Friday, August 26, 2011

Palenque Mexican Restaurant



See, there is a burrito under all that salad


Overlooking a nice golf course

Green golf course, dead brown hill

El Ranchito - Davenport, WA

El Ranchito on Urbanspoon 




San Francisco Sourdough Eatery - Wenatchee

While in Wenatchee, WA I was immediately drawn into a place called the San Francisco Sourdough Eatery. Sourdough bread and I have a bit of a love affair going and so I could not resit picking myself up a chewy sourdough sandwich. The eatery offered a verity of sourdough subs with different meat fillings. I opted for the pesto turkey while Coel had the plain turkey. It was divine.

Sonic - Washington, USA

One of the things I promised myself to do while in the States was to only eat food that I could not get back home. Thankfully, I actually manged to just that, with a slight exception to Denny's (but I did order a burger that they don't have in Canada!)

Sonic, the fast food chain we up here in Canada have seen on TV adds on American channels was one fast food joint I manged to try out during my trip. Coel and I both ordered their hot dogs, his a 'chili dog' and mine a 'Baja dog' (1.50$). We also ordered their cherry lemonade and a side of mozzarella sticks. My Baja dog was actually really good, my favorite part, oddly, being the poppy seed bun. The bun was very soft and moist and chewy just how I like it. The hot dog itself was a typically hot dog but the jalapeno, jack cheese, and tomato made it a little different than your average dog.





Welcome to the U-S of A

On my recent mini road trip to the state of Washington I most certainly made an effort to document some of my restaurant meals for my blog. Unfortunately however, a whole bunch of yummy food made its way into my stomach before I remembered to take photos. Oh well, here are the ones I did manage to capture.

The new, the fabulous..

Hey guys, as I'm sure you can all see, I am currently playing around with new looks for my blog. Bare with me while I go on a bit of creative blit trying to figure out what new look I like best for my blog.


-Maiya

Thursday, August 25, 2011

High Voltage

Location: Calgary Trail
My smallGreek donair   (6.50$) with tatziki and Coels West Coast Donair with sweet sauce. High Voltage makes great donairs. One thing that makes them special is that they panini grill their donairs and sprinkle some sort of herb and sea salt mixture on it that tastes wonderful.

Flirt Cupcakes

I purchased a Flash Deals coupon for 4 Flirt Cupcakes for 5$ the other month and finally used it today.

Home Made Dinner

I just wanted to post a picture of the dinner Coel and I made the other night that featured Cajun spiced basa, buttered asparagus, roasted herbed potatoes, and salad (organic lettuce mix, cucumber, baby boccocini, tomato) and balsamic vinaigrette.

The Red Piano

Location: West Edmonton Mall

Coel and I were at WEM earlier this week and decided to check out the Red Piano for lunch. I've walked past the restaurant several times before but have never been inside and was pleasantly surprised by the unique decor inside. The restaurant is decorated and black, white and red and features a large piano as the restaurant centerpiece.




Because we were there on a Tuesday, all sandwiches were 10$ with the purchase of a drink. The sandwich menu was a little limited but that was expected for an inexpensive lunch menu. They offered the "Cubano" (pulled pork, Swiss, mustard, onions, torpedo panini grilled bun), tuna sandwich (tuna tartar, nori), steak sandwich, blackened chicken sandwich, as well as one other sandwich I cant remember.

I ordered the Cubano with a side of fries and Coel ordered the tuna sandwich. I quite enjoyed the Cubano and was pleasantly surprised with its large serving. I had also expected to get just normal french fries but was delighted that they served french fries that was dipped in some sort of nice crunch batter, sort of like what is on the sweet potato fries at DaDeo's.



Coel's tuna sandwich was also very good and was a twist on the classical tuna sandwich. It featured tuna tartare mixed with some sort of creamy dressing and was topped with nori seaweed. He opted for the grapefruit salad with fennel dressing. The salad was fantastic and the fennel dressing was very unique. The salad was topped with fresh raspberries and grapefruit segments and a small scoop or raspberry sorbet.

Add caption



Based on our experience I would be willing to try out The Red Piano again, possibly for dinner next time. I was a little apprehensive at first because the restaurant was dead empty when we were there, but hopefully that's not a reflection on the quality or reputation of the place. They also have lots of weekday specials so perhaps I will try one of those out.

Red Piano (WestEd Mall - Bourbon Street) on Urbanspoon


Home Made Pizza

This post is a little overdue but I decided to throw it in here anyways. A couple months back Coel and I decided to make our own homemade pizza. This pizza however had a bit of a twist because instead of the traditional tomato sauce, we used guacamole. We baked the crust, added freshly made guacamole, added shrimp, fresh tomato's, cheese, black olives, and drizzled it with tatziki. Interesting combination indeed. We put it under the broiler just long enough to make the cheese melt but yet keep everything fresh.


Chinese Night Market - Richmond

One of the things I was most excited for during my trip to Vancouver was the Chinese Night Market in Richmond. The market is filled with tons of cell phone accessory tents, underwear and socks tents, purses, random knickknacks and gadgets and most importantly...food stalls!!

