Daddy-A

I thought we were trying to IMPROVE DOV Andrew! [ducks and runs for cover] Sometime after last year's DOV, I asked Leonard (C & Nu) if he dreaded the event as much as I would if I were in his shoes. To paraphrase his reply, he said he loved the event and while it was a lot of work, it was the type of thing that gave definition to what he did in the restaurant industry. There are always going to be difficult guests, and those that will abuse the true intent of DOV. But the majority of guests have a great time, and a lot of restaurants put a lot of butts in seats that would otherwise be empty this time of year. Improve DOV? Make sure the frickin' web site doesn't crash next year! A.

Ling ... nothing about how you eat surprises me anymore. This post answers the age old question of what to do with some leftover cassoulet, turkey stuffing, and a side of home smoked bacon brought to you by your wife's uncle from Dawson Creek (Northern BC). Answer? You make the family breakfast!! I'd like to thank Chef Fowke (as would my entire family) for providing the cassoulet. A.

BUMP I thought this would be a good time to bring this thread back to the surface. I may regret it later but the points Jamie brought up last year are still important. A.

[host] Just a couple words about this thread and Dine out Vancouver in this forum. Please don't use this forum to plan Dine Out dinners. Using the PM system is fine, as is using the ISO thread pinned at the top of the forum. Remember with the ISO thread that you can only post a week in advance ... so most members have used it to fill "holes" in their reserved party. This is also not the place to discuss the pros/cons of Dine Out, OpenTable, Hot Water with Lemon, CC Deposits for Reservations, etc etc etc. Feel free to use this thread to let others know who's sold out, or ask about a certain dish being offered on the DOV menu. When reporting about your dining experiences during Dine Out Vancouver, please start a new thread, and name it as follows: The Topic Title should be the name of the restaurant, and the Topic Description should be "DOV 2006 Experience". Let the insanity begin ... A. [/host]

[host] This discussion is a non-starter in a REGIONAL forum. There are many threads that discuss this very topic over in General Food Topics. I'd find those threads for you, but I haven't even had my first coffee this morning. Please, keep the discussion in this thread on the topic at hand: Where've you eaten lately? A. [/host]

Joie, I know a place where you could find a hot BBQ on New Years Day. Perhaps you could melt them into ashtrays or something? The only questionable gifts received in the Daddy-A household this year were some items from a gift basket. One was a cinnamon/sugar grinder whose contents were all melted together. We cleaned it out and discovered it will grind rock salt just fine. We addressed this situation a few years back. No gifts are exchanged with friends. If people insist of gifts, we ask that donations are made to local charities. A.

Anton's?? If it is that place, personally I wouldn't reccomend it. The portions are huge, but it's all noodle and no sauce!! You can't eat it because it's so dry and you'll end up choking on your linguine. ← Dear God, let's not lump Anton's in with anything that implies BEST quality. Anton's is simply QUANTITY ... which is good if you're a starving student and want one dish to feed you for 2 or 3 meals, but not so good if you're looking for something with TASTE. If I had to pick something in QUANTITY genre, Anducci's would get the nod. But only if I was to drunk to cook my own pasta. Home made is always best A.

A belated Christmas present ... Burgers Etc, is NOW OPEN SUNDAYS! Is it wrong that I'm excited about that? A.

I'll second that ... a large portion was left at Chez Daddy-A after the 2005 Cookie Exchange. It didn't last long. Best eating for me this year is documented here on eGullet 1) My first smoked butt (CLICK) 2) Eating and drinking through the Okanagan. Oh yeah, Blogging was kinda fun too ... A.

Okay, now you're not fightin' fair Zuke! Golden Glow? I have tears welling up in my eyes right now ... thanks for that. Merry Christmas to you and yours! A.

Welcome to eGullet Jason! Looking forward to your posts. What restaurant do you own? A.

Of course it was. It's on television so everything that's put on the programme is done to generate ratings. No television producer on earth says "I'm going create a show becasue I like the subject, but I don't care if anyone watches." Simply creating the show is designed for ratings. Watching a turkey get electrocuted or watching Rachel Rae spend $40 in Paris ... obsenity is all relative isn't it? A.

I'm normally such an up-beat person but here goes ... Iron Chef America and Bobby Flay. 'Nuff said. I've been able to co-exist in a Starbucks world until now. I've just noticed they're starting to switch to automatic machines. Barisiti simply push buttons now. Pathetic. My inability to find a decent butcher. I'm getting tired of the blank look I get when I ask for a hanger steak. Costco still sells farmed Atlantic salmon. Happy Festivus everyone. A.

Just to keep this on-topic ... I'm eating a little Calgary crow today. Oh yeah ... and Auld is a seive, just like I could pick up at Ming Wo on 4th Ave. Merry Christmas! A,

The game said I should make beer. A.

I'm not from Calgary, nor do I like their hockey team HERE is a BEST OF thread from the Calgary area to get you started. I'm not sure if we have anyone here from Calgary. Definitely a couple of Edmontonians (Oilers suck too! ) .... Welcome aboard. I'm looking forward to your dispatches from Calgary. A.

You still have yours?? Light-weight!! A.

Map Link Right in behind Burnaby General Hospital ... not too far into Burnaby for you Vancouver folk. No passports needed! A.

There's plenty of restaurants in the city where you can have an intimate discussion...I go to Chambar because I like the loud atmosphere. I really don't think this city has enough rocking establishments with great food. Chambar is one of them, and I don't think they should change a bit. ← Besides ... isn't "chambar" the french term for loud & boisterous? Seems to fit the room IMO. Your point is well made waylman. A.

