Lunch – Page 42 – Elsie Hui

April 12, 2014

White Elephant Thai Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta

I’ve been going through some personal things and it’s been making me kind of depressed lately. The few cravings I’ve been wanting lately have been complete fails and so when I had a craving for Thai Chicken Pineapple Fried Rice, I looked for a place with the best reviews and found White Elephant Thai Cuisine inside the hotel. I was kind of low on patience when I got there and they said to me it was cash only and a wait. Good thing my husband decided to do the wait as I was happy with the food! We started our meal with their Hot and Sour Soup with Chicken or what they call Tom Yum Gai which is one of my favourite Thai soups. It’s fragrant and spicy, well balanced.

Of course, with my craving, I ordered their Pineapple Fried Rice with Chicken and it was exceptional. It was spicier than expected but nothing I can’t handle, especially after the tom yum soup. The portion size was large, tons of chicken and pineapples and I was really quite satisfied with this fried rice.

Then, we ordered some Red Curry with Beef and Pineapples as my husband knows I love pineapples. We had an order of coconut rice with it, and I was expecting us to bring some curry home… but we actually ate the entire thing. The beef was tender, tons of slices of beef as well. Again, tons of pineapple and the curry was smooth and delicious. The coconut rice was a great with this dish!

After my visit here, I have no problem returning here for any Thai craving that I may want. It’s not cheap here, but the portions are quite large. It’s great for sharing! The location is a little intersting as it’s located inside a hotel and there’s not much signage to the location, but follow your nose! I really enjoyed my evening here. It is smoky as the ventilation isn’t great, and the service is kind of slow… so, don’t come when you’re on a tight schedule and you’ll enjoy it!

White Elephant Thai Cuisine

1808 19 Street N.E
Calgary, AB
(403) 464-8558

April 12, 2014April 12, 2014

Schanks Sports Grill – Calgary, Alberta

I’ve been looking for a good dry rib lately and when we came to Schanks Sports Grill I realized they had really good food! We stopped in on a Friday night and it was relatively quiet, but still had other people. The atmosphere was busy and spacious! Once we sat down, I ordered myself a Shirley Temple as it was fruity and something I wanted!

We tried their Garlic Soya Ribs for my rib mission. The waitress did advise us that they are salty, and they really were! The meat was tender and juicy but there was an overwhelming amount of saltiness to them. It’s not bad and it does go with beer… but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

We did order some wings and we got to try their Lemon Pepper Wings and this we really enjoyed. The seasoning was really great and the skin was crispy, with a tender and juicy.

Overall, it’s a decent place to go, but there are tons of other places along Macleod Trail that I’d like to try first before returning. It’s not up my alley as I’m not into sports – but I can see the place being packed on important game nights!

Schanks Sports Grill

9627 Macleod Trl S
Calgary, AB
(403) 253-7300

March 25, 2014June 24, 2014

Soluxe Restaurant 陽光飯店 – Calgary, AB

Chinatown in Calgary has changed a bit, and Soluxe Restaurant is a new change from Harbour City at the corner of Centre Street and 3rd Ave.

We started with some dumplings – at this time when we visited Soluxe, it was right after we got home from China and we just wanted some good dumplings in Calgary, so we gave it a shot and ordered an order of Seafood Meat Dumplings which wasn’t bad. They cooked it in boiling water and had some red vinegar on the side. I think they could have elevated it by pan frying it a little, but that’s my opinion. The filling was very flavourful, and I would say a little on the salty side.

We stopped in here for lunch one day to try out their noodles. It wasn’t bad at all. The portions were quite large and the flavours of the meat and soup was quite good! I ordered an order of their Rice Noodles with Beef and the beef chunks was really tender.

The other bowl of noodles that we ordered was basically the same thing, but it was called Special Noodle with Beef and the noodles were quite special. It was very homemade like, and it varied in thickness leading me to think they rolled it out themselves. It’s a broader noodle but it worked nice with the noodle soup.

Our overall experience was quite decent. We enjoyed our bowls of noodle soup. We actually took left overs home and had it for dinner! The portions were huge, so it helped justifying the price tag a bit as each bowl of noodles was just under $11!

