Canada – Page 9 – Elsie Hui

January 6, 2019January 6, 2019

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise – Lake Louise, Alberta

Every once in awhile, I look to book a stay at the luxurious Lake Louise Resort Hotel, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and when I’m splurging here, I treat us to Fairmont Gold Lakeview Room as I really love sitting by the window watching the frozen lake, to see the skaters. We got upgraded to their Fairmont Gold Junior Suite though! How amazing is that!?

Once you get into the room, there’s a bit of a foyer area, and to the side is the bathroom. The room is quite spacious and the bed is really amazing.

The bathroom is really large, it’s got both the tub and walk in shower. The space here is extremely spacious and very luxurious.

The nice thing is, you even get a little water closet (toilet area) with a separate door. Sometimes I love it and when in the middle of the night I have to use the bathroom, I hate it! But overall it’s a concept I like for a hotel room!

The room itself is also large, with a lot of desk and counter space! There’s seating area, desk space, and space all around!

Overall, I love it here. It’s my favourite modern hotel in the Rocky Mountains that I’ve stayed at so far. The service is always top notch, food wise, if I dare say.. nothing has come comparable! The Fairmont Gold breakfast buffet is the best here as well! If you’re doing an afternoon tea, this is the location I would recommend it!

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

111 Lake Louise Drive
Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
403-522-3511

January 5, 2019

The Other Paw Bakery Cafe – Jasper, Alberta

I love going to Jasper. I love going there unprepared… I seem to always do that. I’d be the idiot walking around in a dress and sandals while it’s snowing. It hasn’t failed me and I guess I just won’t learn that lesson. Now with that said, I was freezing and wanted to warm up in a cafe, and we stumbled into The Other Paw Bakery and Cafe where the lineup was massive, but they move the line fast! It helped as no one was in line for ice cream!

I ordered their Latte and enjoyed it thoroughly. We sat at a table near the back where it wasn’t as busy and enjoyed our breakfast/lunch/snack there! The latte was spectacular, and the coffee flavour was really amazing!

I love pineapple and and anything Hawaiian or tropical, so I had to get their Aloha Muffin. I’m not even too sure what’s in it, and I didn’t really care. I know this muffin was super moist and soft, fresh and delicious! It was still warm! I was in love with this muffin!

What my hubby had was a Chai Tea Latte, he’s more the type that likes to change it more than I do!! Weirdly, I introduced him to Chai.. The chai here was tasty and spicy, creamy and hot! Just the way I liked it. But, I can’t have my latte and his chai. I’d be asking to stop at the side of the road every hour if so!

He decided he would eat Jalapeno Pizza Pretzel, which wasn’t surprising to me. It totally sounded like what he would order! They heated it up for him and he really enjoyed his quiet time with his order. It wasn’t over spicy or anything, this place knows how to make amazing food and drinks!

Overall, this place is amazing. I even recommended it to friends when I hear people are going to Jasper. I love this place and it’s good for any time of day. We even bought a loaf of bread on the way home and it made excellent sandwiches for lunch!

The Other Paw Bakery

610 Connaught Dr,
Jasper, AB
(780) 852-2253

December 30, 2018December 30, 2018

Green Chilli Grill – Calgary, Alberta

We wanted a hot and spicy dinner on a cold wintery night and decided to go towards Mahogany and see what food outlets has opened in that area. We stumbled into Green Chilli Grill just off of 52nd Street. There are tons on parking in the parking lot, but there’s also lots of food options in the area so I can see it being busy especially during hot summers nights.

We went in and got seated right away. It wasn’t too busy, but there were tons of take away orders as we constantly saw people come in and grab food and leave (both delivery services and personal pickups)! So, it was a promising sign. I started with a nice hot Masala Chai which came in an individual pot and it was well spiced. It wasn’t as creamy and rich to my liking but I did enjoy it thoroughly!

Right away, they brought out the Papadum which was really nice! It didn’t have a burnt taste to it or anything. The sauce was really tasty as well! It was like a spicy plum sauce or some remake of it!

