Keith Talent

Holy crap. Phone picked up on first ring, transfered to a buyer who was happy to speak with me. The LDB specifies on its' P.O's (Purchase Orders) that the wine should be shipped in a manner that insures the product is protected against both heat and cold. It's up to the agents to determine what method to use. There assuredly is containers of vino baking while we speak. They will not be accepted by the LDB if they are not of the quality specified in the P.O., it will be the agents problem to deal with wine spoiled due to not sitting in temp controlled units. (My guess? Hello Calgary!) For what it's worth, it sounds like standard "big buyer" quality assurance practices, ie. "sell us shit and we'll not pay for it nor will we buy from you again." The onus is on the vendor to make sure the goods are good.

And I'm currently waiting for the delivery of my 500 bottle cellar/cooler unit, scheduled for later today. It's syncronicity I tell you. And rather than fantasing about becoming an intermediate depot for the LDB, a more serious issue is do we know how the wine is shipped? Temp controlled or not? I'm phoning head office right now, this should be fun...

We have two options, we can give you a full point deduction for missing a joke, or conversely dock me for writing a joke so lame that people actually don't recognize it as such. I'll leave it to the judges.

And how exactly do they tell?

There's no silver lining. Period. It's bad for everyone, the truckers, the local farmers that have lost the ability to export, the employees that are being laid off because their companies can get neither raw materials nor a market for their goods, anyone involved in export or import is hurting.

It goes heading north; Library -> Hair salon -> Banh Mi shop -> Pho shop. Kensignton Library, then two doors north. I dare not contravene the e-Gullet photo policy, even if the copyright holder actively encourages you to disemenate the image. (Edited to add missing map)

Goods from Europe are generally imported through Montreal then put on a train here, to the best of my knowledge there are no container ships in our ports from Europe. The port strike is backing up rail container from Europe however.

Ahi? Certain members are going to freak. Sure it wasn't albacore?

I'd be interested to know how much wine coming into BC moved in temp controlled containers. I've always (naively) beleived it was all. Over the winter it would require heat. Nothing freezes faster than a container on the back of a train going through Manitoba in February.

I'm sure this question is due to the fact I'm an idiot, and once explained will be as clear to me as a certain local culinary writers fixation with Scandanvian balls, but what the hell is Brett? A heroine from a Hemmingway novel? Abbreviated region of France? Unfunny Brett Butler, butch ex-famous comic? Inquiring minds want to know.

There's a restaurant/store/liquor/gas stop at East Gate in Manning. (And no, I have absolutely no idea what it's called) It's run by a nice family from Fiji, and the restaurant has burgers etc. PLUS whatever grandmas special Fijian curry of the day is. Good goat. And as an added bonus, they've done the room up in typical '50's style, jukebox and everything, which while I abhor anything to do with faux-fifties hotrodding culture, I do enjoy the surreal experience of eating a nice spicy goat curry with homemade roti on the set of Happy Days. Makes a more interesting drive than Black Spot or some dirty truck stop.

Website? They're still contemplating making the leap to an electronic cash register rather than the reliable mechanical kind they use now, they're a few years out from the web. I swear the takeout menus are printed using woodcut blocks. High tech an operation it's not. Besides, the menu is basiclly useless there. The good stuff is all written in Mandarin on the posters on the walls. Ask the waiterss to translate, maybe they'll eventually make a concession to those of us that barely read english. Look what others are eating. Ask the waitress what's good today, they've yet to steer me wrong. And Jeffery Steingarten pretty throughly debunks the whole MSG as an allergen thing.

Absolutely I agree Mnehrling, it was a good show if you understood that you essentially were watching a long form job interview, only it was sold as a competition, which it clearly wasn't.

Echoing Buzzdraft here. I felt somewhat cheated at the end that I had invested as much time watching a supposed competition that was as rigged as wressling. In retrospect it was obvious who the annoited one was, why bother with the "competition". Pretty much all the advice given by the judges was ignored by Katie, followed by everyone else, yet her personality seemed to win her the job. Bit of a scam, I'd say.

I'm thinking about 49th and Cambie. I'm getting a mediocre golf course, a mediocre instutute of higher learning, some nice condos, and that's about it. Do you mean Oak? And the "suspect" parts are the best parts.

Paellapan.com? Holy shit, I'm off to register www.icecubetray.com. Who bets his friends thought he was insane when he said he was going heavily into paella pan etailing? It's a crazy world. Straight men reading fashion magazines, online paella pan peddlers, sprinkling restrictions in the middle of the rainforest, it's a crazy mixed up world.

My inspiration for this adventure is Floyd on Spain, and Floyd did it over an open fire, so I'm going to do it over an open fire. I'm am not going to try to match his BAC though.

I'm also a Duffins Machata and Chorizo/egg man. Banh Mi are passable, but extraneous next to machata. Clientele is interesting, do not worry about locking your keys in the car, half the patrons would be able to open your car sans key in about three seconds flat. The whole superiority of the Duffins donut I don't get though. It's a donut, and okay donut, no better or worse than a chain donut. Then again, maybe I don't get it because I don't really like donuts. Greasy sweet dough circles, no thanks.

And what's up with the eggs?

I appreciate the offer, but it will be used over a campfire, ergo the need for it to be at a ptrice point making it semi-disposable.

Maybe that Latino Supermercado at Commercial and 13th (? +/- a couple cross streets.)

Was your goldfish farmed or wild stock?

Oh, and Clarke Drive = Knight Street.

A little help for us sheltered members. I'd guess that exactly zero of the links are worksafe. The sandwich place was next door to the Kensington Library branch.. Next to the sandwich shop was a pho shop. West side of Clarke Drive, south of Kingsway. And yes, Subway has a strange odour wafting from them. And did you know that the quality of a Subway is in direct proportion to how long the maker has resided in Canada? If you can get a recent immigrant to make a Subway, you'll be pleasntly suprised. It seems time in Canada dulls ones ability to determine what "a hell of a lot of peppers" means. Natives of the Indian subcontinent make the best sandwich artists, moreso if their grasp of english is rudimentary.

Campfire Paella? Now see this is why I love this forum. A group of us going camping every year, four couples and two or three hundred small children. Every couple hosts dinner on a subsequent night. Last year I made an awesome open fire grilled carnitas, hand made fire roasted tomato salsa and guac. This year? CAMP FIRE PAELLA. Thanks for the idea. Know where to buy a cheap paella pan? Ming wo has them, so does Que Pasa, neither are the low price leader in thier respective marketplace. Someone must sell a twenty dollar paella pan. Oh, and dinner will be superb. Olives and tumblers of spanish red to start, paella, then maybe I can get Mrs. Talent to make some flan for dessert. Que Pasa sells and excellent Mexican instant flan. Yeah instant isn't ideal, but allowances are made while living in a motorhome. Thanks, I'm actually semi-excited about this horrible weekend.