Dining out in Calgary - Black Pig Bistro

Last week, Dan and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary. Unfortunately, on the actual day of the anniversary, I ended up being super sick. So in an effort to recover the anniversary we ended up making plans to celebrate in Calgary and have a mini-vacation. One restaurant in particular caught our attention - Black Pig Bistro especially after our friend Carmen talked about about each of the great dishes and having recently met Chef John Michael MacNeil in June. 

Upon entering their restaurant you are greeted by the friendly front of house and given a moment to enjoy the beautiful open space. Of course, one of their key features the Iberico leg is on display for your viewing pleasure.

Shortly after we ordered, we were treated to some molecular gastronomy of encapsulated (or spherified) olives! According to chef John this was heavily inspired by the tapas Barcelona restaurant, Tickets. When you pop these into your mouth, the jelly casing gives away to a burst of olives! Granted, you must love olives to enjoy this particular presentation, but I think olives are starting to grow on me (more about olives in the next post).

For our salad, we ordered the special salad of the night which was comprised of slices of their namesake Iberico ham, B.C peaches, fior de latte, topped with a handful of arugala and a light fig spread. This dish was the perfect start to our meal as it was light and refreshing. The Iberico ham was true to its description of being creamy, rich and almost melted in our mouths.

The next dish that we shared was the Salted Cod Tortellini resting on a piquillo pepper puree and topped with crispy kale chips. The saltiness of the cod balanced well with the piquillo pepper puree and the added crunch from the kale was perfect.

As a side note, this dish is also one of the most photographed dishes at the Black Pig Bistro!

The third plate that we shared was a different sort of plate. When C & D as well as others recommended that we had to get the Pork Dogs we were intrigued since that is not a usual dish to have. These Pork Dogs were delicious and I am so glad we ordered them as they are made from house made pork sausages and nestled in their own housemade bun! The roasted garlic aioli and salsa verde added some bright flavours and the shaving of manchego (which looked sort of like sauerkraut at first glance) on top made for a perfect third course.

By the time we finished the pork dogs, we wondered if we needed to order more food. However, once this beautiful beef cheek risotto made it to our table we knew dessert would have to be up next. This risotto was amazing! Rich, but not in that heavy way. If you are wondering about the beef cheeks, there are some good size portions nestled inside the risotto. Topped with saffron, grape tomatoes and mixed with mascarpone, this risotto was the perfect main course.

To end the night we ordered the passion fruit panna cotta topped with pistachio crumb, toasted coconut, coconut brioche and some little bits of candied fennel. I couldn't get a nice photo for this dish as the sun had gone done by that time and we didn't want to use the camera's flash. So, just trust me when I say that it was a great light ending to a meal such as the one we had! Imagine pops of passion fruit between creamy panna cotta, nutty pistachios and a nice crunch from the candied fennel on each bite.

All in all, we loved every minute of our anniversary dinner. All the dishes were well prepared, balanced well and looked absolutely amazing. If you have a chance to visit Black Pig Bistro in Calgary you should definitely do it! Chef Alison Bieber and Chef John Michael MacNeil were fantastic and they certainly have a good thing going at Black Pig Bistro. They also mentioned that their menu will be changing in September, so it will be exciting to see what else they have in mind.

Black Pig Bistro
825-1st Ave NE
Calgary, AB
www.blackpigbistro.com
Twitter: @blackpigbistro
Instagram: @blackpigbistro 
Wednesday-Sunday 11am-Close

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

Crispy Skin Chicken in 30 minutes!

As promised in one of my previous posts, on instagram and also on Facebook, I'm finally getting to blogging our crispy skin chicken dish (not deep fried).  First off, you must used chicken with the skin on (I'll post an easy to print recipe at the bottom of this post as well). You can choose chicken leg, chicken thigh, drumsticks, wings etc.. but whatever you buy must have the skin in order to achieve the crispy chicken skin. The next item you will need is a large ovenproof pot that can be used on the stove top as well as the oven. A le creuset or a dutch oven will do the trick nicely.

