2 Meh Meals in Saskatoon, and 1 Great One

Last weekend we were in Saskatoon to see my mom.  For dinner on Friday evening we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Primal Pasta.  We were pretty excited to go to this place, as they make all the pasta in-house, and had good reviews.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed in our meal.

To start we had the caponata with buffalo mozzarella and bread:

It was decent, although for the price, we expected more (both in amount of mozzarella, and quality of the dish).  The bread was soft, and pretty good.

I ordered the rigatoni with goat cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, greens and truffle oil:

And Christopher had the squid ink puttanesca conchiglie bottarga, with olives and capers:

Mine was alright, but not worth the price, as we could easily make this dish at home for a couple of dollars; it was was very basic.  Christopher's pasta was really under cooked; the shells were crunchy!  He is a puttanesca lover, but this one just didn't cut it.  We would have mentioned something to the server if it wasn't 20 minutes before closing time.  Since it was late and we were tired, we just ate quickly so we could get to our hotel to sleep.

Next time we want fresh pasta in Saskatoon, we'll go back to Little Grouse on the Prairie.

Unfortunately we had another mediocre meal the next morning, this time at Park Cafe.  It's hard to screw up an omelette and hashbrowns, but this place just doesn't have it down yet ...

The eggs were super dry, and the potatoes were bland.

The next day we had an excellent meal though!  We picked up a pizza from a newer place called Thirteen Pies.  My brother-in-law Riley recommended this restaurant to us.  The pizza is made with a sourdough crust - mmm!

We went inside to order the pizza to-go, and then sat and enjoyed a beverage while waiting for it.  The service was wonderful, and when the pizza came out it smelled amazing!  We couldn't wait to get it back to our hotel room to dig in.

If the pizzas have the same base (tomato sauce, or white sauce), you can get 1/2 and 1/2 to try two kinds.  We had The Killer Cheese (fior de latte, mozza, provolone, truffle honey, leeks, white sauce), and The White Walker (roasted mushrooms, provolone, mozzerela, ricotta, white sauce, truffle oil), and we couldn't pick a favourite of the two.  Both were fantastic!  It's Brooklyn-style pizza, but I think it is better than any pizza I've ever had in Brooklyn.

The sourdough crust was excellent.  We're looking forward to going back to Thirteen Pies many, many more times in the future.

The photo isn't great as it was dark, but the pizza is well worth a visit.

Our server at Thirteen Pies was surprised that we had a bad meal at Primal Pasta, and he encouraged us to give it another try sometime, so we might head back to Primal Pasta to see if they can impress us on a second visit.

Have you tried any new restaurants lately?  

Where is the best pizza in your city?

Breakfasts in Chiang Mai

At Akyra Manor our breakfast was included each day of our stay, at their lovely restaurant, Italics. 

They have a large breakfast menu, and each person can choose two dishes from it (they are smaller sized portions), in addition to choosing items from the buffet (juices, cereals, pastries, cheese, meats, etc.).

And if that's not enough, the servers also bring out a tiered tray each morning with fresh fruit, baking, and a hot dish.  Between the tiered serving tray, the buffet, and the menu items, we had more than enough to eat.

We had breakfast at Italics a lot, but also wanted to head out to try a few other places.

One restaurant we really enjoyed, and visited twice, was Manifreshto.  Their fresh smoothies and juices were excellent.

Another day we went to the beautiful outdoor eating area at Rustic and Blue.  Christopher had a smoothie bowl, and I barely made a dent in the massive plate of chicken and waffles.

One afternoon we were wandering and came across Fuu, not far from our hotel.  I had been wanting to try soufflé pancakes for a while, so we made sure to stop in for breakfast.

They tasted just as delicious as I expected them to, and we went back one more time before our trip was over.

The breakfast options in Chiang Mai are endless.  Khao soi is also a popular breakfast item!  I usually lean toward savory breakfasts, but the waffle from Italics, and those soufflé pancakes swayed me to the sweet side, at least for a few days.

Do you prefer a sweet or savory breakfast?

New Eats

A couple weekends ago we made a whole bunch of new recipes.  There was the fresh pasta, beet gnocchi, and cappuccino pavlova, but that was just half of our cooking/baking adventure.

We made a new breakfast casserole:

It starts with a layer of Italian sausage (cooked):

Then cheese:

An egg mixture:

And a layer of frozen hash browns (or tater tots):

Then it goes into the oven, and it wakes up your senses as it cooks:

We each had a slice, and then had breakfast for the start of the work week.

Find the recipe here.

Another new dish we tried was slow cooker Moroccan chicken, and we loved it!  We are huge fans of olives, and the lemon also made this so flavourful.  We served it with brown rice.

The raisins really added something to it; if you make this, I would not recommend eliminating them.  I think the dish needs all the elements.

For dessert I made a batch of chocolate chip Oreo cookies.

I really enjoy desserts with Oreo in them, and these instantly caught my eye.  They were easy, and a perfect recipe.  I'd make them again for sure.

And if that wasn't a delicious enough weekend, we also tried a couple new cheeses and some walnut sausage that we found at the grocery store down the street.

Spring has finally appeared, and it is beautiful!  We walked to dinner at dusk this past Saturday evening to really enjoy the evening weather, and it felt so good to be outside.  I can't wait to spend loads of time outdoors in the coming months.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  Did you get outside at all?  Have you cooked/ baked anything new recently?