New Vietnamese/Thai fusion bistro in Southwest Edmonton

I know, I know, I haven't written in my blog for so long! Has it been ten days already? I've been away sick for the past week, so I haven't really gotten a chance to blog about my adventures in between.

I have a new family doctor that's located in a new community in Southwest Edmonton called Summerside. Within the past year, Save On Foods, Good Earth and Brewster's have popped up, including cute little restaurants/bistros like Teriyaki Corner (which I blogged about). Most recently, I was curious about a Vietnamese/Thai bistro that had just opened. It's called minimango, and it's a small sister business of a restaurant on 91st and 82 ave called "Sweet Mango" (I've been to this place before; it's alright).

The decor is very sleek and modern looking. Dark flooring, orange plastic light covers, raised barstools and booths, accompanied by a large picture consisting of smaller pictures of the Vietnamese culture; one would want to eat here just because of the cool decor.

Their menu was electronic on flatscreen televisions. I'm personally not a fan of electronic menus, but I suppose their easier to change if their menus fluctuate. That being said, I was having sort of a tough time reading the menu, so the cashier upfront handed my boyfriend and I paper menus. I scanned and scanned the menu. All I wanted was a simple Pho soup with beef, good broth and noodles. So I opted for the beef lover's choice (beef balls, tendon, and beef slices) for $7.95. My boyfriend opted for something a little less ordinary: Tom Yum Coconut noodle soup for $11.95. I also wanted the salad rolls for the appetizer. It was a whopping $5.95 for only 3 rolls!

We waited 7-8 minutes before our food came. We both munched on the salad rolls first. Not too bad. The sauce wasn't the typical dipping sauce for salad rolls which consists of hoi sin sauce. It was still tasty, but for almost $1.98/piece, I definitely won't be getting that next time. Next up was my Pho soup. The soup could of been hotter; the broth wasn't bad but wasn't as bold as I wanted it to be. The beef slices were too tough and if I remembered correctly, they only gave me about 2-3 beef balls. On the other hand, my boyfriend extremely enjoyed his new experience tasting the Tom Yum Coconut noodle soup. Topped with shrimp and mussels, his was a bit more appealing than mine.

Overall, the restaurant wasn't horrible. It wasn't spectacular either. The prices are a bit high and for Pho, I'd rather go somewhere more authentic. But it was a great experience for my boyfriend!

Verdict: pretty scrumptious

If you are interested in going, they are located just in the new shopping complex of Summerside on 91st and Ellerslie Road (9th ave SW). They don't have a website yet.

Apple season in full swing: time to make apple crumble.

Despite the frost that had to be scraped off my car this morning, it is indeed apple season! I am normally allergic to the pesticides that are sprayed on the peel of the apple so everytime I eat an apple, I must peel it.  My co-worker was giving apples away from her apple tree in her backyard and I had asked if I could have some. And such big and beautiful apples they were! And I don't have to peel the skin off! They looked like store-brought ones, and she even told me that some of them were spliced with pears so the colour of them were a bit lighter. And they did have a subtle taste of pear, too. Besides eating the apples all to myself, I decided to make some apple crumble.
Mmmmm. I love apple season!

Fall Flavours, P.E.I

I know I am not going to P.E.I anytime soon again, but I do wish that I was at the Fall Flavours Festival going on now till September 30th. The event showcases local cuisine and produce of the island, as well as local talents. Chef Michael Smith will be cooking on NFL ferries, there will be picnics with great food on local beaches and clam digging on beaches.

http://www.fallflavours.ca/

Mushroomfest at Sorrentino's

If you haven't heard already, it's Mushroomfest at Sorrentino's!
From September 1-30, yummy dishes are centred around this great vegetable.
Mmmmmm. I love mushrooms!

http://www.sorrentinos.com

I must try all the recipes in the best cook book ever!

I got this wonderful cookbook for Christmas because I had asked for it. I discovered it while reading Books to Watch For in the Elle Canada magazine. Since then, I have not been able to book that darn book down! The concept is artsy, the content is witsy and the recipes are fantastic! Anyhoot-I'm just writing about this cookbook because my goal is to try every single recipe in this book. Guinea pigs? Mostly my boyfriend and my family.

http://www.bitemecookbook.com/

I finally caught the mobile waffle van!

It's been nearly a month since I wanted to try a waffle from this mobile waffle van. I had seen it several times driving around the city and parked at their original location on 107 Street in front of the WCB Building. Eva Sweets is the name of this mobile Belgian waffle company. They pump fresh Belgian waffles from this van regulary at their 107 street location (although I couldn't find them on some occasions...) The van is normally there from about 8:00 am to about 2:00 pm. They can also be found at the City Centre Market 8 am-3pm and at the Beverly Farmer's Market on Tuesdays 4pm-8pm and the Millwoods Farmer's Market on Thursdays 5-8pm (taken from their website).

I suggest you give it a try if you happen to be at those locations. They import pearl sugar straight from Belgian and when the waffle is fresh, the sugar is carmelized on the outside, giving it a richer flavour than most waffles. Yummiers! At $3 a waffle, that's very affordable.

Verdict: scrumptious!

http://www.evasweet.ca/index.html

My first royal icing flower cake (with a little too much buttercream icing)...

I just finished taking a cake decorating class at Michael's. My co-worker had reminded me about this course. I had taken the basic first course 2 or 3 years ago and for some reason didn't go on and progress to the other classes. She mentioned that she taught these courses and had a side business of making cakes. Bingo! I want to take the second class! I'm very spur of the moment person; if it's something that I want to do I'll do it. And quite often, I'm serious about it.

That being said, the course was only 4 weeks long. I had to miss the second class because I was on vacation. That actually left me quite far behind in class. Not only did I miss the one class, but I failed to bring royal icing to the next class to practice making flowers. Completely embarassed (face probably red), my other classmates were very kind to lend me their icing and some (most) of the materials I needed. Talk about vacay mode! But I still stuck around because the instructor wanted me to see what was going to be made for this class.

So over the weekend, I dwelled at flower making for nearly 4 hours. I'm not kidding. From making the royal icing to laying the flowers to dry and washing my tools. I had "pastry bag" hand because I was gripping the bag so tight that the tendons on my right hand were sore. That being said, I was quite happy with the results of my flowers. These very flowers ended up on my final cake.

Baking is fun. I cannot say I am crazy about it just yet because it's quite time consuming, especially these darn royal icing flowers. But do they ever look good! They taste good, too (according to my boyfriend).