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Diner Deluxe – Calgary, Alberta

I really love watching Food Networks You Gotta Eat Here and when I heard that John Catucci got to eat at Diner Deluxe I knew it was a place I would like to visit sometime. I finally made it there right before Christmas, and it was packed! We waited quite a long time for a table, and the service was really quick!

Once were seated, the waitress came to give us the drink specials, and already they had alcoholic specials, which I knew I couldn’t do for a morning drink… so, I just ordered a delicious Hot Chocolate and it tasted as good as it looks!

For the breakfast, I ordered my favourite, Eggs Benedict!! I ordered what they called Canadian Bacon Benny which came with 2 poached eggs on buttermilk biscuits, with basil hollandaise sauce and hash browns. On the actual benny itself, it had large slices of Canadian Bacon, essentially ham! This combination was delicious, and I definitely think about returning to try their Smoked Salmon and Capers Benny! I think that would be a wonderful breakfast at any time!

My other half ordered what he loves to love, the Pulled Pork Hash which was quite feast for him! It consisted of 2 poached eggs, BBQ pulled pork, grainy Brassica Mustard, Caramelized Apples and onions, hash browns and toast.

Overall, it was a perfect way to start the day and I would love to return. The prices wasn’t terrible as the portions are huge. Food tasted great, so I had a wonderful time! Like I said, I would love to return to try other options, and I would love to try what I believe was like a market or bakery right next door. Just as we were leaving, someone was telling us it was good too!

Diner Deluxe

804 Edmonton Trail NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 276-5499

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Homemade Seitan (Gluten) Puffs – 齋麵筋

Home Made Seitan Puffs or Braised Gluten

I’ve always loved Seitan and I’ve never learned that term until recently. I was thinking about one of my aunts who makes delicious “sweet and sour gluten” and really wanted to make it myself – so I attempted to figure out how to make the basic seitan first, and then we’ll go from there.

Seitan is a meat alternative, and I guess it’s got proteins in it. Basically, you take flour and knead it until it gets tough – or form the gluten. The more you knead for this recipe, the better. Then, you was away the flour such that you’re left with the gluten (or what they call seitan).

Ingredients:
1 cup bread flour (or gluten flour)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt

Basic ratio turns out to being 2 parts flour and 1 part water with a pinch of salt. It seems to work really well for this! Combine the 2 ingredients until they form a dough, and knead, and knead. This will be helpful if you have a machine that can do it for you! I used bread flour as I couldn’t find gluten flour anywhere (I wanted a Chinese brand, but basically the more gluten your flour has, the better!). If you use All Purpose Flour, this will work too, but you’ll be washing out more than half of the dough’s size as not as much gluten is formed.

After extensive kneading, the dough should be a tad tough with a lot of give. If you poke your finger at it, it should bounce back – almost looking as though you didn’t poke it at all. At this point, I let it sit as I set up the sink tap to a comfortable warm temperature.

Once the water is at a nice temperature, I just keep washing the dough, and the flour will eventually wash out. You’ll be left with something that looks stringy, but it’s holding on together. It’s quite a delicate process, so treat this with care – you don’t want to be breaking it up into part, or you’ll never get it back together!

When you think the water from the dough has started to run clear, or close to it – you’re probably done washing the flour out. For me, as I’ve used the bread flour, I did loose about half the dough, but it’s no big deal. I just went and made another batch! Notice the texture on the left, as it’s really “brain like”…

From here, I chop up the gluten into little pieces as I’m experimenting, I like mini portions. I set up some oil to fry with, and it’s important it’s at a low heat with hot oil. Since it’s made with a lot of water, it can either blow up or cause a lot of splashing if the oil is too hot. I just leave the seitan sitting there as the oil comes up to temperature.

Now, when the oil seems hot (poke a wooden chopstick in the oil, and it starts bubbling around the chopstick), I’m ready to start frying! Ideally, they will puff up and you just keep moving the pieces of gluten so they don’t stick to each other! I pull them out when they’re golden brown.

Alright, now we got our seitan puffs, I just make a nice braising liquid. This time, I used a curry and I braise it for a few hours until the flavours get in. Once it’s flavourful, you’re ready to enjoy seitan! You can change up the braising flavours, and like I mentioned, my favourite is the sweet and sour sauce, or ketchup one… so I will have to experiement with that!

