Paul B

I was in the Extra Foods in Park Royal yesterday and they had the big jars of Feybre pickled sausages. Couldn't find a price on them, so maybe they were only for display . . .

We've been drinking two BC wines quite a bit lately. The first is the Summerhill cabernet. It's around $19 (more than I usually like to spend) but has huge taste. The second is the Wild Goose rose ($12), a refreshing and rather alcoholic wine. If you're really interested in BC wines you should come by West Van and go to the Bellevue Wine Company store on Bellevue avenue, between 14th and 15th. Nice folk, good selection, and a huge map of the Okanagan valley with all the wineries marked. I'm there at least once a week.

The duck is good, as is most of the BBQ. They have a great selection of Chinese sausage and different types of noodles. It's also the most reasonable place for things like mussels and crabs. Finally, don't forget the veggies. The quality is good and price is right. For a quick bite, my kids like the little bowls of sticky rice they sell from the bakery counter. I like the tea eggs and curry beef buns.

When I was a young wastrel back in Toronto, my friends and I had a scale for judging the authenticty of a tavern (beer parlors in those days). Real taverns had salt shakers on the tables. Very real taverns had salt on the tables and a big jar of pickled eggs on the bar. The best, most authentic taverns, had salt, pickled eggs, AND a huge jar of pickled sausages. After a couple of rounds you would order an egg and a sausage -- both served on a paper plate -- and you had a balanced meal. I have never seen this in Vancouver and, for all I know, it no longer holds true in Toronto. As for it being a Czech thing, I don't know. My background is Lithuanian and I distinctly remember my father trying to make pickled sausages himself by packing weiners into jars of pickle juice. I also remember the smell when they exploded in the basement. Anyway, perhaps it's an eastern European thing, but that doesn't explain why they were found in bars back east . . . As for buying them here, it might be worth while calling Jolly Foods in North Van.

Having walked several friends through broken hearts / busted marriages / identity crises, I would argue that food is not as important as alcohol and proximity to the sufferer's pad. So, look for a dark bar that is busy enough that no one will notice sobs and whispers, and try to make it within staggering distance of the sufferer's place so you can get her home. That should narrow it down a lot.

I'm going back to Daiso to pick up some knick knacks for nieces and nephews on Wednesday. AND to hit the food court on the third floor. The tako yaki alone make the trip to Richmond worthwhile.

Well, I guess I didn't use Aquafina. IThere are so many empty water bottles around the house right now that I've lost count. 'll try the recommended hard stuff this weekend and see what happens. I wonder if imported Italian water would be the best?

I started a thread on this topic a while back because although I could find organic chickens, I couldn't find BIG ones. With two teenage boys I need at least a 4 pounder, and 5 lbs. is best. I now buy them at Whole Foods. They always have ones at least 4 lbs.

Very interesting. I guess the question now is what sort of bottled water I should use until the new filtration plant is up and running. Does anyone know the relative hardness of the various bottled waters available? I think I used Aquafina on Friday.

Okay, here's a weird one. On Friday I made pizzas. I do this every Friday, using a bread machine to make the dough then proofing it in a warm oven. The dough recipe I use is very simple: 1 1/2 cups of water; 3 1/2 cups of bread flour; 1 1/2 tsp yeast; 1 tsp salt; a splash of oil. I cook the pizzas on stones in a convection oven. Now, here's the Vancouver question: because the tap water was not usable on Friday, I used bottled water. The pizza crusts were much crisper -- better! -- than normal. Could it be that our tap water is too soft (or something) to make brilliant pizza dough? Or was this a fluke? Inquiring minds want to know.

I made coq au vin yesterday. The recipe, in Cooks Illustrated, said that I could use frozen peeled pearl onions. Since pearl onions are a bit of a pain to peel, I thought this was a great idea, but I couldn't find them in Safeway or Supervalu. Are they available in Canada, or is this an American convenience we don't have? The coq au vin, by the way, was great. But it must have taken 20 minutes to peel those darn little onions.

