I didn't feel like paying for the high priced lunches along Stephen Avenue, so I took a stroll into Chinatown. I eventually decided to pop into Urban Rice for lunch. It has a weird entrance, you have to go inside an indoor mall to get into the restaurant.
Since I was in a totally new city I decided to try something different, so I scanned the menu for something unfamiliar and my eyes settled on a whole bunch of Congees - I never heard of the dish before, so I ordered a Mixed Meat Congee for about $5 and a Shrimp Dim Sum for $3.50.
The Dim Sum were fabulous- 4 feathery light dumplings chock full of multiple whole shrimps -what a great dish.
And as for the Congee, well it served me right to order something without knowing what it was. It was a bland bowl of soup that tasted like a "Cream of Something" hot cereal. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and learned it's "a type of rice porridge or gruel". Nicely said........
Somehow, the soup's description didn't quite live up to the high expectations I would have had if I knew it was basically a bowl of gruel. It must be an acquired taste, because I didn't care much for it. The congee came with about 4 small shrimps, a few chicken strips, and some meat strips I would swear were liver.
Oh well, it's all good, and I apologize if I offended any congee lovers (or livers) out there. I'll never order that again.
Wandering around Chinatown was a fun experience, seeing all the Chinese bakeries and herbal medicine stores. And based upon the clientele in the restaurant I chose, it was also fun eating in what seemed to be a very authentic place...
By the way, I really like Calgary a lot...