Daddy-A

Egads! ANOTHER new eGulleter. Apparently people actually read Jamie's stuff! Welcome to your new addiction Ms. Agrodolce. Yes I believe that is the old Torrefazione ... Artigiano is certainly spreading its wings. Thanks for the news! A.

Or maybe you need to get together, brave the elements, and do enjoy everything your city has to offer! Malcolm, your jousting at the proposed sushi laws was nothing short of amazing. And it goes to show that the TO food crowd is one that can band together. Instead of everyone asking "why?", why doesn't somebody pick one of the many events and post the following: If you post it, they will come. You guys had Oliver in town? Hell, I would have put on my Bourdain jacket and gone just to heckle the little wanker! Nigella? The possibilities are endless! And even if it's just a book signing, there's always Chinese or Indian food afterwards ... great for an eG nosh. Have fun ... after all, these people all love food. How bad can they be? A.

Mooshmouse, your Illy hook-up. A.

Reminds me too much of Communion Glad to read this! My son tried this when he was about 5 (although with soft-serve ice cream instead). Damn if it weren't tastey! I thought I was wierd. A.

We ran into this exact dilemna two years ago. It was our turn to host the family Christmas dinner (about 20 people altogether), and J & I were discussing the menu. Neither of us are particularly fond of the typical holiday fare our families usually brought to the table ... brussel sprouts (not a la Sam, which I may one day try), potatoes 3 ways: mashed with (whole) peas, mashed without (whole) peas, and Romanoff (lots of sour cream and cheese), 2 or 3 jellied salads, turkey cooked dry as a bone with the Capozzi family dressing (we are not the Capozzi's, so it's not even our family recipe!). As GG said up thread, educating palates is a time consuming endevaour. So we thought we'd start with our Christmas dinner. We started with a Curried (very mild) Butternut Squash Soup garnished with sour cream squirted from a bottle (star & tree shapes!). Main course was the turkey (couldn't get away without the Capozzi dressing ... something about a curse and a hitman) roasted winter veggies, and scalloped potatoes. Nothing earth shattering, right? Our sibblings and their families thought everything was wonderful. My aunts however are still not speaking to me. Something about trying to ruin their Christmas and that blasted soup being too spicey (even though it was consumed happily by 4 kids under 5 years old, including one infant ). This year it's my brother's turn, and his wife just phoned us for the soup recipe! A.

I will be watching this thread quite closely. J & I have booked ourselves into a little cottage on the Sunshine Coast for New Year's. There's stream running through the property, the inlet is just across the street (a literal stone's throw) and the hot-tub is secluded behind the cottage. We'll pre-cook as much as we can and finish/reheat on site. I have acquired a lovely bottle of Cassis, a bottle or two of Port, and have already purchased a lovely bottle of Brut from Pyramid Vineyards. I'm thinking something cheese-wise, something pig-wise, something duck-wise ... just need to swipe some menu ideas from this thread! A.

Hey! Welcome back Sean! No more gastropimp I see. Cassoulet while sitting by the fireplace in Fiction sounds kinda nice about now. A.

Over the Georgia Viaduct and keep going straight/east along Venables Street. Follow Venables until it forms a T with another street: Victoria Drive. Hang a left and go north along Victoria Drive for about 3 or 4 blocks. You'll see Bosa on your right hand/east side. Remember Moosh, Ling is a woman who was wondering Davie Street at 3am ... and couldn't find Fresgo! I think she'll need a map! A.

But where's the challenge in that?? Yah know ... if someone told me 5 years ago I would be discussing "rendering duck fat" I'd have said they were mad. I'm either getting older or wiser ... or both. A.

I'm only speculating here ... but the people that seem to be challenged(?) by this are those of us here in North America, or more to the point, regions where there really isn't a second language (Quebec and regions like it noteably excepted). Innocent spelling and grammar errors I will forgive. I can't speak their language, so I shouldn't ridicule their attempts at mine. The ones that make me cringe are attempts to appear more sophisticated ... Primi's & Secondi's would fall into this category. Most people sniff these out. But even if you don't, if the food's good who cares? A.

Christine, I am a recent convert to the cassoulet club ... knew about it but never had it. The cassoulet we had at Big Night was amazing (is it a regular item Neil? should be!). I'm going to be trying the recipe from Les Halles soon. Just need to find time to make the confit ... A.

Is there a Caesarstone supplier near you? (Must be!) Have a look ... at least for me, Caesarstone prices out better than Silestone, and is the same stuff. A.

Okay, am I the only one wondering what Ling was doing walking up & down Davie Street at 3am?? Moosh, if you can remember the beef dip you weren't that drunk!I was gonna mention Fresgo's too, and (I'm gonna date myself) Did's Pizza. There also used to be a place in Burnaby called Sharkey's Beach House that was open until 5am. It was in the old funeral chappel at the corner of Royal Oak & Kingsway. It's a lousy Korean BBQ place now, but Sharkeys was around during my clubbing days .... long long long ago. A.

I KNOW I am sooooo depressed I almost went to Timmy Ho's for a Bismark (sp?). Cobbs must be stopped! A.

Add another vote from me for good bakeries. I just find a nice one on Commercial, and then those bastards from Cobbs take over the place!! Fortunately I still have Valley Bakery on Hastings, but Federicos did really good canolli which I miss very much now. A.

