Sushi Samba Las Vegas

The menu at Sushi Samba is completely addicting. Sushi Samba melds Japanese, Peruvian, and Brazilian interpretations on food, drink, and design. It's like a little something for everyone, with many unique and delicious dishes perfect for sharing. And really, that is the fun of Sushi Samba, enjoying several beautiful dishes while emphasizing the social aspect of the dining experience. Eating here is also fun; from the whimsical decor, to the food itself, it's a delightful experience. After the rich breakfast we enjoyed at Bouchon, we were looking forward to enjoying a few vegetables. More often than not, vegetables are virtually ruined by excessive or ransid oil. Luckily, Sushi Samba perfectly prepared the field green salad with sliced radishes, and beets. It came with a light and flavourful carrot ginger dressing. Very refreshing. The tuna tataki was a nice combination of salty and sweet, tender and crunchy. We loved the shrimp ceviche, with perfectly chopped vegetables, and a crunchy plantain to top it off. The sushi platter, with the samba strip roll, was gorgeous, in every sense. It was a nice surprise to have a few bites of lobster to accompany our rolls, but the unagi (bbq eel), hiding in the background was absurdly good. My caipirinha is in the background, just as strong as it should be. This cake looks too simple. Fortunately, it was not. It was a warm chocolate banana cake, but hiding underneath the vanilla rum ice cream is this toffee-like maple piece. Now it does sound simple, I agree, although it tucked a nice little surprise into a warm chocolate cake, which wouldn't otherwise compete with the hundreds of other warm chocolate cakes available elsewhere. Christian Louboutin. This is for Shauna, and other lovers of shoes. It makes getting to Sushi Samba not half bad, cough, cough, as you wander through the shops of the Palazzo.
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dice, chop, mince

*Courtesy Knifewear site I am so excited. Well I was much more excited when I discovered the store, but I am sooo very ecstatic to tell you about the up and running website for Knifewear. Calgary has its very own hamono-ya! Don't worry, I had no idea what it meant either, but it means knife store. Hooray! The cutest little, and I mean little, store in Calgary, owned and run by chef Kevin, "the knife guy". I can't help but love this part, "We like exclusive, scary sharp, high performance blades." HAH. Or the fact that Knifewear began as a way for him to "support his knife buying habit". Very cool, very witty and sharp too. The website is equally cunning. Kevin is hilarious, or so I think. But yes, he can also sharpen your existing knives. This is great! Although I very much like my fingers, my knives are now wickedly sharp, and I nearly fear losing them. My fingers, I mean! However, it is a small price to pay for the ease of cutting tomatoes with ease every time, or peppers for that matter, the nasty critters they can be. Then there is the beauty of the knives he sells. They are so beautiful I could cry. I think I almost did one day selecting a Mother's Day gift (for my mom, although of course, I scoured for myself for future reference...ahem). These knives are not just for cutting, but serious works of art. You can also pick up some funky t-shirts, or gorgeous cutting boards (I'll assume they work pretty darn swell too). Don't worry my mom has not lost any fingers...yet. Nor have I! Check out Knifewear, located inside Bite Groceteria, 1212a 9 Ave SE, Calgary, AB p.s. I swear I will finish my posts about the trip to NYC and the food show. But this couldn't wait.
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100 Wines

Today, Jeff and I went to check out the very newly opened 100 Wines, at 1109 Olympic Way SE, at the base of the ArriVa condominium tower. It was quiet at the time, and we had a great chance to chat with David Walker, wine guru and co-owner. He was informative, friendly, and personable. I think he has the potential to reach a large audience because he can educate, and promote his products in a way that lacks pretense. This is his goal, and he tells you up front. He wants wine to be accessible, and for clients to find great values in their purchases.

True to its namesake, 100 Wines, has 100 different bottles of red and white wine to choose from. They are clearly organized, each marked with a large number and with an easily understood description. Beneath each display bottle is a very clearly numbered bin which corresponds to the display bottle. Choosing a wine has never been easier; essentially, David has taken the guesswork out of buying wine. Let's face it, 99.9% of us have no clue what we are purchasing, and while it's fun to take a stab in the dark, why not give a professional a chance?

I appreciate that the products will rotate very frequently, as he only brings in relatively small amounts of each bottle. When they run out of a particular wine, a new one takes its place. Since there are only 100 wines, this also means a few less decisions for the buyer. Sometimes, I just don't want to wade through 6000 bottles, just to find one.


I also don't care to debate about which particular Amarone is a good value at the moment; firstly, because I don't really know incomparison to someone like David. For example, today there was a Brunello at $60, and another at $100....not 5 bottles at the $60 price and 10 at the $100 price. Essentially, I need to know my price point, and then he has already chosen the best value currently available. He already has chosen the "buy" of the moment, and David aims to find wines of great value, including several magnums, perfect for dinner parties etc. I think many Calgarians will frequently stop in to check out the wall of 20 wines, for under $20. Can't be beat.

Truth be told, there is more in store than 100 wines, but also a section of "bubbly", a "food pairing" section and a few others. There is also a selection of spirits and beer, for those who need a little bit of something other than wine.

The space is very open in concept, but also has a "locker" room (ie. cellar) where the plan is to host tastings, and they are planning to host classes and other events in the space. I think this space itself will be a hit, and many downtowner's will be stopping by after work for a quick taste, and then leave with numerous bottles of quality vino. They also stock a few other spirits, for those who need a little bit of something else.

