Before the end of summer, I decided to make a couple road trips down Calgary to try their new foods and do a little hiking. I’ll keep the intro short since the review is long!
Native Tongues Taqueria
I’ve heard many positive reviews about this place so it had to be our first stop.
My friend chose the elotes since our server highly recommended it, and we also ordered the chips and guac to share. You could also pay an additional $0.75 for unlimited chips. Elotes is grilled corn with chipotle crema, queso fresco, and cilantro. I’m personally not a fan of it but my friend enjoyed it; she thought it’s good and with a little hint of spice. We also shared the chips and guac, which were disappointing. The chips were no different than your regular tortilla chips you could purchase at any grocery store (if not, even worse because it was way too salty). The guac was very regular and plain, nothing special.
Pictured: 3 suadero, 3 chorizo con papas, 2 pollo abodo, and 1 carnitas. Suadero is english term for beef brisket, white onion, and cilantro. The beef brisket came out way too dry and hard to swallow. The chorizo con papas is chorizo rojo, potatoes, white onion, and cilantro. Our main reason for ordering this was because we wanted to try the potatoes, but the chorizo was way too spicy. I’d recommend this if you could handle your spice tolerance! The pollo abodo is basically roasted chicken taco. Nothing worth mentioning except the chicken was quite dry as well. The carnitas was the best taco out of all of them but again, nothing worth mentioning.
Even with high ratings, this experience kind of hit the pitch. The tacos were not satisfying at all, and the appies were mediocre. We compared this to Edmonton’s Tres Carnales and thought Tres Carnales was 100% better.
Made By Marcus
Made by Marcus was open awhile back and it has made its way through social media. Many of you have already seen their Instagram-worthy ice creams. There’s not too much to say about this except it’s delicious and totally worth the wait. Luckily, there wasn’t a lineup when we went. It’s a tiny ice cream shop with only a couple of seatings so be prepare to take your ice cream to-go! I tried the raspberry kiss which is a soft serve vanilla ice cream with chambord raspberry sauce topped with pistachios, fresh berries, and a hibiscus macaron. It’s a nice tart ice cream, and the macaron was perfectly soft as well. If you want something more sweet, try the unicorn, it’s topped with strawberry white chocolate and cotton candy.
Mango Mania
To end the short day trip, we stopped by Mango Mania for dinner, and I’m so glad we did! We shared the tot poutine with duck gravy, ricotta, and a kaffir lime leaf pea shoot salad. It was very crispy, the ricotta balances the salty duck gravy, and the salad gives it some freshness. The salad almost resembles raw watercress. I chose the pork belly & roast duck bao. The baos are $4 each or $12 for 3 with a complimentary mango pudding/green mango salad. The pork belly bao has garlic mayo, shaved red onions, scallions, crushed peanuts, and pickled mustard greens. The pork belly was way too dry for my liking though. I feel that everywhere in Edmonton has dry pork belly baos as well… But the roast duck bao saved the day. It’s a shaved roast duck with cucumbers, fried shallots, cilantro, and duck gravy. It was a nice twist of having shaved roast duck instead of having a whole piece of duck as it still came out very moist and flavorful.
I also chose the mango mania $8 since it was their signature drink. It’s a fresh mango juice with mango jelly, mango jello, mango popping pearls, mango mochi, and topped with mango chunks. Now, that’s a lot of mango if you ask me! It’s sweet and refreshing for a long day!
That’s it for my Calgary day trip! I’ll be heading to Calgary again before summer’s officially over so stay tune for more reviews. My main focus will still be YEG but it’s nice to change it up a little!
YEG CRAVINGS 