Fondita Day by Mariel Montero at Expressionz Cafe

After trying out taco day at Expressionz Cafe back in March, I was keen on coming back for their much talked about Fondita Day. Fondita Day, is where mexican comfort food is presented Thursday evenings from 5-9pm at Expressionz Cafe. Mariel Montero, is the organizer and cooks up all the delicious dishes for both Fondita Day & Taco Day. As Fondita Day is not every Thursday, it is best to check their online calendar or follow them on Facebook. The good news is that the next Fondita Day is this coming Thursday July 31, 2014!

While we were enjoying our meal I also had the opportunity to meet the team behind the good eats for Fondita as well as Taco Day! Mariel Montero is the lady wearing the black apron in the first row. Look for her on your next visit!

To start our meal, we ordered a Horchata which is a rice based Mexican drink flavoured with cinnamon. Super refreshing and tasty, as can be seen!

The Costillas Enchilades arrived first with some warm tortillas. The slow cooked ribs were soft and the meat easily fell off the bone. This made it very easy to assemble our tortillas with the refried beans and rice.

Pork Flautas were next up. These were tasty, crispy pork filled tortillas that had been rolled and topped with lettuce, queso fresco, crema and slices of thick avocados. I liked how these flautas came with avocados and crema as they helped balance the heaviness of the tortillas.

The last item we ordered was the Gordita. The 'pancake' was made with homemade masa dough so it was more on the light side and topped with similar ingredients to the Flautas with the exception of the homemade cheese! Again, this is an item that we would order again. I am also curious about what the vegetarian options for both the Gorditas and Flautas would taste like, so we will certainly have to come back to try more dishes and variations. Plus, each Fondita Day serve different dishes so there will be lots of variety.

Sadly, by the time we arrived around 6:30pm that Thursday night, they had sold out of the Pastel Aztecas (mexican style lasagna with layers of goodness!). However, we bumped into a friend of ours and he assured us that they were delicious. We did have a small taste of his, but I am thinking having a full sized order would be needed! Hopefully, the next time we visit Fondita night we will have the chance to try the Pastel Aztecas.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on and check out the next Fondita Day at Expresszionz Cafe on Thursday July 31. I am certain that not only are all the dishes at Fondita Day delicious (they change each time), but incredibly affordable. All the dishes Dan and I ordered came to $27.

If you do head out to Fondita Day or Taco Day, let me know how it went and which dishes you ordered!

Expressionz Cafe Market & Meeting Place
9938 70 Ave, Edmonton, AB
(780) 437-3667
Cafe is open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Taco & Fondita Days are listed on the calendar or on Facebook.

Rae Mi Hyang - Korean Chinese Restaurant Review

After picking up some kimchi from Mama Lee's Kitchen one day end of June, I spotted the opening of a new Korean restaurant 2 spaces down called Rae Mi Hyang. Now Mi Hyang can often mean noodles, so I was excited over the possibilities of a Korean restaurant specializing in noodles and other good eats. 

Together with a few fellow food bloggers we made plans to visit in early July. The restaurant does not take any reservations, so ensure that you go early in order to get a table large enough for your group. 

First glance of the menu showed that there were noodle dishes to be ordered as well as a scattering of other Korean dishes. We soon learned though, that Rae Mi Hyang is actually a Chinese Korean restaurant. As a result, many traditional Korean dishes were not on the menu such as korean short ribs, bugulgi or tteokbokki (korean rice cakes). 

On this particular day, the weather in Edmonton was also incredibly hot. Sadly, all of the cold noodle dishes and cold dishes were also not available. This was rather unfortunate, as the restaurant does not have any air conditioning so it made for a slightly interesting meal. Needless to say, we all drank a lot of water in our attempts to cool down. 

The first dish that we ordered was the Jap Chae ($20). This dish is made with sweet potato noodles (the clear noodles) stir fried with beef, carrots, onion, peppers, cabbage and flavoured with soy sauce and sweetened with a bit of sugar. There is also a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some slivers of chili. This dish can be served hot or cold. At Rae Mi Hyang it came as a hot dish and has a slight kick of spice.

Fried rice with crab meat in an XO sauce was next ($15). There was real crab meat stir fried into the dish but it was hard to tell if the XO sauce had been mixed into the dish. I also found the portion size for this dish a bit small considering that it was $15.

The Kan Fung Gi ($23) seemed to be the dish that everyone enjoyed the most. This dish was comprised of boneless chicken strips deep fried and coated in a sweet and spicy sauce. Plus, what is there not to like about Korean Fried Chicken? The only difference about Rae Mi Hyang's fried chicken is that it is more on the sweet and gingery with a hit of heat compared to the fried chickens at other Korean restaurants. This dish was a bit disappointing for some of us as we had envisioned a Gochujang (spicy sweet chili) sauce given the menu description. 

Another popular noodle dish that we ordered was the Jajian Myun ($18 family size). This noodle dish is comprised of wheat noodles covered with a thick salty black bean sauce along with onions, cucumbers and radish. You often need to give the noodles a good mix in order to ensure that the sauce covers all portions of the noodles.

The last dish that was ordered was a spicy Jiam bong ($14). Whew was this noodle bowl spicy! Seems like there was a great seafood component in the bowl with mussels, shrimp, squid and even some crab legs. I managed to try some of the noodles, but the spicy seafood noodle soup was a little too spicy for my liking.

Overall we all had an enjoyable meal at Rae Mi Hyang. Service was friendly and attentive. However, I did find that most of the dishes were more Chinese cooking versus Korean dishes. So, if you want more traditional Korean food than Lee House or Wong Jung Gak may be what you are looking for. The hot weather with the lack of air conditioning in the restaurant did make it a bit uncomfortable but I am sure once the weather cools down this will be a great restaurant for a hot bowl of noodle soup. I do hope to try their cold noodle dishes on my next visit to the restaurant!

Check out Little Miss Andrea's review here as well!

Rae Mi Hyang

10625 51 Ave. 

Edmonton, AB