SushiCat

For those who might not know, Solly's bagels bakes amazing bagels. Not that I'm knocking any of the other delicious items, especially cottage cheese muffins and rugelach and chicken soup and, and, and... my Solly's list is quite long! he babka loaves are better than the babka buns, so try to find a few friends to eat one with ... and i fyou have some left over it makes amazing toast the day after!

thoughts over here are YUM! The Blood Oath, sounds like a truly delicious drink! Not sure about the name, it does sound kind of rough for what you have concocted. Nice to have these ingredients on hand and play around with the variations. Would either of your new cocktails be improved by meyer lemon juice or is that just guilding the lily?

good to see our coffee/cafe thread active again. I have to say that coffee is sometimes under -valued in discussions as some people don't see it in the same way as food/wine, but it is so prevalent in our world - Vancouver at least! My obsession continues... Coffee at home is waning right now, we tried a very expensive pound of Intelligentsia, not sure of roast date etc. I'm back to JJ, they are roasting often enough for me, although I am now toying with the concept of a new toy ... a home roaster - maybe I just have to get out more . Looking forward to JJ on Main - looks like they are nearing readiness. Been only once to Artigiano and need to get there more often - and (clearly I've been hibernating ) as I haven't been to Prado yet! See you out there - S off topic, but Arne, are the dogs addicted to cafeine?

I have a twelve cup tin. It pays to look around, I found it at a local restaurant supply house selling off what seemed to be cast aways maybe from someone's out of business sale. Anyway, it is a wonderful item and I think I paid something like $ 2.00 for it

Ok I want to know who might be trying this! I'm suggesting it for those who don't have budget to buy anything from Sylvia up. Keep us informed!

Wednesday evening we dashed to a true neighborhood gem - Long's Noodle House. We had noodles (what else!) both Shanghai fried noodles and tan tan (dan dan) noodles. We also had some delicious dumplings in spicy sauce and (yes we were a bit piggish) and had pot stickers as well. It was for a good cause, trying an assortment to see what is good / what to order next time etc. I think the pot stickers got the best dish award from us of the 4 items we tried. All were good, these were great! Many other things to try including the wine-soaked chicken which somehow we didn't order ... many things tempted us. I had the leftovers for lunch on Thursday (does this count as a second dining out event?) Last Sunday - we were at the Gong Hei Fat Choy parade in Chinatown - so we had to wrestle a table at Hon's - yup true to my word, I can eat Chinese daily without tiring of it. We (and everyone else) were at Hon's and when we got a table, the best thing on it was the dish suggested by the waitress, some type of beef and rice noodle combo that was stir fried and had the right amount of spicing etc. We also had XO sauce noodles and a chicken in bird's nest dish - not much left on our table, the 4 of us did a good job polishing things off! Now if memory serves me, the third most recent dining event was at HSG - Appreciator and I went in for lunch a week back on a Friday. She wanted to be incognito, but I was facing the kitchen and chef recognized me - good thing! Neil sat with us and we had a wonderful chat with him for about an hour - very fun! Talked all manner of things and hopefully I didn't insult by overly enjoying that ginger ice cream! I chose the BC Burger for my lunch, yam fries (had to try them!). It hit the spot - burger was literally cooked to perfection - I usually prefer my husband's burgers, but to truly get those it needs to be a bit warmer and light levels need to be stronger after work! Next up on my menu is LilyKate if they are open yet - Keith when are we going for whoopie pies?

Very interesting flavors in Japan ... too bad those are not available here. What I find interesting is the readically different flavor and texture of ice creams varying from country to country and even in cities. Here in Vancouver there is often no commercially made ice crean which is worth eating, imo, however we are lucky to have some fabulous gelati shops. I want panna cotta-raspberry - that sounds divine! My alltime favorite but I'm not up on all the new flavors etc. is vanilla swiss almond, it brings back fond memories and the almonds used to taste good. Haven't had this in about 10 years!

Chocoholic, I was going to throw in my vote for Susur, but since I haven't dined at all the above mentioned spots I really can't influence you. I will say that my husband and I ate at Susur (tasting menu) and it was quite an event - the service is a little more Toronto than at West (I prefer the service at West), and the food is very creative as is the room. I have heard that Susur is not always in the house and this would be the only concern I would have. There are many places to try in that fair food city, you might want to look out for the new place that the chef from The Fifth is at ... I think I saw it somewhere in the Ontario posts ... hmmn, it might be George, if so, go for it - try and get nonna to babysit twice!

next we will see peacocks and the ever popular Canada Geese - maybe this is the new delicacy, send those geese to other locations, exotic Cdn foods!

