barolo
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Posts posted by barolo
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How can one put all of BC’s wine in the same terroir? You would never say that all French wines taste the same or Italian; there is hundreds of BC wines that you or I have never tasted and will not get the chance unless you have very good buying practices.
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A Pinot Noir that I must say is one of the best wines I have had recently was incredible smooth with hints of cherry with a aroma that was of blossoms in spring with hints of oak.
It was from Alderlea Vinyards and was a 2003 vintage and is located in Duncan. Another good Pinot is from Saturna Island, it too had a great aftertaste and finish no green there.
steve
I agree that there is not one terroir for BC.
Would you say there are BC wines that are reflecting their terroir in a consistently recognizable manner? Are the Pinots you enjoy reflecting terroir or viniculture and viticulture, or both?
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The London Wine shows like their Australian counterparts can be misleading. There are upteen catagories of wine and internal competitions so I do not place alot of faith on wine show results.
Stephen
Thanks, you just answered the question I was going to ask. In Australia it seems that anyone can win a medal since there's often only a few entrants in any particular category. It is a good way to sell wine though.
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You might find these recommendations from Vancouver Magazine helpful: Vegetarian/Vegan
As already noted, many Vancouver restaurants are well equipped to serve vegetarians. Vij's, the Bins or the many izakayas, to give a few examples, would have a number of vegetarian options.
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Is your water naturally soft, or is it too hard, and treatment renders it "too soft"?
SB (lives in a VERY hard water area)
Our water is naturally very soft.
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What happened to Tim?
According to the City Food website:
Quoting Mark Twain, food and wine writer Tim Pawsey stated : “Word of my demise has been greatly exaggerated.”Pawsey spoke up to address his many fans who panicked when they picked up last week’s edition of the Vancouver Courier to find that their favourite columnist had been replaced by a “Cheap Eats” column. But the rumours that Pawsey had been let go by the Courier has proved to be both true and untrue.
Thanks to cost-cutting measures by the paper’s publisher, CanWest, who has instructed the Courier to cut down on freelance contributors, the Wednesday column will now be written by in house staff. Tim’s Diner column will however, continue to be included in the Courier’s Friday edition.
Link here: City Food
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Thanks for introducing yourself and Gastropod, Kloom. Welcome. I look forward to a visit to Gastropod soon.
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November 18 and 19 is the annual cheese festival on Granville Island:
Curds and Whey - The Granville Island Cheese FestivalGranville Island’s Cheese Festival is back with a new name and even more excitement! Be sure to check out our regular cheese tenants such as Dussa’s, Oyama, The Milkman, Duso’s, Zara’s and Kaisereck along with some of BC’s best producers such as Saltspring Island Cheese Company, Farm House Natural Cheese, Goat’s Pride Dairy and Carmelis Goat Cheese. We will also be cooking demonstrations and tastings at our Market Cooking Stage each day. Presentation topics will range from Easy Cheesy Appetizers, Cooking with Cheese, to tips on Pairing Wines & Beers with Cheese, among others.
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November/December EAT is out. Chockablock with information - "84 ways to have a very merry foodie holiday'. They really could use a copy editor.
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The November issue is out.
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But I sell advertising based on readership - unless you have an avid, loyal reader and an audited reader demographic profile to present, why would anyone advertise?
Put the readers' interest first - the advertising will follow.
Exactly!
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barolo: Hello again! Thanks for responding. When you said, "I'd also encourage you to be transparent about how the reviews are done. " were you recommending we actually write out our policy in the magazine before each review? I think that idea has potential but just wanted to clarify that is what you meant. Does any other publication do that?
From the Vancouver Sun, Critic's Picks section:
A list of restaurants recommended and anonymously visited by Sun restaurant critic Mia Stainsby. Prices are per couple for three courses, with a glass of wine each, before tip and taxes.From the Vancouver Magazine web page:
About Our ReviewsAll of the restaurants featured on our website have been evaluated using the same 20-point system that our monthly Vancouver magazine restaurant reviews rely upon. Only those restaurants scoring "12-plus" have been entered here, and they are places we would happily recommend to a friend or visitor. Our restaurant reviews have no connection to advertising.
From enRoute:
An enRoute critic dines anonymously at each of these establishments at least once. Meals are three-course with accompanying wine. enRoute pays in full for all meals. Consideration is not given in the survey to advertising or any other commercial concerns in the selection process.Results are kept strictly confidential and are under media embargo until enRoute announces them at a press conference shortly before the November 1 release of the November issue.
Not that this stops anyone from criticizing them of course.
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It's not just for chinless wonders and travelling nabobs either: enRoute's content is necessarily aimed at an enormously wide demographic and--like cereal boxes--has to serve it up in both languages.
Here's enRoute's definition of its audience:
enRoute readers are highly mobile people who live, work and play on a global scale. The magazine is read by nearly 1 million passengers a month and can be found in the seat pockets of Air Canada aircraft and in Maple Leaf™ Lounges and select Star Alliance™ lounges around the world. It is also distributed at more than 100 upscale outlets across Canada (hotels, boutiques, health clubs, restaurants and lounges). Air Canada passengers (64 percent male/36 percent female) are affluent business travellers from major Canadian cities andhighly educated frequent flyers with disposable incomes far above the national average. -
Welcome back Dave.
I'd encourage you to define what Open Mouth is about, who your readers are, how you want them to perceive your publication, and then consider what kind of review would best achieve your goals. You've done some of that but I think if you are clear you will know whether your reviews are working or not.
Based on what you've said about Open Mouth so far, that is wanting to be seen as an independent voice, I think at the very least you will want to tell your readers that your policy is to only write about restaurants that you recommend. I'd also encourage you to be transparent about how the reviews are done.
