Soup and Sandwich at Italian Centre (95 Street Location)

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Comfort food: chicken and rice soup with a turkey focaccia sandwich. The cheese was removed. The bread really made the sandwich in this case. #yeg #italiancentre #italiancentreshop #yegfood #yegfoodie #nofilter

A post shared by Paula E. Kirman (@livingsanctuary) on Sep 6, 2018 at 1:50pm PDT

Comfort food: chicken and rice soup with a turkey focaccia sandwich. The cheese was removed. The bread really made the sandwich in this case.

Flavourful Focaccia

Focaccia #yegfood, a photo by raise my voice on Flickr.

As someone who spends a lot of time in Little Italy, I love heading to Spinelli's Bar Italia at the north end location of the Italian Centre for a quick nosh. For a number of months I have been enjoying the focaccia with black olives and ripe tomatoes. This week, I tried a new variety, with green olives, capers, and sun dried tomatoes. The flavours of the capers and green olives complemented each other perfectly (I feared together they would be too salty, but they weren't), while the sun dried tomatoes added a smokiness that added balance.

Best. Focaccia. Ever. (Italian Centre)

Focaccia, a photo by raise my voice on Flickr.

Spinelli's Bar Italia at the north side Italian Centre is serving up a lot more than espresso and sweet treats. Now, you can get grilled sandwiches, soup, pizza, and focaccia.

Focaccia. I have had it before and never considered it a big deal. A dense hunk of break, with seasonings.

I saw some gentlemen having focaccia at Spinelli's recently, and it looked very different. First of all, it had toppings. It looked more like pizza, without cheese.

I was at Spinelli's on Monday evening waiting for a friend, watching soccer, and killing time before a board meeting - in that order. I had also eaten supper early and had the evening munchies, so I had a piece of the tomato and olive focaccia (the other choice would have been tomato and jalapeno peppers, which I can't do for medical reasons).

My tastebuds were blown away by the rich seasonings, earthy olives, and sweet tomatoes. The bread itself was light and flaky, with the fact it had been heated making it crisp. I am not even sure I can put into words how delicious the focaccia was.

I will definitely keep this in mind when I am at the Italian Centre and wanting a snack or light lunch.