[Dine-Out] Calgary: Bonterra Trattoria {Big Taste 2013} March 8, 2013

In an attempt to not be a horrible blogger, here’s another post on Big Taste 2013!

I would like to preface my next sentence with the following statement: I usually don’t like Italian food, I don’t know why, I just never feel like Italian food.

I. ADORE. BONTERRA. Pretty much, it’s the only Italian restaurant that I have voluntarily gone to for the last 2 years. The food here is delicious, the atmosphere is homey and welcoming, the portions are huge, and they have an amazing patio (when the weather is nice, of course).

Go here for the Big Taste. Their $15 lunch menu is amazing. Case and point:

Agnello e Cinghiale

The Big Taste menu’s 1st course is Agnello e Cinghiale, which literally means lamb and wild boar. It’s a gorgeous little plate of pâté (of lamb and boar) topped with micro greens, blood orange, pistachio, and sea salt.

I didn’t want to have 2 plates of the same thing, so I ordered à la carte and got the ricotta from the antipasti section as a starter.

$11

Holy moly. This was a huge plate of ricotta. Of delicious ricotta – so not complaining. But man, I was pretty stuffed by the time I made my way through this plate. I even shared.

Locally made ricotta cheese. Cherries. Sea salt. Crostini. Lovely. Make sure that you ration the cherries though, the rich and creamy ricotta taste infinity more delicious when eaten with the sweet yet tart cherries.

Big Taste Main – Tagliatelle Bolognese

Tagliatelle Bolognese – a delicious portion of beef, veal, wild boar, shiitake mushroom, sweet pea, and grana padano.

Half size – $12

I got the half portion of spaghetti alla puttanesca. It comes with side stripe shrimp, bay scallop, tomato, black olive, squid, anchovy, and basil. This sounded scrumptious on the menu because of all the seafood BUUUTTT the first bite that I took must have had a lot of black olive in it annd I made the bf switch me dishes. I don’t like the taste of olives, but I thought I could handle it because of all the delicious seafood. Apparently that was just my bite though because the bf said that it wasn’t as olive-y as I made it out to be.

You can see from the picture below the difference between the half portion and the full portion. It’s pretty much exactly a half portion.

Pasta Galore!

And for the big taste dessert - Cioccolato del Scoppio:

Pretty much a cake pop

Moist chocolatey cake innards

The dessert was okay, but as I might have mentioned before – I don’t really like chocolate. It was a double chocolate Nutella cake pop – the Nutella made the cake super moist though. The candy pearls were a nice touch.

Fact: I have a reservation for the Big Taste dinner at Bonterra this weekend.

You should get one too.

BONTERRA TRATTORIA
1016 8 Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2R 0J3
(403) 262-8480

 

[Dine-Out] Seattle: Salumi Artisan Cured Meats September 25, 2012

When I knew that we were going to Seattle, I definitely wanted to take the bf to Salumi. He loves sandwiches and this was apparently the place to get some gooooood sandwiches. All the meats here are cured on site and we couldn’t wait to try them!

Cute little piggy~

Specials of the day:

Something to study while waiting in line…

The line was seriously 20 people long. Good thing it wasn’t raining that day. I got so FREAKING excited when I saw that t was gnocchi day! I thought it was meant to be, of all the days I chose to come, I picked gnocchi day. But alas, after making it about halfway through the line, a employee came out and crossed it off the chalkboard. I guess I will just have to come back to Seattle some other day!

Salumi is a relatively small place. After standing in the super long line, you will have to cross your fingers that there’s somewhere to sit inside the restaurant. The bf and I were lucky and grab two seats in a large dining table.

I got Salumi’s finocchiona sandwich. This. Was. Delicious.

Beauty

I thought that I didn’t like pesto, but man, Salumi’s creamy pesto is definitely a game changer. I don’t even know why I thought I didn’t like pesto. It has pretty much everything I love in it, garlic, basil, pine nuts, olive oil, parmigiano reggiano…delicious!

The salumi was expectedly delicious. The perfect balance of meat and fat. I think if I were to ever come back, I’d definitely order a charcuterie board to sample all its offerings.

Deeeelicious

The bf got the special of the day, lamb sausage:

My sandwich was better than his sandwich. Waaay better.

Definitely worth waiting in line for.

