Keith Talent

I refuse to recognize the results of any judging panel that doesn't contain rock musician/artist Korn. Or the guy from the lower house of parliment.

Vogue is Taiwanese? No one tells the round eyed devils anything. How the hell am I supposed to know that? We just call it the Chinese Cactus Club in my house, mostly because of the abundance of good looking young (female) servers. All the restaurants in the complex that houses Vogue look good. We'll be sure to try the one next door soon. I need a crib guide to chinese cuisines, a quick method of identification the type or region of cooking. And the guy that works the lot at Hons must have been a real bastard in his past life, and is now paying for it in this one. That is one bad job. We always kinda thought he was a bit of a racist, because he was always scowling at the Chinese, then we noticed that he's pissed at everyone equally, and with good reason, there's alot of stupid shit going on in that parking lot. First time I ever tried pho was at that Pho No. 1 at 3 and Cambie. Many years ago, my wife and I went with my parents. We were clueless. We didn't know that everyone gets their own bowl but rather thought it was family style. They were too polite to tell us that we were doing it all wrong and making a giant mess to boot. Live and learn I guess. My wife and I used to go there somewhat frequently when they had the big screen TV and would play movies while you ate. That was kinda fun, as long as you wee there for a subtitled film.

Don't lose hope yet. I peered in the window and they seemed to be closed, rather than gone. If I recall, this isn't the first time I've been by and they were closed at an odd time.

Probably should have used the fast reply button instead of the regular

Why, are there doctor rankings now? Do groups of heart patients sit around and debate the merits of their surgeon until a consensus is reached and a "power ranking" number is assigned to each? Anyway, it was merely an offhand comment, I'm not privvy to surgery stats anymore anyways since I took all my Cardiovascular Surgeons trading cards and stuck them in the spokes of my bike so that it would make that cool twacka twaka sound as I rode to school. In all seriousness though, if you keep your ears open, you'll constantly hear every medical professional in trhe land refered to as the best by their patients. I'm not a psycologist, but that doesn't stop me from some two bit theorizing on the internet, and I suspect that if someone is going to cut you open, it's in your best interests mentally speaking to coinvince yourself that you are being cut by the most brilliant practioneer in the world. Now pass the heart, please.

Thanks all, especially Ling. Couple problems though. Regarding Deer Garden, I've looked at the menu while strolling to Hons, but if I'm changing venues, I'd also like to be rid of ever having to go into that parking lot again. That is the most evil place on earth, easy. If you wanted to off someone with high blood pressure, you could just tell them to meet you there for lunch sometime and they'd kick it while trying to park for sure. BBQ 2000 is closed, or at least it was last week. We used to get alot of takeout sushi from FuKaRaKu Express next door, and I'd occasionally pop in and bolster my rice intake with a side of bbq pork on rice. We've stopped going to FuKaRaKu because the quality has deteriorated a long way from when they first opened. Anyway last week we went to get takeout sushi for the first time in six months from there and BBQ 2000 was closed up.

What is the one thing you will not eat, regardless of who it's prepared by, and where it's served? There are alot of things I wouldn't be that keen to try, but if prepared by the right person would ceratinly give them a go. The one thing I wouldn't ever eat, I don't care if Jacques Pepin made them himself would be escargot. I'd try bugs, I'll try brains, but I am not eating slugs, period.

Why does everyone feel the need to claim their doctor is the very best in their field. My dad is notorious for this and it gives me vast satisfaction and amusement to query his assesment of his medical professionals' skills. Everyone I've ever known to need any type of specialist whatsoever has been fortunate to get attention from the very top practioner in their field. Statistically speaking, alot of you must be receiving substandard care, because I know for a fact that I've never spoken to an average doctor in my life, nope, only the very best and brightest for me. In fact, I've never talked to a receiptionist in a medical office that wasn't at the very top of their field. The cahier in the hospital cafeteria last time I was there was perhaps the best cashier in the world.

Any chance of Nigella Lawson licking frosting off beaters half an hour a day, say late at night?