We decided to order 2 curry dishes with the sides to carry the curry and soak up the sauces. we decided to both pick a dish and I decided I wanted the Mango Chicken, where it had a generous portion of chicken in a sweet sauce. I normally don’t pick dishes with white meat, but I decided to go for this as they cooked in cashew based sauce with cream, butter and mango pulp.

The other curry dish we had was more “typical” and was their Chicken Tikka Masala, also with chicken as the name suggests, but cooked in a sauce that’s both creamy and delicious. It wasn’t too spicy but it was just right. The waiter did ask us for our spice level and we said medium. So, it was perfect.

Along with the curries, I love eating Garlic Naan so we had an order of that. I love scooping up the curry as it saturates itself in the rich sauce. I believe it’s the perfect vehicle to eating my East Indian curries.. but, my other half likes to be different!

To satisfy him, we also had an order of coconut rice. He likes that the curry sauce gets absorbed into each grain of rice and swells up in flavour. I do like it as well, I can’t lie!

Overall, we had a fantastic time here and it’s nice to have another East Indian option that isn’t too far from home. The service was great, the food was excellent and the prices was fair! There’s no complaints at all. I know we’ll be back in the future!

Green Chilli Grill

1460-7 Mahogany Plaza SE,
Calgary, AB
403-457-0313

December 26, 2018December 29, 2018

Jinya Ramen Bar – Calgary, Alberta

I often have lazy afternoons on weekends, and this one day I was not only lazy, I was starving! So, we decided to venture to 4th Street and see what kind of food we could find for lunch. We parked the car and we knew of Jinya Ramen Bar and figured if it’s too busy, we’ll go try elsewhere.

To my delight, we got seated within 10 minutes and I was really excited as I love ramen! I decided right away that I was going to have a bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen which is one that I order a lot. I like to think of it as a “signature ramen” for any ramen place. When the bowl of ramen came out, it was large portion sizes, sizzling hot and there was a sign that says to enjoy by stirring up the bottom to the top. I did! It was great!

The other bowl of ramen we ordrerd was their Unami Miso Ramen and the bowl of ramen was amazing and if you ate all the noodles, you can ask for more noodles and they’ll add it to your broth for a small charge! What a fantastic idea!

We really enjoyed our Ramen here and it’s a great place to go for it, especially for it being in Calgary! The food was tasty, the service was prompt and amazing and the prices were extremely fair!

Jinya Ramen Bar

1800 4 Street SW, Unit 180,
Calgary, Alberta
(587) 356-0721

December 26, 2018December 31, 2018

Xu Hue – Edmonton, Alberta

We were driving home from Cold Lake, Alberta and wanted to take a stop in Edmonton for lunch and something lighter as we still had a few hours to go before we returned home. We decided to try a Vietnamese restaurant for some soupy pho and found ourselves at Xu Hue, where we found some street parking on the streets behind.

I sat down and wanted something hot and spicy as it was a rainy day and it rained on us on and off at Cold Lake for the airshow. I decided I wanted my favourite dish, Bun Bo Hue and I asked for it “not so spicy” so I wouldn’t get a tummy ache during the adventure home.

This restaurant had some very unique items that we’ve never seen on a Vietnamese restaurant menu and I wish we had the opportunity to try more, but there’s always next time. We asked the manager what Duck Congee was and his face lit up when explaining it. It was really different so I’m glad it’s something we tried. The item came in 2 portions, the first section was the congee which was a great congee base with lots of flavour. It was far from boring and if this was all we got, we would have been very satisfied.

Almost immediately after came what the manager called Duck Salad, and that was a plate of duck! It was really odd! This salad had lots of greens and toppings on and we weren’t actually sure how to eat it. The manager told us to put the salad in the congee or eat it on the side. So, we did both. It was amazing! It was light, it wasn’t heavy, it was sort of refreshing. We really enjoyed this!

This experience was extremely memorable. We eat out for Vietnamese all the time and this one just stuck in my head. Last week, we were in Edmonton and when we drove by, I made the comment of the “duck congee”, so it’s great it’s on my radar!

Xu Hue

10548-97 Street,
Edmonton, AB
(780) 426-7775