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overhead shot of a table filled with dishes of cooked foods; you can see the hands of eight people reaching in to take the food and enjoy it

Enjoy Waterloo Region’s bounty with Taste the Countryside

Taste the Countryside – currently ramping up to run September 23 to October 3 – is a ten-day prix fixe (set menu) dining event designed to support Waterloo Region’s rural food businesses. It’s an important initiative not only for sustaining business but for economic and community growth.

a large wooden bin filled with freshly picked sweet corn; sign on the bin says Herrle's Vision sweet corn variety

Vision, Flavourvee and Gourmet: Sweet Corn in Waterloo Region

When you crunch down on a cob of corn, you’re biting juicily into 10,000 years of history. Domesticated in Mexico, corn is a large grass that was an elemental foodstuff for a variety of American cultures – and at this time of the year, it’s also a particularly delicious local food in Waterloo Region

a view of the empty patio at Wildcraft Grill & Bar in Waterloo on a sunny day with the table umbrellas up

Patios are springing up in Waterloo Region

The patios in the Charcoal Group of Restaurants have been open since February 25, according to managing partner Jody Palubiski. More than ever during the pandemic, patios have become a critical part of a restaurant’s business model.

wooden hand painted sign at the end of a laneway of a Mennonite farm promoting maple syrup for sale

March Maple Syrup Madness!

Maple syrup is a year-long favourite condiment and ingredient and one with a very long history that needs to be acknowledged. Long before Europeans arrived in North America and introduced the honeybee, Canada’s indigenous peoples were drawing sap from trees and creating the sweet elixir: maple syrup

Chef Sourabh Gandotra sitting inside the restaurant Public Kitchen and Bar for an interivew

Chef profile: Sourabh Gandotra, Public Kitchen & Bar

While the pandemic has knocked down a lot of businesses, Sourabh Gandotra is positive in the face of dining room closures and other Covid-19 restrictions. He maintains an excitement for what he has been able to do – and to learn – as a young cook at Public Kitchen & Bar.

Chef Kyle Rennie standing outside the entrance of the restaurant King Street Trio in Uptown Waterloo

More Lessons Learned by Local Restaurants during the Pandemic

One of the biggest lessons learned in the year that was 2020 is just how adaptive and innovative our restaurant community is, We checked in with several Waterloo Region restaurateurs and other food operations to see what kind of changes might represent a new normal in the future.

exterior view of Arabella Beer Bar in Kitchener also showing the Oktoberfest tent on their patio

Micr-‘O’-Fest: Arabella Park Beer Bar Serves up Oktoberfest

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest will be quite different this year with traditional festhallen closed. However, Canada’s largest Bavarian festival is re-imagining itself when it comes to food with a restaurant program, and Arabella Park Beer Bar is participating as a Micro-Festhalle

a chocolate and orange milkshake on a table at a 50's style diner

Milkshakes to say goodbye to summer

The milkshake – and its forgotten great-grandfather “the malted” – has a long and storied history. Now or 100 years ago, the frosty beverages are a perfect summer treat. And they’re perfect, too, for saying goodbye to summer, sad though that is. 

Waterloo Region Ale Trail - stop at Innocente Brewery - berry berliner beer, bottle and glass

O’Fest Brews: Local Craft Brewers celebrate Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest grew out of agrarian and harvest celebrations — and that of course includes fêting the barley and hops used to make beer. Because Oktoberfest is front-and-centre each fall in Waterloo Region, it makes sense that local brewers are inspired by that brewing history in a glass.

restaurants waterloo region, meal in a bowl, power bowls, food waterloo region, food waterloo, ethnic foods waterloo region

9 Meals in a Bowl to Try in Waterloo Region

The thing about a meal in a bowl is that it suddenly becomes comfort food, no matter what the ingredients. Whether conventional proteins and vegetables or straight-up vegetarian or vegan, these dishes pack flavour punch and healthy nutrients in a quaint concave vessel.

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