Foodie in Vancouver

If you can, try to get into CedarCreek dinner at Fresco's in Kelowna. It is great value considering both the wines and the food. If you are going to be in the Okanagan here are a few more wineries worth exploring: Pentage (just south of Penticton - call for an appointment and directions) Stag's Hollow - OK Falls Fairview Cellars - Oliver Inniskillin - Oliver La Frenz - Naramata CedarCreek - Kelowna (their whites are excellent and seem to fly under the radar) These aren't the only great wineries but ones that can get overlooked. Enjoy the festival.

Costco sells 6 paks of mini ish baguettes made in France that are alright. ← I found their French baguettes, wrapped in air tight bags, to be soft and dry. Fortunately they also have boxes of crusty Ace baguettes in the freezer. ← Are you referring to the BC Costco stores? If so, I will have to make a trip really soon. I too, have had a serious addiction to the Ecco par baked ficelle.

I'm looking for restaurant recommendations for a business dinner. There are about 8 of us and we are staying at the W hotel for 3 days of meetings. I am looking for recommendations for dinner within walking distance of the hotel for 1 and possibly 2 evenings. The restaurant should be fine dining with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients, a good wine list and options suitable for the one non-meat eater in the group. A seafood restaurant is OK - but we get lots of great seafood here in Vancouver so it isn't high on list of needs. I would also appreciate any other recommendations you have for quick, easy and good food so I can escape the hotel and my colleagues for lunch and/or breakfast. And, (last request) very important to someone from Vancouver, is there anywhere close-by for truly great coffee/espresso? Many thanks,

One solution that has worked for us is Quince. We have a standing order for 3 dinners (appetizer, protein, vegatables and a starch) per week which I pick up on Monday afternoon. We have been doing this for the past year and it has transformed our lives, saving us time and money. No more shopping for food we don't end up using; preparing for and cleaning up after dinner is quick and simple giving us the gift of more time in our evenings. But most importantly, all the food is extremely fresh, high quality and full of flavor - something you don't get with frozen meals which was the other alternative we investigated.

Thanks very much for all your suggestions. My first choice was Lula but they don't take reservations and in discussions with the staff at lula they didn't think it was likely we would get a table for 8. I looked into the options close to O'Hare and used the hotel concierge as suggested. The recommendations were for steak, Carlucci's, Cafe la Cave or Nick's fish house. None of these fit the bill for fresh, innovative and local. So, back to the orignal plan of heading downtown with the hope that getting there isn't too much fun! I was able to make reservations at Bin 36. Please let me know if you think this isn't a good solution. And again, thanks for your help. If you are ever in Vancouver, please let me know. There are some wonderful restaurants here that I wouldn't want you to miss. We take fresh, local and innovative seriously!

I am hosting a 2-day business meeting on August 22 and 23 at the O'Hare Hilton (location is based on convenience as everyone is flying in from somewhere in North America). Because we are eating all our other meals in the hotel I would like to take the group off-site for dinner. I thought we could take the train/CTA downtown to a restaurant close to the transit line. What can you recommend that is really good, without being too over the top price-wise. While I am expensing the meals, I don't want to be too extravagant. $60 - $75/pp with wine is what I was thinking for price but if that seems low I don't mind going higher. A varied and reasonable priced wine list is another requirement. There will be about 8 of us in total. Your help is really appreciated.

I am literally just in the door after a wonderful meal at Fuel. We had the 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings and it was marvellous. The first course was a celery veloute with steel-head trout caviar; second was lemon-parsely risotto with smoked albacore tuna; third crispy trout with Swiss chard, candy cane beets, carmalized lemon reduction; fourth - lamb loin with a parsnip puree; desert was a chocolate dream- machine! Wines: Shepard's Ridge Sauv Blanc; Joie Reisling; Kalena Chardonnay; Penfold's Shiraz; Tawny Port. And the bread is extraordinary and addicitve. Sorry for the brief descriptions that don't do the menu justice. It is definintely worthy of a special occasion. Service was excellent - I was concerned at first as our waitress seemed young. I shouldn't have worried. Attentive in all the right ways, inobtrusive, attentive without being overbearing, knowledgable and cheerful. Room is small but not too noisy, despite a very open kitchen and tables are nicely spaced. I highly recommend it. I haven't been to Ocean 617 so can't compare. I have been to Pear Tree and I think Fuel is easily the equal. I tasting menus and Fuel is in the top rank that the city has to offer.

Sanuk - Victoria Paprika - Victoria Mo:Le - Victoria and all week at the cafeteria at Royal Roads University. Beyond description. I am determined to survive to not tell the tale.

The Fairmont restaurant at the airport is GLOBE@YVR and is definitely an excellent choice both for a meal as well as a drink. The bar is one of our favorite places for a drink.

Surely there is some way to deal with people who do this - not only from the restaurant's perspective but also in consideration of what does for others who want to try Rare and won't be able to because Ms. Piggy has snapped up 8 reservations. Shame on her. I can only hope that her mother taught her better manners than that. But most certainly Chef Fowke and his staff don't deserve to be taken advantage of in this manner. (Are public floggings still alllowed?)

We are going to be in Victoria this weekend. Any quick thoughts on 2 restaurants we should make sure we get to for dinner on Fri and Sat? It sounds like Brasserie L'Ecole is a sure thing. True? And if so where else should we go? We will definitely try Choux Choux for lunch and Mo:Le and the Lady Marmalade sound worthy of a visit. Any recommendations gratefully received.

LOL Neil! Sounds perfectly delightful - a great meal at a steal of a deal and no crowds or people anxiously peering at you sending you death looks to try and get you to hurry up and leave so they can eat. I will call you and make a reservation.

How about Beyond? I have been several times recently and the food and service were excellent and the wine list is quite reasonable with a good selection. Burgoo is not in downtown so that would disqualify it by location. While the food is definitely of the comfort variety the atmosphere wouldn't help my heart if it was broken.

We didn't go to DOV last year, nor are we going this year either because of the Boxing Day Sale effect. We will happily venture out the door again once things calm down somewhat. Less stressful to stay home during the DOV madness.

My second batch is now in the second rise and the first loaf made yesterday is crumbs on the cutting board. I am used to weights not measures so was hesitant using measures with the first loaf but wanted to follow the recipe exactly. And, it was simple as could be. The flavour is good and I agree that next time 2 tsps of salt would be better. This second loaf I used weights and I used unbleached flour rather than bread flour. I can definitely understand the difficulties about being too wet. This batch is much harder to work with. I proofed mine in the oven with the light turned on for a couple of hours as it is cool in the evenings. That seems to do the trick nicely. And I am now doing the second rise on a flour-covered piece of parchment under a large plastic bowl. I did the second rise of the first loaf on the towel on the counter which is granite and I think it was too cool - it took longer than 2 hours to get to double and some resistance to a poke. I also took off a 1/4 cup of the dough/batter to use with the next loaf. We will soon see whether this much wetter batch can be made to bake up as nicely as the first. But so far, this is a winner in terms of convenience - I will still need to work on the timing if I want to have fresh loaf and work!