Outrageous pie, divine bacon and tender steak
As we depart the Rockies, we only have time for take-out in Calgary
We only had time for take-out in Calgary, as we began our trip home from the Rockies to Ontario—but what outstanding take-out it was!
Flapper Pie, the Canadian prairie classic also known was Wafer Pie, from iconic Blackfoot Truckstop Diner.
House-smoked bacon, the Canadian breakfast staple, and tenderloin steaks, perfectly pre-seasoned with salt and pepper, from Charcut Curbside and Butcher Shop.
The origins of Flapper Pie date to the 19th century and the Victorian era in Britain, but in Canada it gained popularity in the earlier part of the 20th century in Canada's prairie regions. It became known as Flapper Pie as it was popularized in the 1920s, the same era as Flappers.
(Flappers of the 1920s were young women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous.)
Outrageous is a description one might apply to the six-inch-high Flapper Pie served at Blackfoot Truckstop Diner.
Edna Taylor opened the truckstop/diner in 1956 and it became well known by truck drivers from across North America. Flapper Pie has been on the menu almost since the beginning.
Built on a graham-cracker crust, the pie has a custard filling that’s topped by a towering meringue and garnished with a sprinkling of graham-cracker crumbs. Edna Taylor made sure each slice measured up to her literal high standard. “The pie had to be six inches high, or it was no good,” Avenue Calgary magazine quoted a manager at the diner. “That’s how she wanted it. And we’ve always just done it that way since.”
As best as we can make out, Flapper Pie originated in Manitoba and then moved westward to Saskatchewan and Alberta. Nowadays, it seems to be closely identified with Alberta.
But it’s still served at the Salisbury House chain of restaurants in Winnipeg where it’s called Wafer Pie. The first Salisbury house restaurant opened in downtown Winnipeg in 1931 by founder Ralph Erwin who named his new eatery after the Salisbury Steak. Known locally as Sals, the chain is considered an iconic Winnipeg institution. Burton Cummings, the lead singer of the world famous rock group, The Guess Who, is a shareholder.
We would have loved to overnight in Calgary so we could dine in style at famed Charcut Roast House but our schedule did not permit such extravaganza. Instead, we called ahead for take-out from Charcut Curbside and Butcher Shop.
We’ve already reported on how much we enjoyed Charcut tenderloin steaks at our campsite in Dinosaur Provincial Park near Drumheller, Alberta.
Here, we’ll just say the Charcut house-smoked bacon was divine, the perfect blend of fat, smoke and flavour. The flat of bacon we picked up in Calgary lasted us all the way home in Pickering (on Lake Ontario just east of Toronto).
A bonus of our Charcut stop was that Nadine, the helpful supervisor of curbside service, was kind enough to enclose two small bags of delicious chocolate-chip cookies.
Sweet!
TRIP DATA
Day 28: 5,808 km from home
Next stop: Dinosaur Provincial Park near Drumheller, Alberta