Today was a busy day of errand running and packing! The good news is that I just received word on where I will be staying in Melbourne during my work assignment. Even better is that I won a coffee today!

Tomorrow will be the last day of Roll Up The Rim for me. Makes me sad already.

Current Statistics:
Record: 4 – 20
Spent: $38.16
Won: $9.23
Probability: 15.36%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

Since it was my last day of work this week, we decided to go out and eat a “midnight snack” after badminton at Happy Valley in Calgary – a great place to get your late night fix of fried food and congee! Shown closest to farthest: fried spicy tofu, snow pea leaves and jelly fish with shredded chicken. Mmm…

Current Statistics:
Record: 3 – 17
Spent: $31.80
Won: $6.66
Probability: 21.11%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

With my visa for Australia clearing yesterday, I estimate that my 2010 consumption for Roll Up The Rim will be a depressing 25 cups total when I leave Thursday. On the bright side, I have an opportunity to take a really different Roll Up The Rim finale picture in Melbourne, so if you have any ideas…

Current Statistics:
Record: 3 – 14
Spent: $27.03
Won: $6.66
Probability: 17.93%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

For anniversaries and birthdays, I’m always hard pressed to find something I’d be proud to gift. When thinking of something to give for those big occasions, I’ve always considered an experience to be more thoughtful than a physical good (unless, of course, its an item that will provide more experiences down the road).

So for our second year anniversary, Michelle and I opted for an experience – an Omakase at El’s Japanese Fusion.

An Omakase is the Japanese equivalent for a tasting menu, except that as a patron, you essentially hand over your money and culinary life into the chef’s hands. We’ve been to El’s Japanese Fusion before to have their sashimi and rolls (which we also highly approve of), so we thought that an Omakase was one of our must-trys. El’s offers three tiers of Omakase: $50, $100 and $150 per person, where I assumed the price levels corresponded with different levels of quality, and all three needed to be reserved in advance.

Mike, the chef at El’s, greeted us after sitting down. As we were newbies at this Omakase-thing, Mike pleasantly explained to us that the Omakase was going to be presented to us one dish at a time, allowing us to enjoy each dish sequentially. At this point, we still had no idea of the dishes to come.

To start off, something warm – a seafood Chawan-mushi. Served in a small cup with a lid and a spoon, the Chawan-mushi was a hot egg custard, and set inside with fish, prawns and green onions on the top. Unlike typical custards, this egg custard was not sweet, but had all the savoury flavourings of the prawns and dashi.

Our second appetizer was a Beef Sashimi, layered with a raw egg yolk and asian pears. We’ve both had beef tataki before, so the concept of near-raw beef was not new – having purely raw slices of beef was definitely unexpected. The raw beef was tender, moist, and hardly chewy. Spreading the egg yolk added texture to the beef, and the julienned asian pears complimented with an unexpected light and fresh way to finish the dish.

Perhaps the most “tame” dishes of the Omakase were the last two appetizers, a salad with sauteed oyster mushrooms, seared scallops and roe. The other dish was an avocado halved, with spicy mayo, atlantic salmon sashimi and avocado pieces – Michelle particularly enjoyed unique presentation, and we’re both suckers for all three of those ingredients used.

After we had finished the above dish and our table was cleared, we heard Mike in the background tell the waitress that the dish was a Live Lobster Sashimi. “Excellent” I thought, I’ve never had raw lobster before! Except…

This lobster was still twitching! The lobster was cut in half, with the claws and body presented on the plate – the tail was carved out and the meat was sliced and presented on top as well. I was impressed (and shocked) with the presentation, but nothing drove the point of ultimate freshness better. And the lobster tail meat was, in a few words, amazing, smooth, firm, clean, fresh.

The lobster was soon whisked away from our table. While recovering from the shock that we actually ate something live and twitching, we were served assorted sushi and rolls including scallop sushi and tuna belly. The lobster soon returned though, cracked and boiled in a large bowl of rich and flavourful miso soup (“Hey buddy, you’re back”). The sushi and lobster miso soup effectively stuffed us.

Rounding off the night was some very un-Japanese cheesecake, which we immediately recognized as the cheesecake available in the freezer section of Costco. The cheesecake was decent, but we definitely would have looked forward to something a bit more Japanese (even green tea ice cream).

