O Bistro (Canmore)

    
After our "only ok" experience at Summit Café, we tried to do a little more research on where to go for supper - we visited restaurant websites, browsed menus and rejected a few based on price or not being in the mood for certain cuisines. After being unable to score a reservation at one of the more popular restaurants, we found ourselves at O Bistro, intrigued by the promise of cassoulet, a French casserole made with white beans and meats (in this case, duck confit, sausage and bacon).

We spoiled ourselves with this meal and ordered two appetizers - the soup of the day (which was curried carrot - $6.95) and the baked brie ($12.95).

The curried carrot soup was delicious - the distinctive notes of Indian spices like cumin, coriander and cinnamon were obvious in the dish but still didn't mask the earthy sweetness of the carrots.


The baked brie was served with a selection of breads as well as a sweet-tart apple-cranberry chutney to balance the savoury cheese. It was good, but I'd hoped that the brie would be a little more melted and gooey.


Unfortunately we showed up at the restaurant a little too late and the last dish of cassoulet had gone to another table. So B. settled on the Beef Wellington ($31.95) and I decided to be selfish (since B. doesn't like seafood) and ordered the Seafood Bouillabaise ($25.95).

O Bistro's take on Beef Wellington is a little different - instead of wrapping the tenderloin in the puff pastry, the beef sat on top of the flaky pastry, which itself sat atop a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables.


However, the beef was very charred - it was burnt. B. was very hesitant about sending it back, but after some coaxing, he did (oddly without ever using the word "burnt" and unsure whether his tastebuds were telling him the right thing) and the restaurant was very gracious about grilling up another tenderloin for him.

I was probably affected by B.'s experience with his dish, or perhaps I shouldn't expect very much for seafood in land-locked Alberta, but my seafood bouillabaisse was only ok -


I was impressed by the variety of seafood and the tender rice in the lightly-seasoned saffron broth, but the fish was slightly overcooked and tasted like it had been previously frozen.

With that, we decided to not have dessert, and spent the evening eating fudge and popcorn and watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory in our hotel room.

O Bistro
2 - 626 8 (Main) St
Canmore AB T1W 2B5
(403) 678-3313
Open every day for lunch 11-3 PM; dinner 5 PM-close. Brunch menu available every Sunday.

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Summit Café (Canmore)

With it being a surprise trip, I didn't have the chance to research some tasty Canmore eats before B. and I went up there earlier this month. Armed with empty stomachs and the Urbanspoon app on our phones, we decided on the Summit Café after foregoing top-rated Aroma as we weren't in the mood for Mexican.

Unfortunately, Summit Café's breakfast menu consists mainly of Mexican-inspired dishes like Huevos Rancheros and breakfast burritos, plus some breakfast sandwiches and the classic bacon (or other meat) and eggs breakfast.

I had the "Amigos" (pictured above), which was like a Mexican eggs benny, but instead of hollandaise sauce, the eggs were topped with a housemade salsa and cheddar cheese before being broiled, then topped again with housemade guacamole and served with a pile of hash browns. I thought the dish was ok - the salsa and guacamole were fresh and flavourful (though the former was a little too tomatoey for my taste). The hash browns were buttery, if a bit heavy.

Obviously I should've realized this when the menu explicitly said that the dish would be broiled, but I couldn't help but be a little disappointed when I found that my yolks were hard.


B. had the aforementioned Huevos Rancheros, which consisted of two eggs overeasy, beans, hash browns and salsa sandwiched between two tortillas topped with cheddar cheese then broiled, before being topped again with a dollop each of guacamole and sour cream.


B. thought the dish was ok, but a little on the heavy side and so he was unable to finish it.

All in all, Summit Café has the potential to be a great brunch experience - the table next to us ordered the breakfast sandwiches, and they looked delicious. More importantly, the café is very cozy, with its country cabin-themed decor and friendly service. I would love to try some other Canmore brunch places first, but I wouldn't mind going back to the Summit Café again - as long as we don't order any Mexican!