Anyone using meyer lemons for their curd, is the curd 'lemony' enough when one does this? ...just curious as my current stock of meyer lemons is the best I can remember and I am thinking of all the things I can make while they are in season.

Thanks, this version seems very gin-y, but I still might try it out. Yes Parkside, are you psychic? Did you notice I was recently at Parkside and enamored with the cocktail I had, a blood orange negroni ? It was oh so fine ... but the Lillet in my fridge is calling out to me. cam-pai

Fresh bagel from Solly's, whole wheat sesame (beware they are addictive) not toasted, just fresh, sliced with some unsalted butter. Hmmn, maybe I should post this on the butter thread.

Hey, I wanted to reply, but didn't know what to say! A friend of a friend, gave to my friend an old Pavoni needing work ... looked like $ 200 when it was taken for estimates, and so it is not yet repaired. I was hoping they would get it going so I could play (take it over as my own), but instead they gave it back to their friend who really doesn't know me well enough to bestow such a gift ... and so it goes. A while back, circa 1993, a colleague had one and had gotten pretty good an making espresso with it, I am fairly certain they did the lever raising part way to make a truer 'double' espresso. Enjoy your coffee!

Oh, Chocoholic, congatulations and congratulations - what a way to celebrate! Do tell us how it is, but mostly enjoy yourselves! Great plan and much better than any 10th anniverisary stuff I have heard of in the past. Hmmn, we didn't do much special for our anniversary that recently passed, maybe we need a 10 course tasting menu at West ...

Before spring or summer arrive, just getting to the bottom of a classic Lillet cocktail. This is on the menu somewhere that makes delicious cocktails and has as ingredients Lillet brandy Cointreau & lemon ... anyone have experience with this/anyone willing to offer up tried/true proportions? Seems like a good combo and I hate to let my Lillet 'age' from now until warm weather!

You know.... this kinda get's me..... First off.... we aren't "critics" (well with an exception or two) we're either the the dining public, chefs, waiters, restaurant owners, busboys, dishwashers etc. I have been to the Ordinary and I like it from what I can remember... but the whole notion of having to post a certain way..... If this forum becomes one of "if you are going to say something negative then you must say it this way or not say it at all" ... and if you've had a few drinks then whatever you do, don't post right away because lawd knows your judgement will be clouded by the booze.... Aaack... ← Appreciator, you beat me to it, as I was reading this thread my thoughts were along nearly exactly the same as what you have posted. Lee, thanks for the info. I think it is good to give an account of your impressions/views and I now know that it is likely worth it to go there just for crab cakes - a restaurant can make it based on a few great dishes!

I'm in total agreement. The coffee they serve is absolutely fantastic. I once asked for the name of their coffee supplier, and the waitress kindly wrote it down for me, but I lost the piece of paper. She told me, though, that she was quite sure they only dealt with restaurants. ← Ling, that is interesting - but so many other restaurants have lousy coffee. I'm determined to find out. One thing I can say though is one of my dining partners ordered coffee and got an Americano, this is a good sign, e.g. they are brewing by the cup. He kept raving, so I had to have one too and it was quite delicious. I am hoping to find out the coffee, didn't ask as we were needing to leave to try and keep within DOV boundaries of our timeline. Let me just say that nobody was rushing us, and there wasn't anyone waiting for our table (yet). Mmmn, coffee, maybe that is what I need to perk up my day

does the blood orange negroni count? It is a drink so perhaps not. If not I will go for a bite of cornish hen and 'fixings' from my plate at Parkside - the sauce was delicious too, have to go look at their menu and figure out as many ingredients as I can, or try to get another reservation!

