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barolo

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Posts posted by barolo

  1. 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.

  2. Les amis du fromage is having a sale:

    We are having a year end inventory sale from Sunday Feb 25th-Tue Feb 27th. All items in the store will be reduced a further 15% off. Offer does not apply to frozen soups/meal, gift certificates or tasting tickets. Sale limited to stock on hand. Sorry, no raincheques.
  3.   Suggestions for other stuff to do while I'm there (currently I'd like to check out UBC, SFU, Stanley Park, Lonsdale Quay)?

    any advice is appreciated.  Many thanks.

    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 :rolleyes: ). 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Daniel Engber gives us his take in Slate: Survival of the Yummiest

    His conclusion:

    For all its foibles, food science has given us a reliable set of data on what works and what doesn't. As Ben Goldacre points out in the New Statesman, solid epidemiological work has validated the standard advice we get from our doctors: Exercise more and eat your fruits and vegetables.

    Pollan cites the same scientific research to support what he describes as his "flagrantly unscientific" diet plan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I'm happy to follow those dicta if they'll help me to live a longer, happier life. But that doesn't mean I have to buy into the misleading, great-great-grandma-knew-best philosophy that spawned them. I'd rather stick to the science, warts and all.

  6. [

    Although simple and full of common sense, it is very easy to lose sight of this very normal (not too long ago) approach to eating. 

    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.

  7. 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:

    The Restaurant Awards will see the addition of a number of new judges this year. We're honoured to welcome emerging food writers and experts to this year's jury, while thanking others who have contributed considerable time and experise in the past. This year, specialized teams will sweep the city and the province, recognizing excellence in food and wine, sustainability, service and decor categories.

    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?

  8. From the Fuel website:

    Chef's grand menu nine courses $110

    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"

  9. And, I really hate to let this cat out of the bag...but the Crow and Gate Pub in Cedar is a great place for a cold pint and a beef dip.  You'll have to find your own way there, though.  The Crow and Gate could be one of the Island's best kept secrets and we like it that way!  :wink:

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

  10. [jayt90--i'm glad to hear someone else got in on the lee valley deal. i was beginning to think it was so perfect i must have dreamed it. the one time in my life i was in the right place at the right time.

    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.

  11. 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:

    In my experience no nation is more defensive about their wines than the Canadians, perhaps because they have so little vineyard, less than, say, Slovenia or Japan.

    ……

    ... this is partly because Canadians tend to be fed stories which rather overstate Canadian wine's place in the world of wine. Every time a Canadian wine achieves anything outside Canada, this is made the subject of a major news story, and the Canadian wine industry seems to delight in perpetuating similarly flattering propositions.

    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.

  12. Also, a meat coma is always good for a broken heart- how about Hys for Cheese Toast and steak?

    Thanks all for your thoughtful suggestions. MFK Fisher agrees with annastee:

    "S is for Sad...and for the mysterious appetite that often surges in us when our hearts seem about to break and our lives seem too bleakly empty...The truth is that most bereaved souls crave nourishment more tangible than prayers: they want a steak. What is more, they need a steak." - from "An Alphabet for Gourmets" by M.F.K. Fisher

    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.

  13. An exciting addition to Granville island-Railspur Alley to be exact-is the Artisan Sake shop.

    Still under construction just a kettle and a few paper signs for now.

    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

    The restaurateur Masa is just about to bring forth the artisan quality local sake that he has been quietly brewing on Granville Island.
  14. 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.

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