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Bugis Street Brasserie – London, England

This restaurant is located inside the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, London and this was the hotel we checked into. After a long walk to the hotel from Trafalgar Square, we quickly went downstairs after putting our belongings down and headed to Bugis Street Brasserie.

We got seated and the staff here are extremely friendly. The waitress spoke to us in Cantonese through the duration of our evening at Bugis Street, which was probably practice for her, as I don’t think too many Asians would eat Chinese food while on holidays to London.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice – 海南鸡饭 that we ordered was quite a large portion, with a big bowl of rice, probably more than a quarter of the chicken, and some sauces that came with this order (which is typical) was really pleasing to the eye and the stomach. This dish was the most pleasing for me, as I had a cold during this time – and a bowl of rice always satisfies an Asian’s belly. It wasn’t hot and warming though – like my next dish.

We ordered the Singapore laksa 辣沙 which is a spicy noodle soup that really originated more from Malaysia in my opinion, even though it`s called Singapore Laska… but it does have a Chinese name – which always always fun to think about the Asian dishes and their names (“laksa” meaning “spicy sand” in Chinese, and this is from the sandy or gritty texture in the sauce from the ground dried prawns). Anyway, enough with my tangent, this belly warming noodle soup was full of intense Asian flavours such as lemon grass and ginger. A hot and spicy bowl of soup right before bedtime makes for a restful sleep. This dish wasn’t so spicy that you’d need to use the washroom during the entire evening, which was wonderful! This bowl of Laksa wasn’t authentic to me, but it was a very tasty bowl of noodle soup!

Finally, we ordered something much more Chinese which was Fried noodles with shredded chicken 杂菜炒面 and the noodles in this dish was really thin and delicate… which meant a lot of short pieces, but the flavour was plentiful, and the chicken slices was generous in portion sizes and slices.

Overall, I really enjoyed this stop for dinner #2 of the evening at Bugis Street Brasserie, after a long hike from dinner #1. It was extremely satisfying to the tummy, the body and the mind! It was a wonderful way to wind down the evening as everything was so pleasing and satisfying.

Bugis Street Brasserie

Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington
Scarsdale Place
Kensington
London
W8 5SR
United Kingdom
44 (0) 20 7937 7211

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Holy Smoke Barbeque and Smoke Pit – Calgary, Alberta

I was recently introduced to Holy Smoke Barbeque and I have to say that I LOVE it! It’s delicious, and once you walk by the building, you can smell the meat being smoked! Outside of their washrooms is the wood that they use and it makes the “washroom area” smell great too!

I actually stuffed myself really full at Holy Smoke BBQ and it was worth it! I had a small Chopped Beef Brisket Sandwich with couple of ribs! It’s so neat here, they sell rib by the bone for only $1!! And, it’s fall off the bone tender, with the right amount of smokiness! I did use some sauce just to try, and I really liked their house sauce, so I used it to dip my ribs into the sauce.

The beef brisket sandwich was really tender and juicy, and I was actually a little worried when I first ordered it because I hate it most when it’s not tender enough to bite through. Here, it’s done to perfection. This is my favourite smoke house so far!!

We also ordered the Manwich Sandwich which was a combination of the beef brisket and the pulled pork, and this was a large sandwich! It’s topped with some coleslaw and a pickle, which adds not only a bit to the sandwich, but some acidity to balance the flavours. It’s a wonderful sandwich, and a must try if you’re hungry!

Overall, we definitely will return as I mentioned, it’s our favourite place for smoked meat right now!

Holy Smoke Barbecue and Smokepit

4640 Manhattan Rd SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 605-9365

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Urban Rice

Dim Sum is always something I crave – maybe it’s because I’m Chinese, or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to make it… or, it’s the fact I live so far away from the Chinese communities I feel a little “home sick”. Regardless, dim sum is something I enjoy as it’s part of my heritage.

Urban Rice is a location that was recommended to me by a good friend. I’ve been to their previous location and loved it, so I’ll just follow them around like the hungry person that I am. It’s been really nice with all the festivals at Olympic Plaza downtown as I can fulfill my cravings in Chinatown, since it’s not far distance apart!

We were seated in a pretty big table – a table for 4 people, maybe they knew I’ll eat a lot or something, but I appreciated that! They didn’t try to cram me into the corner or anything like most Chinese restaurants. The place was was quite full when we got in, and we could smell all the dim sum. We quickly sat down and mark off on a sheet of all the goodies I wanted to try!

We had our few favourites such as Beef Tripe, Chicken Feet and Turnip Cake which turned out really well! I pretty much ate the entire dish of chicken feet all by myself! 🙂 I didn’t realize until the end, and I had all the bones on my plate! No questions about it, I ate the beef tripe, and my other half ate all the turnip cake! We had nothing to complain about! (Well, it seemed like the food could use a little more salt, but that didn’t make the food bad.)

