Traveling Cowboys: Small Plates and Big Flavour at the Grande Brunch of Uncorked 2018 in Canmore, Alberta

Nine in a Row

For a town of fourteen thousand people, Canmore has so many restaurant choices that even if we eat at a different one every day, for a month, we still won't be able to try them all.

That is why we love our annual appointment with Andrew Nickerson and his team at Canmore's Uncorked Food Festival. The festival makes it easier to discover and enjoy the best Canmore's dining scene offers - restaurants we didn't know existed and dishes we haven't tried before. When we say the best, we don't only mean the food. We also suggest the people committed to promoting this great destination for culinary's sake. We applaud their effort.

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It is our third year of involvement in the event. Spring is always a great time in the mountains. The Uncorked food festival seals the deal for a visit and an appointment with this lovely destination.

Canmore Uncorked is a multiple award-winning food festival that returns each May for eleven days of remarkable dining experiences. It is the opportunity for restaurants of the town to showcase what they have to offer and to entice diners to try something new. For patrons, it is a flavour gauntlet that stretches the imagination and the waistlines. It is a must-do!

One way we make the most of the experience is to attend the Grande Brunch. Nine restaurants come together in one location to offer delicious taster morsels. The newly opened Grande Kitchen and Bar hosted the event this year which took place the first Sunday of the festival.

We tried everything, which proved to be an overly ambitious task. The portions were just enough to entice us to do another visit at participating restaurants. Together, it made for an amazingly delicious and very fulfilling meal.

Observations

Food festivals are for patrons. Patrons come with friends to celebrate, eat, explore, experience, meet and have fun with plates of food, mugs of beer, and glasses of wine. It is a familiar promotional drawcard used by destinations to entice new customers to visit and discover more about local businesses partaking in the celebrations.

Vendors are given an opportunity to reach new customers, fill their restaurants and move their products. It is a great marketing opportunity - when done right. The organizers of food festivals have the delicate balancing act of assuring there is enough variety, volume and value for attendees to make it worthwhile attending, and for participating businesses and the destination to see a return in the short and longer term.

Here in lies the crux of a successful food festival. Participating businesses and the destination, as a whole, must go all-out or risk being relegated to just another irrelevant mee-too food event of which there are far too many already. Businesses should make the most of the chance and strive to out-do each another. Not just each other in town, but other festivals, elsewhere.

We all know that with the demise of Canmore's destination marketing organization the Canmore Uncorked festival was left on shaky ground. Cudos to Andrew and his team for seeing it through and keeping the festival going. Unfortunately, herein lies the problem. We are of the opinion that Canmore's establishments overall are still not getting that this is their opportunity. It should not be just an event that continues. It should be the pinnacle food event in the Rocky Mountains!

In 2018, a few die-hard businesses and some newcomers remain committed to the festival's success, and they are reaping some of the potential rewards. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Canmore's food scene remains missing in action, and as a result, the town risks losing the opportunity.

It is no longer the "great" festival it once was. A celebration is not, and should not be for immediate profit or gain. If it was, it would be called a market. A longer perspective and commitment should prevail. The festival is there for the purpose of building marketing and promotional momentum for the times of the year when there isn't a festival. Profit follows from this momentum, and the awareness, excitement and the discovery drawcard it lit in customers. Participating businesses should commit their resources to building momentum like they would have done through any other marketing or promotional effort.

Canmore should be lucky to still have Uncorked. We hope to see it grow again to the grand festival it was once before. Andrew has our commitment and our vote to make it work. Now, all we need is for more of Canmore's food establishments to realize that this is their opportunity and get behind it. We are hopeful that it will happen before it is too late.

Hendrik van Wyk

Uncorked Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too. If you want to see us do more of these, then please forward the favour. We will use it for the next episode promoting a local business or event.

Photos

Yum, Yum!

Benedict

Andrew

Cupcakes

Traveling Cowboys: A Party in a Paddock at the 2018 Wairarapa Harvest Festival in New Zealand

Gourmet

Liz Pollock, the organiser of the annual Wairarapa Harvest Festival, referred to it as the party in a paddock. That was too modest. It was gourmet on the grass!

