stovetop

What about not taking the fat off and the fat will create a natural seal on top, this fat cap will seal in all underneath, I belive it might even be air tght?? This is just a thought, nature does have it's sealer. steve

Quote from Farm foundation

Source of quote Sealtest milk

Charbroiled green beans (blanched), cherry Tomatoes, roasted yellow or red pepper and yukon gold potato with a olive oil, with a balsalmic and fresh basil Vinaigrette. steve

La casa Marios steve

island farms This is a exert of this story about Island dairies being in the top 50 companies; I wonder how it would affect the company if it was owned by Agropur, it would not be community owned anymore, they would own the milk (agropur), and quotas would be put on the market like in Quebec and Ontario, then we would loose the control of the local production just like what happened to the chicken industry. There are now no fed plants on Vancouver Island Cuisine canada Jersey farms ( another independent farm) Foodshare Oldways Small-Scale Agricultural Largest natural food broker Royal Wessanen steve

If I lived in Ontario I would be so there. I do my best to support sustainable agriculture and traditional foods. steve

Just because it is listed does not mean it is in the cellar; remember smoke and mirrors.

I am beginning to find out nothing is sacred any more, in the world of corporate takeovers; you better take a second look at the product and the store you are shopping at, nothing anymore is going to be easy for the consumer to ease there political mind by shopping at places like Capers, Choices, and whole foods Market. This world just got a whole lot more complicated and a whole lot more political, I got the feeling that a lot of heads will be buried in the sand trying to avoid all this controversy and the graying of lines between the regular line of foods and the "ORGANIC" line of foods. Big Corporations are buying up one by all these small companies and product lines so it is becoming even more difficult for us the consumer to protect our interest and to guarantee quality and product source. For all you hippies out there you better start doing your homework and open you eyes to the goings on in the food world, it is getting hot out there and you better take off your clog of content ness. It has just become a whole lot harder to live that environmental life style. We are not going to be able to easily recognize products and brand names and stores anymore with political ideals. Big brother has just move to town and he is taking over all the health food stores and Organic stores. I believe in democracy like the next person but this kind of vertical integration is getting out of hand. I guess it what happens when you get successful, the organic and natural food busies was becoming big business and getting into the bottom lines of the big corporations out there, so company x is bought up and sold and eventually the lines are so blurred it is hard for the consumer to decide if those political decisions they were making are now back to where they started, supporting a large corporation by buying the natural food product and that organic milk. we must keep some farming small, I believe that it is our own survival depends own it, we must keep some genetic diversification and variance and keep the old gene pool alive, old stock has had 100's of years of mother nature practicing her trade of genetic variance, there is no science or doctor that can do better then nature. Science and research is split on which direction mankind must go in our improvement of our food source, but for me science is not completely the answer, the answer is already there 1000's of years of f sustainable farming and feeding the earth. We have not re invented the wheel we are changing it, food must not be for total profit but must be sustainable to be able to solve world hunger problems not Monsanto’s methods of feeding the world through genetic manipulation and cross breading. Science does not know the ramifications of releasing these genetics into the environment; they need to do their homework before they let GMO's into Canada. GMO’s will not solve the worlds problems. We need to get back to the basics, back to the land and lower pressure on the soil. steve Corpwatch old link

Not much was said, it diverted about bear foot. I still would like to know actual dinning experiences. steve

An edible journey The Aerie Sooke The wick Hastings house Malahat Temple Tgh-na-mara Fairwinds Dunsmuir lodge Pacific Shores Eagles nook Snug harbour Poets cove Qualicum heritage Inn brentwood bay lodge Canoe Brasserie l'école Long beach resort Fairburn farms Providence farm Quamichan inn

Apres Restaurant Fifty Two 80 Bar I do not know if someone has asked about these new kids on the block so I am going to ask, what is up with theses places and how are they fitting in to the dinning scene in whistler? steve

I love the taste of charbroiled radicchio or endive, grilling somehow brings out the sugars, I was so hooked on grilled endive. steve

