Foodie in Vancouver

We are fans of Urban Bites for take-out. Excellent quality and an interesting menu. Our local sushi joint is Ajai-Sai and IMHO they have the best and certainly the best value sushi. The room is unbelievably small so we often have take-out.

Right this very moment I am eating a couple of pieces from a Lindt 70% dark chocolate bar. Mmmmmm.

Anything cheese, anything wine. Is that guilty enough or does it have to be fast foods? If it's the snack food/ fast food then I confess to hand-cut style jalepeno or salt and vinegar chips.

I have just opened the Grenache and am having a glass while making dinner, accompanied by a wee bit of Mrs. Appleby's Cheshire and the fig and black pepper crackers from C. First impressions: Nose somewhat subdued but has an alcohol 'hot' aspect to it; I think I can smell the "Australian" in it - but maybe that's because it is 'open label' as they say in my line of business. Very smooth taste, definitely a spicyness but not like a Shiraz. Almost subtle in flavour - some residual tannins but not anything that makes your mouth pucker. Rich clear flavour that tastes across the mouth - nothing about it is big but there is definitely flavour. Nels was tasting with the Stilton (Neal's Yard) and it makes the wine more aggresive in taste but not off-putting at all. OK - enough talk. Off to cook dinner.

I am very sorry to hear that the wine list is so expensive at La Terraza. It is hard to imagine having an Italian meal without benefit of wine. I hope there is something we can afford. One of our favorite Italian restaurants in New York, Becco, has a wonderful wine list of very affordable wines. The last time we were there they had something like 25 wines all priced at $25. It also makes selecting a wine quite easy. The food is not necessarily the best-ever Italian, but it was the combination of good value in wine as well as the food that makes it one of those places you always go back to. Thinking of our Becco experiences puts me in the mind to find something similar here in Vancouver. I will definitely re-read this thread and once DOV is over (and both my wallet and waistline have recovered) I am going to do me some research.

The numbers are on the left of the wines - I know picky, picky. But I can only hope they are bin numbers or some such thing. Otherwise, I can assure you Mr Foodie and I aren't going anywhere near the wine when we dine there for DOV next week. But why would you put a wine list like that on a web site?? What am I missing??? But thanks for posting the link. I will dutifully report back next week. Edited to add: Why don't I ever get to see the chefs semi-naked? Coop clearly has a lot more exciting life than I do.

Josh - glad to hear about Il Terrazzo (assuming you are talking about the one on the fringes of Yaletown) as we are going there for the DOV. Thanks for the update.

I am one of those people who seems to end up with a stuffy nose when I drink wine. As I happen to love the stuff, I simply take an extra antihistamine and intranasal steroids (Flonase) whenever I have wine. It makes the stuffy nose less of a problem which is important because so much of the pleasure from wine is due to the wonderful aromas. But I would love to think there are other ways of conquering the problem - but if it is an allergy to tannins that is the cause then I am doing the most appropriate thing. Nice to finally find out that I stumbled on the right approach.

I vote for after DOV as well. I am worried that I am not going to have any clothes that fit by the first week of February as well as no money to buy new clothes to cover my DOV experiences.

Now, I'm not normally one to rush out and eat burgers but the thought that consuming said burger could be construed as a seditious act is starting to make the proposition look extremely attractive. Clandestine burgers- I'm in. Whoops. Can't say that, can I? Seriously folks, after reading what I could stomach of the new rules and then everyone's responses, I must say I feel like there's been a death in the family. Let's hope Arne can figure out what to do - all hope rests with him.

I am a real 'homer' for BC wines and have made a concerted effort to not only buy BC wines, but to try and learn as much as possible about them by going to the wineries on a regular basis. I really admire those who work in the local industry as theirs seems like a lot riskier proposition than most people's work efforts. Too much rain, cool spring, forest fires and there goes the year. I have bad days, but never a bad year. Anyway, to get to where I was going. Because J-T makes no attempt to have any retail presence at the winery I have not bought many of their wines. But the other day I noticed a 1998 Proprietor's Reserve in the cupboard and hauled it out. And, you know what? It was a lovely wine. We had it with a piece of grilled tenderloin and it was mellow, soft and full of flavour. So then I thought - Hmmm. Maybe we should try more J-T wines. And then I remembered the big tanks at the side of the road and thought Hmmm. Not very interesting, why would I want to go there? But I was at one of the local BC wine stores the other day and bought some more J-T on the off chance that their wine might be OK after all. So, I guess what all this rambling is about (we just polished off a 99 Red Rooster Marechal Foch) is that J-T isn't all bad and does make some reasonable wines. And by the way, after leaving the Marechal Foch out over night it finally opened up and was quite a nice wine. But man oh man. It was tight, tannic and not very tasty when we first opened it last night. I have never liked M-F before but then again have never left it alone for 24 hours after opening. I wonder how many other wines we have walked away from that migtht have been more appealing given more time and air?

