*Deborah*

News on the French front: This article appeared in The Globe and Mail.

Dear Lord woman! THAT POST was made at the end of August. What a memory! Canucklehead hadn't been either A. ← I think he has been? but I could be wrong. I pass by there every week on my way to cooking class! so I always say to myself, "Oh, yeah, that's that place!"

Poor choice of words, IMO. Ling isn't selling anything or pushing these coupons on anyone. From the Oxford English Dictionary: hawk /h<revc>:k/ v.2L15. [back-form. f. HAWKER n.2]1 v.t. Carry about from place to place and offer for sale. L15. 2 v.i. Travel around touting or selling one's wares. M16. ← I agree, sanrensho. I think Ling was just trying to share something with friends, coupon-wise. A deal on steak is a good thing. Now that we know where you work, jahvay, your "cash-only" comment is understandable...thanks for the clarification. I usually just go to Hy's Encore...I like the atmosphere

Wink is that little veggie place canucklehead wrote about, IIRC.

We had a smidge of orange juice in the pastry, Lorna, and a bit of cold water, as well. And there was sugar, yes. I will be sampling mine later this morning, but I have to say, it looks gooood. Bob in my group did a great job with the pastry. I did a fairly good job with the pizza dough It is SO COOL when you make a dough and it rises and looks just like it's supposed to! I've never really worked with yeast before this class, so this stuff is all magic for me.

Or Diva at the Met?

Hmm, I was waiting for a third, but I forgot one, and now I have four! Lunch today: The Kolachy Shop, Beef Stroganoff Soup (phenomenal, like all their soups), perfect for this crummy wet day, and this Banana-Hedgehog Kolachy. I'm practically drooling all over my keyboard with this and it's not even warmed up. I just don't dare to warm it up at work. Brunch Sunday: Central Bistro. I popped in to see eGer Harry, my client. Since it was only 3:00, they were still serving brunch I poked my head into the kitchen to say hello, and saw the biiiig pile of bacon....I ended up having two eggs poached, bacon, homefries and toast, with a side of Hollandaise (dude, if I'm eating breakfast out, I might as well have Hollandaise), and a lemonade...hit the spot! nice potatoes, especially. Last Thursday, canucklehead introduced me to Mui Garden on Main, and ordered a most excellent meal: Winter Melon Soup, a nice clear broth with winter melon, meat, a hint of citrus, very simple. Canucklehead said it was very typical Cantonese preparation, clear flavour. I liked it. We also had the most amazing Beef Brisket Curry, whoa...with coconut millk, extremely tender meat. I'm a convert. They also serve a very non-greasy Sweet and Sour Pork, which I'm sure is better for me than the usual kind (not that I'm giving up on the usual kind altogether ) and some spicy noodle dish with broad rice noodles, bits of pork and shrimp, and I confess I have forgotten the name. That's some kind of fast and delicious meal (with leftovers!) for a very low price. Cash only. For dessert, we headed to the HSG to feed our GBP addiction. Huggy-Bear was there and hooked us up, and it was the last night of ToY, and an absolutely packed house, as has been recounted elsewhere. Nice to meet you, Emmanuelle! The GBP never fails to hit the spot, and we also tried the apple tart just in case one dessert wasn't enough...

I second canucklehead's recommendations. FYI, Chartwell is not open for lunch any more.

I thought it began evaporating upon being exposed to the air, regardless of temperature. Live and learn.

I hope that you do not refer to me as far as character assassination: I am criticising the writing, not the person. And since the writing is published in a newspaper, I am by extension criticising the editor. If I have not made that clear, I do apologise. If you want to see character assassination, I will refer you to the Doug Psaltis thread in Food and Media.

I don't see how the alcohol would evaporate if it's suspended in butter and meringue. (I sure wouldn't be going anywhere if I were encased in butter, sugar and meringue...mmm.) Even assuming that the little ones aren't going to be turning tipsy and bumping into each other like bowling pins, it's not a decision for me to make if other kids will be eating the cake. ← Well, that's why I asked the question, I didn't know it became permanently alcoholic by virtue of being in a buttercream. I didn't know you could keep it from evaporating. I see I should have taken more science classes!! Does that mean that my icings for office cakes with vanilla are still alcoholic as well? LOL I thought it was just a sugar rush!

I have found the texture smooth if the oblivion cake is warm when you cut it, and denser if it's cold, all other things being equal. However, as Wendy says, if your eggs are not warm enough, and not fluffy enough, and if you don't fold them in gently enough, your cake will not achieve the height it should. I have only used 3 in. high pans for it, and mostly the batter comes to about 1/4 inch from the rim of the pan. But once it was only about 2 inches high; that one was much denser when it baked. It still tasted fine, but it didn't have that nice mouthfeel. I only bake it for about 10 minutes at 375F, well, I start looking it at 9 minutes and wait till it loses its sheen, that's when it's done. It makes a meniscus at the edge, and will pull away from the pan if you tip it gently over.

Surely 3 oz. of liquor in a large-scale buttercream aren't going to make little kids drunk or anything? doesn't it just evaporate? I mean as opposed to soaking a cake layer in rum or whatever.

