Vancouver Lee

1. Pulled pork sandwiches at Memphis Blues on Broadway at Granville 2. Fish and chips at Go Fish.

I can second that. I watched him prepare oysters for the couple beside us at the bar on Saturday. Quite a story teller, Chris is.

Last week I completed another leg in my journey to create the perfect homemade pizza. I picked up some whole milk mozzarella at Granville Island market and.... Wow. Except - it's really really expensive. Homemade pizza is a once-a-week staple in my house, and spending $12 for the cheese every week is a bit over my budget (this from the guy who just spend half a rent payment at Bearfoot Bistro on the weekend - crazy, I know ). I've tried the mozzas you get in the grocery stories, but they are part-skim cheeses and I've never been happy with them on a pizza. Can anyone recommend a good mozza for making pizza that is a) reasonbly priced, and b) readily available? Feel free to tell me I'm asking for the impossible. It wouldn't be the first time.

I'm addicted to La Baguette et Echallote's pistachio and cranberry bread. Perfect for toast in the morning, and also yummy for making turkey sandwiches on.

The snow sucked, every muscle in my body aches, and my 5-year old refused to go back after one day in ski school, but the whole trip to Whistler was worth it after dining at Bearfoot Bistro on Saturday night. We arrived early for our reservation and asked to have a drink at the champagne bar - no problem, we were told, just let the hostess know when we were ready to be seated. So far, so good. We sat down at the bar, and waited to be served. Admired the cool champagne flute holders sunken in the iced bar, and waited some more. Read a cocktail menu, and waited some more. Watched the bartenders chatting with the wait staff and mixing drinks, and kept waiting. It was honestly 15 minutes before a bartender made eye contact with us, and asked us what we would like to drink. Thank goodness the bar service did not set the tone for the rest of the evening.... My wife had a very interesting sparkling wine - a Blue Mountain Rose. Apparently this is a very limited bottling, but if you can find it, its' worth a try. We also enjoyed listening to the Oyster Guy (his name escapes me, but I noticed he's mentioned in another thread here today). It's true, he's a great storyteller and sure knows his oysters. Once seated at our table, we were visited by a waiter pushing a martini-champagne-and-caviar trolley. He told us about their martini specials and was disappointed to see that I was still drinking the martini I ordered at the bar. My wife ordered a second glass of the Blue Mountain Rose, and he then told us about the caviar. They have several kinds available (I don't recall what they were, other than Beluga), and you can order them individually or in a sampler of all three. At that point we realized how well-oiled this seperate-you-from-your-money machine was! I don't mean that in a bad way - at no point did we ever feel even remotely pressured. I'm being complimentary when I say that these guys do a wonderful job selling the high end items. Our waiter arrived shortly after - a great young French-Canadian guy named Ben. Once I saw that there was a chef's tasting menu, I never bothered to read the full menu. We had heard so many good things about this restaurant that we decided to put ourselves in the chef's hands. Ben asked us if we had any strong dislikes or allergies, and went off to place our order. After consutling with the chef and Ben, Kirk Shaw, the Wine Director, visited us next. He recommended a by-the-glass white to go with the first two courses. He poured us a 2003 Jackson-Triggs White Meritage. I didn't know that a white meritage even existed, let alone was grown by a winery as well known as Jackson-Triggs. It's a very fruity, flavourful wine, but went perfectly with the courses. The first course was a dungeness crab and potato salad with a green pea puree. The flavour was very subtle, and thus the first bite was underwhelming, but it definitely grew on us. The green pea puree was surprisingly good - very light and silky yet flavourful in a way that whole peas are not. Second course was black cod, a dungeness crab dumpling, mushrooms and soy beans in a bok choy broth. Simply put, it was magnificent. Like sex for your taste buds. Light and silky on the tongue with the flavour of each ingredient discernable but still part of the whole. Who knew cod was so good? At that point, Kirk brought us the bottle of red wine that he recommended - a Tua Rita 2001 Giusti di Notri Rosso Toscana. We don't drink truly excellent wine very often, but every time we do we are reminded how much different it tastes from the everyday stuff we buy at the liquor store. I'm not a wine expert, so I'm afraid I can't really describe it in detail, but it was excellent. Course number 3 was a mushroom and veal cheek risotto with black truffle shavings. I have never had (or even thought to put) meat in a risotto before, but it definately worked with this dish. Deep and rich with a pleasantly woody flavour. Course number 4 was a slow-cooked lamb loin with butternut squash puree accompanied with a braised lamb and pasta terrine. The chef later told us she cooked the lamb loin at 275 degrees for 45 minutes to rare, and then she heats it up again to serve it. Simply mouth-watering. The terrine was an unexpected surprise, too. While my wife was away from the table visiting the loo, Ben asked me how well I knew my wife. Barely stifling a laugh and the funny comment I wanted to make, I told him that I knew her quite well. He asked me what I thought she would like for dessert. Only 5 minutes earlier we had discussed how we hoped there would be something chocolate for desert, and I related that to Ben. He nodded his approval and went off to get dessert for us. It turns out that something non-chocolate (we never did find out what) was on the tasting menu for dessert that night, but Ben brought us each a plate with a variety of chocolate items. There was a mousse and a flourless cake, plus three of four other things I can't recall. The mousee was excellent, the rest were very good. As we were finishing our bottle of wine, we looked up to find the chef standing at our table. We had a nice chat with her, asked some questions about how she prepared certain dishes, and thanked her profusely for the tremendous meal she had prepraed for us. It was a great touch, and added greatly to our enjoyment of the evening. Before we left, Kirk offered to take us for a tour of the wine cellar. It's located directly below the dining room and accessed by a spiral staircase right in the middle of the tables. They have 16,000 bottles there - quite a collection. With the exception of the bartenders at the start of the evening, the service thorughout the night was superb. I don't think an empty plate remained in front of me for more than 30 seconds, ever. The staff were friendly and cheerful without ever losing their professionalism, solicitious without beuing obsequious, and attentive in the extreme. The room itself feels very cozy. The ceiling is low, which certainly helps, and despite being almost completely encircled with windows, it doesn't feel cold at all. The chairs (which were custom built for the restaurant) look rather unusual but are some of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat it. The stemware is all Reidel crystal with the exception of the champagne flutes, which lack a base and sit in special 2-flute holders on each table. What else can I say? Bearfoot Bistro deserves it's reputation as one of Whistler's best restaurants. It was one of the top three meals we've ever had.