How old are your monsters, Redhead? Mine are 3 1/2. They are pretty good eaters. Noodles mostly, with what ever meat we're eating. Only downside is nothing too spicy, which limits me, but sacrifices must be made when you start a family I guess. They've been raised on a diet of asian food since they started eating solids, so nothing seems that weird to them. They love pho, which is good for us, although I doubt a bowl of rice noodles have much in the way of nutrients. The refer to pho as going out to the Chinese Spagehtti Factory, which is their favourite restaurant, and naturally our most despised. They like Japanese, they'd eat salmon sashimi exclusively if we'd let them. (Two problems with that, a)cost and b)I'm not sure if toddlers should eat raw fish.) I'm not the one to pontificate on kids diets, they're a complete mystery to me. How they determine what's good and what's not seem to be ruled by some abitrary selection lotto rather than any logic. In fact pretty much every aspect of their personality seems to be governed by some giant cosmic roulette table. "And todays behaviour ball falls into the slot marked "crabby"". I'd look at taking your kids first to a Vietnamese place and getting the rice noodle bowl. THere's nothing foreign or strange about them. Thin rice noodles, grilled chicken skewers, spring rolls (and speaking for my kids, ANYTHING deepfried is good, I suspect your kids/all kids might be the same?) and a few slices of carrot and cucumber. Dipping sauce (sweet/vinegary) on the side. Nothing alien when you think about it, 'cept spring rolls and they fall under the deepfrier provision.

THe Ikea cafeteria is pretty good. The five dollar salmon is a reasonable lunch. Real food. Fillet, potatoes, and some sort of veg stew/ratatouille thing. Drink included. Tip to the sly; Combine 50% 7-Up and 50% Lingonberry juice at the fountain. And they can try to be sophisticated and urbane with their fancy euro Lingonberry juice, but I know cranberry when I see it. The open faced roast beef is also good. Real roast beef, topped with dill horseradish and fried onion bits on some kind of rye. Pretty good.

I've eaten Buddhist food many times, and kinda like it. I find you do get to gluten overload point pretty quickly. When I was a kid my mom would make gluten steak for dinner periodicly, I have no idea why, but that cured me of ever wanting more than a sampling of gluten again. I'm looking for somewhere with an everyday quality, nothing specialized.

Better White Spot than the traditional BC Ferry food, (and I'm resisting putting scare quotes around the word food.) What's up with that chowder? That stuff is neither famous nor good. Talk about a bad case of groupthink. If a thick creamy base filled with anchovy flavoured elastic bands prepared by a disgruntled union member is your idea of a delicious bowl of soup, then more power to you, but it's not for me. I'm sorry, but clams, like parachutes are one of those things I want to pay alot of money for. You know who BC Ferrys should conttract in to run the cafeteria? Ikea. Those Swedes know how to run a cafeteria. Gordo is going to hear from me on this today.

Needed to go to the mall last night, wife has the cold, I didn't feel like cooking so we decided to take our kids to White Spot. We go there 3-4 times a year maybe and every time I enjoy it not because it's good, it's not but because it's like travelling into some alternate Alice in Wonderland universe. First, the unexplained wait. Empty tables everywhere, but there seems to be a rule that you need to stand around for five minutes while they "get a table ready". I've never understood the whole get a table ready thing. Is it their first day in business? Did they not expect customers to show up wanting to eat? I can deal though, I'm a patient man. Next comes the server to tell us about the specials. Legendary Platter with side caesar, $8.99. Look at the menu see that I can get the same thing off the regular menu for the same price, but also get three onion rings. Huh? Where's the special? Is it special for them maybe? Maybe it's a special for the guy on the deep fryer station? He doesn't have to work. Wife begs me to not query the waitress, she knows it will turn into a protracted discourse on the concept of "specials" by me to some poor little high school girl waitress that's just trying to earn a couple bucks running burgers after school. We order, two legedary platters, a pint of beer, (it always seems somewhat decadent to order booze in a White Spot. I wonder how many bottles of wine the flog a week? One? Maybe, if it's super busy? I've never seen the wine list there, I'm asking to speak to the sommelier next time. "What would you recommend with Ketchup?"(Oh, and the beer is GM Place quality at White Spot, yeah, I know it's shocking to think that there are two places in the same city that manage to serve flat skanky tasting pints)) and a Priate Pak for my kids. Food comes on four plates. Uhhhh, this could be trouble. I've got two three year old twin daughters, and if you think that they are going to forgo an opportunity to eat burgers out of a cardboard pirate ship, well then you're crazy than Howard Dean appeared during his cathartic scream. I call over the waitress. Wife shoots me the look that after a decade of marriage instantly conveys "DO NOT ASK THE WAITRESS ABOUT THE THOUGHT PROCESS INVOLVED IN CHOOOSING TO DENY TWO THREE YEAR OLDS THE VERY REASON WE'RE HERE." So I don't, I'm not an idiot. But I did mull it over while eating my delicious but not entirely burger tasting burger. Yeah, they serve burgers there, but it's a burger like a Big Mac is a burger, it contains all the requisite component parts, yet somehow manages to taste unique and unlike any other burger, which really isn't the worst thing I guess. WWIII is averted by quickly getting dinner into two boats, bottom lips were quivering, but tears not yet flowing. Things went smoothly from that point on.