The Omakase was fantastic experience, which Michelle and I will be raving for years to come. Each dish was creatively presented and tasted just as great, so I give the chef Mike props for a wonderful meal. I just hope that next time, we don’t get cheesecake for dessert!

El’s Japanese Fusion
17-2008 33 Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2T 1Z4
(403) 217-6796

Please add tiny bottles of ketchup (tomato sauce) to the list of things that can easily amuse me. You can get one with your meal at the Art Central Bistro here in Calgary. Thanks Connie!

Current Statistics:
Record: 3 – 11
Spent: $22.26
Won: $6.66
Probability: 13.67%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

Went to the Wild About Flowers stall at the Calgary farmers market today to pick up some nice gerberas. The staff helped me arrange a unique horizontal vase, with four slots to accommodate flowers with shortened stems.

Oh, and I won a coffee.

Current Statistics:
Record: 3 – 9
Spent: $19.08
Won: $6.66
Probability: 10.45%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

These three losing cups are taken over the new Centennial Place tower being constructed near Calgary, which started more than 3 years ago!

In other news, it has become very tough to say “no” to a invitation to coffee during the Roll Up The Rim contest. However, as I was working on my third steeped tea before noon today, I realized I probably needed to exercise some moderation. Or some resting time between my caffeine buzzes.

Current Statistics:
Record: 2 – 9
Spent: $17.49
Won: $4.09
Probability: 23.52%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

I’ve been procrastinating on packing for an overseas work assignment for the next few months. Being unable to play Roll Up The Rim in Australia, after starting this annual tradition in 2005, is probably the saddest part of going overseas to work while the contest is on.

Did you know that Australian money looks like Canadian money, which looks like Monopoly money? I’m surprised no one during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics quipped about our vibrant dollars…

Current Statistics:
Record: 2 – 6
Spent: $12.72
Won: $4.09
Probability: 17.05%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

Sweet! Two steeped teas in the morning and I’m far above the curve (for now)!

In other unrelated news, Valve released a whole slew of images today that make me think that Steam, and a few Valve games including Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 will be released and compatible natively with a Mac. That would be fantastic.

Current Statistics:
Record: 2 – 3
Spent: $7.95
Won: $4.09
Probability: 8.67%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

Perhaps a better title: “The best way to win a Roll Up The Rim 2010 prize”!

After skimming the rules on the 2010 Roll Up The Rim rules and also briefly comparing them to 2009, there are a few notable changes – some are good-to-know rebalancing numbers, and some may make you rethink your purchasing strategy:

1) The number of contest cups is down by 2.2 million overall.

• Ontario loses the most contest cups at 5 million loss over last year, followed by the American stores at 1.6 million cups lost.
• Quebec gains the most contest cups (2 million), followed by the Prairies and the North (1.8 million).
• If I had to guess, it is because the rate of consumption in the regions of Quebec, Prairies and northern Canada was higher than Tim Hortons estimated.

2) The overall major prize value of the contest is up slightly ($21,800).

• There are five more vehicles (i.e. 2010 Toyota RAV4) this year in the contest.
• The netbooks in the contest now are almost $150 cheaper than the 2009 laptops.
• Consequently, the savings in using the netbooks allowed Tim Hortons to put more money towards the RAV4s.

3) The prize value distribution shuffled a bit between the regions, skewed towards Quebec:

• Quebec ($25,000 gain in prizes over 2009) received the most new cash prizes, netbooks and Tim Cards,
• Ontario ($21,000 gain) received all the additional five RAV4s available to win, but lost a number of other prizes, while
• The region that lost the most this year is USA ($36,000 loss), with reductions in cash prizes, netbooks, Tim Cards, and contest cups!

4) Finally, if you are maximizing your chances to win, the best vs. worst regions to play Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim is (approximately):

• RAV4 – British Colombia (1 in 5,758,000) vs. Prairies and northern Canada (1 in 8,216,800)
• $10,000 Cash Prize – Prairies and northern Canada (1 in 2,738,933) vs. British Colombia (1 in 2,894,000)
• Toshiba Netbook – USA (1 in 277,200) vs. British Colombia (1 in 280,065)
• $100 TIm Card – Same everywhere (1 in 11,174 vs. 1 in 11,177)

If you’re planning to travel and strategize for whatever reason, hopefully the above will help you win that RAV4! For the calculations and support behind the above, please see trusty 2010 Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim Google spreadsheet, under the Cup Distribution tab!