*Deborah*

Ever heard of a small snack? ← I'm not hypoglycemic, but to take a snack because you might have to wait...in a restaurant...when you have a reservation? I think the restaurant would be a bit confounded if everyone who came to eat came with a doggybag...but maybe that's just me. Of course, I left a restaurant $50 poorer and just as hungry as I went in, yesterday...so maybe it's all about the experience now, and not actually about the food.

Last three restaurants: Thursday, Dining Out for Life: Hamilton Street Grill. The Punk Rock Boy™ joined me to support a good cause. We started out with a bottle of Summerhill Cipes Brut at home, then made our way the two arduous blocks down the street to HSG. We had a cocktail (Frozen Hound for me, yum! and Red Bull and Vodka for him--I introduced him to Red Bull earlier this week: when you pass age 35, it's a useful beverage for times you don't get your 8 required hours), and then I picked out a nice Burrowing Owl 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (which has since sold out, sadly) which Steve decanted for us...yummilicious, really, I keep thinking back to that wine, very good. We shared a crabcake for a starter, which was very nice and tasty, and came with a mixed baby green salad. Then we both got the mixed grill so that PRB™ could try the hanger, as that was the only way it was being offered that night. It also came with a petit filet mignon très mignon, tournedos-style with the bacon, mmm, and some garlicky prawns, and mash and nice veggies. For dessert we had (obviously) the Gingerbread Pudding, mmmm. Well, we've all said so much about that. PRB™ liked that, as well, in spite of not really being a cake man. Finished off with a Monte Cristo, wobbled our way back to my place. A pretty good night!! Thanks again, Neil! Friday: Ch'i. I had it in my head that this place was at 2nd and Manitoba, so that's where I went, and spent an hour walking around, finally made my way back to Cambie and Broadway and found a giveaway paper that told me exactly where it is: 2nd and NANAIMO. D'oh! Anyways, I got to Ch'i to find my gulleters (the Mooshmouses, Peppermint Tea, HKDave, Ling and dUbVaDeR and their friend whose name I didn't catch, and Jeffy Boy and Lemon Curd) already in place at this huge table, neat! and had to take off my Fluevogs and display my so-chic tennis socks... I was several drinks behind, but manfully (so to speak) attempted to catch up: started with a Citrus Crush, quite delicious. We ordered, and I got crab cakes and BC mussels in lemongrass and coconut broth, and a matcha saketumi martini, which was a shock of un-sweet after the previous drink, but a very nice thing nonetheless. My crab cakes were quite good, served nice and hot. My mussels, when they made their way out (they were very busy, and the plates seemed to arrive in no particular order as ready--which is fine), were...OK, I was enjoying them until I saw the three closed ones in the bottom of the bowl, which just didn't impress me very much. But hey. Joie let me have a bit of her coconut flan or crème caramel or whatever they called it; that was divine!! and I had a delicious praline martini drink while we waited to get everyone's last dishes ordered and checks done and whatnot; I heard the defining Vancouver eGullet phrase last night: the server came and asked HKDave, who was next to me, if he wanted anything else, another martini? and he said "No thanks, we have to feed Lorna." I was pretty hungry myself, I have to say. I got a dream in my head of the Shiru-Bay prawns with sweet chili mayonnaise, and was ready to polish off a few orders of that and then wander to HSG, but Joie called up Shiru-Bay and they couldn't take us for 45 minutes minimum, and Lorna was getting cranky so we descended upon Neil at HSG and had various things: I had an Absolute Crime, some yam fries (good lord, they're good) and an order of cheesecake with sour cherry sauce (my first non-Gingerbread dessert!!) and it was very good, and most importantly in the context of last night, filling! Ch'i was all quite nice, very pretty room, interesting menu, great great drinks, but I'm not used to paying $50 for dinner and still being stomach-growlingly hungry, really...mind you, there were three martinis on that bill The PRB™ lives in that neighbourhood, I think, so I think we may try Ch'i another night, certainly I want to keep working through the drinks menu! But I feel like a failure, needing only two restaurants to eat dinner!

All I can say in response to that is that if I love something on one visit, and order it on a second visit, I will be surprised if it tastes noticeably different. Call me unreasonable all you like. If I'm going to French Laundry, evidently I let the chef guide me. If I am going to McDonald's, I must have been drinking pretty heavily in the recent past...if I go back to a restuarant that's somewhere in between those two, that I liked eating at last week, and order a dish I enjoyed again, I expect to have my dish resemble the one I ate last time, and hope the chef hasn't been guided down a strange path in the meantime. I submit that if the seasoning had been within reasonable levels of consistency, the additional breading would not have made much of a difference to the customer, who can understand that not every crab cake will have the exact same amount of crab. Anyone who cooks knows that things are a little bit different each time, but you should be able to recognize the dish and the recipe, IMO, without being branded unreasonable.

...Antonio Banderas playing mariachi music? I'm just sayin'.

Keep up the good work, Dave! we're not worthy!

Sorry, I thought it was a bona fide question, gullible gulleter here... Next time I'll just let you make your jokes in peace!!

To my understanding, uber means the "above" kind of over, rather than "over and done with" over; but it also means super, as in "uber alles" = above all else and "Ubermensch" = superman...I don't have access to my grammars at the moment, though.

