Daddy-A

That's true PaoPao ... different strokes and all that. For example, you like LilyKate a lot more than I do ... I don't consider Kolachy to be a phenomonon ... it's just a good inexpensive lunch. I agree with Deborah about the soups, but then I'm a soup guy. I have my favorite kolachies (Reuben and Mushroom Pesto) and those Keith hides from me 'cuz I really don't like them IMO, this thread goes on and on because nobody else offers them and they've developed a cult-like status. "Rocky Horror" is a pretty average movie, but it still packs them in. A. PS ... Butter Chicken Kolachy - good, but not in my top 3. Now, if you could get the Butter Chicken from Bombay Bhel ...

Yep, Brio's open on Sunday. That's be my pick. A.

Wendy, Was that your head I bashed with my stilton?? Sorry! A.

So we're back in Vancouver ... all our smuggled clothing from Nordstom Rack folded and put away, duty-free in the liquor cabinet, and both "J" and I are planning our diets! Friday night we met with Malarkey & Rockdoggydog at Brasa for drinks and snacks - great company and a wealth of information about the Seattle food scene. The comments made in this thread were spot on about Brasa ... "go for the happy hour", and "service can be spotty." Happy hour food was great, and our server seemed to forget about us from time to time. Having said that, the food was great. Items shared: Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Grilled Fish (malarky, help?), Pizza with Sausage & Grilled Tomatoes, and Savoury Empinadas. Nice room, but I think I'll heed everyone's warning about dinner. Next we strolled over to "Tom-Douglas-Ville" for drinks at Lola. We really only had drinks and dessert (donuts, chocolate tart, goat cheese turnovers), but the smell in that place is incredible!! Anise and garlic. *sigh* We stuck our heads into Dahlia Lounge while we were waiting for a seat at the bar in Lola. Another beautiful room. Didn't make it to Palace Kitchen ... next trip! After Malarkey dropped us off at the hotel, "J" announced she was still hungry Okay, it was me, but she agreed. A favorite stop in the area is Ten Mercer: "J" ordered the stilton-burger! Dear Lord! All these eGullet gatherings are starting to rub off! Intersting thing for us Canucks ... she was asked how she wanted the hamburger cooked. Unfortunately a forgone conclusion as "J: likes her burgers cooked WELL I had tuna carpacio (with easily the hottest wazabi I've ever had) and crab cakes. Very well executed dishes. We shared a bottle of Red Mountain Terra Blanca 2002 Syrah. We've had two really nice meals at Ten Mercer and the service has always been friendly. As we were heading back to the hotel, "J" wondered out loud why I hadn't brought my camera Saturday morning breakfast was a muffin and a cup of coffee from the hotel lobby. Camera in hand, we went to the parking madness that is Pike Place. Good thing we were walking. Lucky for us the Cheese Festival was on! Favourites on the cheese front: Neil's Yard Comté Valmont - Forme D'Amber is easily my favorite cheese Our dining objective at Pike Place was Matt's. I am soooo glad we went to Matt's. This is just my kind of place ... simple ingredients very well done: Poblano & Ham Hock Soup / Spring Greens with Blue Cheese with Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette Grilled Turkey & Cabrales Sandwich Pan Roasted Corvina, Potato-Rosemary Gratin w/ Ancho Chile Sauce Wine was the Domain Lafond Tavel Rosé. A perfect lunch, and enough insentive to return one day for dinner. BTW, this place is as small as they say: This is the entire kitchen. You can see the two burners in front of the cook We took our time getting back to the hotel, stopping along the way at a place called The Apartment (1st Ave I think) for my new favorite restaurant marketing technique ... Happy Hour. Some very respectable roasted mushrooms, a couple sleeves of local ale, and two champagne cocktails (something we don't see enough of in Vancouver) for $25. Remember, we're walking, and subsequently working off our meals and working up an appetite. Drinks before dinner at The Sitting Room. Felt a little "old" here, but it's close enough to the hotel we may go back one day. Dinner was at Crow. We arrived right on time for our 9:15 reservation. Very busy room ... very loud room (in a good way). We were asked to sit at the bar while our table freed up ... about 15 minutes. Then, a stange thing happened when our table came up ... we were asked to close our tab at the bar. It was no big deal, but I'm used to having the drinks carried over to the dinner tab. Is this a Seattle thing or just particular to Crow? Crow has a bit of an eclectic menu ... nice variety but seems like it's looking for some direction. Still, our dinner choices were wonderful! House Antipasti Grilled eggplant, roasted garlic, olives, peppers, parm-reg, & beets! The beets surprised me. At first I thought them odd and out of place ... but they really worked with the rest of the dish, especially the cheese Grilled Asparagus with Herbed Aioli & Walnuts Pork Loin & Bavarian Sausage on bed of Sauerkraut Forest Mushroom Risotto with Spring Peas & Truffle Oil Wine was a 2003 Fairview Viognier. Service again was terrific and very knowledgeable ... our server spouted off the list of mushrooms in the risotto like it was common knowledge. While the room was a bit noisy, it was distracting. After dinner we were chatting with our neighbours and discussing how good looking Nicholas Cage was. We decided it wasn't so much that he was attractive, but attainable Yes, we saved room for dessert : Strawberries on Strawberry Ice Cream I'm sure there's more, but I can't read my notes! Sunday morning: Latte & cookie Caffe Ladro is consistent. Good coffee, but not excellent. I'm really surprised how tough it is to find an excellent shot in the city that brought coffee into mainstream North American culture. Of course ... now I'll get a flood of suggestions. Dinner on the way home was a really crappy meal at the Sakgit River Brewing Company in Mount Vernon. It was such an unforunate way to finish the weekend, but we were able to laugh about it. Note to Skagit River Brewing: smothering roast pork in BBQ sauce doesn't make it authentic. Sorry for the long post ... but there was a lot of ground to cover! Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. As I said to malarkey and rockdoggydog, anytime you're up in our part of the world, please allow me to return the favour. A.

