Boston Pizza - Southland

So my friend from Edmonton came down and we went down to the Boston Pizza near her hotel as I was craving wings. When we got there, we decided to get pastas instead.

The restaurant wasn't too busy, just a couple of families and a group celebrating a tween's birthday. I was kind of surprised we got a table instead of a booth but maybe those are reserved for tables of three of more. Our waitress was nice, she had another girl shadowing her so it was kind of interesting seeing how she teaches the new girl. They were both and pleasant, though I did notice they were wear the same short grey Lululemon skirt. I actually noticed three different wairtresses (including our servers) to be wearing the exact same dress. My friend told me it was because it was on sale.. Still a pretty big coincidence to me.

I decided to get pasta and my friend got a salad. I had the tough decision between this spicy sausage, butter chicken, or the taco pastas. I wanted to try the jambalaya fettuccini but then I remembered I had it a year ago at the same location and the chicken breast was dry. So I settled on the spicy sausage one replacing the pasta to spaghetti since they didn't have angel hair pasta. It's in a tomato sauce so it seemed to be the better choice.

It took a while for our food to arrive, but it gave my friend and I a chance to chat about random things. When it arrived, the size was pretty big. I was not expecting the sausage to be spicy as I find most western restaurants tends to minimize the heat. Yet a few chews into the sausage and boy was it spicy. I was very happy with the choice. All of the spaghetti are coated with the sauce, which was I love. It tasted fresh, it doesn't have that tomato sauce from a jar kind of taste. This is always a good sign. Comparing this to Spaghetti factory, this have so much more flavour. Sadly, I could only finish half of it and brought it home.

The spaghetti was still so delicious after a day in the fridge. I think I know which dish to order again next time I visit Boston Pizza. :)

Starving...

Starving this morning because I didn't have a chance to eat breakfast before I left the house. Then there was the fire in downtown that caused much delays. After this delay has been cleared, there was passenger emergency requiring ambulance.. Then there was a train ahead that broke down... I was an hour late to work, which means I am STARVING! Doesn't help that the Timmy's near my work is extremely busy, even at 9:30...I had to hold off on getting food and head into work.. :(

Sneaked out at 10 to Timmys because my hunger is just too much... The line was so long it doubled back to the front.. Nothing to do but to keep on waiting.. :(

Funny side story... While I was half way through the line, a nicely dressed man decided to walk and stand in the space between me and the guy in front of me. He acted like he belonged there even though he was clearly budging. A guy behind me shouted" yo man, we are in a line you know" the well dressed guy acted all surprised and was like "oh really? Isn't this the end of the line? Where is the end of the line?" Me and various people behind me pointed him to the back of the line. The guy walked toward the back of the line going "oh so how does this line work? Oh it loops back around to the front?" Please.. Spare me the theatrics. There is no way you would not have figured out where the end of the line is. The end of the line was all the way up front. You see a line of people facing you and a line of people with their backs to you, you know you need to be behind the last guy with their back to you.. There is no way you can walk past two lines of people in a very narrow hallway and not realize they are in a line. You just didn't want to be at the back of the line, saw an opening and took it. When you got called out, you just tried to play dumb to excuse your actions.. We are all adults and can see through your charade..

Finally got my food and ate.. Al happy now.. :)

Wa's

Found out last night while I was making my Hokkaido post that Wa's is closed permanently because the owner passed away. That makes me so sad. There goes one of the best authentic Japanese restaurant in Calgary that is accessible by public transit (yes, I am one of those people who prefers transit than driving). Their chirashi don is my favourite dish. It has various sashimi on top of a bed of rice. It's delicious, it's like heaven in my mouth.

 

 

 

 

Chirashi don (2011)

This picture is from a few years ago and is the first time I had the dish. It's absolutely wonderful. Even now I can remember how the bed of rice is full of masago (orange fish eggs) and tamago shreds (cooked eggs). How the sashimi pieces tasted melts in your mouth. I think the fish must have been dipped or rubbed with something lemony because I remember each piece tasted slightly of lemon and is very refreshing. The entire bowl looks small but it is a full meal for one person.

