Jing Jing Bakery

I love bakeries and I like them from any nationality or location. This one particular afternoon, I really wanted to pick up a bun and take to me on my zoo adventure that I was going on later that day. I went downstairs and it was around 1:30PM and there wasn’t anyone else in the bakery, but it still smells like fresh products was still coming out of the oven. Sure, the place does look creepy, but I think the product I got from here was well worth the creepiness!

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We ordered just 2 items as it was meant to be a tiny snack for the zoo break. I ordered an egg tart (which I failed to take a picture of) and a pineapple bun! Sure, the bun doesn’t look good, as my homemade pineapple bun looked better… but both of these items was still warm when I purchased them… so, we actually ate it right away instead of saving it for the zoo. Just as I was eating away at the pineapple bun, the cookie topping was do light, crispy and perfect. I was just about to start thinking the pineapple bun was a little plain as well, but I continued eating it… and inside was a sweet delight… it actually had pineapples in it! This totally made my day, and I’m proud to sa this is one of my favourite pineapple buns now!

Jing Jing Bakery - Pineapple Bun

Overall, I have no problem returning to try more items. It’s a small bakery, but the products are just as good as good as big bakeries! Who needs a pineapple bun with just butter now?! I’m not sure how I will ever go back to a regular pineapple bun!

Jing Jing Bakery on Urbanspoon

Jing Jing Bakery

100 – 3rd Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 265-9588

Caffe Rosso – Calgary, Alberta

We love taking pictures from Scotsman Hill which isn’t really too far from here at all! It’s actually within walking distance as long as the weather isn’t awful! After a morning of taking some pictures of the skyline of Calgary, we decided we would drive to Caffe Rosso to warm up and to experience this remote coffee shop!

From Caffe Rosso, I ordered my favourite, just a Chai Tea Latte and it was perfectly sweetened, perfectly spiced. It was hot and perfect for a cold day!

We also ordered a Latte and to my excitement (as always), there was latte art! I just love places that take the time and do the foam art! It really adds and enhances my coffee experience. The coffee here is strong, dark and rich but it was still a great latte!

Now that we’re aware of this cool place, I’m sure we’ll stop in when we’re in the area taking pictures again! I like it here even though at first glimpse, I was kind of creeped out by the location.

Caffe Rosso

803 24 Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 971-1800

Diner Deluxe – Calgary, Alberta

I really love watching Food Networks You Gotta Eat Here and when I heard that John Catucci got to eat at Diner Deluxe I knew it was a place I would like to visit sometime. I finally made it there right before Christmas, and it was packed! We waited quite a long time for a table, and the service was really quick!

Once were seated, the waitress came to give us the drink specials, and already they had alcoholic specials, which I knew I couldn’t do for a morning drink… so, I just ordered a delicious Hot Chocolate and it tasted as good as it looks!

For the breakfast, I ordered my favourite, Eggs Benedict!! I ordered what they called Canadian Bacon Benny which came with 2 poached eggs on buttermilk biscuits, with basil hollandaise sauce and hash browns. On the actual benny itself, it had large slices of Canadian Bacon, essentially ham! This combination was delicious, and I definitely think about returning to try their Smoked Salmon and Capers Benny! I think that would be a wonderful breakfast at any time!

My other half ordered what he loves to love, the Pulled Pork Hash which was quite feast for him! It consisted of 2 poached eggs, BBQ pulled pork, grainy Brassica Mustard, Caramelized Apples and onions, hash browns and toast.

Overall, it was a perfect way to start the day and I would love to return. The prices wasn’t terrible as the portions are huge. Food tasted great, so I had a wonderful time! Like I said, I would love to return to try other options, and I would love to try what I believe was like a market or bakery right next door. Just as we were leaving, someone was telling us it was good too!

Diner Deluxe

804 Edmonton Trail NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 276-5499

Homemade Seitan (Gluten) Puffs – 齋麵筋

Home Made Seitan Puffs or Braised Gluten

I’ve always loved Seitan and I’ve never learned that term until recently. I was thinking about one of my aunts who makes delicious “sweet and sour gluten” and really wanted to make it myself – so I attempted to figure out how to make the basic seitan first, and then we’ll go from there.

Seitan is a meat alternative, and I guess it’s got proteins in it. Basically, you take flour and knead it until it gets tough – or form the gluten. The more you knead for this recipe, the better. Then, you was away the flour such that you’re left with the gluten (or what they call seitan).

Ingredients:
1 cup bread flour (or gluten flour)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt

Basic ratio turns out to being 2 parts flour and 1 part water with a pinch of salt. It seems to work really well for this! Combine the 2 ingredients until they form a dough, and knead, and knead. This will be helpful if you have a machine that can do it for you! I used bread flour as I couldn’t find gluten flour anywhere (I wanted a Chinese brand, but basically the more gluten your flour has, the better!). If you use All Purpose Flour, this will work too, but you’ll be washing out more than half of the dough’s size as not as much gluten is formed.

After extensive kneading, the dough should be a tad tough with a lot of give. If you poke your finger at it, it should bounce back – almost looking as though you didn’t poke it at all. At this point, I let it sit as I set up the sink tap to a comfortable warm temperature.