Right! "Crocodile Cafe" ... NOT the "Happy Aligator". Telkwa is so huge I was bound to get the name mixed up! The food wasn't BAD. It was my first trip north of Kamloops so I didn't know what to expect. Let's just say it was predictable ... except for the pizza at Chatters. That was just plain good. Yes, Java's was the coffee bright spot. My mom took us to a used bookstore in town that also sells coffee and baked goods. The brownie was okay, but the joe was ... um ... not to my liking I'll PM you before my next trip. I'm allowed to fly cheese within the province right? No municipal bylaw banning that? A.

We must have missed each other by minutes ... The Black Bean Soup today was good. Special kolachy was pork chops & apple sauce. Lots of chop, not so much sauce. Looking forward to Korma Korma Korma Kolachy ... (w/ apologies to the Culture Club). A.

My mother is a minister in the United Church of Canada. As she's a relative newcomer to the calling, she finds herself placed in lesser known parts of Canada. York, PEI, Edmonston New Brunswick, and most recently Smithers, BC. Recent circumstances found my brother & I flying up to Smithers for Mother's Day for a 3 day visit. That's right ... 3 days in Smithers. Armed with information from Viola da gamba's posts, I decided a culinary tour of the area was in order. I won't lie. I found no culinary gems. There were no must-visit places for coffee, no artisan cheese makers that would justify the $585 air-fare (excluding the Smithers Airport Improvement Fee!) In fact, one of the best meals we had was leftovers from the church youth-groups' Caribean pot-luck. But all is not lost in The Bulkley. We had lunch at the Iron Horse which is track-side in the Via Rail Station. It's essentially a lunch stop of the Via run between Jasper & Prince Rupert ... called The Skeena. I mention this because if you should happen to dine when The Skeena makes it's stop in Smithers, be prepared for pandemonium in the Iron Horse! 4 couple came into the restaurant and the service staff was jumping. We enjoyed a bowl of Potato & Corn Chowder and a couple Chicken Clubs. Apparently, they aquired the chef from the recently closed Happy Aligator (?) in Telkwa. The soup was really good ... tasted home-made which is always a plus. I have no more pictures as my brother couldn't deal with my food-geekiness We did however have a fmaily dinner at the Hudson's Bay Lodge dining room - Pepper Jack's. So named, I'm assuming because they put little peperencino peppers on everything they serve. I had the Pepper-Jack Pepper Steak with baked potato and grilled veggies. The steak was cooked exactly as I ordered it, and the server even brought the little containers of bacon-bits/chives/sour cream for the baked potato! The wine list looked pretty decent (i.e. no boxed wines) but we opted for sleeves of Wersteiner. Best meal of the trip goes to Chatters Pizza. I forget the name of the pizza, but it had chicken, grilled peppers with garlic on bechemel. Really tasty, and even better for breakfast the next day. So now I've been to Smithers, and will return soon to visit mom. I've been told there's a farmers market during the summer. Perhaps we'll cook at home next time and enjoy the view .... A.