Summit Café
102 - 1001 Cougar Creek Dr
Canmore AB T1W 1E1
(403) 609-2120

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Sushi Motto

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I've been bitten by the group-buying website bug - Groupon, LivingSocial, TeamBuy, StealTheDeal, SwarmJam, DealFind... I follow them all. It appears that I'm not alone - a recent deal of $20 for a $50 coupon to Sushi Motto saw 4112 vouchers sold within a span of 24 hours! According to Calgary Deals Blog, this made it the top-selling deal in the city thus far. Since my family's almost always up for some Japanese, I picked up two vouchers of my own and we all went down to check it out.

Sushi Motto replaced what used to be Oishii Village back in August of this year, and is owned by one of the former servers at Midori, which is a few short blocks away on 17th Ave.

With a name like Sushi Motto (according to the owners, "motto" means "original" in Japanese), the menu obviously centres around their long list of original sushi rolls. If you've become a fan of some of the izakaya-style Japanese restaurants that have been popping up, like Globefish and Shibuya, you may be disappointed here as there aren't as many hot dishes. We did try some of their appetizers, like their house green salad ($5.95), saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel - $7.95) and agedashi tofu ($5.95).

The house green salad was unexciting, with only lettuce, corn, a few slices of radish and the standard Japanese ginger dressing. Next time I would probably like to try their Shrimp & Avocado Salad ($6.95) or Broccoli Goma-ae ($5.95) for something a little more interesting.


The grilled mackerel was good, with crispy skin and warm, flaky meat that was delicious with a squeeze of lemon. While I personally enjoy the natural fishiness of mackerel, others may like the lighter taste of salmon or hamachi (yellowtail) cheek.


We all agreed that the agedashi tofu was the best of the bunch - fresh from the fryer, the bite-sized pieces of tofu soaked up the flavour of the sweet and savoury sauce while still retaining their crisp, battered shells.


My brother ordered the tuna tataki ($12.95). A fillet of tuna was seared lightly before cut into thick slices and topped with a citrusy ponzu sauce. The texture and flavour of the tataki reminded me of a soft cheese for some reason - my brother and I agreed that they do a much better job of the dish at Shibuya.


We shared the deluxe assorted sashimi ($34.95) and the deluxe assorted sushi ($18.95). In both cases, the fish was very fresh, but since both featured the same types of seafood - salmon, tuna, shrimp, mackerel, octopus, squid and surf shell clam - in the end it felt a little boring.




The highlight of the meal was probably the Flames Roll ($11.50) which is an outsider roll with prawn tempura, masago and mayo as the filling, topped with pieces of salmon and tuna, then sprinkled with green onion and garlic chips before being drizzled with a housemade spicy sauce. I enjoyed the strong flavours of the garlic and onion, and the crunch from the tempura and garlic chips. The spicy sauce was a little misleading! While most Japanese restaurants opt for a tart, creamy, mayo-based sauce, the spicy sauce at Sushi Motto is brown (perhaps teriyaki sauce-based?) with a lot of chili flavour.


Perhaps our food experience could've been a little better if we'd ordered more of the specialty sushi rolls, but we definitely couldn't help the slow service. We went on a weeknight shortly after the deal came out and the restaurant was filled to the brim - we were lucky to have had a reservation. I don't think they were quite ready for the volume that the deal would bring; there were only two waitresses floating around the restaurant and almost every time a dish was brought to us they would ask, "Have you had this yet?" However, it was obvious that they were trying their best and I hope the restaurant has been able to get some extra help since.

The deal was totally worth it - since there were more than four of us, we were able to use two vouchers at once so our bill only came to $16!

My family generally prefers more appetizers and traditional sushi, so I doubt we will be back here soon, especially knowing that there are still lots of people out there waiting to cash in their vouchers. Still, I definitely know where to stop when I'm looking for fresh, delicious and innovative sushi rolls... and some hot and fresh agedashi tofu!

