jamiemaw

This week, according to the City Food website. Official opening party, by invitation, on September 1. ← They had the first of the F + F soft openings last night. They should open later this week for business.

i came across a very apt Jane Grigson quote the other day " We have more than enough masterpieces. What we need is a better standard of ordinariness." ← Well done. And, perhaps, the entire point of this small discussion.

Hey, now hang on. The Red Dog hands out logoed condoms now (in lieu of matchbooks) at the door. On the other hand, at least on the cruise ships I've been on, they were slightly redundant given the demography of my fellow cruisers and the utter unattainability of the Fabulous Celebrity Dancers. Heidi, Tanya and Yvette, please copy.

Me thinks we should hire you. How do you feel about a quick 3,000 words on 'Leer Factor: Three Alarming Things To Do With Milan's Tomato Horn Worms'. Or 'The Stoli Vanilla Martini That Changed My Life'. Your call, J.

Keith, first, our apologies. We really should have been much more sensitive to you. Second, well there really is no second, is there? Unless it's the Burquitlam-Whalley triangle. Yours in deep chagrin, Jamie

Any old Port in a storm. Or as my grandfather said of rejoining the ladies quickly, "Any old sport in the dorm." Merely thought you were going Continental. Or at least Town Car.

Thanks for the great snaps, Arne. Terrific looking food. I was in the OK, feeding the masses at Ingo Grady's annual shivaree--German theme this year with all products in kilos to the power of ten. I grilled bratwurst Nuremburger for several hours while Fat Betty sang and the winemakers talked amongst themselves. Which just goes to show you--there's been a lot of great food going down this summer. Many thanks for the You Were There tour, J.

Thanksgiving falls pretty early this year--October 10th. I have my eye on a handsome bird who should tip out in the high teens--optimal food to fuss ratio. But autumn will truly engage with braised boar with Milan's tomatoes. We've frozen some jars for just such an occasion, waiting for Daylight Savings to peter out, a blast of the first cold wind and corduroy trousers to peter in.

Yeah, you're too young! When French restaurants began to assert themselves in the early seventies (almost a decade after the repeal of the liquor legislation) we began to see cheese being served before the sweet. Now, as many have mentioned, it's almost become a dessert replacement.

Sounds like this should be in the business section. ← Actually, I think they call this area the financial district in Toronto. Thanks, George.

I`m quite fond of the pig variety. I`ll leave that one open We ( and by that i mean egulleters ) are not your average punter, yes we are trying to keep guard of the high ground, but this thread, and it`s sister thread on the topic of Watermark seems to me as futile as a bmw driver Criticising the local bus service. Your average tourist punter WILL be having a great ol` time here, if for no other reason than he / she is on holiday. when it comes to having something to eat that average tourist punter will be spoilt for choice, and like a rabbit in the headlights will head for safety. So where`s safe round here then ? Earls..?... yeah probably there`s a menu with something for every one at Earls a menu with real words on it and a dollar value that speaks the language of most. and i aint ever had a bad meal there . So lets use earls as a bench mark . 3. If there was a branch of Earls on kits beach would you still moan ? ← 1. At first I thought that more of us should be smoking the brand of octopi that you are. But seriously, you bring up some great points, TFA. 2. I don't think that we raise the bar too highly at all, especially given that some of the best food available on the oceanside is being pushed out of a trailer and without benefit of a liquor license. Further, the pricing at Nu looks to be pretty reasonable and I think you'll find the room accessible and the food to be of high quality. Of course, it's the marketplace that sets the bar. 3. It's entirely likely that there will be an Earls on the Beach fairly shortly. Then we'll see.

Funny. Because I've probably got a few laps on some of you, growing up in Vancouver after the war (Crimean), you would never see the cheese course before the pudding. Didn't happen, in restaurants or in homes. That's because the men needed something to do such as swill Port after the women retired to the (with) drawing room. It was still--in those days at least--British Columbia after all.

Growing up here, the cheese course was always served in Vancouver restaurants and homes after dessert, at least until the resurgence of independent French dining rooms in the early 70s. It was for precisely the reason that you cite, Bux--it is British Columbia, after all. Or as my father said, You eat the pudding, the women retire, then cheese and any old Port in a storm (i.e. pitched debate on the issues of the day).

I've heard only that Ki is: 1. Opening in late September 2. 11,000 square feet 3. Cost $7 million and counting 4. Is to be operated by David Aisenstat, Canada's largest independent restaurateur (c. 100 properties; 2004 sales c. $360 million) 5. Modern Japanese (whatever that means--izakaya?) with bovine opportunities Can you help fill in the blanks?

We called it frog spawn at ours. You can imagine what we called the raisins.

The first woman ... not exactly a new idea! Bet she will do quite nicely! ← How long will it likely take for her to pass the Confirmation Hearings in your senate, GG?

