Alta Bistro

We went to the Alta Bistro for dinner tonight. We just arrived in Whistler and decided we didn't feel like cooking. After looking on urbanspoon, we found Alta had fairly good ratings at the price between casual and fine dining. I always like a place that offers online reservations. We called because their first reservation online was at 9pm. They said someone "just cancelled" and they had a spot at the bar available at 8:15pm. I told them we will go somewhere else and "conveniently" enough they had another table top available in half an hour. We decided to accept, but it makes me wonder why they didn't offer that first and made the restaurant sound busier than it actually is.

When we got there at 5:30pm, the place was empty. There were two servers standing at the POS machine, and we waited what we thought were too long to get noticed. I think they need a hostess.

We didn't get to see the whole restaurant but the decor seems nice. Our server was friendly, but I think it may be his first night. After we ordered, we couldn't get his attention at all. There was another server / bartender who was more helpful than he was.

As appetizer, we ordered:

Alberta Elk Tartar & Duck Liver Parfait ($15)

This was a solid dish. It wasn't too bland like most tartar dishes would taste, nor was it fatty, given the duck liver. Unfortunately, it was a very small dish and it didn't come with anything. Usually when you order something like this, the restaurant would provide baguette slices or chips for the tartar. If they don't, the server should let you know.

We had to wait so long to get someone's attention just to add a half order of bread ($3).

It came with some oil and white bean paste, which kind of tasted like guacamole. If that was why they charge for bread I think they're better off just giving us oil and balsamic vinegar.

Our main dish was the Roasted Venison and Braised Beef Shin ($35).

The venison was perfectly cooked and so tender. If it actually had fat in it, it would probably melt in your mouth, how soft it was.

I don't recall seeing or tasting any beef shin.

The mushrooms were so well marinated and flavorful. The sunflower seeds were also a good addition.

As a wine pairing, I ordered the Tannat/Merlot Brumont from Gascogne, France. My partner ordered the G.S.M., Romain Duvernay from Costieres de Nimes. The GSM was fuller bodied than the merlot and much easier to drink. The merlot was a little acidic for my taste.

Overall, the food was solid but the service did not make up for the price.

Asian Pork Stir Fry

Tonight's dinner was inspired by the 20 minute recipe from Better Homes and Garden (http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pork/jamaican-pork-stir-fry/). The original recipe called for Jamaican all spice, but I don't like the taste so I substituted it with my own spice.

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp oil

- 16 oz frozen vegetables

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp ginger powder

- 12 oz stir fry pork

- 1/3 cup hoi sin sauce

- half pack rice noodle

Steps:

1) Start boiling enough water to cover rice noodles. Once it boils, add the rice noodles and cook approximately 2 minutes.

2) Heat the oil in a wok on medium high. Once heated, add the vegetables.

2) The vegetables will need to cook about 5 minutes until crisp-tender. While it is cooking, toss the pork in ginger, garlic, and onion powder.

3) Once the vegetables are cooked, remove and place aside. Cook the pork for 2-3 minutes or until the pink is gone.

4) Once the pork is cooked, add the hoisin sauce. Toss and make sure everything is coated.

5) Mix in te vegetables. Turn off heat and add mix in the rice noodles (Note: I cut the noodles with scissors before adding it so it would be easier to serve).

6) Once everything is mixed well, serve.

7) Srirachi is optional.

Mustard Chicken

Today's recipe was from Better Homes and Garden (http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken-dijonnaise/) - with minor revisions of course.

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken thighs (they were cheaper)

- 1/4 all purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp ground pepper

- 1 small leek (they don't sell single green onions at the market)

- 2 tbsp margarine

- 1/3 cup whipping cream

- 3 tbsp Jalepeno honey mustard (from Leavenworth)

- 3 tbsp white wine

We also made rice on the side and mixed in some frozen vegetables approximately 8 minutes before removing the rice from heat.

Instructions:

1) Mix the flour and pepper.

2) Coat the chicken with the flour mixture.

3) Melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat.

4) Place the chicken skin down in the skillet and cook, without moving, for 15 minutes until it is golden brown. If it starts to burn, turn the heat down a bit.

5) While waiting for the chicken, dice and wash te leek.

6) Also while the chicken is cooking, mix the whipping cream, mustard, and wine.

7) When the chicken is brown, flip an cook for another 20-30 minutes.

8) When the chicken is cooked, set aside, keeping the drippings in the skillet.

9) Add the leek to the drippings.

10) Cook until limp, approximately 2 minutes.

11) Add the mustard mixture in.

12) Cook 2-3 minutes until thick.

13) Serve sauce on chicken and rice - didn't even need srirachi since the mustard had a Jalepeno kick to it.

Benjarong

Went to Benjarong today.

Although it's sad that Transylvania had to close, we really enjoyed what we had today:

The Drunken Stir Fry Chicken;

The server was kind enough to ask if we wanted mild, medium, or spicy. I can take only a little bit of spice, and the medium was perfect. Spicy enough to heat your lips and tongue, but not so spicy you can't eat it.

And the Roasted Duck Red Curry.

The curry came with some rice, but it wasn't enough for the amount of sauce in the curry. We ended up ordering another one. It was supposed to be medium spiced, but it wasn't spicy at all. The curry was sweet, I could have drunk it as soup.

At the end, we didn't have to order dessert as they gave us complimentary taro and tapioca with coconut milk. Delicious! It was salty and sweet at the same time so that it wasn't overwhelming at all.