SALUMI ARTISAN CURED MEATS
309 3rd Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 621-8772

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Bonterra Trattoria (Big Taste 2012) August 21, 2012

Big Taste @ Bonterra:

Bread sticks

Every time I go to Bonterra, I get this uneasy feeling that I’m actually not supposed to be eating the breadsticks. I don’t know, does anyone else get that? That just seem like they’re for decorative purposes…

So on this big taste, we were going to do the order 1 Big Taste menu and then 1 entree thing but the server bullied us into ordering another appetizer. He was saying that what we were ordering would not be enough food and recommended that we order another appetizer. Boy, was he ever wrong. I ended up packing up half of my entree and ate it for lunch the next day. I don’t like being bullied into ordering more food than needed…

So we ordered the calamari off the main menu:

Calamari

I usually love calamari that’s not fried, but this dish was…odd. The flavours did not compliment each other at all, and my palate was just confused by the whole thing. I let the bf polish most of this plate off. The server said that this was their most popular appetizer too…well, it’s not in the menu anymore, so it can’t have been that popular.

Big Taste Appetizer

The appetizer that came with the Big Taste Menu was Crudo di Agnello. It was a lamb loin crudo served with shaved apples, walnuts, sopressata, cucumbers, and sun-choke chips. Now, this was good, and this is coming from someone that usually doesn’t like lamb. The accompaniments on this dish was perfect for the lamb, I especially liked the shaved apples.

This is the entree that the bf ordered off their regular menu:

Rigatoni Bolognese $18

The bf ordered the rigatoni bolognese (meal size). THIS. WAS. SO. BIG. It might not look it, but it was so much food that even the bf had to pack up half of it to go. This pasta dish consisted of beef, veal, and pork baked with the rigatoni, asiago, and grana padano. Pure meaty goodness.

The Big Taste entree was the Trota Saltimbocca:

The most delicious trout I’ve had to date

This was probably the best main I had through out the whole Big Taste event. The trout was the biggest slab of fish I’ve ever had a restaurant serve me. It came with crispy fingerlings (love) and bitter greens. The whole dish was then topped with pine nuts, ricotta salata, and a lemon saffron vinaigrette. The pine nuts added such a lovely nutty aroma to the whole dish. And the ricotta? Heavenly. Just look at how much ricotta was on this dish. Just look. Seriously, I die.

The Big Taste dessert was a chocolate dessert, and of course, since I’m not a big fan of chocolate I had to order a dessert of my own (even though I couldn’t even finish my food….don’t judge). And its Bonterra, this restaurant has the best desserts ever. There was no way I wasn’t ordering a dessert.

Torta al Formaggio $9

This is a white chocolate cheesecake with a brown butter crust. It was served with lemon zabaglione and topped with a pine nut crunch. I think I’m falling in love with pine nuts.

The Big Taste dessert was a Budino di Cioccolato:

Budino di Cioccolato

A budino is pretty much a pudding, so this is a dark chocolate and walnut pudding served with chilled Mascarpone zabaglione and Grappa date puree. Alcohol & chocolate? So not my cup of tea.

Bonterra Trattoria
1016 – 8 Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 1K2
(403) 262-8480

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Beer Revolution July 27, 2012

We were heading to pick up some groceries the other day right around dinner time. Realizing it was probably a bad idea to go food shopping on an empty stomach, we snuck into Beer Revolution to grab a quick meal. The concept of Beer Revolution is pretty neat, especially if you’re a beer drinker. It has twenty-four beers on tap that are changed regularly. Its website says that it changes several time a day (!). Its beer menus are displayed on “airplane terminal boards” (quote, our waitress) around the restaurant and are all real time. The atmosphere of the place is more of a bar than a restaurant. The night we went, the place was relatively sparse, but there were a couple of quite rowdy tables.

I ordered a salad even though Beer Revolution had $5 off pizzas that night, I know, blasphemy. The salad was actually surprisingly filling. It came with three round little grilled crab cakes topped with basil aioli:

Crab Cake Louis

The salad mix consisted of mixed greens, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, sun dried cranberries, and mango salsa. The dressing was a red wine vinaigrette, but I got that on the side, and never actually used it. I absolutely love fruit on salads, it really makes the meal light and refreshing. The salad also had a ton of chives in it, the chives made the salad really interesting because it added notes of spiciness without it being too heavy.

The bf got the Chicken Caesar Pizza:

Chicken Caesar

The pizza is topped with grilled chicken, bacon, mozzarella, parmesan, caesar dressing, and its topped with fresh caesar salad. Beer Revolution’s pizzas are supposedly brick baked at 700 degrees and uses Italy’s best 00 flour. I have no comment because I didn’t try any of it, but the bf really liked it and finished off the whole pizza to himself!

