Vancouver Lee

Vancouver, can you fill me in on what Hawaiian BBQ is all about? I've never heard of this type of cuisine...

I didn't think they were open yet. I used to drive by there evry day before 12th Ave was closed, and their windows were still papered. I just called them to enquire, and I *think* they may be open now.....the person who answered the phone who spoke next to no English.

Nope, the King Burger is even larger. Each patty is a half pound, IIRC, making the Double King a whopping 1 lb of beef. A double King and six Krispy Kremes. Makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

To each his own, Neil. I may just have to stop by an A&W and try their rings so I can compare.... I'm not a milkshake guy, so I can't speak to the FatShake. But I'm impressed with your humility.... The burgers you make at the eGullet Temple (otherwise known as the HSG) are in a different class altogether. IMHO, your lamb burger, the Feenie burger. etc should not be compared to a FatBurger or a VeraBurger. Different markets, different kitchen, etc. Re the bun specifically, on a fast food burger like the Fatty, I actually like the Wonder bread-ish bun.... I resemble that comment.....

Peppyre, Daddy-A and I had lunch today at Fatburger on Denman, just a few doors North of Vera's. The restaurant is probably 50% larger than your average Vera's, with four times the staff. Everyone was very friendly, not a Squidward in sight. You place your order at the cash, pay, and your food is delivered to your table. It took about 5-10 minutes for our food to arrive, which I'm sure depends on how busy they are. They started getting slammed as we were finishing our lunch, and one of the staffers still found time to come to the table and offer to refill Arne's drink. I had the Double Fatburger with cheese, which was, as I discovered *after* I ordered, 2/3rd of a pound of beef. Available toppings are fairly standard, except that no mushrooms are available. I had bacon, lettuce, tomato, mustard and relish. It was as close to a perfect fast food burger as I've ever had, bar none. Lean meat but not tough or flavourless. Soft bun that was just the right size in relation to the rest of the burger. Cheese that was fully melted and added some flavour. Fresh condiments, too. Yummy. Sorry, no photos. The fries, based on the ones I stole from Peppyre are pretty good. They are very very thin, lightly salted, and cooked just shy of crispy. A tad overcooked to my taste, but being that thin it works for me. The onion rings, however, were AWESOME. Perfectly cooked, battered rings without feeling greasy or heavy. When you go, you must try the rings..... My meal was $14 and change, but the relatively high cost was due to the double burger being quite a bit more than the single. My companions had a more human-sized serving and their lunch was ~$8, IIRC. I'm sure we will hear from them shortly.

My restaurant dining has slowed recently, now that I'm "on sabbatical" and not making any money. Old habits, however, die hard: Last Sunday: Burger Club at the Rodeo Drive-In. In a word: awful. I had to take a shower when I got home. See the Burger Club thread for details. Monday: The Waiterblog dinner at Fiction. As good as the Rodeo was bad. Tuesday: Cheeseburger and fries at the restaurant in Boundry Bay Airport. I was studying hard and not paying any attention to my food, so I can't tell you much about it. I'll be starting a thread in Adventures in Eating called "The $100 Hamburger" shortly to discuss airport lunch counters/restaurants and will provide an update there next week. Thursday: dinner at Incendio West. The Montreal pizza was as good as ever, but the surprise of the evening was how terrific the Pomodoro sauce on my son's Kid's Size Spaghetti was. Big chunks of fresh tomatoes in a beautiful home made sauce - very very good. Sadly, the service wasn't as good as the food, but whatcha gonna do when it's pizza you crave? Friday: Lunch at Fatburger on Denman: Watch our Vera, there's a new sherriff in town. See the Burger Club thread for details.

Not the most user-friendly web site, but on the links page they indicate that The Salmon Shop at Granville Island Market carries it, along with Sasamat Seafood in North Van. I'll try to head down to the market tomorrow and see what I can find.

Wow - that big? ← Hey man--6" x 6" x 8" is not that big. Give me some credit here. I could down that baby in no time. ← Just kidding, Lorna.

My better half mentioned an article she read recently that mentioned sea asparagas. Apparantly it's more delicate and less woody than regular asparagas, and it's in season now. It sounds interesting, and I wondered if anyone knows where to find some here in Vancouver?

You may not end up in the harbour... what will really get me suspicous if there is a notable improvement in their meat sauce. ← roflmao!

Wow - that big?

Excellent news. I'm sooooo looking forward to this.... Nobody seems to care that people regularly spark up Cheech-and-Chong-sized joints at the beach, so I'd imagine we'd be fine as long as we keep it discreet - like perhaps drinking out of plastic cups as opposed to very obvious-looking wine glasses....? Given the size of the crustacean Canucklehead had, I'm thinking we could ride them out to Peppyre's place, a la Aquaman and the dolphins he used to ride! Too many cartoons with my son this evening, methinks.

Any idea roughly how much KnifePro would charge for a residential visit to sharpen 4 knives?

Tavern in the Park? This was going to be one of my suggestions. I enjoy the food there and they are very accomodating. It's also beautiful nestled in the middle of Assiniboine Park (City Park). ← Yes, that's it. Tavern In The Park Web Site

I seem to recall having a fantastic meal at a restaurant located in a park beside the river. The place was located in an old mansion, and at least some of the tables were located in a big conservatory out back, with a view of the river. Sorry, but I can't recall the name......