Just thinking about it makes me drool. Too bad I will never have it again. Though I did walk by it today and saw there is a bright orange sign up replacing the original Wa's sign. It said Japanese Bistro An Zu. Must give it a try one day to see how good it is.

Broken City

So a couple of days ago, we went to Broken City on Beltline and the food was pretty good. The atmosphere is kind of eclectic and artsy. I always walked by it but never knew it was a pub/eatery. I always thought it was an abandoned lot that haven't been leased out yet.

My coworkers were craving their "cauliflower wings" and we decided to head down there to try it out as a group. So these wings are supposedly cauliflowers that are lightly deep fried and tossed in wing sauces. They are apparently deliciously sinful.

We had two orders of cauliflower wings, the special (some kind of smoked meat sandwich), steak sandwich and I had the inferno burger. Unfortunately, they ran out of cauliflower wings so I guess we gotta come back another time to try it out. (By us I mean those of us in the group who were not privy to the existence of cauliflower wings prior to this).

Food took a little bit but they look sooo good once it got to our table. I only took a picture of my food because I didn't want to be rude and stop everyone from eating their food. My burger was good, it has pickled jalapenos, two big onion rings, guacamole, hot sauce and mozzarella. I had a side salad. I gotta say.... I haven't had a burger with onion rings in it before. They were quite liberal with their onion rings, everyone had onion rings on their plate. No one was complaining!

The first bite of my burger was so good!! The meat is soft but juicy. I can taste the guacamole and the jalapeno/hot sauce with my first few bites. But after a while, I couldn't taste the spiciness at all. Though that may just because I eat too much spicy things. Overall it was a really good burger, I could not and would not put it down in between bites. I really liked the guacamole and how juicy the beef patty was. The side salad was pretty good too, but let's be honest, the burger was the star of the show. The cucumber slices were slightly wilted on my salad but I still ate it. I love the fact they serve the salad dressing on the side. Not sure what it is, but I don't particularly like it that much. It seemed like it was olive oil and vinegar. Oh well.

Good food, good company, good lunch! :) I will definitely bring my out of town friends to it when they come visit.

Hokkaido - Chinatown

So on Valentine's Day, my friend and I decided to try Hokkaido in Chinatown since she is going away for over a month. This is a new all you can eat Japanese restaurant that replaced Fuji Yama, and can give Sushi Tokyo in Dragon City some much needed competition in all you can eat sushi in downtown. Sadly, the restaurant is not that great given its price.. (Note: this is a long post/rant, you been warned)

A pot of tea to guide you through the long post

The decor didn't seem to have changed much from Fuji Yama to Hokkaido. The restaurant wasn't that busy at 5:30PM. There was only three tables including us. It seemed like there was another table but it was just the staff/owner eating. We sat down and given the menu. The hostess came by for our drinks and that was the end of speedy service. 

We waited a good 10 minutes for the waitress to come back and take our order despite the fact that there was only 3 tables to wait on, all of which are on the same side of the restaurant. After our order was taken, we waited at least another 15 minutes for our salads to come by. They are just seaweed salad that you can buy in a frozen pack from T&T, and a simple lettuce salad with dressing on top. Not much assembly necessary yet it took what seemed to be forever. After our salad came, the wait for the rest of the food seemed to be longer. We were so hungry by the time the food finally arrived in what seemed to be ages. I am pretty sure we waited a good 30 minutes before our food arrived.

Seaweed salad & house salad

I was not impressed with the food. They seemed to be badly done. The chefs appeared to be Chinese chefs who have a basic idea on how to make a sushi.

I ordered Ika, which is squid sushi. It is my absolute favourite, I always order it at any restaurants I go to that have it on the menu. You can really tell the chef's ability to make quality sushi in how they prepare ika. Ika is hard to prepare because it is squid. Squid has that slimy connective tissue on the inside that just will not break apart when you bite into it. You need to cook it to a point where it is still crunchy to the bite but easy enough to swallow. I have been to restaurants where the connective tissue was not removed and I ended up almost choking because I was not expecting the entire piece to be going down my throat. I am pretty sure that was Sakana Grill back when they still served Ika on their menu. (this is also a Chinese run Japanese restaurant so it makes sense)  I been to restaurants where it is not slimy but it lost that crunch so you just have a limp piece of squid that was not very interesting. I also had delicious ika in Calgary, where just three lines or a grid scored into the ika that made the entire sushi so delicious I dream about it. Mostly, I had this at Wa's on 16th and Centre Street, but sadly I think they closed down permanently. They were a real Japanese run restaurant. I think I am getting a little out of hand with my love for ika.

