*Deborah*

I understand what you're saying, and I agree with much of it (how can people who've never been in a good restaurant understand good restaurant service, for example), but then I think about good home cooking, and the fact that there are good home cooks all over, so plenty of people have at least some experience of tasty food. I would speculate that people who become cooks for a living have some interest in good food...How does that translate into the dreck so many serve in so many mediocre restaurants? I don't say this to be argumentative, merely because I find it puzzling.

I've finally gone through my leftovers, so I'll be in today...man, am I in withdrawal.

When this happens to me, I do one of two things: eat buttered toast, or go for gelato. After a few dinners of either of these, you will start thinking of delicious meals to make, or want to go out to eat something a little more substantial.

Presumably if one already has a decent set of knives, one needn't go buy more? Do you think I can count on the Chef or someone to help me sharpen? I have a steel, but I fear I'm not exactly...skilled in its use. (Glad to hear from you, Dave! we miss you round these parts.)

8 consecutive Mondays! Sept 19-Nov 14 excluding Thanksgiving one supposes as that would make 9 weeks. Yay!

That will make three eGulleteers, Deborah. Joie and I are in for the course starting in September. ← Four and counting. Maybe 5 ... considering it as a birthday gift. Any idea how many places are left?My only concern is how much (or how little) work we'll get done. We're not exactly a quiet group. A. ← Chef will whack you if you don't behave And you are partnered with two other people each class, rotating, so no little cliquey giggly groups. Ahem. Just as well, really. ETA: "A few spots left" according to Marla.

Because I ended up at the mall (patriotic duty to improve the national economy by shopping), I ate some greasy Chinese (S&S Pork, Sesame Chicken, and some kind of fried broad rice noodle thing, quite good for mall food). Later I also had Thai takeout (no idea what dishes, other than some really good green curry, as I didn't order, but it was good!), so that was a nice multicultural day of food.

"Hamburger meat" is ground beef, no? whereas "a Hamburger" is a ground beef patty, usually served in a bun...or a chap from Hamburg, of course. This *is* the place to quibble...

I don't have a bbq...I might marinate some "country ribs" in something vinegary and mustardy and pop them in the oven later, though, depending what I see at the grocery store. Actually, that sounds good, with some mashed potatoes maybe. Mostly I know I can count on the garlicky, meaty, charcoaly smell of all my neighbours' dinners permeating my apartment, and my miserable, allergy-afflicted sinuses, for hours of delight later on (sometimes I think apartment living is not for me...)

Not sure what parts of rural Canada you've travelled to, Fat Guy, but I must agree that having driven to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory from Vancouver (Cassiar up, Alcan down), it becomes tiresome eating only food that came off a Sysco (or whoever it is) truck. Mind you the strawberries that fell off the truck when it went into the ditch (and doubtless increased the 86 list for a few places in the Yukon) were lovely and delicious. In defense of those restaurants along the way that all seem to have the same menu, of course, the farther north you go, the shorter your growing season...small town populations...and short culinary history, in many cases. You're usually safe sticking to burgers and meat and potatoes. But in small towns up north, you're not too likely to find food you're going to want to write (nice things) home about. Although I think I had a nice piece of pie in Deas Lake.

Sugar maples are an import to what's now the United States? I know you didn't mean that. ← We had a similar "Canadian Food" thread in honour of Canada Day in the Toronto forum...I think there are really few foods that grow only one one side of the 49th (well, I should say those which grow near it, tend to grow on both sides of it), so we had to not count maple syrup, too, although anyone who's travelled here knows that the Canadian airport giftshops are chockfull of maple syrup, maple sugar candy, etc., etc. The original NAFTA? North American Free Tree Agreement!

Maple trees grow north of the border, too...we claim them to the extent of using a leaf on our flag, but we concede that the syrup is not strictly Canadian

That will make three eGulleteers, Deborah. Joie and I are in for the course starting in September. ← Oh, good, that will be fun.

I believe I have a lock on the Serious Foodie course as my birthday present (actually, I should check if they even have space, I suppose!) and would like to encourage fellow Gulleters to sign up too! Yay!

