alberta – Page 9 – Elsie Hui

December 30, 2018

Peking Garden – Calgary, Alberta

This is interesting, as I’m not too sure how we ended up at Peking Garden for lunch one afternoon. We’re rarely in the area and would rarely go for Chinese food if I was in the car stating I was hungry! We also had to wait a good 20 minutes for a table, which I wouldn’t have done if I was that hungry! The place was packed and there was a constant order of take outs. We did get seated and the service didn’t see slow or rushed!

One of my favourite dishes to order are Dumplings as all my coworkers claim I make the best dumplings ever. I always want to find a comparable place to try to trick them… but they’re kind of right, I do make a great dumpling! Here, they make a good one as well, with skins a bit thicker than my own, but the filling is tasty and not dry. I appreciate a well seasoned dumpling then if the skin is thick, I wouldn’t mind. Just like the ones here!

My inlaws use to take me to eat Salty Soy Milk or some call it savoury soy milk. It’s not something I was familiar with until they brought me to experience this and now I love the uniqueness of it. They had it when we went to Shanghai a few years ago and I’d get it when I can. Both sweet and savoury.

Because I’m a huge fan of sweets, of course I needed to try their Sweet Soy Milk as well. Yes, we did order too much of this stuff!! LOL! But, surprisingly we finished it all!! One was more like a drink (the sweet one) and one ate like a soup! So, we separated the two and finished it.

Then, when we were in Shanghai, we ate TONS of Xiao Long Bao, and when I saw this on the menu, naturally I would order it as well. Haha, this lunch does get bigger as well… sadly. But, it was really well made xiao long bao’s, steamed nicely and it did have the soup inside the dumplings still! It’s not easy to make it like this, but they got it!

Alright, your little pig friend finally stopped ordering food. After the order of Sticky Rice. I loved zha choy, and sticky rice, and fried donut… and stick them together, I LOVE IT! So, yes, I ordered some Sticky Rice and it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hope. I was just glad to have some though as there’s really not many places that would make this for you, unless you come to my house, or T&T supermarket. So, just come to my house for my homemade soy milk, dumplings, xiao long bao and sticky rice! I don’t think I’ve ever made a meal JUST this for anyone yet.

Anyway, just rewriting my adventure here at Peking Garden stuffs my belly and makes me proud of what I’ve accomplished at home in my own kitchen. It was a great time here and to top it off, they give me Tofu Dessert! This place is wonderful! So, all and all, this place is fabulous!

Peking Garden

4625 Varsity Dr NW,
Calgary, AB
(403) 286-0488

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

December 26, 2018December 31, 2018

Bear Street Tavern – Banff, Alberta

I’ve walked through Banff a million times and it was a coworker I worked with (even if we’re in different companies) told me to try Bear Street Tavern as he often enjoyed his pizza here and loves bringing his family here to eat.

We came on a busy summers afternoon, and the wait wasn’t too ridiculous. We asked for a table on the patio which helped with the waiting time as it was a super hot day. We had a nice drink and then came some oil and vinegar which was for dipping our pizza crust.

My coworker did tell me about this and that it was his favourite part so I was excited to try this with my pizza. We ordered their special, the Maui Wowie Pizza which is their spicy Hawaiian pizza. The food pizza was amazing and the dips for crust really elevated this “pizza eating experience”!

Our overall experience was one to remember and now everytime I walk past here, I make the comment of “I love the pizza’s here!” I’m thankful I got introduced to this little gem off main street!

Beat Street Tavern

211 Bear Street,
Banff, AB
(403) 762-2021