beetee

I'm dissapointed I was not able to make it out with you folks, but I got around to going to Imaiya on my very last day in Japan; I had some yen to blow and absolutely wanted to take the bragging rights back to Canada. I was astounded by the quality and freshness of the ingredients and the service. My favourite dish was the giant meat ball, mostly because of the awesome looking yolk it came to dip with. On a seperate note, maybe 90% of the so called Japanese restaurants in Vancouver are even more of a dissapointment in my eyes now, because they fail to recreate the Japan dining experience... and they make bad rice in comparison.

Hah, I was thinking about making the exact same post but had not got around to it yet. I knew I should have piped up with a different restaurant the second it was mentioned. Now the rule of thumb is that if a restaurant has a big line up it must be good right? Well after looking through a laughable stereotypical veg menu menu I decided to order the pizza just cause it had cheese. I'll just say that if I was a full blooded Italian I'd feel obligated to burn that place to the ground.

I also live on my own and my three best friends are chili, meatballs, and boeuf bourguignon, and since I'm a student that has not worked for months these are also relatively forgiving on the wallet. I can make all those dishes on a sunday afternoon in large enough quantities to last the rest of the week. I just wait for the cooking vessel to cool down cover and throw in the fridge. In fact, pretty much the only thing in my fridge right now besides the usual items is a 10 qt pot of chili (I hope the sanitation police do not chew me out). I'm also quite fond of my rice cooker. It always has at least one serving of beautiful fluffy white rice waiting for me. Now getting a dinner ready is no problem. Pull out a sauce pot and ladle in one of your three best friends, quickly prepare some veggies for a side, ten minutes later plate the stew, rice, veggies, and make a rude gesture towards Rachel Ray while she cooks an inferior meal in 30 minutes. Of course plating is optional, you live alone, eat out of the cook ware, you don't affect the flavour from eating out of it and you save on dishes :D Some other dishes that I have found to be excellent for those poor, living on their own, no free time, and like food: -Pork tonkatsu -Fried chicken -Pan roasted chicken and veggies -Cast iron steak/hamburgers -Braised veal shank/lamb shank (make on weekend then good for leftovers on mon/tues) That's all I got for now, but I could go on forever with strategies on cooking for one person.

You could take them to Memphis Blues, because I'm guessing they would have probably never had BBQ like that before. Of course that is just a suggestion and I would not do it, becuase I think their BBQ is sub-par (thats a whole other post) and it is not very "Canadian". I would do a BBQ at the beach, because that would be the most fun and they would enjoy the scenery. Although, shoving food from a chain restaurant in your mouth while in your car is a very Canadian thing to do :D

When I bough some veal shanks last week I believe they only cost me $4.99/lb Canadian. I got them from an Italian butcher in Vancouver called Cioffis. If my memory serves me correct most the veal cuts are from $4.99/lb to $9.99/lb, and I believe they are of a fairly good quality but I can not give any specifics on the type of veal they use. If you folks are paying $7+/lb does that mean am I missing out on the wonderful tastes that veal can offer, or are you being held by your ankles till your pockets are inside out :)?

I did not know there was such a thing as a plain omelette till I read the eCGI class concerning omelettes a few weeks ago :D I do however thoroughly enjoy an omelette full of cheese, scallions, and topped with a tomato salsa. I'd also like to point out that the great thing about an omelette is that you can prepare it in about the same amount of time it takes to throw some cereal in a bowl (ok maybe a tad longer).