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peppyre

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Posts posted by peppyre

  1. This site has become less critical than in the past. Her comment rings true .

    Criticisms and negative comments are almost immediately called into question by someone, if not someone from the establishment that is being criticized. It grows a little tiring having to defend yourself because you did not care for something. Not every item hits it out of the park and nor should we pretend that it does. Not every item is to everyone's taste, and nor should we try and convince them that they have tastebud problems. We have seen that kind of armtwisting go on.  It certainly takes the honesty out of the posts, and if you do not think people are holding back because of the before mentioned actions, you are as deluded as the boys Ling dates, thinking they are the only ones she is seeing! It is time someone started her own site called "Lorna's Loveland".

    It is time we got back to "Eat, Chew and discuss" rather than "Eat, hold back, censor yourself to not hurt anyone's feelings, or retract your statements at the first sign of controversy".

    Anyhoo, just my $.02 for now

    If you do not think this will be good for Rare, look at the amazing amount of traffic this thread has had despite the sit crashes. People are interested and anyone with half a brain will form their own opinion.

    Bravo Neil! You said it better than I ever could.

  2. I have to agree that's it nice to have a dissenting voice in the city, but if you are going to give a restaurant a bad review, give the restaurant a bad review. Don't focus on words that have been posted on a website. That's really my only beef.

  3. Well, she has certainly piqued the interest of this group.

    I will say this about my dinner at Rare, it was wonderful. There were a few issues with timing, but that is what I expect if I am going to a restaurant on their first night open. Or even if I'm going on the 2nd night. I don't think that it's fair for her to give a review of any kind when she admits that it's their 2nd day open to the public. She spent more time lambasting this place than she did on the food. That's just bad journalism.

    I did not have the beef cheeks, as much I wanted them, they were not a part of the tasting menu that evening. What I did have I found to be on par, well actually better, than the meal I had at Lumiere and pretty darn close the last meal that I had at West. This is still a very new restaurant and I think that in the months to come, it will get even better.

    I hope Brian, that you don't take any of these reviews too seriously, good and bad, and just continue to do what you do.

    As for the Mia Stainsby review, my mom was even talking about it this morning and is looking forward to eating at Rare.

  4. Uncle Herbert's Fish and Chips in Ladner is no more.  The owners have sold up and have, literally, "gone fishing".

    Is this the building beside the Delta Museum with the Olde English Towne theme?

    Yes. So very sad. That was a standard stop for our family. Anyone know what happened? Did the family that owns it just retire, or were there other circumstances involved.

  5. attenpt to shave a small piece of prime rib with my very sharp serrated knife. who knew the pinky had that much fat. 8 stitches later the freezing is just now wearing off. worst part; it was one of my med studennts that sutured me. right, she's been on her ER rotation for 2 weeks and has sutured 4 people, give her the cut requires an assist. i finally just told her to pass me a glove and i assisted with my own freakin sutures.

    the only positive, i didn't bleed on the prime rib

  6. Le Gavroche, Hermitage, and an obvious one, the Prow in the Pan Pacific, Earl's Tin Palace (the flagship in North Van), Red Robin (Sooooomany bad bad memories), The Keg, The Old Surrey Inn, Harte house has definitely been around for more than 20 years. My grandparents used to take me there when I was a kid. Porto Fino in Delta (it may be closed now, those restaurants on Scott Road are now a moving target) I know there are many more, but I've only had 1/2 of my coffee this morning.

  7. oh, pep -

    your sam is a stitch and your mom is so lucky(please note i am only 1 year older than she is!! :biggrin: )

    the crab looks divine and the signed bottle of pol roger <SWOON >  how can i get one of those - though preferably a cuvee sir winston churchill - my favoirte premium champers

    Yeah, Sam is pretty cute. As we say, he gorgeous....that's it :laugh: He's my mom's cat and quite honestly, my cat can't stand him. He's too silly for her.

    As for the bottle, well, men tend to adore my mother. She's gorgeous, with a personality to match. Let's just say that "Sir" Pol Roger was a wee bit smitten :raz:

  8. I would first start with a very large campari, straight up, maybe with some ice, depends on if it's in the freezer or not. Then I would proceed to open either the most expensive bottle of wine I have or something else relatively expensive. If it was really really bad, I wouldn't cook. It would be Thai food from the restaurant down the street, as hot as I can possible handle it. I would then proceed to finish the bottle of wine and any chocolate that was in the house.