Soluxe Restaurant

302 Centre Street South
Calgary, AB
(403) 269-8888

March 23, 2014September 30, 2018

Wellingtons of Calgary Dining & Lounge – Calgary, AB

For all the people who actually know me, they know I’ve been going to the same place for Valentines day for the last LOTS of years until they changed hands. This year, we had to find something else as we weren’t satisfied last year. We went to Wellingtons of Calgary and it was pretty good! It’s not cheap, but it was worth it for special occasions like Valentines day!

Once we were seated and ordered our drink, a bread basket came out and it was decent! But, we did order some starters and I enjoyed their Fresh Oysters in a Half Shell. I really enjoyed these oysters, they were really fresh and it tasted great with just a little bit of lemon.

My husband ordered their soup of the day, which was Seafood Chowder and it wasn’t a thick chowder, but it was still rich. It had tons of seafood in the soup and great depth of flavour.

The main entree, I had to order the Beef Wellington and it was really delicious! The steak was cooked to perfection, wrapped in great puff pastry that was light and fluffy with a great crispy exterior! It was a large piece of steak!

My husband ordered the Steak Dianne which was broiled beef tenderloin topped with a brandy mustard sauce. The steak again was prepared to perfection! We thoroughly enjoyed this steak with it’s gravy sauce! There was so much meat it was really worth the price!

After we ate, we were both stuffed to the rim. Our waiter sold us on getting a piece of cake for dessert, so we ordered what he recommended – the Cheesecake! It was fantastic and I’m so glad we got it! It was a light and fluffy cake where we were both glad we didn’t turn it down!

Overall, I believe this is going to be our new Valentines day location! We really like steaks for this special day and I’m sure we’re going to keep it that way! This may be my new favourite steak place in the city right now!

Wellingtons of Calgary Dining & Lounge

10325 Bonaventure Dr SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 278-5250

March 2, 2014March 3, 2014

Homemade Xiao Long Bao – 小籠包

Well, after we came back from Shanghai, China, we were really missing some delicious Xiao Long Bao so we decided to be adventurous and make some!

The process is time consuming, but it was delicious! We just enjoyed some frozen ones, and sadly, I had to say mine tasted better! Not bad for a first time attempt! There is 3 parts to making Xiao Long Bao, and it starts with the soup part

Ingredients for Soup:
Pork Belly Meat
1 Package of Gelatin
Water

First of all, make a soup with fatty meat so it solidifies. I boiled some pork feet with pork belly in water until it reduced to about half. When I claimed it was done, I seasoned it up as though I was about to drink it – with a little heavier hand of seasoning!

Now, we have to let the soup set and become “jello” so I add a package of flavourless gelatin just to make sure it sets. Put it in the fridge at least 3 hours before using it!

The next thing I did was to marinate the meat. I wanted the meat to be full of flavour so I did that before making the dough.

Ingredients for Filling
1/2 lb regular ground pork
2 tbsp 5-Spiced Powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
chuck of ginger (minced)
chopped green/spring onion
1 tsp salt

Basically here, mix everything together and let it marinate in the fridge!

If your soup has set at this point, pull back the layer of fat/oil and break down the soup jelly and mix it into the meat marinated. If you put this in at this point, make sure you keep the meat in the fridge so your soup doesn’t become “soup”.

Now, as everything is chilling and developing their flavours, we can make the dough!

Ingredients for dough:
200g A/P Flour
1/8 cup of cold water
1/3 cup of hot water (I used boiling water)
1 tsp salt

Making the dough is actually super easy! Basically you measure out the flour and pour the boiling water in. Mix until the dough is smooth and keep mixing as we’re trying to develop the gluten!

When it’s soft and smooth, add the cold water in and knead for a few more minutes! It will have a nice texture and bounce back when you poke it – then it’s ready. When you reach this point, let it rest in the bowl covered for at least 30 minutes.

After it’s rested, roll it out. I rolled mine out in a pasta roller to get the consistent thickness – and on my machine, I had it at setting “6” for the perfect thickness! I then cut out circles so I can fill the xiao long bao

Then, I get to fill the xiao long bao wrappers and place them on a cabbage lining to my bamboo steamer! I tried to make as many pleats as possible as that’s how it’s prettiest.

Now, we prepare the steamer and we’ll steam for about 15 minutes!

Now it’s done! Be careful, it’s hot and the soup you can see at the bottom of the dumpling — this means it’s really hot!! Enjoy!