SushiCat
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Posts posted by SushiCat
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With a Friday afternoon of rain up in the pacific NW, I'm reading your blog and enjoying hearing about your food exploits, repeating 'fish heads' in my head and impressed, oh so impressed with your weight loss attitude and your ability to post your reveal to us all.
Way to go mizducky! Keep up your great attitude, your healthful eating and your fun writing, always a pleasure for us all.
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I'm finding lots of online data about popular wines and how long they should/could be cellared. I am lacking data for wines that come from BCs Okanagan Valley. I have a few bottles in my cellar and am really wondering (without cracking a bottle) how long they should be hanging out down there. Anyone have words of wisdom on this topic?
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ok kids we need excuses to come to Steveston ... this weather is not drawing us in.
At Transylvania you can buy a half loaf for $5.00 always been this way. It is better for those of us freshness freaks.
Enjoy your newfound good bakery and do your best to keep it alive until summer when more of us travel to Richmond for provisions !
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Anyone know any easy way (without drinking a bottle) to determine optimum drinking windows for BC wines?
I bought a few bottles for the cellar (maybe three cases) about three years ago on an Okanagan trip and I have limited data on when they might be best. I have limited data on Quail's Gate wines, none on anything from Tinhorn Creek or Mt. Boucherie or Lang or ... the list goes on but is not too long.
I've done a few web searches but there is not much readily published (it seems) on this front. Appreciate any words of wisdom either here or via PM.
thx
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I don't want to presume here, but overall I find this quite astonishing. Would you all be any less outraged if the kids were getting apple pieces popped into their mouths? What seems WRONG to me is just putting a piece of food in someone's mouth while they are (supposedly) otherwise occupied!
I'm not against sugar, I believe moderation is key. Having the candy available is one thing, but unwrapping it and popping it into their mouths, in my mind is teaching very bad eating habits. As a society that has created so many quick to consume calories devoid of nutrition, I think that there is a responsibility on all of us to try to remember and teach/remind others that we eat when hungry. To feed someone while they are distracted is odd and wrong.
I'm stopping here as I don't want to get off on a tangent or on a non eG approved tangent at least!
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I have only done wedding cakes informally as well. SOME bakeries here do something interesting, they make sheet cakes which are cut / served and the display wedding cake is just a display. Seems odd, but saves stress and money (perhaps).
The other thing I can offer is to decide what your role is e.g. are you just deliverying the cake and someone else is cutting / serving etc., if so, does that person know what they are doing - you know because of the whole serving wedding cake thing.
Also it is normal to charge by the serving. Do not sell yourself short. In fact you might want to take the time to call a few bakeries to find out how they charge for wedding cakes etc.
Anyway, not much help am I. Best of luck with this and let us know what you make and how it all turns out!
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For the most part Chinese in Vancouver / Richmond is much MUCH better than in Toronto / Markham. However there are some good spots in that area as well - harder to find, one must know the spots, and tends to be higher end. In our neck of the woods, we have a very wide variety of Chinese spots, specialists in many different regional dishes from various areas / provinces / cities in China. We are lucky to live in this area for such a variety! See the Chinese in Vancouver thread for many specifics.
What is better in Toronto (in my opinion of course!) is the Indian food. They have a much wider variety of regional dishes and many spots that cook very authentic dishes and that is the cuisine I miss from Toronto.
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YUMMMMMNNNN!
Too bad you didn't have the Rare kitchen make the birthday cake - they do some excellent work in that regard! Your pictures, and knowing the service and quality at Rare make my mouth water. I'd like a cash infusion so that I can go as often as you do.
Also the Valentine's dinner sounds amazing, good idea chef Fowke (and crew)! Way to make Valentine's fun and different. I'm planning my next Rare event with food lovers only - last time we had heavy drinking table-mates that didn't enhance my evening.
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We capped of our DOV experience 2007 with dinner last night at Parkside. We originally discovered Parkside during DOV 2004 and have had many delicious meals there since, last night was no exception to the good food and good service that Parkside manages to deliver in a seemingly easy manner to all!
Service is professional and warm, food comes with layers of flavours that explode as you take a second or third bite to try and discover the exact spice and/or combination of flavourings, and with textures that are sublime, rich consumme, sweet to highlight the savoury, creamy, sometimes light with a hint of citrus - all in all delicious!
There were four of us, and we thought about each ordering one of the four choices and sharing, but there were some obstacles to that, NOT the menu! Each dish was tempting, and this was one of many nice features. I like that a chef / restaurant can create a menu that is tempting to a variety of tastes and has so many items that you are actually choosing which one you want most at that moment. I had the pumkin ravioli (pardon the lack of all the right descriptors here), not a spec of sauce was left on my plate! Others had the Alsatian onion tart which was stuffed with an amazing onion-y goodness and served with bacon and frisee and ... something nobody offered me a bite of! THe consumee with marrow dumplings was also on our table and lucky me got a huge bite! Oh my oh my oh my!