First, take the chicken thighs, chicken legs, or chicken wings and pat them dry with paper towels. If you want more meat, then chicken thighs or quarter chickens (i.e. drum stick and the thigh) would be best. Add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and olive oil to the meat. You can also add more seasoning if you wish such as basil, oregano, or thyme. In this recipe, we kept it simple with just salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to bake at 475F.

Next, place the dutch oven (the one that I have is a 5.3L le creuset) onto the stove top. Add a little cooking oil to the bottom the pot. Do not turn on the burner yet.

Arrange the chicken with the skin side down into the cold dutch oven. There can only be one layer of chicken otherwise you will risk having non-crispy and/or undercooked chicken.

Turn the stove burner to medium -low (halfway between med and low). Allow the chicken to cook uncovered for 15 minutes (skin side down). You will hear sizzling and popping and that is okay! This occurs because the fat in the chicken is rendering and will result in a nice crispy skin.

After 15 minutes, flip the chicken pieces so that the skin side is up. Feel free to place some sliced lemons underneath the chicken (the non crispy side) for a lemon flavoured chicken. Then place the entire dutch oven into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. At this point, turn the oven temperature down to 375F.

After baking for 15 minutes at 375F serve immediately. This chicken should be juicy on the inside and have a crispy skin.

Quick Crispy Skin Chicken

Ingredients & Materials

• chicken thigh, chicken leg or chicken wings with the skin on
• 1tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• optional: lemon slices or lemon zest
• large dutch oven

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475F.
2. Pat dry chicken.
3. Lightly coat chicken with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top of chicken.
5. In a cold Dutch Oven (or oven safe stovetop pot) add some cooking oil.
6. Arrange chicken pieces in a single layer with skin side down.
7. Place the Dutch Oven on the stovetop burner set at medium-low and cook for 15 minutes (do not touch chicken during this time).
8. Flip individual chicken pieces so that the cooked skin side is now facing up.
9. Place the entire Dutch Oven into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 375F.
10. Bake for another 15 minutes.
11. Serve immediately from oven.

Amazing Dessert at Teatro Ristorante in Calgary

I had the most amazing ice cream this past Friday night in Calgary at Teatro Ristorante while Dan and I were with some of our friends C & D. John Michael MacNeil, executive chef at Teatro, was incredibly nice to accommodate us with making some liquid nitrogen ice cream for dessert.

Gorgeous interior! Look at the height! 

One of the exciting parts of the night was watching the creation of the liquid nitrogen ice cream. The caramel is made exactly at 60C. Any little degree over will result in a bitter and tart caramel ice cream and will have to be thrown out. So precision is important! Liquid nitrogen is at a temperature of -190C, so as it is poured into the custard it will rapidly chill and freeze the custard without adding any extra ice crystals! According to Dan (the engineer) the smoothness of the liquid nitrogen ice cream is due to the fat molecules being frozen precisely and resulting in no additional ice crystals. 


The liquid nitrogen is also used to keep the plates cold, otherwise once the caramel ice cream is scooped it will melt immediately. Another interesting fact is that the liquid nitrogen containers are very difficult to fill. Since the temperature of the room is about 26C trying to fill the containers are super tricky as the liquid nitrogen evaporates almost immediately.

This liquid nitrogen salted caramel ice cream was the most velvet and creamy ice cream you will ever experience. The volcano rock salt that is lightly sprinkled on top helps to cut the sweetness a bit and adds to the lovely flavour of the ice cream.

We were also intrigued by a dessert titled "cinnamon aubergine pie" at Teatro. The word (and color) aubergine is not something you typically see on a dessert menu. This pie did not disappoint! We did not know what to expect but upon the first taste the consistency of the pie filling felt like soft chunks of apple; when really it's eggplant! Having a spoonful of the aubergine pie with the liquid nitrogen ice cream was incredibly mind blowing for all of us.  It's definitely worth trying out when you visit Teatro!

