Calgary

Always feel nice to be home. The sprawling land, the clear sky, the mountains and the fresh air makes me calm and slow down. This time back it happened to be my birthday and I went to Catch in the Hyatt downtown Calgary. It is a seafood restaurant featuring fresh catches of the day and oysters from the West and East Coast.  It is a lively, happening place, although the service might need a bit of more friendliness that suits the open concept bar/dine area on the first floor. You can literally watch the chefs making food in the kitchen which is located in front of the seating area separated only by a waist-high wall. This makes the place all the more open, fiery, and inviting. We sat in a booth area and were served with surprisingly delicious bread and ordered two fresh catches and one steak and obviously, oysters. Their oysters were absolutely fresh and fantastic. When oysters are fresh, you shouldn't taste any sea fishiness but only the freshness and the smooth texture of the oysters themselves. For main, I had their sable fish which tasted like a warm piece of butter, smooth, delicate and melts in your mouth without the greasy taste. It was a fantastic fish. One thing I was genuinely surprised by was how nicely their baked potatoes were made. They are crispy on the outside but soft and gooey inside. I am generally not the biggest fan of baked potatoes but I swept those away in a hurry while at the same time, admiring their perfect texture and taste. The wine list is also quite impressive. We had their Malbec, a bubbly from Italy and Muscadet from France. All were quite wonderful ; the Malbec was especially full bodied and smooth. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and everyone walked away happy and content.

To find out more information on Catch The Oyster Bar http://hyatt.com/gallery/catch/index.html

Feb Fest

Here comes Kingston Feb Fest, the winter festival that serves as a tourist attraction during the drab winter months and if there is one type of crowd it attracts, that is certainly kids and families with kids. The market square area is brimmed with people who are there either to watch the kids playing hockey games with the seriousness of real hockey players, or to listen to concerts (which don't really come up until late afternoon), or simply to walk around amidst wafts of smoke coming from the hotdog stands and melting ice sculptures scattered here and there.

I was attracted not just to be in a place of communal festivity, but I have my eyes set on some of the finest restaurants that participated in the feb fest through their own way: tapas with a choice of beer or wine for 10 bucks. This is probably one of the cheapest way to experience different flavors offered around the town without depleting your wallet. Because I had a relatively busy schedule this weekend, I was only able to try out 3 restaurants: Casa, Chez Piggy and Aquaterra. All of them were fantastic. In Casa, we had slow-braised beef served with risotto-like rice in a wine and tomato mixture sauce with shaved Parmasean on top which tasted like heaven. The texture and the temperature were quite perfect and when the cheese melted slowly on top as you were eating, it became another layer of gooeyness made even better by the slight saltiness that comes with the cheeze. In Chez Piggy, we had their oxtail pot pie which is more like a oxtail soup / stew with a layer of dough baked on top. It was probably the most uninteresting of all three but the oxtail meat were delicious and appropriately fat. The dough itself had interesting chocolaty taste which I assumed they used dark chocolate bits in making the dough. I have always loved bread with dark chocolate baked inside, the epitome of my experience being in the Wildfire in Sydney with their signature dark chocolate bread, and Chez Piggy's dough was no exception. The wine was decent (Sandbanks Merlot from what I remember) which was mild and fruity. Last but not least, we went to Aquaterra and their tapas was slow-roasted shredded beef on top of little pan fried pan cakes made of potatoes, cabbages and buckwheat (the buckwheat part borrowed from the waitress). They are quite amazing as the beef is tender yet moist and the little cakes are very well made and are not floury at all. The red wine they served was quite interesting, It was Sandbanks Boco Noir  which is not only fruity, but has a very nice tanginess / spicyness at the end which was quite nice and worth trying again in my opinion. It is also available from LCBO.

Overall, I was more than satisfied with my restaurant choices and their quality tapas. Wish I have the opportunity to come back every year and be in a state of food happiness every year.

Blutsgeschwister

Stumbled upon a pair of ultra-cool glasses over the Christmas break back in Calgary. Fell in love and bought them on a whim and have loved them ever since. I have always wanted to write something about them but because I don't know too much about the brand, never proceeded to do so. Today, I decided to search up this company - Blutsgeschwister ( I am assuming it's German) and found out they are a designing house that carries very unique lines - a baby line ( very cute and adorable), an underwear line, a home wear line and an accessories line, and of course, their glasses line called Wonderglasses! They definitely have some of the nicest, funkiest, most stylish glasses I have seen in a long time. I know the Japanese produce very funky and stylish glasses but some of them are exceedingly expensive. The glasses by B are relatively reasonably priced (mine are 339 CAD)  but I think equally stylish!

Here are the links to the firm and to their glasses line. Check out their accessories line as well, some of them are truly unique and if I could get my hands on them, I totally would!

Blutsgeschwister online shop: http://shop.blutsgeschwister.de/Wonderglasses-oxid/

Wonderglasses : http://www.wonderglasses.com/blutsgeschwister-wonderglasses/prescription_metal.htm

Society6

I read about a cool site couple days ago. The website is called Soceity6. The website sells prints designed mostly by independent artists who need the money for production and design. It is a great way to support up and coming artists and at the same time, purchase something unique at a very reasonable price. The art prints sell from 20 bucks to about 50 for framed ones. They are also iPhone cases and Mac skins available for the same prints. Some prints are absolutely amazing and there are simply a great variety of styles and colors. Check it out! Everyone needs a bit of color and style!

