barolo

Last night we made beet, apple and jicama salad, mac and cheese (a rather adult version) and salmon rillettes. I didn't have my camera but noticed makanmakan and vancouver lee snapping away so perhaps they'll post a few. We had a chance to practice lots more chopping, making a roux and bechamel, plating the salmon rillettes with a ring mold and organizing our work for efficiency, among other things. Tony is a talented teacher, he's great at confidence-building and makes each class feel special. I see he has a degree in theatre which helps to explain his teaching style. He most definitely does not teach by rote, there's lots of improvising, and laughter, along the way.

Abra: It was great to meet you and Shel at Sea Harbour and it seemed like a truly egullet moment to run into the two of you again the next morning on Granville Island. Thanks for the excellent report.

Welcome to the world, Joe! Congrats to mum and dad.

You are pretty observant. C consulted with Ballet BC to improve their service and acheive that "well oiled machine" you experienced. Here's a quote from their news release:

Actually I think most of the comments about DOV here (globally here, not just this thread) are positive. You're focussing on a small sub-set, I think. Personally I'm glad that the folks in the business feel comfortable enough here to let down their hair and do a little griping. There's a lot of value in seeing the world from each other's perspective. Neil's given an extremely lucid explanation of why a restaurant would participate in DOV and I think in the vast majority of cases both the restaurateur and the customer feel they are better off for the experience. Just because it doesn't appeal to me as a dining experience doesn't mean that I think that others would feel the same way.

I don't know, maybe because they are told to order wine and drinks and tip extravagantly to be good customers. These are no more obligatory than comping someone that had water poured all over her. In both cases, they are probably good ideas. That's all I read into these posts. But then I don't "do" DOV.

Thank you barolo, that's incredibly helpful! And reassuring to know that I was at least in the right ballpark. So now I'm ready for the next go-round... ← You are very welcome. I'm loving your blog and now I'm inspired cook up some pork with cracklings myself . Lead on to the Big Buffet

According to Marcus Wareing in The Cook's Book the secret to crisp cracklings is to score the skin, rub it with salt and oil, roast at high temperature for the first 15 minutes and do not baste at all. He's cooking a shoulder of pork, so the cooking time is much longer than for yout pork belly, but the principles still apply. It seems that you were on the right track, except for your minor memory lapse. In the accompanying photographs the scores are deep parallel lines about a finger width apart and what looks like a good 2 or 3 tablespoons of salt is rubbed all over the skin. The roast is cooked for 15 minutes at 425 deg F, then lowered to 300 deg F for the remainder of the roasting - 3 hrs and 15 minutes for a 7 and 3/4 pound roast. The finished product has crispy, dark caramel brown cracklings that are cut off the roast and served alongside the slices of meat.

I'll be there too. Sorry to hear you have to delay your class by a few months Laura. I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of you, as well as the insructors and other students.

Yah, I was just specifically talking about the one route that I was talking about in the original message. ← That's too bad. Move to the West End and Granville Island will be your oyster.

Lots of restaurants that are not officially in Dine Out Vancouver (which is a Tourism Vancouver event) are still offering 3 course deals. For example Fiction and Lucy Mae Brown are offering 3 course menus. And I suspect Central Bistro is in the same category, not a DOV restaurant (or at least I didn't find them on the list) but offering a 3 course deal. I believe you have to be a member of Tourism Vancouver to participate in DOV. It doesn't necessarily make much difference to us consumers, but it explains why there's confusion about who is "in" and who isn't.

Aquabus and False Creek ferries run all year round. I was just on Granville Island: took the Aquabus from Hornby and Granville Island Ferries to the Aquatic Centre. Granville Island ferries run until at least 8:00, if not 9:00 pm all through the winter on my route. You must be talking about different routes from mine. And I thought the market looked pretty busy tonight for a Wednesday night in January. I'm actually surprised that anyone doesn't know the Market is open later, it seems to be posted in every corner of Granville Island and was widely covered in the local food media. But then I am amazed at how few people know about, and attend, the West End farmers' market in the summer. Just different priorities for different people, I guess. The merchants and tenants on Granville Island are perennially unhappy and the politics are fierce, so I take all that stuff with a grain of salt.

It's been discussed pretty extensively here: Diner - Yaletown thread

And Villa del Lupo

Oops - Caffe de Medici is in DOV. I spelled it wrong too.

No there are restaurants from the 'burbs - e.g. the Boathouse has all their locations listed. But I agree that there are fewer from outside the Vancouver core. This is a good opportunity to try something different. I'm going to La Regalade on the weekend. Others not DOVing: Fiction, Lucy Mae Brown, Senova, Tapastree, Central Bistro, Tojo's, Cafe de Medici, Beach Side Cafe, Banana Leaf, Fiddlehead Joe's, Ocean 6 Seventeen and probably many, many more.

A few off the top of my head: the Bins, Vij's, Bishop's, La Regalade,

A little off topic perhaps, but this seemed like a good spot to mention that Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks annual sale starts tomorrow - both locations. The sale runs until Saturday.

Do you really think Capers is much better? I find their prices ridiculous and quality of produce often lacking. The one in the West End was selling Newman's Own baby spinach yesterday for a pretty penny (even on sale), as well as dried up heads of radicchio for outrageous prices. To answer your question though, I think it is primarily convenience. I doubt that prices are much of a factor for the people who shop at Choices, they want to feel they are eating "superior" foods and Choices is a convenient place to for them to shop. It is probably where their friends and acquaintances shop too. Those factors are probably more important to them than anything else. My experience is that to get good quality food in Vancouver for a reasonable price you really have to shop around, not something most people are willing to do, especially if they have a healthy income.

The event does run from January 9-15 according to the website. Here's a link to the Pan Pacific site with details for those who haven't checked it out yet: Pan Pacific 20 Year Anniversary Celebration

According to the City Food web site, rumour has it that Liberty Wine Merchants is opening a store in the Net Loft on Granville Island. I assume it's the vacant space immediately east of Circle Craft that was a jeweler and then a Granville Island paraphenalia and information spot for a few months last year. That's a great location, I'll be interested to see what wines they stock.

I just heard a radio ad for this (while in the dentist's chair - ouch!). If I heard correctly over the din it runs from January 9th to the 15th.

I think this is a good idea, even for non-Dine Out times. However, I also think it is ridiculous for anyone to suggest that ordering wine or any alchohol is a 'must' or that a person is cheap if they choose to drink tap water. There's lots of reasons why someone might choose to do so and I don't see any reason to judge them without knowing the reasons. Maybe restaurants should start asking if customers are only going to be ordering tap water or tipping lightly when they take reservations during DOV so that they can turn away all those undesirable customers .

That pheasant looks great. It all looks good, but the pheasant plate really caught my eye. I see what looks like a cookbook beside you in your plating picture - was this dish prepared from a recipe, your own creation or a little of both?

Lots of food and cooking related gifts for me: home blended and roasted coffee beans home made chocolate covered almonds and hazelnuts home made sugared walnuts home made chocolates home made cookies sherry vinegar champagne vinegar organic olive oil from Lesvos, Greece Thyme, herb and pine honey from Crete Raspberry honey from Vancouver Island a bottle of white wine from a Greek cooperative - can't remember what grape/s right now a bottle of Walla Walla Merlot from Five Star Cellars, either an '02 or '03, I'm too lazy to check roasted hazelnut oil Gourmet Cookbook a milk frother kitchen shears - the kind that can cut through chicken bones a set of 8 mini-ramekins a gift certificate for Marquis Wine Cellars, a local wine store