You've got mail.

Last three meals for me: Portobello and Wildflower in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, and Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler Village. Portobello: We actually ate four meals here over the last 4 days: 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches. We had the breakfast buffet both times, and it is mediocre at best. Very good OJ, at least (not quite fresh squeezed, but Tropicana I believe). Lunches included a decent wild mushroom soup, a huge tuna sandwich, and individual pizzas. Service was very good 3 of 4 visits, very bad on the last visit. Wildflower: Dinner on Friday night was at Wildflower. We had our 5 year old with us, so we passed on appetizers and just ordered the grilled sea bass (the fish of the day special). It was appallingly bad. For starters it was cool, and the fish was so rubbery you literally had to use a knife to cut it. It was accompanied by scalloped potatos (that were as good as the fish was bad) and perfectly cooked carrots. One high note was the service - it was exceptional. It was a real shame the fish was so bad, otherwise this would have a been a most impressive dinner. Bearfoot Bisto: We chose the 5 course chef's tasting menu: 1st course: Dungeness crab and potato salad with green pea puree. 2nd course: Black cod, a dungeness crab dumpling, mushrooms, and soy beans in a bok choy broth. Wine with 1st and 2nd course: Jackson-Triggs 2003 White Meritage 3rd course: Mushroom and veal cheek risotto with shaved black truffles 4th course: Roasted lamb loin with butternut squash puree and a lamb & pasta terrine. 5th course: a chocolate sampler with chocolate mouse, flourless chocolate cake, and a few other chocolate morsels that I was a bit too tipsy to recall. Wine with last three courses: Giusto di Notri Rosso Toscana 2001. Without a doubt, one of the top three meals of my life. I'll post a complete description of the dinner in a seperate thread later today.

Just got back from Whistler, too. Sorry we didn't bump into you, Ling! We had a mit-full of $50 dining coupons good at the Fairmont, so we ate there most of the time - both Portobello and Wildflower. We went out Saturday night for dinner at the Bearfoot Bistro - it was unbelievably good. Honestly, one of the top 3 meals of my life. I'll post the details in the "Last 3" thread tomorrow.

Ahhh, my kind of person - one who can be bribed with food. I'll have to give some thought to what I have of value.....perhaps my orange drop cookies? I'm off to Whistler this morning for a long weekend - will the cranberry oatmeal delights keep unitl early next week?

I feel your pain, Andrew. You're not alone. ← my e-crack is Mooshmouse's cranberry oatmeal cookies ← Those sound excellent. Darn shame I didn't discover eGullet until AFTER the cookie swap.

