Sky scraping towers sprout in downtown’s grid like a 3-D who’s who in energy, technology and innovation. Streetside, the city is softer and more in touch with nature.  Bustling restaurants, patios, bakery cafes and coffee shops attest to the city’s livability. People here are active. And, with over 8000 hectares of green space they can play and eat as hard as they work year round.

Each season in Calgary brings its own burst of activities that fuel appetites for local fare. Alberta’s seven signature foods – beef, bison, canola, honey, Red Fife wheat, root vegetables and saskatoon berries – all thrive on farms and ranches within an hour of town. From spring shoots to winter roots these are the basis of the foods enjoyed with the seasons.

Spring Flings

In spring, cycling along the Bow and Elbow Rivers, the fragrance of honeysuckle, caragana and wolf willow melds with wild roses. Spring’s bright greens are offset with these flowery hues of gold, grey and pink. In all quadrants of the city, parks abound. When spring flings itself on Calgary, locals of all cultures are keen to picnic.

A ride through any park is a tantalizing tour of the food diversity of the city’s population – Pakistani tandoor, Korean Beef Bulgogi, Ukrainian Kielbasa or Japanese sushi are easily found. Calgarians of all backgrounds make the most of the city’s picnic sites and the 1000 kilometers of cycling paths connecting them.

Though restaurants like River Cafe in Prince’s Island Park and Bow Valley Ranche in Fish Creek Provincial Park are fine dining bastions, they also cater to people’s love of the outdoors with al fresco picnic baskets to go. Seasons of Bowness Park offers casual food for those that have worked up an appetite paddling on its canals and wandering through its old growth spruce forests. As summer temperatures rise, people immerse in river life.

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