Mooshmouse

Having reached the landmark age of 40 at precisely 4:49 pm yesterday, I will just chime in and say that you should hold out for the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu, not settle for a couple of cold ones. Especially if you have to wait a full year to collect! ← Good plan; however, just make sure that you're not drinking down the street at Cioppino's or you'll have to take a second mortgage out on the house to pay for that bottle of wine. And Belated Happy Birthday to you Badiane!

Ling, do you remember what type of chocolate Chef Fong uses in his truffles at Ganache?

There are many wonderful things in life. This is one of them. Coconut Layer Cake - LilyKate What a truly wonderous thing. Cake was moist with a gentle sweetess. As aptly described by Lorna, the filling had a coconutty condensed milk flavour; however, it was the Italian meringue "frosting" that made this dessert. Coconut heaven. Chocolate Cake - LilyKate Since Lorna actually had this as part of her lunch (i.e., not dessert), I'll quote her description. Dessert Quartet - Ganache Patisserie After Friday's LilyKate excursion, we walked off some of our calories and headed around the corner to sample some of the new seasonal offerings at Ganache Patisserie. Chef Peter Fong offered us a sample of his otherworldly chocolate truffles to accompany this lovely dessert quartet. Wow. PaoPao, you weren't kidding about the truffles. Chevre-Vanille - Ganache Patisserie Lorna's choice: vanilla-chevre cheesecake atop toasted almond biscotti. A wonderful marriage of three flavours, with the chevre adding richness and a unique flavour note. Citron-Nectarine - Ganache Patisserie Arne's choice: lemon mascarpone cream layered with vanilla-star anise crème brûlée and vanilla poached nectarines atop a lemon financier. Very delicately flavoured. Though I'm not normally a star anise fan, the flavour was subtle and didn't overpower the rest of the dessert. Coco-Mango - Ganache Patisserie My choice: coconut mango cheesecake atop coconut biscotti. Lighter than I had expected for a cheesecake, almost like a creamy mango pudding with a subtle hint of coconut flavour. Tropical and sweet, a nice follow-up to the coconut layer cake from LilyKate.

canucklehead hit the nail on the head with his review; ergo, I have precious little else to add. I will say, however, that the coconut layer cake was truly a wonderous thing, though you must be a coconut fan through and through to enjoy it. The Italian meringue was wonderful and the cake itself was moist and delicately sweet. If for nothing else, I'll return to LilyKate just to have another slice of the coconut layer cake. Soon. Photos of this and the chocolate cake will be posted on the "Sweets And The City" thread.

I'm not Chef Neil, but the answer would be yes on that one, if I remember correctly.

Lee, glad to hear that you had a good meal at Shiru-Bay last night. Our experience there about a month ago wasn't quite as stellar; I'd rate it as just okay. With so many other outstanding izakaya restaurants here in town -- Yuji's, Hapa Izakaya, Guu and Japone to name a few -- I'd rather choose one from the list for an excellent experience rather than return to Shiru-Bay for an okay meal. Chalk it up to personal preference.

I'd say the Viognier by La Frenz is more of a 1 than a 0. Not necessarily crisp, perhaps more round and creamy tasting. Here's Anthony Gismondi's take on it. As a red-wine drinker who's started her re-education on whites, I quite enjoy this Viognier. Hope this helps!

There are other web boards?! Hmmm. Venue for 30. No offense Shellback, but I'm not the biggest fan of Sandbar. Chalk it up to personal preference, though I will concede that the location is outstanding and very Vancouver-flattering. Since you're asking for suggestions other than the all-wonderful HSG, my picks would be Winebar at Fiction, The Alibi Room, Lucy Mae Brown and Zin Restaurant and Lounge. Food for thought if nothing else.