Went to Feenie's for that Sunday brunch. Our great friends The Don and J-Babe treated us. It was the first time I had been to Feenie's and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of pretension. The Iron Chef himself was walking around talking to a few people. I had the lobster poutine. Not the lightest thing on the menu, but I couldn't resist. It was very good, though the lobster did get a bit lost in the mix. My wife and J-Babe both had the Cranke Madam (spelling?) and The Don had the shortrib sandwich. All very good. We had a cheese plate and ordered the toffee cake and the brownie to share. The toffee cake was tremendous. Throw in two bottles of sparking wine mixed with orange juice and you have some happy, very stuffed, campers. I do have two beefs with the place. First of all, our table was wobbly. A small thing, I know, but incredibly annoying. And second, the staff had trouble getting us the correct menus. The menus are cardboard inserts into a leatherette folder, and all of us got different combinations of in our folders. Great confusion. Still, a major brunch. I've promised my boys I'll take them there for over the holidays.

Some good friends are taking us to brunch at Feenie's on Sunday. Has anyone been? If so, is it a buffet (so we can chow down on a bit of everything) or do we order? And if the latter, any suggestions?

Yeah, Le Pic Nic. This place is easy walking distance from my house and I used to stop in there most Saturday mornings to buy some breakfast treats for the family. The Iranian woman who used to run it was the real thing: major French baking chops. Killer pain au chocolat. The new owners are, I believe, English and they simply don't have the touch. I may go back just to see if they've improved, but I can't imagine they'll ever be as good as the former owner. Is there another brilliant French bakery on the North Shore? Mr. Haas is tremendous, of course, but off the beaten path.

Turkey pot pie with carrots and peas... ← Brilliant...

Whatever you do, have the mussels as an appetizer.

Great stories about Thanksgiving. Ours was modest in comparison. My wife's family was out of town and our eldest son took off to Quebec to see his girlfriend. This meant just me, super-wife, and youngest son; not enough people to justify a turkey. So we invited a couple and their daughter and a recently separated lady to round out the table. I made the turkey according to Cook's Illustrated: brined, then air-dried in the fridge over night. Did stuffing on the side, with green beans (with a balsamic glaze), glazed carrots, and mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pie from Savary Island. Not a lot of work, and everyone was very happy. The next day the turkey was cut into clubhouse sandwiches. Today I cut some up and used it in a fried rice. Tomorrow????

There is usually a rather sad attempt at a fest in the Caulfield Mall in West Vancouver.

Bizarrely, Costco occasionally stocks Le Creuset at very good prices.

My eldest son had all four wisdom teeth taken out last month; yesterday he had braces put on. Our whole lives seem to revolve around finding things that he can eat. Soups that weren't too hot worked well. He has a part-time job at Safeway and so we bought some of that store's "fresh" soups (some of which aren't bad at all), especially the tomato because it didn't have anything lumpy in it. He also found he could eat soft pasta, like gnocchi, and (as long as he careful to clean out the little holes at the back of his mouth afterwards) risotto. Omlets and scrambled eggs were fine, as was tofu. Fresh bread, with the crusts cut off, worked. Actually, by chewing at the front of his mouth like a dog, he was eating heartier fare within a week. Get better!

I've yet to have a really satisfying paella in Vancouver, though the little tapas-sized one I had at Il Zuppo in North Van a couple of years ago came close. On the other hand, I had some friends just come back from Spain where they had terrible paella. This, of course, is why I have my own paella party every year: http://web.mac.com/dsdunbar/iWeb/Duchess%2...lla%202006.html But would like to hear about your experience at El Patio (if it is open).

True Confections, the cake store right beside the Ocean Club (the hip West Van drinkery in the Park Royal towers) makes very large cakes. Might be worth giving them a call to see if they make cheese cakes.

Where do you get quinces? From my front yard. I have a quince tree that produces a good amount of fruit and you're welcome to all of it. It should be ripe in two to three weeks. Email me directly and I'll give you directions. Will gladly accept a culinary treat in trade.

Nothing really new at the market. I'd have to agree that the best thing going is the takoyaki. I usually get my hit from the stand in the food court at the Aberdeen Centre, but it was nice to eat them outside in a crowd of people. Reminded me of my time in Tokyo, some 20 years ago, and the takoyaki stands that would appear at every street festival.

When our kid were little we didn't dine out a lot, but we did take them to dim sum. The ladies pushing the carts were always accomodating, the rooms were often big enough that the toddlers could run around for a while (followed by a parent), and the noise level was such that if one kid acted up it was no big deal. Just this Saturday we met hade dim sum at the Floata with my sister-in-law, husband, and their two-year old. No problems, even when he started to fuss. Dad just took him into a corner of the huge room and let him bumble around for a while. Not always the most elegant dining, but very kid friendly.