Keith Talent
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Posts posted by Keith Talent
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How'd we live without Google? As it turns out there are a number of models available in BC, without resorting to crap from Home Depot or overpriced name brand stuff from Trail or Midland?
I want the very reasonably priced Vintage Keeper Tuscany 450. Roughly two grand. A friend and I are going to both buy one, so we're going to look at them later this week, maybe use the fact we're buying two to our advantage.
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Public fires on the beach are allowed, I beleive south of the 49th. Point Roberts /Birch Bay? Plus, we need a jurisdiction where alcohol is permitted, or at least tolerated.
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Anyone want to walk me through my wine storage options? There any wine storage companies in town? Somewhere you can rent a temp controlled locker?
Ideally, the move into the new Casa Talent will involve increased room for wine storage coolers. Went to Midland Appliance on Saturday, looked at the Sub-Zero wine locker/cooler thing, $7500 seems quite steep for 120 bottles. They had a crap Danby unit for $1100 again 120 bottles. I need room for 500 +/- and have found some online sources that seem to good to be true. www.winecave.ca has some attractive looking units for two grand that hold 500 bottles. Anyone have any advice? Surely there's a retailer of good quality inexpensive wine storage solutions in town.
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Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have said anything! At least Canuckle didn't pull a Tom-Hanks-at-the-Oscars moment. Aside from the tears.
I have long obsessed over the cool-ness of the traditional New England clam bake, or Louisiana crawfish boil, etc. and the fact that we have not embraced this ourselves (or at least I haven't, in the same manner). The westcoast dungeoness is a much praised creature - so I would totally be into steaming / boiling a whole wack of them, laying them out on a picnic table covered with newspaper, and having at them!
Couple of provisos. Must be done at a beach, the beach must not be crowded. The crabs must be cooked in great huge pots over fires fueled by driftwood. Chardonay must flow like the Fraser during spring runoff.
Where and when?
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We had friends pop over this afternoon at 2:30. I proposed a trip to T&T to get a lobster for dinner. Quick phone call to ensure they still had stock and we were off. Get to the Richmond store and the fish counter is insane. Six deep waiting for the prehistoric leviathans. All of Richmond is lining up for a treat. My efforts at the back are futile. A tiny women turns to me, and with typical Chinese pragmatism says "there's no discipline here, follow me." She breaks out the elbows of pain and I cruise in her wake to the front. The counter clerk asks me if I'm the guy that just called, apparently big dumb white guys phoning the fish counter isn't a daily occurance. He slings a six pound monster at me. I thank him and start looking for the butter.
Bring dinner home, and begin prep. After disscussion, we decide we're having lobster two ways, along with some chevre ravioli purchased yesterday on Commercial. Wine is opened, the group goes to work, it's now close to five thirty after the requsite pre dinner cocktails. Mrs. Talent goes to work making bernaise for the asparagus, Mrs. Friend of Mrs. talent starts clarifying butter, lots and lots of butter. I chop garlic, lemon rind, basil, and mix it into more unmelted butter.
My friend and I decide it's time to dispatch the lobster after courage building glasses of Cotes De Rhone to whatever the hell the lobster afterlife is. Knife plunges the carpace into two clean halves, tail removed, claws removed. Admitedly, the severed tail flopping around for ten minutes was disconcerting
Build a fire out in the grill, for the tail laden with the butter/garlic mixture. Move north up the Rhone and open a bottle of Beaujolais villages (Fleury) which seems to suit the mood of easy going adventure.
The claws were boiled fifteen minutes, then shelled and meat cut into lobster fillets. How often do you have a chance to carve a lobster? The body/head five minutes, the tail grilled over a hot fire.
Outstanding. The meat was tender and sweet, we all expected it to be stringy and tough. Drank an absolutely f'ing killer 1990 Pugliny Montrachet, which while being tired, stood up amazingly well. Fried the tomally quickly in olive oil, used it as a supplementary sauce for the ravioli.
Killer good meal. Group gathered in the kitchen afterwards to suck to meat out of the legs. So fun. A real treat to share whats normally an individula pursuit, lobster with a group. Probably going to get me blacklisted from the C lunch, but the price will have been wothwhile.
Anyone know how they can sell lobster so cheap? The freight must be more than five bucks a pound. And my hands still smell like the beach, after about ten washings.
