*Deborah*

K...I was trying to look at the HSG website but got a 404...will try again later when I can take a look at my calendar etc. Clandestine burgers...ye gods. Next I shall sit with my back to the room and wear a veil.

Have no fear, Deborah. Where there are burgers, there must also be cheese. I'm with you re the HSG burgers - don't they sound awesome???? ← Oh, I'll PM you! maybe we can have a hypothetical DOV burger lunch?

Cheese! optional cheese! please! Joie, you can't make me giggle like that at work! stop!! Neil, do you have any spots left for your DOV lunchorama? That burger is making me drool!

You might try sticking them in the fridge. No guarantees, but it should keep them pliable longer than just sitting at room temp. And if they're well wrapped, they shouldn't get dewey enough to stick together and give you a hassle when you go to unwrap them. Like I said, no guarantee, but I think the fridge would at least increase your chances of having usable viney things by the time you go to use them. ← I can do that! thanks

I will go a-burgering, schedule depending. I haven't really explored the city's burgers as I tend to eat them more when on the road.

It's a completely different genre of spice cake, but it's damn good, moist, and not sweet: here. You'll get a nice solid slice out of it at any rate.

Assembly is slated for Saturday. I guess I will not have my heart set on using those!!

I think it's time for you to take a nice Pacific tour, first those wasabi things, now this!

Of course atm I am having a huge crustacean phobia, having looked at that spider crab on the other thread... Glad it's not some sort of grub, though.

You don't think it will dry out to the point where it will break or crack when you go to place it? ← It's well-wrapped in plastic...is there something else I should do to keep it more pliable, or refresh it later? I'm also holding the possibility of just putting some icing there in reserve. I'm making a pile of white chocolate ganache and will likely have enough to tint some green and pipe it in the seam, if I need to. I may just arrange the leaves so that the seam doesn't show. I am not worried about it as I don't have an exact diagram in my head of how it will look, these things come to me when they come to me, and not before. The bride has left it in my hands, so I'm not worried that it will not live up to whatever she is picturing in her head (although of course I'm hoping she's not picturing anything TOO fabulous, but she knows I've never done one before).

I'm scared to wonder what a "Bug Meat Boudin Blanc" is...but the tasting menu at Aria sounds lovely. I will explore some others. Thanks for the links!

It's braid I may or may not use at the seam of the two layers...I may unweave it and just use one strand; or twine two; I won't know till I see it in front of me. My friend who was helping me was good with rolling the fondant out like that, though, so she did a bunch of it (she saw it on the Wilton box and tried it out).

thanks I couldn't find suitable cookie cutters, but I find I am not so bad with a knife! who knew?!

Taking a page from the production of ice wine in these chilly northern precincts, as well as the enormous popularity of Siberian peach pie over the past few years, Canadians have taken matters into their own hands. Leaving our stone fruit up in the orchards until freeze-up (in late August, as Steven helpfully points out), has led to a boon in winter ice fruit production: apricots and peaches predominate the market. The methodology parallels that of our acclaimed ice wines and is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture. The fruit must freeze naturally to minus 8 degrees Celsius for 48 continuous hours. The fruit is then picked and its concentrated essence separated from the frozen water. The resultant fruit (pulp and chunks) is then made into pies, fruit leathers or refreshing winter bellinis. Although production is still low, this initiative has resolved how always gracious Canadians can still eat 'local and seasonal' (if not exactly fresh), support our local farmers and avoid feeling vaguely like a military junta whenever we eat cherries. The concentrated flavour is its own reward; the fruit is said to have the lighthearted intensity of your own Kelly Ripa. Sorry to hear about the anesthesia. ←

THAT IS DEPRESSING BUT, still not as egregious as wine!! let's take a look: grapes & growing $ 1.80 winemaking 2.20 packaging .92 marketing .60 sales & distri. 3.00 adminis. .60 winery profit 1.35 ** whlsale markup 4.56 retail markup 7.44 rest markup ~ 35.00 total P to customer $60.00 for a regular little CA cab from Napa & that's NOT even considering a nice little bordeaux from the Medoc!! ← There's one thing that clothing retailers and restaurants do NOT have in common: sales. I seldom buy clothes at full price; I wait until the sale, that's just the reality of my financial situation and the way I was brought up. I think most people can appreciate a bargain. But with one exception I saw in this thread, I have never heard of wine specials that included a discount in a restaurant. Of course the clothes store's goal is to totally clear inventory periodically, while a cellar I assume should more slowly morph...On the other hand, some wines become more valuable over time, while last year's clothes will only depreciate. I don't enjoy paying triple or more the retail on everyday kind of wine, I guess is the bottom line, and if I know two restaurants, one of which charges $80 for a nice bottle of Amarone (that I probably wouldn't buy to drink at home since my at-home consumption is pretty pedestrian), and the other of which changes $120 for the same bottle, there had better be a real difference in ambience and food quality for me to go to the second restaurant more than once.

