Home cooking, pasta dinner

Leaving Edmonton was tough. Leaving a wonderful girlfriend in Edmonton was even tougher. Thankfully, we were able to find some time and she was able to come visit early on in my residency. Knowing she was to arrive Friday night, I wanted to prepare a special meal. I was given a pasta machine a few months ago by a close friend and bam! I had the inspiration for this special meal:

#1: Snap-pea pinot grigio risotto, grilled spicy prawn. I added some grated parmesan in the risotto to make up the creaminess.

#2: Roasted spaghetti squash ravioli, lobster cream sauce. Cooking this in the leftover lobster sauce really added some nice flavor to the ravioli

#3: Fettuccine Alfredo, grilled chicken. Simple home-made Alfredo sauce of garlic, cream and a TON of Asiago. Finished with Parmesan.

#4: Spaghetti and rustic tomato sauce, spicy chorizo. Chunky tomatoes with lots of basil and oregano made this sauce possible.





Hope you enjoyed the meal babe! Upcoming are dining out pictures for my birthday.

First few weeks - Sukhothai

Wow, what a whirlwind the first few weeks have been. Working the last three weeks in the NICU taking care of newborns was both an exciting but challenging world for me. It was babies, babies, babies everywhere at first, each with their distinctive reasons why they couldn't enjoy the company of their mothers. Some were labeled as "feeders & growers", a colloquial medical term for small but stable babies who were just there to get big. Others were complex, with their mixture of major gastrointestinal (gut), cardiac (heart), and pulmonary (lung) problems. The toughest and most emotional patients are the bad outcomes. Thankfully, modern medicine has grown to a point where we are able to resuscitate and take care of extremely small babies and give them a, mostly, normal and healthy life. However, as we stretch our medical capabilities to the limit, we begin to see patients with a litany of extreme and strange problems, some of them not compatible with life. Many times I saw our medical team take a "timeout" after a bad outcome and regroup. Seeing the despair and anguish in the parents took its toll on me. Thankfully, the cohesiveness of our team and support we have for one another made the difficult cases bearable and tolerable.

On the other hand, I began to explore the wonder that is Osborne village. Taking a quick break after an academic half-day, me and a fellow co-resident went to the village for a meal. Wanting to try Bangkok Thai, we found it was closed that particular day, darn! Well, we settled on Sukhothai,

Opening the unassuming menu found the basics and some novel items. The decor was nice and well lit.

We started with something new: stuffed chicken wings. Deep fried delicious wings stuffed with vermicelli, pork and vegetables. Went well with the sweet chili sauce.

A Thai pancake was not the obvious thing to order off the menu but boy was it delicious! Thin crepe filled with pork and vegetables served with lettuce wraps. Different but excellent!

It is difficult for me to go to a Thai restaurant and not order the pad Thai. We got the pad Thai shrimp. Tasty, but a small portion and only a few small pieces of shrimp. Somewhat underwhelming compared to some of my favorite Thai places.

The damage was as expected for a thai meal. Definitely worth a try if you are around. Next time, its off to Bangkok Thai I go!

Finding Chinese - Huang Pu River Restaurant

When I have a craving, its usually for Chinese food. There are days when I find myself irritable and moody, only to realize that I had not had dim sum or hot pot for quite some time. I was hankering for some Chinese in Winnipeg and stumbled by a Chinese restaurant Huang Pu River Restaurant while out shopping with my mom.

I am often wary of Chinese restaurants because there are as many "authentic" restaurants as there are the non. My rule of thumb is to stay away from food court Chinese and to always ask (and order) from the Chinese menu. Not only do you get more variety but prices are often better (*insert guilty eyes*).

Huang Pu River was authentic, score! Upon leafing through the menu we realized it had the usual Chinese delicacies and some special dishes like Peking duck and live seafood.

My favorite "style" of Chinese cooking is in a clay pot. Often called the hot pot section (not to be confused with actual hot pot or steamboat) you often can find braised meats with vegetables in an delectable sauce. We ordered an Eggplant Seafood Szechuan Spicy Hot Pot. Mix of squid, scallop and shrimp with eggplant. Tad oily, but delicious.

To mend my guilt of eating so much oil I often get a vegetable. We got the Express Special Vegetables. Chinese mushrooms, tofu skin, vermicelli and snow peas in a starchy sauce. We finished this entire dish between the two of us.