Just returned from Parkside - they are still serving DOV menu. We enjoyed our evening, the ambiance, the service, the food and the drinks. One thing we noticed was the bartender's skill as well as the plethora of fresh/house made ingredients that went into some martini-style drinks - e.g. greyhound with fresh grapefruit juice, grapefruit sorbet or the blood orange negroni - with house made blood orange sorbet. [Deborah, anytime you want to head down there for one, let me know!] All the juices were fresh in the drinks we ordered and it stands out as a mark of a good bartender and a quality establishment. One of our party ordered a burbon sour, which was a drink none of us had tried before - yum. Surprisingly we all had the risotto with pine mushrooms to start - it surprised me, usually I would choose something else just to try other items, but I am quite the risotto fan these days... everyone was happy with this as a starter. For mains we had two cornish hens, one braised veal and one ravioli - all the bites I tasted were delectable, there was nothing left on anyone's plate except the veal bone. Of particular note, the ravioli were devine, with toasted almonds as part of the plating - a very nice touch (made the dish in my opinion). Coffee which was declared by one at our table as 'best restaurant coffee in Vancouver', made me decide I had to have some - and yes, like the other items that came from the bar, it was quite delicious. There is also an amazing collection of eau de vie, grappa, etc. I'm interested in these types of collections, so we checked it out. Once cheese plate, one grapefruit sorbet with poached grapefruit sections and two sticky toffee puddings later - the sorbet and the ice cream are real standouts. The cake/pudding part of the sticky toffee pudding was admired quite a bit by our resident gingerbread fan. Very knowledgable staff, there when you needed them, unobtrusive and with plenty of clean flatware between courses added to our evening and to the place's charm. We also like that the room is small and cosy. All four are ready and willing to go back there soon and try their ever changing regular menu. Any readers from Parkside, our thanks to both FOH and BOH staff - we are glad that we came and tried you during DOV, and our experience beckons us to come back soon!

Not sure if you have picked out a salad yet. I have a recipe for a watercress salad with some matchstick vegetables and a pecan component. The dressing has a lot of fresh herbs and pecans in it too, it is pretty wow, I use it for special occasions and if you want to make it stand out you can do it with some frissee instead of / mixed with the watercress. Let me know if you are interested I can PM you the recipe. Very interested to hear about final choices and see some photos/recipes! Have fun!

Excuse me Matt, can you ask Sven where he gets his Penguin and if he uses fresh or tinned?

a few bites of Oyama Pate de Campagne on baguette but it was a close tie with a chocolate chip/walnut cookie and cappa at the Elysian Room ... ah, afternoon coffee when the morning is a blur and lunch has not happened yet ...

I strongly encourage you to give up on the electric auto brew makers - the only thing good about them is timing it so that you wake up to coffee. Go for French press or a manual drip as people have suggeted, not much work. Other methods you might evolve into are more labor intensive, e.g. at our house we brew espresso 99% of the time, occasionally a french press guests are here and I don't feel like being in the kitchen for 10 minutes. Once you convert to French press, you will enjoy your coffee so much more - I would like to guarantee it, but alas ... and you will certainly avoid annoying coffee spillage for no realistic reason. French presses can break, so beware, but it is usually a rare thing. Happy drinking and by the way, has anyone read the interesting areticle on caffeine in National Geographic? Perhaps I should start a new thread.

Posting with trepidation If you can't stand the heat, you might want to get out of the kitchen! I feel fully justified in posting my comments to the thread which was started specifically for DOV comments on the Irish Heather. Someone made a point about expectations on a $ 15. DOV dinner. I expect that each restaurant participating in DOV decides how they want to participate and that this includes planning a menu and detailing the cost. Based on the menu as it was posted, the Irish Heather sounded like a good bet. There were other positive comments on this board about the establishment outside of DOV. As a consumer I made choices based on things I have heard not only from e-gullet but from friends etc. I then talk to my friends if they are interested or if they ask. Posting those comments is like talking to a wider group of friends. I see this all as fair, my comments are just those, mine. Take 'em of leave 'em. Sivia aka Sushicat I am not hiding, but I will continue to use my moniker for my posts.

Very interesting thread as it shows a lot about the various walks of life, how we live and not only the size of our dwellings, but is very anthropological ... e.g. keeping a dining room even when it is never used. At our place, our dining room is the only table eating space. We eat there about half to two thirds of dinners at home. The rest are on our super comfy couch by the TV or in the living room. There is another thread that is connected, which has to do with dining room chairs - we caved in and bought comfy dining room chairs about 4 years ago, and since then have eaten at the table MUCH more often. Everyone comments when they are at our place for dinner about the confortable chairs - this seems to be a good evolutionary route. Sorry not savvy enough to add the link to the dining chair thread. S the cat