eatrustic

The most common Salvadorian food (around here) is the Pupusa which is a thick masa dough patty stuffed with anything from cheese to pork. They also make a hearty beef soup (Sopa de Res). They do nice spiced Salvadorian style turkey Tortas (which are a latin panini) as a special. Other than that I haven't really explored outside Mexican cuisine too much.

While we're on the 5 Senses topic... the only thing that will make me fight my way downtown at this time of year is the Stollens they make every Christmas. Usually commercial Stollens are dry and boring as hell but Thomas' are incredible. (Stollens are a sweet dough in the shape of a sloppy rectangle with raisins and dried fruit (just a bit) inside and covered with powdered sugar.) What makes them special is the little cylinder of homemade almond paste that runs through the center. As with all things Hass they ain't cheap: $14. for a 1 pounder and $22. for the larger size. For myself it's a nice alternative to all the Panettones I make for my friends and family (that I get sick of looking at by the time Christmas gets here).

There's also a little place on E. Hastings (2522- same block as Scardillos) called El Pulgarcito. The owners are Salvadorian - they purchased it about 4 months ago from the old owners. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but it is very clean with a few tables and a little grocery component with some of the staples for making Mexican and Salvadorian food. Even some frozen items. They do a combinaton of simple Mexican and Salvadorian cuisine.

I was in about a year ago. The best tequila in the house was Cuervo Gold if I recall and the food was quite forgettable

Melmck : What is your take on the Dutch Regal recipe? Do you like it ? Does it produce a nice moist Stollen? (since you're on the quest I guess there must be some issues with it).

I bet you'll get a nice buttery sweet dough from the Machlin recipe but not the potential for a lighter more airy crumb which comes from building your Panettone in stages as with Cresci. What's with the cold oven??? How does that work?

Katie don't make yourself crazy about the name thing. This is a fun exercise and is really the least of your worries when it comes to opening a future pastry shop ( believe me). Just remember when you are overobsessing that (to a huge extent) it will be the product that makes the name. Thus, even a boring name like "First Ave. Cakes" will take on a glow and a life of it's own if the product is outstanding. And... if the product isn't up to the glare of public acceptance then no matter how well crafted the name and graphics are it will be synonymous with mediocrity. (All the more reason to be banging your head over the details of reproducing your great product on a larger scale than the name.) Reality check brought to you courtesy of : "been there done it!"

I have to say I don't quite get the number of votes for Sugar as a name. Pastry/Cake shops should have romantic and evocative names (Buttercream Dreams) unless they are going to be very minimalist with graphic styles to match ( "kakes"). Since so much of a pastry shop's business is based on impulse sales a name like sugar which cries sweet! (with no romantic feel) would enable those who "really shouldn't" to resist even going in the door. Perhaps for a candy store... I know that this doesn't address the potential savory component but sometimes you can't be all things under one name unless you're a cafe.

Wow, Stovetop, you covered a lot of ground there! (Including one hell of a long sentence!) As for judging Mexican food in Vancouver and finding it wanting: Yes for the most part it is (wanting). That there are many cuisines wrapped up under the "Mexican" catch all does not change the fact that well made food using authentic techniques and ingredients and made by people who care about what they are making will always stand out over poorly seasoned, dumbed down offerings. The frustration expressed by fans of Mexican cuisine in Vancouver is based on the experience of eating in other cities (in and out of Mexico) where dedicated professionals and amateurs have not compromised the authentic feel of what is one of the great cuisines of the world. Lack of ingredients is definitely an issue in bringing authentic Mexican to Vancouver but we are at a point where that is an excuse more than a reason as there are a number of places that have imported the building blocks of good Mexican food. (Que Pasa is a fine place and a pretty good source of ingredients and I really miss their little lunch counter in Kits.) God forbid that an owner or chef should try and go for his/her vision of what the perfect food experience should be. (Maybe you're just trying to get a rise out of us.) Of course the customers will have their say by voting with "bums in seats" but for every five wacky concepts there will be one that is driven by passion and takes the authenticity or originality of the experience to the next level. (Rick Bayless is a good example.) You can't appreciate what good Mexican food is all about until you've eaten from a little road side food cart just about anywhere in Mexico and tasted the purity and depth of flavour that comes from a few ingredients (that -should be- but is hardly ever duplicated here). Why the city hasn't managed to come up with a place that embodies the true spirit of Mexican cuisine (with a great cerveza and tequila selection!) boils down to some one taking the risk. Most of the better ethnic places in Vancouver have been started by their respective countrymen. Since we don't have a particularly large Mexican population it will most likely have to be a local who takes the plunge. With the help of forums like this we greatly increase their chances of success by getting the word out.

There's also Mexico Sabroso 440 W. Hastings - not too far from the Mouse and Bean. About the same quality level as the M & B. They are as authentic as it gets in Van. They have an ok mole but you can get tacos with lengua (tongue) and carnitas and posole (my favourite winter soup). Nice aquas frescas and you can tell from the crowd that it's a home away from home. Again, though, it ain't the full meal deal, no cerveza, but the prices are decent. Open evenings and lunch. I'd kill for a Frontera Grill in this town.

