Sorrentino's

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

Strangely, even though Sorrentino's is just at the foot of my neighbourhood, my family has only been there maybe once years ago, often opting to go to Misato instead. Recently, however, Sorrentino's has completely revamped itself, bringing on chef Giuseppe di Gennaro of Capo to create a more family-friendly (read: less expensive) menu that still stays true to its Italian roots. I don't know if the interior has been redone as well, but the restaurant now features an open kitchen, and the main dining room offers floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Sarcee Trail mountains of loam in preparation for the construction of the West LRT. Despite the fact that it was late last Sunday, there were still many families lingering from their Father's Day feasts, so we were given a booth off to the side.


We kicked our meal off by sharing some tiny roasted red peppers filled with creamy mascarpone risotto ($11), which was topped with a bit of greens (which of course, I ate.) Everything was dressed in peppery olive oil and dotted with balsamic vinegar and pine nuts, and we greedily dipped the crusty bread from the basket into that instead of the olives it originally came with.

My brother ordered the soup of the day also ($9), which on that day, was a stracciatella, or egg drop soup with spinach. It wasn't very flavourful, but happily did not reflect the rest of the meal we had. He also ordered a cappellini primavera ($15) as his "main" course, which he said was not "what he expected" (I think he erroneously expected tomato sauce) but he scarfed it down anyway.


My sister probably had the best main dish out of the three of us - grilled lamb chops with roasted potatoes and cannellini beans "fiaschetto" style ($25). The lamb chops were juicy and succulent, with the right mix of lean and fatty meats. The cannellini beans were rich, with a pleasantly surprising smoky flavour and little bits of sausage hidden throughout. The roasted potatoes had crisp skins and soft, buttery centres.

Compared to my sister's large plate of lamb chops, I was a little taken aback by how small my portion of chicken saltimbocca with sage-butter gnocchi and sauteed Brussels sprouts ($24) were.


This dish really highlights sage, a minty, peppery herb that I find usually takes a backseat to more common herbs like basil and oregano. Instead of using the usual prosciutto, the chicken saltimbocca at Sorrentino's is stuffed with ham instead, which makes it not too salty.


I was really impressed with the gnocchi, which had a nice springy bite and was surprisingly filling. And the brussels sprouts were good, but nothing overly special.

We had treats from the bake sale waiting for us at home, but a quick glance at the dessert menu shows traditional treats, like tiramisu, panna cotta and cannoli.

Overall, I found that the service at Sorrentino's was quite pleasant, especially given that we were just three "kids" who clearly weren't out with dad on Father's Day - he's out of the country right now - I would go back again for a change from my family's usual weekly Japanese dinner, but I don't think it's a place I would go out of my way for.

Sorrentino's
308 1919 Sirocco Dr SW
Calgary AB T3H 2Y3
(403) 246-5353
Open everyday from 5-9 PM.

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Garden Patch Muffins v.1.3

The muffins I made for the Food Blogger bake sale are actually the third incarnation of what was formerly known as *potentially* the healthiest muffins ever. Except now I don't think there's as much of a focus on health as much as how many different things can I stuff into a little muffin...

The vegetables and fruit - carrots, zucchini and apple - are the same, but I have added different spices and also swapped out some of the flax from the previous version with oat bran. I also traded some nuts for raisins, so now it's more like a Morning Glory Muffin, except... *Oooh!* those have coconut in them! Well, then...


I did contemplate switching my liquid ingredient from applesauce to yogurt for more protein, but 1 cup of yogurt = 11 g protein ÷ 12 muffins = not worth it. However, I did end up making half of the muffins with *gasp* oil because I spoiled half of my first batch of muffins by forgetting to copy down a crucial ingredient - baking soda! - into my new recipe (Really, I'm the girl who has forgotten to bring her tickets to a Flames game and to bring my gym bag to the gym) and I wasn't about to buy a new jar of applesauce that would take me forever to finish anyway. I didn't taste either so I don't know if there was a significant difference (other than calories and fat) between the two - sorry!


Either way, it turned out the make-up batch of muffins may not have been necessary as the muffins weren't very popular anyway :( I think all people saw were cellophane and ribbons instead of healthy muffin goodness - lesson learned.


