Keith Talent

Thanks for the help chefsteban, can you give me a rough idea of where the Ensenada places are in town? I'm vaguely familiar with the layout. We'll be certain to take your Gordos advice on lunch. Proably saved me a bad meal, given the choice between two places, one called Gordos and one called The tigers cave, I'll head into the cave everytime.

We tried to eat at La Casa Que Canta last time we were there, in 2001. We sat unacknowledged for a half an hour, finally got up and left. We would have told someone we were leaving, but literally didn't see a soul the whole time. The two best places we ate, I sorry but don't remember the names, both were casual local spots, one was directly across the street from the mercado, large room, open to the elements on the front side and was painted green, (sorry for not being more helpful). They have the best margaritas in Mexico. Food was good, we had Sunday lunch there and it was busy with large families of locals. The second place I liked was possibly called Mango, was two or three streets back from the beach, and again mostly local. Ate a wild mushroom taco there that I still have occasional dreams about. We also had dinner at http://www.casakaukan.com/kaukan/ the Kau Kan. The food was good, not great, but the view and room are worth it. The cantileverd cement sofa with the view at your back makes you appear far more sophisticated than you really are while sipping a Margarita (at least for me.) We also had an excellent lunch at a stall at Las Gatas, again not that the food was superb, but the surroundings/atmosphere ceratinly was. (For someone that hasn't been to Zihua before Las Gatas is a beach across the bay from town you take a little boat to. The beach is lined with huts that you negotiate a rental fee and lunch to sit on their chairs under their umbrellas. Very reasonable, maybe ten bucks a person, with drinks and lunch, and they take very nice care of you. The beach has an ancient swimming pool created for an Aztec king to swim in the sea outlining the beach, so the sea bottom is nice and sandy, and there are no waves and the water is crystal clear. Probably the best beach I've ever been to. Really good for families too.)

We've never ventured to the blowhole, it's thirty/fourty minutes south, isn't it? I kinda just imagined it was a liter strewn graffitied pile of rock that periodically spews water, but the revelation that there is taco stands and opportunities to purchase t-shirts that read "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor" piques my interest. There just taco stands there, or actual restaurants and if so which is good?

I'm going to be in Ensenada for a couple nights later this month and was shocked to have my search come up nada. Northern baja part of the California board perhaps? We've been to Ensenada four or five times in the past, never eaten anywhere stellar, wondering if anyone here has any recommendations? We're interested in everything from classic upscale Mexican to which cart has the best tacos to which stall at the dock has the best ceviche. We also stop on the drive down in Peurto Neuvo for a lobster lunch. Any gems there? Anyone help? Thanks.

Ha ha! I'm coming down to the HSG later today with a Sharpie marker and changing your menus, "Head Chef - Keith Talent". When I read the caveman comment I suspected I must be sleep-posting, as it was the first time I'd heard it. (Wish I had though, it's a good analogy). Cheers

I kind of thought the point behind the tortilla comment was that they were invented in Northern Mexico, err, California and have since headed south from whence they came. And to answer why we have no good Mexican, I've always kinda assumed that it's because we have no Mexicans. Although that does seem to be changing. Rather than importing Eastern European strippers, as noble a cause as I believe that is, we should have an immigration lottery south of the Rio Grande for 50,000 people, the only priviso being that they need to settle in and around Vancouver, we'd see a pretty prompt change to this thread were that to happen.

I should have known that, I think that was covered in grade four.

I don't totally hate the LDB, I thinks it's the best option outside of the only real sensible solution, total unrestricted beer and wine sales in any and all retail establishments. The problem with some half-assed privatization scheme is that only a few stores will specialize in nice stuff, the vast majority will sell Yellow Tail and not nuch else. The days of a reasonable selection in every store will be gone. I eagerly await the day when I can stroll into my Canadian Tire and grab a case of their private label cuvee, along with the pop up tent and gas'n'go system. The worst thing about the LDB is their pathetic lack of online ordering on their website. it's 2004, why can I not place an order for pickup at my local online? And our wine prices are pretty fair IF you're a smart shopper. Mid-priced Eurpoean wines can occasionally be very cheap, in comparrison to the states at least.