I just discovered Alyssia (I think thats the spelling ) around the corner from the Fifth Avenue Cinema on Burrard. The place never really appealed to me from the outside but as I was walking by last week I stopped in to grab a coffee. For some reason I went for a Mocha which I haven't had in a long time and was amazed at how good it was. It wasn't big or topped with whipped cream, just really good chocolate syrup, great espresso and milk foam. The owner is apparently a fanatic for quality coffee and is always out sourcing the best beans etc. Just watching him work on each coffee shows how serious he is. I've been back a couple of times and all the coffees are excellent. The rest of the offerings (food) look OK but nothing out of the ordinary. I'll put these guys up as having among the best coffee on the West side if not the city (subjective as that is).

This reminds me of the that famous movie "The Invasion of the Bakery Snatchers!" Decent, God fearing bakeries being taken over in the night to be replaced with soulless cardboard replacements! And Vancouver is only the launching platform for the rest of North America. (They have 600 locations in Australia under Baker's Delight their original name). We have to get the word out....who among us will volunteer to go forth to warn Victoria and Seattle before it is too late? (I'll take New York and San Francisco) Dare I paraphrase the famous Hindenburg quote as it crashed in flames "Oh.. the doughmanity!"

Apparently the first Cobbs in Edgemont village opened that way. They approached the existing bakery and offered to buy their location but told them that if they didn't want to sell they would open up in the same block and put them out of business through competition.... so they sold.

It looks we've all had a pretty similar lunchtime experience which will pretty much kill any chances of us going for dinner. Interestingly none of us (myself included) has thought to contact the owner/chef to give our feedback. (Correct?) According to Jamie he's seems like a nice enough fellow (although when you're talking to the restaurant critic for Van Mag I guess he damn well better be a nice guy!). My point is: why don't we as modern restaurant patrons go to the effort of giving what would be hopefully very valuable feedback to someone who has been portrayed in this forum as being a nice enough guy (and with the preopening hype had everyone creamin'). Perhaps he shouldn't have opened for lunch so quickly and is over his head and would appreciate our feedback? (as most professional business owners would). Or are we all working on the one strike and you're out principal so why bother...theres always new restaurants on the horizon so too bad so sad -next! Vancouver dining patrons have had a rep for a long time as being very "follow the crowd". (Present company excepted of course!) ... or has this forum become the place for us to vent our unhappiness with these issues and assume that any modern owner/management of a new and or "trendy" establishment is monitoring us? Personally I'm a little bit of all the above. Indifferent service makes me indifferent not proactive ..unless I have been taken to the cleaners. Just curious what others think.

Yeah, the Trany loaf is big but (Euro style) they will sell you half for $5. That's about the same size as before. When I asked why he explained quite logically that with the colder weather his little oven cools down much faster. Since it's wood fired it isn't as simple as turning on the gas or electricity to bring the temp back up. Thus he bakes bigger loaves that require less opening and closing of the oven door. For the crust fans it's good and crusty, the only problem being that with the size of loaf he makes you just about need a laser bread knife to cut through in a straight line. I had to resort to my offset serated Messermeister to do the job. Still only the one kind - very hearty whole wheat. Great for this time of the year. I made a Ribollita (heavy duty Tuscan vegetable soup) and took a big slice of the bread rubbed with garlic, drizzled olive oil on top (you know, the crostini thing),sprinkled lots of fresh parmesan on and grilled it and put it in the bottom of the bowl and poured the soup all over it. The true test of a good bread - it held it's shape even though all soggy.

This should be a fitting end to the weekend. Hopefully all you Bourdain groupies will have dried out enough to check out Brit chef Gordon Ramsey as he rampages through badly run restaurant kitchens. ... 6:00 and 9:00pm Sunday night on our "beloved" Food Channel. This should easily be the best program on the FC this Fall (outsourced of course).

