[Dine-Out] Calgary: River Cafe (Big Taste 2012) August 21, 2012

Big Taste @ River Cafe.

Course 1

The first course was a light starter consisting of Polar Bluff carrots and Old West Ranch Buffalo Mozzarella. I love love love buffalo mozzarella. I could eat buckets of this stuff. Anything with buffalo mozzarella = good in my books. And really, you’d have to try pretty damn hard to mess this baby up. This light salad was served with roasted carrots, pickled carrots, crisp carrots, toasted farro, and arugula.

The entree from the Big Taste menu was a plump Noble Farm Duck Cotechino Sausage:

Big Taste Menu

That beauty of a sausage was served with braised french lentils, roasted apples, buttered cabbage, and a preserved lemon yogurt. I am just loving all the restaurants using apples in their dishes. Bf loved it, polished it off, wouldn’t even consider trading with me…

I wanted to trade because I got this god awful french toast:

Brioche French Toast $16

I don’t even know why I ordered this, I know that I don’t like french toast (unless is stuffed with salty, meaty goodness). Oh I know, I was persuaded by the promise of brioche and crème fraîche. Crème fraîche is like my kryptonite. I will pretty much order anything that has crème fraîche on it…

This. Was. Not. Good. Never again am I ordering a french toast that is not stuffed with meat. The bread was so mushy – I felt like I was eating bread pudding. Not a good texture. And the flavours were just boring. You would think that the Okanagan rhubarb, orange, basil, and white chocolate crème fraîche would be good…but it wasn’t…or maybe it was, but just not good enough to mask the nasty mushy texture the bread had. Yuck. Biggest disappointment ever. Also, I don’t understand why people like normal french toast? it’s just sweet on sweet topped with more sweet.

At least the dessert was good…

Big Taste Dessert

This was a dandelion honey panna cotta topped with Kayben Farm blackcurrants and 2 baby Highwood Crossing steel cut oatmeal cookies. Have I mentioned I love panna cottas?

RIVER CAFE
25 Prince’s Island Park
Calgary, AB T2P 0R1
(403) 261-7670

[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: River Cafe November 7, 2011

The bf and I went to the River Cafe over the summer and had a nice brunch on their patio when the weather was still nice and warm~

Beautiful Interior

Look at this nice sunny view from the patio!

Sign~ Sooo niceeee!

Some tea for my brunch!

Tea time!

Organic honey for my tea!!

Healthier than white sugar!

We ordered the fish and game board to share. The board comes with house made crackers (the basket in the back). The plate from left top, candied trout, steelhead lox, pickled carrots. The middle row has some rillettes and duck paté with a little bowl of brassica mustard. The bottom row has house cured bison, Sylvan Star gouda, and some cranberry crackers.

Fish & Game Board

Very simple and elegant presentation:

Close Up

These homemade crackers were perfect with the board, very crisp and complementary.

Homemade Crackers!

We also got a supplementary basket of fresh baked muffins and pastries for $9.00.

$9.00 Worth of Pastries?

In the middle is a chive scone, which was the best of the bunch. Next we had half a piece of lemon poppy seed cake each:

Poppy Seed

This one was actually super delicious as well, a plum danish. I love danishes.

Plum Filled Yummy-ness~

The waiter forgot to bring this when he first dropped of the basket of pastries, but we got them in the end. A cherry perserve and a apricot perserve:

Looks kind of like ketchup...

The preserves were great.

I would definitely recommend going to the River Cafe, it has a very rustic atmosphere, and it’s gorgeous in the summer. I’m sure it’s a great place to be in the winter as well, I’ll have to make my way down there this winter!

RIVER CAFE
25 Prince’s Island Park
Calgary, AB T2P 0R1
(403) 261-7670

[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