That's not the same Jana who sells pies in Ganges is it? A.

My two favorite bars in Vancouver too! Granted, I'm usually eating lunch at HSG. Another we used to frequent was the bar at Monsoon. "J" and I just got back from a weekend in Seattle (recap to come in the PNW forum) and we dined at no fewer than 3 bars! Then again, they have this marvelous thing called "happy hour" ... DAMN marvelous I say. A.

More discussion on Kiwi Pie COmpany starting HERE [CLEEK] A.

I hope they're going to be ready for us! Remember Go Fish! & Chambar last year? And a deck to boot without those awful railings! I was particularly interested in the "legalized fast-track" approach to City Hall. Can anyone (Harry?) give an indication how that works? Are we talking a flat fee, or is it a percentage ...? Just curious. A.

Perfect definition. Some places, to quote Jimbo from the Simpson's "totally smack of effort." Diners don't have to try ... they just are. A.

A berry picking thread [CLICK] from last year. (Too bad the thread gets somewhat derailed by those two Burnaby boys reminiscing about the good ol' days ) Funny ... the first post in that thread is in June and says we're "almost" at berry season. Are we that early this year? A.

I'd question the inclusion of Moderne Burger in this list. Chrome & Formica do not a diner make. Moderne may be styled after a diner, but IMO unless it serves meatloaf it's off the list. We have a 50's style diner in North Burnaby on Broadway & Holdom (Parkcrest Plaza) called the Parkcrest Diner. A mix of diner food & Westernized Chinese. I'll add my vote for Helen's. Still my favorite place for a pre-work breakfast on Saturday. A.

Citrus fruit is always the issue for us on the West Coast ... big signs posted at each border crossing. And it's always going into the USA that we're asked if we're bringing in anything. I suppose that's because Canada doesn't have much in the way of citrus farmers. Now, if you were bringing back devilled eggs ... A.

Shelora - How are they getting around the no-smoking by-laws with the hookahs? There is a place in Burnaby that just went through the same thing. They were unable to convince the powers-that-be that the hookahs should be exempt for cultural/religious or whatever reasons. News article HERE. A.

Speaking of focus ... Let's keep the discussion focussed on WH, Save-On, Capers, etc. opening up a new store in Vancouver rather than a discussion of their merits or lack thereof. I for one am amazed that so many are looking at opening up in such close proximatey. A WH at 8th would crush the Capers going in up at 16th ... and a Save-On would split the market so baddly that it would end up a war of attrition. A.

Casing the joint??? Who are you, Edward G. Robinson? I don't think price is much of a factor here. Sure they're expesive. And yet the expand and expand ... The Cambie Corridor is a perfect place for them ... seems to me there's this little thing called RAV going in that will bring throngs of people right to their doorstep! WH, like Urban Fare, is all about image. Hip people buying hip food. And I'm ticked I didn't think of the idea first. A.

So here's the itinerary: Friday: Is Salumi open for lunch on Friday?? Brasa (Happy Hour) Saturday: Shopping for Vancouver eGullet members Matt's for Lunch Sitting Room for Cocktails Crow for Dinner Sunday: Coffee/breakfast at Cafe Ladro on N. Queen Anne A.

Excuse my Mainland ignorance ... hookahs? A. (too lazy to Google)

my emphasisSo what would be the goodest part of the meal? A. ps. Welcome gerald. Thanks for outing yourself. I look forward to your informed burger input.

Time to focus folks. Nu ... remember that place? I'm looking forward to the article ... the place has picqued my interest, website aside! A.

If you read the Globe 7 section this Friday, much will be revealed. I believe Jamie's speaking in future tense. As in, the Friday May 13th issue of the G&M. Someone is filling in for the 7 section for a couple weeks. A.

www.whatisnu.com - Beta #2 Leonard, I gotta teach you how to do the links!! Not sure I see anything nu on it tho .. A.

Aurora's wine list is completely BC-focussed. Ling had dinner there recently. Her comments and pictures are HERE [CLICK]. A.