Sushi Motto
1604 14 St SW
Calgary AB T3C 1E2
(403) 229-2881
Open for lunch Tues-Fri 11:30 AM-2:30 PM; Sat-Sun 12-3 PM. Open for dinner Tues-Sun 5-9:30 PM. Closed Mondays. Reservations recommended. Free parking available in lot on 16 Ave between 14 & 15 St after 6 PM weekdays, all day weekends and holidays; free street parking available nearby also.

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The Grizzly Paw (Canmore)

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

A few weekends ago, B. surprised me with a weekend getaway to Canmore as a belated non-birthday present (I had asked for nothing for my birthday) as well as some quality do-nothing time before the busy holiday season. Obviously for me the most important part of any trip is what we will be eating, so I sent a call out to the Twitterverse for help. My friend and fellow blogger Cheryl suggested The Grizzly Paw. We hadn't felt like pub food all weekend, which unfortunately led to a few not-so-good dining experiences, so we finally made it there for brunch on our last day in Canmore. This was a little unfortunate because it was a little too early for us to try the famous Grizzly Paw house-brewed beers and sodas.

The Grizzly Paw is also known for their burgers ($13.25, or $12.50 for vegetarian) - diners can choose from four different types (beef, which is ground in-house, chicken, bison or veggie) and from four topping combinations (classic - back bacon and cheddar cheese; mushroom & swiss, a spicy "angry" burger or Baja - salsa and guacamole). I had a mushroom & swiss bison burger, which was served with their house salad - "Granny Bee's Mountain Roughage".


It was a delicious burger - the meat was tender, flavourful and not too gamey, and the bun was soft and fluffy, but not soggy. It faced some stiff competition from the salad though, which was filled with uncommon but yummy ingredients, such as beets, hard-boiled egg, shredded carrots and cheese, all tossed in a balsamic dressing.


B. was not in the mood for a burger that morning, so he had a Chicken Ranch Pizza ($13.95), which is made with flatbread from the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co., another restaurant that we'd heard good things about but didn't have a chance to go.


The pizza uses chipotle ranch sauce in place of the traditional tomato, giving it an interesting, smoky flavour. The chicken, bacon, green onion, tomato and drizzles of honey garlic sauce on the pizza completed the sweet, savoury and smoky "southern BBQ chicken" theme.

Despite being a brewery, The Grizzly Paw had more of a family restaurant feel as children are allowed to dine for most of the day, and are provided with colouring books and crayons. Though the food was a little slow, overall the service was very friendly and I can't wait to go back to Canmore to try their brews and the rest of their menu!

The Grizzly Paw
622 8 (Main) St
Canmore AB T1W 2B5
(403) 678-9983
Open Mon-Sun 11 AM-Midnight. Kitchen open Sun-Thu 11 AM-10 PM; Fri-Sat 11 AM-11 PM. Minors allowed to dine until 10 PM.

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Kingsland Farmers' Market

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I'd missed the boat on Kingsland Farmers' Market over the summer, so when they finally opened their year-round market on Thursday, I quickly headed over the next day to check it out.

Not all of the vendors have moved in yet, and the market was quiet on a Friday afternoon, but Kingsland is already shaping up to be a great farmers' market. You might recognize some of the vendors from the Calgary Farmers' Market, like Lund's or Jammin' It, or even other locations in Calgary, such as Rustic Sourdough and Community Natural Foods. Even with the small number of vendors, you can already find a variety of goods, from local produce, meats, cheeses and wines, to sweet treats like gelato, jam, pies on a stick and macarons, to coffees and teas and arts and crafts.

    
I only picked up a few things on my short trip: two large, sweet carrots, a tiny butternut squash, some gorgeous Honeycrisp apples (my favourite variety) and a new-to-me fruit - 20th century pears - all from King's Orchard.

    
I also picked up some colourful bell peppers from a local greenhouse and a big bunch of kale from Lund's (half will be for kale chips and the other will be for dinner some time this week).