Mains included steelhead trout which came plated with a scallop tart, chicken with prosciutto and and and (I have to go look at the menu, I had two bites of this, very good!, served with some braised endive? YUM. I had the veal cheeks, wanted to try the things I would never attempt at home, it was amazing, with layers of flavour coming throught with each bite. I was still identifiying bits of braise flavourings as I ate the last bite - impressive meal all around chef!
Desserts, two of us had lemon tart with blood orange sorbet. Lemony without being overly tart, completely sublime texture in the tart! If you have not tried ice cream or sorbet at Parkside, get yourself down there! Us coffee adicts, had to try the espresso panna cotta - a new standard in cold coffee has been set! I am a bit fan of coffee that is cold, and this was the epitome of coffee and creamy goodness! I don't make anything like this, so I'm kind of in awe, and yes I kept eating it and enjoying each mouthful. The presentation of this dish also really wowed me because it really did look like a capuccino, except there was no way to get a sit without one's spoon. Heaven!
I'm wondering what I can do to work close by, so that in future I can stop in more regularly for a cocktail, a little food and some bites of dessert! Thanks, it was a good final DOV meal for me, and has renewed my desire to eat out more often, at Parkside!
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The question is, why are people expecting mind blowing during dine out?
Expect mind blowing when you pay normal prices, have a reasonable amount of people in the restaurant, and the staff have the time to do things right.
Just my .02
Did I not "blow" your mind this weekend ?
Or was it good dinner at a great price ?
Seriously, I wonder the same thing.
My .02 is that if a restaurant cannot produce the same quality of food / service as they normally do, then what is the point ! So with that, I doubt I'll do DOV again after this year.
However, it is my impression that I have had DOV meals in previous years that have been true to the reputation and my expectations of the restaurant.
Maybe there is a trade off, but if so, then the restaurant might want to control how much of a trade off - e.g. perhaps fill fewer seats during DOV so that quality of food/service is maintained. Or if the concept of DOV is just to fill restaurant seats with sub-quality meals, then so be it, let them masses come and fill the seats. I ask if it is worth it - I seriously do not know.
This said, I have had several very nice experiences this year at DOV and expect my final DOV meal to be of impeccable quality and experience
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Been meaning to post ... doing the DOV thing this year with some seriousness, and the best thing about it is comparing one place to another, although I would say we have quite the variety of spots ... most recent was Rare, and we have a wonderful time!
Friday, 830, enough time for everyone to relax a bit after work and before dinner.
Arrived and were warmly welcomed. 4 of us, nice table with plenty of space so that we couldn't hear or bump into neighboring diners. The room is amazing! I managed to secure a spot near a beautiful flower alcove and occasionally got wiffs of lovely floral fragrance that enhanced my night! A really nice touch with personalizing menus! I asked and found out this is something they normally do but may not do for DOV. Overall a very fun evening with delicious food in a warm and friendly atmosphere!
The menu really is interesting, chef Fowke has done a great job in creating a nice variety of items and things you might not chose normally sound so intriguing you have to try them! I'll tell you I ordered the oyster appy because it just sounded so amazing! Normally I would never order oysters, ewww gross is how I usually feel about them! I also wanted everything else ... so luckily someone shared their salad and I got some bites of delectable cauliflower soup with lobster and steelhead caviar (yum!). We also had extra items as we had two DOV orders, one a la carte and one tasting menu. I was so tempted by an appy of the day, cured beef with apple, fois gras risotto and truffle, that I added that course to my DOV ... GOOD PLAN for me!!! This was the standout dish in my opinion, it is amazing - I want more!
I think the sablefish was the next best item on our table, but I didn't taste everything. The sablefish was part of the tasting menu offerings, and it was really stellar! I had strip loin as my entree, and I loved it! Delicious saucing, and the leeks that accompanied it, were to die for - pure heaven!
Another standout were desserts - they are truly amazing. I don't know who is responsible, but save room for dessert when dining at Rare! I had the chocolate dessert as part of the DOV menu, it had about 5 or 6 different items on one plate! I think my favs were - dark chocolate ganache with rosemary; chocolate brownie with cinnamon ice cream. There were other delectable items as well! Not a scrap left on any of our plates for that course!
Overall, our experience was stellar! I say Rare has it going on! We felt welcomed and relaxed, there was no rushed feeling as at other DOV events, the room is great, the food is delicious, the staff are open and warm. I expect and hope for longevity and lasting success for Rare!
