Taste Restaurant Freebie

Taste Restaurant
http://taste-restaurant.com/
403.233.7730 (no reservations)
1210 1st Street SW


Today (6 days later): After a week of thinking about them I couldn't stand it any more. I trudged down to Taste Restaurant around the corner from my apartment in the beltline craving those delicious tuna tartare morcels sitting on their adorable little sweet tuile cookie strips. Sadly it was Sunday. Taste was closed.

Rewind to last Monday: I and a bunch of other food writer/blogger types were invited to sample some dishes and wine at Taste Restaurant in the beltline. Free food you say? Naturally I was there! Days later thoughts and images continued to swirl around in my head. I can't imagine any better compliment for a restaurant than that.

We were offered a very nice variety of small dishes accompanied by a couple of bright and cheerful white and red wines. They were refreshing and fairly dry, and went with the meal; I have to admit I am not much of a wine snob, so I can't say anything more useful than that. When it comes to wine, I am a quantity over quality kind of guy. The wine director, Brad, did go on about them, so I assume they were the right wines for the job! :) Here's a quick run-down of the meal:

The Organic Heirloom Tomato salad was colorful, with an unexpected but tasty dollop of mascarpone cream cheese. It was good, but here I have to admit I'm not sure I'd order it for $9.

Next was a tiny skillet with 4 scallops topped with a strip of crisp bacon - quite yummy but also a bit on the expensive side for $15.

The 6 perfectly cooked pistachio-crusted lamb chops were mouthwatering and not a bad deal for $15.

The baked mac-n-cheese with aged cheddar and parmesan was simple but tasty at $10-12.

My favourite dish by far was the aforementioned Tuna Tartare, spicy and tangy, and sitting atop these perfect little soft, sweet cookies of tuile batter. Terrific for $15!

Then there were the crispy Beef  Tataki Tacos. Very delicate rare beef cradled in fried wonton wrappers. A wonderful marriage of delicate and crisp. Also $15.

The meal ended with exquisite tiny espresso cupcakes - which are apparently offered free at the end of every meal. I heartily recommend ordering an espresso or latte to go with these heavenly, light, little confections.

Oddly enough, I hadn't ever tried Taste in the two and a half or so years that I'd lived in the neighborhood. With its glossy facade, Taste does give off that corporate-bistro vibe. That's not really my type of place. I'm much more comfortable in a modest hole-in-the-wall. I do have some mixed feelings about a restaurant like Taste, so sleek and elitist-looking, and with this whole tapas concept, promoting tiny appetizers to full entree prices. As far as this sort of thing goes, I have to admit Taste does it well.  I suppose it's true that Taste isn't going to show up on a list of cheap eats. At something in the neighborhood of $30 per person (not including drinks) it's neither cheap nor is it quite over the top either. The take home message is that the dishes are special enough, the service friendly enough (Quintina and the chefs were warm and nice), and there is an integrity that comes through in the food that it's definitely worth saving up for the occasional lunch or after work outing even for someone like me who isn't necessarily the target clientele: I'm picturing people in suits here, or at the very least hipsters waving around their brand new iPads. :) The Taste Tuesdays advertised on their site with 3 dishes for $30 seems like a great opportunity for anyone, even the riff-raff like me, to give it a try!

For more details and mouth-watering photos, see Vincci's review!

Chris Mills James Beard Experience

I was lucky enough to get an invitation to experience an amazing 5 course dinner (plus appetizers!), complete with wine pairings for each course, at the Salt Lik on Stephen Avenue last week. It was put together by Joey restaurants and their celebrity super-chef Chris Mills, as a kind of trial run for the dinner he and his team will be presenting at the prestigious James Beard House in NYC. Joey used to be Joey Tomato's, but with Chris' help, they are shedding their pasta and Chianti roots and going a bit more upscale.

The evening was amazing, with great food partaken and much wine I probably can't normally afford quaffed. Most of the ingredients were locally sourced in BC and quite a few  were harvested by Chris himself. He picked the masutake mushrooms from his own secret mountain patch; he caught three 20 pound Haida Gwaii salmon for the citrus-cured salmon dishes; he canned the Lapin cherries from Kelowna; and personally wrestled a steer to the ground with a 14 inch carving knife between his teeth for the 45 Day-aged Beef Ribeye. I made up that last one, but you get the idea. What's entirely true is that it really was a rather sublime dinner experience with beautiful quality ingredients and imaginative execution. The menu as a whole was an exuberant medley of pacific rim flavours. Voici a link to the full menu. Here I'll simply highlight the dishes that I felt were particularly inspired, though every single one was rather special:

• Among the 4 appetizer treats, the chicken tacos  struck me as transcendent. They were tiny little finger foods bursting with flavour, delicately wrapped in a miniscule soft shell. I loved them so.
• The bread basket contained amazing little cornbread balls, soft and addictive, each individually stuffed with a slightly sweet, spritely jalapeno. I asked for more.
  
