barolo

Kerry, this is a little bit of a diversion from your request, but the Dubys use wine fairly often in their chocolates and have a few flavour combinations on their website that might prove inspiring: DC Duby. Go to "estate" and "icewine" on the bottom menu. Port and Banyuls, already mentioned, are the two that I see most often recommended with chocolate. Icewine and muscat could work with white chocolate, I think.

Les amis du fromage is having a sale:

Have a donut or two from Lee's, if you go to Granville Island.

Gastropod will also be extending their DOV to this Wednesday. ← And Ocean 6 Seventeen is continuing until February 11.

What are your interests? Granville Island is more interesting than Lonsdale Quay in my opinion and is worth a visit for Oyama Sausage alone. Plus you can build a nice amble around it. Aside from the Public Market there is a micro brewery and an artisan sake brewery, lots of boat stuff, and artisan studios etc. There's cookbooks at Barbara Jo's in the Netloft. You can walk along the seawall to Go Fish for lunch and then another couple of blocks to Patissserie LeBeau for belgian waffles, Barbara Jo's mother store for more cookbooks and Les Amis du Fromage for cheese, cross Burrard and walk back to the seawall, have a drink at Watermark (don't bother with the food) walk back along the seawall to the Maritime Museum and the Vancouver Museum, (interesting show on native north american jewellery from the northwest and southwest, on until March 25th). Then you can take a ferry back across to downtown. There are many other interesting diversions from this route - go up Burrard to the Elysian room for coffee, walk up to 4th Avenue and check out Chocolate Arts. Or you can visit Granville Island after brunch at Ocean 6 Seventeen via ferry or a walk along the seawall then take a ferry back to the base of Howe and walk up to Ganache. Or from Granville Island you can walk south on Granville for art galleries and window shopping as well. Lots of great restaurants in this area: Vij's, Rangoli, West, Bin 942, Cru. Late March is prime cherry blossom season and the Cherry Blossom Festival will be on - it kicks off on March 22 at the Burrard Sky Train terminal. (Aside: I saw my first daffodil of the year on the walk to work yesterday ). Find a street lined with cherry blossoms in full bloom and walk down it: it's an altered environment. Then go to an izakaya, drink some sake and write a haiku. The Vancouver Art Gallery has a couple of interesting shows on featuring local artists: BC Binning and Fred Hertzog. The Art Gallery cafe is a decent spot for lunch and if the weather is nice (admittedly iffy at the end of March) has good patio. Across the street is Law Courts complex featuring some excellent landscape architecture. At UBC check out the Museum of Anthropology, for the architecture as well as interesting exhibits. And visit the Nitobe Memorial Garden - a traditional Japanese garden - for more cherry blossoms. I have lots more suggestions but, as you can see, my interests lie in the arty-crafty world and yours may not. If you are more interested in sporty stuff, opportunities for kayaking and skiing and other such activities abound, others can tell you about that stuff.

If you want to do destination Vancouver then add Vij's. Missing genre: local sustainable: Aurora Bistro, Rare, Raincity Grill, C, Bishop's Line up for Forest Fire Ramen at Kintaro on Saturday, the only day you can get it I believe. Mondo Gelato would be my pick. Phnom Pehn.

Daniel Engber gives us his take in Slate: Survival of the Yummiest His conclusion:

But I wonder if is that we have lost sight or that we would prefer another, easier, approach. I think, speaking generally, we want a magic bullet: eat whatever you want but take a multi-vitamin, or eat whatever you want and drink this magic potion, eat whatever you want, except carbs, etc, etc. Isn't that what diet claims are all about - eat whatever you want and still lose weight. Maybe for not the people here but, speaking of the overall North American population, I understand that convenience and health are the two big food industry themes. I think many people would like to combine the two with the assistance of food scientists, not in a traditional diet which many would find very inconvenient.

Thanks Cate. Here's a link to a PDF, showing Scott's dishes: Team Canada Brochure It is too bad that there is so little information - virtually none - available about previous Canadian competitors on the Canadian Bocuse d'Or site.

You are right, Scott deserves more recognition for his accomplishment. Simply raising the money to compete seems to be a big challenge, to do it while running his restaurant requires a huge a commitment. Kudos to Scott.

The Vancouver Magazine 18th Annual Restaurant Awards competition is "now underway" and there's some changes to the list of judges, and to the process it seems, from previous years. In their own words: I see at least three new people who used to contribute to this forum regularly: Meet the Judges Do you think these changes will improve the process and the results? Or maybe you think they didn't need to be improved?

Scott came in at 7th place.

Looks like Capstone Tea right next door is closed as well.

From the Fuel website: In comparison: West tasting menu - $129, looks like 9 courses if you include the amuse and petit fours Lumiere Kitchen menu - $ 125 (less than 9 courses) Lumiere Signaturre menu - $165 (looks like 10 courses if you don't take the cheese which is $10 supplement) C restaurant - Chef's Tasting Menu "14 Course Menu $145 per person"

I don't really think this is much of a secret

No, but please tell me more - what and where is it. I'm a regular visitor to Nanaimo so I'm always hoping for more and better dining options.

I got in on the Lee Valley deal too, so you were not dreaming. It really was an extraordinary opportunity, I only wish I had bought more.

There's a Cafe Artigiano on Hastings between Howe and Granville, very close to Delta Suites. It's also a relatively short walk to Gastown and pleasures of Salt Tasting Room and the Irish Heather.

Did anyone read Jancis Robinson on Canadian wine in the Financial Times: Canadian Wine? Accept with curiosity She's been widely quoted in the Canadian press, here's a few gems: B.C. wines that she thought were superior are: Sumac Ridge White Meritage 2003, Wild Goose Mystic River Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2005, Mission Hill Oculus 2004, Osoyoos Larose 2004 and Tantalus Vineyards Riesling 2005.

If Vancouver has anything like this, I want to hear about it too!

I ate at Brasserie l'Ecole two nights in a row the last time I was in Victoria - like Merlin, I heartily endorse it.

Thanks all for your thoughtful suggestions. MFK Fisher agrees with annastee: Steak would have been perfect for me, but not for my vegetarian friend. We ended up at O'Douls, comfortingly dark, cosy and not at all trendy or populated with too many shiny, happy people. We had a very good duck breast with gorgonzola risotto, spinach and ricotta ravioli with a delicious chanterelle sauce along with copious glasses of wine. We were treated very well and given the quiet table in the back corner I requested. As Paul B suggested, this location allowed for a relatively short stumble home.

WHAT! Please tell me more. Is this just a fun name or is Sake involved. Please tell me the latter is true. Please? ← 100% true but as I said there's a sign, a kettle, some pipework and little else. It's just east of the only restaurant on Railspur Alley. EDIT-OK the name kettle might be misleading-I call it a kettle but it's a large cooker of some sort-many hundreds of liters-not a still AFAICT. Real sake of course is not distilled. ← Opening January 17th, according to the sign on the window. A little more background, courtesy of City Food

Molly at Orangette announced a few days ago that she got a book deal.

The January/February 07 EAT is out. As usual it is upbeat and full of information from around the province, restaurant reviews, recipes etc. There's a new website where you can read the latest edition on-line if you are willing to register:EAT Magazine I'll stick to the print edition.