I'm looking for a new Tuesday night chinese place. Somewhere cheap and easy, somewhere I can take my two small kids when we don't feel like cooking. We'd gone to Hons for years, but two things happened, they've gone upscale (fair enough, thats a highly relative assesment, but the fact remains they now accept credit cards and occasionally have papertowel in the washrooms.) But someone here, or over at that other board said something to me to the effect that Hon's is pretty good, if you're a caucasian. We've been going to a place called Vogue in that wierd brick mall at the corner of Cambie and Sexsmith for the last six months. It's quite good, but I'd still like to have another option. Any suggestions? I'm looking for somewhere that the dishes run 8-12 bucks, I can get out of there spending 30-35 for three dishes. There's got to be some undiscoverd gem out there.

Uhh, I think your sense of history is slighly short sighted. I've been hearing "give BC time, it's young" since before I was legal to drink, and that's been more than fifteen years. I remember my parents going to the Okanogan Wine Festival when I was in high school in the early eighties. I remember how Nafta was going to kill the finally well established BC wine industry, and that was more than ten years ago. The industry has been around longer than they'd like you to think, I suspect.

See, have a cathartic temper tantrum above and over the last two weeks, everytime I turn around, someone is handing me a glass of good BC wine. Impressed with Lang Vineyards Grand Pinot 2001 ($18). Wife went and bought three bottles so I'll be interested to open one and see if it matches my recollection, or if it was a case of wine being improved by food, company and ambience. (I had it originally as one of the wines in the flight at Bis Moreno) I'll crack one of the bottles as soon as the lingering head congestion that makes everything taste like ten dollar Chilian Cab goes away. Also had a 2001 Cedar Creek Platnium Reserve Pinot Noir which was drinkable, which for Cedar Creek seems to be an achievement. Last time I had a Pinot from the it was orange. Not orange tinged, Tang (like on an Apollo mission) orange. That was ten years ago probably. And although the recent Pinot was tasty, it was also 35 bucks, which seems slightly unreasonable.

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

I haven't been here long enough to know if it's cool to jump all over double posters.

That's kinda my point exactly, one Thai restaurant goes south and we all know about it. I'd like to see Thai on every street corner like the other popular asian cuisines.

If were talking under represented surely Thai is the most sorely lacking when considered against the numbers of other asian restaurants. Sure there's quite a few, but I'd like to see them on every street corner like sushi. I think the continued success of Thai House speaks volumes abou the lack of competition.

Went to West last night. Pretty good. Venison Terrine was outstanding, flavourful and studded with pistachios served with a nice piece of grilled bread and a complementary chutney. Entree was Cod stacked on potatoes with chorizo and a scoop of tapenade. First Portugese fusion dish I've ever eaten. Desert was an average lemon rice pudding. The food was good, service excellent. Portions were adequate. My wife had the duck confit. Anyone else notice almost every restaurant serves duck confit for the Taste event? Probably tells you something about the profit margin on confit. Drank a nice Givry with dinner. Great food, reasonable price, pretty damn good Monday night (sans babies too!) Only complaint is the room itself looks like a loser in some decorating challenge show on TLC. That chrome cloud sculpture thing on the ceiling has got to go. I swear I've seen work from the same "artiste" on the roof of the ballroom of a suburban Holiday Inn. Marble floors! Leather walls! Chrome ceileing! Fortuneatly the kitchen has better focus than the designer.

Yeah, it seems stupid and horrible, but for me, Jacques Pepin lends alot of credibility to the thing, and although I wouldn't pay money to see it even if J. Christ were preparing his famous loaves and fishes dish accompanyed by his homemade '30 Eau Du Vin, Mr. Pepin's participation knocks it from mockable to merely cringeworthy for me.

I guess what I was really asking was that if things are as grim in TO as she portrays. She has more bad/bizzarre experiences in a month than I've had in my life. We have plenty of bad restaurants here in BC, but they generally tend to be empty. The place she reviewed last week (some sort of tratoria) sounded bad, was expensive yet also full. Why?

Yeah, it's evil, but it's a damn effective behavioural modification tool. "Next kid to whine doesn't get to see the rat." Plus it's funny in that kids of a certain age don't quite savvy the association between a giant rat and lousy pizza. My daughters who are 3 1/2 still talk about how the rat restaurant was pretty fun.