Sean Toohey of WilliamsWarn arranged with Liz for the last two highly sought-after media passes. The Cowboys were the lucky recipients. Now we could experience what rural New Zealand food festival life’s is all about. We were invited into the inner circle of rustic gastronomy. We thought we'd seen it all after covering countless food events around the globe. What we found was an absolute adventure in gourmet food and wine - in a paddock! It could easily have been a chef-hosted event on Granville Island. The produce, cooking and creativity were that good.

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The event took place at the sheltered riverside setting known as “The Cliffs” on the banks of the Ruamahunga River. It is a remote setting, amongst vineyards and under ancient trees. Remote enough for a noisy pino-lubricated hunger party, but also close enough for Wellingtonians to make the trek up the road for a little culture. Masterton and Carterton are both a stone’s throw away.

If you go by the numbers, it is not a massive festival. Around twenty-three eateries and wineries participated in the day-long festivities. They hosted just over two-thousand hungry and thirsty patrons. The tickets are limited we were told, to keep the festival small and personal. Everyone is guaranteed a sampling of what was on offer. There indeed was enough food and wine for everyone. Chairs and tables were in short supply. Locals knew that, so they brought their chairs, blankets and picnic cutlery.

The event sold out within two hours of tickets going on sale. It happened months ago already. The Harvest Festival is not an event you will likely get to, as an outsider occasionally passing through New Zealand. As with many of these top-class occurrences, you have to rely on a local punter or sponsor within a secret food society, to part with a select few highly sought-after tickets for sneaking you into the inner gourmet circle of the best of New Zealand.

When it came to the food, they spared no expense. Only the best made it to the serving table. It offered nothing pretentious and everything hearty. Only the best fresh local ingredients made it into the dishes that included whitebait fritters, lamb pie, salted beef, spicy wedges and Pinot Noir. All were familiar favourites that came with a creative twist as the restaurants battled to outdo each other.

Observations

We've said it before. Food festivals must have lots of food. Far too often we’ve seen food festivals turn into taster festivals. At the Wairarapa Harvest Festival, they know how to throw a party with enough food and wine for everyone.

What stood out was the quality and variety of the produce and the lengths the businesses went to serve the perfect dish. Our favourite was the lamb cutlet pies and a little Pinot with the whitebait fritters and the Chardonnay a close second. It was simple and hearty and utterly the best of rural New Zealand.

Thank you for the invite Sean, and Liz. We would love to see you next year again!

Hendrik van Wyk

Food Festival Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too. If you want to see us do more of these, then please forward the favour. We will use it for the next episode promoting a local business or event.

Photos

Getting the Wine

Entice!

More Food!

Winners!

That Pie!

Traveling Cowboys: Searching for Some Heat at the Annual Chili Fest and Cook Off in Okotoks, Alberta

The "e" for the "i"

Chili has to pack some heat.

We missed the heat at this year's Okotoks Chili Fest and Cook Off, and a question came to mind, "Are we getting soft here in the Great White North, or don't we understand heat when we need it?"

The International Chili Society (ICS), an organization devoted to the "promotion, development and improvement of the preparation and appreciation of true chili". According to them, ever since "the second person on earth mixed some chile peppers with meat and cooked them, the great chili debate was on. The desire to brew up the best bowl of chili in the world is exactly that old".

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Perhaps it is the effect of Capsaicin spices upon man's mind? In the immortal words of Joe DeFrates, the only man who ever won both the National and the World Chili Championships, "Chili powder makes you crazy."

To keep things straight, chile refers to the pepper pod and chili to the concoction. The "e" and the "i" of it all.

The great debate, it seems, is not limited to whose chili is best. Even more heated is the argument over where the first bowl was made; and by whom. Estimates range from "somewhere west of Laramie," in the early nineteenth century as a product of a Texas trail drive, to the grisly tale of enraged Aztecs, who cut up invading Spanish conquistadors, seasoned chunks of them with a passel of chile peppers, and ate them.

Never has there been anything mild about chili and it should not change now.

