And More Eating. . . Same Weekend

On Saturday night we had dinner at Wild Tangerine Cucina Domestica, which is kind of an Asian fusion restaurant that I wanted to try for a while. We couldn't make a reservation because they wanted to keep tables for walk-ins. So, we decided to try our luck and walk in. We found that it was no problem to be seated around 6:30. They weren't very busy. I think there were only a couple of tables occupied although it is quite a small restaurant.

I was immediately impressed with the modern, slightly funky, slightly Asian decor. But don't ask me to recall details. One thing that was immediately nice on such a hot day was that they leave coloured glass bottles of water on the table. It's very convenient for thirsty people, like me.

Before going, I had of course examined the on-line menu. I must note that it's not current as to prices. Anyways, I was intrigued by the "Grilled Five-Spice Octopus Salad with Spicy Tangerine Vinaigrette." So, that is what I had to start. My mother also ordered it. It was really good. The octopus was very tender unlike any other I'd ever eaten. It was more like pulled pork than say tako from a Japanese restaurant. The flavour of the octopus just said "Chinese food," which I guess is what you get from five spice. It reminded me a bit of the Chinese barbecue I had in Calgary. Besides the pieces of octopus, the salad also had some crispy pieces or fried. . . root vegetable. . . I think for a tantalizing contrast in texture. The salad component was julienned bell pepper, celery, apple, and other vegetables in a sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy dressing. My mother also enjoyed the salad. My dad started with the Caesar Salad with Ginger and Oven-dried Tomato. I think he thought it was good, but I also think that the octopus outshone it. He might have wished he'd been more adventurous, it looked pretty ordinary for a Caesar salad. I didn't taste it though so it could have been really good.

For a main course I had the red curry mussels with linguine. It came in a big bowl with plenty of mussels on top, although I think four were closed and of course not eaten. There was a fair but not excessive amount of linguine underneath. The red curry sauce was delicious. It created a mild burn at the back of the palate and was sweet with onions, bell pepper, and tomato. Unlike some curries that have a lot of coconut milk or cream, the sauce was very light and pleasing on the hot day. I ate the entire dish and enjoyed it immensely. I was tempted to eat the remaining sauce with a spoon. It was that good.

My dad had the Thai green curry with prawns and tortiglioni. It contained large prawns, a light curry sauce, an assortment of vegetables, and large tubular pasta. He said it was good. My mom had the "Lemon Chicken" breast stuffed with red dates, ricotta, and spinach. It was served with so much seasonal green vegetable mixture that she didn't finish her veggies. The chicken breast was very lightly breaded and then stuffed. I think she enjoyed it and found the preparation refreshingly light.

All in all, it was an excellent meal at Wild Tangerine. On our way out we met the owner who was very friendly and chatty. He had once taken chemistry at the U of A and had also lived in Medicine Hat, where I'm from. That was pretty cool. I'd love to go back, although the downtown location isn't really close to the LRT and so isn't super convenient.

My final meal with my parents was lunch on Sunday. We decided to go to our favorite standby Murrieta's, which I think is a good restaurant. When we walked in I immediately saw Beth, a girl I lived in residence with who serves there. She immediately volunteered to serve my family and said we were VIP. She provided excellent service.

I was going to rely on the on-line menu for verbatim descriptions of what we ordered but they aren't current. Anyways, I have a good memory for food. My dad and I both went for the bison short ribs with bacon cassoulet. My mom had a prawn tempura sandwich. Before the mains, we were served warm and delicious multigrain bread and butter. My mom's sandwich arrived on a huge platter with lots of fries and salad. The sandwich itself was large, too. Some of it wasn't eaten, there was so much. I can only comment on the fries since I tried one and it was good and crisp on the outside.

The bison short ribs dish consisted of four pieces of bison on the bone and four thin pieces of lightly cooked asparagus atop a generous serving of the cassoulet. Both of us finished the serving. I'd say the sandwiches are for the really, really hungry. The short rib meal was excellent. The bison was tender and meaty tasting with a bit of subtle barbecue sauce. The cassoulet was a feast for bean lovers as it was mainly beans, some veggies like carrot, and a bit of bacon. The smokey taste of bacon infused all the beans. It was a joy to eat and felt like really good cowboy food. If you like to eat meat off the bone and beans go for it. Just don't expect too much greenery.

Once again Murrieta's did not disappoint.

Incidentally, there is also a bison short rib dish on the menu at Wild Tangerine that intrigues me. But, it seemed to heavy for that hot day. It was still hot on Sunday, but somehow bison seemed appropriate. Go figure.

A Weekend of Eating

I haven't got any pictures to go with this, but my parents were here last weekend. That meant lots of eating out.

It started with dinner at Dadeo on Friday. It's one of my favourite restaurants in Edmonton, conveniently on Whyte Ave. The decor is diner style and they serve Louisiana-style Cajun and creole food. To be honest I can't speak to its authenticity, only its tastiness. I'm no expert. My mother had been there once before along with Albert and I. She enjoyed it then. It was my father's first time at the restaurant despite numerous recommendations. I think he had something against its small size and interesting decor.

Instead of the usual bread, they serve small biscuits with pepper jelly. It's always a tasty start to the meal.

I knew exactly what I wanted to order: pulled-pork po'boy with sweet potato fries. It's probably my favourite, although I do enjoy other options. But it had been a while, and the sandwich called to me. A hearty portion of juicy, falling apart pork, in a lightly spiced pork juicy sauce is sandwiched in a soft white roll with mayo and lettuce. The roll is a delicious sponge for the meat juices. It's pretty much the perfect meat sandwich. The fries are a masterpiece on their own. I knew I had to get them despite how rich and huge they would make my meal, just so my parents could try them off my plate. Enjoy them they did. Lightly battered and seasoned, topped with chopped green onion and served with a mayo based dip, they're the ultimate in fries. Between the three of us, we ate all that was on my plate. It also had a bit of coleslaw but wasn't really a fiesta of vegetables.

