I know of no better way to follow up a post about a day of alpine perfection than with a similarly inspired meal.
Welcome to another Foto Friday.
Question: What are your plans for the weekend? I have to spend part of mine working but I have a long run planned as well as a belated Daisy Birthday celebration!
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?
Hola Bloggies:
We’ve reached the end of another week – yaaaayyyy!!!!
And that means the return of another Foto Friday. Today’s post is brought to you by one of life’s simple little pleasures: a hotel breakfast.
That’s right. I’m a girl that loves me some room service!
There’s just something so indulgent about having breakfast brought to you in a gorgeous hotel room. The breakfast featured today was devoured savoured at the Hyatt International in Calgary. BTW, a hotel I would highly recommend.
Question: What are your plans for the weekend? We’re heading to Calgary (again) to run some wedding errands and indulge a little too!
Hola Bloggies:
I’ve missed you friends!!!
After almost a solid month of travelling (mostly for work) I finally arrived home late on Friday night. It feels so good to be back in my own casa.
The next time I travel will be in late September; granted it will only be for a few days (in Vancouver). Then there are October and November – which will frankly be non-stop travel. The difference is that those trips will be for pleasure!!! I will be flying to Southern California to run the Long Beach Half Marathon, Toronto for my wedding dress fitting, Whistler for a brief work event, San Jose del Cabo (Mexico) for our wedding, and then Guanajuato (Mexico) for our honeymoon. Happy times indeed!!!
For now though I’ll enjoy chilling in my Rocky Mountain casa.
With all this running around I need to catch up on a lot of blog posts. That means for the next little while you’ll see Vancouver Island, Rocky Mountain, and Calgary posts.
A Little Slice of England
While I was on Vancouver Island, my co-workers did their best to introduce me to all their favourite haunts.
One place in particular, The Crow and Gate, was deemed special enough for my goodbye luncheon. The property is located outside of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Canada on beautifully landscaped grounds.
I’ve never been to England but this is what I imagine a proper pub in the countryside to look like.
Diners could either choose to enjoy their lunch in the cozy and dark interior (probably a wonderful place on a cold rainy winter day) or in the lovely exterior of the premises.
There is no traditional table service at the Crow and Gate, rather, everyone orders at the counter. At the suggestion of other diners, I ordered the local (from Fanny Bay) pan-fried oysters, paired with a Pimm’s.
If you’ve never had a Pimm’s, I highly recommend you give it a try! It’s a cocktail made of Pimm’s (an old school gin based beverage), mixed with either sprite or ginger ale, and traditionally garnished with cucumbers, mint, and strawberries. It goes down very easy and is wonderfully refreshing on a warm summer’s day.
There was a bit of a wait for food but I was so busy enjoying the ambiance that, I scarcely noticed.
When my plate did arrive I was genuinely surprised at the size of the oysters. They looked rather plump and juicy; rather unlike any pan-fried oysters I had ever eaten.
You’ll have to excuse the lack of further food pictures – my co-workers didn’t know about the blog and given that it was my last day I preferred to keep it that way. But you will have to trust me when I say that the oysters were magnificent!!! So good in fact that when I cut into the first one a spurt of oyster juice went flying. Not gross. I swear. lol
Honestly, I couldn’t have thought of a better place to visit on my last day in Nanaimo. It was a fitting end to a wonderful two weeks at the local office.
Question of the Day: Do you like oysters? What is your favourite way to eat them?
Hola Bloggies:
It’s Monday and I’m finally back in the Rocky Mountain casa. It feels so good to be home. Aside from the ridiculously joyful reunion with Daisy, it’s just nice to be in my own space. In fact I slept like a baby.
It was the sleep of the happy.
Although, I’m completely enjoying my return to the Rocky Mountains I can’t help but reminisce about my last couple of weeks spent by the Ocean shore.
There’s just something about living so close to the water that is soothing to the soul.