I was pondering what I wanted to eat for supper that night when the lady from Thai Manna called me over to her stall to sample her curries. She had three types - a not-so-red curry that had a pleasant kick, a mild green curry and a unique Massaman curry flavoured with cinnamon and cloves. She sold the curries as kits with curry paste, fish sauce, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, red chilies and coconut milk - all I had to do was add meat and vegetables. I picked up a small (meant for 2-3 people) red curry kit as I thought that B. would appreciate the spiciness.

    


I bought some extra-firm tofu at the grocery store (didn't want to mess with meat, but the fish sauce and the shrimp paste in the curry make it a non-vegetarian dish), added one of the carrots and a green pepper from the market and found an onion in the pantry. I added two of the red chilies and it was just hot enough that I found myself reaching for my water. A quick and delicious dinner!




Kingsland Farmers' Market
7711 Macleod Tr S
Calgary AB T2H 0M1
403-255-FARM (3276)
Open Thu-Sat 9 AM-5 PM; Sun 10 AM-4 PM.

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LeVilla

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

LeVilla has been open in my family's neighbourhood for several years now, but it was never on our radar until my mom saw an advertisement in Trend Weekly, a local Chinese tabloid, advertising their special for November - a four-course prix fixe menu for $39 available on Sunday to Thursday nights. The fact that executive chef Rick Chuk is Chinese and used to work at the 5-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong sealed the deal.

Clearly their advertising campaign was a success, as when my family and I went out for dinner earlier this week, all but one table of diners were Chinese.

LeVilla serves up very classic, French-inspired cuisine (despite Chuk's nationality, there are no crazy fusion dishes here) in a cozy, cabin-like dining room with lots of wooden touches and warm tones. One of their main advertising points is their second dining room, which features large windows and a roaring fireplace; a large group was dining in there when we went. The meals are prepared in a small open kitchen on the east side of the restaurant - it was interesting to see the contrast between the harried line cooks preparing our main courses while the one pastry chef carefully crafted the desserts.

For the first course, I started with the lobster bisque, which was smooth and savoury, with just a hint of sweetness. My mom is obsessed with lobster bisque and is trying to perfect her own recipe and finds many other ones she's tried are too tomatoey (acidic) or salty. She liked this one.


My sister was the only one who ordered the salad option, which didn't look particularly inspiring - just the generic spring mix greens with some yellow tomatoes.

For the second course, I chose the crab cake with honey, chipotle aioli & mango coulis while everyone else had the Coquille St-Jacques. The crab cake was probably my favourite part of the meal - the crab cake itself was tender and full of flavour, but what I loved the most was the smokiness of the chipotle aioli. The mango coulis was sweet with a hint of citrus.


I had a bite of my mom's Coquille St-Jacques, which was lovely with its rich and creamy cheese sauce. I was still glad I ordered the crab cake though.


Despite there being three main course choices and six people, as a family we only tried two of the main courses that night. All of us, except my brother, ordered the rack of lamb.


I liked how the lamb was just lightly seasoned with a mustard and herb crust to really allow the lamb itself to shine through. It was good and I liked the assortment of vegetables that came with it, but overall it was nothing special - I have had lamb that was more tender elsewhere.

My brother ordered the cajun rib eye, which I didn't have a chance to taste, but he gave me a bite of his Boursin mashed potatoes, which were very rich and buttery. Yum.

Dessert was another highlight of the meal. I had the cappuccino crème brûlée, which was creamy but light. The cappuccino flavour came through a little bit in the crackly, caramelized sugar on top (though a corner of mine was burnt), and I thought the tart berries were a nice foil to the sweetness of the dessert.


My siblings had the chocolate truffle mousse cake. My sister offered me a bite of hers and it is as rich and decadent as it looks.


Now you must be wondering, what's the point of telling us about a menu that was available last month? Fortunately, for the month of December, the restaurant is offering a similar promotion for $49 instead of $39. Items like lobster bisque, roasted rack of lamb, rib eye (not Cajun this time), a Bailey's crème brûlée and the chocolate truffle mousse cake (now served with espresso ice cream) remain on the menu, joined by new items like Lobster Thermidor and a chicken breast supreme stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab and swiss cheese. The four-course dinner is available on Sunday to Thursday nights only, and reservations fill up fast! You can still enjoy many of these items on their regular menu on Friday and Saturday night, but it will be slightly more expensive (though portions may be larger).