Although Chef Karen Barnaby is rather active around town, particularly with her new column in the Food section of The Vancouver Sun, her restaurant itself doesn't seem to get much ink either here or in the local media. Maybe I'm just not paying close enough attention. Whatever the reason, I think that The Fish House in Stanley Park is vastly underrated. It's been a few years since my last meal at The Fish House. Figuring I was long overdue for a visit, I took my Mom out for a leisurely lunch in the park yesterday afternoon. I ordered the Chef's Creation of grilled silverbright salmon with roasted garlic and anchovy butter, served atop buttermilk mashed potatoes together with pickled red cabbage, snap peas and grilled red pepper, all drizzled with smoked paprika oil. My Mom had the "Simple Fish" of the day, red snapper in lemon butter with the same accoutrements as my silverbright salmon. Both cuts of fish were perfectly cooked and perfectly salted. The roasted garlic and anchovy butter (perhaps with a bit of lemon juice or zest to add some tang) was well executed, full flavoured without overpowering the salmon. And the smoked paprika oil was genius. We shared dessert, a coconut cream pie with passionfruit and raspberry puree. Just sweet enough, not cloyingly so, without any heaviness in the cream. Overall, a lovely meal in a beautiful setting. Less touristy on a sunny afternoon than I had expected it to be. I'll certainly be back.

The Mouse family was in the neighbourhood on Sunday night, so we trooped into Pho Hoang for some soup. Hugely disappointed... at least I was. Ian thought it was "okay"; however, I found the broth to be much, much saltier than it has been in the past. An interesting dichotomy as Ian's usually a great deal more sensitive to salt than I am. Kim Phung, here we come.

Nope. Just front-and-centre face time with Fred Flintstone together with a gigantic clot of kids.

Here's my piece of non-food-related 70s trivia. I was in a commercial for the Flintstones theme park... they must have been filming during my one and only visit at the start of a two-week camping trip. Imagine my surprise when I came back from vacation to see myself on TV. There went my 15 seconds of fame! Edited to fix some pesky punctuation.

How local is local? If you're willing to order from Oregon, try Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Their Hair Bender Blend and Finca el Injerto are both wonderful.

Badiane, thanks for posting your comments on Brava. I was curious about after reading the writeup in the Queue section of today's Vancouver Sun. Oh yeah... that'll be three for dinner tonight please. Let me know what time you'll be plating.

Thought I'd chime in on a couple of desserts from Mix The Bakery which butter and I visited on Tuesday. We had originally intended to visit Patisserie St. Moritz; however, it was closing for a late lunch break and we wanted to sit and enjoy our sweets. Chocolate Oblivion Though it's a photogenic dessert, butter and I both found it too sweet to eat. The caramel and buttercrunch topping was actually less sweet than the cake itself. I struggled through four bites and butter had two before we threw in the towel. My teeth are sweating right now just thinking about it. Chocolate Framboise Not quite as photogenic and not quite as sweet; however, we didn't finish this one either. The ganache wasn't very smooth, almost grainy or mealy in texture, and tasted more like milk chocolate rather than the having the intense dark-chocolate flavour that we both prefer. Mix's breads did, however, look fabulous. I'll be sure to pick up a loaf the next time I'm out in that direction... on my way to St. Moritz.

Okay. Six months later, and here's what I've knocked off my list: Chambar Shiru-Bay Go Fish It doesn't seem like much; however, here are the other new restaurants I've tried that weren't originally listed: Ch'i Relish Pair Bistro Vera's Burger Shack Bravo Bistro Amuse Bouche Cassis Prata Man One Restaurant Lounge (does alcohol consumption count?!) Long's Noodle House Chutney Villa Jang Mo Jib Rangoli Was fully intending to have lunch at Velvet on Tuesday, but it was closed despite times posted on their website and their front door to the contrary. I'd definitely dine at all these establishments again, with some hesitation about Shiru-Bay because I do like Hapa Izakaya, Umami and the Guus so much more. Yet, despite all the restaurants I've already crossed off, there are more that must be added: Saveur Lift Black Tuna Henry's Kitchen Beach Side Cafe now that Ray Fung is at the helm Aurora Bistro Don't even get me started about Vancouver Island... Edited to fix a case of Mommy brain.

I'm in, especially if Sean Sherwood is providing the truffled scrambled eggs! Perhaps Neil could throw in a Lamb and Yam and a Pear and Stilton Salad while we're at it. Be on the lookout for the appropriate post in the ISO thread.

