Vancouver Lee

Dinner last Friday was take-out from Hikari at Broadway and Cambie. The best thing I can say about this place is that I can see it from my house and therefore be back home eating within 15 minutes of realizing I want sushi in the first place. The food is decent and reasonably cheap, and on a Friday night when you are too wiped to cook, it works. Lunch yesterday was at some nameless Japanese all-you-can-eat place on 4th in downtown Calgary. Service so indifferent and food so bland I didn't bother to write down the name of the place. Serves me right for eating Sushi in Cowtown. Lunch today was at Stormin-Norman's Spirit Grill to do some pre-Burger Club reconnaisance. I'm not going to give away too much and spoil the fun of discovering a new place, but suffice to say it's really good. I had the Mixed Wild Meat burger and it was terrific. Really looking forward to the 16th!

Dear God, how could I have forgotten that? Gingerbread Pudding at HSG is a must-try on any culinary tour of Vancouver.

Paging Canucklehead...... BTW, you might also add Cru and Chambar to your list of restaurants to visit. They don't get the press that a Lumiere or a West gets, but they are, IMHO, just as good. You're going to love the weather right now. Hurry up and get here before it goes away! Enjoy your visit and be sure to post your impressions.

That sounds like a plan, Badiane. I might even be able to talk the folks at the airport into letting me into their kitchen with my camera and documenting the whole thing for eGulleteers to see for themselves. Once I'm legal to fly with passengers I'll let you know.

We're pretty casual for most Burger Club outings, no advance reservations required unless the place we're visiting is small. But PM's are always welcome, nice to know how big a turn out we're going to get. Yet another interesting idea for future Burger Club outings.

Ikea gravy??? Please explain - inquiring minds want to know.

Never one to back down from a challenge, our next Burger Club will officially change to Stormin' Norman's Wild Meat Grill. Sunday October 16th at 6:30pm.

Indeed it does, Andrew. A true Canadian right of passage for Father and son alike.

....and surrounded by puck-bunnies. You must also sample the lamb burger with yam fries. I believe it's only listed on the lunch menu, but if you ask nicely, I suspect they'll likely see what they can do for you in the evening (workload permitting, of course).

My dear Thoughtbox, that was one helluva first post! Bravo. Any place with "Stormin" and "Wild Meat" in the name has to be good. And warning me that Muskox may be too much to handle is, well.... I may just head over there tonight!

I've given that exact issue much thought. The pilot does need to calculate the total take-off weight so it's not like he was just curious, but if it were me, I'd have just estimated, added a few pounds just to be safe, and avoided the whole unfortunate incident altogether. That's my strategy when I take my wife flying for the first time, anyway. Vancouver Lee Airlines is stopping in Chilliwack tomorrow (Saturday) morning. If anyone wants pie (the edible kind, you perverts), speak up now.

We rarely get "gourmet" take-out. Like Canucklehead wrote above, if we want take-out, we get pizza or wings or chinese or maybe Greek if we're really feeling crazy. If we want gourmet, part of the enjoyment is in the preparation. Food tastes better when you cook it yourself rather than scoop it out of a styrofoam tray. One of the reasons we've chosen to raise our son in Vancovuer is the quality of life here, and part of that "quality" is the fantastic array of fresh food to be had. You can buy pre-made "gourmet" food in any old city in the world, but teaching him how much fun it can be to shop at GIM (to pick just one example), take home what you buy and whip up something great is an enriching experience on many levels.

I'm certainly no pie expert and I grew up eating pie made with canned pie filling, but the pie tasted pretty good to me. And their pie is quite honestly legendary in the pilot community in the Pacific Northwest. Is that an invitation? Is your yard big enough for a grass landing strip?

I can recommend Breakers in Tofino if you're looking for a casual take-out lunch. It's located across the street from the Co-Op grocery store. They look like mainly a coffee place (which we didn't try), but they also sell muffins, salads, sandwiches and some pretty decent pizza.

Great sunset photo, Deborah! The Burger Club train rolls on: Moderne Burger Sunday October 16, 2005 at 6:30pm. No turkey burgers allowed.

