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Namskar Cuisine of India

I love Indian cuisine, and when I heard I was going to go to Namskar – Cuisine of India, I was really happy! Apparently I’ve been there once, but it must’ve been so long ago, I don’t remember it at all! Nothing in there rings a bell, so I will consider it my first time there! This little Indian restaurant is located right on 16th avenue, and it’s a corner location. It offers a few spots in the back which I found it was easiest to park on the streets. Once you walk up to the restaurant, you can smell the Indian spices and curries – you know you’re in for a real treat!

We got in, and instead of ordering my usual mango lassi, I decided to have a nice cup of Chai Tea which has always been one of my favourites. Unfortunately here, their chai wasn’t as strong as I would have hoped for. I like it when it’s creamy and full of spices – but that’s a personal preference. Luckily, their food is really good here!

My pictures didn’t really turn out, but we ordered a bunch of curries, rice and naan. We started with Butter Chicken which was a delicious dish with chunks of chicken pieces in a tomato and cashew sauce. The sauce was really thick, creamy and a hint of sweetness to the spice! For the first time, we also went ahead a tried some Fish Curry which was chunks of Basa fish cooked with fresh vegetables. It was a medium heat dish but came out to be one of my favourites of the evening.

For the spice dishes, we ordered Lamb Vindaloo which of course was lamb. Vindaloo has always been the killer dish for me but they made this sauce really nice – infused with so much flavour and fragrant, the spice was really nice with the lamb. We also had a order of Goat, which I don’t really remember what kind of curry it was in. It didn’t have as much sauce to it, and it was cooked with a lot of vegetables. Regardless, it was a great dish, and I ate a lot of it!

To end the night, we actually took a different spin… we ended with a plate of appeitzers instead of dessert. We had the Namskar Mix Platter which was a great idea to start with. For us, it was too much food as it came with pieces of Veggie Pakoras, paneer pakoras, Fish pakoras, onion bhajia, Veggie samosa, and a piece of lamb samosa. It came on 2 plates, which was great as we had a relatively large group and it made it easy to share.

This was a wonderful place to go for dinner. The service was really good, and they kept filling up our glasses with water – as we needed it. This would be a location I would return to for Indian food because I really enjoyed my experience here! This time, I will remember I’ve been here!

Namskar Cuisine of India on Urbanspoon

Namskar Cuisine of India

202 16 Ave NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 230-4447

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Curbside Grill – Calgary Food Truck

I love visiting food trucks that are parked at Deerfoot Meadows, but this time, I went to Shawnessy, which was okay. We did it to purposely visit Curbside Grill, which is a new food truck that has hit the streets of Calgary offering burgers, sausages and fries.

It was a late lunch, and I must say we were hungry! We ordered a Poutine which was about $6. It was quite expensive, but it was stuffed with french fries and good gravy drizzled all over it. The cheese curds they used are really good too! I like the poutine more than just normal fries that came with my burger combo.

The hamburger combo that we ordered was the Double Cheese with Fries combo – and it also came with a drink for $10. It’s kind of funny, now that I look at the menu that I took a picture of, I don’t think I got my pop. Oh well, it’s not a big deal. The burger itself was pretty delicious, however the bun was crumbly! It didn’t hold the burger with all it’s dressings properly. It felt like where I hold the bun, it crumbled and fell apart. I’m not sure if it’s because the bun has been previously frozen or just a bun that shouldn’t be used to hold such a big burger… or maybe the bun just needed to be warmed up slightly to soften. Regardless, since I was making such a mess trying to hold the bun, I just discarded the bun and ate the burger “as-is”. It was delicious and the meat had lots of juices running throughout!

We also ordered a Bacon Swiss – Sausage on a Bun and this one was interesting! It was a giant sausage in a hot-dog bun, and the sausage was really tasty! I can’t say I could taste the bacon, but the sausage alone was really good! I did add some condiments to my sausage and this was pretty enjoyable!

Overall, the food truck wasn’t bad at all! The food was fast and quite reasonable. Price wise, I think comparable to other food trucks, as the sausage in a bun was $6. I did have fun here, and I think I would definitely change out the hamburger bun as it would make a better experience!

