Jeffy Boy

No - go for it! The food is the star there, and there are lots of great tastes to experiences. Get a nice bottled water and enjoy.

1. Dijon mustard 2. Mayonnaise 3. Pick-a-Peppa sauce

I was lucky enough to attend one of Cru's recent special events, and figured I would start a new thread for discussion on any future Cru events. Sunday Feb 27th was their Sparking Wine Dinner, and lemon curd and I were in attendance along with Mrs and Mr Mooshmouse, and two of their friends. First off, I'm not generally a big fan of sparkling wines. I'm wondering though if my problem is simply that I haven't been drinking enough of it at one sitting. The afternoon started with some introductions to the event and the basics of sparkling wines by sommelier Mark Taylor. His team then went about the task of pouring six wines (in two flights of three) that we would be tasting before dinner. These were very generous "tastes", something just shy of a glass each. In order, we tasted: 1. Cava, "Cuvee Raventos", Codorniu 2. Moscata d"Asti, 2003, Batasiolo 3. Steller's Jay Brut, 2001, Sumac Ridge Winery 4, Champagne, Brut select "Cordon Bleu", de Venoge 5. Champagne, Premier Cru, J. Lassalle 6. Champagne, Brut Rose, Nicolas Feuillatte Our table had surprisingly similar tastes, and #2 was a big hit, as it's quite sweet and gentle. Mark was very enthusiastic about #5. Funny thing was we generally liked it the least! My personal favourites were #3 and #6. With (for me) a decade's worth of champagne consumed, on to dinner (and of course more sparkling wine)! Four courses: Ahi Tuna Loin with diakon, peppers and cucumber, mirin soy dressing. This was paired with more of the Codorniu Cuvee Raventos (#1). This dish was wonderful. The tuna was so fresh, and worked well with everything on the plate. Oysters Rockefeller paired with more Steller's Jay Brut (#3). These were great - light and frothy. We got three, I could easily have eaten a dozen. Pan-seared Sablefish with lobster and scallop ravioli, and lobster broth. Paired with Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne. Exquisite! The sablefish was delicate and buttery, the ravioli a great mix of flavours, and that lobster broth! For dessert, a Vanilla Pannacotta and Poached Pear with prosecco sabayon. Not surprising it paired well with the Mionetto Prosecco di Valdobbiandene. This was very nice. In all, it was a great event - outstanding food, good wine and good company. Only complaint is that many of us left a bit hungry! The dishes were all quite light, which is what made them great accompaniments with the sparkling wines. Somehow they should have inserted some carbs. We were all craving carbs!! Anyhow, we solved that by heading to Fiction for another drink and a few dishes to share: Yam frites, duck confit and a cheese plate. All very good, and just what we needed. And I think I got Mr Mooshmouse hooked on Laphroaig in the process.

I think you're on the right track. I think goat is big too, as well as stuffed vegetables and stews. Quite fragrant dishes - mint, cumin, coriander. I ate at Caspian in West Van several years ago. I remember it was quite good.

Charter a helicopter before sunset, and take them up to the Bear Foot Bistro in Whistler. Limo ride back down after dark.

Hey, anything south of the Fraser counts! Yes, Bacchus Bistro is very good. There's a short thread on it here. I remember the Bistro's chef, Frederic Desbiens, from his days at La Folie in White Rock. La Folie is unfortunately gone, but Frederic took to Bacchus his wild mushroom ragout on toasted brioche. It's heaven!

Gorgeous day today, and if it's sunny and Saturday that means only one thing: Head to White Rock beach for lunch! lemon curd and I enjoyed a sunny trek down to Marine Drive, and decided to check out a new place called Senses. Senses has been open for about a month, located where the "Hot Rod Cafe" used to be. I never made it to the Hot Rod Cafe because, well, it's called the "Hot Rod Cafe", and also it looked like a bit of a dump. Senses has done some major reno work, and it's a beautiful spot now. Good paint scheme, great lighting and nice new furniture. Their business card advertises it as "fusion cuisine". The place was empty when we went in, which is surprising for a sunny Saturday at 1pm, but I guess it's still new. Many tapas type dishes on the menu which sounded good. We shared a Butternut Squash & Shiitake Mushroom Soup to start. Good flavour, but it was a bit too thick. Followed this up with Frites served with a roasted garlic aoli. Fries were shoestring style, hot and crispy, and dusted with finely grated asiago cheese Very good. Next were two Smoked Salmon Spring Rolls - lots of salmon in them, properly cooked and served with a spicy mango chili sauce. Then onto a dish of three decent sized Scallops, each lightly breaded, pan fried and served on top of a yam puree and mushroom ragout. With the yam puree it was rather heavy, an unusual partner for scallops, but it worked for me as a "winter" type dish. Could have been hotter. Last was some Beef Short Ribs, served with yam fries. The ribs were nicely marinated, but also could have been hotter. The yam fries went well with the balsamic / star anise reduction. Overall, I was impressed, and plan to return some evening. I think the room will look great after dark.

