Treats: Red Velvet Cheesecake

Lately I’ve been infatuated with Red Velvet cake – and it has manifested itself in cupcakes, cakes, ice cream, and other treats.  Not too long ago, I found Red Velvet Cheesecake at Co-op, and of course, I had to pick up some for a treat!

Of course, because I’m a klutz, I bagged the cake myself.  (And tipped it on it’s side..) then it tipped again when serving it… So – the photo isn’t fantastic.

Red velvet + cheesecake = irresistible!

But, looks aren’t everything (so say the pretty boys and girls…) and taste is what we’re really after here!  This one had an icing-sugar-heavy style topping (which I found way too sweet) and the cheesecake itself was kind of crumbly and dry.  It was as though instead of adding the flavours and colour of Red Velvet – they added proper cake batter inside an otherwise plain cheesecake.

It was tasty, but didn’t really have the red velvet flavour that I was after… plus the texture was kind of.. well, not ideal.

So, maybe next time I’ll try this recipe from My Recipes dot com instead!  However, if you like the cake + cheesecake idea, The Sweet Wife has some beautiful photos and a recipe instead!

 

Co-Op Sushi to go

I almost feel like I really don’t need to even talk much about Co-op sushi to go anymore.  I’ve posted it more than once now, (just check our Fast Food Sushi tag) so let’s get right to the photos!

Chef Sampler

 

Chef Sampler

 

Spicy Rainbow Roll - just looking at this makes me hungry!

 

Spicy Rainbow Roll

 

Sushi: Another sushi dinner to-go

With our house in reno-hell and too many other things on our plate right now, we’ve been eating out a lot.  This means a lot of take out, a lot of restaurants, and not very many groceries in the house.  I don’t mind when I get the chance to have sushi as part of that… but I’m not exactly happy about it overall.  Oh well.. hopefully soon the renovations will be over!

Chef's special

I just wanted to share a quick snap of one of the Co-op sushi meals I had a few days ago.  It’s a rainbow roll (a crab, avocado, and cucumber roll topped with eel, salmon, and avocado.  Plus, there’s the cute little “flower” roll of salmon and avocado to go with it.  Yum!  Nothing from there has been as good as that Dragon roll was a while back though… hmmm maybe I’ll have to ask for something made fresh next time I go in????

 

Sushi: Sushi to-go

With renovations in our house and a bunch of things on our ‘to-do’ list, the opportunity to make dinner at home seems to be lower on the scale of importance, so we’ve been eating out/take out/etc a lot more often. Of course, keeping sushi top of the eating out list is definitely a priority!  The other day we popped to Co-op again, and picked up some sushi to-go along with some salads from the deli.

Red Rock sushi from Co-op

This sushi was called Red Rock, and it was a California roll inside (crab meat, avacado, cucumber) with a generous helping of salmon and flying fish roe on top.  Under the topping was the same spicy sauce they use with spicy tuna rolls (or spicy salmon rolls!) which gave a really interesting kick to the roll.  There were also these crazy little puffed things that reminded me a bit of rice cake crumbles or Rice Krispies… they were strange.

The reason this looks as messy as it does – the tray fell over in the bag as we were bringing it home.  😦

 

Sushi: Co-Op to-go

I’ve mentioned that when looking for ‘fast food’  or take out sushi, that Co-op is actually not too bad.  I was there a few days ago grabbing a quick dinner (I wasn’t in the mood to cook), and thought I’d share what we had.

First up – Salmon nigiri-style sushi with a salmon and avocado roll.

The salmon was good, but not especially flavorful.  Still, better than a lot of other fast-food sushi!

Salmon!

Next up, a rainbow roll, also served with a salmon and avocado roll.

Rainbow Roll

The Rainbow roll was ok – but it was a bit too large.  I don’t love those large rolls, because I find them hard to eat!

Rainbow Roll

But it certainly was pretty!

Salmon/Avacado roll

And the smaller roll was shaped like a flower!

Have you tried out some of the to-go sushi from Co-op yet?  What do you think?  Let us know in the comments below!

This time around I shopped at the Co-Op on Richmond Road SW, though there are Co-op stores all over Calgary, and I’ve bought sushi from the downtown location and MacLeod Trail locations too.

 

 

Sushi: Sating the craving

Marina plate

I don’t typically shop at Co-op, but tonight I was over at the Co-op on Richmond Road and thought that I would pick up sushi for dinner.  (Along with some of the fantastic gelato that they stock in the deli area.)  I tried their Marina pre-packaged sushi dinner along with a Dragon Roll.

I really should have been paying more attention to the contents (rather than just looking at which colours appealed to me……) because the Marina plate has shrimp in the rolls (along with tuna and salmon nigiri sushi), and I’m not a huge fan of shrimp, and the Dragon Roll was an eel Dragon Roll, and eel is not one of my favorites either.  I just saw that salmon and avacado, and was suckered in!

Distracted shopping aside though, I was really quite pleased with my dinner.  The woman behind the counter was friendly while I was picking things out, (and I also picked up a new frozen gyoza to try another night too!) which is always good to start things off.  The rice in the Marina plate was good – not too sticky, but didn’t fall apart when dipped in soy sauce either.  The small rolls with shrimp in them were… ok.  I don’t really care for shrimp, and the shrimp were pretty prominent in the roll.  The tuna was very flavorful, but in that plate – the salmon was the best – very good tasting, without any ‘fishy’ flavor or scent.

Tasty dragon roll

The Dragon Roll was excellent though!  It was colder than what I would normally have in a restaurant, but other than that, I would honestly say that it was on par with most of the restaurants I go to.  The sauce was tangy and sweet (but not too sweet), the sesame seeds weren’t overpowering, and the eel was good (for someone who wouldn’t purposefully order eel).  The avocado was good but not exceptionally flavorful, and the salmon was, like the nigiri sushi in the other plate, very good.  The roll filling was tasty as well; the rice in the roll was just as good as the Marina plate as well.  The roll was also a decent size – not tiny, but not so big that I had to tear the pieces apart to eat them.

While I was at the counter, I noticed that they had a number of other specialty rolls – normally I don’t bother with them, but I might partake the next time I get to Co-op!

As an aside, I just got a brand-new camera phone… what do you think of the photos?  Let me know in the comments below!