BEER REVOLUTION
1080 – 8th Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2R 0J3
(403) 264-2739

[Quick Bites] Calgary: Taste of Calgary 2011 January 26, 2012

This year’s ticket price was a $1.00 , which is $0.25 more than last year’s. I really don’t like how it is getting more and more expensive. I know prices are going up and everything, but when you think about it, you’re paying at least $2 for a very small sampler that’s not even filling. It’s a nice little event, but at the end of the day, you’re paying $20 – $50 for food that’s not even as filling as a meal.

They do have nice little free sample trucks from vendors littered around the place. Pretty much it’s like free advertising for these big brands. There was a Dr.Oetker truck passing out free little slices of pizzas.

Back of the Truck

Free!

Another free treat was this ‘make-your-own-sandwich’ station. I don’t remember what company sponsored this, I think it was Kraft or something for their mayo?

Super Protein Sandwich!

Haha, I just made a dried sandwich, I don’t even like mayo.

I got the Sticky Rice with Mango from Delicious Thai for 5 tickets. I can’t believe that was $5.00, the actual dessert at their restaurant is only $4.20 (according to their website), and I’m sure it’s probably bigger than the sample they gave up. I actually can’t believe they charged more than their actual item now that I think about it.

I <3 Mangos

We also got Beef Samosas for 5 tickets. 5 dollars for 2 samosas. I thought the beef samosas would be awesome but the vegetarian ones are actually soooo much better, they just don’t have the same texture. One of my co-workers bring in awesome vegetarian samosas from the NE that’s only $0.50 each. These came to $2.50 each. Crazy expensive.

Delice Pastry Shop & Cafe

The Fresh Blueberry Pie from The White Spot were by far the best deal of the event. Yeah, they’re not very creative or innovative but they tasted good, only cost 3 tickets, and was a decent size. You can’t go wrong with blueberries, whipped cream, and pastry tart shells.

But in hindsight, for a couple more dollars I could probably get a really awesome and fancy dessert...

Since I really liked Nubian Express the previous year, I thought I would get something from them again this year. I got the Suya, a spicy African Stick Meat, for $4.00. This was not a good idea. I don’t even know what type of meat it was, I think it was beef…? It was all dry and not good at all.

Yucky.

One of the better dishes we got was the Roasted Duck Omelette from Bubblemania Cafe for 4 tickets. They actually cooked these up individually when you order them. All in a little tiny skillet, how cute!

Om Nom Nom Nom

At the end of the day, we both just got little drinks to use up the rest of our tickets. The bf got the Vietnamese Ice Coffee from The Satay House for 2 tickets.

Look at the little dinky cup of coffee...

I got a 4 oz Homemade Ginger Beer from Caribbean Choice for 1 ticket. Mmm…that was actually the best thing I had at the festival. It was soooo good. Maybe I’ll go get some this weekend…

Super Ginger-y

TASTE OF CALGARY
Festival Plaza @ Eau Claire Market
200 Barclay Parade Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 4R5

BUBBLEMANIA CAFE
459 16 Avenue Northeast
Calgary, AB T2E 8K9
403-277-9398

CARIBBEAN CHOICE FOODS
2235 Centre Street Northwest
Calgary, AB T2E 2T4
403-230-1880

DELICE PASTRY SHOP & CAFE
200 Barclay Parade Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 4R5
403-210-3006

DELICIOUS THAI
314 10 Street Northwest
Calgary, AB T2N 1V8
(403) 450-1996

NUBIAN EXPRESS
136 Kincora Hill NW
Calgary, AB T3R 1N6
403-992-8825

SATAY HOUSE
3231 17 Avenue Southeast
Calgary, AB T2A 0R1
403-248-2888

THE WHITE SPOT
10440 Macleod Trail South
Calgary, AB T2J 0P8
403-278-8212

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Bonterra Trattoria December 27, 2011

One night the bf and I decided to go have dessert at Bonterra Trattoria. I’m not a big fan of pasta so I never feel like having Italian food, but their dessert looked really good so I really wanted to go there for that.

 They’ve changed their menu already so I can’t put down exactly what we ordered. But they were really really good, and well worth the money.

The bf ordered a panna cotta:

Yummy

The panna cotta came with pistachios and house made chocolate cookies.

I got some sort of creamy pudding, some Italian name that I can’t remember:

Mint!