From top left, clock wise. Mackerel (?), tuna, ika, salmon skin roll, spicy tuna roll

Back to the topic, as you can see in the picture, the ika is not well prepared at all. The piece of squid is comparably smaller than the rice. Ika done correctly should cover the top and partially the side of the sushi. It varies depending on the chef but it should still at least cover a portion. As you can see from the picture, it does not even cover the top of the sushi. This was not great ika, though I did order two more. Just because I love it and it is not the worst I had. In the same picture, you can also tell how the chef's skill in rolled sushi is pretty bad. If they were good, the sushi pieces would not be so uneven and toppling over like that. The roll on the right is grilled salmon skin roll. It was good except for the fact that the skin was a bit tough so I had trouble swallowing without giving a few more bites.

Sushi pizza

I tried the sushi pizza as I never tried it before. I  was not expecting what I got. Which was a freshly deep fried flattened rice ball topped with sashimi, avocado and two sauces. I liked the deep fried rice part but I was not happy with the topping. I hate to say it, but they were stingy with the fish. The pieces were small and thin. They did not even cover all of the surface. I had a piece of "pizza" that had no fish on it at all. I was also concerned that they would be serving super hot piece of rice with sashimi that should be served cold. I flipped over the fish and saw the bottom was completely cooked. I was not happy.

Agedashi tofu (deep fried tofu served in a sauce)

 In the time we were eating, only three more tables came in. Yet we still had trouble flagging down a waitress for a copy of the menu and then to order. We also saw a table where the girl had to go up to the waitress and ask for a copy of the menu and head straight to the kitchen attempting to order. That was kind of ridiculous. I worked at a busy Chinese restaurant for years and have never seen a service this bad at a full house plus take out lines out the door.

Tako bits and magi taro noodles

I also tried the octopus in clear noodles (magic taro noodles, they are just made from these taro and is supposedly no calories so it is great for people on a diet). This was also disappointing. The sauce was the only good part, it is vinegar and sugar so it opens up your appetite. The octopus pieces are tiny and chopped up, there was barely any noodles in there. It was just a two bite appetizer, I think I was expecting too much.

From top, clock wise. Salmon skin hand roll, unagi, ika, tako, surf clam, mackerel and salmon

Second round of sushi, again the ika is barely covering the top of the rice. It was basically a rice ball topped with a piece of squid. I tried the octopus as well as it is also a difficult dish to perfect as it can be overcooked and becomes chewy. As soon as the dish came, I did not have high hopes for it. As you can see from the picture, the piece is slightly pinkish purple. You know why it is that colour? It is because the chef does not know which side to present. A normal Tako sushi is white in the centre and purple around the edge. The white comes from the inside of the octopus leg and the purple is from the outside. In this instance, the chef decided not to waste the edge piece of a tako and used it on a sushi. If he just flipped it over with the white side showing, I wouldn't even have noticed it. Though, even if he flipped it over, the sushi would not be great either. It was just soggy and chewy.

Chicken Udon

Salmon Cheek

I forgot which kind of roll it is. (sorry)

Overall, the service at Hokkaido was not great.. I would consider it borderline terrible. Simply based on the slow service at a half filled restaurant. The chefs are not great, and need a lesson in sushi making and presentation. For $40 a person, I can go to a better restaurant like Fuji Yama with better food and service.

Mango ice cream

Why..

Why did I start this blog? I don't eat out that much. My parents are very Chinese in which they believe eating out is bad for you and a waste of money. I mean it's good for saving money but bad for trying out new food.

This is why I am so glad I have friends and coworkers who love to eat at places with me and I get to try out new foods.. I always have the habit of taking pictures of my food anyways so why not make a blog and post all these pictures anyways? Hence the creation of this blog. Hopefully this encourages me to try out more food and try out more food that is available in this beautiful city :)