New site!


Right, so back by popular demand, the restaurant review site, but in a new format. Many of these reviews are old, just haven't gotten around to posting them until now. I'll try to date them where I can. You can still check out the old site here


Unlike other foodie bloggers, I however don't own any fancy camera gear - just an old Sony digital camera that works. Maybe if it breaks I'll look at getting something else, but likely just another simple point and shoot type thing that I won't break easily!

So here we go!

"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Oh, I'll accomodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine."
― Anthony Bourdain


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Eastern Fortune

408 16 AVE NE, CALGARY, AB


Craving Chinese food, late at night, my family congregated at Eastern Fortune late Friday night.   You'd ask, who the heck goes for Chinese food at midnight (besides drunk people, that is)?   Every Chinese person there is in Calgary, apparently.   We entered the restaurant around 12:45, to see only two empty tables at the restaurant.   Of course, this one closes almost every night at 3 AM, so it's not entirely unusual.


Eastern Fortune has its standard share of regular things you'd think to order, and then some.   Late night especially, has a special menu, only in Chinese, with smaller plates, for lower prices, but as long as you know what to order, you really don't need any menus here.

For us this night, our meal consisted of fish maw soup, special fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and snow pea shoots.   This is pretty standard for us, mixing more traditional stuff with the North Americanized sweet and sour business. 

First off, the soup isn't for everyone.   It's got this gelatinous texture made of fish maw and pork belly, but for our family, it's great.   This one in particular isn't fishy tasting/smelling, and only needs a small bit of white pepper to top off the chunks of crab meat, fish maw, and other floaty bits in it.


The fried rice that came doesn't have that 'wok hei' that signifies a truly good fried rice, but it's decent, and the shrimp aren't tiny tiny like so many other places.   It serves as a good base for our snow pea shoots as well, which are tender, and garlicky.   While my sister and I both prefer sweet and sour pork with white rice, the fried rice does ok in a pinch, and this restaurant's sweet and sour is good - it's not too sweet, not too sour, has enough sauce, and has nice big chunks of pineapple and pepper to complement the crunchy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside pork.  

Overall, the balance of this meal, once again, is nothing like the supposed 2/3 vegetable and 1/3 meat yin-yang theory, but standard for my family, minimum 2/3 meat to 1/3 veggie!

 Taste:   9.0 - great Chinese food, just know what to order

Presentation:  6.5 - it's not presented fancy, but then it's also not pricey.

Ambiance:   6.0 - standard Chinese restaurant with strange decor all over, stuff left over from other parties, Christmas, etc.

Prices:   $10- $15 for each dish

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