Best Sushi Place in Kingston

Hands down Izumo Sushi. The owners Kevin and Amy are very friendly and have set up their shop west of Princess and University in a superbly cozy and calming way. I used to love going in during lunch hours when the place is quiet and order a sashimi lunch (for about $13) and enjoy the moment of peace to myself until Kevin started having back problems and no longer operates the restaurant during lunch hours. Yet, I still try my best to eat out and visit whenever I felt like quality food and spending quality moments with friends. From my conversation with Kevin, he used to work in a sushi place in Toronto and decided to come here to spread his own wings. I have seen him making sushi behind the bar and the way he does it looks very professional ( at least to me). He is not as fast as the sushi chef in Kaji in Toronto in making sushi but his techniques look similar. Kaji is by far the best sushi place I have been to. It is a place that embraces traditions, creativity and quality all together and every dish looks like the prettiest pictures you can ever dream of. I am excited to go to Japan one day and check out real, traditional, local sushi places so that I can become more familiar with the techniques of making sushi. Sushi is one of my favorite food of all time. It is so simple, yet so delicate and subtle. I believe sushi is an art and eating cheap sushi is simply not the way to go.

January 9, 2012

Finally, finally, found a decent cup of espresso in Kingston. Oddly, it is from Olivea by a really nice waitress (forgot to ask her name). The crema was nice and smooth with a bit of tightness and bitterness. The espresso is light and a bit fruity. It has been a mission of mine to find a cup of decent cappuccino or espresso in Kingston and after having tried most of the coffee shops, we've found that the Sleepless Goat has decent cappuccinos (though they really should improve on their coffee beans used in making the espressos for the cappuccinos); Coffee & Co sometimes churn out decent cappuccinos or lattes depending on who your barista is. Today, Olivea was a surprise find for their decent espresso as we stumbled in for a quick salad for lunch only.

On the note of talking about good coffee places, I want to recommend Phil & Sebestian Coffee in Calgary. The store located in Chinook center is one of the coolest coffee shops I have ever seen, featuring state-of-the-art Italian espresso makers shaped like a spaceship (or a pair of ultra cool sunglasses in my opinion) from the side. The store also puts great efforts into making great coffee with their highly innovative french press machines that controls water that flow in by weight and temperature and their cone-pour-over equipment (which I have yet to try). The baristas are well trained, highly skilled in latte arts, and very friendly when I kept pestering them with questions. I went back to the store almost everyday hereafter during my short stay in Calgary and it will be a place I will dearly miss when I am back in Kingston finishing up school.

Chez Piggy

Chez Piggy in Kingston is one of the two most upscale, expensive and gourmet restaurants ( the other one being Le Chien Noir). A friend and I saw on their menu online the CHARCUTERIE PLATE composed of Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio, Abner Sausage, Foie Gras Pâté, Rabbit Rillettes, Beaufort Cheese, Rhubarb Compote and Fig. Having just come back from an exchange in Paris, we were highly pumped about going to a local restaurant in Kingston , ON , Canada and savor and reminisce about Paris. The platter turned out to be more than what we expected. The Rabbit Rillettes and the Foie Gras Pate with Rhubarb Compote drizzling on top were absolute blasts, probably better than some of the places in Paris. The Rabbit Rillettes and the Foie Gras were tender, juicy, moist to the right degree and absolutely original tasting. I always think that the best -tasting food are the ones that are the simplest and most original to the extent that you can clearly distinguish what you are tasting but at the same time, be amazed at the texture and the correct composition. The Carpaccio, sausage and cheese are decent as well. The only problem I had was with the fig which was dry and untasty. Apart from that, everything on that platter mixed very well with our toasted little pieces of bread that came with. Delicious indeed. Then we ordered their special of the night : scallops with Risotto. To be honest, we both agreed that had we stopped at the platter and proceeded with the desert, our dinner experience would have been better. The scallops were fine , but the Risotto tasted not like a conglomerate of creamy rice with some seafood flavor, but hard, hard rice that did not go smoothly on the palate. We both gave up after couple bites. So much for the expensive dish. The desert was decent: French-style chocolate mousse which again tasted original and not too sugary like most of the North American deserts. Deserts should never taste sugary to the extent that they are taking away the flavor of the ingredients that go into them. In fact, some of the best deserts I have had in both Paris and here are  absolutely free of the heavy-sugar, heavy-icing and the additive sweetness . Not as good as the chocolate raspberry ice cream in Grecos but very decent for sure. We also had Sangria to pair with our food which came in nice presentation but tasted just okay. Our appetizer baby spinach salad was quite nice as well, not exactly the most refreshing but you can taste the good olive oil that went on there. 


Special note on the location and the decor of the place. I love the little courtyard you have to go through before entering the restaurant. I could only imagine in the summer when the courtyard will be converted into a dining area and how lovely that would be. However, the decor inside, shall I describe, is horrendous, not fitting at all with the reputation of the restaurant. Upscale? only when you sit down and notice the right hand side of the menu. The decor looks like 18th century Shakespearean  palace (obviously not as big) with a jarring collection of Persian Rugs, depressing art pieces and cheap-looking polygon lamps. In other words, there happens to be no consistent style at all within the restaurant. I have to say that the lay-out of the restaurant is quite beautiful and I regret that the interior decoration overshadows the lay-out in a very bad way. 


I am definitely thinking of buying their award-winning Chez Piggy cookbook. But the problem is I kind of have to find someone to cook with. Cooking for yourself , especially gourmet -cooking, is never too fun if no one enjoys with you over a beautiful glass of wine.