This seems like a bit of a problem for large, commercial plants. There is an increased risk of botulism here that is very real, and very serious. The idea of letting raw garlic and olive oil rest in an anaerobic environment, then cooking for 8 hours @ 200 f gives me the shivers. There are two chains that I know of that forbid Cryovac'd food, as well as a large hotel chain. -- Matt. ← Have a read of the article, Matt, and then see what you think. And you would actually cook at considerably less than 200 degrees F with zero loss of life! Thus far that is.

Tangerine, I think Sam. Could be a great looking room too. David Nicolay designed Tangerine and Coast. I like them because they look like Vancouver and not, say, like TriBeCa-by-the-Sea. Besides, we need more bull kelp chandeliers in our lives.

I agree that the Joe Fortes experience was instructive. And since I know next to nothing about restaurant operations and costing, I couldn't develop an argument to the contrary even if I wanted to. I will be interested to see how this sous vide revolution plays out in Vancouver. I think West is the only place I've had something cooked sous vide, or at least it's the only place that was explicit about it. Is sous vide being used relatively widely now in upper end restaurants here? ← No, Anne, it's not widely pracyiced yet, and you have to chuckle a bit at some of the big new kitchens that have been recently built without the equipment required. David Hawksworth and Rob Feenie are experimenting, from what I know, however slow poaching in oil (especially seafood) is still much more prevalent here. At home, watch for the new sous vide station--sort of like that wok man option of a few years ago.

Yes, Karole. First the pressure of crovacking can be manipulated to change texture, intensify flavour by imbuing marinades more quickly, or simply (and this is the application for large scale catering and three ring binder restaurants) allowing almost perfect consistency with intensive flavouring. Here's an explanatory article that examines the many applications of sous vide cookery and its apostles. You've probably already done it by taking a quart of rosemary, garlic, lemon, thyme, oil and pepper up to the butcher and asking him to pour it into the Cryovacked butterflied leg of lamb. Now try searing the lamb first, then marinating (less quantity) and veryslowly poaching instead of grilling. Amazing.

Suck or chew?

Fair enough, barolo, but I would argue that many of the big boxes charge prices only just below or even at the average cheque of fine dining rooms. Many charge protein entrees in the $25 (poultry) to $45 (surf and turf) range--hardly a bargain. Just look at how hard you had to scratch your head to combine view, food and relative economy (excuse me)--and you chose well. But I'd maintain that the juggling act of pricing versus quality--as Joe Fortes has recently rediscovered--is not as complex as it might appear. It's really a rather gentle leap of faith, or in the case of restaurants such as Go Fish (which does it year-round without booze), belief. Second, if the quality of food was better on average in these rooms with a view, does it not follow that they might be more popular with locals off-season? Seems Bud Kanke, Darren and Frenchie have become converts. A couple of postcards from the ocean of love . . . 1. In a recent letter to the editor, a friend of the managing director of a major new big box called called the flashy room “a real estate deal cleverly disguised as a restaurant.” 2. Two years ago several big box destination chefs and I patrolled the city. They'd asked me to show them what I regard as ‘Best in Show’ menu items, i.e: the city’s best squid, chicken, lamb and salmon dishes etc. In other words, stuff that they could replicate in their own kitchens. So off we went, to Phnom Penh, Villa del Lupo, Cioppino’s Enoteca, and elsewhere. They liked what they tasted. A lot. They took copious notes. You might think that this would have been a joyous evening—eating the very best the city has to offer. But after a few stops, the mood in the van turned glum, even dark. Then one of the chefs actually burst into tears. When I asked what the matter was, she said that but for a couple more per cent on her food cost budget, that she thought she could accurately replicate these flavours. But that simply wasn’t going to happen, she explained; she felt doomed to a life of pre-grilled red peppers and zucchini discs, portion-cut salmon fillets and bombastic desserts. I think that sous vide is going to knock this category on its ear--the biggest revolution in large scale cookery since Escoffier lit his stove at the Savoy.

Yes, Brad, 'tourist trap' connotes bad. There are lots of places, as you've cited above, that remain tourist and local draws for all the right reasons. And concierges and travel guides continue to support them to useful purpose. In that vein, a favourite remark concerning Jack's in San Francisco. "Go," said a well-upholstered local, "but don't order the red wine--the waiters are so drunk they'll ruin your shirt."

Gerald, i agree. There's very little room in Vancouver cooking for some volume houses to seemingly go beyond the lack of ram/rosemary demi and grilled red pepper school of destination cooking. In fact the dependence on grills in BC big boxes is alarming. But perhaps there are saving graces in more wok-fired dishes but especially in sous vide, which allows consistency, punched-up flavour and lower labour costs, especially on the finish. The initial investment in Cryovac and water baths is significant, but hardly a killer. Amanda Hesser had a well written article on sous vide in the NYT Magazine on Sunday. In addition to its use in restaurants such as Per Se and The French Laundry, it also discussed its likely impact on higher volume food prep such as airlines and catering. Oceanside redemption?

At The Showgirls' Retirement Home. Or The Bunny Ranch if you can afford the gas.