We attended the Okotoks Chili Fest and Cook Off on 26 August 2017 courtesy of the town of Okotoks. As is the custom with great Okotokian events, it all happened downtown with the main street closed and the entertainment in full complement.

Observations

It lacked heat, and then it was too hot.

The ICS judges a bowl of chili according to five key characteristics which include taste, ratio, aroma, appearance, and bite.

Taste, above all else, is the most important factor. The taste should consist of the combination of the meat, peppers, spices, etc., with no particular ingredient being dominant, but rather a blend of the flavors.

Chili must have a good ratio between sauce and meat. It should not be dry, watery, grainy, lumpy, or greasy. It should smell good. This also indicates what is in store when you taste it. Chili should look appetizing. Reddish brown is generally accepted as good. Chili is not yellow or green.

Lastly, and most importantly it should have some spice or bite. Bite or after taste is the heat created by the various type of chili peppers and chili spices. This is what we missed from the concoctions at the Okotoks Fest, and we can only attribute it to the cooks being too timid and their Canadian pallets being too sensitive.

If you are going to have a cook off, you better pack some character with spice and come ready to compete. Only 3 out of the twelve teams understood the need for some Capsaicin in their cook. Those that did, came out tops in the competition.

After 12 tastings in the hot midday summers sun with nothing drink in sight, we were boiling hot and made our retreat to the Royal Duke Pub to tally the score. The iDental team definitely had the upper hand in this year's competition. They claim it is their paddle that's been seasoned by decades of use. They were our first place, and was followed closely by the Remax team which I believe are veterans in taking the laurels.

We learned a valuable lesson with this year's competition. Pace yourself and make sure to take in plenty of fluids. You will need it in this hotly contested affair, that is attended annually by as many as up to 10,000 people.

Hendrik van Wyk

Flaming Cowboy

We earn our livelihood from producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. We use Patreon to help us earn from our work. Please become a patron at http://www.travelingcowboys.com if you want to see more of this and other stories.

Photos

"Milk" Shooters

Nice

The Paddle!

The name says it all...

It won't help.

Bread and Tomatoes

Well Deserved!

Traveling Cowboys: Reconnecting With Old Friends and New Family at the Waterton Food Festival 2017, Alberta, Canada

Reconnecting

Alberta has its own Brigadoon. You will find it at Waterton Lakes National Park on the southern border of the Province. It is called Waterton Village. Like its counterpart in the Brigadoon story, the Village wakes up every 8 months, instead of every 100 years, to be the setting for a microcosm of activity. When the snow arrives in October it is shuttered again, only to reappear in late Spring the next year.

In this little community, a unique group of people, from all over the world undertakes an annual pilgrimage to spend four sunny (and often windy) months together. A place where they come to celebrate their short Canadian summer. In Waterton, teenagers start their first jobs, children take over family businesses, and the ones that retire, come to say goodbye. It is a very special place because of its natural beauty. It is magical, because of its people.

This is the first of a three-part installment about Waterton in 2017, courtesy of the Waterton Park Chamber of Commerce, Chinook Country Tourism and Travel Alberta.  The Two Cowboys feature the season's opening with the Waterton Food Festival.

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Eating Pie

Our schedule was set with the Friday night kick-off of the festival at the Thirsty Bear Socialhouse. It is a newly renovated part of the Bayshore Inn on the waterfront. Shameer, the owner, explained that it took them a whole year to decide what should make it onto the upmarket pub-style menu. The food was delicious, and the Truffle Mac & Cheese was divine! Everything in the establishment is brand spanking new, except for the reclaimed wood of the bar and the solid timber beams that still exhibits the cattle branding marks of the old Saloon.

The kick-off delivered tasty samples from the festival's participating food businesses. Business such as the Taco Bar, Wieners of Waterton, Zum's Eatery and others were well represented. The local brewery, Coulee Brewing Company from Lethbridge, was also on hand to deliver tiny tasting servings of their popular beers. The food was just enough to entice us to visit the restaurants individually during the festival week that followed.