If I was that interested in "cool", I'd probably not spend days with my square faced girlfriend, posting on a restaurant board. I'd also take up extreme freestyle downhill bungie snowboarding and forget golf.

I haven't shopped Tosi's since discovering Santa Barbara Market/Cioffis et al. I was wondering if he was still alive and around. I haven't been there in a dozen years I'll bet. His opening hours were sporadic, I think that's why we stopped going. It is a great place, seems like you're in Italy, circa 1920 in his shop. He sold me my first taste of balsamic. "Here, put a few drops of this on your steak after it's cooked tonight."

First, I agree with Sam re. Que Pasa, their stuff is very, very dull. It resembles Mexican in appearance only, and even then it's really only a fascimile. I live very near their retail outlet, and they do have an outstanding selection of chilis, but c'mon, how can anyone defend a supposedly mexican food purveyor that both sells and uses COLBY cheese? Their fresh corn tortillas are pretty good though. Cheap, and pretty much the only outlet for corn tortillas that I know of. They don't taste "mexican" but then nothing in this town does. They are at least as good as the supermarket brands you can buy in the states at every grocery store. We used to periodically drive to Bellingham for Mexican food, maybe ten/twelve years ago, back when the dollar was strong and the border crossing easy. We had three or four different places we'd frequent, although I have no idea if any of them are still there.

I like Marcello's. I like the room, I kinda like the menu, and think the pizza is the best in town, but that's faint praise, tallest midget thing. Lombardo's I've only been to a couple of times, both for Saturday lunch, didn't recall being particularly taken either time, plus the whole sitting inside the middle of a mall is a turnoff. Plus, Marcello's is worth it just to admire the oven. I enjoy telling my wife that one day I'll have a wood burning pizza oven oven just like that in the backyard, just to watch to look of horror on her face. Seriously coolest oven in the world though. I hosted a birthday party for my wife there a few years back. It's a good place for a casual group. Antipasto, pizza, platters of pasta, place is already loud, so no decorum will be offended. Wine isn't cheap there though.

Anyone been to The Mouse & The Bean? I'd like to boycott it based on the fact alone that the name is stupid, but when you're wandering the desert you'll accept a glass of water from anyone.

I just spent ten minutes typing an opinion on the Commercial location, then I remembered that it was Marcello's, not Incendio. I'm going to stick to sidetracks and snide off topic responses, it's much easier.

Is this another food group that we've swapped out in exchange to the gods of excessive sushi, and now need to do without? Is there anywhere in the city to get fried chicken? I also want mashed poatoes, overcooked green beans and best of all greens cooked with ham hock. I'll pass on the hush puppies though, "here, we don't think you're getting enough grease or starch, this should help."

Vancouver is the town that pizza forget. And mexican. Especially mexican.

I would guess that Artigiano has jumped the shark in terms of hipster cool factor. A website, multiple locations, it's Starbucks with a local street cred. It's cool the first couple times, mainly because of the visual impact, but after that it's merely an alright cup. Plus the whole "world champion barista" crown being constantly banged over your head makes me snicker, rather than impress me. All I think when I hear that is amazement that there is even dumber competions than ballroom dance championships.

Last weeks New Yorker had a pretty good description of crosnes in the "Tables for two section" as the restaurant being reviewed was featuring them. Was I not so tardy with my reading, I'd have known all about them prior to my post. Syncronicity.

Had a great meal once at the All Seasons Cafe in Nelson, it's still the benchmark for dining in the Kootneys, if I'm not mistaken. Plus, as an added bonus the place is crawling with tree planters recently paroled from the bush determined to spend all their cash, kinda like a wildwest frontier saloon, but with a good wine list and less hookers.