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Three of us dined at Aurora last night (this after our one month too late reservation OOPS happened!). I have to say, they have it going on at Aurora! I haven't been there in quite a while, and was impressed by service, food and atmosphere as well as the way they handled our mistake on a reservation. Because we were three, we had all things different and therefore I got to taste the things I might have ordered but didnt. I had the beet salad to start, it was delicious with perfectly cooked beets of many colours and a nice grilled apple slice - very very good. The bison carpaccio (sp?) was a standout (although I only had one bite, I could have eaten the whole plate), and the plating of it was lovely! Third appy was a sablefish cake ... sorry chef, some fancy words are failing me - it too was lovely and what were the little treats on that plate?
Mains, I had the cornish hen, which was finger licking good! Something I believe called smoked gnocci and quite delectable and so light! were on my plate - yum, with a nice sauce and a few mushrooms. The salmon was scarfed up by my dining companion, and the third entry was the vegetarian option (too many dine out meats?), very nice pastry wrapped veggies based on potato I think.
We drank a SYL ranch Pinot 3 which went with everything. It is something I'd stock for those verging on red dinners that need a white wine.
Dessert - oh my! I had the wine poached pear which came served in a glass with tea (earl grey?) ice cream below and a piece or two of lemon confit. I love chef's lemon confit! The pear was fantastic, especially once I de-plated it. Sorry to do this, I mean how gauche can I be!, but it had to happen. Chocolate was not shared, and I got a bite of the blood orange creme brulee ... lip smacking. We had fun and this is definately a go to spot and so close to home!
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I'm planning a week in Ontario in June, taking in a few days in Toronto then maybe driving a bit further North and heading through Algonquin National Park towards Ottawa.
Can any of you resident Canadian foodies give some suggestions which towns / restaurants are worth a detour or indeed where I should be going to get some of Canada's best food?
Thanks in advance
Montreal
Excellent humour FlavoursGal! Still laughing!
Sea Urchin, I have to find notes from a few years back and I'll send you some data. Lots of great spots in Toronto / Montreal, a few further north and one or two in Ottawa.
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Interstingly, I have managed to split two stones, one in my own oven, but we still use it! It lives in the bottom like many of you have said, but I take it out for cleaning the oven (not sure why). The other one I split was in my brother's oven, not sure why I have damaged two stones and what to do differenttly. All I did was leave em in and turn the oven on, and use the oven ... ok yeah the oven was hot like 500 plus f, but still!
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I love my Lemon Cheesecake with Lemon Confit. It is very lemony.
YUM, I now want to make this! Think it is appropriate for the birthday party here celebrating a lovely woman who is turning 90 ?
I have several cheesecake recipes, one is a delicious ricotta cheesecake and the other is classic. I'll do my best to add to the recipe gullet in the next few days. Great topic to bring back to life!
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Merlin,
I would definately check out the Izakaya food in Vancouver, lots of fun things that are grilled, maybe a fish, but more likely squid or other seafood. Definately fun.
In the hood of Seymour and Hastings ... my favourite spot around there is a Japanese noodle house on Howe near Pender, can't remember the name ... anyway, you are in downtown core, so you can really go anywhere.
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merlin,
if you have read any of the threads on Vancouver dining, you will notice a lack of decent Greek food. There is nothing here (everyone correct me if I'm wrong!) that compares with A) Greece, B) Greek food found in Montreal/even Toronto, try some of our other amazing ethnic food or prepare to be sad about your choices. There is the famous place on Davie downtown, they ALWAYS have a line-up mostly because people consider it cheap - all the rice and potatoes you can fit in! It is called Stephos, I went once, never been back. The other place that has a reputation is The Main and I've been there a few times, it has a pub like atmosphere and on weekends live music. The owner is (I think) the most authentic Greek in town), he is known by many and used to have a pretty good spot in another location. His place has a decent reputation, but I believe it is standard west-coast Canadianized Greek.
If you need any details on where to eat (not Greek) let us know.
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We went through a phase (it was a while back) on eggs benny and hollandaise, I use a different method for the hollandaise, and less yolk to butter ratio. I am pretty sure we normally used two egg yolks and 8 Tablespoons of butter and this worked really well. Also, I like the lemon flavour, particularly for eggs benedict, so we used to start with lemon juice and reduce it to concentrate it before starting our yolks etc.
About the eggs, gas stove REALLY makes a huge difference here - we wanted poached eggs a while back, and I was amazed at how easy it was to get them started and ending up looking like poached eggs instead of stringy boiled eggs! If you don't have gas, try this ... get those little egg cups (they are plastic and sold for poaching), start each egg in one of the cups, and let it simmer in there for about two minutes, then tip it out into the water. I'm not sure on the science, but it seems to warm the egg without cooking it, and therefore the white all stays together.
