SushiCat

no photos alas, but scrambled eggs with mushrooms and shallots + neimann ranch bacon and a great baguette from Marche in Eugene, homemade rasperry jam and some of my favorite, nectarine compote - yum.

Resurrecting this thread, we made the Lemon-Cherry coffee cake as our first item from this book - WITHOUT consulting this thread - everyone loved it! And even after a three course dinner ending with cheese, we scarfed most of it back in one sitting (but we were 13 of us, or something like that). Next time only change I would make is to chop the cherries up so that they distribute more of themselves around the cake - otherwise fabulous. If anyone has tried the buttermilk to add bhang or zhang or whatever it was you were trying to add, let us know how it turned out. I'm thinking of the spiced nuts mentioned up thread as something for today - new year's eats.

our cheap tenderloin turned out GREAT. We cut a smaller roast and had two on the grill at the same time. Took them off at 125 degrees internal, and enjoyed wiht a host of butter and cream laden side dishes! We all might die, but we will die happy! Hope your's turned out delicious!

Beef jerky lovers, you might want to try JN&Z on Commercial between 1st and 2nd, west side. They usually make a plain jerky and a spicy jerky, I'm 99% certail it is alwasy all beef. Smokey and delicious, I like the spiced one. I haven't tried the others listed above, but this is quite addictive!

Hazelnut chocolate sables I need that Herme book! Lots of love in those cookies, they look amazing! thanks for sharing ... eta - fixed typo!

Welcome Espressomap! I'm so excited I see your first post and get to say, nice to have you here! Thanks for the map - who you trying out over the holidays? I've been trying what seems good in the NW - tell us of new and/or exciting places!

hey sadistick, I know you ran into big problems when you were there, but I've had nothing but excellent food there, and I've never had any service problems either. I did specifically mention your (and others') objections so as to give SushiCat a balanced view. But I also recall I wasn't the only one speaking highly of them. I know you weren't suggesting that I should take someone else's negative experience as overriding the very positive ones I've personally had ← I got it. Ambassador has lots of recommendations and sometimes they have an off night ... maybe the night the chef is off. Things happen - take all info. with a grain of salt, sometimes a small grain, sometimes a larger one. thx

Cool - glad to see some activity here ... keep it coming and I'll try to send reports back ... I'm not there but I can distill the data or get the eater to actually post! thanks everyone

Yes I'm feeling sorry for a traveller who is going to be working hard in Markham for the next ten days and is staying in the area of 404/407 basically border of Markham/Richmond Hill. So Ontarians come out of the woodwork and pass along some options for food - all meals - e.g. good coffee/breakfast, fast and easy lunch, and something for dinner too. Ingredients, e.g. a good cheese shop, some bread etc. also valuable replies! Thanks! We will owe you and tempt you with Xiao Long Bao or great West coast high end food items in return!

I second, third, whatever the trimming concept, forgot to mention, this is a VERY good idea. You have to trim while cookies are warm, immediately before removing from cookie sheet. When we do our production houses we trim with some thick copper cut outs of the size of our pieces. Hey, do you need dimensions etc.? I have two sizes and can provide if you want - mini house or regular house. Trees etc. The almond thing, it is is just a small amount of ground almonds, seems to give the dough added stability. Also depending on your humidity level, royal icing is not mortar! I'm looking for recipe today and will pm you.

NICE MAP PaniniGuy! Where were you 10 years ago!?!

Wendy, where did you end up eating? We were tasting on the Friday (sorry for belated report!) and we ate plenty at several wineries, but also finished out day with tapas at La Rambla - it was fun and some of the food was really good - e.g. calamari and mushrooms soup was really good after we sent it back to be heated up ... tortilla was delicious! Crayons were a big hit (no children at our table!). The sauces were good, one was with the fried potatoes, and one with the calamari ... hmmn, we managed to eat some other stuff ... but what? Drinks were also good - why were we drinking and maybe that explains the bad cold i came down with!

