Ducky

Yes there is an excellent place at the very end of the main street right by the sea. I cannot remember the name for the life of me but it has a small outdoor terrace - and you enter the restaurant from the left when you are facing the water. You will find it if you look for it. It's a rather small place - but the kitchen is really first rate. We chanced upon this last summer - and went back several times and loved it each time. Perhaps someone else will know the name.

When I was a lad, this line was frequently used as an argument for not getting married. In that context the line had some merit - or so I thought - until I discovered that buying the cow has its own rich rewards which have very little to do with drinking the milk. I think there may be some parallels here.

Bao Chao is also cash only. Of the two, Bao Chao is the one located next to the greasy spoon. ← Bao Chao is also very greasy. Something very unappetizing about this place in my view. I much prefer Le Petit Saigon just a few doors east. Better Pho, charming service and at least an attempt at a charming ambiance.

We're regulars here - as it is in the neighbourhood - and are also fans. The decor? What can you say when designers want to be trendy at any cost? Problem is trends change and today's cool is tomorrow's kitsch. In my view "comfort" should always be the principal design criteria for restaurants - but this view is apparently not widely held in Vancouver. That said, the ceviche at Baru is always good - as is the striploin. My wife absolutely swears by the mango-pork loin, and indeed this dish is the principal reason for our regular return visits. We find it helps to do a few serious shooters before going to Baru. Helps with the decor, the silly chairs and the hipsters.

I would start with a dozen oysters at Rodney's, limber up with Toshi's marinated tuna salad and then really get started with the duck liver salad at Le Gavroche and a lobster bisque at Le Crocodile. Then it would be time for some serious food. A porterhouse steak at Mortons, up the street for a vintners duck at Don Francesco, across to Yaletown for a flame grilled chicken and mushroom risotto at Cioppinos...and then...well we might as well continue east for some pork and clams at Senhor Rooster. To finish I would head back to Le Gavroche and do some serious damage to the cheese trolley.

You nailed it already. I like to cut them quite small and then sautee them in butter with some finely chopped shallots and salt and pepper. Sometime I add some garlic and/or finish them with chopped parsley. They are also brilliant with a bit of bacon or shredded Serrano ham. My old dad has been collecting these somewhere near Mount Baker for years - and always seems to have a freezer full. He's promised to show me where this is. Like Jamie, he also loves nothing more than a bad pun, and has for years been referring to this location as "the morel high ground".

Brilliant! And you are just down the road. I will check out Albert Lee on my next visit. Liebherr is one of those companies you just have to believe in: like Porsche or Linn Audio or Apple or Leica or Lagavulin or Harley Davidson or The Folio Press.

These are very beautiful units. We know the Liebherr brand from Europe - but I had no idea they were being sold in North America with 110-120volt power. They are beautifully built. The Porsche of refrigerators! FFB: Can I ask where you found these????

Indeed!

Let me recommend you to Sushi-ya, above McDonald's at the Marketplace. We have been eating there for years - and prefer it to the other Sushi places at Whistler. It's not quite as chic - the location is not what you would call romantic or charming. But the food is always very fresh and expertly prepared, and you can usually get in - if you get there early. Try the Cambell River Roll - or ask Rob, the big Gajin sushi-chef, to make you some of his special tuna nachos.

There's a chain we came across in Georgia (I forget the name) that markets itself under the slogan: "If the Colonel had made chicken this good he would have been a General!"

The long and short of the linked threads is that there really is no great Greek food in Vancouver today. There is a great deal of very mediocre Greek food and some fine slow-cooked lamb...and that is it. If any of you have followed the career of that old pirate Arastides Pasparakis (formerly of Orestes on Broadway) - you will be aware of the developments in the Greek food scene in Athens in particular - but also elsewhere in Greece - and even in Istanbul. We were recently in a restaurant in Athens called "Maritsas" which has been a popular spot among the cool Kolonaki set (a bit like our Yaletown set) for years. It serves only classic Greek food, but prepared with imagination and great care and it is absolutely stunning. Great market niche in Vancouver. And Arastides would be happy to consult on the menu!

I have to admit, I like the look of the Traulsen! I've heard good things about them too. Very reliable. For really good appliance info, give THIS site a visit. A. ← Brilliant link Daddy-A! Those Traulsens look very cool. Do you know anywhere in our neck of the woods where one can have a look at a Traulsen?

It tastes nothing like the cod liver oil you were forced to drink as a child. It has a rich creamy, almost nutty taste with a very light and fresh fish finish. It is really a sensational taste - which for sheer luxury and decadence can, in our view, hold its own against foi gras - particularly when pan-seared. Foie gras, at $30.- a tin, is a popular luxury food despite the issues of force feeding etc. to say nothing of it's questionable nutritional value "Foie de morue" (as the cod liver is marketed here) on the other hand, at $3.- a tin, has none of those issues - and has an equally rich and decadent taste. Curious is it not? The price of fashion! And Jackal: I was under the impression that Iceland has always maintained a cod fishery in its waters (and this is just a by-product of that fishery) and that that fishery is - or would be - sustainable absent overfishing by other nations. At least that is what I would like to think in order to justify continuing to purchase this product.

If you happen to have read Guenther Grass's "The Tin Drum" - and his highly evocative description of catching eels by fishing with a old horse head on a string and waiting until the eels have burrowed their way into the horse's cranial cavity before pulling the whole mess out of the canal...well, you will not be ordering an eel pie anytime soon.

