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Milestones – Stephen Avenue

We found ourselves at another Milestones, even though it’s not our favourite chain of restaurants. We arrived to Milestone to try the featured menu inspired from Top Chef Canada! As we watch this show on Food Network Canada, we want to try everything we can!!

Connie Desousa is a contestant on this show, as she works at Charcut – we went there and loved it! She won her appetizers of Pork Croquettes, and really wanted to try it! So, we did! The pork croquettes were really good, it was a pulled pork meatball, deep fried in crumbs — which made it really crispy on the outside, and tender & juicy inside! The plate of appetizers comes with 4 croquettes, and I must say, one of them were much smaller than the other 3 – but the taste was there! These croquettes also sat on top of an onion ring which was a smart way to hoist it up! The onion rings weren’t perfect, they weren’t crispy, but they are onion rings, and I like them!

Milestone’s is also known for their steaks, and with that said, we had to try that also! We ordered Certified Angus Beef – Top Sirloin with black peppercorn sauce. The steak was really good, however, the side of garlic mashed potatoes was terrible. It was a giant mountain of dry and hard potatoes, as though it has been sitting there all day… The steak was perfectly cooked, but the piece of meat wasn’t the best as it was rather tough. It was edible, and quite flavourful regardless!

I stuck to the Top chef inspired menu, so I ordered Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi which is white fish marinated in a sake, soy and honey glaze, and then grilled. It was paired with seaweed and Yukon gold potato gnocchi. In the pool of gnocchi, there were green beans, tamarind, lemon grass and ginger broth. The sablefish was perfectly cooked, and I enjoyed it greatly! The gnocci wasn’t soft and fluffy, but it was better than the garlic mashed potatoes! It was a nicely balanced dish.

Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream is a shortcake in a muffin form, topped with a sweet lemon curd and piled with fresh strawberries. Finished off with a vanilla infused whipped cream! I love home made whipped cream, so that was immediately in the top running of my favourite course just reading! This was a really creative dessert as the shortcake muffin was split between top and bottom, and they placed the top on the bottom creating a base. The lemon curd was quite tart, but was wonderful with the vanilla whipped cream! It was a dessert that tasted quite light, even though the shortcake was over baked and dry.

  • Milestones - Stephen Avenue, Calgary
  • Milestones - Top Chef Inspired Menu
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi
  • Milestone - Top Sirloin with Peppercorn Sauce
  • Milestones - Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream

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Milestones

107 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB

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Spruce Meadows National

This year, we were lucky enough to have gone to Spruce Meadows – National, 2011! It was a wonderful and beautiful experience, and we would definitely want to return to either another event, or the same one would be fun!

We saw 2 events while we were there, we watched Atco’s Double Slalom and Nexen’s Cup (Derby) – One Jump-Off, both were very entertaining. The International Ring was where these events were held, and it was a great place to be. Most of the sections were covered to prevent sunburns on the top of your head, and sudden down pours — which we were lucky enough to experience both!

On top of watching shows from the horses, there are also things to see like the Plaza & Marketplace. Also, there are a lot of food concessions available to satisfy any appetite, such as the Garden Court, SM Tulip Cafe, Sun Room, West/Upper Plaza, Kaffee Stube, Gasthaus zum Pferde, and Big Rock Garden Haus! We grabbed our lunch from the concessions in the middle, where we visited Germany for a delicious bratwurst with onions and a side of french fries, as well we experienced the Polish Perogy Hut with a taste of their 6 Cheddar perogies!

  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Spruce Meadows Bus
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Warmup for Double Slalom
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Warmup for Double Slalom
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Double Slalom
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Ceremony presentation
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Jackson Fork Ranch Eight Horse Hitch
  • Spruce Meadows National 2011 - Jackson Fork Ranch Eight Horse Hitch

Spruce Meadows was such a great place for families, and tourists! I can’t wait to go back sometime soon!! Be sure to include Spruce Meadows!! Maybe for the North American!

