peppyre

Honestly, that is typical Manny. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about him and I am so glad that everyone has had such fabulous meals there. Ling, I would suggest trying it again if you can.

Thank you so much for the laugh. Greatly needed. Um..I know quite a few of those and I'm sorry!

I finally had a chance to upload my photos today and you can find them here West As I have said before, the entire evening was brilliant. I am so glad that so many people made it and no one cancelled. (well, except for 1 family that fell ill, but I had enough notice that I wasn't scrambling, I'm sorry you couldn't make it Danielle and I hope everyone is healthy again. Don't worry, there will be more of these nights.) Since everyone has said so many wonderful things already, I'm just going to say thank you to Chef Hawksworth, Brian, Jay and the rest of the staff for making it a wonderful night and working their asses off. I now pass the planning torch.....so, who's planning the next one

I must have one!!!!! That is the most brilliant key chain I think I've ever seen!! Boy would that save time at the next dinner party Ummm...anyone know where to get one in Vancouver?

Please, please tell me you laughed hysterically at him before telling him he wasn't getting a reservation? Priceless

I've been a little lax on my postings for the WOW selections. It's been a tad hectic, what with the West dinner and then my sister's baby. So, with a bit more time, my impressions of the Yalumba. I only tried the Grenache and since I was so dissappointed with it, I didn't feel the need to spend the money on the Viognier. I found that the nose was not as fruity as I would like for a Grenache. I expect light, fruity, or even jammy, almost like it should dance with flavours. What I found was a very hard Tannin hit that actually made me cringe. It did open up a bit and that did dissipate, but I was dissappointed. There wasn't alot of roundness to this wine, and I didn't find that there was a lot of depth of flavour. It is definitely not a horrid wine, but for my palate and wallet, I would spend my money on say, somehting from South Africa. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes while I was tasting, Arne and I were busy making confit, but for the next wine, I will certainly write everything down.

**I need more sleep**

Last night: Nothing actually, too busy looking at my sisters brand new baby! Today so far: coffee..yummm

Yesterday: Every mouthful of food that I put in my mouth last night at West was just delicious. I think my absolute fave was the 20 year old Muscatel from Portugal. I walked around for half an hour with the empty glass just sniffing. It was heavenly. Today: Coffee! Coffee and more coffee. and then some water.

Well, since my father is a butcher and my grandfather was a butcher, and I spent my very early years playing in amongst the sides that were aging in the butcher shop, yes I understand the "butchering jones". When I broke down the primal at Christmas, I had this surge of pride, and felt like I needed to do it again. I certainly "get it".

oh my Andrew. I just got in and what do I see, but the first post about the evening There is much more to come, but what a fantastic evening. The Food, The wine, The food, The Company, The wine. It was a fantastic night and I am thankful that everyone could make it. Oh so much more to say but it will have to wait until I've recovered a bit.

New Grand View has been my Chinese Delivery place for the last 8 years. Great food, great prices, great service. Lately I've also been ordering from New Sun on Cambie. The driver knows me Have you tried Hawkers Delight on Main for take out? It's Malaysian/Indonesian/street food. I can pick up dinner for 2 for $14 and have leftovers. It's wonderful and I highly recomend it to anyone.

Yesterday: Duck cracklings from the evenings confiting event...ohh...sooo...good... Today: so far, Wine

I'm really fond of the Vim OxyClean right now. Good at getting off grease and also kills Pharoah ants on contact.

There was a thread a while back, Dec I think, about my Delivery fiasco. If anything it will at least be a good laugh! I usually order my Indian form Ashiana, I find it to be absolutely fantastic and a great price. For Japanese I usually just walk the half a block to Toshi's, which I think is one of the best Japanese restaurants in the city. Good luck getting a table though, it's always packed. I think my lastest pick-up spot will be HSG. The salad that I had from there earlier in the week was fantastic. Found it, hope this worksDelivery in the City A Rant

At one point an entire thread started because of Save-On-Meats, I'm not very good at finding these old ones to link...um...anybody?