Still, my sister and I had fun in our little muffin-wrapping "sweatshop" session:

Garden Patch Muffins v.1.3
Makes about a dozen muffins

• ½ cup (125 mL) sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) unsweetened applesauce
  
• ¾ cup (185 mL) whole wheat flour
  
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) ground flaxseed
  
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) oat bran
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
  
• ½ tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
  
• ½ tsp (2 mL) ground ginger
  
• ¼ tsp (1 mL)cloves
  
• 2 cups (500 mL) total of grated carrots, zucchini and apple
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) walnuts, chopped
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line muffin pan with muffin cups.
   
2. In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the eggs. Add the applesauce and mix well.
   
3. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, flaxseed, oat bran, spices and baking soda. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients - the batter will be a little dry here, but don't worry because the vegetables are going to add moisture!
   
4. Fold in vegetables, walnuts and raisins. Spoon heaping tablespoons of batter into prepared cups.
   
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Nutrition Info (per muffin): 107 calories, 2 g fat (0.3 g saturated), 17 mg cholesterol, 20 g carbohydrate (2 g fibre, 12 g sugar), 3 g protein, 116 mg sodium. An excellent source of manganese. A good source of selenium.

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Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale Recap (featuring blurry cell phone pictures!)

Thank you!!!

I am happy to announce that this past weekend, the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale raised just under $1,200 for Calgary Meals on Wheels! Thanks to all of you who came down to grab a sweet treat, or simply threw some loose change into our donations jar.

I can literally write an entire blog post thanking my wonderful team of bloggers for turning my random little idea into a success - thank you all for being so enthusiastic about the project from the get-go; thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to bake your little butts off before and during the weekend of the event; thank you for driving short and long distances to drop off your delicious treats (even when I wasn't home!); thank you for your graphic designing capabilities (because I don't have any) in designing a simple yet effective poster; thank you for posting about this event on your blog (even if you couldn't make it!), or talking about it on the radio, or getting it into local papers so that your legions of adoring fans will come down with cookbooks for you to sign and (for some of you) thank you for putting up with me for two hours at a time! Thank you, just thank you.

Thanks to B. for popping in multiple times during the course of the weekend, for organizing all the baked goods in our "stock room pile", and essentially keeping me sane so I didn't embarrass myself in public!

Thanks to my mom (Mama T) for donating $100 for a box of baked goods that is now on our kitchen counter! (She didn't end up bringing them to her party.) And also thank you for washing the dishes that I was too lazy to wash right away... (I'm a terrible daughter, I know.)

And of course, thanks to Market Collective for choosing the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale out of their pile of vendor applications and for giving me a table with so much storage space at the back!

In case you missed it, we had a pretty sweet set up at the Market Collective, offering a variety of delicious cookies, tarts, squares, cakes, bars and my muffins (which, sadly, didn't seem very popular).

People seemed to go for novelties like Jen's Applewood Smoked Bacon Chocolate Cookies, Dan's London Fog cookies, Claire's Summer Camp S'Mores Bars and all the gluten-free treats. On the flip side, classics also sold out quickly, like Zoey's lemon squares and essentially all cookies and brownies. And of course, we had people specifically come down and ask, "What did Julie van Rosendaal make?"

Jen's now famous Applewood Smoked Bacon Chocolate Cookies and her equally creative Chocolate Espresso Vodka Bundt Cakes with Amarula Cream Cheese Frosting

Reading about other food blogger bake sales was definitely a helpful planning strategy - somehow I managed to remember to bring tongs, posters, plastic bags (not enough), a cash float (too much) and supplies to make signs and labels. Asking people to wrap their stuff was the best idea ever, especially since there were times when our storage space was stacked quite precariously.

I also learned to be flexible; while my original idea was to have four price points and just label everything with coloured stickers, this did not work as nearly everyone said, "I don't know how much I want it to cost - I'll see what everyone else is charging." I had to scramble to come up with prices (which were a little inconsistent early on Saturday) and what I also figured out was that people tend to buy things that are labelled because they know what they are. So next time, I will make labels for everything beforehand as much as possible.

Next time, I will also listen to B. when he says he estimates probably about 1%, maybe maximum 3% of people will buy something. Then I won't scare people into baking six catering trays worth of stuff just because the organizers expected 2500-3000 people to go through the event and be saddled with a trunk full of leftovers, or make photocopies of blog lists in size 8 font that people simply pick up and put down.

