Showing posts with label alberta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alberta. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

A Calgary Food and Art Tour (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

I visited Calgary for the first time (OK, second time, but the first time was only for 2 hours so that doesn't count) earlier this summer. A great way to explore the city and especially its dining scene is to join Calgary Food Tours. I got a blogger discount through the Calgary Tourism Board so I took my cousins along! There are a few different tours you can choose from and in different areas of Calgary - I chose the Palette to Palate tour since it combined both food and viewing art in the surrounding area.
The meeting point was Hotel Arts in the downtown area, an appropriate place for an art tour.

Calgary Food Tour
Calgarians love their horses

Hotel Arts displays quite a few interesting modern art throughout the first floor - many of them are local artists from the Alberta area. Our guide (a lovely former Texan called Regan) took us through some of them, discussing the background and meaning of each.
Calgary Food Tour

For our first food stop, we stopped at Yellow Door Bistro, which was inside the Hotel Arts. Chef Duncan Ly from Yellow Door prepared some of the best carbonara pasta our group has ever had, topped with crispy pancetta and crisped basil leaves. The sweet, local tomatoes cut the richness of the dish.
Calgary Food Tour
They paired this with an Australian Sauvignon Blanc, which was quite nice.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Taste of Canada. Eden at The Rimrock Resort (Banff, Canada)

I really wanted to get some foie gras while I was in Canada, and a quick search landed me at Eden Restaurant at The Rimrock Resort in Banff. This is white tablecloth service rarely seen in Los Angeles. We got a table by the window with a view of the mountains. Dinner starts with the server bringing the champagne cart.

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IMG_5804I wanted to indulge but didn't want to spend too much so I opted for the cheapest one, a Chandon Rose. I don't know if they normally refill your champagne, but they refilled mine all night long. Apparently since we were the last table on a Sunday night, they figured they might as well finish off the bottle they opened for my order! Lucky!

Our first amuse bouche was a fried duck confit served on a pine log.
Fried Duck Confit
The bread basket was served with Hay smoked butter, whipped olive oil w aged balsamic, goat's milk butter. The most interesting of the bread was the Flax seed bread.
Bread
More amuse bouche: Alaskan king crab and confit beef tongue. I loved the confit beef tongue.
Amuse
First course: Juniper smoked sturgeon on top of rock coho white salmon, Bloody Caesar sorbet
Smoked Sturgeon

Canada Restaurants

==ALBERTA==
Calgary
Calgary Food Tours (with Yellow Door Bistro)

Lake Louise
Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Walliser Stube

Banff
Eden Restaurant at Rimrock Resort

==QUEBEC==
Montreal
Au Pied de Cochon

Quebec City
La Traite at Wendake

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Bison Fondue at Walliser Stube, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (Alberta, Canada)

Walliser Stube at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise serves fondues and Swiss-German dishes. What does Lake Louise have to do with Switzerland and why does Chateau Lake Louise have a Swiss restaurant inside the restaurant? So Lake Louise is where Canadians first delve into mountaineering and after one fell to his death while climbing, Canadian Pacific hired professional mountain guides from Switzerland to lead guests.

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The restaurant is divided into a few dining rooms. The one we were in is pretty casual. You can get a set menu with appetizers and fondue or you can order a la carte.
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Bread service

The non-fondue menu changes seasonally and appetizers may include things like Rabbit and Cornish hen pave wrapped in leek, with sweetbreads
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Some are pretty much mainstays, though, like the "Jager" Forest Mushroom Spatzle Skillet (housemade spatzle/dumplings, sauteed wild mushrooms, arugula, onion, gruyere cream sauce, emmental gratin
Spaetzle
The dish is quite rich and satisfying.
sauces
Main entrees include dishes with local trout, local Alberta beef rib tenderloin and bison rib eye, and Wiener Schnitzel. But, I had to try the fondue. I'm sure most of you have had fondue before at The Melting Pot or some other place. There's the well-known cheese fondue, and there's also the meat fondue cooked in beef bouillon, served with a variety of sauces as shown on the left. My favorite is the herb and garlic sauce.

The cheese fondue is made of Gruyere, Emmental, Appenzeller cheese, and white wine. The finishing touch is of your choice, with the traditional choice being Kirsch, a type of cherry brandy. I, of course, chose black truffle! Black truffle shavings in my cheese fondue, yum.
Truffle Fondue

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