Walks on the boardwalk, views across the great blue escape, and drinks at the yacht club. I relished in every Island moment.
Of course, I did my best to enjoy as many meals by the waterfront as possible. One of my favourite came at a wonderful Nanaimo spot, Penny’s Palapa.
Located on a floating barge in the middle of the harbour, Penny’s Palapa is a super cute and colourful restaurant. A perfect place to spend a leisurely summer lunch.
The menu was as unpretentious as the locale.
It only took one glance at the menu and I knew what I was going to choose. You see, once upon a time I visited Ensenada (Baja California, Mexico) and had fish taco perfection. Ever since I have been looking for a taco that could stand up to the Ensenada tacos of my dreams.
Since I knew this would likely be my only chance to visit this particular restaurant, I indulged in a bit of over ordering and started with a Mexican tortilla sauce.
I’m far from a Mexican tortilla soup connoisseur but one thing is for sure – this soup had flavours that reminded me of home. Given, that my mom is a fantastic cook, that is indeed a good thing.
I ate about half the soup and didn’t regret one bit of my over ordering.
I have to confess I was a bit disappointed to see the use of what looked like rather huge flour tortillas. I like to keep it genuine (i.e.: corn).
Still, the big pieces of red snapper filling more than made me forget about the tortilla. In El Salvador (where I’m from) we’re quite partial to red snapper so I was thrilled with this fish taco.
Close.
Closer.
I filled my tacos with all the greens and salsa that I could find on the plate. While this may not have been the most genuine fish taco it was nonetheless a quality dish. I was one very happy camper.
Question: Have you ever had a fish taco? Thoughts?
Hola Bloggies:
We made it all the way to hump-day bloggies! From here on in it’s full speed into the weekend. This is the last of my two weeks here on Vancouver Island which means by this Sunday I’ll be reunited with the Fiancé and Daisy. Cue the happy dance!
In the meantime I’m doing my best to enjoy some of the things I love most about the Island. Of course, that meant I had to pay a visit to an old favourite of mine – Murchie’s.
Victoria is a city that prides itself not only on its beauty but also on its Englishness. From the double decker buses, to the Empress hotel, and amazing scones, it’s Canada’s most English city. And what could be more English than tea time?
My favourite place to have tea in Victoria is actually somewhat unorthodox in that it has a counter where you order you food. While it may not be the most traditional of settings it results in a decidedly more affordable experience. Since the food and tea are fabulous, I’m game!
My stand-by order at Murchie’s is a currant scone (served with Devonshire cream and jam) and tea. On this occasion, however, I strayed from the scone way of things and headed straight into the arms of three small French style macaroons (paired with a pot of tea and a sandwich).
Honestly, the sandwich was nothing short of spectacular. The bread was hearty and fresh and the fillings were delicious. As far as I could gather the fillings included lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, and an aioli. Simple enough ingredients but somehow they came together wonderfully.
For those not familiar with a French-style macaroon they bare no resemblance to their coconut based American cousins. A French macaroon is a confection made using egg whites and hazelnut flour. The mixture is then piped and baked before being sandwiched together with a filling of choice.
In my experience it’s nearly impossible to find macaroons in Canada so when I saw these lovelies in Murchie’s, I jumped at the chance to savour them once again (I hadn’t had a macaroon since my sister, who lives in Montreal, gave me some for Christmas). They really were better than I was expecting. Surprisingly, for my lemon loving self, the raspberry one was my favourite.
Before calling it a day I made sure to stop by the adjoining gift shop.
For a tea drinker this place is basically paradise. Full of a myriad of tea pots, trinkets, china, and of course, tea.
Somehow I managed to find a bit of self-restraint and bought only a box of Murchie’s Afternoon Blend (my fave!) as a present for the gentleman who often looks after Daisy when we’re away.
On the whole I think it’s safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Murchie’s. In fact it’s one of the places I most look forward to visiting when I’m in Victoria.
Question: Are you a coffee or tea drinker?
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