Another three: Dinner last night: Mooshmouse and I traipsed over to Hapa Izakaya for supper. I finally went! I was carrying my Hello Kitty knapsack, so I had to have a Hello Kitty cocktail! it was delicious, with vodka, and strawberry puree, and I'm not sure what else...Moosh and I started with garlicky edamame, and had fried rice with pork and kimchi, and this salmon sashimi and avocado dish served with nori, and a tuna sashimi in a sesame sauce, not sure what else was in there but it was divine. We also had (obviously) ebi with chili mayo (and I'm with Lorna, this was good but I prefer the heavier batter at Shiru-Bay)...I think that's all? For dessert we shared the matcha tiramisu (oh, yum!) and the ice cream with red bean sauce and rice cracker (oh, yum again!). Then we went for a walk and then I stopped and tried the gelato at the Yaletown gelato place at Homer and Davie (we must have just missed Pao Pao and Yummy!): a split scoop of chocolate (lovely and creamy) and coconut (like having a Bounty bar!). A most satisfactory evening. For lunch today, a bunch of us from my office went to Wilson's. Notwithstanding Mr. Maw's less than hearty recommendation, the boys wanted some meat for lunch, and I decided to come along, how bad can it be at lunch? Well. We sprung ourselves on them (party of 7) and they were quite nice about setting up a table for us. We ordered (two hamburgers, 4 steaks, and a steak salad). We waited...quite a while. It looked fine when it came; my french fries were good, and the burger looked pretty good, comes with cheese and bacon for 9.95. I asked if they could do the burger medium, but they don't do that. I guess it's just hard to make a burger juicy if you cook it well. It was a bit charcoaly for my taste, but I understand people like that. The burger on the whole wasn't bad though, if a bit dry. The steaks were another matter entirely; three of them were ordered medium rare, and one, medium. All were medium, pink in the middle but not red. The boys said they tasted OK though...being lunch time, nobody was interested in requesting a less-done steak. The salads, veggies, etc. all looked good. They bring you free refills on your pop, if that matters to you. Service was fine, our server brought us separate checks without a single quibble or grumble, and despite the menu warning, did not stick the dreaded 18% autograt on there.

Deborah, I think you misunderstood my point. I am not questioning the value of our meal in any way shape or form... would have gladly paid more than the “entry fee” for the scallop dish alone (well, maybe not quite but you get the drift). However, I do think that there may be (and probably are) a number of EGers out there for whom $40 would simply be too dear. I was merely suggesting that, maybe, we could look at a way of establishing a slush fund of sorts that would enable more of the membership to participate. That’s all. ← Oh, a slush fund or a kitty. I wonder how we could decide who could attend "on us"? (not being argumentative, just wondering.) My point (which was not well expressed) is that the restaurants already go out of their way to make these events accessible to as many of us as they can...so I would say that asking them to toss in a freebie is probably asking too much.

Isn't there a difference between gravy and jus in any case? gravy to me implies thickening, where jus is just the juices...they could say in English "with drippings" but that would be a whole nother can of worms, no doubt

Hear, hear, afn33282.

Sarah, I think most of us there would not have been surprised to see a bill for $150 or $200/person for that meal (with that wine!), so I would say it's already pretty heavily subsidized by the host. For which I am grateful. I'm still dreaming about that pork shoulder...

Francese = French in Italian, no? pronounced roughly fran-chayz in English? or -chayzeh or something like that. (edited because I cannot type on this laptop)

Neilson's Treasure Bar!!

I say it like I say "my"...It's like my with a little extra yyy in there, but not my-uh--not in English conversation, at least, in my (doubtless misguided) opinion

This cake is just a chocolate cake (a good one, but no huge deal). BUT! the Milk Chocolate Icing is the bomb. I can usually limit myself to one little bit of leftover icing whenI make a cake, but this stuff is just really delicious, I finish the bowl.

I can't express how that depresses me, to never mind striving for accuracy, since it's a fait accompli. For the record, I say bruschetta correctly, and will go out of my way not to use entrée when I mean main course.

It's weird! they have that basement den of iniquity meets highschool cafeteria ambience...it wouldn't be the same on another block.