Enjoy!
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Sushicat - if you read this before you go - try the Black Sesame Cakes - 'Huachiao' Cakes - they are very good. Also they have Red Bean Spring Rolls - have not had them but they looked well done.
Good luck and good eating.
Thanks CH, but we were long gone ... met up with the Richmond Auntie - even us white folks have those! She has adapted to our Chinese food hangouts pretty well, but we did order eye watering food (by mistake) yesterday. I ordered prawns with cashews on the menu, prawns/chilis/cashews or something like that - and I honestly did not see the chilli bit! It was very good, extremely tender fresh prawns were used - and completely consumed. Of course we had XLB, but I think that both the Wind and the Place make them better than Chen's. I noticed a lot of people eating the fried soup buns ... what are they called there?
Next time, Huachiao cakes ... I'm so there! If you are at my table, then Red Bean Spring Rolls, but just for you! I'm not a red bean fan.
OH - FYI soupy Dan Dan noodles for those who need to know. Flavour is peanut-y and hot and quite a lot of soup.
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nwyles bought up all the CAB.
since there is no beef in this town, ecept at HSG, we hit Chen's in Richmond for Dinner - YUM! I could post in Chinese thread ...
Last outing before that was coffee at the airport - does that count? I was forced to go to Starbucks, and actually we got very very good coffee - Starbucks locations are like a box of chocolates ...
and I can't remember a third, too many leftovers and fridge cleaning meals - but we did have a good sauted leftover polenta and salad the other night for dinner! I guess that means the last outing was our driving food - stopped in Seattle at Salumi for a finnocciona sandwhich.
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Went back to the Place Restaurant tonight to do some further research on their dim sum menu... it is all in the name of science, you see!
This time, I sampled the wontons in spicy garlic sauce, the xiao long bao (have to have them!) and the black sesame rice flour balls.
I also ordered the lamb skewers to go and I am looking forward to enjoying them tomorrow night for dinner.
Many thanks to Sushicat for the recommendation below - the wontons in garlic sauce were excellent!
What ... you went without me? Hope the lamb held up well as leftovers. Am off to Chen's tonight, for a comparison.
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Regular grocery store pectin is citrus pectin, I think.
I have the Pomona's Universal Pectin, and I'm going to give that a try. It comes with two parts - the pectin, and a calcium solution to make it gel. Seems suspiciously like this g pectin thing Kerry found, so I'm going to try using it just as the Shotts recipe calls for (ie. without adding the calcium liquid as per the box instructions) and see what happens.
Tammy, I use this for all my jams now as the old type I used to get is no longer available (or so I thought but I'll check out the types kerry discusses, anyway, I recommend adding the calcium solution first while your liquid is cool or at least warm but not boiling, and then adding the pectin portion. It seems to set better this way. Strawberries tend to need a lot of pectin.
Hope this helps,
S
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[Host's note: To minimise the load on our servers, this topic has been split. The discussion continues from here.]
Had lunch at the Place today - here's the summary
Misses: Tan Tan noodles....I prefer them in a soup..these were gloppy noddles with an odd anticeptic taste....blech. Chicken in wine..nothing to write home about. Chive cake...why oh why did I order that? I thought it might be similar to Szechuan Chonging's green onion pancakes. I'd pass on that one for sure.
Another table ordered the lamb kebabs and they smelled great...too bad I don't like lamb. Wish they'd put beef or chicken on the menu.
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Just a note that the Tan Tan noodles are a hit for some of us! I like them this way, and hate it when they are all soupy. Also, if you like lamb, the skewers are really good. AND they make really good wontons in spicy garlic sauce (I think that is what it is called). -
I was a little disappointed today with a DOV restaurant that I have been to a few times in the past and have always thought and spoken very highly of in the past, Parkside.
D90 I highly suspect if you vent to the restaurant directly you will get more traction.
I agree in general that dine-out is a bit bizarre, last year I felt very frustrated by the 90 minute table seating at some spots, and the attitude of reservationists around town, it coloured my decisions about where to go and when ... this year, I go into the event with my eyes wide open and plan accordingly.
Although I understand your comment about restaurant X not needing your business, in particular, this attitude is not one that I think any of Vancouver restaurants can afford.
Disclaimer, I'm NOT in the business.
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BC Wine
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted
hmmn, well all of our 9x vintages of QG are gone, but we have some early 2000's that I'll start drinking before they go off. Sad to hear of your loss (so to speak), exactly why I'm asking these questions!
Daddy-A, I did think of emailing the wineries, I think that is best bet since there doesn't seem to be much data. I too am using cellartracker, (seen some wines we have in common) but alas, there is virtually no data on drinking windows for BC wines.