Hell's Kitchen

Ahh Hell's Kitchen is over.  Now what???

Out of This World

Silver Hills Sprouted Grain Products.  A little piece of heaven here on earth.  Imagine?
These are by FAR the best bagels I have ever had in my entire life.  YOU MUST TRY THEM!!!  They're lighter than regular bagels and taste amazing just lightly toasted with your favorite condiment.  So far I have only tried the Flax ones but I have tried many of the Silver Hills breads and it is my bread of choice now for the most part.  Yum.

My coffee addiction

My coffee of choice at home lately has been one of two brands.  One is relatively expensive - Kicking Horse,  while the other is relatively inexpensive - Maxwell House.

Don't let the brand name Maxwell House fool you.  They have changed things up and this is a GREAT coffee for the price.  They have many different kinds and I have tried almost all of them.  Original Roast, Rich Dark Roast, De-calf, and Half-Calf.  Two of my favorite Maxwell House blends have to be French Vanilla and Hazelnut.  I love my flavored java!  The cans come with very nice pop top lids as well.  Do yourself a favor.  Save yourself some money sometime and try it.  I doubt you'll be sorry.

 

Now for the expensive one.  The brand I'm sure some of you are familiar with.  Kicking Horse Coffee.  They also have many blends but the only one I have tried and very much like is called Kick Ass.  Yup, that's what it's called.  No typo.  It's a certified organic dark coffee with a very unique flavor of which I have come to love very much over the past few months.  This coffee comes in "bean" format so you will need a coffee grinder to enjoy a cup of this Joe. 

 Long live the bean!

The World’s Grossest Food

All I can say is YUK! I recently saw Balut at the Asian Market...or a close version of. Yikes.

http://travel.sympatico.msn.ca/RobinEsrock/Articles/worlds_grossest_food

Red Red Whine

Red food colouring. It's in a lot of things we eat right? Did you ever think about how they make things red? Bugs. Crushed bugs. The Cochineal Beetle to be exact. Rejean had to share this little tidbit with me today at work. Why? I have no idea but he does like to go for that "shock value" but it didn't phase me at all. I'm ok with eating bugs. I could do Survivor. I get more squeamish when it comes to digesting nasty chemicals myself. Check out the Snopes website for the low down and nitty gritty.

Indeed, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Characters Fine Dining

Today my team at work was taken out for lunch by the head of another department. Characters was the restaurant and the meal was exceptional. I thoroughly enjoyed the two and a half hour lunch with my co-workers. The food presentation was top notch. Truly art on a plate! We had a table right in front of the galley. Kind of a neat spot. *s* Not only working downtown but living here gives me the opportunity to experience alot of great restaurants. This was my first visit to Characters but I think I may have to try it again...in the evening this time!

I found this little blurb on their website. How true!

“Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle and physical skills, are articles of commerce: you can hire them by the hour or by the year. The only thing in the world not for sale is Character.”

My First Taste Of Dulse

So my co-worker Brian gave me some Dulse to try today as he's pretty big on it. It's seaweed from New Brunswick. It wasn't too bad actually. Quite salty but no sodium in it at all. Plumb full of vitamins and minerals make it a very healthy snack! If you ever get the chance...give it a go! It's really not that scary. *s*

The Mongolie Grill

We went for dinner with friends last night to The Mongolie Grill on 104 and 109th street. It was the first time I had been there and I quite liked the experience! They give you a bowl and there is a large buffet of things that you throw into it to make your own personal stir fry! There are tons of choices in vegetables, meats, seafood and sauces. They also start you off with a bowl of soup and you get rice with your stir fry. The food was fantastic and I just loved the way you do it. Very unique. The only thing you have to watch out for is filling your bowl up too much as the price of your meal is based on the weight of your bowl. Mine was cheap at under ten dollars for everything I wanted. I think the most expensive bowl was around Fifteen dollars. I definitely had enough on my plate when it was all said and done. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone that loves Asian stir fry's and wants to try something different.

Sobeys Take 2

Walked up again tonight. Needed more bananas! We walked by the already made soup section and one of the pots going was Smoked Salmon Potato soup. Two of which are Red's favorites but she just walked on by because we had already eaten supper. I said are you crazy??? I made her by a bowl for work tomorrow. She had to try it when we got home here and she just about died it was so good I guess. I refuse to have it. It's got fish in it! So if you're hungry I recommend the soup! A good size bowl and bun for $2.79.

Cinnamon Bread

This looked too good at Sobeys yesterday so we just had to pick some up despite the price. I had some today toasted with butter. Can you say Mmm Mmm good???

Sobeys

Walked up to Sobeys Urban Fresh supermarket here on Jasper Ave. and 104th street. It just opened this last Thursday. At about half the size of a standard Sobeys this little market has it all...albeit at a price. I guess they have to pay for their award winning chef's that are on staff! You can get fresh seafood and even pick a live lobster that they'll steam for you while ya shop! There are all kinds of "ready to eat" options. I watched a couple of women making fresh pizza. They looked delicious and even with the ten dollar price tag I know I'll be taking one home at some point. Tonight we picked up an individual serving of pasta with regular Mediterranean sauce. All of their already made pasta is done by Sorrentino's. It was tasty but the bun I chose was not one of my favorites from the bakery. Some artisan hard as a rock biscuit. I'll know better next time. We also grabbed Red some salmon that she enjoyed with the pasta. All in all the market is very nice and has lots of options for just about everyone. Just don't go in there thinking you're going to stock up on things. It's too expensive for that. This is more of a market that you pop in daily to get fresh meat and produce to make that outstanding dinner for family and friends you've thrown together at the last minute! The location couldn't be better for Red and I. Just a nice 10 minute stroll in the downtown core. Even better when you can drag friends along with you. *s* Next time I'll be grabbing a java at their coffee bar too!

Welcome to the neighborhood Sobeys!