Close-up~

I got the pistachios on the side:

nom nom nom

Bonterra Trattoria
1016 – 8 Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 1K2
(403) 262-8480

[Dine-Out] Calgary: Borgo Trattoria November 14, 2011

The bf and I stumbled across Borgo a couple of weekends ago while walking down 17th, and boy, was it a good find! The interior of the trattoria is gorgeous, the atmosphere was very homey and rustic even though the decorations are very clean and crisp. Borgo was a great place to spend lunch. We had a table right next to the windows, perfect for people watching!

Gorgeous Gorgeous Interior

The bf order a cappuccino, he said it was delicious. I had a sip, it was very strong. So thumbs out for strong coffee drinkers!

Cappucino

I got a decaf latte, it was a bit bitter to my taste, I don’t think I’d get it again…

Decaf Latte

A lot of other tables ordered hot chocolates and the way they serve it is super cute! The steamed milk comes in a cute little glass milk jug, and was served with a separate little bowl filled with actual chunk of chocolates! It’s like a DIY at the table~

The bf ordered the Ciabatta Sandwich with Speck Prosciutto.

Ciabatta Sandwich with Speck Prosciutto

The sandwich came with sauteed broccolini & fontina cheese – the bf said it was a really good, but still nothing compared to Salumi in Seattle though (coming soon)!

I got the Salumeria Bar Board:

Delicious!

You get to choose 3 cheeses & 3 meats for $15.00, I think this is a great price and would definitely come back to have these. I’m not sure if the cheeses and meats change though, I hope so, I would love some type of soft brie cheese.

3 Meats - Prosciutto di Parma, Soppressata, Cotechino

For the meats, I picked Prosciutto di Parma, Soppressata, and Cotechino. I really like how they serve the meat here, the meat is served super thin so it seems like you’re getting a whole mound of it! I like thin slices better because it takes longer to eat. Also, the pickled onions that came with the board (top left) were deeeelicious~

3 Cheeses - Provolone, Piave, Montasio

For the cheese portion, I chose Provolone, Piave, and Montasio. I wasn’t a big fan of any of the cheeses (the provolone was good) because I like softer, more mild cheeses.

Yummy~

All in all, a great lunch, we will definitely go back. I want to go try their dinner menu!

Borgo Trattoria
818 – 16 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2R 0S9
(403) 245-2202

[Quick Bites] Calgary: Taste of Calgary 2010 August 10, 2011

Since Taste of Calgary 2011 is coming up this weekend, I thought I’d do a recap of the 2010 festival for those people that are thinking of going, but are not sure what to expect.

I would definitely recommend not going on an empty stomach. Even though the tickets are cheap ($0.75 last year, $1.00 this year), it does add up, and the portion sizes aren’t exactly filling. It’s a fun event to walk around and to see what everyone has to offer, but it’s definitely not a place to get dinner (unless you want to spend like $50.00 on sample-sized food).

Cute Little Mascot~

We got two items from Shibuya last year:

Japanese Beef Curry Rice

This was 6 tickets ($4.50), it was decently sized, but if you compare it to any food court curry rice, it’s of course, much smaller in portion. I remember this being good but was disappointed in the lack of beef.

We also got a Japdog for 6 tickets as well:

Japdog

This if of course nothing like the real deal, no choices for a start, and also you’re paying almost $5.00 for half a hot dog…. -___-”

We got some pizza from The White Spot:

Italian Sausage Flatbread

This was actually quite good. As you can see they were very generous with the toppings and this only cost 2 tickets ($1.50)!!

The bf wanted some sausage from The Heritage Deli:

Polish Garlic Sausage

This was 3 tickets ($2.25). We were both quite disappointed but the portion size. This was barely worth $2.25…

The last & most satisfying dish we got was from Nubian Express:

African Styled Grilled Beef with Rice

This is the only dish that I felt was worth 6 tickets ($4.50). The lady at the booth even gave me some plantain to try because I didn’t know what it was.

Anyways, that’s a quick re-cap of last year’s festival. I plan on going down this year as well, but more to walk around, and less to eat (especially with the price raise!!). But, I’ll probably eat a thing or two, so look for that post soon~

TASTE OF CALGARY
Festival Plaza @ Eau Claire Market
200 Barclay Parade Southwest
Calgary, AB T2P 4R5

HERITAGE DELI
1912 – 37 Street Southwest
Calgary, AB T3E 3A3
403-686-6835

NUBIAN EXPRESS
136 Kincora Hill NW
Calgary, AB T3R 1N6
403-992-8825

SHIBUYA IZAKAYA
453 16 Avenue Northeast
Calgary, AB T2E 1K2
(403) 277-8823

THE WHITE SPOT
10440 Macleod Trail South
Calgary, AB T2J 0P8
403-278-8212