Lately

This is what I have been munching on;

An impulse purchase from Costco.

Crusty Bun sandwiches with cucumbers, dijon, 'turkey' and gouda cheese.

Pizza topped with 'bacun' made with tofu.

Once the pizza is cooked. The smoky tofu aka 'bacun' really elevated the flavours of the pizza.

Fried rice with quinoa, green peas, butternut squash and red pepper. You can find the recipe here.

An amazing dinner my friend A. made. It was baked pasta with lentil salad. A post will follow up soon with recipes!

Finally, lemon shortbread cookies! 

Who else is starting to salivate?  

Time for Some Thai

This is the third segment of the recent eateries I have been enjoying.

In the last few weeks, M. and I have tried out a couple Thai restaurants near our neighbourhood. Unfortunately, I will only be able to share with you through pictures one of the two restaurants. Someone may have deleted the other pictures in error (so the person says).

The first restaurant we went to was Siam Thai located on St. Annes. I have heard from various friends that this restaurant was worth checking out. So much so that a couple I know from Elmwood purposely travel to St. Vital whenever they have a Thai food craving. Now that's commitment!

M. and I ordered their veggie spring rolls, pad thai, sweet and sour tofu, rice and massaman curry. The spring roles, tofu and pad thai were delicious but the curry felt more like we were eating peanut soup with bits of vegetables in it. It was still very good and flavourful but not what I was expecting when I order that same dish from other Thai restaurants such as Sabai Thai. They serve it with big chunks of potato and vegetables coated with a peanut sauce.

Either way, I felt that the prices of all the dishes were completely reasonable for the amount of food we had received. We even managed to have enough left over the next night.

This vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurant does have a take out option and I was amazed that for a Sunday night how many people were dining in and how many were picking up. Business was booming.

After our first dining experience there, now I completely understand why that couple from Elmwood make that special trip. Click here for more information on this new favourite restaurant.

Now on to Thai restaurant # สอง (2)

Friends of ours were coming over for dinner and we suggested ordering out from this new amazing Thai restaurant we tried out recently (please see above). They were all for it but since they were heading South downtown they suggested that we try a different Thai restaurant that was enroute to us. Sure, why not!

We ordered take out from Vanxai's Restaurant. M. and I ordered the Massaman curry (his favourite), veggie spring roles, Mee Krop (crispy chow mein) and Pad Priew Won with tofu which had a sweet and sour sauce. The Massaman curry was delicious. I preferred it more than the one at Siam's but the chow mein and tofu dish were just 'okay'. As you can see from the picture below, there wasn't much of a sauce. But, all dishes had a generous portion of tofu which is an A+ in my books. The food was good, definitely good to have an alternate Thai restaurant option but I prefer Siam.  Either way you can click here for more information on Vanxai's restaurant.

Pad Priew Won

Massaman Curry

Green Curry that was ordered by friends. They mentioned that it was very good. 

Spring rolls

My over filled plate :)

To see the posts on the two previous featured restaurants I have tried out recently please click here and here.

Happy First Day of Spring!

It kinda, sorta, maybe looks like spring outside! I have been wearing a lighter coat and my rubber boots all week now that I think about it. Just don't check tomorrow's forecast.

What do you get excited about when spring is starting to show its colours? When I lived in my apartment, I would be counting down the days that I could go to Sage Garden on St. Mary's to pick out the herbs that I would grow on my window sill. This year, I will (hopefully) grow a garden in my backyard! I am still overwhelmed by all the new outdoor space that I have. What will I plant this year? I was thinking of a variety of herbs and maybe a few vegetables. Or perhaps some edible flowers to enjoy on our pizza nights... oh the possibilities.

Either way, here are a couple must haves for me:

A hammock.

I think I will try out a garden bed.

Of course, the BBQ,

Who else is dreaming of BBQ'd vegetable skewers and canning tomatoes? 

Crusty Bun for Lunch?

This is the second post of three of my "new eats" series...

What can be better than soft, warm bread straight out of the oven? Nothing... as we soon learned.

M. and I were running errands on a busy Saturday and when our stomachs started to grumble we decided to go out to lunch but we couldn't decide where. We were in the Polo Park area so our first thought was try Qdoba (Mexican fast food chain from the States) but it wasn't open yet. We then thought about Stella's or The Oakwood Cafe on Osborne but we weren't in the mood to wait 20-30 minutes for our food. So we decided to hit A & W's for a veggie burger (at this point we were desperate). 

Then...

M. remembered how his sister mentioned a cafe/ bakery/sandwich type place in St. Vital (since we were in the area) that she went to called The Crusty Bun. His sister had nothing but positive things to say. That Saturday was the perfect day to check it out. 

There are pre-made sandwiches and soups that are veggie friendly but we opted to order a made-to-order veggie sandwich. The pre made option that day was egg salad in a pita and I wanted something different. There wasn't a variety of 'veggies' for the made-to-order veggie sandwich. My sandwich had a tomato, pickles, lettuce and swiss cheese. You have a choice of ordering it on a variety of buns and I chose the Crust Bun. Obviously. 

The Crusty Bun was fantastic. It was fresh, soft with a nice crunchy exterior. It was really excellent. It made up for the lack of veggies in my veggie sandwich. I also ordered a black and white cookie which was also very good. Not too sweet.

M. and I couldn't resist trying their soft pretzels. Look at those chunks of salt! It was also very good and I could have definitely eaten another one of those. 