Curbside Grill on Urbanspoon

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Homemade Panna Cotta

Home Made Panna-Cotta

I was wanting a quick and easy dessert that was refreshing and cold. So, I made myself some Panna Cotta which of course is one of the simplest desserts out there! Panna Cotta is a basic ratio to make, and of course, I made the most basic one. You can add flavours and other things to it to make it your own!

Ingredients (Serves 2):
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Cups Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 tsp gelatin (Half Package)

This simple recipe starts off with dissolving your gelatin in some milk. I just put a slash of milk and let the gelatin dissolve and swell up while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

In a small pot, I dissolve the sugar in the milk and bring the milk up to a slight boil.

Then, I mix the dissolved gelatin solution into the pot and stir until it’s well incorporated. Here, I add my splash of vanilla. Usually, I strain the solution before pouring into the molds, but I forgot to strain it today. I pour the solution into my ramekins, and place in the fridge for about 3 hours or until it sets.

After the Panna Cotta has set, submerge the ramekins into boiling water (or hot water) and it will loosen up the panna cotta so you can pour it out on to a plate.

After you’ve turned the Panna Cotta out, you can add some fruits if you want to decorate and make it more flavourful. As this is my basic recipe, I left it as is.

This delicious dessert is very velvety, soft and smooth – yet it is refreshing! If you’re using the basic recipe as I did here, it’s probably important that you use good quality vanilla! Citrus or berries are a good addition to add to this recipe, and some even say Rosemary! Can you imagine infusing the panna cotta solution with Rosemary? It should be soo good!

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Phil & Sebastian Coffee Company – Chinook Centre

So, we got up early this year for the Chinook Centre Stampede Breakfast as it was the centennial, and we knew it would be packed! We were right, it was packed – so we lined up and got our breakfast. Afterwards, we wanted a little more, so we popped into Phil and Sebastian that was located inside the mall. It was nice they were opened so early, and I enjoyed a fantastic cup of Hot Chocolate!

It was really nice that the barista did some foam art on the hot chocolate, as they don’t seem to do foam art on hot chocolate – but I was really excited about it! The chocolate was rich and decadent, and it was delicious! Thinking that only lattes get foam art, we ordered a latte as well! Both look fantastic, as you can see!

I find myself only going to Phil and Sebastian only for special occasions, but now I realize that the prices is quite reasonable – it is still a little pricer, but the extra care they take in making your drink to perfection, and the look with the foam art really comes out in the wash! I love a pretty drink, and it never seems to fail here!

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Timbers Food Company – Banff

We went for a quick hike the other day to start the off our hiking season – we went to Tunnel Mountain. After the hike, we came back down to Banff townsite and we wanted to eat a late lunch/early dinner. We found ourselves walking straight into Timbers Food Company, and found a seat right on the patio. It was such a nice afternoon that shortly after we placed our order, it started to rain – badly! They were really nice about everyone relocating themselves indoors, and that’s where we spent the rest of our lunch hour.

I wanted a sweet/sugary drink, so I ordered myself a Tropical Colada, which was a mocktail made of coconut, pineapple and wildberry mix. It was really refreshing, and it looked really pretty too!

We ordered some appetizers for this meal/snack, and we had some Baked Garlic Prawns, which was some giant prawns over a warm lentil salad, topped with garlic butter. It was actually really good, and the prawns was big and fresh! The lentil salad seemed really big, so we didn’t finish that part of the dish.

For this meal, which I honestly considered it a snack, I ordered the Crab Cakes which actually was a very generous sized crab cake portion! I enjoyed the crab cakes as it was without the relish, even though the relish was really delicious on it’s own.

The last thing we ordered was the Timbers Steak Sandwich, which was just under $12, which is quite reasonable, considering it was a 6oz premium sirloin steak topped with sautéed mushrooms, onions on garlic toast with a choice of side – where we picked french fries! The steak was actually very tender – even though they over cooked it, as we asked for rare and probably got a medium. We didn’t have the need or desire to send it back as it was still very tasty!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time here at Timbers, and I think I would find myself back! The food was excellent, and at reasonable prices – in a tourist townsite, with good service! I really have nothing to complain about and wouldn’t mind returning!

Timbers Food Company on Urbanspoon

Timbers Food Company

224 Wolf St.
Banff, AB
(403) 762-8987