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Chateau Deli – Fairmont Lake Louise

Lake Louise is one of my favourite places to visit in any season! When I go in the winter time, my favourite thing to do is grab a hot chocolate with marshmallows from Chateau Deli and just walk around or look at the frozen lake. This year, I went for the Ice Magic Festival which I’ve always wanted to go see. It’s really neat watching talented people make an actual sculpture from blocks of ice.

The deli is almost a cafeteria styled place such that you take/order what you want and then pay at the end. There is a small seating area for you to enjoy your purchased goods, but during special occasions, it’s a little challenging to find a table to sit at and enjoy.

This time, like all others, we ordered our Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows and I never get whipped cream as it’s a little too much dairy for me. The hot chocolate here is really delicious and it’s not like any other location for hot chocolate. Chateau Deli is on my top 5 list for hot chocolate, so be sure to try it out when you’re there!

As this was my lunch, I’ve ordered a soup and sandwich combo, so the sandwich I choose was actually a Smoked Salmon Bagel with cream cheese, red onions and capers.

The soup with the combo, we enjoyed the soup of the day, which was as Cream of Mushroom Soup and it was really good. It actually tasted a lot like the homemade cream of mushroom soups I make! Of course, theirs seems to have something special in there, but it’s comparable. I must say, I like their soup more than mine as I only make cream of mushroom soup once a year.

The last thing we enjoyed for this lunch is a big bowl of Beef Chili which was really hearty filled with lots of ground beef and beans. The flavours was magnificent, and something I would get again if it was available.

Everything is always delicious from Chateau Deli, so no matter what meal or snack, be sure to stop by for something – big or small. The flavours are always really good no matter what you order, and be sure to order your food in a combo as it’s much more economical if you’re having more than just a drink!

Chateau Deli

111 Lake Louise Drive
Lake Louise, AB
(403) 522-3511

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Regency Palace – Calgary, Alberta

Dim Sum has been a difficult task to find a good place in Calgary – considering factors like price, location, parking, taste, etc. I had my hopes high as we came for dim sum at Regency Palace since we attended a wedding here and the food was absolutely amazing. Thinking that the food and service was good – we finally came for dim sum.

One of the neat things about Regency Palace is the fact they have stations where you can get food, so you’re not limited to what’s being pushed out on carts only. They have a whole buffet area in one corner or the restaurant, as well as a noodle stand and a flat top grill area. We got some Pan Fried Rice Crepes from the flat grill station near the centre of the restaurant. These are really good and you’re able to pick the sauces you want to dip these crepes in!

As it was Chinese New Year weekend when we went, and even though I’ve been trying to make lo bak gao, we still ordered some anyway. The plate came with 2 pieces of lo bak gao and 1 piece of tara cake. The Lo Bak Gao wasn’t too daikon tasting and was really quite firm. There wasn’t a lot of ingredients in their lo bak gao either, but it was pan fried really nicely!

Then, we ordered some Steamed Rice Noodle Roll with BBQ Pork from one of the carts that went by. This wasn’t bad actually! They had quite a bit of filling and the texture was really good too. The BBQ pork was really good, but I think it would’ve been nicer to have more filling!

From the buffet dim sum area, we picked up some Chicken Feet which wasn’t bad. The skin came right off the bones and packed of flavour. It was quite fresh and really good actually!

Our last item we ate for this dim sum lunch was some Spareribs and even though it looks kind of pale, it was really good. The pieces they use was mostly the ones with the single big bones, instead of the softer bones which made it a pleasant eating experience. The sauce and flavour was all really good – very comparable with other good dim sum locations.

Overall, it was a very decent dim sum place to eat. I love the space as it was really large and the fact it has other options for food for those customers who don’t want to just eat dim sum. As well, the use of the buffet is a smart and convenient idea, as sometimes the carts run out of food by the time it gets to you. So, I really like the location, the options and the prices and food was alright.

Regency Palace – Calgary Chinatown

328 Centre St S
Calgary, AB
(403) 777-2288

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Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice

One of my go to drinks when I’m not well would definitely be Tropicana Orange Juice! Every since I was young, when I got sick or anything like that – this was the juice that was given to me. Till this day, it’s my go to drink!! It’s a great tasting orange juice full of fresh orange flavours!

Over the years I’ve tried a few different brands, and this one has the best “ripe orange” flavour. Their Apple Juice is really delicious as well. It looks cloudy and yucky (the ones in a carton), but it’s the best tasting apple juice I’ve tried so far!!

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Nestlé Aero Peppermint Lamb

It’s Easter soon, where the grocery store isles will be filled with candies and chocolates. One thing that really caught my eye this year was the Aero Peppermint Lamb which I couldn’t resist and got myself one! The package was really cute, and I just needed to see and taste this peppermint lamb.

I went home and immediately opened the package, and to my excitement, it really was just like the wrapper – almost to size too!

This is the cutest chocolate “egg” I’ve ever seen, even though my lambs nose was had a little blemish, it was almost too cute to cut through to see the inside. But, we did it anyway! The inside was green with the tradmark Aero bubble look throughout!

The taste was quite minty too! It was enjoyable and satisfying! It was just really neat to see a chocolate lamb instead of a bunny or egg or something more traditional!

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Homemade Chinese Nian Gao – 年糕

Sweet Sticky Rice Cake – Neen Gow

It’s that that time of year when we’re in our kitchens cooking up a storm and sharing goodies with family and friends. One goodie you’ll always see is the Nian Gao which is a very simple recipe that is very sticky with a hint of sweetness.

Ingredients (makes 1 – 8″ pan)
2 cups of Glutenous Rice Flour
300 mL boiling water
1 cup brown sugar or 5 sticks of peen tong (片糖)

Note: You can add more sugar if you like it sweeter – we like it much more subtle tasting!

Peen tong is basically Chinese Rock Sugar or Chinese Rock Candy and it comes in a pack of “slabs of sugar”. If you don’t want to purchase/use it, or simply can’t find it, a great substitution would be to use brown sugar – which is what I did as it was sold out when I wanted to get it!

First off, boil some water and dissolve the sugar into it. When it becomes a syrup, you’re ready to start making your nian gao! Measure out the glutenous rice flour and pour in your syrup. Caution, this is a boiling water mixture, but make sure it’s hot!!

Mix together until it’s smooth and creamy and pour it into the dish you’d like to steam your nian gao in before it gets cold.

Once the nian gao is ready in it’s dish, put it into the steamer for about 1 hour to an hour and a half. You’ll know it’s ready when you can move the edges and it’s set. If you stick anything into this cake, it’ll stick so the toothpick test is not a good idea in this case.

If you’re enjoying it right away, be sure to allow it to cool and set for at least 15 minutes. It will be really soft and gooey and very sticky at this point – but it’s always nice to eat freshly steamed food. If you like it properly made, once it’s cooled enough, pop it in the fridge for at least 3 hours where you can cut it up and serve.

One of the ways we like to eat nian gao is to pan fry it with an egg. So, we cut the nian gao into pieces and dunk it into a beaten egg before placing it on a fry pan with some oil. It’s very important to do this on low temperatures or the nian gao will melt and stick to your pan. You’ll know these are ready when it’s “soft and gummy”.

Things I’ve heard about nian gao, but I’ve never tried it – I guess you can bake your nian gao instead of steaming it, and you’ll get a crunchier topping and more cake-like. It does however use another recipe but I don’t know it and haven’t tried it yet. But, I’m thinking I should one day! I’ve also heard that nian gao’s are extremely freezable, and when you want to enjoy it again, just steam it back up! It could be handy if you’ve received one too many for New Years!