Bearspaw Gas Station – March 7th, 2009 - Bearspaw, Alberta
Today’s adventure was what this crazy hobby of ours is all about: Eating good curry from a nontraditional venue while odd happenings occur. A workmate who lives in Bearspaw had mentioned that the local gas station does curry. For me, when a gas station does ethnic food, you know it’s gonna be good. Take for example the dodgy Greek place/Gas bar on 17th Ave. I generally consider Greek food overrated but would gladly eat at that establishment any day. You know it’s gonna be good because the people that run these types of places are first and foremost Indians (or Greeks or whatever) with only a mild passing interest in being gas jockeys.(matt)
This business philosophy reminds me of one of our pharmacy profs. I can't say he was a very good teacher because the only thing I remember from his classes was his stupid story about how he sold gas at his pharmacy just to make more money. You know, for a profession that's trying to define itself and its role in the health care team as something more than just the guys with the store selling stuff.....that's probably not the best lesson. Make money, any way you can, what's a health care team? But, slinging hash and pumping gas have pretty much always gone hand-in-hand so swapping the hash for masala seems like a good exchange to me. (ren)
We pulled up to the gas station/convenience store/take out kitchen and knew immediately that this is where we wanted to be. The front of the store is decked out in signage depicting it as a general Grocery/Mercantile center. We walked in to find a display case featuring samosas but not much else. A red menu board above the display case classified items as either “call ahead only” or “made to order”, meaning that many items could not be ordered by walk in customers.
With limited options, we attempted to order butter chicken and vegetable curries. We were told by the owner that the butter chicken wasn’t ready but that there were lamb, chicken and vegetable curries, as well as biryanis available. I chose a lamb curry while Ren opted for chicken and his girlfriend chose veg. Our choices made, the odd man directed us to the back of his convenience store. This confused us. What was this all about? Was he going to put us to work? Was there a separate section for private dining? No. Instead, he had us watch as he dove into the bottom of a storage freezer like a duck, hunting for premade frozen packets of labeled curry. I offered to help at one point as it appeared he might become trapped in the freezer. It was a surreal moment for sure.(matt)
Lesson learned number 1. Call ahead if you're getting takeout. Whoops. Instead of freshly made we were going to get frozen curry. At least they weren't President's Choice tv dinners. (ren)
Having produced the three small tubs of curry, he asked us if we wanted to eat in or “cook the curry at home” ourselves. Hmm…not exactly the Take out arrangement we had envisioned. As there were no chairs or tables visible and the situation had already exceeded its bizarre quotient, we decided the safest thing for all parties would be to take the curry home. No sense having to call the Bearspaw Volunteer Fire Department for a freezer rescue. (matt)
It was nice that he offered to heat up the food for us there, however we thought it would be just as easy to take it home and nuke it in the microwave. As we later learned, we probably should have let the expert do the re-heating. (ren)
Before we paid, he asked us if we wanted some naan with our meals. We decided that we would need to try some. At this point, he revealed the naan was in another freezer at the front of the store and proceeded to duck dive into another cooler. After locating the frozen naan, he then told us in broken English how to cook the curry and naan. This seemed to involve thawing out the bread overnight and adding a little water to the frozen curry before heating them both in an oven. I’m still not sure I really understood his instructions but my dining mates seemed confident so I didn’t pursue the issue. That being said, written supplementary information would have helped, a la drug information generated at the pharmacy counter. On second thought, those pre-fab printouts usually just confuse people more than they help. Less information is best. (matt)
I was pretty sure we could take the food home, pop it out of the plastic tubs and simply nuke it up to an edible temperature. Same with the naan. His instructions to add just enough but not too much water to the curries, and to wet the naan before baking seemed unnecessary. (ren)
We got 3 heat lamped samosas and paid for our meal. It came to about 48 dollars for 3 entrees, 8 naan and 3 samosas. Reasonable I guess. Then again, we would still have to cook the food ourselves. I passed the owner our business card and he immediately asked if he could advertise with us. No. You can’t advertise with us. Not only does it incite a conflict of interest into our grading process, we aren’t smart enough to have our own business. We’re just here for the food. And maybe to save gas station attendants from freezer burn.(matt)
