snacky_cat

I have returned from the wind-swept prairie to file my report on Boffins, which hosted about 50 of us for a private function last Thursday night. The room is ideally suited to these sorts of private get-togethers - we sat at big rectangular 8-tops, close enough to other tables to lean over and steal their bottle of wine, but not so close as to be privvy to all their conversations. It made for a much nicer feel than most group sit-down dinners, where you're sprinkled at round tables like at a wedding and you feel like the chicken dance could erupt at any moment. I'm not sure what the place would be like on an "ordinary" evening - it's pretty spacious and is located in an out-of-the-way bit of the campus, so I can't imagine it being too busy in there. The room itself is lovely - totally un-Vancouver. It's all warm woods and and a mix of art deco/arts and crafts furnishing and decoration. I'm a big dork for the Frank Lloyd Wright/Charles Rennie Mackintosh school of design, so I felt right at home. The food was decent - it was what I would expect of a big catered affair. Nothing impressive, a few blips that go along with serving 50 plates to people and constantly having to pause service while some scientist gets up and gives a speech for 10 minutes. We started with a roasted butternut squash soup, which tasted like all the other roasted butternut squash soups I have had - nothing out of this world, but yummy. I had a couple of "crunchies" in my soup - I didn't investigate too closely (while scientific observation is a virtue, poking in your soup in the middle of speeches by two Order of Canada recipeients is treading a fine line...), but I think they were spice shavings. One of them seemed like a raisin-sized chunk of cinammon stick. Next up was a house salad, some greens (along with a little nest of my arch-enemy - sprouts!) and a simple vinaigrette. Dinner was indeed bison - instead of the rib-eye steak on the menu, we were served a bison tenderloin. It was accompanied by some roasted veg, mashed potatoes, and a polenta stack topped with a bit of basil. The bison met with mixed reviews - everyone enjoyed the flavour, but we weren't able to select our level of "doneness" (I really need some sort of culinary dictionary). I guess the kitchen erred on the side of well-done, so a few of the steaks ended up overly chewy. The wonderful tenderloin at the Hammie has ruined me, so when I couldn't cut this tenderloin with my fork and have it melt apart in my mouth, I was a little miffed. Sides were tasty, though again the polenta could take a lesson from the Hammie. It needed a bit more flavour, and the cylinder of it (2 in. high, 1.5 in diameter or so) was a bit too much mush for moi. Dessert was a creme brulee with a saskatoon berry (only one) hiding in the centre. It was a little thicker than most CBs I've noshed on before - closer to a cheesecake in consistency. I was getting pretty full so I just ate the crust layer off mine. My tablemate ate his and finished off another coworker's, and he said the second one was way too sweet. And that's the Boffins report. If I were to rate it on the dining-out scale, I'd give the food a C+. If, however, I switch to the group-dinners-associated-with-scientific-meetings scale, I'd give it an A-. It's probably worth checking out on a non-catered-party evening to see how it compares.

While again navigating the well-trod path between my apartment and the Railway Club the other night, I noticed that The Kingston looks like a nice place to watch the game. They have one BIG screen in the back corner and a few smaller TVs. Their front room is pretty tiny, so even if you forget your glasses like I always do, you can read the names on the jerseys and the score from just about any seat in there. It didn't look too busy when I walked past around 9pm (or 5-2 o'clock, at that point in the game)- lots of open tables. Of course, maybe by then people had decided the game was long over and had wandered off home.

I added 1tsp of baking soda as suggested in the comments on the foodgeek recipe page and it worked out perfectly! Carrot cake is Mr Cat's favourite thing in the world, and he declared this the best recipe he's had yet.

We've done takeout from Rangoli and found that two pouches (one meat dish and one daal) will serve two moderately hungry people quite nicely, with a bit of leftovers. It usually works out to $16 or so. We skip out on buying any rice or naan - I just cook up a batch of rice at home and add some butter, salt and cumin. Cheap and cheerful

I just finished making the Frog Commissary recipe on Ling's recommendation and it turned out wonderfully! Like a few others on here, I skipped the pecan cream filling in favour of the cream cheese icing and baked the cake in 2 8" rounds. I prefer a tangier icing, so I reduced the powdered sugar a fair amount, adding a small amount at a time until I was happy with the taste. I put a bit of orange extract in too. It turned out quite well - very moist and a perfect density - not too heavy, not too fluffy. Mr. Cat gobbled up a large slice the second it was frosted and declared it a success. I haven't baked or iced a cake in donkey's years, so I was totally chuffed at the outcome. Some pictures (Patirck S - how did you get that amazing close-up a few posts above? I tried 10 shots and none came remotely close, macro mode or otherwise!) The batter - appropriate Halloween colours: One of the cakes next to the frosting: The finished beast:

