 8 St. S.W. or 1249 Kensington Road N.W.). A helpful employee, or Janice herself, will assist you in making tailored and choice-driven selections of picnic delicacies. Among them are the cheeses for which she is known, as well as olives, organic nuts, dried fruit, crackers, baguettes and beautiful preserves such as peppered black mission fig. JBFC also offers a selection of Valbella locally cured meats from Canmore – maple pepper ham, wild boar, smoked buffalo or duck liver pâtés are just a few. All told, this stop will run you approximately $25 to $30.
Next stop is The Cookbook Co. Cooks (722 - 11 Ave. S.W.) for fabulous additions such as Shikar pappadums ($3.95) safely stored in a crush-proof cylinder. Clic Greek-style stuffed vine leaves ($8.25) are packaged in, but do not taste like, a can. Out of the freezer comes Cunningham’s Scotch cold Arctic char Indian candy ($12.50), which keeps nicely until you reach your destination or, if refrigerated, an additional 16 days. If you’ve never had Indian candy, you’re in for a real treat. Likewise, Cunningham’s Scotch cold smoking rainbow trout pâté serves as a cracker or sandwich spread. Oyster Man’s gourmet smoked oysters ($8.25) get high praise from both picnic experts and the Cookbook Co. staff. Valrhona Gran Couva Chocolate, Hobnobs or Bakersland 4 Syrup Waffles travel well and satisfy the sweet tooth. Boylan root beer or cream soda are delicious and add a touch of old-fashioned charm.
If you absolutely need to take credit for something, dress fresh salad with extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, cracked black pepper and kosher salt. Experiment with combinations of chilled ingredients such as soba noodles, green beans, mint and cucumber, or beets, roasted potatoes and onions. Chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, rosemary, basil or cilantro add a fresh green zest to any salad (or sandwich, for that matter). Slice, dice and package portioned sandwich ingredients separately and assemble as you go, to prevent sogginess and maximize options. Sandwich building at a picnic is the convivial outdoor equivalent to staying in when it’s cold and making dinner together.
Take your gourmet basket to a specialty wine store such as Bin 905 (2311 - 4 St. S.W.) or J. Webb Wine Merchant (C157 - 1600 - 90 Ave. S.W.), where I promise an expert wine connoisseur will quickly eyeball your choices with envy and pair your picnic haul with the perfect selection of wine or some bubbly surprise you wouldn’t have come up with yourself. This will, in fact, make all the difference in the world. As well as a corkscrew and/or bottle opener, don’t forget to tote a blanket or chairs to sit on, napkins, hand wipes, toothpicks, bags for garbage and – if we’re all lucky enough – sunscreen. |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.