One thing I have not seen before, that I really like: since David has spent all this time and energy selecting each wine, you can find his reasoning for each wine choice not only on the sign next to the bottle, but also on your receipt at check out. For the House White Wine (2006), he wrote, "Charles Smith's blend of Chardonnay and Gewurtztraminer with a healthy dose of irreverence. Look for his other wacky labels to come." This is great for keeping in a wine journal, or even with your bottles, so you can later remember a few key points about the wine when trying to pair it with ease. Admit it, we all like to think we know these things, but let's face it he knows what he's doing... and the rest of us really don't.


We also learned that Hotel Arts, plans to open an Italian inspired restaurant "Olives" across the way. Olives also plans to have a deli for take-away as well, which is brilliant considering the built in clientele of the ArriVa condo upstairs. Around the corner, in the opposite direction, is soon to be "Zia's Enoteca", and no one is quite sure how this will transpire, but I am certainly curious.

Check out 100 Wines for yourself: http://davidwalkerwines.com


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tropical paradise

Well Jeff and I didn't go anywhere for spring break. Instead, we opted to buy a lot of tropical fruit, and pretend that we didn't hear the phone ring. It mostly worked. It was easier with the help of More Than Mangos, who import exotic fruit and a few other products from Central and South America.

Having heard about, and tried some of their fruit from Bite Groceteria, we went to check out their weekly fruit market at Canyon Meadows Community Hall from 2pm - 8pm. It was a lot of fun! All these fruits we had never tried, or even seen before. We bought a lot of fruit, some of which we loved, and some of which we will make into yummy things like ice cream. Our favourites were the avocadoes, and the dragonfruits. As you can see, the avocadoes, are beyond enormous....my hands aren't THAT small! The dragonfruits never made it to photos. I have had other dragonfruit, which were okay...More Than Mangos dragonfruit are AWEsome.


The avocadoes make for a fantastically yummy sandwich on the go. Oddly enough, when we went to Bite Groceteria to pick up the baguette (GO, they are AMAZING!), we bumped into Andres, one of the owners of More Than Mangos. This was lucky for us, because he gave me some tips on ripening their enormous mangos as I haven't had any luck yet. They have become partially rotten, but still not ripe! Sandwich...only slightly more difficult than PBJ. Basically, just slice some avocado, tomato, a little basil, and some salt:
The photo at the top shows a few of the varieties of fruit we enjoyed - orange passionfruit (granadilla), guava, and lulo's (l-r). All really, really yummy. The passionfruit's and lulo's also tasted fabulous with greek-style yogurt and honey. Want to go to exotic places? Check it out: www.morethanmangos.com, or pick up some fruit when you stop in at Bite Groceteria (Inglewood, Calgary)
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It takes a village

As Calgary becomes more and more of a global village, we are fortunate enough to be able to experience a small part of many cultures without having to venture far from home. Today, Jeff and I had lunch at Village Pita Bakery in the NE. I had heard many times that the falafel was good - and it was great. The falafel was good, the pita was good, the sauce was good, but the pickled vegetables and freshness of parsley really made it great. It was fairly salty, but nothing one of the non-alcoholic "lemon beers" can't wash down. Get one of those from the fridge, and a bag of spinach and feta goodies to take home, and you're good to go. mmmm. Village Pita Bakery 255 28 Street SE, Calgary, AB
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Oh what to do?

Jeff went back to Bite on Thursday to pick up some more duck. I can't really blame him, but he came home with virtually the entire store, plus a few items that Bite will hopefully be carrying soon. He bought a gigantic aromatic mango, organic crème fraîche, 2 250 mL of organic 54% cream, canned cherry tomatoes, a baguette, and a duck breast. We were excited because these are some very cool items, that you just can't normally get. Time to experiment.

We made the duck recipe below..and I altered some of the cooking times. We consumed most of the baguette before the duck was cooked - mostly just tonnes of butter, and we made a simple bruschetta with the tomatoes. It doesn't really work as bruschetta, but more as a good tomato sauce.

We made an enormous mistake...for some odd reason we thought we were going to make whipped cream out of one of the bottles of 54% cream. First of all, you can barely get the cream out of the bottle, it is insanely thick. We should have known....within 10 seconds we had whipped butter. Oops! Luckily, it ended up tasting great on our breakfast crêpes with berries, but it certainly wasn't whipped cream. We saved the rest for slathering on bread with dinner. After spreading it on slices of bread, we sprinkled a little kosher salt on it. It didn't last very long.

I love the crème fraîche, it is very rich and only a little of the tang sour cream has. I was making chocolate bread pudding, and you HAVE to have ice cream to make it seem less rich. Seriously! CBP (chocolate bread pudding) as we like to call it contains no bread, but croissants instead. So, I purchased a greek-style 8% fat 750g tub of yogurt. I beat in a 3/4 cup of vanilla sugar, and 1/2 cup of crème fraîche. I put it directly in the ice cream maker and it came out wonderfully. It was so rich, and tangy. Except, the fat content is still not high enough. When I tried a taste the next day, the consistency was too solid. Next time, I will add a bottle of the 54% cream - that should help. I will re-post the recipe then; it has a lot of potential. I'll probably add a tablespoon or two of honey too. Yum!
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