Nearing the end of the night Chef John gave us a tour of the kitchens. Look at the beautiful cured meats, micro herbs and the amazing wine cellar converted from the bank vaults! 

Cured Meats at Teatro Calgary

Micro herbs from Teatro Calgary's kitchen

Wine cellar in a bank vault! One of these huge bottles of wine equates to 5 bottles of wine!
Crunchy bread at Teatro Calgary.

One part of the huge wine cellar down in Teatro Calgary

All in all a great night with friends enjoying deliciously smooth ice cream, having our mind blown by the aubergine pie and getting a tour of Teatro's kitchen. Thanks again to Chef John for everything! With dessert being spectacular I can only imagine what lunch or dinner will be like! Dan and I certainly look forward to having dinner or trying out a tasting menu at Teatro in the near future! 

Teatro Ristorante

200-8th Ave SE

Calgary, AB

(403) 290-1012

http://www.teatro.ca

Comparing Two types of Matcha (Green Tea)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by KissMe Organics to try out their Organic Matcha. I agreed and decided to make a batch of Matcha Macarons for comparison. Up to this point in time, I have been using a Matcha (green tea) powder sourced from Japan. I was interested to see if there would be any difference in terms of the texture of the resulting buttercream, look and taste of each macaron.

Closer look of the two matchas

Looking closely at both matchas, the one sourced in Japan has a slightly darker colour in comparison to the one from KissMe Organics. Texture and fineness of the both matcha powders seemed fairly similar. 

Matcha Buttercream made from KissMe Organics Matcha

Once I finish making buttercreams for macarons, I fill the macaron shells right away. For the buttercream made with matcha sourced from Japan, there is slightly darker colour to the buttercream. On the other hand, the buttercream made from KissMe Organics took on a slightly brighter green colour.

Left: Matcha sourced from Japan. Right: KissMe Organics Matcha sourced from China

Visually, both macarons are very similar if we look only at the buttercreams. I must also note that for the matcha buttercream sourced from Japan macaron (on Right), had been previously frozen (then brought back to room temperature) so the buttercream may look slightly more stiff in comparison to the other one.

In terms of taste, there was just subtle differences in taste. In fact both taste very similar. As you bite into the macaron, you get a gentle mouthfeel of green tea (matcha) flavour along with the characteristic known to a macaron. However, the buttercream made from KissMe Organic's matcha had a hint more of a chalky taste especially when comparing both macarons at the same time. 

I also brought a tray of the macarons made from the KissMe Organic matcha to a foodie function, and shared them with friends and family.  No one seemed to notice anything significant about the taste and texture of the macarons; in fact, they loved the intense green tea flavour that you got with each bite.  

May News & Ongoings!

Wow! Who would have thought that April would fly by so quickly? Before I talk about what I was up to in April, the above photo depicts the beauty challenge that I am participating in this May! We all know we should drink more water, but do we? Together with a few others through Blossom Lounge, I will try my very best to drink 2.5L (or more!) each and every day for the entire month of May! The rubber bands on my BKR bottle will help me keep track. Follow along with me on instagram or on this blog! The hashtags that we are using are #blossomxbkr #bkrlovesyou #blossomlounge. 

April was a busy one with me teaching friends to bake macarons, doing a comparison of matcha powders, dinners at home (we've been trying to cook more at home), and Eat Alberta 2014! 

So, in the next few weeks, check back for my post comparing two different types of matcha powders for making Matcha green tea macarons.






I had the opportunity to be a volunteer this year at Eat Alberta 2014: Seedy Business and the whole experience was excellent! I will blog more in my post on Eat Alberta. Meanwhile, I will leave you with one of the many things I learned that day - How to take apart a whole chicken! (From Nevin of Drift Food Truck).

Here's the link if the above doesn't work

Lastly, Dan & I have been trying to cook more food at home. For example, crispy skinned chicken in a cast iron pan or fish cooked in the dutch oven. I will blog those too in the next few weeks! If there is any food on my instagram feed that you want to know how to make, drop a comment below!