• My favourite of the four entrees was the Licorice Lacquered Duck Breast, Summer Cherry Conserve, with Hazelnut-Crusted Korean Duck Roll. The steamed bun wrap, somewhat thick on the tongue, really did a remarkable job of complementing the duck. 
• Of the wines, the La Crema "Sonoma" Pinot Noir from California was amazingly delicate and indeed, almost creamy. It retails for over $40 a bottle here in Calgary, damnit.

It's always a bit tough to highlight one's  favourite dishes because it does a bit of a disservice to the others. This was definitely a situation where the dinner was more than the sum of its parts. For example, the subtle Vietnamese Banana Cake for dessert didn't inspire me to any superlatives, but it was a very nice, slightly subdued, way of ending the meal. The overall texture of the meal, with transitions from one flavour to another, kept surprising and delighting. It's wonderful when a meal that's as fancy as this one genuinely pleases. A lot of restaurants these days seem to spend more time coming up with overblown names for their dishes rather than concentrating on the quality of the dishes themselves. That was certainly not the case here.

Despite the name change and the more upscale image, as far as I can tell only one of the dishes we had will be available at Joey restaurants: the Vietnamese Banana Cake dessert. That's somewhat understandable I suppose given that Joey isn't quite aiming for top of the line haute cuisine and $200 a plate dinners (not to mention the wine!).While I realize not everything can be included, I do think that the effervescent taco appetizers and the wee cornbread balls would be a terrific, and inexpensive, addition to the Joey menu.As for everything else, well, what can I say? I felt incredibly lucky to get such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All in all I think it's pretty cool for Joey to have the services of a talented chef like Chris to inject some unique imagination into their dishes. So... What's on for next week? :)

Yetenbi Kitfo (Calgary): 4 Stars

1010 1 St SW, Calgary, AB T2R 0V1

I saw this little hole-in-the-wall place on 1st Street a few blocks from where I live and I couldn't resist checking it out with a friend. It turns out it's an Ethiopian restaurant. It seems to be a really authentic place frequented mostly by black guys who seem to know the owner. The owner seemed rather surprised to see me, a white fellow, and my Asian buddy. With any kind of foreign food, it's always nice to find a place with a lot of people from wherever the food happens to be from. You figure it's the real deal, and indeed the food we tried was tasty. We shared a dish called Tibis, consisting of small squares of a beef in a sort of ragu served over Ethiopian bread (injera). It was $15 and there was enough for both of us to have a nice lunch and feel reasonably full. My buddy had some black coffee, and was impressed by what appeared to be a very nice espresso. I am trying to wean myself away from drinking coffee so I stayed away; therefore I'll have to take his word for it! There are also a number of other dishes with lamb, chicken, raw beef, and others. If you seek something a bit different, definitely give Yetenbi a try!

Red's Diner (Calgary): 3 Stars

Red's Diner 
403-266-3448
1415 4 St SW, Calgary AB

I went out with a friend for "breakfast" on a sunny Friday afternoon. We had the Prairie Breakfast Plate (2 eggs, potato cheddar perogies, kielbasa suasage, sour cream on the side), the Waffle Wedges with a nice berry compote, and a pancake, all shared between the two of us. The diner itself looks really cute and friendly with bright colors inside. The food also tasted and looked good, and the service was also very good.I can't say there was any "wow" factor to any of this food though. I had heard good things about the pancakes, and while they weren't bad,  I didn't think they had anything special either. The total price of this meal was just about $30, and since I shared it with my friend, that works out to about $15 each. We both felt comfortably full, so it's not a bad deal for a home-made breakfast in a nice environment. I suppose all in all I would recommend Red's, but don't expect fireworks - and I certainly can't fathom anyone waiting in line on a weekend! :)

Free Booze and Appetizers at Baton Rouge

163 Quarry Park Blvd. SE
Calgary, AB, T2C 5E1
403-984-4044

I was invited to a free event to check out the new restaurant Baton Rouge in the almost equally new community of Quarry Park in SE Calgary, just off 18th Street SE. This latest scion from a chain started in Laval, Quebec sits in an attractive, brand new strip mall. My friend and I arrived a bit late, but we still got to have a few tasty treats, namely: A Molson microbrew clone called Creemore (it's a dark lager); a spicy Caesar; a skewer of Santa Fe chicken breast; a few servings of their delicious ribs; and for dessert a small sample of their apple cobbler a la mode as well as a soft and sweet chocolate walnut brownie.