It took a good solid morning of recovery from the night before, to be ready for the Pie Cruise with the Waterton Shoreline Cruise Company. Participating businesses contribute two unique pies each to the excursion and try to out-do each other with pie creativity. The pies were served to patrons on the scenic boat ride that took us to the border with Montana (and back, of course). The favorite was the Chocolate Moose Pie from the newly opened Larkspur Coffee House. We were told that it took two full days to layer the amazing creation. Pie is apparently a Waterton thing!

The rest of the festival included a chef's dinner and special set menus at the various food establishments.

Observations

We can continue to list the festival's experiences, but it won't do it justice. Instead, watch our video about the event. It is the second time we covered the festival. It is growing into an annual feature for Waterton and for the Two Cowboys. You had to be there to appreciate what was on offer.

Waterton Village is not the gourmet capital of the Rockies, and it doesn't try to be. It is rather a unique group of people with a lot of creativity and a passion for food and their village. They bring something fresh and new each year to serve to visitors. All businesses are family owned and operated. Many are run by second and third generations.

As a tourist, you can drive through Waterton in a few minutes and miss most of what it has to offer. If you decide to stay for a short while, the local folks will go out of their way to get to know you. It can get very busy at times so prepare for standing in line.

Be warned. Waterton Village and its people have a welcoming way to pull you in and make you part of their world. Soon you will be one of them and also make the annual pilgrimage to Waterton's Food Festival. Before long, you may become part of the family in Alberta's own Brigadoon.

Hendrik van Wyk

Waterton Pie Cowboy

We earn our livelihood from producing great content about inspiring people, businesses, and communities. We use Patreon to help us earn from our work. Please become a patron at http://www.travelingcowboys.com if you want to see more of this and other stories.

Where to Eat

Thirsty Bear Socialhouse

Lakeside Chophouse

Welch's Chocolate and Pies

Zum's Eatery

Wieners on Waterton

Waffleton

The Taco Bar

The Moose Lick Ice Cream and Shaved Ice

Big Scoop Ice Cream Parlor

Trappers Mountain Grill

49th Degree North Pizza

Photos

Prost!

Sunrise

Ice Cream Happiness

Pie People

Gourmet

Sugar

Waffleton!

Traveling Cowboys: Event Highlights for Canmore Uncorked 2017, Alberta, Canada - You Should've Been Here!

Canmore Uncorked Food Festival in the Mountains 2017

This is the second year that we collaborate with Canmore Uncorked (http://www.canmoreuncorked.com).

See the highlights of 12 days of food festivities in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.

Because many of the business in Canmore support us as sponsors and patrons, we support them in return: http://www.travelingcowboys.com. If you want to see more about them, be a supporter of our cause or follow our travels, then please become a friend on Patreon. Subscribe to our channel on YouTube and read our Blog.

Hendrik van Wyk

Travelling Cowboy

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Here they are:

Highlights!

Launch Party!

Long Table Dinner

Wine Festival

Beer Festival

Whiskey and Spirit Festival

Progressive Amazing Dinner Tour Race

Traveling Cowboys: Getting Ready for 12 Days of Food, Drink and Community at Canmore Uncorked 2017, Alberta, Canada

Canmore Uncorked Food Festival in the Mountains 2017

This is the second year that we collaborate with Canmore Uncorked (http://www.canmoreuncorked.com).

We do it because it is an excellent award winning event that kicks off Spring in the Rocky Mountains every year. It is our opportunity to showcase the fantastic food establishments and producers in the Bow Valley. We celebrate their businesses, and we give you an inside glimpse into what makes Canmore a great place to visit. It is also a food festival, which means we need no further justification for the Two Cowboys & A Camera to show up.

Many of the businesses we showcase during the festival are supporters of our campaign. They are producers, and they help us to encourage more people to make something, establish local businesses, employ locally, build community and shop with each other. All of them are serving the town's folk and collaborate with fellow producers to bring great products to market. For us, it is a success story when a community comes together for a celebration and to mutually support each other. That is why we are at the festival and why we will be bringing you the highlights of the festival.