I feel your pain, Andrew. You're not alone.

Are you following me around Ling? We're heading up to Whistler this weekend ourselves. Sorry I can't help with any recommendations now as we've never been there before. We're going up on Thursday and if we come across anything I'll post on Friday - will that be too late for you?

Add Bis Moreno to our list. We're on a budget, too, but we couldn't resist.

In addition to the eGullet dinner at West, we were planning on trying both C and Lumiere. Now that the menus are out, C is definately on the list, but we're going to pass on Lumiere. Their menu just doesn't seem very compelling. We're big planners, too, Ling! I'll be having the soup (what the heck is a lobster knuckle anyway???), risotto and chocolate sourdough cake.

They've been open almost 2 years ... not quite what The Sun was looking for in "new". A. ← Ahhhh, that explains it. Forgive the newbie mistake, please.

Dinner for us tonight was an arugula salad with pear, apricots and asiago shavings, followed by Teriyaki chicken. We had the best intentions of making something more memorable, but a long day at work changed our minds. Hope everyone is having a safe New Years Eve. Best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2005, everyone.

Where is the Kolachy Shop???? Shocking.......

Yep, Danbry's is the one. Looks like I'll be back in Regina between Christmas and New Years, it's going to be a tough call between The Creek and Danbrys! I agree with you about Golf's. A few weeks ago I told the front desk at the Hotel Sask the same story about having a great meal in a place just down from the SaskPower building, and they said "yes, we know right where that is", and made me a reservation at Golf's. I immediately realized it wasn't the right place, but since they were busy and obviously could have offered my table to someone else I didn't want to cancel my reservation. The meal turned out to be much better than I expected. The iceberg lettuce salad was a disappointment, but the prime rib was excellent. The service was quite good, too, in a small town sort of way. Not very sophisticated (and certainly no attitude), but very competent and friendly. I'll let you know how Danbrys or The Creek is next week.

On a Sunday morning a couple of months ago, my wife and I decided to check these guys out. We visited their web site, found where they are, and headed over, and discovered the hard way they were closed on the weekends. I emailed them later that day and politely suggested they may want to add their hours to the web site. I got an email back from them Monday morning containing an apology and an offer of a free Kolachy. With service like that, no wonder the lines are long.

Vancouver Lee: I think you mentioned in an earlier post that your work takes you to a number of spots in western Canada. Have you tried The Creek in Cathedral Bistro in Regina? It was my favourite of the Regina spots I tried during a convention there. ← No, I never have. I'm not back to Regina till the new year, but I'll be sure to visit first trip in January. I did have one very memorable meal in Regina several years ago, but I can't remember the name of the restaurant. It's on Victoria, I think, just down the street from the SaskPower building and the Hotel Regina. Right next door to Golf's, I think. Had a fantastic Kenwood Zin and a tremendous sea bass. mmmmmmmm - maybe I'll have to spent 2 nights in Regina on my next trip there...

I've also been pleasantly suprised by the service at Earl's. My needs and expectations are never very great there, since I will typically go on a Friday night, when I'm burned out from the week, and all I want is a burger and a beer (or two). The staff are always pleasant, friendly and efficient, the burger is good, and the beer is cold. All I want. ← I agree. I've eaten there a lot (I have a client who loves it and wants to be taken there every time we get together) and the service is almost always good. The food is pretty decent given the price point, too.

I'm guessing your dentist drives a Porsche...

Never been there, Montrachet, but I'll be in the neighbourhood over Christmas and will check it out. Neil, thanks for the welcome. I'll definately check out Pizza Pizzaz. I don't recall seeing it, though - where exactly is it on the Island?

Editor, I think it's a combination of things... Re A life in service here vrs the EU: Agree 100%. I don't think the average person would view "professional waitperson" as a desirable career choice. Re Servers having other dreams: I think most people could say about themselves "I'm really a <insert your personal dream here> at heart", and are only engaged in their current career by economic imperatives. I don't think that negates ones ability to deliver good service. Management's bottom line focus and/or poor supervision: Here lies most of the responsibility, IMHO. Management's responsibility is to a) hire well, b) train well, and c) create a working environment where your staff can perform. All of which is easy to say, but hard to execute. It's no different than any other business, really. Hire for attitude, train well, and get out of the way and let your staff deliver. Some restauranteurs know how to get a team of people performing at a high level consistently, some don't. I suspect that is one of the differences between those who have a long track record of running successful restaurants and those that can produce great food but go out of business.

We cleverly called it "sugarbread". It was a favourite from my Dad's childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania.