A Day for Cheaters

Hola Bloggies:

Tonight, I’m coming to you straight from Cowtown Canada – Calgary, Alberta. We're back here for some wedding related business but that doesn’t mean we can’t live it up while we’re at it; which is why we’re staying at the Westin hotel and treating ourselves a little.

Heavenly Bed? Yes, please!

I have to give major props to the front desk staff; despite the fact that we booked through Hotwire (and got a screaming deal) they still recognized my Starwood Preferred Guest status and upgraded us to a corner suite!!! There’s a reason I keep coming back to the Starwood hotels.

 

For dinner, we decided to hit up one of our go-to restaurants in this city. Which just so happened to coincide with my cheat day. That’s right, yours truly has been following a somewhat strict diet (trying to limit un-necessary sugars and fats) in the lead up to the wedding but once a week I allow myself a splurge day. Hence tonight’s dinner.

Perfect timing.

We discovered the MBA BBQ Noodle House, years ago on our first visit to Calgary. It was late, it was cold, and we were starved. Everything else seemed to be closed downtown – with the exception of some Chinatown establishments. In the end we chose the busiest restaurant.

Honestly, it was chock full of Chinese families. I always judge a Chinese restaurant by the number of old school families that are eating inside. The higher the number, (usually) the better the food.

We’re still working out the kinks of our over-ordering problem. Don’t judge!

For starters, we went with the hot and sour soup – the Fiancé's favourite. Honestly, we’ve had a ton of hot and sour soup over the years but no one does it better than this restaurant.

We then followed that up with a spicy squid. It ended up being a ton of seafood! And unfortunately, also fried. When we ordered the dish we envisioned something pan fried in a spicy sauce. Not so much.

And then there was the siu mai . . . ahhhhhhh the siu mai (shrimp and pork dumplings).

I’ve had dim sum at what is thought of as the best place in Vancouver (Sun Sui Wah) and some of the best restaurants in Toronto. And. Nothing. Even. Comes. Close.

In fact, before this little Calgary restaurant I didn’t even like this kind of dumpling!!!

All in all a fantastic meal (notwithstanding the fact that we barely touched the squid). And well worth my cheat day!

 

Question: Have you ever randomly discovered a jewel of a restaurant?