This is just my observation; the press got their panties all in a bunch any time someone else in the kitchen (Country) picked on Vancouver in the open press. I am not from BC; I was born and raised in Edmonton, lived in Jasper, Toronto, Whistler and Vancouver. It always makes me laugh how sensitive the press was, but what made me laugh the most was the first people to pick up the phone and rub the faces of people in the east when it was 14 degrees in Vancouver in Jan and it was colder then a Witches &)&)& in Toronto. It was people who where not born and raised in Vancouver, it took me ten years before I meet someone who was actually from BC, So in return the friends in the press in Toronto would lambaste Vancouver about it's no fun city persona and everyone would get all bunched up over this. Shit man Edmonton and places like Newfoundland have been buts of jokes for ever but there is a very sensitive side to Vancouver. It is the giving up of some aspects of life to have so much beauty and also being so much in Mother Nature’s back yard. Vancouver now I think has a way more solid of an identity then it did like three years ago, I think we are over the hump, but we are no way out of the forest. We need our own stage where our artist can play and stop exporting all this great writing, acting, filming, dancing, and all the other great mediums that Vancouver has to offer, we closed down all the live music venues and lived on can crap for a while, you can not dance in a restaurant, all you had was piano Jazz and if you had a sax, guitar and drums wailing at like eleven cause no one else has eleven cause it is always one more then ten. The no fun cops would be at your door shutting you down. Those boring neighborhood pubs being overrun in Kits by places that served booze till we hours of the night, 24 hour food places like bennies and the vineyard and the few others in the West side. The fringe, Elwood’s, funky Armadillos, 2.00 pints , theses places filled the void, no fun city, theses place were filled with artist, actors and restaurant people drinking till we hours of the morning. So humans have been doing things under the ground for ever, restaurants on their way out sometimes do some amazing parties, the last weeks before they close down, let loose, many chefs in Vancouver have done dinners that blew many minds and paved their way to their next project, Money in Vancouver always found a new restaurant for that great chef to continue their Craft. Their was always some money needing cleaning, so Capital was not always a problem and restaurants are the easiest way to clean all the money you want. If not back to Toronto or Calgary they went. Many resorts in the world became home for a while of all the cooks and chefs that made their way through this great city of Vancouver, looking for a stage; because without the Chef there is no food.

If you dont you go out of business, it is a 30% cost, remember we have to pay for all those cost and rent. 20% cost, you do not make very much money. steve

A Mango and Baby Shrimp Salad, Roasted Sweet Peppers, Heirloom Tomato Wedges with an Apple cider and Fresh Herb Vinaigrette

Vancouver Island Wineries are on a roll, such a beautiful area, so much wonderfull food and wine, this is what good eating is all about. The Cowichan Van Island Wines Vancouver Island Wineries Island Wineries Merridale cider Godfrey-Brownell Vineyards. Cherry point Bluegrouse vineyards Marley farms Victoria Estate winery Venturi schulze Garry Oaks

They usually mark it up 3x, so a hundred dollar bottle of wine is $300.00 or as they say 30 % liquor cost. Sometimes though some places might down price higher price wines at a certain price point, although every place has different policies. One thing though is Bear Foot is all about price, peole in that place will buy a bottle of wine because it is three hundred. steve

I have been a cook and sometime chef for over twenty years, for any entity or person to last twenty years is a feat upon to itself. Tojo started I belive at Jinya, 587 broadway back in 1974, I do not know many Vancouver Chefs that are still around after all that time, for me that alone leaves him in high regards in my eyes. They are either burnt out, broke, or just plain gone. There is but a handfull of food wariors that can cook at that level in Vancouver. Go Tojo!! chef steve

A Bowl of Buckwheat Noodle salad and Yam fries at the Greenroom on Main and King Edward Area, this area also has many restaurants of all ethnic origins, it is a very cool street Mall these days. steve

Vancouver Island is going to be an amazing food Centre in years to come, you have some of the oldest, most incredible, beautiful and fertile growing regions on the coast. You also have that old school charm dating back to the original Vancouver Island, Douglas’ British Columbia and home to HBC. The Cowichan valley is Queen to all the lands on the island and dates back to 1850 in the White man world but the Natives have worked with this land for many years, in Douglas’ time both nations worked together to survive this harsh and unforgiving nature, nature was there front and center and the people learned to work with her and made the lands produce many harvests. The Cowichan now is shared by many Farmers, Wineries, Artist, Musicians, and B&B; Natives and many other Cultures share the land and the wealth that she provides. This area is one of the most beautiful regions in Canada and will become an incredible Food and Wine area second to none. We must respect her and not let the multinational and big business take over her charm and make a homogenized nothing out of something with so much life; leave it small, healthy and beautiful. Here is a bunch of links of the area and of Sustainable Agriculture. The Island Chef's Collaborative Cowichan bay farm Engeler farm Agriculture Tourism Island fresh BC Farm Fresh

