As a travel writer and self-proclaimed foodie, I’ve been on quite a few food tours over the last couple years.  What makes this one different?  Well, Calgary is one of the many places I call home and it’s the only food tour that I’ve ever done in Canada.  Call it comfort food, call it feeding my soul; however you look at it, this tour went straight from my taste buds to my heart!

Calgary Food Tours Inc. has 5 different tours throughout the city to choose from, and I wish you luck choosing because they all sound amazing.  I decided to go with Craving Kensington because it’s in one of my favourite neighbourhoods in the city.

Even though I was already familiar with a few of the stops on the list, I was pleasantly surprised that I still tasted and learned new things about some of my old favourites!

Our meeting point for the start of the tour was the Kensington Riverside Inn where our group became fast friends while we chatted about, well…food!

With a small gift from the hotel in hand, together we made our way to the our first food stop.

Pulcinella was one of the places I was familiar with prior to the tour and I was quickly reminded why it’s one of my old favourites in Calgary.  As I walked in there was a feeling of Italy about the place.  They had a wood burning pizza oven at the back and in true Italian fashion, the staff was super friendly, and quick to pour the wine!  This was going to be good!We started with a tomato and Caprese salad, that kept things interesting with a drizzle of pesto to perk things up.  Between that and the healthy pour of vino in front of me, I would have been happy to stop there, but I was told there were pizzas were on the way.The good people at Pulcinella’s take their pizza seriously and have things down to a science with their 90 second cook time.  Just take a bite, close your eyes and you’ll be in Italian.

A few salads, some wine, and 3 different types of pizza later and we were walking across the street to Naked Leaf Tea Shop for a tea tasting.We started with a 1st flush Nepalese tea that was cold brewed, and reminded me that I don’t need to sweeten my drinks to get them to taste good.  It was crisp and refreshing just the way it was.If you wanted to check this one out it was called Wonder Delight.

From cold tea we moved onto a warm tea that won me over with its vanilla mint flavour.The compulsive tea purchaser inside of me was scouring the wall of tea, planning my next purchase, but was quickly distracted by the unique tins all the teas came in.  Local artists have pieces featured on tea tins for a limited time, leaving the wall of tea at Naked Leaf looking like an art gallery of sorts.  If you’ve never been, it’s worth popping by.Not having built our hunger back up just yet, we made our way to Kensington Wine Market for a beer, wine a spirit tasting.

Don’t worry, it was past noon!

We started with Diftwood beer from Victoria, BC.Then my personal favourite of the tasting, an organic wine called Alive from Summerhill Pyramid in BC’s Okanogan Vallley.At 58% alcohol content Jura Boutique Barrles was a single malt whiskey that was sure to wake up anyone who was still drowsy and full from the pizza!  It definitely had a kick to it!Kensington Wine Market staff are extremely knowledgeable and are great at helping switch up your regular drink if you want try something different.  They have a huge selection with a price range that works for whatever budget you’re shopping in.  I may or may not have gone back after the tour to pick up a couple bottles of organic Prosecco that were eyeing me up while I was in there.Next door to Kensington Wine Market is Peasant Cheese Shop where you can find olives, charcuterie, crackers, jams, mustard, local produce in the summer, and of course; cheese.

They call it Peasant Cheese Shop, I call it a cheese lovers paradise!

Our first sample was a certified organic cheese from Quebec called Balucheon.  If it was good enough to win best cheese in Canada, it’s good enough for me!Peasant Cheese Shop also does lunch to go and we were given a taste of their creation of the day: Creamy Corn Proscutto and Cheddar.  Simply delicious.From there we walked just a bit down the street to The Brasserie.

We were each delivered a glass of Toolshed cream ale as we waited for the main event—Poutine!  French fries cooked in duck fat with duck gravy to match had me feeling like I was back in the South of France…with a twist of French Canada thrown in.  This was one seriously good poutine.In my humble opinion, the best was saved for last as we rolled ourselves on over to Crave, a favourite of many Calgarians I imagine.Having gone under renovations,Crave now has a room attached to the side that allows for workshops and parties.  We were brought through the kitchen into their new workshop where there was a large, inviting table waiting for us to gather around.  The fact that there was brownies waiting on that table may have gotten us all there a little faster.I don’t know about you, but my favourite part of any cupcake is the icing; which is why I was very excited to find out that we’d be icing our own cupcakes that day.  Call me a sweet tooth, call me greedy, but I just couldn’t help myself and pile my icing far higher than necessary.  It was worth every calorie!

This food tour was perfect for my inner foodie because I knew by reading the description that I would love every stop on the list.  A day out with Calgary Food Tours would be a perfect date day, girls night, or just a great way to explore the culinary side of the city that you might not know about yet.

Dig in Calgary!Thank you to Calgary Food Tours Inc. for having me as a guest on the Craving Kensington Tour.  All opinions are my own.