As for the politics, there are politics in every business.
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Hmmm, City Food says they have it in stock but the e-mail I got yesterday from les amis says they are taking orders for expected delivery around December 5th:
The vacherins we are expecting this year will come in two sizes: 300 gr or 500 gr. Prices are not final but are expected to be $18.95/300 gr and $27.95/500 gr.Send us an email to guarantee your cheese for the holiday season. Supplies are limited. No deposit is required. We are expecting our first order sometime after December 5th.
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sorry to be such an EG noob, but where's Diner? 1269 Hamilton Street in Yaletown. Here's a map: Diner location
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Has ayone tried Chocolatas? I've seen Wim Tas on City Cooks - but I have not tried their product. Looks interesting - and my client can get a 15% discount if the order is large enough.
Located out in the Fraser Valley (Langley I think?)
They had a booth in the Public Market on Granville Island last weekend, but I didn't succumb. If they are back this weekend, I'll do a taste test and report back here.
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Here's a link: Canada's Best Restaurants
And especially for you Pam, here's a link to the Manitoba list: Manitoba's best restaurants
Does anybody have a hard copy of the article? A fellow Manitoba eG'er and I were wondering who contributed to the Manitoba section a couple of days ago.
The list includes mostly things that have been appearing on lists for years (or decades). I don't think any of them would be on my list.
Pam, the Manitoba contributor is Karen Burshtein; they are all listed at the bottom of this article: Where to eat well, wherever you are
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Speaking of National Publications, there was a great one on dining across Canada in the National Post this weekend called Canada’s Best Restaurants. I was delighted to see Brix listed as a top choice in Vancouver, not one of the usual suspects. The piece is written by different writers in each region, BC was covered by Kate Zimmerman. The on-line version has the full list of restaurants across the country. I read it on the weekend but coudn't seem to access it today to link. I would start a new topic on this but it might seem a bit self-serving as Brix is my client.
Here's a link: Canada's Best Restaurants
And especially for you Pam, here's a link to the Manitoba list: Manitoba's best restaurants
Here's how they compiled it:
So we contacted friends and contributors across the country — a few food writers, but mostly smart people with sharp palates — and asked them to prepare capsule reviews of their favourite eateries and to ask their friends to help them fill in any regional gaps. -
Point Two: Hester Creek did wines in a box a couple years back - didn't see them again. Must investigate.
They still show wine in a box from the 2004 vintage on sale on their website. As I recall this boxed stuff came out as the winery was changing hands and there was a whole lot of unbottled wine sitting around at the time.
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Here's Mia Stainsby's article on the enRoute awards: Vancouver restaurant best in Canada, Air Canada in-flight magazine declares .
It was a combination of factors," he says of Nu's win. "Not only is the food exceptional, the room is gorgeous and contemporary. I like the way you can pick and choose from the menu and create your own meal. The service is top-notch. The wine list is sensible and a little idiosyncratic and, in that sense, fun. The restaurant meets our criteria for being the kind of place that will have a lasting impact on the Canadian food scene."EnRoute is full of articles about travel, food and drink; I don't find the idea of enRoute doing dining awards odd at all.
The company that produces enRoute for Air Canada is Spafax.
Spafax creates entertainment and communication experiences for customers and travellers both onboard and on the ground, specialising in inflight entertainment, revenue generation, publishing and technical solutions.I think Canucklehead makes a good point - where else do you see Canadian restaurants compared? I'm going to Montreal in November and I'm looking forward to reading this edition of enRoute.
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I think we need to look at the larger issue here, as in why is an in-flight magazine our source for restaurant rankings? As I've noted elsewhere, it's not even the most important document in my seat's magazine holder. It's kinda like waiting to see who Ashton Kutcher endorses before choosing a presidential candidate.
People on airplanes are mostly tourists and business travellers who are going to eat in restaurants when they land.
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Another local website I like is In the Kitchen. The recent story on Eating Global Vancouver was pretty interesting:
Under the guidance of Dr. Henry Yu, the INSTRCC team - (Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies) set out to study contemporary and historical Chinese Canadian migration and how this migration has changed Vancouver. Their angle - food. I interviewed Andrew Dhillon from the Eating Global Vancouver team, and he told me how they sought migrants here in Vancouver so they could tell their stories before they were lost. They interviewed Peter Chang from Green Lettuce, a local Indian/Chinese fusion restaurant on 1949 Kingsway and made a short film. -
I don't have one way to make applesauce, it really varies.
Most often I use a variety of apples, a little salt and a glug of Calvados. Sometimes I leave the peels on and put it through the food mill, sometimes I peel in advance so that I can have chunks of apple still in my sauce. Other potential additions, aside from Calvados, are orange zest or juice, lemon juice, nutmeg, cardamon, cinnamon, a little sugar, Grand Marnier, or cider. I don't add much sugar and generally find the simpler the better.
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Sorry that my earlier post wasn't clear - I found the W.4th location to be better. I think it is because there aren't the huge lineups that the Denman location suffers, so the grilling is not as rushed.
Alexandra Gill of the Globe and Mail likes it too:
After being bombarded with requests for the perfect first-date restaurant, I think I have finally found a fail-proof recommendation. Zakkushi is a cozy Japanese robatayaki that specializes in skewers of meat grilled over sizzling hot charcoal.Whether you're out to fan a new flame or simply rekindle the embers of a slow-burning passion, this is a hot little spot that will get the fire started.
Zakkushi fires up those first-date flames
The linked article is only available free for one week.
Dine Out Vancouver - The Topic (2002-2007)
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted
Tourism Vancouver has announced the dates for Dine Out Vancouver - January 19-February 4. Participating restaurants to be announced the first week in January. You can even sign up for some kind of e-mail announcement.
Read more here.