Once the water is at a nice temperature, I just keep washing the dough, and the flour will eventually wash out. You’ll be left with something that looks stringy, but it’s holding on together. It’s quite a delicate process, so treat this with care – you don’t want to be breaking it up into part, or you’ll never get it back together!

When you think the water from the dough has started to run clear, or close to it – you’re probably done washing the flour out. For me, as I’ve used the bread flour, I did loose about half the dough, but it’s no big deal. I just went and made another batch! Notice the texture on the left, as it’s really “brain like”…

From here, I chop up the gluten into little pieces as I’m experimenting, I like mini portions. I set up some oil to fry with, and it’s important it’s at a low heat with hot oil. Since it’s made with a lot of water, it can either blow up or cause a lot of splashing if the oil is too hot. I just leave the seitan sitting there as the oil comes up to temperature.

Now, when the oil seems hot (poke a wooden chopstick in the oil, and it starts bubbling around the chopstick), I’m ready to start frying! Ideally, they will puff up and you just keep moving the pieces of gluten so they don’t stick to each other! I pull them out when they’re golden brown.

Alright, now we got our seitan puffs, I just make a nice braising liquid. This time, I used a curry and I braise it for a few hours until the flavours get in. Once it’s flavourful, you’re ready to enjoy seitan! You can change up the braising flavours, and like I mentioned, my favourite is the sweet and sour sauce, or ketchup one… so I will have to experiement with that!

I actually braised mine in a slow cooker and I must admit, I did over braise it such that it was a little too mushy!! So, keep an eye on it if you’re doing it for the first time (unlike me!)

Samba Brazilian Steakhouse – Mirage Las Vegas

I have never tried a Brazilian Grill before, but I’ve always wanted to. Where else better to try my first experience than in Las Vegas? We went to Samba Brazilian Steakhouse inside the Mirage Hotel and Casino. We were staying at the Mirage this evening, and we were extremely tired as this day was the day we arrived off the plane, and was up for many hours.

We wanted to try the “All You Can Eat”, but we just didn’t have that large of an appetite so we decided that we were going to get individual dishes. Inside that Samba was very fun, and right in the front was an open bbq, which was really exciting. The other tables around were filled with happiness and enthusiast as large skewers of food was arriving to their tables. We weren’t sad we weren’t apart of that, but it sure added to our experience!

Right after we ordered, a salad came to our table, which they called “Samba Salad“, which was as huge plate of lettuce – which they said was bottomless (even though one plate was plenty). The salad was a little over dressed, but was decent. There was quite a few brine olives which added texture and saltiness to the salad. Besides the olives, there was some chick peas in there too, which is really neat starter.

Instead of the typical bread basket that you normally get at the table, we got a basket of crackers, and it was really different. The warm buttery crackers was delicious on it’s own, but there was 2 dips that it came with. One was extremely garlicky, but a yummy roasted garlic sauce and the other was just olive oil sauce. There was a few pieces of bread, but I did enjoy the crackers the most with the garlic dip.

We started off with appetizers, and we decided to order their Beef Empanadas but Brazilian style. I’ve never tried empanadas Brazilian style as normally they’re more Mexican or Latin style. It was really good and looked really nice with a crispy pastry stuffed with tons of beef.

Right before the actual meal came, there was a bunch of sides that came alongside the table as well. We had delicious selection, but the thing that really stuck in my mind was the Fried Sweet Plantains as in the past when I tried plantains, it was actually disgusting and I didn’t finish them. Here, it was still really sweet, but the savoury side of the plantains really balanced out the side. I enjoyed it as it was a nice surprise.

Another side dish it came with was the Farofa Carrots which to be honest, I’m not too sure what it is. It’s kind of glazed carrots, and it’s not roasted. It was kind of sweet, and it was a simple side! Nothing good or bad about it.

Then, a green side dish would be the Creamed Spinach which was pretty good! It was creamy and you definitely got the spinach taste. It wasn’t too heavy so it was one of my favourite side dishes of the bunch.

The last side dish was simple, but needed. It was a bowl of Rice and Black Beans, and the rice helped soaked up some sauces from both the main dishes and it was delicious!

I ordered seafood, as I love seafood – I opted for Grouper which was a delicious fish, perfectly cooked, tender and juicy fish with tomatoes and ancho chili sauce. The portions was large enough, especially with all the sides. The sauce was overly salty, so I added my rice to it. It helped a bit, but it was still too salty. This dish was seriously good, and I would not have gotten this if I did All You Can Eat.

The last item we ordered was the Double Pork Chop with Spiced Apple Chutney and this was delectable! The apple chutney was delicious and beside it, there was some fresh apples. The pork chop was a little bit thin, but cooked really well. The apple chutney that topped the pork chop was the perfect combination for the pork! We really enjoyed this dish!

After this meal, we’re already thinking about other Brazilian places we could go to when we get home! It was such a fantastic experience and the food was so delicious. We would definitely be back if we were looking for lots of food and bbq’d!

Samba on Urbanspoon

Samba Brazilian Steakhouse

3400 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 791-7111