Keith Talent

Sounds like the Hamilton Street Grill during DOV.

I don't recognize "Alltime Coolest—Chez Victor, Kafana Bosna." Little help for the historically impaired please.

Martini purists don't lurk, we post with abandon to defend the fine name of a cockatil whos' glassware and name have been misappropriated by the forces of evil, or at least the forces responsible for raising the blood alcohol content of young women everywhere (Thanks guys!).

I don't want to be a wet blanket, but what barolo says echos my experience too. Lets use any town in Spain as an example. Go into any bar, and ask a local which ham is the best. You will ineveitably start a fistfight among the patrons when the differences of opinion are aired. They'll all inevitably have varying opinions, they inevitably not agree with each other. Now as a control group, go into any Cactus Club here in Vancouver and ask which local oyster is best. Or which species of Salmon. Or which is better, sablefish or black cod, double bonus points if ANYONE even picks up your attempted deceipt. I'll tell you right now, very very few people will have the basic food literacy to even attempt to answer the above question, never mind offer and intelligent reasoned response. The average Vancouverite's food and beverage interest extends no farther than to answer the great Quiznos vs. Subway debate. I think that just because a few progressive local visionaries can see the corner coming it doesn't mean we've yetr turned it. Things are getting better, but we're still a looooooonnnggg way from having a ingrained food culture in this town. All that aside, one recent incident made me realize that we are well on the road to being a food culture. It seems insignificant on the surface, but a deeper examination says some pretty good things about Vancouver. I was at a golf tournement with the requisite banquet afterwards. The appetizer course was sushi cooked, err I mean prepared by the good people from Octopus Garden in Kits. Not only did the golfers, not known as bastions of the avante garde devour the sashimi and rave about the eel, but the interesting thing happened during the main course. While plates were set in front of the diners, pretty much everyone in the room kept eating with chopsticks. I found this fascinating. The entree was barbecued chicken or something I forget, it wasn't asian, but people already had their chopsticks in their hands, and seemed to be entirely comfortable continuing with them. I can't imagine a crowd of middle aged white guys anywhere else in the world doing that. The thing I found interesting is it was not remarkable, no one commented on it, no one seemed to notice. It was just an interesting picture of where we are as a city in 2004.

Two questions; When roughly was the turning point from greasy backwater to culinary hotspot and have we really turned a corner, or are we all so engrossed in our own food-centric existance, we perceive the city differently than it really is?

If you take off your glasses, stand well back from the monitorand tilt your head to the right that sandwich looks, awww screw it, that 's too off colour for even my depraved sense of humour.

Sorry, I filter everything through a crabby filter, sometimes what comes out isn't too nice. We could still argue about the inappropriteness of Vodka in a martini though. Come to think of it, I basicly object to vodka, period. The excellent Vesper ios the only exception. And a bloodymary/ceasar.

At the risk of being too obvious, there is no such thing as an interesting Martini. If it's interesting, it's not a martini, it's some sickly sweet concoction devised to booze up people that don't like booze, and allow them to pretend to be more sophisticated drinkers than they really are. Oh, and welcome to the board.

What'd you buy?

I liked that story better the last time you told it. I like these new White Spots attached to the Chevron stations that are sprouting up all over town. Speciffically, I'm a fan of the architecture. I'd love to sit down with the architect that designed the template used and ask him what the thinking was behind the faux river rock chimney they all sport. Because nothing says gas bar/burgers to me more than a chimney. And only White Spot would be clueless enough to review the drawings and say "yeah, we've always thought gas stations could be dressed up with a chimney". Just what I want when gassing the Talent-mobile, a comfy cozy homey feel. White Spot is the best, it's like a chain specifically designed to amuse. Really the first chain of theme restaurants, the theme being "unintentional comedy". .

Selflink to my Kaplans hotdog report

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a nice clean yak gut in this town? The Talent Family Cheese Handling Protocols are not the best, left over frommage gets carelessly thrown in the fridge next to what ever the hell that greenish looking thing is (green pepper? cheese? tennis ball?) So yeah, my complaints seem somwhat hollow, but as a parent you've got the recognize that one of the guiding priciples of my life is "Do as I say, not as I do." Just because I leave my shoes wherever they may happen to part company with my feet doesn't mean everyone else in the family is also invited to do the same. I have pretty much the same attitude towards my cheese purveyor.

