Travel Meals Wrap-up . . .

Work event wrapped up on Friday at noon and Thursday night we all broke into groups and went to dinner at various Banff landmark restaurants.  Mine was Grizzly House known for its fondue and its early beginnings as a swingers club.  Considering how small Banff appears to be that must have been quite interesting.  My table all got the fondue dinner which was cheese fondue, choice of meats to grill on a hot rock and choc fondue for dessert.  I had the Alberta special which I think was Bison, Elk, venison and one other meat.  Can't recall if it was beef or boar but I think it was beef.  Cheese fondue was traditional and tasty. roasted garlic came separate in case you didn't want to dump it the cheese.  I went back and forth between the pot with garlic and the one without.

Main course was the bite sized meat of choice that you speared and cooked on a 650 degree rock brought out to your table.  Drunk people should prob. not be roasting meat on a rock hot enough to burn your skin off but there we were roasting away.  Happy to report no casualties despite 3 bottles of wine and pre-dinner cocktails.  At one point I was invited to bring my family to stay at a co-workers weekend home in the mountains.  Not that I'm not super friendly and likeable, but I suspect the invite had something to do with all the wine.  Tempted to call and accept the offer to see if she remembers putting it out there.

chunks of meat and dipping sauces

 

Chocolate fondue with fruit and chunks of some cake I think

Very hot rock

Last of course came the chocolate fondue.  And it was real chocolate I might add.  Not fake chocolate fountain at Golden Corral chocolate.  Toblerone chocolate.  The restaurant also sold a 4.5 kg Toblerone for $125 CAN.  Being metrically challenged I had to ask how many pounds that was to warrant the heavy price tag.  After the entire table (of Canadians) rattled off the conversion factor, it was decided that that was about 10 pounds.  That, my friend is a lot of chocolate.  I'd give this a 3.5 total. The traditional fondue was my favorite part of the meal.  I could have stuffed myself silly with cheese and bread.

Next day was group breakfast.  Pretty decent scrambled eggs, ham, bacon and some link sausage of an indeterminate origin.  It was tasty though so maybe I don't care what it was.

And, bonus, it was warmer than most of the other food eaten at the Fairmont that week.  I did not eat at all the restaurants in the hotel.  Truth be told one of the better things I had was a sandwich from the coffee bar.  Food quality and prep was uneven so I can't give the hotel food more than a  3 and that is an average.  Plus it drove me crazy that none of the hot food was ever actually hot.

After the meetings were over Hubs and I took a drive to Lake Louise, around the glaciers and then back to Banff for dinner before heading to Calgary.  Lunch at the Chateau Lake Louise was in the Lake Lounge.  Overall nice meal although I kept thinking my entree would taste more.  It was too subtle bordering on  the bland.  I had a shrimp and scallop lentil cassoulet.  Shrimp and scallops all cooked well, but I wanted my dish to have some saffron and a hint of curry.  It's a shame to use that many lentils in something and not have even a dash of curry in there.  I threw on some salt and pepper and ate it all.  Portions were on the small side so that wasn't really as much as it may sound like.

 Hubs had a cobb salad with salmon.  I think he liked it.  I was fascinated with how yellow the egg yolks were there.  They were almost orange.  Dessert was a raspberry mousse cake that had about zero cake and was all mousse.  It was fine.  Not great. I was wanting more cake and less mousse so I felt kind of let down by the dessert.

Dinner took us back to Banff to the Bear Street tavern for some pizza.  We started with garlic sticks with bacon added.  YUM.  marinara served with them was cold which I didn't care for.  I think you should heat that marina at the very least so people don't think you just spooned it out of a jar -- even if you did in fact just spoon it out of a jar.

Before the pizza came the server brought out a giant thing of honey and chili oil.  She said it was to mix together and dip your pizza into?  Uh gross.  No thank you.  I admit I did try it and yeah. it was kind of gross.  Not in like a spit it out can't eat it way but just not a good flavor combo--pizza with spicy honey that is.

 Pizza was delish.  Very thin crispy crust.  We just had a margarita with some sausage. I also had an awesome local beer from Grizzly Paw in Canmore.  Not sure though if its the Rutting Elk Red or the Bar Honey Wheat.  Either way it was a very nice beer with a good taste and good finish.

I really enjoyed this food.  Bear Street Tavern gets a 4 and a recommended.

Now, if I can just get caught up on my other posts . . .