Restaurant Notes

I'm going to summarize the three other meals I had with my parents during their visit.

First off, lunch at Cafe Select on 109th. I have some ambivalence toward Cafe Select. This stems mainly from having dinner there before the Phantom of the Opera. My duck breast entree was completely inadequate for my appetite and I ended up being hungry during the show. My friend Mark was also hungry after his beef fillet entree. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a bread basket. My other previous meals at Cafe Select included a mind bogglingly fluffy omelet and a too cheesy duck pizza.

Anyways, on Saturday I ordered the "shrimp and blue salad" featuring blue cheese, shrimp, and lettuce. This was obviously another light selection with the potential for a still empty stomach afterwards. Not that it was really "light" being heavy on the blue cheese and creamy dressing. I'm a fan of blue cheese and this salad was generous with the stuff so I was happy. The shrimp were tasty as well and the greens were fresh. Afterwards, my mother and sister were examining desserts after their hot squid salads. So, I of course got in on the action ordering a creme brulee all for myself. It was good, although I haven't eaten any other ones recently. The sugar was nicely caramelized on top and the custard part was very rich and not too sweet. Overall, I was quite a satisfying lunch.

For dinner that night, we went to Murrieta's on Whyte Ave. I like this restaurant, the food is really good. The service is good too and we were moved from the lounge area to the dining room due to a draft that I couldn't stand. To start with we had an order of steamed PEI mussels. We've ordered the mussels numerous times and it is always a generous serving with a delicious sauce around it. This time, the sauce was updated to feature a citrus tomato sauce and bacon. With the mussels, we got the complementary bread. It was a delectable mulitgrain, perfect for dipping in the mussel sauce.

Now for our mains, my mom had the duck breast, my sister had seared scallop linguine, my dad had lamb meatball spaghetti, and I had the Westcoast paella. The duck was not too large a portion and my mother appreciated this and ate it all. The seared scallop linguine featured really good scallops but my sister didn't eat it all because it was heavy on the olive oil. The spaghetti is good, I know because I've had it before, but not nearly as many times as my dad. He loves it, and it's good if you like lamb and spaghetti, which I do but I was looking to branch out. The serving seems to be slightly smaller before with six meatballs instead of eight. But really that's okay, because I always made two meals out of it before. The paella was delicious and I ate all of the rice in sweet tomato sauce. It contains a variety and seafood and chorizo sausage. I really liked being able to eat large shrimp, a little salmon, succulent scallops, and mussels in one dish with the perfect pork chorizo.

The next morning, at way too late for breakfast (about 11), we went for brunch at The Sugarbowl. I also like this restaurant both as a good place to drink beer and eat chili lime popcorn, and for breakfast and dinners like their lamb burger. On this particular morning I went with the spinach and feta omelet. It came with pan potatoes and a piece of whole-wheat toast. The potatoes were good, with some kind of red seasoning/sauce, which left them devoid of the need for ketchup. The Sugarbowl also serves pan fried potatoes with sandwiches. The toast did not come heavily buttered, unlike at most places and I enjoyed it with raspberry jam. The omelet was laden with green spinach and salty feta. I quite liked it. As if eating all that wasn't enough, my dad ordered a cinnamon bun in addition to his breakfast for us to share. I had been wondering about these big buns. They looked goooood, but I'm not usually up for that much sugar. And here's my conclusion: they are good. The cinnamon sugar on the outside is crispy and caramelized in places and the bread is deliciously soft. Go ahead and order one of those bad-boys, if you can eat it all without a sugar induced stomach ache, I'll be impressed.