One good thing that came out of all those leftovers though, was that we were able to help out another local charity! The DI (aka the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre) accepted all our sweet treats with open arms! They take donations of all kinds (right now undies are in high demand) and will also pick up larger household items.

All in all, I think everyone will agree that it was a fun and successful event - watch for us to have another bake sale again or possibly other foodie events in the future!

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Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale - This weekend!

 

This past month, I've been putting together an event to raise funds for Calgary Meals on Wheels, and thanks to Julie, things have really been picking up steam this week as she's got everyone buzzing about what they're planning to bring and has also attracted us some media attention! Yes, that was us you heard about on the CBC Eyeopener yesterday morning, or read about in the Real Life section of the Calgary Herald today. (Thanks, Shelley!)

I've been completely taken aback by the positive response that I've gotten from all the food bloggers that I've been in touch with, and amazed by how many of us are out there! (Many of whom came about through lots of emails that went, "Yes, I would love to participate - can my friend who is also a food blogger come too?") I even got an email today from someone interested in participating - say hi to the girls at Lavish!

There's going to be *lots* of yummy treats at the sale - Pierre is going to be selling some limited edition (there are only 12!) flower pot brownies, Jen is baking up some Applewood Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies and *deep breath* Mini Double Chocolate Espresso Vodka Bundt Cakes with Amarula Cream Cheese frosting. For you celiacs out there, I'm happy to announce that I've brought in three gluten-free bloggers - H. Peter is bringing some pumpkin squares with cinnamon buttercream from his wife's company, GF Patisserie in Cochrane, Lauren is making lemon-rhubarb bundt cake and Chelsey is making these gorgeous Bleeding Heart Tarts.

Those are just a handful of some of the goodies coming your way, and if you're feeling virtuous, Cheryl is making Chai Spiced Granola and I'm making my Garden Patch Muffins... with raisins. (Thanks Desiree for naming them!)

And now for the important bits - we are going to be at Market Collective this Saturday from 10-6 and this Sunday from 11-5 helping them celebrate their 2nd anniversary and the last time they are going to be in the old Ant Hill Fabrics building (148 10 St NW) in Kensington. Admission is $2 or a donation to the Calgary Food Bank - I will be there all day on both days, but some of the bloggers will be joining me for 2-hour shifts. For more background and a full list of bloggers at the event, click here.

See you there!

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Wishes & Goals 2010 Check-Up - June

Where did May go? I feel like I only reflected on April yesterday and now I've been flung into the busy month that is June. May was miserable though, as you can see in the calendar as compared to the goals.

May brought on some changes in my life that I'd thought I handled pretty well, but a look at how well I was doing on my goals shows otherwise - I struggled with getting to bed at a decent time and I even managed to miss snacks! A goal-per-goal breakdown:

My Goals for 2010
7+ hours of sleep/11:15 PM bedtime
The changes in my life have brought on changes in my sleeping schedule (and there are more changes this month), so by the third week of May I was able to push into a consistent "bed by 11:15" schedule. Unfortunately, going to bed half an hour later most nights is not really a lot and I overshot the amount of time I had and rarely ever made it to bed on time. But even before the change I was doing so good in terms of getting to bed, just stressing out about this and that. Perhaps that was part of the reason why I was in such a bad mood for the most of the month; fortunately for all it was a short one.

Each snack must contain a vegetable or a fruit.
I allowed myself to lose track of time and miss a few snacks this month, but looking at the calendar it wasn't actually as much as I thought it was. While I was away in Montreal I allowed myself to be at the mercy of the organizers, as I'd remembered being quite well fed at the last conference I was at two years ago - this resulted in a few missed snacks and snacks without vegetable or fruit. So I need to remember to go back to carrying snacks in my purse.

Be able to do 100 full, proper pushups without stopping by December 2010.
I am making progress on my full pushups, although I'm a little bummed that that means the less-than-10-reps-per-set days are long gone and I am up to 20-something reps per set... and struggling. I am currently repeating Week 3 of the six-week workout, and expect to be repeating weeks as I continue (I alternated weeks 5 and 6 for a long time before I was able to do 100 pushups from my knees.) I'm glad that I have until December to reach my goal.

I will save at least ⅓ of my paycheque every month in hopes of buying a house/condo within walking distance from my work by 2011-2012.
I managed to save just under half of my paycheque this month, which is good, but probably the least I have managed to save in a month thus far. June is looking surprisingly good so far - somehow haven't accrued as many expenses as I have in past months (maybe because I'm not taking all those trips!)