Because many of the business in Canmore support us as sponsors and patrons, we support them in return: http://www.travelingcowboys.com. If you want to see more about them, be a supporter of our cause or follow our travels, then please become a friend on Patreon. Subscribe to our channel on YouTube and read our Blog.

Hendrik van Wyk

Travelling Cowboy

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Here they are:

Gaucho Brazilian BBQ - Canmore

Canmore Brewing Company

An Edible Life

Murrieta's Bar and Grill

Rave Coffee Canada

RAW Distillery

Valbella Gourmet Foods

Wild Life Distillery

o-CNN: Lots of Talented Little Plates with Huge Flavour at Banff's Big Taste 2017 Food Festival in Banff, Alberta

Anything for a Party

(Learn: * Inspire: * Amaze: ** Live: *****)
(The Two Cowboys - Subjective Rate-o-Meter.)

Food festivals are for the locals. Every community should embrace any and all opportunities for a culinary event. We don't have enough food festivals in Canada. We need more.

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"For as little as $1/month you will get the inside track on content like this and follow the travels of the Two Cowboys & A Camera. Join here."

There are so many communities cultivating and manufacturing unique produce across the diverse food production landscape of Canada. Wine, berries, bison, beef, barley, wheat, corn, truffle, lobster, maple are only a few that immediately comes to mind. The craft brewery scene is exploding. There are new entrants in every Province. Craft distilleries are not far behind.

Canada is not the first place that comes to mind for artisan food production when one considers the vast wintry expanse of our country. It is more a feature of a place like New Zealand. Yet, it is hard to choose where not to go for a gastronomic celebration any time of the year. We have Icewine festivals, maple festivals, bbq events, berry, tea, whisky, beer, lobster, scallop, salmon, and a mushroom festivals. There is even a vegetarian food festival if you must.

It seems that everyone is trying to tap into the food festival craze and opportunity to market their place. Local tourism associations and marketers are clambering over each other to market their locations as the next undiscovered hot food destination of the year. They are all doing fantastic work and have our full support. We think that we need more culinary celebrations. We are encouraged by their efforts. Here is why.

Firstly, food festivals are good for the community. Any reason to celebrate is good for the morale of a group of people that share space, live and work together. It brings people closer. The best of these celebrations are when people come together around food and drink.

A festival brings the local residents together to interact with each other. With food festivals, participating businesses are more inclined to collaborate by sharing in activities, creating and making things together. People get to showcase the results of their hard work to visitors and to fellow citizens. Ultimately, a food festival is an opportunity for community members to engage by supporting each other in the most fundamental of production endeavours - making food. It is not surprising that the majority of attendees of these festivals are the people most vested in the event. The locals are the biggest supporters by far.

Secondly, it is good for the economy. Festivals create opportunities for markets (events within the event). Entrepreneurs and producers get access to an offset that goes beyond what they reach on a regular basis with their store or general distribution.

Food festivals encourage enterprise. If there is a market, then there are opportunities to deliver to the market's needs. New producers step in to fill these needs which mean more businesses. More food is produced locally. New products are innovated and tested. The increased competition serves to improve standards. Ultimately, the economy benefits because it encourages tourism and visitation to local communities. These both come with increased earnings and revenue. It is valuable income for the people of our farms, towns and cities.

Observations

It is with this worthy realisation of the benefits of food festivals that we attended Banff's Big Taste.

It is the most recent addition to the food festival calendar for the Bow Valley of Alberta. The first food festival event for us in 2017. Thankfully, the Banff Hospitality Collective stepped forward to give us an excuse to celebrate the talents of local chefs and the great produce of our Canadian food producers. Celebrate we did! Thank you!

Banff's Big Taste was our chance to sip, savour and experience Banff's exciting culinary scene all in one place, with some excellent pairings. This is not just a statement. It is a profound discovery. We found that the standard improved substantially over recent years to make Banff's culinary offerings rival the natural beauty of the setting. The Banff Hospitality Collective is raising the bar with new talent, new venues, locally sourced produce and innovative offerings like Canada's first craft distillery inside a three-story restaurant - Park Distillery.