    And maybe some more wine......

  9. No need to apologise for the wine Brian. I think it enhanced the experience. Of course, that could have been the unidentified 4 grams per litre, but that's OK. Could you imagine what would have happened had the other table had a bottle as well. :blink:

    Oh, I forgot to add, my Dad and BIL drank the bottle that my BIL brought back from Beijing. My father's response to this wine "It wasn't bad. Drinkable." :huh: I think the bottle you had may have been blown.

    damn fingers.....

  10. Since it's been 6 months and I've had time to forget quite a bit, I figured it was a good time for an update. I've had a helluva time uploading all these photos into imageGullet and gave up many times. But finally, they are there.

    I'll start with dinner one that was held on her actual birthday. It was her choice, whatever she wanted.

    The menu:

    Fresh Crab

    gallery_18348_1548_68273.jpg

    gallery_18348_1548_179508.jpg

    Shrimp Salad with Thousand Island Dressing

    gallery_18348_1548_292328.jpg

    This is sans dressing, to be added later, but what a great dressing. I've never made Thousand Island before, and I have to say, it was damn tasty.

    The crab was wonderfully sweet and Sam agreed

    gallery_18348_1548_114705.jpg

    We drank a very special bottle of Champagne:

    gallery_18348_1548_36442.jpg

    The feast!

    gallery_18348_1548_318176.jpg

    My mom was very patient and waited for me to take the picture, her husband on the other hand, was shaking his head laughing at me. He thinks this is all very weird. :raz:

    But wait...there's more to come.

  11. The kid's table may have been noisy, but it was all the fault of that what....oh..that wine.

    It was great night of food and friends. I think the highlight for me was the pork and chayote. It was very tasty and olives were a nice surprise. The crab was very good, but I think I wore more of the sauce than I actually tasted. The pork buns were truly ethereal. The dough was soft and silky and the pork was thankfully not that bright red you normally find a BBQ pork bun. They were still just as good cold a few hours later (thanks for the midnight snack Arne. I think we all inhaled them)

    The cod was very good, very fresh (obviously) with a delicate hint of soy. Very nice. It was a great night. Next up, the "Dance Dance Revolution" competition, featuring BCinBC vs Keith Talent.

  12. All I can say about the guy taking the cookie "Welcome to Commercial Drive!" If it's weirdness you're looking for, you found the right place.

    Abra, it was wonderful meeting both of you last week, and I am so glad I was on holiday. That deep fried pork hock....OH...My....GoD!!!!! It was incredible, especially with the vinegar. Deep fried pork fat, how can you go wrong.

    I'm glad you had a great time and I look forward to your next visit :biggrin:

  13. Anyone eaten a Costco birthday cake recently?

    The last one I had was probably a good eight years ago. I don't remember it being much different from any grocery store cake--lots of thick, Crisco icing and cake mix, right?

    Yes Ling, as a matter of fact I have.....

    Tada!

    gallery_18348_340_239012.jpg

    The icing was a good inch thick and tasted kind of like "butter substitute" mixed with wax and a sugar product, while the cake was reminiscent of...well...packing popcorn comes to mind.

  14. Depending on the loaf that I am making, I split my wet and dry ingredients. Depending on the humidity, you may or may not need all of the flour and you may or may not need all of your liquid.

    The more you play with the dough and start to learn the feel of it in different stages, the easier making bread will be.

    As for steam, I used to always add ice and water to a pan at the bottom of my oven that had been preheating. Once you put your loaf in, quickly add cold stuff and very very quickly close your oven door to trap all the steam. It used to make perfect loaves everytime. (Of course, I haven't made bread in 5 years due to low cabinets. I got tired of hitting my forehead evertime I started kneading. [i'm really tall :hmmm: [)

  15. There is always a chance of having one bottle that is off. Depending on the wine or the region or the type of cork used, it could be more than one. I'm never surprised when I have a "corked" bottle (that musty smell and taste). Watery sounds like it could be a cork issue. I certainly wouldn't expect the rest of the bottles to be blown.

  16. Never ever again will I think that it's a good idea to peel a butternut squash with a chef's knife, in the dark with a migraine. WTF was I thinking. Even as I was peeling and right before the knife slipped into my thumb, I was thinking that this really wasn't the smartest thing to do. For a cut that didn't really bleed alot, damn is it ever deep.

    Of course, next migraine, I'll probably think it's a good idea to debone a chicken....in the dark....

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