Hi Ling: glad you had a great time. Ling the other good food place in the creekside is Hozs Pub and Restaurant, it is very much a Creekside tradition, many locals and people who do not want to go into the ZOO, usualy opt out of the village madness and stay Westside and Creekside. The Word on Dusty’s is very quiet these days, many local have not forgiven IntraWest (Resistance is Futile) for tearing down the old building, the character lost with the demolition, that was the best party Whistler ever saw, everyone was at that party, there was a reunion party that Whistler put on so a lot of old Whistler dogs where around and many North Van/ West Van boys and girls, the who's who all partying down, each remembering the old days in their own way(RIP). I liked the new Dusty's ate ther lots a few years back. steve

Last year I had the chance to catch a movie called Deconstructing Supper hosted by John Bishop; it was a movie that looked at where we get our food from. He asked so many amazing questions about the whole process. The movie is incredible to give us an insiders view to the world of food, it shows the beginning to end; the growing, harvesting and cooking of the food, he has such a inquiring, almost childlike approach to his position in the film, not leaving any stone unturned, he was not afraid really to turn the whole food politics issue on its side to come out with the answers he was looking for. This is was what I liked best about it. I had two brief and great opportunities to work for John and with Michael Allemeier and Adam Busby; that kitchen always had the best food you can buy, they really did not have to go out and search for growers after a while they where all coming to the restaurant; like a kid in a candy shop the chefs would look at the stuff the farmers would bring, fresh herbs, flowers, specialty lettuces from glorious Garnish; wild and cultured mushrooms from the valley, Morels, chanterelles, and shitakes. There was never a shortage of wonderful product to work with. When you are a cook there is no greater pleasure then to work with such amazing raw products. When you are cooking at this level there is not much room for error, so it is imperative that you do have the best and freshest ingredients available. Bishops worked hard for many years combing and sourcing the valley and islands for good quality food, the word got out to the very leading farmers in the food field; ahead of their times, looking for a market for the designer vegetables, lettuces and such amazing fresh herbs, but now they finally found a home and a city that was begging to embrace this type of food and chefs that found it important to support local agriculture. Chefs realized that to cook at this level you really do need the best food available, that food was all over the valley and the islands and now they where coming to your door, what more can you ask for. This was the beginning of the great food scene in Vancouver and now many chefs are supporting local foods and are beginning to realize the importance of sustainable agriculture and buying foods from your area when possible. Without a local agricultural sector we are somehow a less of a people, we risk so much diversity in our food source and the nutrition and quality and freshness that local food brings. Please support local agriculture. steve

In this crazy world of buyouts and vertical integration there is still a few standouts in our mist, BC agricultural sector has been pummeled by this action, but there is a few bright spots of independent minded and brave farmers, chefs, distributors and wholesalers. The Organic and sustainable agricultural industries have been moving forward with the winds of change by coming about and jibing through the dust of the breakdowns of the traditional BC agricultural sectors. Sustainable Agriculture is filling the void placed by the vertical integration of the food sector, the middle is virtually missing in this traditional food system model, all the middle companies being absorbed by the multinational players, thus a big gap in the local food scene, the big grocery, wholesalers and food chains generally miss out on the local market and source foods from other regions. This leaves local food producers trying to find new distribution lines and the BC government has been helping a bit but I find that it is not enough, political mandates are very fractured in BC and there is too much self interest involved. We spend too much time competing with ourselves then to join together and work as a team. In Canada we do not have free trade, I feel this way because of the barriers placed at every Provincial border. BC and Alberta should be more of trading partners not competitors, food commodities like eggs, dairy products, chicken, produce, meat all need to be federal inspected to leave the Province, just like it was an Export. The Alberta chicken Industry has one very important distinguishing feature that sets it far apart from BC in regards to chicken production. They have both a federal and Provincial level of inspection, what this does is enables a local supply of chicken, in BC most plants now are federal inspected to produce chicken, I have been trying to find out about the BC chicken Marketing board but can not find enough information to say whether you can or cant produce chicken for local consumption, I know such places such as salt spring sell locally but can not find what level of production they are at. Many high end restaurants are buying locally produced foods but when I do searches for producers there is very little info or links at these sites. We must start to buy local foods when we can and not just buying organic but supporting any local or sustainable agricultural commodity. Avalon

source saputo parmalat/beatrice milk agropur Buy bye island farms