*Deborah*

Doesn't Ming Wo have an annual Wusthof sale? I can't remember when, though. Maybe someone else does...

I have a suspicion there was some Dom Pérignon involved, or some Cristal. Or maybe both! 25 persons @ $16,000 = $640/person...-20% tip...$510/person...one bottle of Champagne (at restaurant prices) per person, and dinner. Is that what it works out to, or is my math hopeless? I mean if you look at it that way, it's not so crazy. I had more than one bottle of Taittinger on New Year's Eve. Edited for my retarded math. I checked on a calculator and now it's down to just about $500/person, before tip.

(Oh, and in the interests of truth-in-advertising, I have nothing against alcohol or tipsiness, but the last few bachelorettes I have run into downtown have included girls SO splifficated that I expected them to pass out any second! A frat-party sort of inebriation...I don't mean to sound prudish or anything )

Oh, a bachelorette that does not include copious amounts of alcohol: how different, how sensible, how much money you will save! excellent! I have not been to Cru but everyone on this board has a great opinion of it; Parkside I can heartily recommend. Bistro Pastis usually has a Table d'Hote in your price range, too. I second the comment that most restaurants are casual by comparison to other cities I've eaten in. But if your party wants to dress up, then I think you should be happy and dress up. There have been nights I've gone out and seen everyone in slacks and trendy/sloppy clothes, and there have been nights I have been pleased to realize that Vancouverites do own "little black dresses" in which to dine, so go for it, and don't worry about whether the room appears a little casual.

$60 including wine/liquor? That's a tall order....hmm, I will see if anything fabulous springs to mind. I think it's a great idea though!

Neil: you're welcome Joie: sorry you didn't hang around! Canucklehead: every Tuesday! Butter, Arne, Mike, Lee, Lorna: nice to meet you! Keith: oh, darn, I don't like goat cheese! But I can always have a Chicken Club or a nice pizza Kolachy...

Oh, I can't count that high.

My peeve is menus (and, by extension, websites) with typos. When I go to the website of a restaurant where I expect to drop a few hundred dollars on dinner, it's shocking to me that nobody knows/cares enough to make sure that they spell their wine names correctly, or menu items. I mean I'm a copy editor/proofreader by vocation, but still. I went to one Whistler restaurant's website recently: their wine list is so special that it doesn't even have prices for half of the bottles, and they have a great great reputation for providing wonderful food and wonderful service. Nonetheless, their website has broken links, sloppy workmanship, and they quote a Bon Appétit rave review--except they spell it Bon Appetite. It doesn't inspire confidence!!

Oh, if I could make that, I'd weigh 500 lbs. Memories of American truck stops...

So will I OH and tomorrow is the last day for Marsala chicken, they said, I had one today (Kolachy on Monday--what a concept!!). See you there

It's yummy.

I think no-one has mentioned the Kolachy Shop! Shocking!

I like them in red sauces sometimes, and on pizza...I know they are rubbery, and theoretically gross, but I think of them as another vegetable than a fresh mushroom, sort of...their own entity. I used to really like B in B brand, but I don't see it any more, so I don't get them often. I used to have a cat that loved all kinds of canned vegetables (from soup) and he had a real thing for mushrooms... I like fresh mushrooms, as well, so don't despair of me!!

Ha, I went to Earl's there in September and was told that I had no choice of salad dressing on my starter salad, it "came with" whatever it was (some balsamic concoction or other, and I wanted something creamy). I was so shocked I didn't insist. Won't be returning anytime soon.

My signature main course is nice in summer: a Sea Bass (or Halibut, I feel really guilty buying Sea Bass now ) filet, a good inch thick, baked en papillote on a bed of Italian parsley, lemon grass, cilantro, ginger, and lime. Served with jasmine or basmati rice, and steamed or lightly sautéed baby bok choy and baby carrots sautéed in butter and fresh grated ginger. For winter, maybe an Osso Buco with Risotto Milanese, or maybe my pork tenderloin with a sour dried cherry/Nebbiolo reduction, served with skins-on garlic mashed potatoes or the mashed potatoes with sautéed leeks...ye gods. I need to find those sour dried cherries again, my source dried up.