The self-congratulatory high road to which I referred: She could say that her practice is to pay for her meals. Hyperbole, thy name is Gill. I also just noticed that she referred disparagingly to "thin consommé"...perhaps she expected it to be jellied? *** We will have to agree to disagree on the appropriate amount of snark for a restaurant review in the Globe and Mail. I don't think anything needs to have been sugar-coated, misrepresented, or lied about, but I think that her catty tone would be more appropriate in another publication... That would explain why I am not the editor of the Globe and Mail.

I expect a certain tone and level of discourse in the Globe and Mail. Talking about the "crap" coming out of a kitchen, taking the martyrish and self-congratulating high road upon the offer of a comped meal, and the tone, in general, of the snaps among the more calm commentary, I might not be surprised to see in another publication or in another medium. There are plenty of places where informal, colourful and colloquial language and tone are normal. Until now, I had not considered "The Nation's Newspaper" to be among them. And I don't plan on adulterating anyone, whether or not they enjoy reading Ms. Gill.

I suppose, yes, the perceived "snap for snap's sake" tone gets on my nerves, particularly, as Kurtis notes, in the Globe and Mail. (Blaming the server for bringing the wine you specifically asked for, which doesn't work well with the dish? Pardon?? I can only, cringeing, imagine the comments that would have appeared if the server had tried any harder to discourage her from her chosen varietal.) Of course, the G&M's "Join the Conversation" campaign is based upon raising a reaction, which, clearly, they are doing Normally I simply vote by not reading Ms. Gill's column at all, which is probably best for my blood pressure (the "crap" comment went beyond the pale for me, for a food review). I suppose that the intelligent response is to write the editor, though. Yes, Ms. Gill can consider the pot stirred, but there's a great deal of distaste at the contents, and it hasn't raised my opinion of either her or her publication one whit.

Wow, it's hard to follow Percy This is our weather today in Vancouver (surprising, I know ) I had some pork chops I needed to get cooked, and I have been craving pancakes, so I fried up the chops and then made a bit of an...I don't know what. Fried some celery and apple in the sucs with some water and threw the chops back in to simmer for a while. It tasted fine, although looks a bit meh. Butter and maple syrup on the pancakes:

Chris, perhaps you have not noticed that Jamie Maw and (newer at it, but still "pro") Andrew Morrison both post here, including notes about restaurants they are reviewing for their respective publications. On a side note, many of us rank amateurs also post about repeat visits to various places, and comment on the rise or decline of same. Much as I love food, I don't think I have a particularly discerning palate, but many of the "amateurs" around eGullet are actually rather familiar with food and wine and what makes a restaurant worth eating in...

I dated a guy who ordered some very nice Cab Sauv or other on our first date, and a tasty tasty Cinq Cepages on our second. The fact that he would only drink California wine gave me pause; the fact that he pronounced Cinq "sink" instead of ~ "sank" gave me a giggle. We hadn't enough in common to sustain anything (and I would have had a hard time foregoing BC, French and Italian wines in favour of California till death did us part, even if things were a bit more gemütlich), but I have to say that the day I tried the Turley Zinfandel that I remembered him raving about, I mentally raised my glass to him. And patted myself on the back for remembering.

Oh! I think that's the Meritage my Mum and I had at Burrowing Owl this summer! (I know it was a reserve; I think it was the 2002.) I will have to try that Cedar Creek, if I can find it anywhere. Cheers for posting this, Jamie!

I always thought that Benard Callebaut (from the orignal family) was based out of Calgary and is a separate entity from Barry Callebaut (now part of Philip Morris I think). Ack - such confusion. Well - whatever tastes good. ← That's what I thought a few years ago, but then I didn't think that another company could legally use the Callebaut name. I've never bought anything from Bernard Callebaut--only seen the stores and assumed they were selling (Belgium) Callebaut chocolate. So...I guess to get this back on topic, has anyone used the Bernard Callebaut cocoa? I think there was a retail location at Blundell Center in Richmond... ← Bernard Callebaut is entitled to use the name as it's his own, he's a member of the Belgian Callebaut family who relocated to Canada. I can't really tell from the websites which is the stuff we tend to see at stores around here; perhaps it is the Canadian one. Nonetheless, he's making it using the traditional methods and same quality requirements for beans as the Belgian company, so it's still good chocolate. I'm going shopping now, Lorna, I'll let you know if I come across any ineresting cocoa!

I looked this up to refresh my memory, and while nobody gave us freebies and my palate is doubtless not as sophisticated (and not quite as...snappy) as Ms. Gill's and her companion's, and we paid by credit card and thus had no issues with the debit availability, I did seem to be fairly happy with my dinner: Of course that was 10 months ago, and maybe we just got lucky.

I haven't eaten there since Dine Out earlier this year, but I had a delicious dinner and good service and some fairly delicious wine. *shrugs*

I did not know that! ← I heard that they had balut in the back in their Chinatown location. Now that is an egullet challenge that I would like to see someone take. ← Really pleased to read about this NOT at mealtime. Oh dear.

Gelatin powder is available in most any grocery store...it is made by Knox...using it rox, just don't spill it on your sox and please, don't try to feed it to a fox. It probably tastes funny with lox. It comes in a bright orange box. Inside the box are little sachet of gelatin and instructions on how to rehydrate it. I really need to get a hobby or something. ← You and me both. Wait, isn't that what eG is?!