The events included chefs dinners, the grand tasting hall that we featured in the video above, spirit seminars (the drinking kind) and the jolly nightlife of a cold winter mountain town full of young, affluent adventure seeking (mostly) Australians.

It was five days of deliciousness that gave us yet another reason to make a frequent stop in Banff in the New Year. We have our calendars marked for 2018!

Hendrik van Wyk
Festive Food Cowboy

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Photos

Relaxed Chef

Choices!

Alberta Pork

Angelic

Yes, Chef!

o-CNN: Chucking Scallops at the Whitianga Scallop Festival in Coromandel, New Zealand

Raw is Better

Or, is it? 

One of New Zealand's most popular seafood events, the Whitianga Scallop Festival took place this past Saturday the 10th of September 2016. 

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Sixty cuisine stands came together to cater for an estimated 4,000 - 5,000 attendees by turning out mouth watering dishes, and serving crisp chilled local wines (from the Waikato of all places!). 

If the food wasn't enough to get you there, then the entertainment did the rest. The festival included performances from iconic New Zealand performers (none of whom we knew), seafood cooking demonstrations from celebrity NZ chefs (Ray McVinnie we knew and were also fortunate to interview). The stars of the occasion were undoubted: Fresh Coromandel Scallops, Oysters, and Kina (Sea Urchin).

And this is exactly where the rubber hit the road. All three of these star attractions needed no special attention if you listened to the locals. Once chucked: "You should eat them raw!".

We can now proudly proclaim that we've lost our seafood virginity. We ate our scallops raw. All of them. Whitianga Scallop Festival introduced us to heavenly combinations of Scallops and Champagne, Kina and Port, and Oyster Shots (something to do with Tomato, Tabasco, and Vodka). 

I can honestly testify that once alcohol got involved, it was hard to know the difference between cooked or raw. In the end, the texture was all that gave it away - rubbery or juicy. All of them stayed down with our breakfast.

The Coromandel put its best foot forward in all manner of ways. The Spring weather was perfect. The roads were as twisty as usual (making sure that only the best Scallops stayed behind). The scenery was breathtaking, and the people friendly. 

Anyone that contemplates a trip to New Zealand, should aim for the Coromandel this time of year. It is surprising to see how well the Kiwi's are keeping this thirteen-year-old event, a secret from the outside world (of New Zealand). 

I think we were probably the only foreigners there, except for a few lost Canadian Geese on a pond.

Enjoy the video. We had fun making it

Hendrik van Wyk

Sea Cowboy (not really).

Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

Photos

Sun and Surf

Adrenalin and Wine

Cowboy!

o-CNN: Food and Friends at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

Where Else?

Let's be honest. You don't really need an excuse to make it to Waterton Lakes National Park in the South Western corner of Alberta, Canada. The scenery there is so breathtaking, the air so fresh, and the water so spectacular that you have to make at least one pilgrimage in a lifetime to this place. It is a "bucket-list" visit.

The Two Cowboys had an excuse. We came for the breathtaking scenery. But, it was the food and the people that made us want to stay.

In 1858 Lt. Thomas Blakiston, originally a member of the Palliser Expedition, embarked on an expedition of his own looking for a railway pass through the mountains. On his journey, he encountered members of the Kutenai tribe who told him of the South Kootenay Pass. Taking their advice, Blakiston re-crossed the divide, traveling along what would later be called Blakiston (Pass) Creek and out to a chain of three large lakes.

On September 6, 1858, he wrote: "After two hours traveling on level ground along Red-stone creek (Red-Rock) we emerged on the Saskatchewan plains, just six geographical miles north of the 49th parallel and camped at the lakes... The scenery here is grand and picturesque...."

Blakiston named the lakes "Waterton", after British naturalist Charles Waterton, although the locals continued to call them Kootenay Lakes for many years after.

Food Festival

The Waterton Park Chamber of Commerce hosted the second annual Food Festival for the town. The Cowboy News Network managed to get an invite. It all happened on the last weekend of May and the first of June, 2016. 

For a town with less than one hundred permanent residents, we found Waterton surprisingly busy for late Spring. Locals tell us it is because they've had less snow this year. The warm weather drives people to make the trip. Wait until July to September, and you will have to share it with 600,000 other motivated visitors.