I assume I'm going to be alone in my feelings of being underwhelmed by Amis. Their selection is fine, but I am slightly dissapointed with a) their refrigeration and b) use of plastic wrap; Both of which are fatal flaws for a fine cheese merchant as far as I've been told/read/seen. Perhaps it goes back to my long held conviction that the best thing that could happen to Vancouver is for the population to grow magicly by another million people, perhaps then we'd have the critical mass required for specialty merchants to be able to do things correctly, and still be economically viable. I understand they don't move enough cheese to be able to afford to handle it correctly, we're still a small city in many regards. A trip across the street to drool on the hoods as Wiessach (sp?) makes some of my disapointment dissappear.

Someone told me that too.

We sat outside on Sunday on the docks in Steveston, pretty much everywhere had their patio's open. And the Fish and Chips were highly mediocre. Steveston is tourist hell. If you're ever travelling, look around, if your locale looks likes Steveston, congrats, you've found the local tourist trap.

How does that work? Do you not verify the credit card?

You people dissapoint. All these industry insiders and not one horror story from last night? I'm gullible, make something up if nothing significant happened. Neil? Andrew?

Hey, I've been wondering that too. My wife and I had our wedding reception at Zeppo's on Broadway. If I recall his progession went something like Zeppo's, Coq D'Or, Indigo at the Wall Centre, the a place at 41st & Granville, then into thin air. The order maybe wrong. Someone turn on the Maw-light (see, you didn't know what the Heineken logo you periodically saw lighting the night sky represented, now you know.) His elephantine memory has not let us down yet.

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. ← Little late for that correction. I wandered the food court at Landsdowne for fifteen minutes, completely confused as to where to get laksa. The fine proprietors at The Curry House were ready to call security because of the clearly deranged maniac insisting they make him laksa, and even if it's not on the menu, it's clearly available as an off menu special. I was dubious as to why an Indian restaurant would make laksa, but hey, I had it on good authority they did it. I also accosted the staff at the Thai place next door, and the Vietnamese family that run the seafood stall. I'm not going back to Landsdowne for awhile, at least until I can grow a beard and have my hair dyed. Thanks Jeffy.

Which ironically brings us straight back to the original question, where is hot now, if you care enough to register on this board, you're probably well aware of Vij's. And earlier I posted a flippant comment regarding dining at a temple, I kinda hoped to encourage comment, reading back I see it was just smartassed and semi-disrespectful, so really no suprise that nothing came of it. I honestly am interested if anyone has ever gone to a temple to eat, and what is the protocol. It's almost like an urban myth that anyone can stroll into a Sikh temple and be fed. Couple of problems, how does one walk in and end up fed without feeling like a freeloading cheapskate? Also, I kinda feel like I would be intruding, and that it's disrespectful to enter a religious space to feed the body but not the soul. I'm relatively ballsy, but can't really see myself walking in and asking where the chow is. I guess if you had a friend that attended the temple it would be less uncomfortable, but then it would not dispell or confirm the urban myth that anyone can walk in. The various churches/temples/synagogues etc that line #5 road here in Richmond have an open house every year, (I think in May) I've always wanted to go, and always find out about it too late. We've gone to the Hari Krishna restaurant on Marine in Burnaby. Before we continue I should ask, any Krishna here? Good, I'll continue then, it was about as good as you'd expect from a bunch of vegan caucasian hippies. So, has anyone ever walked into a temple to eat?

Strange, I swear I've looked her up before and there was a different stauts on the account. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showuser=816

She was, you'll periodically see reference to her. She dissappered from here without a trace, deleting her account in the process. It was before my time so I don't know the story, maybe one of the oldtimers recall the details. I always found her fascinating, it was tough to pin where on the savant continuim she resided, was she a genuis, or merely eccentric? I haven't seen her post at Chowhound recently either (although to be honest, it seems no one posts there anymore, that place is as dead as the NHL. Hard to beleive it was once my prefered board.) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=Se...ult_type=topics

"Can I tell you about my lord and personal saviour, Ganesh?" "No. Can I have more allo goobi though?"

Admittedly, I am crabby today. Feel free to edit out "people" and replace with "the idiot in Richmond".

Except for in the thread title.