Sushi Club - Calgary, Alberta

Okay, so when I went to Calgary, my friends aunt and uncle took us to the Sushi Club. It is a pretty small place, but the atmosphere was pretty nice. If you are looking for bentos, this is NOT the place for you. They only had rolls, specialty rolls, and little sides. And now, for the good part...THE FOOD!

Appetizers

Edamame - look at the salt!

Shrimp Tempura
Oh my, a funny story goes with this dish. There was a piece of fish tempura and my friend asked if anyone wanted some. I was GOING to say, "I will take a piece" and through my slurred speech became, "I'll take a piss." Needless to say, I got laughed at and to add salt on the wounds, she pointed and said, "the bathroom's THAT way."

Chicken Gyoza
I did not care for these dumplings. The meat was really mushed together and soft...almost like a paste. The skin was good though.

Rolls

Crunchy Calamari Jalapeno Roll
The squid was nicely fried, but I thought it was a little chewy. It was garnished with dill, which I thought added a nice fresh taste, but my friend is anti-dill and did not like it.

Starting from the top, then left to right:
Unagi avocado roll (eel and avocado roll)
Sunkist Roll (smoked salmon, another smoked fish inside, unagi, avocado, and lemon; roe omitted) - very nice pairing with with smoked fish and a thin slice of lemon
Cajun peppered prawn - prawn mixed with mayonnaise, but not overwhelmingly mayonnaisy
Negitoro California roll

A closer look at the Sunkist Roll

Starting from top to bottom:
Mango roll
tempura roll topped with mango. My only thought was that there was too much roe.
Spider roll
Soft shell crap fried very nicely. It was very light, but there was too much roe roe-ling around in my mouth (added the pun for my friend).

And to finish off the meal...

Dessert

Mango and Green Tea Gelato
The mango was kind of like a sorbet. The green tea had a really faint green tea taste. I wished that it was stronger.

Overall, this place was really nice and the food was good and it looked so pretty.

SUSHI CLUB
#103
1240 Kensington rd
N.W, Calgary, AB T2N 3P7
Tel: (403) 283-4100

Packaging: HOMO Milk

Today, I will rant about some food packaging and design. I was going through some old trip pictures and I ran into this:

Carton of milk chilling on the AC unit in the hotel

Island Farms Homo Milk. Now, I know you all must be thinking how immature I am (I bet that is what my family thought when I took this picture as well), but it obviously struck me funny when I saw it since I took a picture of it and I still find if funny now. First of all, I did not even remember taking this picture. My family and I were in Canada in 2006 and from what I remember, my father and sister were in some desperate search for milk. This is what we got. Homogenized milk.

Which leads to the second reason I find this funny. WAS IT REALLY THAT MUCH HARDER TO WRITE "HOMOGENIZED MILK" ON THE CARTON. Did that person designing the carton not think that people like me would find that funny or was it done purposely? And if it was done purposely...then that is pretty darned funny to me.

The other thing I noticed was that it says "island FARMS" and "ISLAND FARMS" twice on one panel. Did they think that people would forget what brand of homo milk was purchased? "...hmm I forgot the name, but you know... the reddish colored carton with the daisies on them?...umm, yeah I just cannot remember the name..." I just thought it was a little overkill.

Then there is the middle panel reading "ISLAND FRESH"...were these cows on some island in Canada? Are they chilling out on some beach by the ocean making them so relaxed that their milk is ISLAND FRESH? I don't know about you, but when I hear ISLAND FRESH, I think about fresh young coconut juice and the fleshy insides...not homogenized cow milk.

Overall, I like the color scheme, because it reminds me of Christmas and Christmas reminds me of eggnog and this...is not eggnog. Makes me a little sad inside that my associations were off yet again. The daisies kind of throw me off though because they have nothing to do with islands or milk. Why not plumeria or orchids? I don't like how the brand is stamped all over the place like they are saying I have a bad memory or I am blind/oblivious. Lastly, I don't see why you don't just type out HOMOGENIZED because there are people like me that chuckle out loud and I don't think you want people laughing at your product. But then again, there are also people like me that buy it because it is funny...so I guess that is not so bad after all.