Because it was my mom's last day in Winnipeg, we wanted to order something a little more special: Roast Duck. Although it looks quite good, the taste was mediocre. The dish overall did not taste very fresh with the skin having a "soggy" texture to it and meat tough.












Overall good meal despite the disappointing duck. Definitely somewhere to go if in a bind for Chinese but from my understanding, there are lots more places to try!

First day of school! And food at Peasant Cookery

For some reason, going to residency orientation felt like first day of school. I woke up extra early that morning to shower, do my hair and pick out my attire. I found the first two days of orientation a important but relaxing way of easing us into the swing of things. For the majority of us new residents, we had taken the last couple months off as a vacation and did not go anywhere near a stethoscope, much less see patients. Thus, a few days of reminders about policy and rules were a nice gentle jolt back into the life of a doctor.

Our reward was a fancy dinner with our program director and chief residents at the Peasant Cookery. Our dinner was scheduled at 6:30PM and I left my place with only ten minutes to spare. Okay, I will be honest: I was watching the NHL Draft and see who my Oilers were going to pick third overall. Nevertheless, I had Google Mapped the distance and knew I could make it in the ten minutes. Or that's what I thought.

Upon pulling out from my complex, I was immediately welcomed by a torrential rainfall. Winnipeg had been overcast and drizzling over the past few days but this was the first time where it downright poured. Gritting my teeth and cursing my luck, I set out to Peasant Cookery. What should have been a ten minute drive amounted to twenty, then thirty. I realized that Winnipeg, similar to Edmonton, has a pothole problem. When these potholes are filled with water and other cars drive through them, up comes a colossal wave of rain water that fills your entire windshield. Needless to say, I was blind q30seconds (that's medical talk for every thirty seconds). At one time, I could not see the road anymore so I had to slow to a crawl just to make sure I survived this drive. Case in point: give extra travel time when going somewhere unfamiliar.

I was grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the night though. The Peasant Cookery menu looked marvelous. And dining with my fellow residents and staff also made sharing a possibility:

I started off with a Stiegl Radler. My friends in Edmonton had previously taught me that a Radler was a beer mixed in with a juice or soda. Wanting something refreshing I got the Stiegl which is a beer mixed with grapefruit juice.

The first dish I shared with a few of my co-residents was the beef tartar. Delightful chunks of beef mixed with onions and seasoned perfectly.

The beet salad was light, fresh and refreshing. A nice accompaniment to my beer and contrast from the tartar.

Two of my fellow residents raved about the oysters at Peasant Cookery and constantly reminded us about the buck a shuck Wednesdays. Having heard about these oysters so much, I had to order one to try. Out came a freshly shucked beautiful oyster. Topped with my favorite condiments I can see why people go crazy about these


For my main I had the beef brisket. It came with mashed potatoes, green beans and beans covered with a homemade BBQ sauce. Overall this dish was a disappointment. My pieces of brisket were over 50% fat! The small pieces of meat I did have though, were delicious.

For dessert we shared profiteroles. I learned that night that these were souped up versions of cream puffs and were invented in the United States. No wonder I looked odd when trying to order them with an Italian flourish.

We also ordered a creme brulee. Very well done, nicely crusted sugar topping on top of smooth custard. No complaints, very tasty.













Overall an incredible meal with incredible people. It makes me more excited to share these next four years with them!

Meeting my fellow co-workers - Stella's Cafe & Bakery

After returning from Naru, I unpacked and set out to organize my new apartment. Thankfully my amazing mom had flown in from Ontario that night to help me set everything up. The next day was the Brick delivery day, internet set-up and, most importantly, a dinner hang-out with my fellow new pediatric co-residents!

Being an out of towner, I was thankful that one of the local Winnipeg residents took it upon themselves to organize the event. Knowing very little about my next meal, I explored the world of Stella's Cafe.

But first, a word about my new co-workers. There are nine of us in pediatrics this year at the University of Manitoba. I am extremely fortunate to have an incredible group of doctors to grow, train and learn with! Two of them I had instant familiarity with as we had done medical school together, but all the others were lovely, fun, attentive and caring people. I could not have wished for anything more! By the end of the night I felt we were old friends and supported as we go through this adventure together.

Oh, and the good food helped a bit too! I had initially asked what was good at Stella's and the immediate answer was the breakfasts! I eyed the Eggs Benedict closely but ended up opting for a heartier dish.