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Bow Habitat Station – Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery

Bow Habitat Station is comprised of both Pearce Estate Park Interpretive Wetland and Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery located at 1440 17A St SE, Calgary, AB

The actual hatchery was really informative as you’re able to see the entire raising of the fish from egg to adulthood. In this particular hatchery, they raise 6 species which are:

    Rainbow Trout, oncorhynchus mykiss
    Brook Trout, salvelinus fontinalis
    Brown Trout, salmo trutta
    Cutthrat Trout, oncorcynchus clarki
    Bull Trout, salvelinus confluentus
    Artic Grayling, thymallus arcticus

At the time we went, they were raising mostly Rainbow trout, and here are the steps before they get pumped to lakes for civilians to fish in the summer.

  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Entrance
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Incubation Sorter
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Incubation Room
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Stages of growth of eggs
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Rainbow Trout Fingerlings
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Early Rearing
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Rainbow Trout
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Rainbow Trout Feed
  • Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery - Final Burrows Pond in Hatchery for the Rainbow Trout

The first step in this Hatchery is to collect the eggs, which are collected either in the wild while or from the Raven or Allison Creek brood trout rearing stations where the brood stations raise adult trout specifically to supply fertilized eggs to the hatcheries. They raise these eggs in the incubation tray.

Alevin to Fly – after the eggs hatch, they have a phase where they have a little yolk sac, at this stage, they are alevins. Once the yolk sac is gone, they become fingerlings. They will move these fingerlings into tanks where they become large enough to get transported to the Burrows pond. In the final burrows pond, the rainbow trouts are about 23cm long and about 14 months old.

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Giorgio’s Trattoria – Banff, Alberta

Giorgio’s is a really good location for Italian cuisine in Banff, AB. It is located right on Main Street, which makes it really convenient if you’re just walking up and down the street trying to find something really good at a reasonable price. Sure, I haven’t been there for awhile now, but I remember my dinner well — so it was really a positive experience that is memorable.

I love shrimp and I ordered the Seafood Linguine, and as you can tell, it’s quite large in portion as I’ve eaten some before the picture was taken. The shrimp wasn’t bad at all, but it’s not the best either! You can see it as they do camouflage with the tomato sauce!

Very memorable, we had the braised rabbit, which doesn’t seem like they have that item anymore. It was really soft, tender, fall of the bone and juicy!! It was something I would have had again, but now we’ll try to find braised rabbit at other locations.

Giorgio’s Trattoria
219 Banff Avnue
Banff, AB

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CHARCUT Roast House – Calgary, Alberta

I love food, and I love watching Food Network. I was so excited to see on Top Chef Canada that we had chefs that represent Calgary on the show! Connie DeSousa who is the Co-Executive Chef and Co-Owner of CHARCUT Roast House in Calgary, who was 1 of 16 chefs that go to compete in this season of Top Chef, then watching her success on the show really gave me a lot of interest to try CHARCUT.

I went on my birthday, and it’s definitely a place you need to make reservations before you go. We went on a Tuesday evening, and the place was full! Our waiter advised us that they do a showing of the Top Chef on Mondays and the place is packed then, as it sparked so much local interest. I can totally see why! I am definitely planning to make reservations to join in the fun on a Monday evening.

We started my birthday dinner with Kielbasa “Spragg Farm’s pork sausage flavoured with mustard and black pepper” which was an item prepared by Connie on Top Chef. It is also a house-made sausage, and CHARCUT which was something I really wanted to try.

My main dish was Spring Creek Butcher Steak – Chimichurri, arugula, fried matchstick potatoes.

We also had Spragg Farms’ Roasted Pork Belly – Mascarpone polenta, stinging nettle pistou, fava beans.

For dessert, which was the highlight of the meal, I had an preserved pink lady apple in a jar – cheesecake layered with graham crackers and preserves.

We didn’t stop there, we also ordered the chocolate and peanut trifle – peanut butter mousse layered valrhona chocolate cake and chantilly cream.

CHARCUT Roast House

899 Centre St S
Calgary, AB
(403) 984-2180