*Deborah*

Again, just two restaurants...I've been cooking all kinds of weird comfort food at home, trying to work my way through the pantry and use up older stuff... Last night, the Punk Rock Boy™ and I went to Da Francesco, as it's in his unter 'hood. I picked him up (after carefully checking the address in the thread, I didn't want a repeat of the Ch'i directional fiasco, he'd been working all day and was starving!) and off we went. About 7 tables were full when we sat down, and many of us had arrived quite recently (it was a bit after 8:00). It took a while for the waitress to take our order, but that was fine as we had lots and lots of chatting to do, and she was obviously going as fast as she could. We both ordered the Osso Buco, me with the mushroom risotto, and he with spaghetti in rosé sauce. We had a litre of Citrá red (current house red), and shared a Caesar salad. Well, everyone has talked about this place, it's just a homely litle joint with good food, and we had a nice homely dinner and brought home lunch, too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we went again, especially since it's so close to his house. They were out of pizza dough, so we weren't able to try that, but from the wedge of crust with herbs and oil we got for bread, it's worth going back for. We were offered a comped coffee as we had to wait to order, but neither of us wanted coffee, and we didn't consider it a hardship to wait a few minutes to order when we can see a place is slammed...it was a nice gesture, though. Yesterday afternoon, I met up with the Pink Tea Triad (Zucchini Mama, Mooshmouse, Ling, and Sashavan, and yes, every one of us had some pink in her outfit) at Provence. I could talk about the tea (metal pot with hot water leaching out onto the darling cozy, teabag on the side)...I could talk about the savouries (very different from the British style, and quite delicious: smoked salmon on cucumber; black olive crème fraîche on baguette; roasted peppers on a toasted baguette; was there another? Edit: oh, yes, I remembered! a bocconcini with split cherry tomato (one half of mine was...not edible) and balsamico on a skewer)...and I could talk about the sweets (numerous, undersized, and underwhelming, although the lemon tart filling was just perfect, and the crème fraîche with orange was similarly worth going ooooh and aaaah). But let me instead talk about our waiter, French from France, with eyes that remind you why they call it the Côte d'Azur. Rrrrowr.

Careful, Arne. Keep making posts like this and the entire pink-tweed wearing "High-Tea Triad" may soon descend upon your home demanding service! ← Clearly, I need to add some tweed to my wardrobe. What a lovely tea you had, Arne!

Neil, I don't know HKDave's date of departure, and was hoping to have a farewell tipple, as well! Dave, if you're still on the continent, let us know!!

The age question: I'm not in the minority any more (38) but I started my FD career at the age of 5, so I can understand what you mean about being the youngest person in a given room...I have often dragged a friend or boyfriend out to a dinner, and been amongst the youngest in the place. I've always had a "thing" for nice restaurants, though, even though many of my friends couldn't grasp paying more than $100 or $200 () for dinner. Those are the friends who will have nice plump pensions when they get old, when I'll be begging for parfait de foie gras scraps outside Oyama. There is certainly a class question, or perhaps, better-stated, understanding appropriate behaviour question; a friend of mine works in the brokerage/stocks sector, and she tells tales of people with large amounts of cash throwing it around (along with food, on occasion, if you can believe it) in expensive restaurants, buying the most expensive thing simply because it is the most expensive...I don't even know what to say about that without sounding horribly elitist, but I suppose such people don't know how to behave in McDonald's any more than at Circolo or Le Crocodile. As far as race goes, I suppose normally it's Caucasian and Asian people in higher end restaurants that I've been to in Vancouver...which seems fairly representative, except I guess for [indians] (I'm sorry, I know there's a something-Asian which is the current correct nomenclature, but I don't remember what it is). I'm guessing that culturally, people from India do not eat out so much? My best friend in 4th grade was Indian, and I don't remember that they ate out much, although economics weren't a barrier. (Her grandmother made us chapattis for after-school snacks, mmm.) I'll agree with Jamie, and say that the hipper the restaurant, the younger the clientele (and more representative the racial mix). Maybe in 20 years, all of those hip 20-somethings will be the core clientele at the Lumiere of the day, because they are more used to eating out. Maybe you guys can help with a question: when I was a child (1970s), eating out was for special occasions, unless it was Troll's for fish and chips, or White Spot. My mother used to entertain at home much more than eat out, and I remember her going to dinner parties at people's houses, too. Did people eat out as often and as routinely in the 1970s as we do today? I know I've met lots of people my age who didn't eat out very often, and that would include up to upper-middle-class; I knew some wealthy people who ate out a lot. Now, though, people at a lot of different economic levels eat out just because, rather than just on special occasions, or so it seems to me. It may have something to do with the shoebox-sized condos we now squeeze ourselves into, in downtown Vancouver; it's hard to have more than 2 or 4 guests for a sit-down dinner at home, in my house, at least...actually in my house, 4 people for sit-down is the limit. So if you have a bigger group, you by default go to a restaurant. Of course it's different in the suburbs! I suppose the fact that in many cases, both halves of a couple work now, when in the 1970s, maybe only one half did, has something to do with the available cash / lack of available time to cook equation. Sorry...end of ramble! and no conclusion, as usual

I'll add a plug for Parkside: in August, if the weather is nice, they have a really nice patio. The food is outstanding.

What I have is my grandmother's cookbook, Chatelaine's Adventures in Cooking. (more pics in image gullet). She wasn't a very good cook (when in doubt, add gravy!! although she made great cookies), but her cookbook is more precious to me than the darling Belleek sugar and creamer

My initial thought was to mull some cider with cinnamon and whole cloves...but I know what you mean about spring. My second thought was something old-fashioned (to go with the house), like gingerbread or other spice cake but again, that's not very seasonal. How about lemon pound cake, something like that? Sweet but fresh smelling...I'd also put a pot of coffee on maybe, even people who don't like coffee like the smell.