The business owners, many who don't overwinter in Waterton, usually open their doors beginning May to prepare fresh coffee, wieners, pie, ice cream and great Alberta fried chicken. This year it was no exception, and the Food Festival added incentive to get the cobwebs out, and the systems working early for when the really big crowds arrive. It all shuts down in October again.

The town was already bustling with tourist from all over North America and Europe when we arrived. A fair amount of people from Lethbridge, the nearest "big town", made it out for the festival too. "Local knowledge" dictates that you have to get your Waterton fill in June, else risk being stampeded and trampled during summer.

What more do you want in a holiday place that nature, friends and food? Waterton has plenty of it all. For our trip, the food was definitely outstanding. The Pie Cruise stood out as the highlight. You get to sample creative baking from local establishments, while cruising on the lake towards Montana. Even the eateries that don't serve pie baked for this trip. 

We were glad to finally make our first trip to Waterton Lakes National Park. Rest assured, we now have a good excuse to do many, many more. Now, we know the locals...

Hendrik van Wyk

Waterton Pie Enthusiast

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Photos

The View

Getting There In Style

Montana

Time Machine

Pie Heavenly

o-CNN: Cowboy News Network - Serious BBQ Lynwood Ranch, AB

Real Southern Barbeque in Southern Alberta. 

Lynwood Ranch, just South of Calgary hosted the first of three events for the Kansas City Barbeque Society's (KCBS) Alberta Cup Competition, 2016.

It was one of three sanctioned events in Alberta that agreed to offer BBQ teams an extra chance at winning some special prizes with their smoked brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork and chicken. It all happened at Lynwood ranch on 14 and 15 May, 2016, and we were there.

This was Lynnwood Ranch’s second annual KCBS sanctioned BBQ competition and BBQ Feast. The KCBS BBQ Competition “Smokin Q” was started in 2015 after a friend, Bernie Kenny of BBQ on the Bow paid a visit to Gus & Wendy LeDuc at Lynwood Ranch. Bernie spoke of the need for more BBQ competitions in Alberta, and naturally this well known ranch came up as the perfect location to kick off the tour. (Bernie is on the lookout for more venues to have more competitions for his 150 qualified BBQ judges. It is a great idea to get the community involved, do some fundraising, and have a major tourism event with awesome food. Get in touch with him here.)

We, the Two Cowboys were ready to get on a plane to New Zealand for some prior commitments. But, we just couldn't pass on Gus' invitation to attend the event before the big day. There is no way we can leave without getting a taste of Alberta's legendary Barley fed pork at the BBQ Bash “Feast & Frolic”. This event preceded the competition the next day. With the help of the BBQ teams that were competing, Lynwood Ranch put on an amazing feast for almost 300 people attending.

Impressions

I've learned one important thing from attending this amazing event: "This is serious business!" 

As born and raised South Africans we can probably write the book on barbecue. We "braai" at least three times a week since birth. However, nothing could prepare us for what we were to experience. 

The food flavours, sophistication and complexity we tasted could rival items from any menu in a five star restaurant establishment, anywhere in the world. Some of the meat smoking technology were space-age computer contraptions with minute tolerances and titanium precision. It was amazing to see the care and commitment that went into the most exquisite byte of flesh, jalapeño or burned-end. In contrast, the purists relied on perfect ingredients, traditional flavours, simple smokers and a lot of love and care for their art.

The biggest impression on us was seeing how much fun people were having. It was a weekend family affair for the teams, and also for the spectators. Folks travelled together, ate together and drank together. Everyone was made to feel welcome.

Hopefully, this is the first of many instalments we get to bring you of Alberta's barbecue underworld. It is definitely something people should know more about. 

Lynwood Ranch is the place where you can lose your barbecue virginity. Gus and his team has a first class venue. He himself knows a thing or two about southern style barbecue. He is famous for his prime rib roast. Don't pass on an opportunity to taste one of the best. Gus, thank you for giving people a chance to cook great food.

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Hendrik van Wyk
The Prime Rib

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