*Deborah*

Added to list 'Must second the Yaletown Gelato recommendation'. Anyone have the name? We'll definitely check out Ganache, hoping they haven't succumbed to the chemical/industrial magic that pervades the baking industry, but rather hews to the artisanal wave that has swept Paris the last few years. Nelson Cafe? Ok, I got it--but is it good? by that I mean first thing in the morning good, not late night too many drinks greasy good. Okada, Shiro Sushi sound like EXACTLY our speed. Have added to list. Me? Shy, kimosabee? I have been accused of many things, but shy has never been one (grin). My vision of a successful trip is my wife turning to me about the sixth day and asking why we didn't just stay out in Richmond rather than downtown (grin). ← Hee hee--Yaletown Gelato is the name of the store. It is right on the corner of Homer and Davie, kitty/cater-corner from the hair salon. Ganache is a small-scale, exquisite little gem. AFAIK, it's all handmade, and there is nothing remotely chemical about anything I've had there. Other than that dopamine (or whichever brain chemical it is) analog with the Chocolat-Caramel which turns me into a puddle, that is Nelson...well, you will be able to see it if you walk by. It's not the kind of truck stop/American diner kind of place, it's a greasy spoon, very cheap, with a loyal clientele. When I actually eat breakfast (seldom), I tend to prefer a Denny's style extravaganza (I mean that wrt choice, not quality of food, mind you!) or the best sauce Hollandaise I can find for my eggs. Speaking of Hollandaise, some people swear by Elixir in the Opus Hotel, but I haven't eaten there. On the other hand, the Eggs Benedict at Bistro Pastis on the weekend are just divine, as are their little potatoes, and you can follow them up with a profiterole if you like. If you are the sort go to Starbucks for a coffee and a bagel in the morning, then I would recommend Gutenberg's, which is almost as close to your hotel, and (IMO) serves better coffee, although they don't do fruit smoothieccinos or anything like that...and then if you want the full-on caffe latte with pretty designs, or a lovely Americano in the afternoon, then Artigiano is the place to go.

Must second the Yaletown Gelato recommendation; it's also just down the street from your hotel. Small but tasty selection. If you want your choice of 40 or 50 flavours, though, Mondo's a good place to go. If you feel like treating yourselves to one fabulous pastry after you have pre-burned a bunch of calories walking about our fair city, Ganache Patisserie is a short stroll from your hotel as well, Homer Street between Davie and Drake. Really really tasty. You're looking for a bare-bones diner? Nelson Cafe at Nelson and Homer fits that bill...I wouldn't normally recommend it though, as it's so bare bones, and I like espresso coffee in the morning, not the diner-style stuff they have. The Templeton at Granville and Helmcken has a good breakfast (they only open at 9 a.m. though). Caffe Artigiano on Howe between Robson and Granville would be a good choice for a good coffee. I also have a soft spot for Gutenberg's Cafe in the Library building (across from your hotel, they front on Robson Street near the corner of Hamilton), they have good lattes and a little thing called the breakfast bagel, tasty. Good sweets, nothing fancy, and nice panini and soups. Okada sushi: I was there again last night, it's pretty low key (read not fusion, more traditional) compared to a lot of places in Vancouver, but it's very good, and it's not expensive at all for sushi (four of us ate well (sushi, sashimi, karaage, sunomono, gomae, lots of tempura, beef tongue, that dish of rice with tea poured in and salmon) and had a few drinks for $160 incl. tax last night). Shiro Sushi on Cambie just over the bridge at 15th Street is also a good hole in the wall place with excellent fresh fish. Re: traffic downtown: there are bits of construction (street and buildings) going on here and there, and things really do tend get clogged up between 5 and 6, so I'd avoid trying to get anywhere from where you are during that hour, weekdays. (I live quite near where you're staying, and walk through, often more quickly than the cars.) Not to say it's impossible, but it can be annoying and more time-consuming than it should be. Also, not sure what your maps may say but Homer, Cambie, and Beatty streets downtown are now two-directional, which also adds to the snail's pace of downtown/Yaletown traffic. I hope you enjoy your stay! and don't hesitate to keep picking our brains

I have a neighbour who has one of those grills, and it's on my list! she says it doesn't even set off the smoke alarm.

I disagree. If you followed the Watermark thread, you will know that the restaurant was more than a month late in opening, for one reason and another. I would say that staying closed to the public once one has an occupancy permit, on a delayed and much-anticipated opening, and not making hay while, literally, the sun shines (in this town, in heavy tourist season) qualifies as a luxury. As in, yes, a very expensive choice. Whether it would have been a better choice given the uneven reviews, of course, is open to debate.

