Five Star Lunch without Five Star Prices at Le Salon de The de Joel Robuchon

Best bread ever!

After having a lovely afternoon tea experience at Le Salon de The de Joel Robuchon, we decided to try out their location at The Landmark for lunch. Oddly enough on a weekend afternoon, it was fairly easy to get a table just by walking in. Unlike their location at the IFC Mall, The Landmark location was semi enclosed allowing them to serve liquor so I was able to order a glass of bubbly to enjoy with lunch. The restaurant itself also seems more like a restaurant with the majority of their tables inside a semi enclosed area, while they had a few tables down the hallway overlooking the atrium in the middle of The Landmark.

North 53 - When Tasting Menus go Awry

Witch's Fizz

I had heard and read so many good things about North 53, a restaurant whose concept is to elevate Canadian cuisine using exclusively Canadian ingredients. They also happen to be one of the few restaurants that I have come across in Edmonton that actually has a tasting menu option on their regular menu, something that I rarely found here, but often found and enjoyed abroad such as in London, Paris, and even Hong Kong.

The space itself was long and narrow, with a very impressive looking bar that dominated one side of the restaurant. The furniture was modern, feature mostly metal bar stools and chairs, not the most comfortable furniture as we found out but thankfully I was seated on the soft, comfortable banquette.

Go Vietnamese with Lemongrass Grill

I love Vietnamese food, particularly spring rolls and Vietnamese Iced Coffee, so I knew that I had to check out Lemongrass Grill at some point. They have a fairly extensive menu ranging from smaller items such as spring rolls and skewers to heartier fare such as Vietnamese Grilled Subs, otherwise known as banh mi.

I wound up ordering the pork spring rolls, a bahn mi and a Vietnamese iced coffee. The pork spring rolls were a bit dry inside and could have used a bit more seasoning, but I quite enjoyed the banh mi. There was a nice amount of pate spread on the bun, lots of crisp vegetables, topped with well-seasoned and moist chicken. Their banh mi can be served with a variety of proteins including chicken, pork, feeb *eek!* and tofu.

Mr Moo's Adventures Third Anniversary

The Cowans with the Female Human in Hong Kong

May 13, 2014 has rolled around and Mr. Moo’s Adventures celebrates its’ third anniversary! This year I got to travel around Asia from Beijing to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Macau. During that trip, I got to eat at the cheapest Michelin Star restaurant we have ever found, Tim Ho Wan, and a plethora of other restaurants I will post about soon that are on the Top 100 Restaurants in the World list – some which were spectacular and some which were not. We even got to meet up with Chef Andrew Cowan and his wife, Mylea Cowan in Hong Kong and show them around Mong Kok, the neighbourhood we stayed in while in Hong Kong. The evening involved introducing them to eggies - a delicious waffle like snack food commonly found at Hong Kong street vendors. As well as watching Mylea Cowan use her keenly honed bargaining skills to obtain a myriad of things at Ladies Market. Other travels included going to San Francisco, and finally making it to Chris Cosentinos’ Incanto, a few months before they closed their doors.

Mr. Moo’s Whisky Explorations: How to Pick your First Bottle of Scotch

My first bottle of scotch!

After attending the Scotch Malt Whisky Society tasting, my interest in scotch was peaked and I wanted to learn and try more! But where to start, what to buy, how do I know what’s good? Although there are a lot of places that serve scotch and whisky, there aren’t a lot of places in Edmonton that serve a wide variety, except for The Bothy Wine and Whisky Bar.

Well, there are a few ways to go about choosing your first bottle, depending on what you already know about your personal preferences. One option is of course to go to a place like The Bothy Wine and Whisky Bar and work your way through the menu, try out different scotches until you find one that you like enough to spend money to buy. A bottle of scotch whisky is not cheap, it does cost significantly more than beer, wine and liqueur. However, given its’ high alcohol content and long shelf life you likely won’t be drinking very much of it very often, so it will last you more than an evening, a week or even a month – unless you’re sharing it with a large group at least! Even then, there are a lot of different scotches from a variety of areas to choose from, particularly on a scotch menu as large as the one found at The Bothy Wine and Whisky Bar, which literally spans pages upon pages, at least one page per scotch producing region in Scotland.

Popular Perogy Princess has Potential

Perogy Princess

The Perogy Princess, the first perogy food truck to hit the roads of Edmonton started service on April 29th. Parked downtown on Jasper Avenue, just in front of Scotia Place, they have become popular very quickly as they’ve sold out every service their first week! I’ve already tried them twice, and although they have some service hiccups to work out, they have potential to remain popular if they can work through their service issues and can consistently maintain the quality of their food.