Thank you Susan for providing me with some insight on the culinary phenomenon that is scrapple and the corresponding pictorial. And thanks too Percy for contributing your two cents. I'm curious: why haven't you had the desire to try it again? I suppose what I'm most curious about is the taste. What does scrapple taste like? Does it compare to sausage? Spam? And is there a particular condiment that you like to eat it with, or does it taste best on its own?

Lobster is quite high in cholesterol. For your carpaccio, perhaps try using salmon or tuna which have roughly half the cholesterol content of lobster; additionally, the Omega-3 fatty acids in salmon aid in overall cholesterol reduction. As another cold-water fish high in Omega-3 fatty acids, trout is an excellent choice. Good call on staying right away from shrimp which has cholesterol through the roof. Other heart-healthy fish choices are snapper, cod, halibut and mackerel. Certain plant foods such as soy (tofu et al) and those with soluble fiber (cruciferous vegetables as Genny mentioned, apricots, beans) have been shown to actually lower cholesterol.

Secret Garden does have a website; click here for the link. Ridiculous that it can't be found via Google... does anything really exist if it's excluded from the Google realm? High Tea - Secret Garden As you can see, there are two tiers of sweets served at the Secret Garden's High Tea. The centre tier is comprised of the 'semi-sweet' items and always has scones with raspberry jam and Devonshire cream together with something like the lemon pound cake pictured here or a carrot cake. The top dessert tier almost invariably includes lemon tarts and two other kinds of "Dainty Sweets" as outlined on their "Buy The Dozen" menu. An enormous selection of teas. And, unlike my recent Grand Thé experience at Provence Marinaside, I have never come away hungry from a Secret Garden High Tea. Bonus points for that! From what I remember, High Tea costs $19.95. Well worth it, IMHO. Hope you get around to trying it one day!

Can someone point out the previous thread? I would like to read what other's have said. ← After a brain-wracking search, I finally found the original thread: Bringing birthday cakes into restaurants, why?

Except Andrew, he's allowed (nay, encouraged!) to wear his blue unitard. ← And Coop in his tutu.

Never having heard of scrapple before, I Googled it and came up with this description. Susan, as the description seemed particularly unappetizing, could you enlighten me on the culinary delight that is scrapple? And what exactly is Rapa Scrapple?

Et voici Le Grand Thé à Provence Marinaside. Thank you Zucchini Mama for organizing this gathering of "five eGullet food fatales"! Le Grand Thé Sweets Tier Starting at 6:00 and working clockwise, there's Parisian macarons au chocolat, a lemon and orange scone, Madeleines, a sundried fruit scone, pistachio and chocolate chip biscotti and lemon tarts sprinkled with lavender. Savouries Tier Smoked salmon on cucumber rounds, tomato and bocconcini brochettes, Socca Crostini topped with roasted peppers and provençal olives in cream cheese on baguette slices. On the whole, I found the savouries tier at Provence to be more successful than the sweets, a sentiment echoed by the members of the Pink High-Tea Triad. Certainly a departure from more traditionally British high-tea savouries as offered at Bacchus, but rather tasty. In contrast, Secret Garden seems to have found the middle ground between finger sandwiches and more adventurous fare. Savouries Tier - Secret Garden Smoked turkey sandwiches on croissants, bacon/lettuce/tomato sandwiches on cheese scones and egg-salad pinwheels. Until we tweed shall meet again! Edited to fix a formatting misstep.

Ask and ye shall receive. Not the prettiest photos in the world as the room was fairly dark, but they'll do. Banana Split Though far less sophisticated than the flourless chocolate tart, I thoroughly enjoyed this dessert... especially since it was served with 6, count 'em 6, scoops of ice cream, candied walnuts and Valrhona chocolate sauce. Exactly what my tastebuds were begging for after an evening of much food and copious quantities of drink. Flourless Chocolate Tarte with Pistachio Ice Cream Wonderfully rich and dense without being too heavy (if that makes any sense whatsoever). The pistachio ice cream offered a light flavour counterpoint. However, one of the very best tastes was a gooseberry/ground cherry dipped in the Valrhona chocolate sauce that accompanied the banana split. Mmmmm. Edited to correct a grammatical crime.