Drink at least 48 oz of water at least three days a week.
I was unable to meet my goal during the first two weeks, perhaps because I still am not counting any other beverages to the total intake. On the third week I managed to meet my goal... because I don't think I bought any "milk" that week. While I was away I was not good about carrying around a water bottle and thus did not drink enough water. I'm still convinced I can meet my goal even with the glass of "milk" at lunch!

My Wishes for 2010
Do a thorough room purge
My room is getting out of hand - on my desk is a stack of papers, unopened credit card bills (which I check and pay online) and unorganized receipts. My closet is overflowing. My jewellery is scattered everywhere. I need to turn this into a goal...

Recipes/Techniques I wanted to try this year:
I didn't try any recipes, but The Cowboy Trail trip that B. and I went on was heavily inspired by posts by Gwendolyn and Cheryl... does that count?

Blog Stuff
Continue upward trajectory of posts this year
I posted 6 entries in May 2010, vs. 4 in 2009.

Include nutrition information for my recipes whenever possible
Still haven't finished backtracking yet.

Rewards
I don't think I deserve any...

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Manhattan Clam Chowder

Happy World Blood Donor Day and National Blood Donor Week! The theme of our newsletter this month was "blood" in honour of these two holidays - I was going to right about hypertension (high blood pressure) as it is a very common nutrition-related concern these days, but it turns out that you can have very high blood pressure (the upper limit is 180/100 - normal is 120/80 or lower) and you can still donate blood! So I decided to write about the issue of iron-deficiency anemia instead. Every year, Canadian Blood Services rejects 10% of its potential female donors and 0.5% of its potential male donors due to low hemoglobin (read: iron) levels.

Females have higher iron needs than males due to menstrual losses - they need 18 mg per day whereas men only need 8 mg; post-menopause, a woman's iron needs decrease to 8 mg/d also. Women are also at higher risk for iron deficiency because they are more likely to engage in behaviours that make it difficult to meet their iron needs, such as restricting their intake to lose weight or becoming vegetarian (iron from animal sources is more readily absorbed than iron from plant sources).

The most common advice that people hear when their iron stores are low is to "Eat red meat." Although beef is a good source of iron containing 2-3 mg of iron per 2½ oz (depending on the cut), duck has it beat with 2-7 mg of iron per 2½ oz (more iron can be found in the dark meat). Oysters and clams have even more iron, with 3-9 mg and 10-21 mg of iron per 2½ oz, respectively (which is why they have a distinctive metallic taste). So, instead of highlighting a beefy recipe for this month, I chose to make Manhattan clam chowder.


I grew up eating creamy New England clam chowder (usually from a can, or at Red Lobster) as opposed to its tomato-based cousin from Manhattan. From a nutrition standpoint, however, the latter is better for you – sure the clams pack in a lot of iron in both versions, but Manhattan clam chowder foregoes all the saturated fat in cream in favour of vitamin C-rich tomatoes, which conveniently facilitates the absorption of iron. The potatoes add in a lot of vitamin C too. You can find packages of frozen or fresh clam meat in the seafood section of the grocery store – it has a much better texture than canned.

My New England clam chowder-loving siblings enjoyed the soup, despite the fact that I used sodium-free chicken broth and canned tomatoes and didn't add any salt. I tried to trick the seafood-hating B. into eating the soup by not telling him what it was, but unfortunately it's difficult to hide 1 lb of clams... he ate the soup, but picked out all the clams and put it in my bowl :( (I thought I had a chance because he likes Clamato!)

Manhattan Clam Chowder
Adapted from EatingWell
Makes about 12 cups

• 1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
  
• 1 large onion, diced
  
• 1 bulb fennel, cored and finely diced, plus ¼ cup (60 mL) chopped feathery fronds
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dried thyme leaves
  
• 3½ cups (875 mL) diced potatoes, preferably red-skinned
  
• 1 28 oz (796 mL) can of diced tomatoes
  
• 4 cups (1 L) of reduced-sodium chicken broth (or water)
  
• ¾ cup (185 mL) white wine
  
• ½ tsp (2 mL) freshly ground pepper
  
• 1 lb (454 g) fresh or defrosted clam meat

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, diced fennel, potatoes, garlic and thyme. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just soft and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes.
   
