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My Kitchen Essentials

So finally I’m getting round to writing a list of my kitchen utensils that I use. This could be helpful for those who are preparing their boxing day shopping list or planning to write a list for wanted gifts 🙂 Good Quality Knives

Previously, I used to buy knife sets without proper research ex: Cusinart, KitchenAid, you name it! I assumed that since they were were good brands, their knives were…

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Vancouver 2017

So I went on another foodie trip – but this time, I decided to check out a city close by! Vancouver has tons of choices when it comes to ramen, sushi, dim sums, belgium waffles and Indian resto.  Having visited Vancouver in the summer of 2016, I was already fond of their local dairy products such as yogurt, milk, fruits and veg 😀 Here’s the link  Vancouver 2016 Food back to my 2016 trip where I…

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Turkish Food Experience in Istanbul

Kebabs, coffee, kunefe and baklava. I was ecstatic to hear that I would be going to a Turkish wedding, along with being able to tick-off my bucket list of Turkish food! So what is Turkish food? Is it all that I expected…or more? Day 1 – Kebabs and Pastries We had our first Turkish taste at the hotel (breakfast) and everything was fresh, healthy and flavourful.  Turkish breakfast consisted of many…

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Ten Foot Henry, Calgary

Ten Foot Henry, Calgary

I’ve been meaning to go to Ten Foot Henry, especially after hearing that it’s in the top 10 best restaurants in Calgary in 2017 (link) It was 5pm on Tuesday, when we suddenly decided to go.  However, weirdly as like most restaurants in downtown Calgary, they really had no available seating (except counter seat at 6pm).  We took it. First we were greeted by the bartender who offered me unlimited…

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The newest (Bengali) resto in town - Calcutta Cricket Club

The newest (Bengali) resto in town – Calcutta Cricket Club

This is an upscale Bengali resto, located on busy 17th Ave SW that just opened last week! Given the fact that my fave Nilu’s Kitchen (Bangladeshi resto) shut down last year, I was curious to find how this was! Waiting Time: They don’t take reservations. We got in at 8pm and put our name down (waiting time was about 45 mins and they call you when the table is ready). Food Papri Chat (semolina…

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My First Ever Visit to  Waitrose Supermarket 

I couldn’t help but write a post about Waitrose; especially since this was the first time I ever went! Friends and colleagues, back in the days, used to tell me about this “fancy” grocery chain. However, throughout my 20+years of living in the UK, I never actually came across one. If I had to go to one, I’d have to actually make the trip! As a bigger foodie than before, I decided to go to…

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Duck and Waffle, London

This restaurant that’s located in a high story building just off Liverpool street station is not only known for its all day duck and waffle dish, but for its amazing views of London!  Duck and waffles anyone? I’ve tried chicken and waffles before (elsewhere)and quite liked the combination! So I thought why not duck and waffles? After all I love each item.. however, I just didn’t know how the…

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Dishoom, Kings Cross, London

Dishoom is a Bombay upscale cafe with vintage decor. They’ve a few locations in London, but the one I went to was the Kings Cross location. My first visit was for dinner on a weekday! Well, I happened to get there at 6:30pm, but there was almost a 2 hour waiting time! My friend (whom I was meeting) brought a big bag of snacks to eat while waiting in the queue. However, the employee at Dishoom…

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Sucre Patisserie, Calgary

Sucre is a French bakery that recently opened up in downtown, Calgary. Since I was working next to that building, I had the opportunity to try their food and drinks every single day for the week! 😃 If it’s your first time, you’ll be greeted by a proud staff member who says something in the lines of “All our products here are made in our kitchen. Our coffee “Matchstick” comes from Vancouver…” All…

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This Korean upscale resto is located on 17th Ave of Calgary.

I gotta say, this restaurant is now definitely one of my favourite!

As a first timer. the waitress advised us to try a number of small sized different dishes.

Hubby and I ordered the following:

Oxtail Tortellini (Soy Sauce, Truffle Oil, Grana Padano)

Fois Gras & Tofu (Smoked Bone Marrow, Steam Bread, Plum, Pistachio, Sesame)

Beef Short Ribs (Sweet Garlic Soy Marinade, Cucumber Kimchi)

Korean Beef Sliders

Squid Fried Rice

Dark Chocolate White Truffle Pâté (Black Vinegar, Orange Compote, Chocolate Gochujang Ice Cream)

Fuyu Persimmon Cheesecake (Stewed Dates, White Chocolate Curry Crumble, Kaenip, Lemon)

Tortellini was so fresh with a “a la dente” texture of the pasta.  Oxtail was tender with a hint of spices.

Fois Gras & Tofu was out of this world.  Normally I find fois gras too strong, but this was blended with tofu and was so creamy and light; topped up with crumbled pistachios.  Portion was more than enough and it was served with steamed/toasted thin slices of bread.

Beef short ribs was as expected (from any decent Korean place), but the cucumber kimchi that it was served with was mouth watering (salty, spicy and a bit sour).

Korean Beef Sliders – beef on toasted bread with melted broiled cheese, spring onions and sesame.  Moist, tender beef filling on a slightly crunchy/soft bread.