I'm just back from 39 and Cambie and they had lots of both of the Yalumba wines. I didn't look for Coop's Planeta - sorry. Happy imbibing to one and all

Well I was somewhat successful at the Liquor Store today. The Vigonier is only available in the 2004 vintage - seems very weird to be drinking 2004 already. But I couldn't find the Grenache at the store I was at (Arbutus Village Mall - which looked like a geriatric day care this morning) so I need to hit the 39th and Cambie store later this weekend. I also found the Planeta La Segreta Rosso 2003 and the Salice Salentino Riserva - Dr. Cosimo Taurino. Interestinly when I got home I discovered that each of the 2 bottles of Salice Salentino was from a different vintage - 1999 and 2000. So looks like I can do a side by side to see if I can detect any differences. (highly unlikely - I'm not that 'educated') but it might be fun to try. We are having a bunch of people over tomorrow night so I think I will open one bottle of each of the WOW and see what the comments are. Unfortunately I don't think any of the food I am serving is a matche but let's see what happens.

There you have it - Week 1 (Jan 10 - 16) is Andrew's suggestion and Week 2 (Jan 17 - 23) is Keith Talent's pick (or picks?).

Well - seeing as Andrew posted a pair of specific wines shall we start with those for this week while we get ourselves organized? Then we can sort out who's on first and who's on second so to speak as well as the parameters. That is, one red, one white or <$20 and >$20. Or other suggestions for categorizing the choices.

We might need to appoint a chooser each week so we know which wine we are all supposed to be sampling that week. Otherwise if we all chime in, it might get a bit confusing as to which wine is the WOW.

The digression of the Bearfoot Bistro thread into wine cost made me think that it might be fun for us to have a local WOW (wine of the week) - not all wines discussed elsewhere in eG are easily found in our local outlets. We could perhaps recommend 2 wines a week - one <$20 and the other>$20 and share not only our thoughts on the wines but also what foods they were paired with. Coop and Montrachet as well as others (Winegeek?) might be arm-twisted into starting us off as they seem to know a lot about wines. What do you think?

Mr Foodie would LOVE to join in the eGullet golf tournament. And as for clubs, he has almost as many golf clubs as I do bottles of wine (just kidding - we have more wine than clubs )

Here's my vote for Knifex - excellent quality sharpening and it couldn't be more convenient. I have bought the odd knife or two from Dan and I think his prices are competetive. I agree with Coop - no matter what anyone else says - it is the feel of the knife in your hand that counts. I wouldn't buy a knife on the net unless I had had an opportunity to really sense the heft and feel in my hand. Then, if I knew exactly what I wanted and the price was right I would buy on eBay or elsewhere online.

I'm in agreement with Mooshmouse - Mario's is better gelato than Casa's. Other than the huge number of flavours I have never really seen what the attraction is at Casa. As for cinnamon ice cream, I find it easiest to just have it with gingerbread pudding at the HSG

I long for the wonderful stir-fried black-bean prawn linguine they used to serve at the Santa Fe Cafe.

Thanks for the link, Sam. Hunting knives, combat knives and throwing knives??? I have never had occasion to use these in my kitchen but maybe I need to branch out. Things could be more interesting in my kitchen once I start ordering from this website

I finally got a chance to try the lattes at The Elysian Room. What a treat! Rich, smooth, nuanced and definitely full of flavour. I will be back for more. Is it the best in town? I would have to say my experience there was better than at Cafe Artigiano and I think the product was as good as if not better than Cafe Artigiano. The Elysian Room is just a nicer destination - less crowded and delightful staff. CA was crowded and the set up of the machines impedes any real interaction between the staff and customers. Because of the lineups at CA they just process you as quickly as possible so there is no experience. I have to say that the beverages were excellent but given the choice I would head back to the Elysian Room in a heartbeat. Nice to know they are on the way to work . The only trick will be dueling it out with all the B'Mers for a parking place. But the reward will be worth it.

Oh crap - I can't make it tomorrow. Just my luck. I might try later in the week. Have fun tomorrow.

Huh? Bayside Room? Have no idea which restaurant you are referring to Coop. Can you add a street name?