As some of you know, I've spent the summer learning to fly. It seems pilot's suffer from a common and incurable disease: addiction to $100 hamburgers. These are so named because an airplane costs about $100 to rent for an hour, and flying to an airport an hour or so away just to try their hamburgers is a great excuse to go flying. Well it seems here in the Lower Mainland, the $100 Hamburger isn't in vogue (and having tasted the hamburgers at my home airport - Boundary Bay - it's no wonder). The excuse that gets pilots flying in from all over the Pacific-Northwest is pie from the Airport Coffee Shop in Chiliwack. The pie is legendary - my ground school instructor maintains that no student who flew to Chiliwack and brough back pie for their instructor ever failed their flight test! The coffee shop has been owned and run by Barabara Mitchell and her son Jon for 25 years. Barbara does the pastry and Jon does the filling to the tune of 22 pies in 15 minutes. They have 50 varieties available but to keep things manageable they rotate and only offer 30 at any given time, so your selection will be somewhat limited. You can call ahead and place your order for a complete pie, then fly in and pick it up. You leave a 5 buck deposit for the plate and return it next time you fly in. Very cool. So far my training has taken me to Chiliwack twice, and I've tried the blackberry, raspberry-blueberry and the rhubarb, and all were excellent. Flaky but firm crust and fillings that are crammed with fruit. Yum yum. The big sign on the wall says it all: "We Fly for Pie". I'll be flying to Chiliwack in a few days, and I'll be sure to offload some fuel to increase the allowable cargo load. PM me with your order.

Suggest you try eating it with a glass of the Bellevue Kriek. Edited for smiley insertion ← I'll second that. The marketing people from whichever company brews Kriek here (I seem to be having memory problems tonight) introduced me to this pairing at the Food and Wine Show in Calgary last winter. The chocolate really brings the cherry flavour out in the beer and they make an awesome dessert combination.

Shame on me for not knowing this person's name, but my favourite chef in the city is the person cooking at Cru. Does it say something about me that I know the somellier's name and the bartender's name, but don't know the chef's name?

Nice job on the Gypsy Soup and the salmon, everyone. They all look good. I'm seriously bummed I had to back out of the class. It sounds like loads of fun.

Wow, seems like it's been forever since I've posted here. After a summer spent mostly flying and chillin', I'm finally starting to eat again... Dinner tonight was at Tanpopo. We had the all-you-can-eat special and tried the tuna sashimi (very fresh), salmon and yellowtail nigiri (salmon was great, the yellowtail a bit tough), edamame (fine, but no salt - gotta have salt on edamame!), teriyaki chicken, gyozas (never been a big fan, but these were quite tasty), and bacon-wrapped scallops. Your basic "non-threatening choices at a Japanese restaurant" meal. All washed down with the required keg of Kirin. Lunch yesteday was at Lombardo's on Commercial. My friend had a fabulous-looking spaghetti (which he reported was terrific and was confirmed by the completely clean plate when we was done), and I had an awesome pepperoni, mushroom and black olive pizza. This was the best pizza I've had since Da Francesco's closed (a loss I still mourn). My wife and I were married 13 years ago last Sunday, and we had decided in light of recent happenings in our lives that a low key, low budget celebration was in order. We planned to stay home and just spend the evening together (something we haven't done much lately), but fate intervened and send an unexpeced babysitter our way. With nothing planned and our minds in "stay at home" mode neither of us could come up with a mutually acceptable restaurant, so we walked over to our local Cactus Club. I had the cranberry and pesto quesadillas, and my wife had the Kung Pao chicken. It ended up being exactly the speed we wanted. It was, however, still "Us", so we capped the evening off with drinks at the bar at Cru.

....don't all shout out at once.... In absence of any opinions to the contrary, Burger Club this month will be at the Jericho Sailing Club. Starting time is 6:30pm tomorrow night (i.e. this Sunday). Since it's supposed to rain, can anyone tell me if there is indoor seating?

Where the hell were you fishing, Granville Island Market? If the chef game ever dries up, at least you'll have a second career as a fishing guide.

Or a couple of bottles of water.

I know - I was seriously disappointed. They have all the same equipment as Tiny Tom's back in Gotham North, but I guess they need some additional training on how to use it. My recollection of TT's is that they take the donuts out of the fryer immediately, put the in the bag, then scoop a large spoonful of sugar on top. They pinch the top corners of the bag and flip it over, thus closing it up tightly. You then take away piping hot donuts and you get to shake it around yourself and distribute the sugar. Maybe during the PNE when they are doing more volume the donuts get served quicker....... Anyone know their dough recipe? I'd like to take a crack (pun intended) at making these at home...

THAT will get me back to the PNE. One word of advice: sell tickets and fund your kids university education.