I'll give you the report on Boffins next weekend, Zuke! A plane-load of colleagues and myself are off to U. Sask. for the AGM of a large scientific project we all work on. The two-day meeting is punctuated with a formal dinner at Boffins, which is a rather appropriate locale (vocabulary lesson for those who knoweth not what a boffin is: boffin=research scientist.) They have a website, with some nice photos and PDFs of all their menus. Looks yummy! We're being served some sort of "Saskatchewan red meat" according to the vegetarian warning email that went out to the group this morning, so I have all my fingers and toes crossed for the bison ribeye steak

When I was but a wee kitten, mama and papa cat would do their grocery shopping at the Woodward's Food Hall and would pacify my little cart-bound self with a pink iced doughnut from the bakery. I think the icing was some sort of faux strawberry concoction, and was fairly close to hot pink in colour. The doughnut was plain old fried round dough, no fillings or anything. I have very fond memories of this doughnut, and I dream of the day we are reunited. I would dearly love to find my pink iced doughnut in this town again. Any tips?

Heh heh, we saw you working away in the kitchen like a madman! Our out of towners LOVED it (one of them ate polenta for the first time and liked it!). The whole table went for the mixed grill and the Hanger steak was a big hit as always. The saffron risotto and scallop amuse bouche was amazing (LOVED the colour - wow), and the raviolis were plate-lickingly delicious. And I was relieved to see that the GBP was downsized into a manageable portion. I was slightly worried that 5 full-sized plates would come out and we'd have to hunt down 8 or 10 innocent bystanders to help us polish them off....

Thanks guys, you rock! The party is a wee table for 3, so space shouldn't be too much of an issue, assuming they are seated at a 4-top. All I have to figure out is the timing - if I can make there by dessert hour. Thanks again

If anybody could answer my silly question this afternoon, it would be much appreciated... Mamacat and her posse of out of town visitors are off to Lumiere tonight to celebrate a birthday. I, oh little cat of the big mortgage and the Marc Jacobs habit, do not want to cough up the asstillion dollars needed for a whole meal there. Plus, I have dinner plans already. I was thinking, though, that it might be nice to join the party for dessert and coffee at the end of the night. Then I recalled the outrageous price of water mentioned in an earlier post, and realized that my little dessert and coffee could very well represent a sizeable chunk of change. Maybe even half a Marc Jacobs-shirt-on-sale amount. Anybody know how much an a la carte dessert and coffee in the main dining room will set one back? If it's reasonable, I will make arrangements with the FOH to join the party at the appropriate point.

I'd say no, but YUM! All the okonomi-yaki I've encountered is the "integrated pancake format". God knows there is probably a proper culinary term for this, but I'm a scientist so "integrated pancake" will have to do. All of the ingredients are combined into a mush (again, I'm thinking there's probably a better word for this...) and formed into a pancake, which is then cooked and sliced into triangles for serving, usually topped by bonito (which, when it wobbles and waves in the heat, freaks out any diners who haven't seen it before. always good for a few laughs, that one.). It's not a pancake-with-toppings, it's a bricky of yummy stuff all mushed together. Less of a pizza, more of a latke. What a pedestrian explanation. Good grief. I need some sort of kitchen thesaurus.

Yeah, I brought mamacat and two out-of-town foodie visitors there the other week and we each chose two dishes - one of mine was okonomi-yaki. It was INHALED. Seriously, we had cabbage and bonito residue aorund our noses like a bunch of cheap $5 pancake whores. Ohhh so good.

Mamacat and I are in for Stormin' Normans. The menu, as I don't think it's been posted yet. You can also see a lovely shot of the Wreck Beach locale at sunset. That location shuts down in October, so you've still got time to grab a musk ox burger with a side of naked flower child if you're up for the trip down and up those stairs.

Ha ha, you missed Mr. Cat and I by one morning - we went Saturday. I think I've eaten there almost every weekend for the last two months. I very nearly had the garlic and shiitake omelette this time, knowing it was your usual, but the bacon-y apple-y goodness was too much to overcome. Did they still have the blue/blackberry jam on Sunday? That was the best jam yet, and Mr. Cat and I ordered another round of toast so we could polish it all off. We've been eating out a lot, but at all the usual suspects. The weekly bohunks go oriental night was at Connie's Cook House last night, where yet again I managed to eat my weight in dry garlic ribs. Lunch on Sunday was a glass of wine and a few quesadilla bites at Milestone's in Yaletown. I didn't care what I was eating, I just wanted to loll around on a patio close to my home and drink some vino in the sun. Seb's on Saturday morning, and dinner Saturday night was some filet mignon from the butcher's in Park Royal South - very nice cuts of meat at this place. Not the huge selection of our usual Tenderland on Granville Island, but really good quality. Had some carpaccio and mussels for dinner on Friday at the HSG (mamacat and I felt like swooning over our favourite matinee idol!), and on Thursday enjoyed a surprisingly good lunch at the SFU pub. Up until a couple of weeks ago, the pub served up fairly pedestrian fare. A couple of decent burgers, a few good salads, but for the most part, it was generic swill. They must have brought in a new chef for the fall semester, however, as the menu suddenly turned tasty over night. I had oven-baked yam wedges with tamarind aioli, while other diners in our posse had a grilled spicy Italian sausage on flatbread, a really nice looking salmon burger (more of a big fillet on a bun, Go Fish-style), and a bunch of other tasty stuff. Of course, they had to have brought the new menu in mere months before I leave this polace for good. Same thing happened when I was an undergrad at UBC - campus food options sucked royally until I was about 3 months out from finishing my degree. Jerks.