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See, here's why I should be in charge on things. If I ran the zoo, the tower wouldn't be used for anything as pedestrian as a lifeguard tower, (why do we even have lifegaurds? You go into the ocean, you become part of the food chain, sometimes you're the predator, sometimes the prey. It's pure Darwinism in action.) No, I'd use it for drying/curing fat Fraser Valley hams. There'd be a lovely perfume all through Kits, plus the salty sea breezes would probably do great things for "English Bay Proscuitto."
I swear, there's no vision in this city.
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The Brutalist architectural style is currently enjoying a revival in ultra hip northern European design centres, so enjoy being on the cutting edge, no one said it was pretty.
Beside's if Vancouverites had their druthers and were collectively allowed to pick building designs every freaking building would look like the Marine Building. Gak. I suspect based on the fact that everyone hates it that it will be superb.
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Since my (day job) company is the Certified Professional on that project,
Certified professional what? And can you get me the drywallers autograph?
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Cheers.
When's free reserve wine list and steak night?
Seriously, there are drywall superstars that insist the lunch wagon remove the brown M&M's? That's awesome. If I had my life to live over I'd steer a course towards being the Godon Ramsay of drywallers. "You call that a tape job? It's fookin' shite mate." Do drywallers that work in Yaletown think they're better than drywallers in Surrey? They probably all think that yanks that call it "sheetrock" are total losers.
Drywall superstars. The world is a confusing and fascinating place.
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A good rule of thumb for restaurant builds is 100 days from concrete. Meaning once the building is finished, it takes 100 days to complete a full service restaurant.
Way to go loser, you just spoiled every upcoming episode of "Opening Soon" on the Food Channel for all of us. Thanks alot Neil.
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Another ex-smoker chiming in with no.
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Dewberry rocks harder than Molly Hatchet opening a monster truck rally. I'm tagging him to go deep and take the whole thing. And I want to see him in swim trunks, yes it'd be horrifying, but it'd have the same morbid interest as when they used to tour the Elephant Mans skeleton. How do shoulders get that stooped? I've always thought of the term "pear shaped" as a euphamism, nope, it's real. Dewberry is a Bartlett. He's fascinating, in a strange way.
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Their produce is neither local, nor I doubt organic
Any data on that?
They say they "use" the very best local and organic produce. That leaves them with a lot of semantic football fields to waffle within.
I don't have the British Columbia Ministry af Agriculture figures on organic coconut production last year with me here at home, I left them on my desk at work, but if memory serves, it was zero. I'd be willing to bet heavily on nada if the final Jeopardy category was "Canadian tropical fruit production" and I was trying to unseat that guy from Utah that was on that roll. So no, I have no data points, but don't think that hurts my arguement that their mango isn't local.
With regards to debasing the philisophical nature of my arguement to one of semantics, well then whatever. If you want to play the Marsha Brady "Exact Words" game, so be it. We all recognize the implication of the claim, regardless of lawyers disection of individual words. Wasn't it stud extrodinaire that Bill Clinton that argued "it depends on what your defintion of is is." Fact remains they inted to imply that their produce is both organic and local, two claims that are false.
And it is unfair to single C'hi. But then again this isn't Sesame Street and if someone feelings are hurt, tough, feel free to proof read before sending your website live next time.
But more importantly, you neglected to offer a counterarguement that their actions are analagous to offering prime steak, yet plating choice. For a start, I'd be very very suprised if any Thai on Vietnamese tropical fruit is organic. Secondly, looking at that ambitious and quite delicious sounding menu, I'd be suprised that a new small independent would have the market pull to procure local produce year round.
Regardless, this has been blown way bigger than it needed to be, their crime is no worse than the athlete that claims to give 110% or the actor that says it's an honour just to be nominated. Idiotic cliches don't reflect well on the speaker, and your first impulse is to cry bullshit loudly when hearing them. And that's what C'hi did, used the foodservice cliche du jour. No harm, no foul. (Shit, that's a cliche isn't it?)
Cheers
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Actually, it was kinda just a lighthearted rant, but now that you highlight it, in my opinion these crooks should be taken to task for false advertising. Their produce is neither local, nor I doubt organic. Yet they claim it is. That constitutes a pretty serious level of dishonesty, in my opinion. Really not very different than a steakhouse serving choice but claiming prime, or a car dealer rolling back odometers.
Okay, the above is a gross overstatement, and rather than fraud I suspect one of two explanations, neither of which flatter the proprietors and if it was my business I'd call my web developer and do some editting. Either the powers that be don't care that they are making misleading statements believeing that we the public want to see certain key words, not really being cognizant of their meanings, or they are unaware of what the lead screen of their own webpage says. Neither possibility reflects well on them.