Chester ... welcome to eGullet! Have you tried Kaplans Deli? Corner of 41st & Oak (5775 Oak). I think you'll be able to get your fix there. Or you can wait until Chef Fowke & Chef Wyles decide to do the pastrami experiment again ... but that's a topic for another thread! A.

Well, apparently our attempts at Mexican food kinda suck A.

Where exactly is Skinny's, Arne? A recent stop at Home was unsatisfactory. Hmmmm ... that kind of information is gonna cost you Maw! It's on the old Hope-Flood Road. If you look at the road signs announcing places to eat, Skinny's is on one of them. We've only ever done breakfast there, so you're on your own for lunch or dinner. A.

Not to sound flippant steve ... but just how many egg slingers does Port Alberni have?? BTW ... I love the old school cafes. One of our faves is Skinny's Grill in Hope. Always stop by Skinny's for breakfast on our way to the cabin. A.

I think before we ask if this task can be done, we need to define the goal, and how we determine if it has been achieved. So far (excuse me for paraphrasing) it seems that our benchmark of three stars is being determined by us, the diners. i.e. If I eat a dish at Per Se, then eat the same dish prepared by, say my lovely wife J. at home, and it tastes just as good to me, I would say that I have had a three star experience at home. Mission accomplished, right? I'm not so sure ... What is more accurate would be for the reviewer(s) who gave Per Se the three star rating to try the same dish, again prepared by my lovely wife J. If these reviewer(s) assign the same rating to both dishes, then we can say the three star experience has been created at home. Which leads us to the question of "experience", "ambience" and the wine list. Using the criteria above, we cannot remove these items from the equation. If they were part of the reviewer(s) experience in one place (e.g. Per Se) then they must be factored in to any comparison. While my lovely wife J. may be an excellent cook, our home does not have three star ambience, my service skills suck (although our Jack Russels will clean up anything you drop on the floor ), and our wine list is anaemic. A.

Typical YVR. I'm not from TO, Daddy-A, so you'll have to direct your spleen elsewhere. Come now ... just having a little fun ... and my comments were directed more at Toronto in general than at you specifically. He was too ... ummmm ... "partied-out" to reply. In all seriousness, I'm really surprised at how silent this forum has been on AB's visit. Maybe we're all just a little more star-struck out here (gotta be excited about something without hockey after all), or maybe Toronto sees more of this sort of thing than we do, so they're a little blasé about it all. I'm just speculating really. Up thread a few people tried to get things going, but nobody ran with it. For us, it just took off on its own. Truth be told, AB's appearance was really just the icing on the whole evening. It would have been a blast even without him. On the subject of food ... we still kick your ass! A.

I agree ... go buy the damn book. Truly, it's worth it for just the text between the recipes. The recipes? Not a stinker in anything I've tried yet. If you read his stuff on eG, he's already said it a million times. He's even (reluctantly) given Emerill credit for rightfully promoting pork. Another quote from Les Halles Typical TO You completely forget his time in YVR. While most of you slept through his visit, the people of Montreal and Vancouver showed him where the food and the food-lovers in this country really are. Better luck next time! A.

Roddey McDowell rules! And Planet of the Apes is the only thing Heston ever did that I can watch, now that he's an NRA gun-slinging dufus. Get your hands off me you damn dirty ape!!!! Think I'm gonna grap me a coffee and watch the late show! Can I come and get some cookies peppyre?? A.

Pho something ... yeah. That oughta narrow it down! I love Vietnamese coffee ... but I'm never sure how to drink it. There's the glass with the condensed milk and the coffee dripping into it, and then there's the glass of ice. So, do you add the ice to the coffee or vice versa? I'm guessing it's adding the ice to the coffee because I did it the other way the first time I tried it and made a hell of a mess! A.

I only buy the "relativity" argument to a point. In my line of work I have discovered that income level much to do with ability to pay, but has little to do with willingness to pay. Some clients with modest incomes will spend what some may feel to be a disproportionate amount of money on their kitchen. Others who seemingly have buckets of money want to live with the 100 year old crap they have. This situation is quite different than the Algonquin Martini and the plethora of expensive hamburgers that popped up this year. Those are about "snob appeal" ... spending money for the sake of spending money. There is no debate IMO that $10K for a martini, regardless of the diamond waiting to lodge itself in someones esophogus, is insane. There is no value for money. But $300 a head for dinner? Hell, I know people who've paid twice that much for Canucks playoff tickets, and would do so again without hesitation. This is where the willingness factor creeps in. To a food-lover, the experience may in fact be worth $300. My wife's birthday meal at Lumiere was over $600 for the two of us. Would I do it again? Sure, but no time soon. I don't have the ability to afford such luxuries more that once every few years. Yet Lumiere does terrific business, so there must be a clientelle that does. I can't criticize a business for charging whatever the market will bear. It reminds me of an old Jack-in-the-Box commercial where Jack is at a fast food convention. He comes across a booth where he sees a guy sitting in a lawn chair with a sign that reads "Fast Food Consultant" Jack: What does a fast food consultant do? Guy: You get me to eat your product, I tell you if I like it Jack: How much do you charge Guy: $50,000 Jack: You must not get man customers at those prices Guy: I only need one! A.