Hamley Squiddy – Batteries

The Hamley Squiddy seems to be a popular bath toy! It has been brought to my attention that we weren’t the only ones with problems opening Squddy to insert or change batteries.

Hamley's Squiddy

This bath-time toy takes 2AA batteries, and is not too complicated to insert or change. It does take a little bit of force, but not so much where you crush Squiddy. You can watch the video below to watch us open, insert batteries and see Squiddy move!

I really like my Hamley Squiddy – see what I think about Hamley’s Squiddy!

Chef Mario Street Burgers Food Truck – Calgary, Alberta

Over the weekend, we visited some food trucks at Calgary East Village, where we saw Chef Mario’s truck come by. We noticed it looked a little different – from his pizza truck, so we knew it was something different. Chef Mario is a really happy guy, and he’s here to have fun while putting smiles on his customers faces. We asked him where his pizza truck was, and he replied “next week, gotta switch it up to have some fun!”

The menu consisted of 1 item to avoid confusion (too much choice), and for $10, you’ll get the Italian Love Affair which is a combo of drink, fries and a 2 patty burger!

It’s a wonderful deal, considering how much it costs for a drink and burger anywhere else! On this occasion, he was giving cheesecake with every love affair purchase. We were able to tell the cheesecake was home-made, and made with love!

Harringtons on the Hill

What a fabulous place, Harringtons on the Hill provided wonderful food for a wedding banquet. The quality of food was top-notch, and the location was really rustic and warm. I was fortunate to try Harringtons with a fantastic special menu.

The appetizer that I had was Scallops with Chorizo salad. The scallops was really tender and fresh, and the chorizo was a delicious sausage. The appetizer was on a fresh bed of greens that was crisp and sweet – which I really like. I am not a fan of salads with the bold flavoured greens.

Another appetizer that we had as we shared our food (even though they were individually ordered, we couldn’t help but putting our forks in each others food) was Country Style Pate on sourdough toast. There was also a side of red onion jam which really a good pair. Usually, when I think of Red Onion Jam, I think of a big roast or lamb… but, it was complimented nicely with the pate! What made this dish extra special was sourdough toasts and the subtle sourness really elevated the taste and flavour of the appetizer.

My main course during this reception was Seared Peppered Tuna with Mango and Red Pepper Salsa, which was delicious filet of tuna cooked to perfection and topped with a fresh and homemade mango & pepper salsa. It was extremely refreshing with the salsa and the nice squeeze of lime.

As we were in Kenilworth, a dish called Kenilworth Spring Lamb with couscous was very attractive. It makes you think of fresh local flavours at it’s best! It was true, the lamb was tender and juicy.

My cousin ordered the Lemon Cheesecake where I HAD to try some. It was so refreshing and the cheesecake was light, fluffy and creamy! It was a really nice texture of cheesecake, and it definitely wasn’t sitting around for a few days in the refrigerator! So, this was a really special cheesecake. Suddenly, I really like lemon flavoured desserts!

Apple Pie with Custard was a wonderful dessert. Warm, decadent apple pie with warm custard I got to drizzle on my pie! Normally with apple pie, you get the scoop of Vanilla ice cream, but this warm custard made the pie extra rich, and it was perfect. There wasn’t ice cream making the crust soggy or anything! It was a perfect end to a perfect meal!

There’s never a better dessert than Warm Chocolate Brownie and this brownie was rich tender and chewy chocolate brownie “bar”.

This is a restaurant where everyone who enjoyed it is still thinking about it and wanting to return in the near future! 🙂 I know I will be for sure! The food here is definitely exceptional!

Harringtons on the Hill

42 Castle Hill
Kenilworth CV8 1NB,
United Kingdom
01926 852 074

Burger King – Birmingham Airport

As we know from a previous trip, Europe has really good burgers at Burger King so, we gave it a shot, at the airport! We were right, the burger was excellent! We tried the Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Burger and the patty was quite good! The best fast food burger we have had in awhile. Too bad burgers from Burger King back home just isn’t the same, and often under cooked!

The combo like all other places comes with a drink and fries, and the French Fries here was really good as well! I think they actually use better oil to fry it up! Not a bad start to the overseas trip! 🙂

  • Burger King - Birmingham Airport BHX
  • Burger King - Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Combo
  • Burger King - Smoked Bacon and Cheddar

Burger King  on Urbanspoon

Burger King

Main Airport Terminal
Birmingham
B26 3QJ
0121 767 8115

Sun Chiu Kee in Calgary

We recently went back to Sun Chiu Kee or Sun’s BBQ Restaurant after awhile now as there has been so many new places to try. Sun Chiu Kee is a place I’ve always enjoyed going to and it’s great to return for dinner, instead of lunch.

We ordered a Lamb Hot Pot which was on their winter special menu, deep fried tofu with salted egg yolk, abalone mushroom veggie.

The order of the Lamb Shank Hot Pot came in a large wok of bubbling broth with some lettuce on the side. The broth was quite delicious, and the vegetables in the soup included carrots, leeks, dried bean curd – which is the “skin” of tofu when they make the tofu, and used in a lot of Chinese cooking. There was a dipping sauce that came with this dish, which was fermented bean curd, and they added honey into it. I thought that was really nice, as I normally add sugar when I make it at home. This was a great dish that they have on their winter menu as it was really hot (in temperature), and the meat was cooked to perfection. It just warms you right up – especially when you put the soup in your bowl with your rice.

Sun Chiu Kee - Lamb Hot Pot

The next dish that we ordered was Deep Fried Tofu with Salted Egg Yolks, and it wasn’t as flavourful as it can be, as this recipe is one where you can add a lot of flavour. When they made it here, it only had subtle salted egg yolk flavours. Salted Egg Yolks is actually from what we called Salted Duck Egg and it’s a ducks egg that is preserved in brine (salt water) and when you see it in the store, it is normally covered with a dark black layer of what looks like dirt. To use this egg, simply scrape off the layer and then rinse it under water – and then you’d use the egg in your cooking. This preserved egg has a denser and firmer consistency, and it holds its shape. So, to make this dish, they basically take that egg yolk and mash it up – cook it down with butter until it’s a thick sauce like consistency…. and of course, you deep fry your tofu and toss it in the sauce. It’s a great dish, but this time had a serious lack of flavour.

Sun Chiu Kee - Deep Fried Tofu

The last dish we had was a veggie dish, we ordered Abalone Mushroom with Gai Lan, and we ordered this because we needed vegetables! Gai Lan is also called Chinese Broccoli but I think it has more “bitter” taste, but cooked properly, it’s quite good!

Sun Chiu Kee - Abalone Mushroom with Gai Lan

I’ve been to Sun’s BBQ Restaurant for a late night dinner, and my experience was pretty good with the food. Be sure to read about me going to Sun Chiu Kee for late dinner!