A Night Out With Manitoba Food Bloggers

Exciting things are happening around Winnipeg.  The Manitoba Food Bloggers have had their first gathering and are planning more.  Now please excuse the lateness of this post.  We actually had our night out February 29th  at Elements.  It was a fabulous night of food, drink, a seminar on photography with the fabulous Ian Mcausland,  and friendship. Many of us met for the first time in person.  Our name tags also had our twitter handles and out website names on them. It was so neat to see these and say "Oh hi! I read your blog all the time!".  There were door prizes, goody bags, and donations to Siloam Mission.

It was such a fantastic opportunity to chat with others who have similar interests.....FOOD!  There wasn't just bloggers there. We had restaurateurs and business owners, representatives from different producer groups, Half Pints Brewery was there with free samples, as was the Tipsy Thief. 

I had my camera with me but I didn't take too many photos. I wanted to enjoy the evening and not worry about photos.  I did manage to click a couple of pics but I spent the evening enjoying the company and learning to not rely so much on my flash!

I am looking forward to the next Manitoba Food Bloggers event and can't wait for future plans with this fabulous group of people!  A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this event happen!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Tale of Two Mexican Restaurants

We seem to have a bunch of Mexican restaurants opening up around the city and I must say I am a fan of this concept.  Hubby, the Boy, and I have visited two of these restaurants in the past month and have had some pretty darn tasty food! As I write this I am still so full I could fall asleep! The food at both places was delish but at the same time quite different from each other.

Tonight we visited Burrito del Rio on River Avenue.  It is a brightly painted, Subwayesque place where they make your food in front of you so you can choose the fillings.  Burritos are the main item but they also offer tacos and fajitas. Once you choose from  a variety meats such as chicken, carnitas, beef, (or veggie), you can choose from two different types o beans as well as corn, rice, lettuce, jalapenos, cilantro, green onions, and even different sauces and salsas.  There is quite a bit to choose from.

I opted to try the pork carnitas burrito tonight.  When asked if I wanted the vegetarian black beans or the pinto beans with bacon, I obviously said "the ones with bacon please!" When you order a burrito, seriously, order the medium. It is easily enough food to feed a small army (or a teen age boy). The burrito itself was quite tasty. The sauces were flavourful but I found the carnitas itself to be quite bland and in need of some help from the other ingredients.  The medium salsa I had the girl put in the burrito was more of a mild salsa so I think next time I will opt for the hot.

Hubby and the Boy both ordered the beef burritos and varied their options to suit their own tastes.  Hubby tells me the hot salsa needed more heat and he resorted to multiple additions of hot sauce. The beef had more of a flavourful, Mexican inspired spice to it than the carnitas did and was quite tasty.

Cost wise, Burrito del Rio was nice.  We paid just under $40 for 3 medium burritos, a basket of taco chips with guacamole, 2 can drinks and 1 sangria (I just had to try the sangria. It was from a bottle and not homemade so I was a little disappointed there).  We all left full and happy with our food.

Overall the meal was very tasty and filling.  I don't think I would order the carnitas again but will definitely give something else on the menu a try.  I am not a fan of the basket lined with foil thing they have going on.  We all used a knife and fork to eat and that just cut right through the foil.  We did notice many people pick up their burritos and eat them like that but I just couldn't fit that in my mouth. We will go back and try more food.

A couple of weeks ago, we tried out another cafeteria style Mexican joint on Henderson called JC's Tacos and More.  This is another brightly painted place housed in the old Elmwood post office.  Once your read through the board with a decent number of choices, you have to make up your mind!!  JC's uses all natural and organic meats so that has been worked into the cost. We paid just over $50 for the three of us to eat here for 3 meals and 3 canned pops. There is also a nice offering of home made sauces of varying heat to try out, each one was delectable.

JC's is a cafeteria style restaurant where you order at the counter.  Some of the fillings and items they house up here.  Items such as the rice, beans, beef, and carnitas are held up here but lots of prep goes on in the back.  Other dinners had ordered a burrito and when this tiny lady walked by to deliver this ginormous burrito to the table next to us, I was suprised she could carry it, it was just that big!!

That night, the Boy was still recovering from his gastritis and order a chicken quesadilla.  Grilled chicken fresh ingredients, he truly enjoyed the quesadilla.

quesadilla

Hubby ordered the 3 taco platter with the shredded beef. The platter came with rice and beans. This proved to be quite the filling platter.  The shredded beef was quite flavourful and lent a punch to the taco.

3 taco platter

I ordered the enchilada with grilled chicken...I adored this enchilada. The ingredients used were fresh, the grilled chicken in particular was lovely. I wound up taking leftovers home.