I actually braised mine in a slow cooker and I must admit, I did over braise it such that it was a little too mushy!! So, keep an eye on it if you’re doing it for the first time (unlike me!)

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Homemade Cha Trung – Vietnamese Steamed Pork Meatloaf with Egg

I was at a Vietnamese restaurant the other day, and all I really wanted was something I haven’t had in years, and it was Cha Trung, which is essentially pork meatloaf that is steamed cooked, with an egg on top. I figured it wouldn’t be hard to make, so I attempted my version of it – a simple one, but a good foundation to add all sorts of yummy ingredients to it!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped vermicelli noodles
2 large eggs, 1 eggs in the meatloaf, and 1 for the top
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese Fish Sauce)
1/2 tsp white pepper

Things that you can add are:
1/3 cup dry Nam Meo (Tree Ear Fungus), soaked
shredded carrots

The first thing, set up a steamer and bring the water to a boil. Then, chop up the the vermicelli noodles after it has softened. You can either soak it until soft, or cook it in salted boiling water until soft. Then, mix it with chopped onions.

Afterwards, add the meat in to the mixture and season… and then mix well so it is evenly seasoned. When it is mixed well, mix a egg that has been beaten into the meatloaf, and continue to mix.

When the meatloaf has combined thoroughly, spray some vegetable oil, or grease a steam proof container and pat your meatloaf into the plate. From here, beat the other egg and just pour it on top. If you like more eggs on top, then put a second one, to make a thicker egg cover. Then, cover the meatloaf with plastic wrap.

Steam the meatloaf for about 25-35 minutes depending on how thick the patty is. When it’s ready, be careful taking it out as it’s extremely hot. I cut it into wedges and I serve it with either rice or rice vermicelli and I pour Ngoc Cham! Of course, you can add more to the plate, but this is a simple meal that doesn’t take much time to prepare and when it cooks, it’s pretty much “set it and go” – just like cooking the rice in a rice cooker!

I’ve made this a few times now as it’s so easy to make and it feeds a lot for a small cost! The thing I love about this, I can add all sorts of things into the meatloaf, and it tastes amazing!

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Vdara Hotel and Spa – Las Vegas

I have loved the CityCenter since I first saw it revealed in real life. I had the opportunity to stay at Aria Resort last year, and this year, I knew Vdara Hotel & Spa was on the top of my list. We were actually at the Bellagio the night before, and we were preparing ourselves for a big walk with our suitcase, but to our excitement, there was a walk way that connected Vdara with Bellagio!

Once we got inside, there was a lovely scent to the hotel, like Aria – but it was a different scent. I convinced I loved the Vdara scent more, until I walked back into Aria afterwards. I liked it so much, I bought a pack of their scented sticks home, and I’m in love with the product! Anyway, that’s quite a diversion, but the check-in staff was phenomenal, and we got checked in early. Once we got to our room, we opened the door to put the suitcase down, and was greeted by a dining table, and with a quick glance, I realized there was a kitchenette! This is fantastic as I’ve been wanting to make tea every night!

The problem with the kitchenette is that it doesn’t come stocked. You’d have to ask them to stock it for you, so I didn’t bother as I was leaving the very next morning. I ended up just buying tea elsewhere. Regardless, the kitchenette has a 2 burner stove top, a garbage compactor – which was actually kind of loud and scary, so I didn’t use it at all. There was also a microwave, a mini fridge and a stocked mini bar! This hotel room has all the bells and whistles if you’re looking for a long term stay!

From the dining area, I ventured into the living space with plenty of seats. The sofas were extremely comfortable, and It looked onto a large flat TV. The view was exceptional as well! In the corner of this space was a little desk area as well. Actually, it’s not in the corner really, it’s in the corner of this area, which is at the divider space that separates the living area from the bedroom.

This divider space was compete with flat screen TV’s on both sides and tons of storage! The desk was spacious, and I loved the fact everything was branded to Vdara so perfectly!

Anyway, on the other side of the divider wall was the bed, and it was a large and comfy bed, perfect for a good nights rest after days of adventure on the strip!