A friend and I popped into Chambar for lunch (first timers) and had a good but not great experience. I arrived early, sat in the front and decided to have a coffee to warm up while I waited. It was a wet and cold day and the place was chilly and drafty from front to back (still getting used to the systems I assume). The bartender asked if I wanted a regular coffee or... I said yes regular and he made me an Americano which often happens when they don't want to make a pot. We moved to the back where we waited a good 5 minutes before the server brought us settings and menus. (Perhaps seeing my coffee she thought that we were already taken care of.) I ordered the Moulles- Frites and a Leffe (I think that's the name) belgian beer on tap. My friend ordered the Pomengranate glazed Salmon. The beer was great, nice spice and fruity taste without being cloying. The Moulles -frites - great mussels, good portion with a ton of tasty liquid in the bottom (bacon and juliennes of vegetable in a cream broth). The frites were very basic, not crisp at all and obviously dissappointing with the rep that preceeded them. The frites at Go Fish were lightyears better. As my friend and I were in a serious discussion I didn't point this out to the server until well into the meal and did not ask for a retrial. She offered that the chef was not in the kitchen at lunch and that the quality might not be quite up to the usual standard. hmmmm. I had to ask for a spoon for the broth and I also requested some bread to soak up the liquid. The bread was forgotten for ten minutes or so and then when I reminded her she went to "put the order in". It arrived grilled and drizzled with balsamic which hid the fact that it wasn't quite fresh- but still tasty. The salmon was good and perfectly cooked. We passed on dessert as it was getting late and when the cheque arrived as I'd figured.. "coperto" $3.00 charge for the bread although it was listed as something like "supplementary bread" as if I had asked for a second helping. As a rule I don't have a problem with being charged for really good bread but would like to be told before hand (maybe I missed it on the menu). Also the coffee was charged $3.00 as an Americano which when I told the server I had requested a regular coffee and been asked by the bartender what I wanted she replied "oh no that's the only way we do it here" end of story and I didn't feel like pushing it. Small things but they can piss you off. The food being served around us looked great, well presented and seemed to have good comments from the customers. I'll go back for dinner when the chef is in.

There's also Translyvania of whom we've spoken in the past. He's the wacky Roumanian who makes one (or by now maybe two) kinds of bread out of his little wood fired oven on Broadway near Alma. (I still can't figure out how he got past the rules and regs boys at city hall). He makes a decent loaf for five bucks. Although I haven't tried it lately. Cobbs, who it appears have decided to take over the bakery world, makes bread just a cut above Safeway. (Although they at least have the decency, unlike Safeway, to not call their soft, chewy products "Artisan".) Most of their flavoured breads are shite with the savoury ones reeking of uncooked garlic or the sweet ones (like their apple loaf) tasting of preservative soaked fruit. I liked the Po de Casa from Westview as well and thought I'd go to the source (N. Van) to check out what they've got but the majority of their breads are old school (Euro/American) boring. It's about the only bread that they make well and it is not very consistent.

I'd try Bosa as they often have specials on Pelligrino. As for the taste well..I'd call it an Italian version of a cola with that herbal bitter thing that they have in so many of their alcoholic beverages. An acquired taste like Campari or my favorite Fernet Branca (when I can find it) but addictive when, like Daddy A, you're munching on a Panini in little Italy.

I know that Andre Durbach at Parkside uses an Asian gentleman for all his knife sharpening and he is supposed to be amazing. Coop, maybe you could lean across the bar and ask him for us.

Thanks Col. I actually stumbled on an old discussion on Prime Rib and decided to go for a pre salting and the 15 minutes at 500F and the rest at 300 which worked out just fine.

In the last week : Dinner at Montri's where we had the spicy beef salad and the Montri's house special curry (requested with chicken) served over a big bed of wilted spinach. Both of these dishes never fail to hit the spot after a long day. Lunch at Cassis on Pender where I had the Ceasar salad and Coq au Vin both of which were ok but nothing to make me go running back. I should have tried one of the pizzas instead. My first choice was Chambar but alas they don't open for lunch until Sept 27. Cassis is a nice little spot though and a nice addition to the area. Dinner at Pair Bistro on W. 10th. App. was Lamb Chorizo on sauteed mixed mushrooms and for my main the Brown Pear, Pecan and Cambazola Risotto which was a tad small but tasty. All that with a nice glass of Tinhorn Cab Franc. My only complaint was the lack of bread which they don't offer. I held off on dessert as they are outsourcing until a new pastry chef comes on board.

I've just purchased a nice little (3 1/2 lb.) grass fed prime rib roast from the local farmers market. Unfortunately they can only sell frozen meat here so I've thawed it out in the fridge in preperation for Sunday dinner and of course there has been some "drip" or juice loss. I'm thinking I should brine overnight to restore some of the moisture/flavor. Has anyone done this with a prime rib (the bone has been tied back on)? I'm a big believer in Judy Rogers pre salting technique but I only have 24 hours or so to work with and a piece this size would need a couple of days (thus the need for full on brining). Thanks

This doesn't help the "where to find in Seattle" query but the Costco's in Vancouver B.C. are serving lobster rolls in their snack bars and although I'm not much of a lobster fan myself they are given pretty high marks by my lobster eating friends and family. ...And yes it it is 100% real lobster, although more on the shredded side. For $5.99 (Can.) you can't go wrong. I'll be in Seattle next week to do my annual Salumi and Matt's eatstravaganza and will check the Costco there although I'm sure you guys would know if they had it.

Dammit! Thats why my W. Pro doesn't recover well at all when I fry. I specifically bought it because it was rated (on the net) higher than most others. I find that it has this annoying tendancy to cycle down longer than it should before it starts to recover and bring back the temp. to the original level ( I checked with my digital thermometer) ....and this is with things like donuts. I can only imagine what would happen with fried chicken. I guess I'll consign it to poaching tuna loins (lo temp) ala French Laundry and slip across the line to pick up the juiced version.