Tag Archive for 'jigg’s dinner'

Bali Indonesian Restaurant Calgary

Published on May 19, 2009 in Food. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Tina had corrected me on my last post. Apparently a Jiggs dinner consists of potatoes, carrots, turnips that’s boiled with salt beef. The dinner we had was a baked dinner, but it had a jiggs dinner with it. Confusing? I know I am!

Over the weekend we had tried out the Bali Indonesian Restaurant in Calgary. Never have had Indonesian food before, (other than the soto ayam that my roommate made for me) it was quite exciting. We had ordered the bali platter (spring rolls, triangular spring rolls and croquettes), soto ayam (chicken soup), mee goreng (fried noodles), and the rendang (coconut beef stew).

It was definitely an experience going there. The service was really good and the owner who was our waiter had explained what everything was. The food was mediocre. Though there was a lot of similarities to Thai and Malaysian food, there was quite a bit of spices used in comparison. (Spices were stronger, not hotter). The soto ayam was overly salted and was our least favourite. The spring rolls we felt could have been cooked a little longer.
And everything else was tasty but definitely not our favourite.

I guess the real question is, what does really good Indonesian food taste like? I’m not entirely sure, other than that it’s no Banana Leaf! I know I know, I can’t compare Malaysian with Indonesian, but all I know is banana leaf is uber tasty and totally eye rolling!

I’d rate the restaurant 3/5. The restaurant does get thumbs up for the guava juice. Yum!

  • Share/Bookmark

How do you pronounce ‘toutons’?

Published on May 12, 2009 in Food and Travel. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

*sigh* I have to say that I’m missing Newfoundland. I miss the beauty and the culture of the province. It’s too bad that we didn’t get a few more days just to hang out with the fish! :P .

Big question for you all, how do you pronounce ‘toutons’?
You’re probably asking, what are toutons? Toutons are pan fried bread dough. It’s really really good! Traditionally it’s served with molasses. I like them as is, with molasses, but they’re also great with stew!

Speaking of toutons, here are some of the things that I had an opportunity to eat while in Newfoundland. We had cod tongues, which are absolutely fabulous and tastes better than cod fillets (if you ask me). Fresh fish, fresh lobster. Violet, Tina’s aunt made us a jigg’s dinner (which consists of a chicken or turkey or roast, with boiled veggies that was cooked with salt beef). She’s such a sweetie that she also made moose stew for me to try! Scrunchions….mmm oh scrunchions (cured pork fat that’s fried). Had a ‘scoff’ = feast, the first night.

And how do you beat a $30 lobster dinner at a fine dining restaurant?!?! We were lucky that they had a devour downtown (similar to Dineout Calgary) during the last few days that we were in St. John’s. We ended up going to ‘The Cellar’. Their seafood chowder was amazing! Service was fantastic. Not pretentious like the ‘Gypsy Tea Room’. We had gone in to quickly check out the menu for dinner that evening and the waitress did a double take on my sweater! It’s not the most fanciest sweater but goodness! it’s cold out there! No skimpy skirt for me! ha!

Another great place to eat in St. John’s was Merlo’s Press and Bean Restaurant. Not sure how they came up with the name but service was really good and the Mango ice tea was so yummy. I would recommend the sandwiches there.

Sun sushi had really fresh and delicious sushi. Can’t complain! That was the only Asian food we had while in Newfoundland. I had to cave at one point! haha!

Overall the food experience in St. John’s was positive. The only complaint I have is that there are absolutely no Vietnamese restaurants any where! By the end of the trip, we were both craving pho, and we had to wait till we got back to Calgary to satisfy that.

Advice: The thing to watch out was the amount of salt that was used. If you’re not big on salt, ask for no salt. A lot of the time, food was over salted and it was a little hard to eat.

Bon appetite!

(3)
  • Share/Bookmark