Enchilada platter

a bottle of tasty hot sauce

We did enjoy both restaurants will most likely go back to both of them but at the moment I must say I am leaning towards JC's as the food I enjoyed more.

I am so ready for my burrito coma. I will have to save my ice cream for tomorrow....perhaps for breakfast...

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

On The Road - Day 1

After a long day of driving, we made it to Omaha, Nebraska! We spent pretty much the entire day in the car....really, we did.  Approximately 960km or almost 600 miles. The I 29 just seems to keep going South! Our first stop was in Grand Forks at the Jimmy John's for sandwiches.  We don't have a Jimmy John's back home and when we are on the road we like to stop at the places we don't have at home.

Therefore, our first road meal of the day was sandwiches!  BLTs to be exact!!

We lucked out when we got to the hotel in Omaha tonight there was a Culver's practically in the parking lot! Another restaurant we do not have back home.  I completely forgot the camera in the car but by the time we got to eat, we were pretty darn hungry!  I went with a salad tonight so I could splurge a little and try their deep fried cheese curds....wow! The cheese was tasty, so was the chicken cashew salad.
Back on the road again tomorrow!
 
Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Ravin' Review: Mongos Grill

After tons of holiday cooking, baking, and eating it was time to let someone else do the work! Our lunch stop today was Mongos Grill. We do go here quite often these days. Mongos is a stir fry place. The veggies, meat, noodles, and sauces are laid out buffet style so you get to fill your bowl and create your own masterpiece. I can honestly say I have never had the same meal twice here!

Big ol' bowl of stir fr

When you go to Mongos, you have a choice of getting the 'one bowl' stir fry, the unlimited bowls stir fry, or the soup, salad bar, and stir fry. We have never done the soup and salad bar here, we always go for the stir fry. Mongos provides 25 various veggies for you to choose from which get replenished often. They also offer 10 different protein choices including tofu for you to choose from. Once you choose all of your veggies, meats, and noodles, you have a huge choice of sauces and seasonings to choose from. Mix and match to your heart's content. The choice of 16 sauces plus other seasonings makes sure you get all the flavour you want.

My 'working the grill' blurry shot....oops

There are many tricks to 'stacking' your bowl so you can maximize your one bowl experience:

Hubby likes to use the frozen sheets of beef to make a wall but today that proved a might difficult. The line up for the grill was long and when the frozen meat thaws, you risk an avalanche of tasty goodness!

Notice the drooping meat at the sides...everything settled. Also note noodles on the counter.

My son swears by using the potato slices for his extended wall. He says it works wonders.

Right here under the meat you can see his potato wall...working quite well today!

Today I went with the snow pea wall....first I use the tongs to pile on the snow peas, then take the time to insert them between the edge of the bowl and the food already in the bowl. This worked quite well. I only wish I had taken the time to do this all around as once the meat on the other side thawed.....I had a bowl breach!

Note the bowl breach on the right...the snow peas worked well tough!

Today was a very busy day at Mongos and the line up for the grill was long. It is neat to watch the staff 'work the grill' and cook so many stir fries at once! The waiting really is the hardest part though.

Once the lovely staff take your bowl for frying, you still get more choices!! They will ask you if you want rice and they will give you a bowl or they will mix it into your stir fry....not just rice though. You can choose from white, brown, or fried rice! You can also have an egg added to the mix if you would like. They even crack the egg and cook it along with your food! After the cooking is done, you can even have your stir fry wrapped up in a tortilla or a flavoured wrap if you'd like!

Hubby's stir fry with an egg cooking and rice waiting to be added!

Even though Mongos offers seafood and gluten items, they are very accomadating for allergies. Hubby has a fish/seafood allergy and they will clean the grill for him and give his food extra room on the grill. If you are looking for gluten free, they keep a list of their gluten free sauces on the wall as well as a list of their other gluten free items. The Mongos staff also offer to get you veggies and sauces from the back if you are worried about cross contamination with the buffet style of service. You can also find a list of nutritional information on their website.

Despite being super busy, the food was quite good. The waitress was very nice and pleasant but did seem to have trouble keeping up with tables who needed refills on their drinks. The wait (for us) at the grill wasn't all that bad either. It looked like it slowed down quite a bit after we sat down with our cooked food. That is the one thing with Mongos is you will have to wait in line with your full bowl for them to cook it on the grill.

I have heard people complain about the actual food at this place as well as the taste but this all depends on what you choose to put in your bowl. The veggies are fresh, the meat is fozen and sliced thin. I do think they need to send the clean up crew more often for the floor. People tend to overflow their bowls with sauces or hand landslides of noodles and this makes messy, and slippery on the floor. This is also a great place to feed a hungry teen!

And let's not forget my lightsabre chop sticks from home!