I still have a couple bottles of Silver Sage Sage Grand Reserve (Gewurtz fermented with sage) which IMO is the ultimate turkey wine. Silver Sage's The Passion is their Pinot ... never thought of trying it with turkey, but I just may have to do so. Good call on the Stellar's Jay Kurtis! However, I'm not opening the Note Bene for anyone just yet. Mine's still got a couple years to go. Some Township 7 Late Harvest Riesling will be accompanying the cheese plate after dinner, along with some Elephant Island Cassis or some Salt Spring Island Vineyards Blackberry Port. Sorry, the cheeses are all French this year Enjoy your turkey! A.

Is there a joke in there about the elevator not going to the top floor?? Just kidding Zuke! I knew you were an artist ... but a poet and a fashion diva too? Such talent. Ullie will love the Junior Scrabble ... keeps me entertained for hours. A.

If 80 000 hits is "almost dead" then we're in trouble No particular rec's just a suggestion that you phone ahead to find out what time they close. A number of places will close earlier than normal. Enjoy your dinner! And welcome to eGullet! A

Cool! I'm doing a turkey on New Year's Day. Don't know if a spatchcocked bird will fit on one grill in the Bullet ... so I'll likely halve it and do half on each level. It's starting to warm up a bit around here ... 8C/46F ... so hopefully I won't have too much of a problem. How big was the turkey Abra, how long and at what temperature did you smoke it? A.

Chambar was probably the first restaurant that I visited because of eGullet. The hype on this place last year was amazing, so J and I checked it out about 2 weeks after it opened. Remember those days? Food was excellent, but the service was all over the map. For a moment or two during our first visit, there was no map. I tried it again a couple months later during their brief foray into the lunch scene. Again, great food, but service was a big miss. So I decided to give it a rest for a while. We heard about changes. Andre came and left. Mark took over the bar. The Quentin offered me a free beer. It was time for a return visit. Truth be told, it was my wife J who prompted me to return to what I still consider to be the coolest room in Vancouver (despite my dislike of noisy rooms). We were going to the Barenaked Ladies Christmas concert and staying downtown for the night. Drinks before the show and dinner at Chambar afterwards? Ho ho ho. Even though we were almost 45 minutes late (hey, they played 3 encores, and yes I phoned to let them know we were going to be late!) Quentin had our table ready. The place was jumpin', full of the chambar for which it is named. I'll tell you now, I have no photos ... or at least no photos which I would share. The Treo may be a fine smartphone ... it's a crappy food camera. We started with the aformentioned Mushroom Cappuccino. Dear God! If there were any more mushrooms in that little cup I'd be sprouting fungus out my ears! Wonderfully intense flavours (maybe a little bit of butter?) and the dollop of truffled cream rounded out the dish perfectly. I loosened my belt and sipped my Binchoise Noel. Dammit, this place needs a fireplace. The first dish J & I shared during our innaugural visit was the Venison Carpaccio. It was even better this time around. The addition of the nero di seppia and the quails egg seemed odd to me at first (i.e. I was trying to find the obvious connection) but once I tasted it it all made sense. The saltiness of the salad worked perfectly with the capers and venison. The scampi came next ... the mint & cilantro pistou combined with a stripe of sour cream (?) to give this dish an almost South Indian flavour. Mid-meal we changed beers. At mArk's suggestion J had a Chimay Red with the Duck Confit, I the Duchess de Bourgonne with the much maligned Poutine. I felt the confit was a bit awkward ... i.e. not simple to eat. The filling from the philo (confit and taters) fell out as soon as you cut it open, forcing you to reassemble it to get all the flavours in one bite. There was also a small glass of "vin chaud" (warmed spiced wine) on the plate. It was never explained if it was to drink (our assumption) or to dip. Having said that, the flavours were amazing together, and the Chimay was the perfect beer. Poutine. I am on record as saying that poutine is where all good frites want to end up. The Poutine a la Belge at Chambar may be lost on some people. Blue cheese and pink peppercornsmay be too much for some ... and I understand why En Route said what they did. When compared to the other dishes, this Poutine may seem a bit out of place (it should be noted that the poutine is listed as a side dish). However, I would gladly order this again. Poutine heaven. Mark had paired it with the Duchess ... a bit of his sense of humour showing here as the Duchess has has a heavy malt-vinegar note to it. My thinking? A couple Duchesses and a trip to Go Fish is in order! Desserts was a trio of Chcolate Mousse, Chocolate Truffles, and an Apple Bavrois. The chocolate dishes were all top notch. Excellent. But the Bavrois has joined the Apple Tart we enjoyed at West last March as my vote for best dessert of the year. Light and tender with the perfect amount of apple in the mix. Not too sweet either which often happens with apple desserts in my experience. Mark brought us a taste of eggnog that he and the pastry chef (sorry! forgot her name! Quentin help!) had created. Again ... this place needs a fireplace! There was a short wait when we entered ... about 3 minutes or so ... before we were acknowledged. But as busy as they were, that small delay was easily forgiven. The service problems from last year? Vanished. From Quentin, to Mark to our server Jade, the whole room was in perfect sync. Neither of us could remember the last time we felt so looked after. A final feather in the cap for the evening ... as it was a big night for Christmas parties, cabs were scarce. While we were speaking with Andre (there for a drink with old friends) Quentin ran out to Georgia, grabbed a cab, and rode it back to the restaurant for us! A.

Adesso Bistro has a lovely looking NYE menu ... a choice of 2 seatings @ $65. Menu is here. A.