Things that will make your first attempt better are: real apple cider vinegar low methoxyl pectin, e.g. Pamona's cooking the jelly slowly for a while helps create bits of pepper that are well suspended in the jelly salt 'nough said

I haven't checked K8memsis' source recipe for duplication, but I do have an amzaing recipe that we have been using for many many years, perhaps thousands of houses were baked with it. Real butter, and ground almonds are both key. We use molten sugar for mortar, as it really holds! If you are seriously interested in dough recipe pm me as I don't know the exact source and if I can post it out to all. How is the bakery coming???

Callebaut is reputedly the best cocoa powder out there ... you can get it by the kilo, sort of a lot, but freezes fine.

To whom do we owe the discovery and discussion of The Place Restaurant on Granville Street? It seems to me that dimsumfan introduced us to it. It is like the time I found the best Finnish bakery in Thunder Bay - by accident - well not exactly, but you get the picture. I digress. Don't overcrowd this spot, but my of my, excellent dan dan mien and many other must try items on their menu. I ate there tonight, in honour of my neice's birthday, (she isn't here, but she would have been happy to have some real Chinese food on her day!), am happy to report a first for me - the Chinese patrons asking the waitress what we were eating at our table!!! ... can't remember how many times I've done a 'what are they having' at various spots around the globe. I'm heading back in a day or so to try some more of their menu. Warning, Sunday is their busiest day. ETA - Chocomoo - thank you thank you thank you! I see you are filling us in on this and dimsumfan got the news from you. What is the story with Shaghai Palace next door? I've never been and their windows were closed off to passing patrons on Granville. We have some closed of spots on Main as well, I need more $$ and time to check all these spots out.

Dude - went based upon your recommendation and you know what? I think we have a new XLB Champeen. They were swollen and full of soup like the place on Granville St, but thin skinned and the soup was clear, bright, light and delicous. Very Very GOOD! I mean - I can't think how they could improve. Damn you - just when I thought I found a Vancouver XLB place that could satisfy my needs. ← Canucklehead... at least you're within reach of the place! I'm stuck in Seattle craving the xlb. And to think that the original posting on this place was done the afternoon I left Vancouver! Now I have to wait until the end of February to give the place a try. Anyone have the exact address? I saw a place called Chen's listed at 8111 Leslie Road, but that's apparently old info? ← Park Road, runs perpendicular to no. 3 Rd. in Richmond. Let us know when next you come and I'm sure we can organize a XLB outing!

Exactly why there is still so much room for those additional SBUX locations. As much as I try not to go there, I agree they have done a service and continue to do so. I also agree that they are mostly in the milk and sugar business - it is a great study in marketing / branding!

Portland Oregon, Ristretto Roasters

thanks this helps - and it was months - that is at least two, right???

Help, need to meet someone and coordinating locations - they will be dropped off on the Vancouver side of 2nd Narrows bridge - is there anything in this neighborhood / area worth a stop for coffee etc.? Maybe the new Bosa ... anyone have anything else to say?

I usually end up at crystal hunan across from crystal mall in burnaby. I haven't had much other hunan cuisine to compare it to really, but I've always really enjoyed the food here. ← That was mentioned upthread - I've been wanting to try it. Is it on Kingsway near Metrotown? ← Yep. on kingsway, across from abdul shawarma/bbq. They tend to get pretty busy last I went. ← inanimate, any insight on dishes at Crystal Hunan? What do you usually get, what is good etc.

yeah, I'm cruel, wtf is DTF in Toronto or elsewhere?

just a note Blackberries, and even apricots as someone mentioned, do not need pectin to gel/set. There are many jam tricks - but cooking to a high enough temp and for long enough, usually do the trick. Other info. you may want is that the commercial pectins like Certo impart a lot of flavor to your fruit, hence why I know that some fuits will still gel without pectin. However you can also find low methoxyl pectin which is really a must have for anyone who wants to make fruit preserves of any type. The most common variety of this is sold as Pomona's pectin and comes in a blue box. A little goes a long way. Feel free to PM me for more fruit or even veg. preserving if you want any detail. Happy jamming, I hope the blackberry is to your satisfaction after reboiling etc.!