Despite it being a heavy carb lunch, we had a wonderful experience. The prices were reasonable and while the vegetarian options were limited, they were pretty fantastic, so I would happily return. They also have specialty coffee options such as lattes, americanos and cappucinos which would go well with the other types of desserts that I would like to try next time I visit.

I also appreciated their system on serving customers. You grabbed a number as soon as you walked in and despite the bakery being quite busy (lunch time on a Saturday) we were served within minutes. There was also plenty of open spots in the seated area since people were mostly taking their food to go. 

To find out more about this cafe in St. Vital, click here.

Starting with some Tapas..

In the last month, I have tried a few new eateries that are definitely worth mentioning. This is part one of a three part series.

(Note: Please forgive the pictures but it was quite difficult to take any decent ones because of the low lighting.)

Anyway...I went to Deer + Almond found on Princess Street for my aunts 60th birthday. Her daughters did an excellent job of where we should celebrate such a momentous birthday. This restaurant occupies the previous breakfast nook - Princess cafe. When did that close? I remember going a couple times during my university days. Well, the new owners sure knew how to spruce the place up! It has a very laid back vibe with funky art on the walls, low lighting, and Iron and Wine type of music in the background. It gives off an ambiance that would make a very romantic date.

 

Deer + Almond have an appetizing menu and it's all tapas style. They change the menu regularly and the menu that we were lucky to dine off of that night was crispy, hearty, fresh and overall delicious. If you are a big group ( we were 11!) you can choose "The Chef's Choice" where the chef chooses our meal experience for the evening. But before we dive into that let's talk about the cocktails!

I started off with a basil smash. It was delicious and strong! A tad small though for a $10 drink.

My cousin ordered a play on an orange creamsicle which was also delicious. 

First course was vodka tempura crudites. I really enjoyed the variety of vegetables and the tangy sauce that went along with it.

The second course was mushroom toast. I am not a fan of mushrooms but everyone agreed that it was hearty and 'meaty'.

The third course was the house greens. From turning what looks like an ordinary mix of greens was not the pickled radishes or the house dressing but the cheese. It was creamy feta which is a texture I have not yet experienced with feta. I couldn't get enough of it and it worked extremely well with the salad. I was convinced that I was eating goat cheese.

The fourth and final course was grilled quail which I obviously didn't eat. 

I wanted to continue my own culinary experience and so I ordered their kale and kelp beignets. They were very heavy and salty but the taste of the kale really came through which was enjoyable. At this point, I had my fair share of fried foods which is something that I am not used to and so it was not the best way to end my meal but I am happy that I was able to try it.

This is a little more pricey of a restaurant, maybe a little too pricey for their vegetarian options, but the experience and the ambiance that the restaurant provides along with the amazing food certainly make it worth it. It's always nice to treat oneself once in awhile.  I would love to go back and try the soba noodle dish, kale caesar, crispy cauliflower, and beer and cheddar soup! I hope these items are still there when I go back. Click here for the address and more information.

We didn't have dessert but my aunt sure enjoyed her 'cake'!

The Feast continues...

This is a continuation on the 'feast' post that was discussed on the previous "nuts for hazelnuts" post. My friend A. made the dessert and now it's time that I share with you the main meal!

I decided to make a chicken pot pie from my Southern Vegetarian cookbook.

M. is not a fan of onions or celery (hates both texture and taste) so we opted to replace those with green beans and red peppers. Unfortunately, this is a recipe that I can't share with you directly due to copyright rules but I highly recommend going out to pick up this book. So far there have been a few winning recipes such as the BBQ tofu, BBQ sauce and biscuits. Click here for the past posts.

Beautiful colours :)

Homemade crust

Once the milk and seitan (vegan chicken) have been added.

Voila! Not the best presentation but was this meal ever good! My only problem with it is the that it suggest to only cook it for 45 minutes and I think it should have been closer to an hour. The potatoes weren't cooked all the way through.

Who's Nuts for Hazelnuts?

I am! I am! Well, actually, my friend A. is but I love them too! 

My friend A. and I get together once every couple of months to cook a feast! How it works is we alternate who hosts and who makes what. One time A. will host and she will make a dessert and I will make the main dish for example. Next time, we alternate. What's great about these cooking days is not only do we do the ol' girl talk with some wine but it also give us the opportunity to make a dish that we find either intimidating or complicated and we have the help from the other person to tackle the challenge.

A couple weekends ago, we decided to conquer a few dishes that have been on our radar; I picked the main meal option and she picked a dessert. I wanted to make a play on a chicken pot pie from my Southern Vegetarian cookbook while she opted for hazelnut cupcakes stuffed with a hazelnut moose filling and topped with a chocolate ganache sprinkled with hazelnuts. This is probably time that I should mention that her husband (who was out of town at the time) is deathly allergic to nuts, so it's very rare that she can add nuts to recipes. Did I also mention that this entire meal was vegan? 

For this post, we will focus on dessert:

This was a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World! You can view the recipe here. 

We had fun tracking down a few obscure ingredients including hazelnut liqueur, hazelnut meal, hazelnuts, hazelnut extract and espresso powder. We didn't have any luck with the hazelnut liqueur but we found the rest of these ingredients at Scoop n' Weigh on Taylor. It is a little more expensive but the only other place that had the hazelnuts and hazelnut meal was Bulk Barn. They didn't have the extract and I couldn't think of anywhere else where they would have it. We replaced the liqueur with extract.

This was definitely a hazelnut heavy dessert but the cupcake was moist, and the moose creamy which was definitely chocolate-y and rich but also had a nice espresso kick. Finally, the chocolate ganache topping just tied everything together with the chopped hazelnuts sprinkled over it.