I think Flirt is a good name for a restaurant...maybe in the uber 'hood rather than Jericho though

Since it's on the beach, we could have lifeguard-watching...with both genders well-represented. I fear if we tried to tie it into the concept too hard we'd find ourselves competing with Hooters for business, though, which really doesn't appeal somehow. And I generally prefer my servers to wear more than 1 ft² of fabric.

Ye gods...I see it now, eGullet Godiva and Gingerbread Viewing Parties at a hip, urbane eatery in the 'hood.

Thank you for that

I like how they basically appropriated the font from Gotham restaurant's logo...

*buying lottery ticket*

Ooh, Andrew has great ideas! I like the visiting chef idea a LOT. All I could contribute would be proofreading of menus, website, etc., so that people like me wouldn't roll their eyes when perusing all the fabulous menus and wine lists.

Jamie went Sunday, late afternoon IIRC...try going between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00 on a Saturday...on a sunny Saturday. Around 1:00 on Saturday, it took me half an hour to get to the actual market building (where I snagged prime parking at least) from the turn off W 4th Ave (westbound). And it only took me three lights to make the turn, sometimes it's taken me longer! I know I should go earlier in the day, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way...

Good lord, if you want to feel lucky, remember that in Vancouver we're paying $5 or $6 a pint! Even in Canadian dollars, it's a lot of cash!

If it was beautiful, it must have been 30th Street Station (also a location in the movie Witness), a grand and glistening old-style station, all white stone...

Wow! beautiful work! Adding the bits of luster dust/gold leaf (or whatever all that sparkly stuff is) really adds a lot, too!

Mmm, I'm just finishing up a pint of Dulce de Leche (bad Deborah! Bad!) Edited to clarify that there was some already eaten, so I haven't eaten the entire thing at one sitting (although God knows I've done that, too).

In Normandy, do the cows eat the Calvados mash? Thanks for the info, though, Chef!

I happened to like the Marc-David's grandmother's cake by Lorna, myself Edited because I goofed your name and might as well have called you Jean-François, Marc-David! Sowwy!

Oh, Jamie, I still laugh when thinking of that review of yours, I don't even need to read it again. Food and pulchritude don't always mix well.

andiesenji, I took "desert" to mean desert of humans, not all life. My condiments (seedy mustard, mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce) will add deliciousness to fish, fowl or meat! I just hope I would be allowed to bring some sort of firestarter, as an all-sushi diet would likely pall in time, regardless of condiments!

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Varied; part of the time (v young) I lived with my grandparents, when my mother travelled for work. That part of my life, food was British/Canadian overdone veggies, lots of gravy, canned fruit with bread and butter for dessert When I lived with my mother, food was much more varied, including things like spaghetti, for example. When we moved to the US and lived with my stepdad, more varied still, although still pretty standard Canadian/American stuff. My dad likes to have a salad with dinner, so we went to three courses most nights (shocking to think, now, but my mum was not working for many years). Was meal time important? Yes; up until I was 16 and went away to school, we normally would have dinner together every night. My dad travelled a lot for work for several years, so my mum and I were a bit more relaxed in his absence (dinner in front of the TV, maybe, or no salad), but still it was important. If I had school activities that made me miss regular dinner time, they would sometimes wait for me, or else come and sit with me while I ate so we could still have that dinner-table conversation. Was cooking important? Yes. I'd help with dinner, my dad made his special meatloaf, I'd keep my mum company while baking pies, she and I would make cookies and other things. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? Not harsh enough, as I find myself doing it shamefully often. Who cooked in the family? Mostly my mother, although my dad enjoys it too. When he found the Frugal Gourmet, he liked to do even more than before. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? That evolved as available cash did. When I was a small child, Report Card Dinners with my mum were our twice a semester extravaganza; good restaurants, anything I wanted to eat on the menu. I learned good restaurant manners early. Other than those, mostly we'd have pancake breakfasts out or McDonald's once in a while, or maybe The Spaghetti Factory. The Bayshore for lunch. When we went east and lived with my dad, there was less money available for a long time, and restaurant meals were decidedly fewer, although we still ate well. Of course we were living just outside NYC, and prices were not low. From that time, I remember...Carvel and the odd Brew Burger. A family friend took me to La Grenouille once, as a special treat; IIRC, I had crab-stuffed flounder, and they wrapped up my leftovers in a swan. Later on in Philadelphia, there was more cash and more restaurant meals. When I moved to Montréal to go to school at 16, when they visited, we'd eat out all the time, at all kinds of restaurants. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? Not in my house (only child). Children were expected to behave appropriately, although we might be excused early. I was always affronted when relegated to a children's table elsewhere. When did you get that first sip of wine? Champagne for some occasion or other, I think, around age 12? Was there a pre-meal prayer? At my grandmother's table, yes; at ours, only at religious holidays. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Very little, as the cats and I have different tastes and eating schedules, really

Sad but true: Campbell's tomato and a cheese sandwich (toasted or grilled). Sometimes I'll get a taste for random breakfast foods, like French toast, or Cream of Wheat or oatmeal. Honey/cinnamon stick/lemon juice/boiling water, stirred, and a good slug of whiskey on top does me more good than all the Nyquil in the world.