2. Stir in tomatoes, broth, wine, pepper and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
   
3. Stir in clams, any clam juice and the fennel fronds. Add additional broth or water if necessary. Cook until just heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Nutrition Info (per cup): 119 calories, 1 g fat (0.2 g saturated), 12 mg cholesterol, 17 g carbohydrate (2 g fibre, 3 g sugar), 8 g protein, 226 mg sodium, 7 mg iron, 21 mg vitamin C. An excellent source of vitamin B₁₂ and potassium. A good source of vitamin B₆, copper, manganese and selenium.

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District

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I know this photo is blurry, but they spelled medium "meduim", so it works.
I've always heard good things about District - poutine... fresh oyster bar... "where foodies love to drink"... Helloooo! I'm not sure what stopped me from going there, but perhaps rumours that it's busy/hard to get a seat or that it was expensive (I don't know where I heard them...) It's only a few blocks away from where one of my friends works (name omitted so they won't get in trouble for drinking during lunch hour), so we went there to grab some lunch on one of my "Lemonade Thursdays".

District is in many ways classy yet casual. The decor has a very vintage look, with wood-panelled booths, exposed brick, jars of pickles lining one wall and chalkboards everywhere. They make a concerted effort to source from local producers, making gourmet versions of pub favourites like wings and burgers. Large windows right next to the entrance reveal a tiny brewery, and District recently hosted a "Live Cask Night" to reveal a new beer for this season, Ambush Pale Ale, which, like all their other drinks, are served in mason jars.

I'd erroneously thought that because it was a "pale ale", that it would be similar to something like Alexander Keith's, but it was more like some of the "red" beers that you would find on the market today. I really enjoyed it - it had a deeper flavour than a lager, but not as bitter as a traditional ale.

I wasn't in the mood to make all the decisions involved in ordering a poutine (size? toppings?) so after moving around in my booth to catch a glimpse at all the chalkboards, I just settled on one of the first interesting items that I laid my eyes on, which was the cranberry brie burger.


Despite having only eaten one burger, I'm going to take the leap and say that I think District makes one of the best burgers in Calgary - my burger was charred and crispy on the outside, and pink and juicy in the middle - it was so messy! I think I had napkins flying everywhere! Perhaps Gwendolyn might disagree, but I think the burgers at District have the ones at Chuckwagon Cafe beat.


Toppings-wise, I could barely taste the brie in the burger (though I could see it melting and dripping everywhere) but the cranberry sauce was a nice sweet-and-sour foil to the savory burger.

I was feeling virtuous that day and had a side of salad with my burger (instead of the other options that the waitress listed to us... we stopped her before she could finish; I hope I didn't stop her before she could say something like sweet potato fries.) It was the usual affair of spring mix with a raspberry vinaigrette.


My companion ordered the three-cheese grilled cheese, which they enjoyed, though they couldn't distinguish the three different cheeses as they were all overpowered by the bacon (!) that was also in the sandwich anyway. My companion was also feeling virtuous and had salad as a side.


The service at District is friendly, but in some ways inconvenient. When you arrive, you are asked to seat yourself so I grabbed a booth near the door so that my friend would be able to see me. It wasn't until after my friend arrived that the waitress had noticed us and brought us our drink menu - the food "menu" is whatever is listed on the chalkboards scattered around the restaurant, and it can be confusing as there are lots of them and some are repeats. If you seat yourself in a place where the menus aren't very visible you might miss something - it was only at the end of the meal that my friend saw something written on the bottom of the menu that was set up by our booth (one that I hadn't noticed anyway because my back was toward it) that they would've ordered instead of the grilled cheese. Still, I can definitely see myself back at District - the food and drink are both excellent and I'm sure once you have a few favourites you won't really need the menu anyway (though you might miss out on the latest in-season special!)

District
607 11 Ave SW
Calgary AB T2R 0E1
(403) 233-2433
Open Mon-Wed 11:30 AM-11 PM. Thu-Fri 11:30 AM-Late. Sat 5:30 PM-Late. Closed Sundays.

