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ABC Bakery & Cafe

I’ve been getting up really early in the mornings and heading to the airport to take pictures of airplanes as they take off. I like the early morning take off pictures as they’re quite different. However, afterwards I’m starving… so instead of popping into a chain restaurant, I went back to an old favourite, ABC Bakery & Cafe. I must say, the last time I was there was probably 4 years ago… and before that, I was there weekly!! Usually for dinner though, I’d go straight there after work. I guess I’ve left a job that allows me to pass by for about 4 years now! 🙂

Anyway, we got to ABC for breakfast around 8AM and I was happy I wasn’t the only table trying to find breakfast! There were a lot of their regular customers there – which is great!! The nice thing about these cafes is of course their price! It’s so easy, cheap and convenient to pop in through the day and order food! But, breakfast is always the best. I miss places like this. Calgary just doesn’t have a lot of them, and it’s a bummer.

We sat down and ordered our breakfast specials, and so we ordered Crispy Bun with Condensed Milk with Hong Kong Style Milk Tea. I like to drink either milk tea, or lemon tea with honey, but I wanted milk tea this time! 🙂 SOO GOOD! They always make it really good!! The crispy bun was toasted nicely, and the sesame seeds on the top of the bun add a really nice taste with the condensed milk. When I make it at home, I like to make a mess and put probably twice as much condensed milk in… it’s normally dripping! But, this was really good I didn’t make it or I’d get a sugar high at 8AM.

We also ordered the Pork Chop with 2 Eggs + Toast and with this breakfast, we also had the milk tea. It was pretty funny as the pork chop came out deep fried in dark oil. Clearly, they didn’t change the oil over night, but thats what Chinese places are all about! 🙂 It tasted good – and that’s what is most important!

This place has always been one of my favourite places to go eat. Cheap and delicious! Nothing to like!

ABC Bakery & Cafe

112 3 Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 266-2888

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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

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Joshua Tree Cafe – Calgary, Alberta

I’ve been wanting a good cup of Rolo Coffee for awhile now, and I finally got a good cup at Joshua Tree Cafe! This was not the original place that introduced it to me, but it was one of the top places in my mind for a Rolo Coffee. It is a specialty coffee, and it’s quite different from some other locations coffee.

We also enjoyed a Chocolate Iced Mocha which was quite standard. It was quite good, and creamy, but it’s nothing extra spectacular! It was refreshing and tasty for sure though!

This was an interesting location we made it to. Coffee stops never take too long, especially when we don’t order food. The worker at Joshua Tree mentioned to us about 45 minutes prior to closing that they will be closing soon, and it appeared that she didn’t want to take our order. We told her that it’s fine, and would still like our order. We did leave prior to their closing, and it wasn’t that we were rushed either – it was because our coffee stop was finished.

They made it really noticeable that they were about to close, at 3pm over the weekend. They started sweeping the floors and what not. It’s not a large location, and I’m sure it’s not too bad if in fact they had to leave 10 minutes late.

Regardless, the rolo coffee was something so special, I will return for it! 🙂

Joshua Tree Cafe

805 Edmonton Trial NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 230-9228