Finally, the bathroom, which was my favourite part! Immediately when I stepped into the bathroom, the space blew my mind! It was complete with a luxurious soaker tub, which had a cart beside it with some towels! What a brilliant idea! The tub was large enough for 2, and it was a fabulous tub!

Behind the tub was a walk in shower, which was walled with glass and tiles. It was a large shower and all the bath amenities was already in the shower so if you forgot to bring your products in – it’s alright!

The actual sink and vanity part of the suite was phenomenal as well! Tonnes of counter space and lots of mirrors! It was spectacular, and I really enjoyed my time staying at Vdara! I also was able to see the Fountains at Bellagio from my suite and I sat on the window ledge watching many shows!

To get a better idea of this wonderful suite, be sure to check out my walk through below! To book your own Vdara experience, be sure to check out Vegas Hotel Casino Deals!

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Samba Brazilian Steakhouse – Mirage Las Vegas

I have never tried a Brazilian Grill before, but I’ve always wanted to. Where else better to try my first experience than in Las Vegas? We went to Samba Brazilian Steakhouse inside the Mirage Hotel and Casino. We were staying at the Mirage this evening, and we were extremely tired as this day was the day we arrived off the plane, and was up for many hours.

We wanted to try the “All You Can Eat”, but we just didn’t have that large of an appetite so we decided that we were going to get individual dishes. Inside that Samba was very fun, and right in the front was an open bbq, which was really exciting. The other tables around were filled with happiness and enthusiast as large skewers of food was arriving to their tables. We weren’t sad we weren’t apart of that, but it sure added to our experience!

Right after we ordered, a salad came to our table, which they called “Samba Salad“, which was as huge plate of lettuce – which they said was bottomless (even though one plate was plenty). The salad was a little over dressed, but was decent. There was quite a few brine olives which added texture and saltiness to the salad. Besides the olives, there was some chick peas in there too, which is really neat starter.

Instead of the typical bread basket that you normally get at the table, we got a basket of crackers, and it was really different. The warm buttery crackers was delicious on it’s own, but there was 2 dips that it came with. One was extremely garlicky, but a yummy roasted garlic sauce and the other was just olive oil sauce. There was a few pieces of bread, but I did enjoy the crackers the most with the garlic dip.

We started off with appetizers, and we decided to order their Beef Empanadas but Brazilian style. I’ve never tried empanadas Brazilian style as normally they’re more Mexican or Latin style. It was really good and looked really nice with a crispy pastry stuffed with tons of beef.

Right before the actual meal came, there was a bunch of sides that came alongside the table as well. We had delicious selection, but the thing that really stuck in my mind was the Fried Sweet Plantains as in the past when I tried plantains, it was actually disgusting and I didn’t finish them. Here, it was still really sweet, but the savoury side of the plantains really balanced out the side. I enjoyed it as it was a nice surprise.

Another side dish it came with was the Farofa Carrots which to be honest, I’m not too sure what it is. It’s kind of glazed carrots, and it’s not roasted. It was kind of sweet, and it was a simple side! Nothing good or bad about it.

Then, a green side dish would be the Creamed Spinach which was pretty good! It was creamy and you definitely got the spinach taste. It wasn’t too heavy so it was one of my favourite side dishes of the bunch.

The last side dish was simple, but needed. It was a bowl of Rice and Black Beans, and the rice helped soaked up some sauces from both the main dishes and it was delicious!

I ordered seafood, as I love seafood – I opted for Grouper which was a delicious fish, perfectly cooked, tender and juicy fish with tomatoes and ancho chili sauce. The portions was large enough, especially with all the sides. The sauce was overly salty, so I added my rice to it. It helped a bit, but it was still too salty. This dish was seriously good, and I would not have gotten this if I did All You Can Eat.

The last item we ordered was the Double Pork Chop with Spiced Apple Chutney and this was delectable! The apple chutney was delicious and beside it, there was some fresh apples. The pork chop was a little bit thin, but cooked really well. The apple chutney that topped the pork chop was the perfect combination for the pork! We really enjoyed this dish!

After this meal, we’re already thinking about other Brazilian places we could go to when we get home! It was such a fantastic experience and the food was so delicious. We would definitely be back if we were looking for lots of food and bbq’d!

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Samba Brazilian Steakhouse

3400 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 791-7111