I had an interesting experience at a Chinese restaurant that got me thinking about the difficulties in operating a restaurant in two (or more) languages, and how well Vancouver's restaurants support our diverse population. My experience: I've been try to expose some willing co-workers to food they haven't experienced before, through occasional lunch hour "field trips". Yesterday we headed to Neptune Sharkfin Seafood Restaurant in Richmond, for dim sum. I'd been there before, and figured it would be a good first exposure for them to dim sum. Everything is ordered off the menu, and you make your selections on a paper form with a pencil. The paper form has items #1 through 77, with only chinese character names. They also have a bound menu, with items #1 through 77, with chinese and english names. No problem - figure out what you want, note the number, and mark it off on the paper. We ordered about a dozen items (all pretty tame ones) for our group of 4. First item up - radish cake. Tasty and hot, raves all round. Off to a good start. Two more dishes follow quickly. Hmmm, I think. These two don't look like anything we ordered. Look for waiter. Dish number 4 also dropped off, also not what we ordered. I'm thinking they must have got our table confused with another. Tell server, these dishes aren't what we ordered. Server's english is limited, but she understands there's a problem. Mister navy suit comes over. We explain the problem. He calmly says "Oh, the menu doesn't match the order form. Didn't someone tell you that?". "Uh, no, they didn't", I reply, though I'm having difficulty processing what he's just told me. They have 77 numbered items, on two lists, but the numbers don't match. WTF??? He goes on to explain what's been brought to us. Apparently now trying to "sell" us the dishes that we "ordered". No, we would like the items we picked out of the bound menu. It takes a while to get him to this point. The only way to now get what we want, is to tell him the item we want, then he finds it on the paper menu and marks it off. He leaves, we talk about this, minds boggled. We check the menus against the form. Sure enough, the items don't match. Our first dish was a match by coincidence. Lotto 12/77! What amazed me the most, is that the restaurant was obviously aware of the mismatch, but weren't concerned enough to reprint either the menus or paper forms. Even chinese speakers/readers would get screwed up if one was reading the bound menu and was calling out numbers to someone else to transcribe. The remaining dishes eventually come - all quite good.

Try a ganache-tini.

"BC roll". (Crispy BBQ salmon skin). So flavourful.

Taro buns. I often pick one (or two) up at the Chinese grocery store near where I often stop for lunch. They are always so fresh! I bring one back to the office to have with a coffee in the middle of the afternoon.

I'd be willing bet $500 that nobody from Hope has ever eaten at Bis Moreno. I suggest using Whistler in future metaphors. ← Careful... I took my gf from Hope there when it was Etoile... is that worth $250? ← Hey, that's pretty close! 'Course I'd want to go double or nothing on whether you actually went back to Hope afterwards!

I'd be willing bet $500 that nobody from Hope has ever eaten at Bis Moreno. I suggest using Whistler in future metaphors.

The restaurant is called Ba Guo Bu Yi Szechuan and Yu Miao turns out hundreds of these buns a day! In an article by Tim Pawsey last year, Yu was quoted as saying: "You see, the secret is how we keep the juicy in. Almost everywhere else makes dumplings too. But they're usually frozen. And that makes all the difference because they'll stick to the steamer when you try to take them out." And lose "the juicy." lemon curd and I went to Ba Guo Bu Yi yesterday for lunch, with the main goal of checking out the siew loong bao. They did not disappoint! Beautiful, tender dumplings! Forget Caramilk, how do they get the juice inside those dumplings?? Found a picture of them on the Vancouver Courier website here. We also had the lamb skewers with cumin (nice!), and an assortment of other dim sum items. All very good, and reasonably priced. It's a do-again.

Correction to my previous post. My "gold standard" for Laksa is the Curry House at the Yaohan Centre in Richmond. (Luckily my car knows how to get there, though it's still figuring out how to park.) They also have a great chicken curry.

That would have been even funnier last night, and it's tough to top "meat cookie". Comic: "what's in the styrofoam package?" Lady: "a meen bang". attagirl ling. ← Geez ling, what language did you have selected? Or did you accidentally run your post through your "create_error-laden_quiz_for_tutored_students" program?

I'll third the vote for Tandoori King, but I think I've only been to the one in Surrey, on 120th. We actually went there just last night. Had Gobi Pakora to start (I love this as an appie, because it arrives quickly, and it's crunchy and a bit salty and goes great with beer). Then moved on to Chicken Tikka Masala and Rogan Josh, with some rice and naan. Everything was very good, and brought enough leftovers home for lunch today. I LOVE smelling up the office kitchen with tasty nuked leftovers while watching some poor sap putting hot water into his styrofoam ramen noodle bowl. "That sure smells good!" "Yeah, yours too. Do you put in the whole packet of simulated chicken flavour powder?"

I know, I cried when I saw it was gone. Well, maybe not actually tears, 'cause I only made it there a few times. I've been trekking back to Pho Thy for my pho and banh mi fixes.

advertorial ? ← I'd put that on the Parkside website!

I agree. "Good but not great" is still good, and I'd be likely to return.

We first tried Parkside last year during DOV and were very impressed. Got to get back there!!!

I was very eager to try out Kung Pow Phat Soy, as the Sino-Swedish dining options in White Rock are, shall we say, limited. In particular I wanted to try the elk balls. Unfortunately, that's where my experience took a turn for the worst. I distinctly remember advising the restaurant when I made my reservation that I was allergic to penguin. I also advised the server of this when we were ordering, and asked specifically if any of the dishes contained penguin. Who knew that Swedish for "yes" sounds alot like "no". I've just now returned from the Richmond Blood Transfusion Centre, which - let me tell you - has just awful food. I'm not sure if I'll return to KPPS. Maybe for a Chinese Cheese tasting or something.

Great video! He sounds Norwegian or something. Yup. Like a bald, Norwegian kitchen designer.

Back when you were what, eleven?

So how did she enjoy the onion-garlic-celery-cucumber-bell pepper-black pepper salad?