Text 16276, 105 rader
Skriven 2011-10-03 13:01:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Trip 6
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On Tuesday evening we headed out to the Bavaria House
(www.bavaria-restaurant.com) where Roslind enjoyed escargots a la
Savoyarde baked in garlic herb butter, Bavarian style pork roast in
a dark beer sauce with bread dumplings and assorted fall vegetables
with apple strudel with ice cream for dessert. I helped her through
the appetizer and dessert and had Schnitzel Holstein with a fried
(not the usual poached) egg and house made Spaetzle and asparagus.
As their wine list was IMO overpriced we settled for assorted craft
beers (IPAs, dark amber lagers, honey brown ales and more from
Cannery Brewing of Penticton, Whistler Brewery and Granville Island
all of whom offer sampler six packs with two each of three styles) I
had picked up earlier in the day in our room before hand and
raspberry mojitos afterwards.
 
On Wednesday evening we went in search of a Mexican place that
started with a "C" but got confused and ended up in Caramba which
had a Spanish menu plus a lot of pasta dishes and fancy pizzas, but
was also on our hit list. That worked out well in the end. 
(http://www.caramba-restaurante.com/menu) We ignored the pasta and
pizza and ordered their rotisserie platter for two which consisted
of grilled pork loin, two quarters of rotisserie grilled rosemary
chicken and 6 little lamb medallions napped in demi-glace along with
roasted potatoes and a nice vegetable medley. Drink specials were $4
greyhounds of which Roslind had one, Granville Island honey nut
brown lager on tap at $4.50, and Caramba's house red at $5 per glass
of which I had two.

On Thursday Roslind's group broke away for lunch for a change so I
got to eat with her. We headed over to DB Burger (no connection to
the world famous DB Bistro Moderne) which is reputed to have the
best bistro burgers in town but the menu had so many other good
looking things on it that we ended up not getting burgers after all:
Shrimp Masala for her and Thai chicken salad for me, both mild but
tasty. They had Whistler Brewery offerings on tap, so I quenched my
thirst with the lager of the day.
                                              
For supper we hit Elements, a so-called tapas bar that in actuality
had very international small plate offerings. We chose four items
from their 2 for $20 menu to share: panko crusted deep fried goat
cheese balls served on crostini and drizzled with a tomato sauce,
salmon and tuna tempura rolls with tobiko roe (sushi wrapped in
nori, dipped in a very thin, light batter and fried for just
seconds), a pork chop thing and a small butter steak. We sampled the
house red and the house white both of which were quite good but I
forgot to record what they were. This turned out to be the highlight
meal of the trip: each dish was superbly prepared, nicely seasoned
and artfully plated. The wines were excellent and inexpensive. And
the service helpful and impeccable.

On Friday the convention people had an in-house dinner where spouses
were invited, so I cancelled my plans to visit the famed Alta
Bistro and instead enjoyed a wonderful buffet featuring steamed salmon
(also some decent looking chicken for the seafood haters), several
vegetarian dishes and numerous artfully composed salads. I tried and
liked a roasted eggplant dish, stumbled across and tasted a beet and
parsnip mixture again but mostly pigged out on the salmon.

On Saturday we started the three day trip to Fort McMurray after
fortifying the cooler with sandwiches, drinks and snacks from the
Market Place. This time we dipped down to the outskirts of Vancouver
on the Sea To Sky highway, and took the Trans Canada highway as far
as the Yellowhead Highway through Jasper. It's quite a bit longer
but actually much quicker than the other route, with much superior
roads.

By the time we hit Kamloops we were ready for a proper sit down
supper. I used the GPS to search for the closest Mexican place to
the highway and went where it told me to go, which is how we ended
up at Goldie's Flavours of India. (To give the machine credit the
lanes for the two places were only 20 feet apart, but I didn't spot
the sign for the Mexican place until afterwards.) Since Goldie
doesn't make tacos we shared the tandoori platter for two which
consisted of chicken, lamb, rock cod and salmon along with sides of
vegetable biryani. Mango lassi for Roslind and Kingfisher beer for me.
This was the only mediocre meal on the whole trip. The tandoori
meats were overcooked and dry and the biryani uninspired.

On Sunday we pushed through to Athabaska via Jasper and Edmonton. We
stopped for supper in Edmonton and I again used the GPS to find a
Mexican place near the main highway. It led me to Julio's Barrio
which I remembered vaguely from years before. We destroyed a jug of
sangria and a large appetizer platter of the usual Tex-Mex stuff
that had some nice deep fried shrimp with an ancho plum sauce dip.
So I finally got my fix. We then drove on as far as Athabaska.

Monday: Athabaska to Fort McMurray should have only taken 3 hours
but there was a major paving project and we had to take turns with
the southbound traffic sharing a single open lane, so it took 7
hours. It was a good thing that we re-stocked the cooler in
Athabaska because we got the munchies while stuck waiting, hours
from any villages or restaurants. Upon arrival and a few wind-down
drinks (shots of Patron tequila with short, strong, extra spicy
Caesar chasers) Lyle fired up the grill for a steak and bratwurst
supper.

Tuesday was another grill night, chicken this time.

Cheers

YK Jim


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