My Dad has a pretty impressive cellar and he's been collecting his wines for the last 20 years. In the early 90's he started collecting A LOT of Leonetti. At one point about 5 years ago, he had enough to easily sell off a couple of cases. Any how, a few years ago I walked into the wine cellar, noticed the stain, noticed the hole on the rack, noticed the broken glass and asked him what had happened. He lost his grip on some wines that he was moving around and dropped them onto the 89 Leonetti's!! I think it was a few thousand dollars that ended up smashed on the floor of the cellar.

The chicken-corn-chowder was very tasted and light and healthy, and then of course dessert was duck cracklings. The wine was a 2003 Yalumba "Y" series Grenache and as stated was...meh...nothing spectacular. Oh and Jinmyo, please keep posting your menus, truly inspirational

I've passed that place a hundred times but never stopped. It's always scared me a bit - looks like a biker hangout. Maybe I'll try it sometime during daylight hours, or when I'm with my posse. ← Yes Jeff, we're certainly the posse you want with you at a biker joint

Yesterday: roasted broccoli Today: so far, nothing delicious, just barely edible. Will report back when I leave the confines of the hospital.

I'd like to suggest Moderne too. I haven't been in almost 2 years and they make a very fine burger. Maybe make that one of our last stops?

Since I have been remiss in posting my last 3 dining spots, I have a few more than that. Beginning of January I had my birthday dinner at HSG with some fellow eGulleters. Hanger steak was the entree of choice at the table, along with a blue crab appetizer that was so tasty. I'm not usually a fan of blue crab (shell paranoia) but it was delicious. Gorgonzola fondue, will certainly have that again, and for dessert there was an extravagant Ginerbread Pudding "birthday cake". It was gorgeous and so tasty. Sun Sui Wah for Dim sum; I can't remember all that we ate, but there was lots and it was all good. Latin Quarter, again with a group of eGulleters. I would love to rattle off descriptions of everthing we ate, but we ate pretty much everything on the menu The only dissappointment that was agreed upon at the table; the Flaming Chorizo was dry and flavourless, other than that, excellent. (part of the recollection problem is a result of the many many many pitchers of Sangria that were consumed) After Latin Quarter, we of course needed dessert and headed to HSG for Gingerbread pudding. Again. (Hi. My name is Tricia and I have a problem ) That was on top of the box of chocolates that we inhaled before leaving Latin Quarter. Thanks Lemon Curd!! That's it for the first 2 weeks of January, now on to this week. Monday, dealing with a killer headache, I ended up at HSG once again. This time for a take-out burger and pear and stilton salad. Oh My! This time I did stay clear of the Gingerbread Pudding. This may be my regular migraine haunt as I'm not allowed to cook with one. (I've tried to set myself and my apartment on fire too many times) Tuesday was of course the Whiskey and Cheese tasting at the Irish Heather, so had appies of cheese, glorious cheese, followed by Whiskey and Kilkenny. Then ended up at Bravo Bistro for dinner and chocolate tarts. I had the Sirloin with lentils which was very tasty, but since it was very late and I was starving, I didn't take my time eating it and had polished it off in a matter of minutes. The chocolate tart on the other hand was divine. I'm not a fan of overly sweet chocolate desserts, I like to have the dark rich flavour of the chocolate come through and this tart is exactly that. I'm thankful that I was only able to eat half of it, I had a small chunk last night right out of the fridge and OOOHHHHHH.....so good....... I think the chocoholic beau is going to love these. Hmmmm, possible dinner on Sat Needless to say, I haven't cooked much in the last 3 weeks, but I have had some very good food.

Coop, thank you for reminding of one my worst cable TV moments Yes, the naked chef I don't think I can ever eat there...is cooking naked a good thing? I had to edit this because I just took a closer look at the wine list and actually spit water on my desk Good for a laugh but definitely not prices, although it is a pretty pricey list, but those are stocking numbers (I hope

My dad is actually an exhibitor at this and I was planning on finding out what I should get him to source for me. He's going to be there for the week, but of course will be working, so he won't have that much free time. What is a MUST for him to bring home? He is willing to stuff his suitcase for me

Well, looks like I'm going to Vegas this year. Wow! The store just looks absolutely incredible. Congrats! It's always nice to a part of something so spectacular. Can't wait to try some of this stuff.