Overall, well worth a visit!

Provence Marinaside

I went to the Provence Marinaside in Yaletown for dinner last night. My friend chose it based on whether they had enough space for five on Sunday night and also served seafood. When she chose it, I was a bit outraged at the prices.

I ordered the Chef Specialty, Rack of Lamb:

As you can see, the rack of lamb were cooked quite perfectly at medium rare. There were potato slices on the side topped with cheese, carrots, and spinach - all cooked perfectly as well.

For dessert, I ordered the double chocolate kahlua cake. I didn't really taste the kahlua, but it was very chocolate-y.

My friend thought it was too rich, but if you took a bit of the cream in each bite, the lightness from the cream nicely balances the denseness of the cake.

Overall, it was a pretty good dinner - I only ate half the rack of lamb, so it was enough for two meals. It's up to you to decide whether or not it will be worth the money spent.

I personally thought it was worth it because the server was so friendly and attentive. Usually, as an Asian, I get the feeling servers don't like to serve us because there's a stereotype we don't tip well. I also used to be a server and hated it when diners ordered hot water. However, our server was very accommodating. Two of my friends arrived earlier and one ordered iced water while the other ordered hot water. When I arrived, the server asked if I wanted hot or cold water. He was a quick learner. I ordered a room temperature water just to test him out and he was professional and took it like it was just another glass of water. I later ordered a glass of red wine from France - I forget the name though. He kept up his game all night, even when the five of us shared two desserts.

Sushi Bella

We went to Sushi Bella again today.

We ordered tuna and salmon sashimi, salmon and cream cheese roll, hot chicken wings & charshu miso ramen.

As usual the food is fresh and delicious - look at the size of those sashimi pieces. Personally, I didn't like the wings drenched in Frank's, but some like it sour like that. I thought their "hot" wings would be more like it was coated in chili or something other than Frank's.

The miso ramen was good too, depends how salty you like your food. It could have been improved if the ramen wasn't so soggy.

Sushi Bella is frustrating sometimes. The food and prices are always depending and good. The service on the other hand, needs improvement. They're nice and friendly, but here was what was wrong with today's meal:

• the food took a long time to come out, and when it did, they came all at once;
• the server brought us our bill before we even got our food;
• the servers weren't very attentive: we spilled soup on the table and they didn't come and help wipe it up; our napkin was used up and they didn't replace it; and my chopsticks were falling apart, no one did anything until I asked.

We will still go back, but probably for take out mostly.

Weisswurst with Potatoes and Sauerkraut

Tonight's dinner was inspired by Eating Well's Chicken Sausage with Potatoes and Sauerkraut recipe. We were at the German Christmas Market last weekend and Black Forest Meats & Sausages were selling five of their sausages for $13.00. We bought some weisswurst after having one at the market and used them in tonight's recipe in place of the chicken sausages.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 weisswursts, halved and cut into quarters
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 4 potatoes, halved and sliced
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cup sauerkraut
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 bay leaf

Steps:

1. Prepare all the ingredients first. You can pour the pepper and caraway seeds into the bowl of sauerkraut.

2. Heat oil in wok over medium heat. Add sausage and onion and cook for about 4 minutes, until brown. Add everything else and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender.

3. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Shiro Japanese Restaurant

On Sunday we were down on Main Street, and wanted to try a Sushi place we had never been to. We found Shiro Japanese Restaurant on the corner of Cambie and 15th after a search on Urbanspoon, and decided to give it a try.

It is a small, clean restaurant, and we were seated promptly. The waitress was friendly, and the service fairly quick. Unfortunately the prices have increased from the menu we saw on Urbanspoon, although they do have the new prices on their own website. Still relatively reasonable, not too pricey - but no longer cheap. 

We ordered a small tuna sashimi and a large salmon sashimi. 

The pieces are medium in size, and tasted pretty fresh. The wasabi was very good, possibly home made, maybe with some garlic mixed in. 

Then we had the smoked salmon roll and the house roll. The rolls were tasty, but the house roll had way too much rice. 

We also ordered tonkatsu, which was very overcooked and chewy:

Finally we had nebeyaki udon, which was pretty good. 

Overall a decent place, but not somewhere I would go out of my way to go again.

Five Spice Portobello and Broccoli Stirfry

Last night we adapted a recipe from kidspot.com http://m.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/dinner+7/five-spice-lamb-and-brocollini-stirfry-recipe+2342.htm by substituting portobello mushrooms for lamb and made our own Chinese 5 spice powder.

For the 5 spice powder, we used:

Star anise

Cloves

Cinnamon

Fennel seeds

We didn't have Sichuan pepper, so we used chili powder instead. 

For the recipe, the ingredients we used:

4 portobellos

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder

1 yellow bell pepper

1 head of broccoli

1 shallot

2 cloves garlic

5cm ginger (grated)

Vegetable oil

1/3 cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

First we chopped/sliced all the ingredients:

And then we combined the sliced portobello mushrooms and the 5 spice powder in a sealed bag to shake up and coat the mushroom:

Next you heat the wok with some vegetable oil until it starts smoking, then stirfry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. 

At this point I added a little more vegetable oil and added all the rest of the vegetables. Stirfry for ~3 minutes. 

We also made instant mashed potatoes, but rice would work also. 

After that, add the hoisin sauce and soy sauce, cook for a couple more minutes, and then serve. If it looks too thick, you can add a splash of water as well. 

And of course a dash of sriracha to finish it off.