The other day we came across some fine looking canned cod liver at our local purveyor of fine foods, and, on a 15 year-old McCallan single-malt induced whim, decided to buy the entire shelf. (At only $3.00 C dollars per tin, this was not as extravagent a whim as this may at first appear.) Now the brand on the tin is "S&F" - and it is from Iceland (where the water is cold and the cod is pure) and it contains only pure cod liver "packed in it's own juice". What could be wrong with this? As a youth I was given cod liver oil - both as a tonic and in gel-cap form - and this seems to have served me very well. We decided to experiment at home with these tins - and I will spare you the details here - but this is one very, very fine product. Indeed, after an afternoon of experimentation we both concluded that we prefer it to foi gras. And we would like to continue to believe it is good for us - but would be interested to hear if anyone on this board has any advice to the contrary. Our favourite version ( of many favourite versions!) was just to sear the pieces straight out of the tin in a very hot non-stick pan for one minute per side. Then you take the cod liver out of the pan with a slotted spoon and place it on a pre-warmed plate. Keep the heat on "high" and sautee a handfull of finely-chopped chopped scallions (green onions) in the cod liver oil for about 30 seconds, and dribble this over the cod liver. Add some fresh ground black pepper and serve at once with a neutral cracker - such as a Carr's. This is really outrageously good - and goes exceptionally well with a good single-malt - though my wife insists that a Mersault does it greater justice. The point of this thread is to ask if anyone else has experimented with tinned cod-liver?

The place on Gilmore is great - thanks for reminding me. But Weisswurst can be found in many places. I have also seen it at Oyama on occasion - and Meinhard's. In Bavaria weisswurst with beer in the traditional Sunday morning breakfast.

Good looking - but hugely uncomfortable chairs!

The first of these looks wonderful indeed. The second one has too deep a lip on the brace that supports the top and will constantly have people hitting their knees - particularly those seated at the corners. We made the mistake of buying a similar table once. The ideal table should be old and very comfortable and not fussy. It must be out of wood - and perferably old wood. Glass and metal is cold and soul-less. You should be able to spend long evenings at it without being afraid to spill some sauce or some scotch on the surface. It should have a history, and texture and character. Critical also in my view is that is large enough to permit chairs with arms. Armless dining chairs do not make for long and comfortable evenings - and that is a mistake. I am regularly amazed how often we see completely uncomfortable and impractical tables and chairs when we are invited out. Many people buy (or worse - have their decorators buy) their dining room sets principally by reference to whether it matches the carpet and drapes! Yikes!

I have never quite understood the SZ bashing on eGullet. Could it be that the newer models are more cheaply made - a bit like all the cheap Cuisinart c__p appliances that are flooding the market? We have a large built-in SZ that has been absolutely trouble free for the past eight years. Yes you have to vacuum around the heat exchangers once or twice a year - but that is all.

Currywurst is the most popular fast food in Germany - but virtually unknown outside of that country. I know of no one that serves it in Vancouver - though of course it is dead easy to make on your own. You need some appropriate Weisswurst (mixture of veal and pork) - which you can get at many German butchers (Grimm, Freybe, the place at 49th and Fraser or the German sausage guy on Granville Island.) You grill this very slowly and then bathe it in a sauce of diluted tomato paste (or ketchup - though this is rather gauche) and curry powder with small amounts of cayenne, paprika and worchestire sauce added to taste. The addition and proportion of these latter three ingredients is the subject of much debate among devotees of this dish and accounts for the regional variations in the taste of this dish acoss Germany. Most non-Germans don't understand what the fuss is all about - and in my view it is one of those foods that is so deeply rooted in the landscape and psyche of its home country - that it is probably best left there. A bit like kim-chee in Korea, or fried dough in Spain or Retsina in Greece.

Does anyone else have the impression this fine restaurant suffers from a silly name? I have recommended it to various friends, and my recommendations have been ignored - largely I think because people assume it must be some tacky Mexican KFC knock-off. Given Vancouver's current infatuation with one word restaurant names that tell you absolutely nothing about the restaurant, the owner or the food being served (eg. Lift, Nu, Rare, West, Brix, C, Fiction etc etc) I though we might do Daniel a favour and brainstorm a trendier name for his establishment. How about "P" (for Portugal or Pork)? Or how about "East"? Or how about "Alogna" which is Angola spelled backwards? Any suggestions?

Bosa is on Victoria - a few blocks south of Hastings. It is probably the best place in town for various Italian items. Parmesan, Cannelli beans, dried fish, anchovies, olive oil etc etc - and their Mortadella is the very best this side of Bologna.

Well, it was another Senhor Rooster night for us and once again the dodgy trip into the eastern nether regions of this town was well worth the time and effort. Just three words: "Pork with Clams". What a glorious dish! A perfect mixture of land and sea in a light and subtle sauce of wine and clam juice with various herbs and spices. Years ago I slummed around the south of Portugal (Faro) for six months or so, and I remember having this dish (or something very much like it) on more than one occasion and thinking that it was a sufficient reason to spend more time in that part of the world. It was...and I did. If you have ever been to Faro (or Portugal generally) and your time there was even remotely memorable, you owe it to yourself to re-live those days with a bottle of vinho verde and a plate of pork and clams at Senhor Rooster.

...the line between culinary art and culinary kitsch is often a fine one - as this nicely illustrates.