Squid Fried Rice – I normally go for plain rice whenever I’m at a restaurant because I don’t like my rice to be greasy.  However, when the waitress described it as “extremely spicy rice”, I knew I had to go for it!  It was the best fried rice I’ve ever had – the rice was the black kind (arborio style).  It was cooked with a lot of dry chilli peppers, but the heat wasn’t all that.  The rice was tasty on its own (with its own blend of spices).  My hubby normally can’t take the heat, but he found it tasty and couldn’t resist it.  In terms of “heatness”, if you are used to Asian spicy style food, then you would be able to bear this heat.  For me, I didn’t find it that spicy!

Dark chocolate dessert.  This was the most unusual dessert that I’ve had in my life!  There was a chocolate torte like cake (thicker than mousse), very rich in chocolate.  However, I found that the truffle oil was so overpowering that I could hardly taste the chocolate. Yes I love truffle oil, but I think a tad less of it would do the job.  I couldn’t taste the sweetness of the chocolate.  Moreover, this was served with chocolate ice cream that was in fact very spicy! I found it a very weird combination.  It was also served with a chocolate meringue, which seemed to be a bit dry.  The black vinegar was only a drop, so it did not influence the taste overall – the truffle oil and the spice already took over!  At the end, I could not finish the cake because it was too filling.  I’d rather go for a sweet dessert rather than something spicy after a spicy meal 😃

The cheesecake was very light and creamy; and very refreshing indeed. This cheesecake had hints of lemon everywhere and was definitely satisfying after a spicy meal.  It was topped up with stewed dates, but to me, the dates tasted a bit like raisins.

Conclusion

Service – The waitress described everything perfectly.  For example, when I asked her to describe the chocolate dessert, she didn’t read from the menu.  Instead she described the texture and taste as close to reality.  From what I’ve seen, this is a skill that I don’t see much here in North America, but see a lot in Italian/French restaurants in Europe.

Ambiance – Comfy sofas, low lighting, dark furnitures, mellow music.  It was perfect for making conversations (unlike other loud restaurants).

Food – Impeccable.

Anju, Korean Restaurant, Calgary This Korean upscale resto is located on 17th Ave of Calgary. I gotta say, this restaurant is now definitely one of my favourite!

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What I ate in Vegas (Non-Buffet)

What I ate in Vegas (Non-Buffet)

As mentioned in earlier posts, Las Vegas is known for its buffet. However, it’s also known for its food from famous chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and the Cake Boss.  Here are a few non-buffet places that we went to. Gordon Ramsay Burgr, Planet Hollywood It was around 11pm when we decided to try out this burger place! I was particularly excited to try Gordon’s truffle burger (truffle tremor cheese,…

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Buffets in Las Vegas

Vegas is known for its buffets.  So we ended up going to 3 of the popular ones during our trip: Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan Bacchanal at Cesaers The Buffet at Wynn The Wicked Spoon The day I arrived at Vegas (on 25th Dec), we planned to go to the Bacchanal. However, there was a 6 hour waiting time from 2pm. Insane. So we went to the Wicked Spoon (3 hours waiting). Food: everything was too…

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Charcut Roast House, Calgary

Today for lunch, I decided to have just dessert. Yes..it’s cuz I had double breakfast! This was the salted caramel chocolate crunch pudding. For $12, I expected it to be a bit bigger. I normally think of pudding to be warm, but this was cold. The pudding was delicious, I can’t complain! A light layer of salted caramel sauce over a thick layer of chocolate cold pudding (a bit of a jelly…

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What I ate during my B day weekend!

Eating out on my birthday meant that I had the choice to eat whatever I wanted (even even hubby didn’t want to!). Gravity Espresso & Wine Bar, Inglewood I’ve been craving for Cornish pasties for a while! I could not find one in Calgary nor in Montreal; until I saw a Twitter post from these guys!  So this was my first mission on that weekend. The pasty crust was not bad, but not as springy and…

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Pulcinella, Calgary

Located in the trendy area of Kensington, I heard that this was a great “Italian” pizza place. However, it did not meet my expectations to real Italian pizza. We ordered the truffle cheese pizza.  There were pieces of truffles on it, but it made the whole pizza taste bitter and smelly. I wasn’t sure if the truffles were actually burnt!  I have always had truffle on pizza and burgers, but it never…

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Alloy Restaurant, Calgary

This elegant fine dining restaurant is located off Macleod Trail.  We decided to go to this “highly rated” place since it was a special day for us.  Luckily it was within the car-2-go area since we didn’t have a car and it was out of downtown! Appetizers Truffle Gnocchi – this was probably the best gnocchi I’ve had outside of Italy.  I felt that it was so fresh and almost melting in my mouth. It…

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Vancouver Trip 2016

The drive to Vancouver from Calgary was out of this world; and so was some of the food that I ate! What particularly stood out the most was the sushi and BC’s dairy products and berries! Local BC Dairy Products and Berries Since moving to Canada 8 years ago, I have been utterly disappointed with the taste of milk, yogurt and cheese.  Maybe I have been spoilt by fresh local dairy food by living in…