Hello, I have been MIA for a bit! The reason for my absence? Well after our lovely dinner on Monday night I woke up Tuesday morning and was ill! I am talking AW-FUL! I am not sure if it was something I ate or what but man it was horrible! Complied with the fact I had to try and function to get myself ready to come to Vancouver! Because gosh darn it we were going.
Anyway…let me give a recap of our lovely dinner! I was feeling just great on Monday night and starting my holiday off nicely!
We went to a restaurant called the Living room.
It is in downtown Calgary in a district called Uptown on 17th.
This is a cool and chic part of Calgary. It is an avenue that is loaded with bars, restaurants and tons trendy shops.
It is quite lovely at night as well.
When we walked into the restaurant it was dimly lit and very romantic. So as you know dimly lit restaurants = not so great pictures…and using the flash!
Like this one…a pic of the interior of the restaurant.
We were sat at a small table in a corner both with a pillow it was cozy and comfortable.
We started out with some water. Mine was bubbly!
We let the waiter know we were here for the tasting menu. This tasting menu is a surprise so you don’t know what you are getting! Let the fun begin…..
Our first course wine was a sparkling white. It was wonderful. I don’t usually care for sparkling wine but this one was good.
and we had it with a raw smoked oyster. Presented to us under a martini glass.
It was pretty cool. We were told to leave it for a minute. When you lifted the glass the smoke came bellowing out and it smelled almost like a campfire. The oyster was very good. It had a wonderful light smoky flavour not to overpowering.
Second course:
This course was served with a Sauvignon blanc from California. It was fruity and delicious.
It was paired with fish an Arctic Char. I have never had that type of fish before. It was light and mild tasting with a wonderful flakey texture. The fish was a very light pink color.
On top they had taken the skin and crisped it to the texture of a potato chip. Now I am NOT crazy about fish skin…but I tried it and ended up eating it all. It did taste just like a potato chip! It was served on a bed of braised beets and some very tasty greens.
Third course:
We started with red wine. A scrumptious very berry red Shiraz! I really enjoyed this one.
This course was interesting…it was a perogie!
But not just any perogie. It was filled with duck, lentils and onion. Crème fresh and bacon were served as the garnish. This was so delish! I wanted another one!
Fourth course:
This was the pallet cleanser.
In the martini glass was sparkling water with small scoop of berry sorbet. It was so very refreshing and tasty! The hubs wanted another one it was so good.
Fifth course:
Our wine for this course was a deep and luscious Cabernet Sauvignon. We loved this wine so much we ended up sharing another glass!
The main course was a bison ribeye.
It was served with spinach spaetzle, roasted squash and red peppers. On top of the bison was a blueberry sauce. This dish was AMAZING!! This was the best bison dish I think I have every had. Truly de-lic-ious!
Total plate cleaner…I did not want to leave one bite behind! I even finished before the hubs which is rare! He was savouring his as well! Really it was that good!
Now normally after this course is dessert. But the hubs was still a little hungry and wanted a little something more. The meals in this tasting menu are kept on the pretty small side actually. I think they don’t want you to get too full!
So one of this restaurant’s specialties is fondue. So we added an extra course!
Sixth course (fondue):
They had a few to choose from and we went with the Aged Cheddar and Truffle fondue.
As you can probably tell from this picture we were about half done when I remember to grab a shot!
Hubs loves his bread and cheese. I only had about a handful or so of the bread dipped into the cheese as this is so filling and wanted to save the rest of my tummy space for dessert!
He loves his cheese so much the pot was cleaned right out!
as well as all the bread! Like I said he loves it!
Just a few crumbs left! HA!
Seventh course!
I squealed with delight when the waiter placed in front of me Crème Brulee!
I cracked into it immediately! This was a Vanilla Bean and Lavender Crème Brulee and on the side was candied ginger with wild blueberries! This was orgasmic! I placed my candied ginger and blueberries on top of my Brule. I love this dessert it is one of my FAVORITE indulgences!
We had it with a wonderfully sweet and oh so good dessert wine.
Cheers! It went wonderful with the Crème Brulee.
I polished this off too! So glad I did not eat too much fondue or I would have never been able to eat it all my dessert. It was just the right size. I almost wanted to lick the bowl!
The whole dinner was lovely and we had a great time. My father was our taxi for us so we needed to wait a little bit for him to come and get us. So we waited outside and got some fresh air and played around with the camera for a bit.
We stood by the fire since it was a bit chilly. They have a lovely outdoor patio that is used in the summer and either side is a gas fireplace. It gave us some warmth!
It was a lovely evening and a great way to start our mini vacation!
Yesterday was a hard day for me. I was feeling awful but I still managed to get myself ready and to Vancouver.
A little bit of a view from our hotel.
We are here now and I am thankfully feeling better this morning. Last night was still a really bad night and I did not eat really anything at all. I tried some dinner but it still did not make me feel any better. I almost felt worse and regretted having anything at all!
I woke up this morning hungry! Thankfully we have a free hot continental breakfast in our hotel so we threw on some cloths at 7am and I got me some grub. Sorry no pictures as I was just going with the flow and needed to eat!
I had a piece of multigrain toast with PB and honey, some fruit, orange juice and a cup of hot tea. I did feel better afterwards. I was so happy.
When we got back to the room I read the newpaper for a bit and then decided I better do a post. So while I was sitting here I sipped on some more tea and picked away at a muffin and banana I took from the buffet.
So now I think it is time for a shower and get out and explore some of Vancouver before the rain starts! POO!
Tonight is the U2 concert and I cannot wait!
Toot-a-loo for now!
