Bountiful Farmers' Market

Before beginning PiKante, they owned the 3 Amigos restaurant in downtown Edmonton. They loved running this business but found their life/work balance wasn’t working well for their young family. In search of more freedom in their work, they decided to take some of their most versatile products and offer them to the public in a new way. There are few places that sell true Mexican salsa and tres leches cake in Edmonton, and Ken and Pamela wanted to make it possible for people to bring these products into their own home cooking rather than being something only available in a restaurant.

Ken’s family traces their routes back to Oaxaca, Mexico while Pamela’s family is from Guatemala City. The majority of their families are still in Mexico and Guatemala and their culinary traditions are evident in PiKante’s products. Ken has learned to make true salsas from his mom. Many North American eaters equate salsa with the tex-mex chunky salsa, but that’s not representative of a true Mexican or central American salsa where they’re typically either a runny sauce salsa or a creamy salsa. The salsa roja and salsa verde are the more traditional runny salsas in PiKante’s line up. They’re the kind of salsas that Ken’s mom would always have on the go at home. Their diablo salsa, is a stand out because of its incredibly creamy texture which contains no dairy. The secret in how they get this creaminess is simply in the way they cook the peppers. They offer five different salsas currently but they’ll be adding more! They want to eventually have at least 10 salsa options because there’s so many different varieties and combinations of salsa for their customers to experience and explore. Additionally, being from Oaxaca, Ken knows how to make a good mole, so keep an eye out for when they add a delicious mole sauce to their product line up!

PiKante only uses high quality fresh (never canned) veggies in their salsas. Their products are all natural with no sugars or preservatives added. This dedication to quality extends to their tres leches cakes and corn chips as well. Their chips are homemade with 100% corn and are first cut then deep fried to get that perfect texture. Even their tres leche cakes are made entirely from scratch, down to using only fresh cut fruit to make their fruit glazes.

PiKante also sells homemade frozen tacos dorados (flautas), empanadas and Mexican tamales. You can only find PiKante products at Bountiful Farmers’ Market, though you can also hire them to cater or order a custom tres leche cake for a special occasion!