Meeting new/old friends at Friends & Neighbours + A SURPRISE ENDING

On Monday I drove up to Edmonton for the Dairy Farmers of Canada's annual nutrition symposium. I'll be sure to write an entry with my thoughts later just so that a) I can gather them and b) I don't get in trouble for posting the content before they finish their cross-country tour, but long story short: there were definitely some interesting insights during the conference, but some parts were a little too blatantly pro-dairy for my liking.

After the conference I met up with an "old" friend that I'd never met before! I don't remember how we originally found each other, but Chelsey and I had been twittering each other for the past few months, and seeing how she is based in Edmonton, I thought it would be nice for us to meet in person!

Chelsey is originally from PEI and is just a paper away from finishing her dietetic internship through the former Capital Health Region (now part of the Alberta Health Services superboard conglomerate). Being relatively new to Edmonton herself (she's been there for about a year now), we both had trouble deciding where to go for lunch, so she decided to just park on Whyte Ave and we started walking. Finally, we came upon Friends & Neighbours, which, on the outside, looks like a run-down, slightly sketchy, hole-in-the-wall diner.

Booths with green leather couches, checkered floors, a kitschy bottle collection and a waitress with perfectly shaped eyebrows, a scarf tied in her fiery red hair and lipstick to match complete the retro diner look, but there is a twist - the whiteboards on the wall were scrawled with a list of Asian-sounding specials, like Pad Thai, curry, stir-fry, etc. The menu itself was also huge; along with the usual all-day breakfast and other diner fare, there were the aforementioned Asian dishes and also a sizeable vegetarian section featuring grilled tofu in different stir-fries, salads and sandwiches.

Being nutrition enthusiasts, we naturally gravitated toward the vegetarian menu - Chelsey ordered the Veggie's Pita ($11.45) which was filled with grilled tofu, onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado, spinach and a ton of other veggies. I opted for the Pita on Whyte Avenue ($11.95) which had similar ingredients, plus a Thai-inspired mixture of hoisin sauce, crushed peanuts and basil. All the sandwiches, burgers, wraps and pitas on the menu came with a choice of hash browns, salad, rice and fruit salad - we both got the fruit salad, which was a mix of grapes and melons served in a tiny teardrop-shaped dish.

Our pitas were huge! My first reaction was literally, "Wow! This is like four servings of grains!" (Though it could've been more like 6-8... yes, this is what your brain is like when you are a dietitian, especially after a conference where you are surrounded by them.) You can see Chelsey modelling her pita above; she offered to take a photo of me but I told her I wasn't feeling photogenic. Seriously, check out that mug! Who can compete with that?


After spending a bit of time trying to figure out how to eat our pitas ("Do I pick it up? Is this like a taco?"), we finally decided to start by picking at the insides, then cutting bits of the pita to eat with it. Almost everything in my pita was warm and toasty (including the cucumber, which can be found cooked in Asian cuisine) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was avocado in my pita as well (it was not listed on the menu). The hoisin sauce with crushed peanuts added a nice Thai/Vietnamese flavour to it and the pita was toasted just so that it was light and crispy, with a few brown bubbles on top. All in all, it was an enjoyable lunch (though we both had *crazy* onion breath afterwards) and I would love to go back and try the other stuff on their menu as well. Clearly this place has quite the following as when we were there for a late lunch on Monday, there were a few other tables and they're opening a "Friends & Neighbours Delights" next door!

Friends & Neighbours Café
10834 82 Ave NW
Edmonton AB T6E 2B3
(780) 433-6506


PS: On a random nutrition-related note, I'd just like to say that one of the issues with former employment contracts that sign away your intellectual property to the employer means that you will occasionally find your work in unexpected places.