I am the office birthday cake-maker, and bake something over a dozen each year. We have had the gamut in the 8 years I've been doing it, from simple yellow cakes to carrot cakes with lemon cream cheese icing to all kinds of cheesecakes (best way to make a cheesecake, if you're single: have your company pay for the ingredients and you only get/have to eat one slice!! I can't bake for myself or I'd never fit my clothes). The ones with the most repeat requests: chocolate (or other) layer cake with an Epicurious milk chocolate icing (I think it was Bon Appetit's cover recipe last Fabruary, it includes a custard, and is sweet but SO worth the effort); a fresh banana layer cake with cream cheese/butter icing; key lime mousse cake with a gingersnap crust; English toffee cheesecake; and the new less-sweet fave: Gramercy Tavern Guinness Cake, also off epicurious.com. That is a rich Bundt cake, very very moist, very spicy, not very sweet, and served with a nice spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream (which you can add vanilla to, or a capful of whiskey). Yum!

48, if I'm counting correctly. My oldest is a Chatelaine Magazine general cookbook that was my grandmother's; it includes her clippings from The Vancouver Sun and other places for some dreadful stuff I'd never make but I wouldn't get rid of them for anything. My newest are the big Gourmet one and the Cook's Illustrated baking one (woo!), and the new Jamie Oliver. My two most-books cooks are Jamie (I get a new one each Christmas) and Jacques Pépin, bless him. La Méthode was the first serious cookbook I ever got. My two prettiest are the Lumière book and the Bishop's book, both designed by a guy I was lucky enough to take a design class with at Simon Fraser University. The only one I've gotten overseas is Alastair Little's Keep it Simple, which is a nice little book. The type of cooking with the most representation is baking, specifically wedding cakes: I'm baking one for my girlfriend's wedding in a few weeks (eek!). The one to which I refer most often is probably my (updated) Fanny Farmer, just a really good general cookbook. That or Jacques Pépin's Sweet Simplicity for Mémé's Apple Tart, which is Deborah's Apple Tart as well People think I'm weird because I will spend a day reading cookbooks. Well, you people don't, I'm sure. That's why I like it here!!

Completely off-topic, but the kind of thing I like to comment on: "Gypsy" I assume is like Gypsy cab--which, now, just means "unlicensed", however derogatory to the Romany people it may have been in the first place. (Of course I didn't read the linked article and to serve me right, it doubtless describes the roaming, romantic, Johnny Depp-like gypsies in their caravans...) Wiener dogs, to my knowledge, are Dachshunds, emphatically not Schnauzers. A Schnauzer is like a small Airedale or other curly terrier, with grey hair, and a Dachshund is like an odd little Doberman whose legs didn't get their share of HGH. Sometimes curly, but mostly smooth, with cute long ears like a Bassett hound. One bit my ear once, and I required stitches. I prefer Wiener Schnitzel to Wiener dogs--or Wiener sausage--any day. [/off-topic] Interesting concept, though: a dining club that hires a chef and a location to create an "event" periodically. It sounds like fun, and possibly the basis of a decent mystery novel. Joyce Christmas, anyone?

No gurantees obviously, but there is often on-street parking there on Beatty. Failing that, there is a parking lot entrance right between the 7-11 and the Kolachy Shop.

No, I mean it's the weekly special, and it's the end of the week!!! Don't worry, the other ones are great as well, though! and the Navy Bean soup has some still-al-dente beans, but on the whole is just yummy. Nice sausage in there.

Oh am I loving this Marsala chicken one! Hurry if you haven't had one yet, there weren't many on the tray, and I think it's the last day!!

Hey, I'm the first person in line to kick Bill Daly somewhere painful, believe me. Of course if the Canucks weren't in their current situation, I wouldn't be able to afford to do the other things I have been doing this season, including extra DOV dinners and many many live concerts. But I miss my lower bowl seat, and seeing the pre-game skates, and the overpriced Heineken. And actually I don't want them to come back now, I have the rest of the season's ticket money earmarked for a vacation in the spring. Actually, forget the Brewhouse, can somebody explain to me why you have to buy a burger and fries at White Spot? I usually get a hotdog instead or a piece of pizza instead of a Triple O, which is often what I really want, because their fries suck.

Ha! I'd happily eat there, though, if it would bring back my Canucks.

Nice Osso Buco at Villa del Lupo on Hamilton. Mario Batali has a good recipe for it (and Risotto Milanese, the classic companion) in one of his cookbooks, though, and I was able to do it well, so it can't be that hard...try making it yourself! Edit: Oop, I was too slow.

So, hmmm...a little ginger jelly to settle your stomach after the overindulgences of the past several weeks? Good to see you, indeed.