The market features Chinese, Taiwanese as well as Japanese food stalls. There are a couple small 'western' stalls that served the typical mini donuts as well.

The most popular foods included BBQ quid, Chinese custard cakes, spiral fried potato's, bubble tea, as well as some small Asian treats such as spring rolls, noodles, curry fish balls etc.

Coel and I had some coconut bubble tea, BBQ Squid, and a nutella and a custard cake. We regrettably made the mistake of having an early dinner at Aberdeen Mall ahead of time so our stomachs couldn't take as much food in as we would have liked.




Saturday, August 20, 2011

I Am "Sushi-d" Out

Vancouver, as many of you probably know has some of the best selection of Japanese restaurants in the country. Having limited options for good Japanese food and sushi in Edmonton, I always make it my goal to get as much sushi in me as I can while visiting Vancouver. During this summer trip, Coel and I ate sushi almost every day as well as ventured out to a good all you can eat sushi join on Broadway for lunch.

Today's sushi meal was at a casual Japanese restaurant on Broadway Street. We both ordered the bento boxes,  mine with beef teriyaki and Coel's with chicken (for an amazing 6.75$ each). The bento boxes came with six massive rolls of California rolls, three pieces of veggie tempura, salad, and rice and teriyaki. We weren't sure if that would be enough to satisfy us so we ordered veggie maki, which we soon realized was a big mistake as the bento boxes were huge!



Hananoki Japanese Restaurant and Cafe - Richmond

Hananoki Japanese Restaurant & Cafe on Urbanspoon Coel and I visited a little Japanese restaurant in the Tera Nova Shopping Center right by my grandparents place for a little lunch. Whenever I come here I typically order the bento box but being here with Coel I decided to order something else.

Along with bubble tea, Coel has also developed a love for sashimi, which of course we had to order. I've always wanted to try takoyaki but never have had to opportunity to get good takoyaki in Edmonton so I jumped at the chance at ordering it here. We also ordered a serving a California rolls.

I have never had takoyaki before so it was exciting to finally try it. I wasn't so fond of the sauce they put over it, but I did like the texture of the takoyaki itself. I was expecting it to be firmer in texture, but it actaully was like mashed potato in texture.


Mix sashimi



Coel and his newly developed like for bubble tea

Sockeye City Grill - Steveston

Sockeye City Grill on Urbanspoon Steveston, Richmond BC

My grandparents took Coel and I out for dinner at Sockeye City Grill in Steveston wharf for a fish and chip dinner. I've been to this restaurant several times before with my grandparents and was excited for the fresh fish that comes in from the wharf. The restaurant is located right on the wharf and looks out onto the boats that come in everyday with their catch.

My grandpa and I ordered the cod with clam chowder (16$) while Coel ordered the salmon and chips and my grandma had the fried oysters and chips. All the fish and chips are fried in a crispy beer batter. The servings of fish are actually quite large contrary to what they look like in the picture. The fish was fresh and hot and the chowder and creamy and filled with fresh fish and clam. I tried my grandmas oysters and I did not like them, but I think oysters are a little bit of an acquired taste.

Oysters

Salmon

Cod

Sockeye City Grill on Urbanspoon

Cafe Crepe - Vancouver BC

Robson Street, Vancouver BC

After our lunch at Steamrollers Coel and I stopped by at Cafe Crepes for a little dessert. They offer a variety of both savory and dessert crepes (7$). We had a tough time deciding what flavor to get but eventually settled on the nutella banana crepe.

The crepe was made fresh right in front of us and was a pleasant ending to our lunch. It was a decent size crepe and smelled of butter, yummm. The nuttella was nice and melted and the banana was a nice addition.


Steamrollers - Vancouver

Robson Street, Vancouver BC

I've been to Steamrollers several times during my visits to Vancouver and just had to take Coel there during our outing on Robson Street. Steamrollers serves up a variety of burritos. Its difficult to find establishments in Edmonton that serve burrito type dishes so coming here was a score. YUM YUM.

I ordered the 'Tommy Burrito'  (7$) which is a wet chicken burrito with green salsa verde and sour cream.






Aberdeen Mall Food Court - Richmond, BC

On my recent trip to Vancouver I stopped by Aberdeen Mall in Richmond for an early dinner. For those unfamiliar with the mall, Aberdeen is an 'Asian' mall with all Asian stores.

Coel and I went to the food court to check out what was there. It was a little difficult because a lot of the writing was in Chinese so we relied on looking at the pictures and what other people were getting. Many of the stalls served authentic Chinese food, no ginger beef or green onion cakes in sight.

I ordered beef with flat rice noodles, which I love, and Coel was adventurous and ordered the egg and rice with beef. When we got our food we were surprised by how large the ordered were considering what we paid. Both meals were only 6$! My dish alone weighed just as much as my purse I swear.

Coel's meal, the egg and rice dish actually surprised me and was really good. The egg mixture was lightly scrambled so it was cooked (I initially thought it was just raw egg).

Beef and flat rice noodle

Egg and rice