I don't think anybody expected an argument or was trying to pick a fight across the border, Mabelline, nor was anyone disparaging the length and breadth of American cattle-raising...more like concern with what the governments are doing (or not doing), and what they say about it...but perhaps I'm naive.

The only reason our beef was treated so cavalierly, IMO, was because Canada needed its knuckles rapped for political reasons which we ought not to get into here. And the US economy needed a boost (although keeping "American" cows who graze north of the border out of the food chain didn't do those US ranchers any good, and keeping our beef out of US processing plants hasn't helped the US economy either).

Oh, can we schedule this either for mid-afternoon onward on the Saturday or late afternoon Sunday? I have several things booked already, but I really don't want to miss this!

Thanks for the report! Glad you ate well.

I'd be down for observing and taking notes for subsequent reportage on eGullet Most of my heckling tends to be sotto voce in order to not be disruptive, though...

Thanks, asozzi, and welcome!

Boring? no, I think maybe everyone else is sitting here, mouth agape, like me! I love your novelty things, those handbags are gorgeous, the little NY cheesecakes...you can tell that you were originally a graphic artist, Wendy.

Click the clikcy thing at the bottom of the smileys on the left and it should give you a larger selection? is there... I suppose would do for chuffed Or I think you can link from other smileys elsewhere on the net, but probably best to copy them up somewhere (like a photobucket or fotki or whatever free photo hosting site if you don't have a website of your own) as boards don't like sharing such with other boards--bandwidth and whatnot, I suppose.

I was in the Glowbal lounge area, you're right, my bad, the entrance must be on Mainland?? I always get those Homer and Hamilton Streets mixed up, in spite of crossing them both twice daily. I have not been through to the Afterglow side (entrance on Hamilton), as I was uncomfortable as I described in the Glowbal side. I do ridicule, and mock. I am an equal opportunity ridiculer and mocker... I think it's fairly clear to most people around here that there is no malice in my posts, however, unlike some others'. If not, perhaps I am underutilizing available emoticons I have no quarrel with Glowbal's/Afterglow's success...but my chins do have a quarrel with their lighting. And while I may well eat at Glowbal, I do not expect to go to the Glowbal side or the Afterglow side for drinks. It seems that my lack of attendance is not hurting their business, which is exactly as it should be.

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions! Keep 'em coming, maybe we can keep this as a low-to midrange sushi thread Wow, now I have like five good candidates! how will I choose?!

I'm kinda half-and-half: for baking, I learned long ago after missing the oil to have all my ingredients on the counter. I don't go insane with it, but I make sure it's all there, and then put away each ingredient as I use it. For regular cooking...not so much. For a complicated recipe, sometimes I will have things ready before I start. Mostly I just have it all out, ready to be prepped. For a lot of my other cooking I'm not following a recipe anyways, just tossing things in a pan from time to time. I do my recipe-looking before, usually, to make sure I have ingredients and whatnot, but maybe it's just the type of cooking I do (i.e., not v complicated!!) Out of sight = out of mind, so it's important for me to have things on the counter, but I would lose it if I had to wash all those mise bowls etc., except in very specific circumstances. Seems like a waste of clean dishes for my level of cooking.

Two mother-friendly brunches (friendly to my mother at least) have been Provence Marinaside and Pastis. Not particularly pricey at that time of day unless you order a lot of wine!

Uh, is this some new sushi-on-a-naked-man club that you haven't told us about yet? ← And Dammit, Why haven't I been invited yet!! ← Ha! Well, they serve it on women, don't they? Careful with those chopsticks, ladies.

They have incredibly unflattering lighting with those lit-from-below tables...your're crouching on an ottoman in your stilettos (so your tummy sticks out) and look like a vampire or something (with extra chins, always so attractive, and jowls too!). Well, this was the loungey part at the Hamilton Street entrance...it didn't make me want to try the even hipper, cooler, Homer Street entrance, I must say. (Presumably if I were built anything like Avril Lavigne, I would appear to be in my element in such a milieu *unsure as has never been built anything like Avril Lavigne*)

Oh, yeah, I should go there, it's right in my uber 'hood and everything

Well, Sam, because we all like sushi, and we don't usually hang around with others who like sushi, so we thought we'd all get together and have some sushi! I am not looking for the Holy Grail or Morimoto or anything, but just some other ideas...Btw, I have had really excellent tuna sashimi at Tsunami (although now I have to go and look back at that endangered list, no doubt it was a tuna on the NO list )...They're Vancouver/Seattle kids, btw, not like they're strangers to hamburgers

I'm going for a sushi lunch with some young, student-y friends next Saturday. They're poor (and I'm trying to save my $$ for my upcoming vacation), so we're looking for a place that's not too pricey. Scott spent a year in Japan, though, and Yuki is Japanese, so it's important that it's good stuff rather than all-you-can-eat Robot sushi. Can you guys recommend a place where we could get away for maybe $20/person for lunch? and if it were a place with a conveyor, that would be extra-good. I used to go to Ichibankan on Thurlow, but the last few times, it just wasn't that good...I haven't been in more than a year though, so if someone has a good recent review then that would be a worthwhile option. Other than that, I expect we'll go to Tsunami, as it's central and not too expensive. Does anyone have any better ideas? I've heard good things about Yuji's, but I'm not sure if it's in our price range or not Thanks

Oh those bunnies are the greatest! so much personality, each one different. Are they cake inside?