The place looks very nice, with a fairly upscale dining lounge decor. The service was really excellent - some of the best service I'd experienced in a while - surprisingly so considering the place is just about to open. The ribs were very tasty indeed, succulent and fall-off-the-bone soft. The desserts were satisfactory, but I must admit, not quite extraordinary - about what you'd expect at Earls or Moxies. The Caesar was very good, but as spicy as it gets, so if you don't want the extra spice, you may want to ask for them to tone it down! All their beers are from the Molson family, which I am not sure I love - some more variety and some local brews would be welcomed. Baton Rouge takes pride in preparing everything fresh, including the soups and salad dressings, but sadly, none of these was available for us to sample. Ah well!

I do think this chain originating from Laval Quebec ought to find itself comfortably a notch above in quality with respect to the Earls and Tony Romas in this town. I briefly checked out the menu, and it is somewhat pricey, but probably about right for its category. Most of the entrees were close to $20, but that did include a couple of side dishes.As an overall experience, I was impressed with Baton Rouge and felt I'd go there again, though it is out of the way for those not actually living in this deep South East community.

For more detail and some pictures (I predictably forgot my camera!), check out Jen's review at the Chocolate And Ginger blog. It was fun accidentally running into her and her "boy" at the event!

Spoon Me (Calgary): 4 Stars

Spoon Me
1510 6 Street Southwest, Calgary, AB
(403) 452-6760
http://spoonme.com/


Spoon me is a funky little frozen yogurt shop on 6th street just off 17th ave SW (across the street and down a bit from the Blockbuster Video). It's got a kind of 60s mod look - bright white with colorful designs and furniture, including one of those spherical pod chairs! There are lots of sassy and suggestive eco slogans printed about the shop and they also sell t-shirts (for e.g. "use me, re-use me!" worn by the server behind the counter). Indeed there is a bit of a green, hippy vibe here. The spoons and cups are biodegradable and the tips go to charity. The service is friendly and the yogurt is very nice and smooth, noticeably above average. You can also get 4 toppings to go with your yogurt and there is a selection of fresh fruit, nuts, as well as various crushed cookies. The quality is good, but the prices are high, as one would expect in this trendy part of town. My medium-size yogurt was an even $6 after gst. It's a decent, satisfying size, but of course one can certainly make a whole batch of frozen yogurt at home at such prices! My main complaint is that they always seem to be out of certain flavours. Today they were even out of chocolate! It remains a myster for me to understand how such shops can survive in Calgary outside of shopping malls. Sure, in the dog days of summer, it's wonderfully refreshing to stop in for a frozen treat, then take a nice walk about in this area of town full of gardens and green spaces (walk a few blocks south and you'll find the Lougheed House  on 13th ave - see image below!). But during our long, dark, cold and bitter winters, I just can't see myself wanting to step out of the cold for a frozen dessert! Well, time will tell if this little shop will last. In the meantime, if you're walking about in the neighbourhood and are in the mood, I do recommend you stop in at Spoon Me!

Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale (Update)

Saturday the 19th was the first day of the food blogger bake sale that Vincci from Not A Food Blog set up. She did an amazing job and there were so many bloggers who came out of the woodwork and cooked up all kinds of tantalizing sugary temptations. It was incredible! Many of the offerings were professionally packaged and prepared. Below is my haul - and that's less than half of the different goodies there were in total (some of the things were not from our booth, like the Jenn Chic Cooks L'il Chocolate Chippers and the Verde Teas (organic and fair trade)! I took the picture below when I got home. It's too bad I didn't bring my camera to the sale itself! 

All in all everything I tried was lovely! I award my gold medal from the bake sale (admitting I didn't try everything!) to Chocolate And Ginger and her amazing Applewood Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies! I was astounded by the professional packaging and was sure this must be some kind of business - but no, she did it all for love (and charity)! The applewood bacon is one of the ingredients in the $10 Vosges Bacon Bars she used for the chocolate chunks (available at Savour Fine Foods in Inglewood, and sometimes at CookBook Cooks in the Beltline). The result was both beautiful and tasty. Notably I couldn't really taste the bacon but I did enjoy the hard-to-pin-down subtle salty aftertaste of the Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt (this is already in the Vosges bar but a bit more was sprinkled on top of each cookie mound too - you can get the salt at Co-op).

PS: I apologize to the other bloggers who's delicious treats I picked up. I went through a careful run-through of everything I purchased at the bake sale - it was a ll wonderful! Somehow that draft got replaced by an earlier draft! I just wasn't prepared to do it all again! :(