LeVilla
404 - 1851 Sirocco Dr SW
Calgary AB T3H 4R5
(403) 217-9699
Open for lunch Tues-Fri 11:30 AM-4 PM; dinner Sun-Thu 5-9 PM; Fri-Sat 5-10 PM. Four-course dinner available Sun-Thu by reservation only.

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Wishes & Goals 2010 Check-Up - December

I dislike the "updated" Google charts.
How is it December already? If I could describe 2010 in one word it would be blink, as in, blink and you would've missed it, but I think these goals are forcing me to reflect on a daily basis (as long as I remember to update my calendar) and on a monthly basis as well.

My Goals for 2010
7.5+ Hours of Sleep
I am failing miserably at this goal. This month in particular there were many nights where I went to bed at almost 1 AM. Bad. In the middle of the month I tried to challenge myself to just get to bed earlier than the previous night and that helped a little bit, but this month I really need to smarten up and finish 2010 well-rested. Two things on my side: 1) My hours at work have changed again so I don't have to get up as early. 2) Mama T will be gone for two-and-a-half weeks with my sister in tow, so I will be staying with B. Last time that happened in July, B. said that it helped him get to bed earlier, but according to my reflection then, the benefit for me was minimal. Huh.

Each snack must contain a vegetable or fruit.
This goal is still carrying on as usual, with the same issue that I'm not snacking on Thursdays (I am sleeping in more, which doesn't help) and that my protein of choice lately has been Babybel cheese (though I have switched to "Light"!) I'm not too worried about what's happening here except perhaps I need to get back into a cottage cheese habit, or maybe switch things up with more vegetables. But generally, I have achieved this goal.

Be able to do 100 full, proper pushups without stopping by December 2010.
I have completely stopped my pushup training regime. Fortunately for my upper body strength, my kickboxing instructor has changed our Thursday classes to more of a conditioning class, so I get a few weights in there. Occasionally he'll challenge us to do lots of pushups in a row and that is where I'll usually get my count in. As you can see, the latest count is 40, which is an improvement.

Drink at least 48 oz of water at least three days a week, INCLUDING Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
It's getting better, but I'm still not being good about tracking how much water I'm drinking on my day's off. I ended up buying a 32 oz water bottle and it has helped a little - it does make it easier to track how much I've drank, but I've found this particular bottle awkward to drink from (the squirt top pushes down easily so I either have to actually squirt to drink or wrap my entire mouth around the top... I just choose to remove the lid and make sure I don't spill). So I guess we'll see how December goes.

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 had to dip into my savings a little bit this month as I managed to book two trips that I'm taking next year within the same credit card bill. However, I did take a look at my bank statement back in January and it looks like I'm actually on track to save the right amount! (Although I don't think I will be buying any real estate, let alone any that's walking distance from my work anymore.)

Wishes for 2010
Do a thorough room purge.
Still haven't done that, but every time I get to this point in my monthly entries I always have to rearrange my desk a little, recycle a few things, throw some things away.

Recipes/techniques I wanted to try this year
I made lemon cakes from Gwendolyn's blog for my birthday!

Blog Stuff
Include nutrition information from my recipes whenever possible
Haven't backtracked since April.

Rewards/Positive Reflection
As bad as it sounds, I'm really looking forward to this month ending and doing my big reflection in the new year about how I did on these resolutions/goals and what I've learned about making new year's resolutions/setting goals in general. Until then, I'm doing some reflecting in another way - there is this annual project called Reverb 10 where a bunch of bloggers/writers have gotten together to come up with a new "prompt" for every day of the month of December. These prompts are meant to inspire people to reflect on the past year and manifest what's next. I'd first heard about it from Tea & Cookies, but wasn't sure if I was comfortable with the idea of flooding my blog with daily reflections so at first I decided not to do it. A friend and today's prompt gave me the final push - you can follow along here.

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