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MONTREAL: Avesta

Another place that I used to just simply walk by as I went about my business in Montreal was Avesta. However, it always left an impression on me as there was always a lady sitting by the window, kneading and rolling out dough with a long wooden rod as she made lavash. I don't know what kept me from going inside - time and money are always my fallback excuses, but I think part of it too was the fact that I was intimidated by my lack of knowledge of Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine, and didn't want to head into a restaurant alone with no idea what I was ordering.

So I was quite excited when Jessica told me that she had been there a few times with another friend, and suggested that we go there for an early supper before I boarded my plane back to Calgary.

It turns out that there was no need to be intimidated - Avesta has a more casual, café-like atmosphere as opposed to being a formal sit-down restaurant. There's a large selection of mezze on the menu, including well-known ones like hummus, baba ghanoush dolmas and muhammara. For larger appetites, heartier fare like sandwiches and stirfries are also available. Almost all of the items on the menu come with or feature hot, fresh-off-the-grill lavash, which the aforementioned lady rolls out and grills to order and personally delivers to your table.

We started our meal off with Turkish Tea ($1.00), which is essentially strong black tea. Avesta serves up Turkish Coffee ($2.75) also, but we thought it was a little too late in the day for such a strong drink.


On Jessica's suggestion we shared two orders of the "two mezze + one borek" combo ($7.99). For her mezze, she chose hummus and cacik, a tzatziki-like dip with large chunks of cucumber, mint, pistachios, walnuts and raisins in yogurt. I chose the Avesta Special, a roasted eggplant and red pepper dip, and the Mezze of the Day, which on that day was a dip made with cucumber, pistachios, walnuts, dill, parsley and yogurt. Unlike the cacik, however, the cucumber was chopped very finely. Finally, we ordered one each of the börek available - beef with potato and spinach with feta.


Börek is like Middle Eastern lasagna, with the pasta substituted by puffy phyllo pastry. The börek at Avesta was warm and flaky, with flavourful fillings. I did prefer the beef and potato börek, which had a bit of a tomato flavour and was heavier and heartier, whereas the spinach and feta börek was a little dry.

    
Even though they were filled, the börek were also good for dipping into the mezze, especially since the lavash unfortunately did not stay warm for very long and quickly became cold and chewy.

The cacik reminded me of a chunky tzatziki, with the mint, pistachio, walnut and raisin barely discernable in the mixture. Strangely, there also seemed to be less of it than the other mezze.


The hummus was not as thick as most of the hummus I have had in the past. I generally prefer my hummus with more garlic, but this was still good.


I really liked the two mezze that I ordered - the Avesta Special/Spécial Avesta was very smoky, with a bit of a tomatoey tang.



I thought that the Mezze of the Day/Mezze du Jour would be very much like tzatziki, especially with the dill. However, the finely chopped nuts gave it a richer, deeper flavour as well as a pesto-like texture and it ended up being my favourite mezze of the four.


The whole environment at Avesta is very casual, so it's not one of those places where the waitress rushes to your table right away. Still, she was very helpful and informative and I was surprised by the quality and variety of dishes that were churned out at the café. This was probably my favourite meal of the trip, and I'll certainly try to be back to eat my way through the rest of the menu.

Resto Avesta
2077 Rue Ste-Catherine O
Montreal QC H3H 1M6
(514) 937-0156
Open Daily 11 AM-11 PM.

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MONTREAL: Café Universel

During my time in Montreal, I reconnected with some of my Tribune buddies, including Theo, who blogs in fits and starts. It turns out that despite the Calgary-centric content of this blog, I do have a Montreal fanbase (Hello, Alex and [former] roommate!)

I met up with Theo and the boys on my first night in Montreal at Benelux, known for its two pints for $8.75 deal every Wednesday night. Of course, Theo asked if I was going to be visiting any restaurants for my blog while I was in Montreal. I wasn't sure because of the conference and potential plans with other friends (None of which came into fruition, sadly) but we could go somewhere for brunch, especially since he'd mentioned all these tantalizing places on the east side of downtown (where I didn't live). So, on Sunday morning afternoon, I found myself with Theo and his girlfriend Alex at Café Universel.

We arrived there at around 12:30, but the place was still bumping with brunch-goers (and I mean "bumping" - the decor and music reminded me very much of a posh lounge/club). Fortunately, the line-up moved quickly and we were given a table outside in the sunshine (while it snowed in Calgary *muahahaha*). Theo highly recommended all the juices and smoothies at Café Universel, so I ordered L'Éternité ($4.95), which is a blend of strawberry, banana, mango, yogurt, honey and cranberry. Theo and Alex ordered freshly squeezed orange juice ($2.95) and coffee ($1.60).