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Have you ever had an organic Saltspring durian? Superb.
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Beleive me, the last thing I need is street food in close proximity of lemon chili squid at Phnom Phen (I've been taken to task for my spelling of the restuarnt name/city in Cambodia before, I have no intention of looking it up and/or attempting to correct it. Deal with it, stop being a hater.)
Seems like a recipe for thirty-seven galsses of water before bed, a handful of Tums and a restless night.
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I would if I was on business. Tell the barkeep to keep bringing pints of stout until my assorted plethora of daily emails began making sense.
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No text, the title pretty much says it all.
(Editted to remove the less than macho smilie thing from the title. How the hell did that thing get added, stupid itchy left click finger. Smilies belong exclusively on the "My Pretty Pony" board. Even the denziens over at Planet Smurf probably think smilies are kinda lame.)
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If you want to go see lots of vendors selling (IMO) lots of crap, while being elbowed eating mediocre to bad food, This place is for you!
It's the cheapest way to enjoy the pleasures of Hong Kong without risking deep vein thrombosis and surly Air Canada staff. Plus, where else are you going to get your knock off Hello Kitty pen and pencil sets? Boring meetings go way faster if you throw down a flashing neon Japanese anime pen on a rope. Don't tell me you didn't look at the bundles of ten tighty whiteys for two bucks and question if you'd ever should do laundry again, maybe the disposable underpant route is a sensible way to go.
And who hasn't been intrigued by the giant barebecued squid on a stick? No mere calamri, these things were the stuff of Jules Vernes nightmares. Why would anyone eat a squid pop except on a bet while drunk? It's a question that needs investigating.
Who doesn't want to be assualted by an elderly Chinese gent flogging some crap smelling tea that he promises works better than Viagra. It's both flattering and insulting. I'm flattered that he considers me such a player that I'm a legit prospect, and insulted by the same thing.
The mystery of the six dollar cookies sold at the dragon beard stall. Why? They're average at best. Am I unwittingly financing some east asian terrorist organisation and the mediocre cookies are merely a front? The dragon beard is half that price and twice as good. Someone slept through certain critical parts of business school.
Nightmarket can make you happier than a dog in a pickup truck bed on the freeway, if you just open your eyes to the bizarreness around you. The giant robo-cop statues on the pillars? Why? The logo that looks like it was designed by my kids pre-school, actually just by the slow kids at my kids pre-school? Why? Are there any primary colours they didn't manage to incorporate into that giant F-you directed at every professional graphic designed in the city? The lame slogan, "YES!" Why? They should demand their money back from the English as a Second languge classes if that's the best they can come up with.
And now they're passing fake fives too? Get out. I'd pay ten bucks for a fake five. I'd have a great story to tell for years and the proof in my wallet.
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This is exactly what I'm talking about, the terms local and organic have become so overused as to be completely meaningless. The home splash page claims that they use the very best "local and organic produce." Looking at the menu lays waste to that claim. Everyone knows the gentlly swaying coconut groves of Aldergrove are NOT organic. Neither are the extensive mango plantations in Ruskin, the pineapple fields of the Sumas prairie, or the cherimoya farms of the north shore. To claim these local products are organic are is a bald faced lie. Someone should call them on it.
Do the proprietors think we the public are complete fools and won't notice their cleverly constructed ruse, or are they that clueless as to the providence of their produce? Either way it doesn't reflect well. Then again they refer to themselves in all lower caps, which has always struck me as kinda lame at best, horribly pretensious at worst.
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The article was written in Spring '02, therefore the drinking guide is a best guess only. They estimated the prime years, but perhaps underestimated slightly. Not uncommon, but nothing to worry about either. I;'m ceratin that while two years may benefit the wine, it's most likely drinking very nicely now.
Anyone have any guesses when the current just released vintage will be ready to drink, I beleive it's 2003.
(edit) I opened one bottle on the weekend. It seemed fine, you could tell that there was some unresolved fruit underneath that would emerge with time. Overall, it was very very good.
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Two Buck Chuck tastes like it should cost at least three. The current Chardonnay is actually very drinkable. The reds all have that underfermented home brew flavour. It'd be better if it were six or seven buck chuck.
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Vancouver Wine Storage
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted
Not like I know anything, and am talking completely out of my ass, but I wouldn't think humidity would be an issue here in Vancouver. In Calgary, yes. Kelowna, Yes, Vancouver? I'd think the ambient humidity is pretty much perfect. I await correction from more knowledgeable members.