[Dine-Out] Calgary: Brasserie Kensington (Big Taste 2012) August 16, 2012

Oh dear. It just dawned on me how far behind on my posts I am. I’m such an awful blogger, apologies.

Soooo…I have a couple posts I still have to do from the 2012 Big Taste Calgary. I’m so ridiculously behind now that its official website no longer has its 2012 restaurants and menus on it. And because I’m such an awful blogger, I, of course, don’t have notes on the menu items. So…the next couple of posts will be very short and sweet…and will only contain stuff I can remember. Awful, awful, awful. I will try to be more diligent from now on. Promise.

So the Big Taste Menus are usually $25 for lunch and $35 for dinner. Most menus will come with three courses. From the 2011 event, the bf and I have come to the realization that two $35 menus usually end up being too much food. So this year, for a lot of the restaurants, we would order 1 Big Taste menu and 1 regular main course, unless, of course, the menus are super good and have lots of choices that we both want. Sometimes the restaurants only offer 1 menu with no choices (like the case with Kensington Brasserie this year) and there’s really no point in both of us eating the same thing.

So the first course of the Big Taste menu was a Brome Lake duck breast pastrami:

Big Taste Menu Item – Duck Breast Pastrami

Look at the perfect doneness on that duck. So beautifully pink. This small starter came with crostini and a little bit of greens on top of the duck.

Big Taste Menu Item – Braised Alberta Beef Short Ribs

This was my entree – braised short ribs on top a bed of mustard spatzle and topped with a slice of foie gras torchon. Oh. My. God. This was heavenly. This meal was 5 months ago for me and I still remember how fork-tender the short ribs were. Some people think that foie gras is too rich, but this small little portion was a perfect compliment to the meat.

The bf got this off of their specials board (I think):

Not part of the “Big Taste Menu”

I’m pretty sure it was a boeuf bourguignon, I remember trying some and thought that the red wine taste was too dominating…

Big Taste Menu Item – Foie Gras Profiteroles

And last but not least, profiteroles piped with a foie gras and sea salt ice-cream. This was a good dessert, but I don’t think the foie gras was very apparent. It almost tasted like a normal ice-cream.

BRASSERIE KENSINGTON
1131 Kensington Rd NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4P4
(403) 457-4148

[Dine-Out] Seattle: Sheraton Hotel December 30, 2011

So when we went to Seattle we stayed at the downtown Sheraton, I got this awesome deal on Expedia on the club floor. This room included access to the Club Lounge. The Club Lounge includes daily complimentary breakfast, after-hours hors d’oeuvres, and non-alcoholic beverages. The deal we got was great because that meant we didn’t have to go somewhere and buy breakfast everyday. We stayed in Seattle for 10 days so that saved us a lot of money!

Their breakfast was a good one too, not like one of those yucky continental breakfasts. Everyday they had tomatoes and mozzarella, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, oatmeal, an assortment of pastries, and fresh fruit.

Yum!

I ate so much mozzarella this trip, it was soooo good.

They even had figs!

In the afternoon they had hors d’oeuvre but we didn’t take advantage of this as much. I think we only went to this 2 or 3 times because we were usually out and about during the hours they offered it.

The times we did go though they always had an assortment of cheeses, crackers, various hot snacks, fruit, vegetable, and an assortment of desserts.

The first time we went they had mini samosas and quiches.

Bf's plate

My plate

One of the other days they had deep fried firecracker shrimp and chicken wings for their hot food:

Shrimp~

And then on one of the last days they had chocolate dipped strawberries and cheesecake!

Yum~

I really do think the extra money for the club foor is worth it. If you can get one of the club rooms for not a lot extra I would definitely recommend booking a club room!

SHERATON SEATTLE HOTEL
1400 – 6 Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101
(206) 621-9000

[Dine-Out] Calgary: El Sombrero Restaurante Mexicano July 8, 2011

First of all, can anyone explain to me why Mexican food is so damn expensive in Calgary? You’d think it’d be one of the cheaper cuisines…

I personally think it’s quite ridiculous to be paying around ~$20.00 for Mexican food, but, the bf wanted it really bad. Sigh, what can you do? I’m sure if I actually liked Mexican food (like the bf), I wouldn’t mind paying so much for it. But it’s pretty expensive for a meal that I don’t actually want.

Ok, enough complaining, I’ll move on.

I got the Filete de Huachinango Veracruzano, which is a red snapper fillet cooked Veracruz style. El Sombrero’s Veracruzano sauce is made up of dried pepper, spices, and white wine. Other Veracruzano sauces I found on the internet consists of olives and capers. It came with a choice of two sides. I choose salad and vegetables. The only upside of this meal was that it had cauliflower (love), the rest was…meh…

It’s kind of off-putting when you get served a plate of food in a restaurant that has baby carrots in it. The kind where you can buy from a supermarket and eat straight from the bag. I mean, I have a giant bag of that stuff at home right now, I can throw it in a pot of boiling water and then eat that.

It’s obvious that not much thought was put into this plate. I mean, I know I’m not a fancy-shmancy restaurant or anything like that, BUT my plate just looked like the chef took 2 seconds and threw it together. Here, let me throw some bland, probably boiled or steamed, vegetables on a plate, then let me throw other raw, coarsely chopped vegetable next to it and call it a salad, AND THEN I’ll just shove the fish onto the half of the plate that isn’t preoccupied by bland, under-seasoned vegetables.

Soooo not worth $17.00

The sides aside (hahaha), the fish was pretty mediocre, I feel like I could easily make the fish at home myself. There is nothing particular exciting about it, and seriously not worth spending $17.00 on it.

The bf got the Pechuga de Pollo con Mole. It features a grilled boneless chicken breast covered in the spicy chocolate sauce. I guess the only Mexican part of plate is the mole sauce. I know, I know, we could’ve choose beans as sides, and that probably would’ve felt more like we were eating Mexican food.

Mole mole mole

The bf was quite disappointed with this dish as well. Never mind that he got the same bland sides as me, but he asked the waitress what the spiciest dish on the menu is, and she said this one. AND IT WASN’T SPICY AT ALL. I mean, when you think Mexican, you think spice right? Wellllllll…where was it? Flavour seemed to have skipped our dishes. He basically poured half a bottle of hot sauce on his chicken before it was spicy enough for him. That’s beside the point anyways, when you go out to eat Mexican food, you expect Mexican flavours. This is a cuisine that’s known for its spices and flavour, and you’re expecting it to be the star of your dish, sadly it just wasn’t here at El Sombrero.

EL SOMBRERO RESTAURANTE MEXICANO
520 17 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, AB T2S 0B1
(403) 228-0332