The menu has many sweet and savoury breakfast options, plus more lunch-oriented options like pizza, pasta and sandwiches. I ordered the Mushroom and Goat Cheese Benedict ($9.50), which came with a portion of lightly seasoned home fries and an impressively large fruit salad.




The Eggs Benedict was really good - the poached eggs, perched on top of toasted English muffin halves, had a not-too-runny centre while the mushrooms provided a richness to the dish and the goat cheese gave it a bit of creamy tang. Usually I get a little iffy about eggs benedict as sometimes hollandaise sauce can be too runny or too tangy, but this one was thick and quite mild in flavour.


I also enjoyed the variety of fruit in the fruit salad, especially after four days of eating not-ripe honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon at the conference.

Alex had gushed about the waffles topped with strawberries, whipped cream and roasted almonds ($8.75), so that's what Theo got.


Overall, the service was pleasant and professional, though we might've confused the wait staff a little at the beginning by asking for our table in French and then conversing in English.

As we had our brunch, Theo and Alex kept on asking me whether I'd tried this or that restaurant, and often my answer was no. As a student in Montreal, I was always short on both money and time, but don't worry, I'll find excuses to go back...

Café Universel
3630 Rue St-Denis
Montreal QC H2X 3L7
(514) 598-7136
Open Sun-Mon 7 AM-10 PM; Tues-Wed 7 AM-11 PM; Thu-Sat 7 AM-12 AM.

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MONTREAL: Souvenirs de Bangkok

I was recently in Montreal for the annual Dietitians of Canada conference. It was an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge to help refine my practice, and to network with dietitians from all across the country and hear their stories. (It's nice to not feel alone!) Of course, Montreal is also home of my alma mater, which meant I got to reconnect with some old friends and revisit some old haunts.

Souvenirs de Bangkok is only three blocks away from my old apartment and it had a few good things going for it - it was a BYOW and one of my Thai friends had said the food was pretty good. Strangely, however, whenever I walked by it it always seemed to be closed! So I was quite surprised, as I was browsing around the Google Maps app on my Hero in hopes of finding a place to go for supper, to see that it was open. So I went with my friend and hostess for the weekend, my former roommate Jessica.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything on the menu was quite inexpensive (that's what I get for living in expensive Calgary!) There were table d'hôte menus featuring Tom Yum Soup, spring rolls and some Chinese-sounding main dishes, so Jess and I opted to order separate entrées instead. The menu seems long, but it's really the same dishes (red curry, green curry, stir-fry with crispy spinach, peanut sauce, etc.) with different "proteins" (beef, chicken, shrimp, seafood, etc.)

Jessica ordered the Chicken Green Curry, while I ordered the Vegetarian Red Curry ($8.95), which I later found out had minimal protein (Tofu was an extra $1.50, but there was also another tofu section in the menu). Both dishes were very fragrant, containing ample amounts of Thai basil and coconut milk, and were not spicy at all (which some may find disappointing). I loved the variety of vegetables in my dish, though I was jealous of the bamboo shoots in Jessica's green curry. Both dishes were also very soupy, and the small bowl of rice we each received with our curries were certainly not enough for lapping up all the sauce.

Since dinner was so cheap, we both opted to order dessert. I had the Caramelized Banana with Coconut Milk ($2.75), which looks a lot worse than it tastes...


The banana was warm and topped with crunchy peanuts. The coconut milk that served as its sauce was sweet and warm, filled with sesame seeds and little bits of caramel from the banana. It was an indulgent dessert without being too heavy.


Jessica ordered the deep-fried pineapple with vanilla ice cream. I didn't have a taste, but it looked like the pineapple rings were surrounded by a crisp, hot crust; a perfect foil to the cool ice cream.

Overall, the service was friendly and efficient, though they did forget about us when we asked for the dessert menu! All in all, I was happy to finally discover this little hole in the wall, and perhaps next time I'm in Montreal I'll try to catch it open again!

Souvenirs de Bangkok
1925 Rue Ste-Catherine O
Montreal QC H3H 1M3
(514) 938-2235
Open Mon-Fri 11 AM-10 PM. Sat 5 PM-10 PM. Closed Sundays.

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