It was pretty tasty, but I'll take your ghetto sangria any day! I'm a bargain-conscious drunk I couldn't tell exactly what was in the white sangria liquor-wise, but the fruit selection was mango and pear pieces and a LYCHEE! The lychee was completely awesome - a great addition to any white sangria. Mr Cat had no idea what it was at first, and was wondering if something mysterious, like a scallop, landed in his drink somewhere between bar and table. I made him eat it though, and he liked it. ← Lychee! exotic fruit may explain the uptown price. I think I am doomed to stay in the ghetto (in the gheeeettoooooo).

So it appears some people can get it right from the start! Excellent! ← If you refer to Watermark, it's a slightly different situation--not to be an apologist, and I haven't eaten at either restaurant yet--it may have been Nu's first publicly open day, but according to reports upthread, they have had a few days' "soft" open, which is a luxury that Watermark did not have. And I don't know how pleased Messrs. Kambolis and Clarke will be to be compared to "old-style Earl's appies", even if better... Edited to adjust recalcitrant quotes.

Was it at least better than my ghetto sangria? that runs about $12/1.5 litres. The good stuff is only a few dollars more.

When I was in university, I had a toaster oven that served many uses. It heated the room in my dorm when the building heat wasn't enough for me; and was the source of a bazillion cheese sandwiches to get me through the weekend without food service (first year). When I moved off-campus, I used to eat pretty haphazardly, but every now and then I would go and shop. Well, cooking for one and trying to find something nice that a. isn't horribly expensive or b. doesn't come in a 2-lb package can be difficult. So I settled on these little cute steaks with bacon around them, tournedos, which I would cook to MR in the toaster oven and serve with a little beurre maitre d'hotel (which I saw on Jacques Pépin once at home on break), and maybe some noodles or a potato, and feel like a queen. Only years later did I discover that my little tournedos were, in fact, filets mignon. But that toaster oven is the only way I've ever cooked a decent steak (don't have a grill).

The description on the Carlo's Bakery website linked above says they're filled with "French cream" which I would take to be crème patissière (pastry cream). I'm hungry!

If I were a detective, this thread would be pretty interesting, evilhomer asking for advice on quantities of kernels required for poison...

You can always have one and use it to reserve your hotel/rental car/table at restaurant (probably anything but air and concert tickets or most internet purchases--although I think PayPal can work with a bank account rather than a credit card, not sure) and then pay in cash/debit at time of receipt; I recently held a rental car on a card but paid the actual bill with debit when I turned in the car. I think this works for anything for which the card is used as insurance against no-shows, and an actual amount is charged at a later date. I recently held several spots for a restaurant event on my credit card, but may charge on a different card or debit at the time; my companions will be paying their own shots, as well.

I'm afraid Darwin is actually neutral on this one, because detatching her thumb won't keep her from reproducing. It probably won't even keep her from finding someone to reproduce with ala "wow this girl can't slice a bagel, I sure don't want to mate with her!", so you might as well protect the carpet & avoid wasting bagels I am slowly realizing that many of the gadgets I consider worthless crap, really are valuable to other people. Like your bagel holder, or electric can-openers which I never understood till I talked to someone with arthritis... ← Actually, she married a guy with no left thumb. No, just kidding

Re: bagel holding gadget: after seeing a klutzy co-worker blithely slice her hand more than once while halving a bagel (some people seem incapable of holding a bagel upright on the counter to slice), I bought a lucite holder thing and insisted she use it. Didn't want blood on the carpet at work, and somehow she would obey the order to use a gadget more than an order not to hold the stupid bagel in her hand while slicing. A miracle she didn't entirely detach her thumb with that serrated knife before I got the gadget, actually. Sometimes I wonder, though: Darwinism dictates that I should let you detach your thumb.

Waldrug---Is that some sort of "green"-less pharmacy with a counter? You did such a good job with the others...please expostulate. ← http://www.walldrug.com/ I don't even know if I can describe it... it's kind of like a Chuck E Cheese meets the old west! People dressed up in bad pioneer costumes, bad American Indian "artifacts," bad old-fashioned soda fountains with bad old-fashioned milkshakes... I could go on and on! Believe it or not, people go out of their way to go there... we were just passing by! ← Wall Drug and its billboards exist to keep travellers from falling asleep whilst traversing South Dakota. I have not gone in, since such places never live up to their billing: does anyone remember the extreme (childish) disappointment after finally having talked one's parents into stopping at South of the Border off I-95?

