Taste of Edmonton 2013...

Last Wednesday, the staff at work went to Taste of Edmonton, This was the first time I had gone to it at lunch time. I had usually gone after work because we do not have to worry about time and we can stay there for as long as we want.

This year I did not try a lot since that morning we had Tenant Appreciation breakfast and I had 3 pancakes and 2 sausages so by the time we got there I was not really hungry.

I got a glass of heavenly lemonade, then we tried spicy chicken, vegetable tempura, churros, sirloin with lemon grass sauce. I can't remember what else I had. Anyway I had leftover tickets and gave it to my son. They went on Friday and the only thing he talked about was the deep fried Mars bars. He ate 3 of them which could easily have been 1000 calories.

It was crowded and I still would have preferred to go after work. Coming  back from that, I heard that my cousin had passed away and so I did not go that night with two of my friends.

Hopefully it would be good again next year. I apologize it was hard to take pictures when you are standing holding your drink, a small plate and a purse. It was hard enough trying to eat.

Dining out....

I have gone out with friends or office mates for lunch or dinner but have not posted anything about it. So I will just list the different places I have gone out if I can remember it all.

There are no pictures as I usually forget and would remember it halfway and I don't like taking pictures of food I have half consumed.

C and I went for dinner at Niche which is just down half a block from my office so we just walked there. We decided to eat in the patio as it was such a nice day. I can't remember if we ordered appetizer but I think we did not as we wanted to have dessert.

I ordered the beef cheeks which is beef stroganoff. Nothing special about it except it costs $26.00. I do not mind paying that price but it was just regular stroganoff. There was nothing served with it, no garlic bread or a small side salad. C ordered lobster risotto and it was nothing special and that was $27.00. So we were there having conversation of how expensive it was and not much to say about the meal. We decided to have this chocolate dessert that was made of chocolate, the vesssel which was in the shape of a cup with chocolate mouse inside it and fruits on top. They pour some brandy or something and lit it and the chocolate cup started to melt. Since we were outside you can't even see the flame although when C took a video of it, you can a bit of the flame.

We will not go back to this one, although according to an advert in one of the magazines, it is supposed to be one of the top 20 restaurants in Canada. Really??

Next, some ladies at work and I went to Earl's for lunch. I ordered the dynamite crab roll and it was really good and at only $11.00. The others ordered lobster roll which was also good but was hard to eat. Then 2 of the ladies ordered dessert, chocolate concoction and I guess, that it was good.

One day, I forgot my lunch and I went to Central Social Hall which is on the main floor of our building. I know a lot of the staff there and since they have changed their lunch menu, I asked what is good and was told the fish tacos were really good. So I ordered it, and it was delicious. There was also anothertime when I forgot lunch and ordered mushroom salad with fried polenta and that was really good and reasonable price as well.

This will be it for now, I will do another review next time. I still have 2 places I have been to which I have not done a review.

Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for stopping by.

Johnny Garlic's in San Jose...

Last time I was in San Jose, I wanted to try this restaurant owned by Guy Fieri of the Diners, Drive Ins and Dives fame on the Food Network.

But at that time, I believe it had just opened and a lot of people want to try it, so it was a bit busy and crowded. But this time we went for lunch with a friend of my sister and it was not busy at all. It was the Friday before the Memorial weekend.

We sat there and waited for her friend and we ordered Garlic potato chips. It was really garlicky with parmesan and finely chopped fresh garlic. It was really good but I did not have to worry about the garlic smell as we were shopping after that.

I was not really hungry so my sister and I shared sashimi wan tacos. It had sashimi grade ahi with mango jicama salsa and wasabi soy. It was really good.

Our friend ordered bison burger with garlic potato chips on the side. We all ordered iced tea with different flavours, I think mine was raspberry. I would go back here and try other stuff on their menu.
Service was really good.

Garlic potato chips

 

Sashimi Won Tacos



Restaurants....food

While visiting my sister, we always go to places/restaurants I want to try or just food I have not tried yet. Before I get there I would google places and see if I have a place I am interested in going.

Sometimes it is an ad on tv that I remember I want to try. This time I wanted to go to Sonic and so after our trip to the Artichoke Festival we passed by a Sonic location and tried their food.

I ordered cheeseburger with onion rings and pineapple milk shake, my brother-in-law ordered the chili dog with sweet potato fries. I think my sister also ordered a burger with something else. The burger was big and the onion rings were good. I like the milkshake as it was quite thick and had  really pineapple you can taste.

These are all the flavours of the drink you can order from tea to smoothies.

Sorry about the imperfect bun but I just wanted to show how big the burgers are and they are a lot better than the one from the very well known arch.

 

The chili dog, as you can see it was a drive in and it was hard to take pictures of the food.

 

While shoppping at a Mexican grocery store, we decided to eat there as they also serve cooked food to stay or take out. I ordered the Mexican version of poutine.

The fries under the carne asada with sour cream and guacamole. I could not have salsa or pico de gallo as I do not like cilantro. As usual I could not finish as it was too much.

 

And for my sister's birthday, I cooked a big pot of jambalaya which turned out well.

 

 

 

 

 



Fruits.....Spices....

Every place I visit I always like to go into grocery stores to see what kind of food, fruits or spices I can see and buy. Most especially fruits I have not seen or tasted for a long time. I enjoy looking at fruit trees and always say I would like to steal them if I am walking close to them.

Thank God, I have relatives who have fruit trees where I can enjoy picking or they give me fruits I have not tasted.

Visiting my sister is the same, we go around stores and look for exciting stuff.

Cherimoya which is like sugar apple and sour sop and my sister refers to it as mutant. We found them a week before I was to leave and these were not ripe so we had to google how to ripen them faster and it says it needs sunny place. So here I was moving it from one sunny location to another even taking it outside. Lucky for me two days before I had to leave they were ripe and enjoyed them.

 

These are loquat and my cousin has a tree filled with fruits and I asked what they are and she brought a little bag filled with these fruits. I tried to eat as much as I only had a day to enjoy it, sadly you cannot take it with you.

 

I also bought spices...sweet paprika, Mexican vanilla, bay leaves, Badia complete seasoning and my cousin sent me Santa Maria seasoning.

 

 



Artichoke Festival....

After I landed at SFO, my sister told me we will be picking up her mother-in-law and go home to drop my suitcase and then we will be on our way to Castroville to go to the Artichoke Festival.

It was not a long drive and soon we were there and we had to park and get on the bus. The parking attendant told us not to miss the deep fried artichoke so we knew we had to have it.

As we go to the gate to pay the entrance fee, they asked if we were seniors 55 and over and we were never so excited to get a discount 50% off.

This is just like a fair or small exhibition where they not only have food vendors but also crafts and other displays.

Half way through we remembered to take a picture of the deep fried artichokes which were reall good, I could have eaten a second plate.

The spiral spud which was fresh and crispy and we sprinkled with different salt and spices.

One of the displays all made ot artichokes.

Bear made of artichokes

 

There was also a display of old classic cars.

 

It was enjoyable and it felt like being in Mexico as the community is where farm workers live and all you can hear is Mexican being spoken.