Ok, the beef tripe wasn’t as tender as it should be, but it was still tender enough to eat it! The flavour of the ginger and green onion was really nice too! I like to add a bit of hot sauce to my beef tripe, and it was really good. The chicken feet was the most flavourful dish of them all! Soaked in it’s sauce, and cooked till fall off the bone it really wasn’t a surprise when I ate the whole dish!

We also ordered some specialty items on the item as well, and another favourite of mines would be the Shanghai Style Pork Dumplings which I actually get some frozen ones from T&T Supermarket at steam at home for when I’m carving dim sum that badly, and it’s just out of my reach! 🙂 The skin was a little thick, but the dumpling altogether was really good! I of course like to dip it in the vinegar because that’s the way it’s eaten! The best thing about this dish is the fact it came with 5 pieces — which means I got to eat 3 of them!

Overall, I quite enjoy this location, as it’s got big portions of food, and they have lots of items to try out. The best part of this experience was all the dim sum was $3.25, which made the entire experience seem a little extra delicious at the end of the day when our bill was just slightly over $20!!!

Urban Rice

104- 108 3rd Ave SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 984-3380

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Salt & Pepper Mexican Restaurante – Calgary, Alberta

We were wandering around Inglewood one sunny afternoon, actually for the Inglewood Sunfest and we were a little sad that there wasn’t too many street vendors or anything like that. So, we ended up popping into Salt & Pepper for lunch instead.

The place had a nice line-up, as it should since it was a sunny weekend afternoon after all! The line moved really quickly despite the speed of service. So, we got seated in no time! To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Mexican cuisine as I’m not a huge “bean” eater. I’m not sure why, but I don’t really like them… so, I normally just eat “what I ordered” and throw out the rest! 🙂 As I did on this day as well.

The service was a little odd, as I would have to say our waitress was really slow. It’s always funny to me how tables that come in and sit after me gets served their water first, and their order taken first. Oh well, it’s all good, since we were in no hurry at all.

I ordered Las Enchiladas which I chose chicken enchiladas with a tomato & basil sauce. It was really good actually! 🙂 I know, I’m suppose to get it with the mole sauce, but I really won’t eat it, and that’s much more of a waste! The enchiladas from Salt & Pepper was really fresh, and the meat was really tender and juicy. I was able to eat all 3 of the enchiladas with just my fork.

We also tried the Chuletas de Cerdo Adobadas which was Grilled pork chops with our own spicy adobo. The actual pork chop was really thin piece, and was a little over cooked. It was quite tough – instead of juicy and tender, but the flavours were there, and so we gobbled it up anyway!

Overall, I did enjoy the atmosphere, as there was live music which was a special treat! The sun was out with a little breeze, so the patio was a great choice! The food, I will have to say was mediocre, but I must remember it was a really busy day – so perhaps they had difficulties keeping up? With entrees between $10-$15, I would’ve expected more, but that of course is just my opinion. And, who knows, maybe it’s just me, as I’m not the bean eater…

Salt & Pepper Mexican Restaurante

1413 – 9 Avenue SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 265-5739

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La Belle Patate

I’m not usually in search for poutines, but this La Belle Patate was recommended to me while I was discussing about the fact I didn’t get the opportunity to try the poutine stand at the Calgary Stampede as it was from a food truck in British Columbia.

We ordered a small order of Supreme Poutine which has onion, mushrooms and bacon on top of a bed of fries, cheese and gravy. It was really good, and the chunks of topping was generous and added so much flavour to the poutine. This poutine has set the bar high for all other poutines I may ever eat from now on! The gravy was really good, and it didn’t taste store bought, so that’s always a wonderful sign that they care for the food they prepare for their customers. This poutine had great texture and great flavour, and it wasn’t hard to finish off the entire order of poutine!

We also ordered a Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich and it was massive! The meat wasn’t too salty at all, in fact it was perfectly prepared! I find with most Montreal Smoked Meat, it just seems too salty, but I’m so proud of La Belle Patate that prepared it to perfection – It’s a huge pile of smoked meat that was juicy and tender! These sandwiches are served on light rye bread, with a coat of yellow mustard which is the perfect vehicle for the massive amount of Monteal Smoked Meat, without any condiments that may take away from the flavour! They also served this sandwich with a Kosher Pickle that was crispy. This sandwich was so big that I almost wasn’t able to finish it up, but from it’s deliciousness, I ate the whole thing in spite of being over stuffed.

Finding this location was fun too, I just assumed that everything is in downtown Canmore, but this is actually tucked into their industrial area. I can see the location being quite busy during the week, but we went on a weekend – of a long weekend, and there were only a few tables – which is still really impressive as it’s not located on the main road of downtown Canmore.

La Belle Patate

102 Boulder Cres Bay 4
Canmore, AB T1W1L2
(403) 678-0077