SBonner

You're doing an excellent job of convincing me not to pursue this quest any further. Have you ever tried jellied eels? ← My mum swears by jellied eels...I have not tried them and most likley will not Stephen

I'm a Brit living and working in Vancouver and the only time I've eaten offal is in London at St.John's and in Madrd. Cheers, Stephen

We use an Argon gas system that keeps wine fresh roughly 5-7 days. On average a bottle goes alot quicker than that I have never had a glass sent back due to freshness being an issue. An Argon wine preservation system is great value for a restaurant....just alot of work for the bartender/sommelier/chef at the end of the night. One tank last about eight months. I'm always amazed at London restaurants and their small amount of WBTG options especially with your wine culture unlike here in Vancouver. Not to digress from this thread, this restaurant sound very interesting, so we give it a try when in London. It's also in one of our favourite parts of London and even bigger bonus. Stephen Vancouver

Having lived and worked in the East End I've only had a pie once...I found them chewy and pretty awful and it took me several pints of Guiness to wash them down and I love eel when it's smoked, grilled, or in a soup. I think a pie company offering these anywhere in N.A. would have a short life span. Stephen

Helen and I are over to Victoria this weekend to check out some brewpubs, pick up local cheeses, and eat Any recommendations for Sunday brunch??? Thank you, Stephen and Helen

Hard to critise from this part of the world but looking at their website I would have expected a much broader selection of wines by the glass. Food sounds interesting and Helen and I will give it a try when we arrive in London in the late summer. What are your feelings on a restaurant like this with tapas/small plates having a small wine by the glass selection? Here in Vancouver when I'm making wine lists it is not uncommon for even a casual cafe to have a minimum of 20 wines by the glass. I'm currently working on a project here in Vancouver which is a wine/cheese/tapas bar with 40+ wines by the glass (not all that uncommon here). Cheers, Stephen

The finish reminds me of a cross between herb and orange peel. Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

Have you had this vintage for a while or a recent purchase? Curious to the cost in the LCBO shops? Tasty drop and easy to drink. Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

I'm guessing she has a gas range Stephen

The Sapphire Fusion Restaurant on Abbott Street will be closing at month end. The landlord has sold the building. Worth checking out before they close. See my thread on Sri Lankan hoppers. Cheers, Stephen

Time Out is my first choice along with the ocassional review in Waitrose's Food Illustrated. Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

Wow Scott the owner of this Blend's use to be a coffee merchant in the New Westminster Quay when I was running a wine shop there back in the 80's.I just got off the phone with Scott and he said that he had a mutiny by staff who thought they were running the shop Anyway he said it's been a major headache with staff and a businessman's worse nightmare. Cheers, Stephen

Best recommendations on buying oysters (retail) in this city? here's a photo taken at the City Super food market in the IFC building in Hong Kong and just around the corner from this display was a nice wine shop with loads of amazing Sake and French Champagne There were over a dozen types of oysters available from around the world. I have not seen this many for sale in Vancouver. Any secrets? Cheers, Stephen CitySuper IFC Centre Hong Kong

That rather nicely sums up the molecular culinary avant garde. It's like a lot of avant garde art: very interesting, but would you want to have it on your wall and have to live with it? Would you rather put on Mahler - or even the Stones - after a hard day at the office, or a Kurt Schwitters atonal sound poem? I rest my case. Yes El Bulli is important and interesting for the contribution it makes and the role it plays in pushing the envelope, and if you can you should try to eat there at least once. But my guess is the novelty of the place is probably more of a draw than the "greatness" of the cuisine. When we lived in Europe we met many people who made the pilgrimage to El Bulli once. I haven't met anyone who has made it twice. The difficulty of getting a table aside, I cannot imagine saying to the missus "Honey let's go to El Bulli tonight, I really feel like some deconstructed south sea scallop foam." Call me old fashioned. ← Helen and I ate there only once, I would like to go again, but it's virtually impossible to get a table. We are however making some El Bulli inspired foams at home including this weekend a blood orange-Sherry foam. Cheers, Stephen

You can also get these chocolates at Whole Foods in West Van. They are interesting but not great. Stephen

How about Stella's on Commercial Drive, Habit on Main, or Wild Rice? Parking should not be a problem at any of these as they are all near public parking lots or resident non-permit streets. Cheers, Stephen

I went a couple of times during the summer with Helen. The menu was interesting and a notch above "Al Porto" across the street. The drinks/wines were not inspiring but service was friendly and well executed. It looks like now the location is signalling doom for this establishment as it has for the pass tenants. They have all you can eat pasta for $9.99...not a good sign for a restaurant Cheers, Stephen

Just wondering if any of you have had any amazing chocolate beers lately. In the past three months we have had three while travelling overseas. In London, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, at Redoak Brewing in Sydney Australia (Chocolate Cherry Stout) and in Barcelona (Xocoa beer). All tasty and unusual. Our favourite to date was the Redoak Chocolate Stout with it's rich and creamy texture and flavours of Black Forest Cake Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

Caban was blowing out chocolate bars from Xocoa of Barcelona. At $7.95 a bar it is cheaper here than in Spain. There were very few left yesterday. Cheers, Stephen

I have been advising restaurants and wine bars with large wine by the glass selections to use Argon gas to maintain wine freshness. I see good results with many wines staying fresh for periods of upto 10 days. At home, once open, a bottle lasts less than a dvd Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

I'm a fan of St. Emilion but I think the whole Right bank classification system hangs onto the Left bank classification coat tails. I think both systems could do with a shake up and a few changes but in general I pay little attention to the St. Emilion system. Cheers, Stephen Vancouver

Nice publicity but no mention of "C" Robert Clarkes retail products, Chocolate Arts, or B.C. wine Stephen

Chef Jeff, Put me on the list for the book whenever that happens to be...until then I'll just have to eat at Aurora more often Cheers, Stephen

Jamie, Your comments on the economics of cook book publishing in our small niche market is very interesting but bang on. I remember in Spain looking at buying Carles Abellan's Tapas from Comerc 24 and the molecular "food porn" gastronomy of Ferran Adria (with a companion VCD) both retailing for 35 Euro's and $150 Euro's and that's with the E.U. as a market place. I guess like food prices our local cook books offer pretty good value. Cheers, Stephen

There are so many small wineries, half the fun is driving around, until something peaks your interest. Lovely drive upto Mt.Veeder and some gems hidden along the road. In Sonoma a visit to Cuvaison is a must. Cheers, Stephen Vancouver