Breakfast, Fundy Food Festival and Symphony NB

We’ve got our breakfast menu going in the Deli this morning till noon-ish when our main menu kicks in. Later today you’ll find us at the Fundy Food Festival.

That starts at 5:30pm and we’ll be on hand featuring items from our catering menu. We hope to see you there — it promises to be a foodie’s dream!

By the way, hat’s off to Symphony New Brunswick for this great video, “A Night at Symphony New Brunswick.” Of course, we like the shots of Urban Deli but if you watch you’ll see in the latter half the fabulous Imperial Theatre. (Have a look at their picture gallery.)

It’s just an all around great video of a wonderful night. We love it!

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Now that is living life Uptown!

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Up for Best Restaurant 2nd year running – Live Life Awards

The Uptown is buzzing today with the Live Life Awards nominations. We were thrilled to find ourselves nominated in the Best Restaurant of the Year category — but the competition is stiff! We’re in there with two of the Uptown’s best: Thandi’s and Saint John Ale House. (Congrats to both!)

Having enjoyed time at both, we can attest to the fact that both are very deserving — we love the food at both! Uptown is the place to be for Saint John’s best dining. Of course, we’re a bit biased on that subject. πŸ™‚

Last year, we found ourselves in three categories, including Best Restaurant. Thandi’s was also nominated last year. As it turns out, in 2010 Opera Bistro took the top honours for Best Restaurant.

You can go over all the categories and all the nominees on the Uptown Saint John site. Or you can let Tracy tell you all about them:

Winners will be announced at the gala event on June 9th. Tickets are available at the Uptown Saint John offices at 40 King Street or by calling 633-9797.

Congratulations to all the nominees in all the categories. Let’s all celebrate by getting out and living life in Uptown Saint John!

 

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Gluten-free quinoa wraps – our recipe

We hope you made it to the Simply For Life (SFL) seminar last night at the Trade and Convention Centre. If you did, you may have seen us. We were one of the many Saint John vendors taking part. Events like this are always full of information and for us it was a nudge to get on something we have in the works: identifying the SFL approved items on our menu.

On the subject of foods, last year when we were at the Fundy Food Festival we served up quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) wraps and they really went over well with everyone. Quinoa is a gluten-free food and we’re posting our recipe (see below).

 

What’s quinoa?

Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown for its seeds, which are edible. It has a long history as a food source. More significantly, it’s known for a number of valuable properties. Wikipedia tells us quinoa is,

“… Highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.”

Now, here’s our quinoa wraps recipe, via our long time friend Lianne of Exhale Coaching in British Columbia. Thanks Lianne!

Quiona Wraps Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cups quinoa (keen-wa)
  • 2 cups water
  • Lettuce (iceberg, butterhead or romaine)

Method

Combine water and quinoa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered and cook for 15 minutes.

Marinade

  • 3 tbs ginger, fresh and grated
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbs cilantro
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs honey
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-2 scallions (optional)

Method

Combine ginger, scallions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and cilantro. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, honey and salt. Combine these together and then add the quinoa.

Note: can be served warm or cooled. Next day, it’s even better. Can be served on its own or with a dollop of peanut butter / peanut sauce on each with the lettuce.

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Week long Chop Chop festival coming

Uptown Saint John Chop Chop festival, Nov. 1 to 7, 2009.In case you missed it, the Telegraph-Journal had a story this week about an upcoming food festival we’ll be taking part in: Chop, chop food fans, fun festival is coming. To quote from the article:

“The idea behind the week is to put us on the food map,” said Margret Begner, co-owner of Opera Bistro and a member of the festival organizing committee.

“It should showcase how proud we can be of the different restaurants and businesses that we do have in this area.”

During the Chop-Chop festival, foodies will have the chance to sample from 22 participating restaurants in the uptown with a set pricing menu.

So from November 1 through 7, Uptown Saint John is where you’re going to want to be to give your taste buds the time of their life. We’re very excited to be part of this! Let’s help make Saint John’s uptown one of Canada’s great food destinations!

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