Friday: in an effort to economize, went with snacky_cat and Mooshmouse to Guu, the one in Gastown. In an effort to try as many fabulous wacky drinks as possible, the effort to economize was a little futile, although it was certainly more for less than we would have gotten elsewhere We had many dishes to share, and I don't remember them all...standouts include the okonomakae (sp?), which hit the spot and was sweetly flavourful, although I couldn't tell you what was on it. We also had Salmon and His Seven Friends, although we would have been happy with less-popular salmon who didn't number natto and egg yolk amongst his friends; no matter, the other friends were tasty: daikon, pickled radish, scallions, a few other friends, served with nori. We had ebi with bacon and zucchini, which was quite tasty, and somehow also got enoki with zucchini, which we thought at first was the ebi, and disassembled in search of. There was a very tasty fried calamari and shrimp dish, and a tuna tataki of some sort. Dessert was a little more memorable: the tofu cheesecake in yuzu, red bean, and matcha flavours, very nice; served in small cubes with toothpicks. We also had banana tempura with chocolate sauce and coconut ice cream, very good indeed! and an order of Super Happy Pudding, which was a v creamy custardy pudding with a flan sauce on it. Snacky, in particular, was Super Happy with that Last night, Stella's on the Drive (others seem to think of Marlon Brando when this restaurant is mentioned; I can only think of Paul Banks). Three of us started out with tap Sungod Wheat Ale, Strongbow, and Leffe, and shared 5? 6 plates: the Cheater Sushi, very good and priced right at $5 for 5 pieces; panko breaded calamari with chipotle aioli, a standout item, hot and light and tender, exactly how calamari should be; the Thai spiced sesame grilled jumbo shrimp, jumbo is the word, they were delicious, all charred shell on the outside and lovely flavourful shrimp on the inside, and another delicious aioli; the Tosino, noodles and this sweet, caramelized pork, thinly sliced, interesting flavours; the beef carpaccio with fleur de sel and capers and reggiano, beautiful beef, tasty and tender; and the Szechwan pepper-dusted scallops on the bed of spaghetti squash, which we enjoyed...we found the key to this dish was to have all of the flavours in your mouth at once: the scallop, the squash, and the green onion vinaigrette. Of course bacon confetti (extra-tasty bacon bits in another world) never goes amiss at my table . For dessert, we shared (thank heaven! it was an enormous portion!) of warm chocolate cake with a Bellevue Kriek and sour cherry sauce. The cake was warm, the cherries, refreshingly, were chilled. The sauce was very tasty indeed, and kept the cake from too much sweetness. If I hadn't been driving, I would definitely have had a Kriek with that. A really nice dinner, I'll be happy to go again...we didn't even mind the heat too much, with breezes flowing from the fans and some reggae music to make it all feel a propos.

Oh, that Outstanding in the Field dinner (tomorrow) is one I can't afford to attend. I eat out more than I should, and certainly more than I can afford, but happily my parents like to treat me from time to time. In particular, the fancier dinners are usually not on my tab...it's busy at the moment, though, birthday next week, so celebratory parental dinners abound If I honestly added it up, I'd probably be eating at home until 2006, so I won't

Is that the same soapstone that I carved in sculpture class, the one that crumbles really easily? Not what I would have considered a durable surface... FWIW, I am very happy with my granite, although I am paranoid enough to use a trivet or potholder beneath a hot pot or bowl.

Partly a bump, and partly to keep up to date: Ba Guo Bu Yi Szechuan Baru Beach Side Cafe Caffe Artigiano Cassis Le Crocodile Cru Dockside Elysian Room En Le Gavroche Go Fish Gotham Guu Henry's Kitchen Hermitage Japone Living Room Long's Noodle House Maurya Modern Club Nu Octopus's Garden Pair Bistro Phnom Phen Rangoli La Regalade Salade de Fruits Saveur Savoury Coast The Ordinary Cafe The Pear Tree Tojo's Vij's Vintropolis Watermark Yuji's

Keith Talent, admit it: Alexandra Gill is your nom de guerre.

Wow, I hope she means "crap" figuratively.