Inspired by our recent travels, the missus and I have discussed opening a real cafe in Vancouver. And I'm only being semi-tongue in cheek here, I actually think the fashion masochists of Yaletown would enjoy coffee without options. Here's the concept, based on the prevailing attitudes of the continent. Sizes? We don't do sizes, you want more? Order two. Caramel Latte garnished with confit of gooseberry? Nope. We have two products, coffee and coffee with cream, which will it be? Take out? Piss off. If you're in a rush, stand at the damn bar, drink up and get out. If you are so busy and important that you don't have five minutes for a quick coffee, you should have one of your assistants making it for you. Exceptions to the no takeout rule will be waived for neighbours in the immediate vicinity, they'll get a tray with cups of coffee to run up to the office, please return the cups when done. And no, you can't buy the music we're playing. We're a cafe, not a record shop. Payment will be made in Euro's exclusively, and include a service charge, so there will be no grubby jar with a smilie face and something about the staff snowboard fund on it around. There's no line snaking towards the register, stand at the bar and we'll get to you, don't worry. And you want your pumpkin crannberry chocolate dipped scone on the side? We're a cafe, not a bakery, besides, who wants to eat in the morning? I distrust breakfast eaters as a rule. And while I suspect that organic, passed through the gastrointestinal system of a cat, shade grown is a bunch of bullshit, we will serve fair trade beans, if collectively we need to wear a Boss suit rather than Zegna so some poor bastard in the hills of Columbia can afford to buy his kids pencils for school, then so be it. Now drink up and get out. Or sit quitely in the corner and read your paper, you're welcome to linger. Now all I need is a name. Something with a lot of hard constanants would give it a Germanic sound...That might help imply my rather fascist attitudes towards the way a cafe should be run.

No - We were only in Paris two days this time, and the bulk of our time was spent tromping off to closed musuems (how long will the Orangerie be renovated? And Palais De Tokyo? Isn't this the kind of stuff guide books should share with you? And thus my reluctance to rely on them for restaurant recommendations when they can't even get basic info correct.) Did go to a great street market above the Palais De Tokyo though, so all was not wasted. Quite honestly, I'm not that interested in "fancy". We do fancy pretty well here in North America. If I want to pay alot for a superior version of a pedestrian product, my options here in Vancouver are pretty wide. What I like is the tiny everyday shop, with product that would be the envy of 99.99% of bakers here, and admiring the fact that it's such a high uniform quality in any shop you happen into. And here's why I don't understand having breakfast in your hotel in Paris. I get up, stroll out the front door, hit my local cafe for a coffee, then into the bakery for my morning pastry, and for ten minutes I'm a Parisian, just like everyone else around me, going through the routine of the day. I've had room service in a million other places in earth, there's only one place where I can actually be a Parisian, if only for a short time.

If the pastry items are using a dough from a commisary rather than making it from scratch, I say good for them. And please export the technology over here. Although there is an uncanny resemblence between items from dissimilar bakeries, the quality is undenialbly high. I'd gladly wager in a blind tasting that a pain au chocolat from any random bakery in Paris, or even the country for that matter, would be better than anything from any bakery here in North America. And at half the price, and twice as fresh. And even if it's true and dough is coming from a fcatory, I'll refuse to beleive that the sweet little old lady, artfully dusted in flour and looking harried is perpetrating a fraud on the French pastery consuming public. Even if I'm wrong I'm far happier with the romantic image opposed to the hard truth and will gladly dwell in a state of cognitive dissonace rather than admit the facts. Denial, it's not just a river in Egypt.

Weird that without exception in France they were refered to as Legumes on the price signs, and the one guy I asked about them said they were a legume, but the fact they're tubers makes far more sense, they certainly look like tubers as opposed to a legume.

Any idea why the French prefer their beets pre-cooked? I can understand that its' messy to cook beets in the cramped French kitchen, by the beets are unpeeled and unsliced, which is when the job gets messy.

Thanks, that's definately what they're called, crosnes. Are they really a legume, and are they ever available in North America? One more produce question; Why do French produce sellers all sell pre-cooked beets?