My mother decided to order the shrimps creole served on white rice. It was perhaps a slightly lighter option. I didn't taste it, but she seemed to enjoy it and cleared her plate.

My father wanted jambalaya. I convinced him to get the Combo Dadeo so he would get the meaty bayou jambalaya along with blackened chicken and beans. The jambalaya was chock full of assorted meats like Andouille sausage, shrimp, and ham. But, what he couldn't stop talking about was how good the beans were. I knew he'd like them since he's a bean-aholic along with me. They're the reason I knew he should have the combo and not straight jambalaya. The beans are red kidney beans in a spicy sauce with onion. They're really good.

The next meal out was lunch on Saturday, which we had at Cafe Select. I've mentioned it before, so I just have a couple of comments. My father again had the bistro burger, which he says he likes because it tastes like real meat like the burgers he makes. It's served with their shoestring fries. My mother and I had grilled vegetable sandwiches also served with the fries. I found them a bit limp and oily, but I still ate quite a few. The sandwiches also came with spinach salad, which was nice but not really remarkable. The sandwiches though were really good. They had a heap of hot, grilled vegetables--zucchini, mushrooms, onions, red bell peppers--along with good white cheddar cheese and a red spread that was tasty. They had to be held together with a toothpick containing a huge green olive, which was a nice touch. It was a really good sandwich on a nice whole wheat kaiser. A tad messy though, with so many delicious veggies some fell out. All in all it was a good lunch.

Later that afternoon, we went to Leva for gelato/sorbet. I discovered that my Peach-Apricot treat was actually a dairy free sorbet. My mom enjoyed a single pina colada sorbet--she's extremely lactose intolerant. I think she really liked being able to eat something that looked like ice cream and didn't have a weird soy taste. My father and I had double gelatos. His was pistachio and hazelnut. Mine was pistachio and maple walnut. The gelato was excellent, the two flavours were a nice contrast and nothing was an unnatural colour. It has a lighter texture than the sorbet but is unsurprisingly creamier. Either gelato or sorbet is a good choice. But, only sorbet is a good choice for my mom.

We actually had two other meals out, but I think I'll post about them later to give them my full attention. You can look forward to hearing about Wild Tangerine and another meal at Murrieta's. Both were really good.

Dinner Party Part 2: Main Dishes

I did a really bad job of photographing the main dishes I made for my dinner party. So all you're going to see is the mango chutney above. It was served with an oven roasted pork tenderloin made using this recipe, with a few changes. The changes were that I used ground cumin and added it with the turmeric, I roasted the meat at 450 F to an internal tempertature of 155 F, and I omitted the cilantro because I don't really like it. This was the second time I made this reciped and it's good. Obviously that's why I made it again. The roasting probably took at least half an hour, but I wasn't timing it.

Anyways, the result was very good. Tender and lightly curry flavoured pork with a sweet, tart, and spicy chutney. I don't know about its authenticity as Indian food, but my Indian friend thought it was good and not totally Western. Anyways, the recipe tastes good and the chutney can be conveniently made in advance and served at room temperature.

In addition to the pork, I made shrimp. I like having pork with seafood. It just seems right, I think I've mentioned this before. Anyways, I used a pound of large shrimp to make "Border-Style Shrimp." I reduced the recipe to about 2/3 of the original amounts, but used all the spices. I also used a little olive oil instead of cooking spray as I don't own any and it's not my style. Anyways, I was too busy eating the shrimp and making the pork to photograph them. But they were good, a little tart from the lime, a touch of spice, and some buttery goodness. They were really fast and easy too, but I think shrimp sautees generally are. One could definitely do worse. Then again, I find shrimp intrinsically delicious and tastier than lobster. Lobster provides for my exciting eating though, what with all the shell cracking and digging for meat.

Signs of Spring. . . My Salad Can Kick Your Salad's Ass

So, making a salad for dinner tonight I thought I would blog about it and call it "my salad can kick your salad's ass." Needless to say I was pretty confident about my salad. It was going to be freaking awesome. How could it not be? I was sauteing shrimp, onion, and garlic. I was making my own croutons. It was going to have fresh spinach and tomato. Anyways, we'll see how it turned out.

I've been thinking about making more salad, because it's spring. Did you need to be told?

Anyways, I also made a good salad a while ago with leaf lettuce, shredded carrot, canned herring, bottled roasted red pepper salad dressing, and toasted tortilla. It was good because the oily fish and crunchy tortilla were distributed in pretty much every bite. Plus bottled dressing is pretty well balanced.

This salad I made tonight:
Actually, I was pretty good. It looks good. Actually, I suppose the only flaw was the way I dressed it. I tried to make my own dressing which was about 1 part Dijon mustard: 4 parts white vinegar: 2 parts extra virgin olive oil. I mixed it with a fork, and my not have gotten it quite right. I think i left a lot of the oil behind, let's just say it was a touch too vinegary. Solution: I need to get some better vinegar like red wine or balsamic. Other than that, the croutons were crisp after being tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme and baked at 350 until toasty. The onions were nice and sweet, the shrimp were perfectly cooked, and the tomato was enjoyable if not super tasty. The spinach was fine, too.

Anyways, all of this reminds me how good salads future will be. Why? Because soon I will be gardening and have freshly picked greens. They are so nice and tender. Plus, there should be ones with interesting flavours, shapes, and colours. And late in the summer, there will be tomatoes, fresh and tasty, even yellow ones. Honestly, I can't wait until I can stop relying on mediocre supermarket produce. Maybe I will perfect the art of making a vinaigrette by then, or maybe I will just cave and use bottled.