Yes, we are very ethical in our food reviews. No free lunches here. No bribing your way to a better review. You can try but it just won't work. All you curry-house owners out there, I dare you to try to bribe us. Offer us free meals. Watch as we eat every bite. Then check the internet and see that you still got a 7/10. Bwahaha. (ren)
Starving, we ate the samosas in the parking lot while we watched the owner try and help someone pump gas. The samosas didn’t look very appetizing on first glance but they were filled with amazing spice. The flavour lasted too. I could still taste the spicy beef for 10 mins after eating it. Fantastic. I’d put these samosas up against most I’ve tried in Calgary.(matt)
Matty and I drove separately out to Bearspaw, so neither of us were looking forward to having to drive half-way across town to one of our homes in order to prepare the curry. But we didn't want to split up and only eat half the meal each either. There was really only one viable solution. (ren)
We decided to drive back to Ren’s parents’ house in Varsity to cook the food. As we waited for the frozen meal packets to thaw in a sink of water, Ren’s mom directed us downstairs to get some soft drinks from a beer fridge in the basement. While we were down there, we stumbled upon Ren’s dad working on a fantastic winter project. There, in a small makeshift workshop sat an amazing antique bicycle, complete with wooden wheels which he was restoring. A short discussion about the history of the bicycle industry in Canada ensued. You just never know what’s going to happen when you go out for curry. So random.(matt)
Of course the reheating wasn't going nearly as smoothly as we thought it would. For starters the curry was attached to the plastic tubs. We had to soak the tubs in hot water in order to even get the food into a microwave safe container. Then of course it was partially liquid but mostly an icy curry block, which then had to be microwaved, then stirred, then nuked again, and repeated multiple times for all 3 dishes until they were evenly cooked and edible. (ren)
While Ren and his date cooked the food, I sat on the couch and watched curling with his parents. As is the custom that I’ve come to know when visiting Ren’s parents, no visit can occur without sampling the man of the house’s personal collection of wines, alcohols and spirits. A knowledgeable wine maker and taster, Ren’s father is never shy about sharing. On this day, sometime between the 7th and 8th end of a Kevin Martin and Russ Howard match, he offered us an Italian inspired homemade aperitif of merlot, wormwood oil and 3 or 4 other tonic-like ingredients I didn’t recognize. No one else seemed to really dig it, but I thought it served me well before my curry. Maybe it was the wormwood oil’s effect on my central nervous system but it all seemed very “Van Gogh”.(matt)
Eventually, we were able to get a good collection of naan heated up, and the curries made edible. We considered cooking some rice as well, but since it was not my own kitchen I decided the naan would be enough carbs for one meal. We also left a faily large collection of dirty dishes behind. Good thing my mom loves me. (ren)
When our curries were ready, we sat at the kitchen table and dug in. The quality and flavour of my lamb was high. Real high. The gas station attendant knew what he was doing when he made this dish. Complete with bone-in goodness, the dish was flirting with a perfect score. Its too bad the naan wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.(matt)
The naan wasn't the best ever. A little more pita/pizza-crust-ish than naan, it wasn't great. Maybe it would have been better if reheated by the man himself, but I can't imagine much. It just seemed more suited to wrapping up a donner kebab or something. Eliz's veg curry was tasty, for veg. My chicken curry was really good. Seemed to have less quantity than my dining mates, however it was delicious. Until the penultimate bite it was just spicy enough....(ren)
Then, as Ren was enjoying his chicken curry, he bit into what he thought a pea. It clearly wasn’t. What it was, was the world’s smallest pepper. What do they say about peppers? The smaller they are, the more powerful they are. Usually impervious to capsaicin, this pepper nearly killed Ren. I watched as his face turned bright red and his cheeks seem to swell in pain. Only the threat of being stabbed with an Epi-pen and 4 glasses of milk was able to return Ren to his normal jovial self.(matt)
Matt, Eliz and even my very own mother watched in amusement as I drank nearly her entire carton of milk trying to put out the fire. I wonder if this pepper was actually intended to be eaten, or if it was like a bay leaf....you cook it into the food for the flavor, but then remove it because nobody actually wants to eat one. I can't really punish a dish for one single bite that disagreed with me, so I won't. It was good. However I'd recommend calling ahead and getting the freshly made curry, or if the guy offers to heat yours up for you, let him. (ren)
Overall, if you want a great experience and real food, this is a good bet. The Bearspaw Gas Station is highly recommended by us. Check them out. It’s not just about gas. It’s about people who know how to cook curry, who happen to sell gas.