Lorna, I saw your Cathedral pan! at Cookshop in City Square. I'm sorry I didn't notice the price though. Maybe you should get it now, ready for next year

These are the results of my day of fondant-play: Please don't laugh, professionals among you! I am pleased with my results. It took a long time to get a good colour; I started with Wilton Leaf Green (the only green available at the store I was in at the time) and as I suppose you can all imagine, that was no good. I made an emergency run to another shop and got some Kelly Green and some Black as they were out of Moss, which I think is probably close to the colour I wanted. There seems to be a whole world of other colours out there, but I still don't know where to buy them. Oh well. Then of course by the time I had added enough of these other colours to get anywhere near the tint I wanted, my fondant was all goopy...so I added a bit of icing sugar to get back to stiffness. I feel as though I have been pulling taffy all day, and I suppose I actually have. Then rolling, and transferring stencils of ivy in various sizes, then cutting with a knife, then shaping and making the little veins. Then the luster dust! I know they are not really realistic, and they are imperfect and far from uniform, but I think I will be able to make it work. The fondant I ended up getting for the cake itself is McCall's White Chocolate rolled fondant, which supposedly tolerates refrigeration better than the regular stuff. I was not able to source Pettinice, and American Bakel did not return my email query. If I had realized, I would have gone down to Bellingham or wherever, but by the time my various queries came back, I just ended up with the McCall's which I still had to order from Toronto. But that's OK! So that will be off-white, and I think will look nice with the green I ended up with. I will post more pictures when I take them; I will not assemble the cake until the day of, I've decided, in fear of the leaves bleeding on to the white fondant. I will use your recipe for white chocolate ganache to put under the fondant, Wendy (1.5 lbs. white chocolate, 1 c cream, .25 lb butter); do you think that quantity will make enough to cover a 10 x 3 in layer and a 6 x 3 in. layer? I think I might need to double it... Thanks everyone for your encouragement and advice

I was just in the new Lennox wine store in City Square, and while I only had time for a quick scan, I see they have good representation of the Summerhill Pyramid Estates winery (whom I'm not promoting or anything, I just have been looking at them lately). They carry the Cipes nonvintage Brut sparkling (which I just got a case of for my friend's wedding) but they charge quite a bit for it ($31 and change; I consider it quite a bit as I first had it at a restaurant for $28, and just bought it for $21.50 a bottle, delivered ) but they have several other Summerhill wines I might try, although the froufy packaging is a bit off-putting for me. They have many other BC wines, too, including Burrowing Owl Sandhill Merlot, Cab Sauv (I think; there were three BOs? and I wasn't taking actual notes). I thought there was a wine store thread (as in NOT LDB) but couldn't see it...hope it's OK to put this here.

Me, too, pistachio first; then we'll see about the chocolate ones; then we can work around to anything else. Thank God pistachio's not available at the grocery next door; I'd eat it all the time instead of just sometimes in the summer.

The gelato place in the Ambleside area of West Vancouver was really good last time I was there (a few years ago) I usually get cakes at the one on Venables (can't remember which one that is) and their pistachio is ...OK... not awesome. Their cakes are pretty good though.

Would this be the same La Planeta Segreto that we've had in restaurants several times (and enjoyed), or maybe a newer vintage?

F2F is OK; I like the banquette and remember the old etiquette that the lady only has her back to the room if she is not the wife of the gentleman (something like that...Ah, Emily Post!). Of course I have never been the wife of the gentleman, but I greatly prefer the banquette. I also have a great fondness for sitting at right angles at a square table, for the reasons stated: hand-holding, food sharing, the occasional low-key snog (terrible manners, I know). It also permits more knee bumping and possible footsie. It also lets you get through dinner if you're in that heightened place where, if you look each other in the eye for long, you have to "get a room." I can't remember sitting side-by-side, but I think I would like that, too.

I haven't made it to C yet, but I like Raincity Grill...only eaten there once, but it was very good. You should probably be happy that you're missing DOV, since a large party might be hard to accommodate this late in the game. You could always ask for a similar set menu, though.

I hardly ever spend more than $30 at the liquor store, and most of the time, it's half that (except if it's Champagne, of course) but I routinely spend $80 or $100 (or more, if my dad's paying! mmmmm, Lynch-Bages) in a restaurant, and I can't quite figure out why that is!

Ohhhhh! Thanks!