That's Dario's (http://www.lapiazzadario.bc.ca/). I completely forgot about that place. Really good italian food and wine list. ← I was thinking of Dario's, too, but it's not very casual. I think Shelora was looking for "cozy booths" and small plates, IIRC.

What a great idea. I'll bring the Old Bay.

On the subject of building your own, one of the issues is what happens if there is a power outage? I'd imagine that the wine storage companies have a disesel generator to keep the AC running, but doubtful you'd have such a thing at home (unless Casa Talent comes complete with a nuclear fall-out and Y2K survival shelter). Back in the days when I renovated houses for a living, there was an excellent article in Fine Homebuilding magazine on how to convert a corner of a basement or a small room/large closet into a wine cellar. I'll poke around here for it later, I may have kept the article.

So what happened y'all? I've heard nothing from the club except *Deborah* whining about driving outside of city limits It must have been so good you're keeping it as a secret right?? I'm in the area next week ... should I drop by? A. ← Daddy-A, I've been known (on more than one occasion) to drive 350 km (each way) for a good burger, so please don't think my whine was about the drive. Edited to correct the distance. ← Good for you, Deborah. I'm happy to see that I'm not alone in my willingness to go to extremes in the pursuit of the perfect burger. One of the reasons I'm learning to fly is to expand the geographic area over which I can conduct my search... After last night, the search must clearly go on. Last night we got the car tuned up, fired up the GPS and headed off to the exotic wilds of South Surrey for a night at the Rodeo Drive-In. From the road, the place has promise. It's clearly been there for longer than I've walked the earth (over 40 years, according to Mooshmouse's Uncle), and is sufficiently larger than your average roadside burger joint to make one assume they are very successful, ergo they must serve good food. (I threw in the word "ergo" for your sake, Ling. ) The menu is pretty standard burger and fries fare, but with several deep-fried additions: mushrooms, fish, etc. There is a regular single patty burger, a doouble patty burger called the "Rodeo" and a triple patty option called, appropriately, the "Rambo Burger". I opted for the Rodeo. The burger comes with fried onions, lettuce, tomatoes and some type of pinkish mayo that I presume is a secret sauce. Other condiements like ketchup and mustard are self serve, and 'shrooms and bacon are available, too. The bun had a crust but was properly soft, just the way I like it. So how was it, you ask? Well, the tomatoes were very fresh. And the burgers are made of real meat. That's about all I can say in favour of the burger. The patties are shamefuly small and of uneven thickness, which as Deborah pointed out above, provides you the unfortunate experience of many bites of bun-and-condiments, and a few bites of lotsa-meat-less-of-everything-else. We debated what kind of cheese was being used, or more correctly what it's atomic weight was. Clearly it wasn't cheddar or some other naturally-occuring variety. Here's a photo (note the strange resemblence that my burger has to an angry crab....): The fries were quite good, but the onion rings were not. I tried one of Mooshmouse's deep fried mushrooms and honestly could not swallow it for all the grease. Yuck. The shakes, of which there are numerous varieties to choose from, were disappointing, too. My wife tried the chocolate shake, which was essentially vanilla ice cream with a squirt of chocolate syrup in the middle. The shake menu: One interesting thing about the shakes: it seems they have a gingerbread shake available: Out of respect for Neil, no one tried it. I hear the HSG's crack legal team are working on a massive lawsuit as you read this. ******************* Next Burger Club: Feenie's on July 17th at 7:00pm. I suspect demand will be high for this event, so I'll call the good people at Feenie's this week and inquire about how many people they can accomodate. Stay tuned.

I'm heading downtown to TNT on Monday, if you (and anyone else) want to join me for a "fishing" expedition....

Who uses this word, seriously?! A few days ago, I noticed (Vancouver) Lee using the word "curio" in one of his posts. And Joie uses "magnanimous" sometimes. Egullet is running amok with word-geeks. ← I'm flattered that you have included me in your list of work-geeks, truly I am. But I can't take credit for "curio" unless it's a typo, or my memory is failing badly. Could it have been Canucklehead, perhaps? And I totally agree with you about the unusually high level of literacy here. It's one of the things I love about eGullet.

Excellent choice of words. Lee, for the record, how many pounds was that guy?

The same size as a small dog? That lobster could eat a small dog! Better keep Ringo and Grommit away from the Canucklehead residence, Arne! Lee, I too implore you to share your experience with this giant crustacean. (Having visions of Lee backed into the corner of his kitchen with a carving knife, attempting to keep a giant crazed lobster at bay)

Oyster Guy - you are psychic! I was just down at TNT to get what I think are the last of this season's crab when I saw that they were having a special on Jumbo Lobster. 6.99 a pound on lobster 5lbs-8lbs - though many of them seemed even larger. I mean they were HUGE. I have'nt bought any yet - cause I am not sure if they are good eating when they get so big (also - I feel a little guilty) Ironic that this sale happens in the same month as the C Sustainability lunch. Please tell me I don't have to feel guilty..... ← 8 pound lobsters???? I may have to get one of those just to see what they taste like. Wanna share?

We slather the rosemary raincoast crisps in Boursin. Does Boursin count as cheese?