So last night Mummy and I finally got ourselves over to Aurora Bistro. I have been meaning to go for some time, since I am a fan of the all-BC, all the time concept, and many of you have recommended it. We arrived and I introduced myself to Kurtis (kurtisk, who, yes, looks like his avatar ), who seated us along the banquette. First things first: wine. Since we had that lovely Zin the night before, we wanted something a bit fuller, and settled on the Sandhill Small Lots Petit Verdot 2002. (Another high-alcohol wine: 14.5%...I don’t do this on purpose, honestly.) Our excellent server (another whose name I didn’t get, ye gods) decanted it, and it definitely needed some space and time, starts out quite sharp, but eventually smooths out...strong fruit, overarching round dryness and alcohol LOL I’m very bad with these wine descriptions...I’d order it again, but maybe ask for it to be decanted before I arrived (or at least get it out of the bottle as soon as I got there) so it had some time to stretch its legs. Chef sent out a really intriguing and tasty amuse: a parmesan choux pastry puff, filled with an herby crème fraîche, really delicious. I think I’m missing some ingredients in the filling, but we really enjoyed it. For starters, my mum had the tomato-cucumber gazpacho with horseradish Chantilly that was on the table d’hôte menu, and I had the smoked salmon and crème fraîche cheesecake...I’ve had other things called smoked salmon cheesecake, and this was the best yet. Moussey in texture, with a brioche base, rich and light at the same time. It was served with a fennel and apple salad, good texture, nice tangy dressing. For mains, my mum had the pork tenderloin with maple and mustard seed glaze, and Okanagan goat’s cheese and apple crumble. She traded me her carrots for my asparagus since she loves asparagus much more than I, and really enjoyed it. I had the half Cornish hen with dried sour cherry barbecue sauce, lime and black pepper coleslaw, and smoked sweet potato purée. That sweet potato purée was something else! and the hen was beautifully done, juicy as can be. For dessert, we both decided to have the raspberry chocolate mousse mille feuille. Alas, there was a lack of raspberries, so they substituted blackberries, which were nice and plump if less tangy. The chocolate mousse was very good I counted only two feuilles and I can’t quite place the texture, a little meringue-ish in nature? it was very tasty nonetheless, and we got a taste of the Sumac Ridge Pipe (was it the Sumac Ridge?) which went quite well with the dessert. I’m kind of funny about dessert wines, if you ask me if I like ‘em I’d probably say no, not really; but put one in front of me and I have no compunction whatsoever about drinking it (and people keep putting it in front of me! ). Actual Port can get a bit rich for me, but I am getting used to these somewhat lighter sweet wines. It was a delicious dinner, we were both very happy with it. And as I said to Kurtis, it will definitely not be our last meal at Aurora. Thank you!

I could have gotten the wrong impression of her, but somehow I doubt cnspriggs would be taking anyone to Madame Cleo's, if that is the "fine place" to which you refer...

Cool Whip is an abomination. Ranch dressing is more on the order of McDonald's hot mustard sauce (also delicious on fries!). ← Amen, Sister!

Good to see you, TFA! Last night: first Birthday Dinner at Parkside. The night started out well, my parents came over to my house for drinks, and I asked what they wanted, and they told me there was pop in my fridge, which I hadn't noticed A bottle of 1996 Pol Roger later (oh, délicieux), we made our way into a taxi to go to the restaurant. Because of the much greater incidence of bugs than usual this year, we sat inside. It was pretty quiet inside, but there was a goodly crowd on the patio, as it was a very nice night. We were well served by (to my shame I know him only as) the Johnny Depp Waiter (well, he looks more like Johnny Depp than anyone else who works there but I dubbed him that many visits back, and I have no idea what his actual name is). He remembered us, too, and the lovely Turley Zin we had on our previous visit. This time, budget was a little more restrained (plus we had already had vintage pop!), so (on the JDW's recommendation) we had a bottle of 2002 Hendry Block 7 Zinfandel, just gorgeous. My mother and I usually go for the bigger badder wine even if my dad prefers simething less robust, but I'm really liking these lighter (but still Sahara-dry) Zinfandels, especially for warm weather drinking. Oh, and highly acloholic! 15.7%! Lorna gave an excellent recap above of the current menu. The amuse was an espresso-sized cup of mushroom consommé, interesting: bright and earthy flavours at the same time. My mother and I had the foie gras with parma ham and fresh figs and radicchio, which was predictably delicious, and my dad started with the spinach salad served with goat cheese panna cotta. He was very happy with that. The JDW brought us a bit of (I believe Sauternes) to go with the foie, and a Sauv Blanc for my dad's goat cheese...cause that's the kind of guy he is. For mains, my mother and I had the duck, and my dad, the Cornish hen. My mother ate almost her entire plate ( highly unusual) and my dad completely finsihed his. I got half of my duck wrapped, because I could neither finish it nor leave it (my mother had given me more than half of her foie as she was afraid of not being able to eat her dinner!! ). Dessert we were very predictable: my dad had the sorbet trio, including a fromage frais sorbet which I had a taste of, very interesting. My mother had the brandy snap cannoli with lemony mascarpone custard, which she adores, and on the basis of Lorna's photos, I had the chocolate tart, which was absolutely delicious. And a Grand Marnier. Another excellent meal, even though I understand Chef was not in the kitchen last night. And the service was also as good as usual. They have long-term people there: Chris has been at the bar as long as I've been going; the fellow who looked after my mother and me on the patio last August is still there (another one whose name I don't know, I'm so lame); and the JDW has been there at least since Dine-Out. Sahara is still returning calls re: reservations...it's nice to see continuity like that. Next time I go, I'm going to ask everyone their names.

My point was that service is much closer to, or more often, a profession (paying a decent base wage) in France, with consequent pride in performance, as opposed to North America, where (again, in my experience), it is very often something one does for a short time, for quick cash, while attempting to become something else. There are exceptions, of course.