I ordered the Ratatouille and opted to have chicken put on top. I know, I know. Ratatouille is a classic french vegetable stew with no protein in it! But I was super famished by that time and had some carnivore instincts that night. Out came a HUGE plate: a third covered with a garden salad, a third with quinoa, and a third with the most delicious ratatouille I have ever had. The mixture of squash, eggplant, tomatoes and mushrooms in a tangy tomato-ey broth was hearty and exactly what I needed.


I wish I had taken more pictures of the other dishes that were ordered, but take it from me. The Eggs Benedicts looked and smelled out of this world. I will be back for sure!

First meal in Manitoba - Naru Sushi

Change is something that everyone has to go through. Growing up in Edmonton I often found myself moving, whether be it from one school to another (I went to three elementary schools in a four year period) or from apartment to apartment (to home). The move from Edmonton to Winnipeg, though, is definitely the most jarring. Leaving behind most of my family and loved ones, I not only have to transition to a new city but also to a new job/internship/school. Thankfully I was able to find a great apartment in the heart of Winnipeg in the Osborne Village, a number of fantastic classmates who also made the move with me to Winnipeg, and a super supportive program and staff I will be working for.

I made the unenviable drive from Edmonton to Winnipeg on June 23rd with a layover in Regina. One of my friends, thankfully, was able to join me for the second leg of the drive so it was not as tedious as it could have been. After arriving in Winnipeg and getting my apartment, I turned my attention to my first meal. Being so close to Osborne Village we decided to walk Osborne Street. What I found impressed and amazed me: the litany of small unique boutiques and restaurants were endless. Hungry and tired from the drive, we picked the first Japanese restaurant we saw, Naru.

The menu had the standard sushi fare I had come to expect from a Japanese restaurant. What intrigued me were all the signature rolls that they were known for.

Realizing we were not going to be able to try everything, the two of us decided to split three of their special rolls and vowed to return for their sashimi.

Started it off with a miso soup. I find a good bowl of miso soup ($2/bowl) cleanses your palate and has a soothing effect. Winnipeg was rather cold (15 Celsius) that day so this was the perfect start to the meal.




Next was a sushi pizza, we opted for the spicy salmon version ($9.95). This dish was interesting. Obviously there was little opportunity for the Japanese and Italians to meet during their history, so the sushi pizza was the invention of North American sushi chefs. At the bottom is a layer of rice patty and then ingredients like cucumber, salmon, avocado are piled on top. The dish is finished off with some wasabi, Japanese mayo (we opted for spicy) and some roe. Really tasty and filling. It was difficult to tell how fresh the salmon but the few pieces I had tasted excellent with good fat and texture

Our second roll was a butterfly roll ($8.50). Chunks of salmon and tuna topped with roe. This was a relatively pedestrian roll but we wanted to order it to offset the heavy pizza and the gargantuan finale (see below). It worked perfectly as a contrast to the two other rolls we ordered.

Last was the star of the event. When I perused the menu I knew I had to try to Extreme Volcano ($19.88) which was described to us as a spicy seafood roll they flambe at the table! Now, I am not a pyromaniac but the prospect of food being lit on fire via alcohol is something I have to see.

We were slightly disappointed that the roll was brought to the table pre-lit, but I suppose there are fire regulations and rules they have to follow.

What a site to behold! On the bottom is a salmon roll which is then topped with scallop, tempura bits, bonito flakes. Then the entire thing is drizzled in Japanese mayo and hot sauce then lit on fire. Absolutely incredible. The dish itself tasted fine but the ingredients were somewhat drowned out by the mayo flavor.

After finishing the meal, I declared to myself that I would try all of these excellent Osborne restaurants. Thanks for the great start Winnipeg and I look forward to eating your city over the next four years!

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I just finished medical school in Edmonton, AB and recently moved to Winnipeg to pursue a residency in pediatrics. I created this blog as a way of de-stressing and keeping in touch with my friends and family from Edmonton and abroad.

My hope is to give a gastronomic tour of Winnipeg (and wherever else I end up) that is both informative and entertaining. In between the food I hope to use this avenue as a way of creating advocacy and public education about important pediatric health issues.

I hope you enjoy what you read here! I dedicate this blog to my wonderful girlfriend Marilyn, who has been the most supportive and caring person in my life and who makes me a better person everyday. I wish that you would be able to experience all this in person babe, miss you lots!