Having worked in the newsroom at a big daily newspaper (The Montreal Gazette, where I was frequently - and happily - asked to be part of the food tasting panel for the "Best of..." monthly feature in the Food section), I can attest that the editors RARELY see good food, let alone gourmet food. When your shift is 4pm-midnight and you don't get a dinner break, the only dining options are bringing your own food or ordering out from a cheap, cheap, cheap place. The guys at Pacific Press are probably on a steady diet of Domino's and Hon's. This stuff would definitely rate as "gourmet" given what they're probably used to. We rarely do the takeout option, but when we do it's Pan-o-Pan, or La Salza if I'm on the way home from Burnaby. Otherwise, the closest we get is buying some stuffed meat product or pasta from Granville Island When I first saw the list in the Sun, I was expecting some sort of epiphany, or at least one or two places I hadn't heard of. No such luck.

Ohhh, good call on Stromin' Norman's. I saw their ad in Terminal City and didn't realise they had an actual location, given as I've only seen them at, erm, Wreck Beach (NB: I am not a nudist. I just like to drink when at the beach. Really.) Their burgers are great, and there's always different game available depending on what's fresh. And if you eat at the "real" location, you don't have all those issues associated with eating food prepared by a naked dude. I think a hair in the food on The Drive is a lot better than a hair in food at Wreck Beach. That being said, Wreck Beach is probably one of the best outdoor restaurants in this town. Aside from Stormin Norman, there's Nudious Foodious, purveyor of naked souvlaki and other Greek treats, the Peruvian empanada lady, the naked crepe girl, and all the cold beer you could want. I'm sure this will warrant its own thread come next summer. For now, get thee to Stormin' Norman's!

Oooh, thanks for the heads-up on Minoas. Mr Cat and I tore out the Entertainment Book coupon for this place months ago and keep meaning to go, but our dinner peregrinations rarely take us out Burnaby way. I will upgrade this place to must-try-soon status thanks to your review

You forgot the 7-up, dude. I think none of us would have a problem with a highball glass full of wine for $8.25. What we have a problem with is a highball glass with what works out to a shot glass or two of wine fortified by a bunch of 7-up. For $8.25, you should at least be able to taste a BIT of wine in the sangria, which was certainly not my experience with the white variety. The lychee was pretty yummy, though. Props to the lychee.

On any given evening, at least two or three eGulleteers are in the Hammie. I was there (big party of 20 in the elevated dining area) last night, it seems g-man was there too, and I swear I saw Andrew's head bob by as he and Neil wandered out the door chatting Awesome steaks, as ever. We were throwing a goodbye party for two of our departing postdocs, one of whom arrived in our lab 3 years ago an avowed vegetarian. We sent him back to Europe last night full of the king of steaks, the New York strip loin.

We finally got out to Aurora on Saturday night - since my new mortgage-lightened pockets can't spare the $$$ for the Monday night dinner, I consoled myself with a Saturday night dinner date with Mr Cat. Short version for the benefit of kurtisk and chef jeff: we totally loved it and will be back a hundred thousand times. Short version for the rest of the forum readers: you are all going to have an awesome time on Monday. Long version for the detail-oriented among you: The room is gorgeous - clean, unpretentious design and lots of room to accomodate big parties (2 of which were there during our visit). You're not subjected to your neighbours' elbows entering your airspace, unlike a lot of spots around Main St. (including my beloved Seb's). Service is impeccable - lots of very warm and adorable girls who can answer any menu question you have, and one dude, who happened to be one of Mr Cat's friends from the local music scene (Mr Cat seems to know someone EVERYWHERE we go. I used to be cool like that too. Once.) I started with a Science World cocktail (sparkling wine, a bit of blue Curacao and frozen berries), as any self-respecting scientist would. It looked Smurf-tastic and went down verrrrry easy, and Mr Cat had a glass of the Red Rooster Pinot Gris. I started with a Nicola Valley Bison Carpaccio with pickled eggplant, grilled brioche and truffle aioli, which was fantastic. The bison was wonderfully rich, and I will never make my crostini with anything but brioche ever again after tasting how buttery-good it can be. I shared a bite with Mr Cat, who even liked the eggplant (he is a paid-up member of Eggplant Haters of Canada). My main was the House Made BC Venison and Fennel Sausage braised with sunchokes and cabbage in Merridale cider (consumed with the Hester Creek Cab/Merlot) and Mr Cat had the Wild BC Sockeye Salmon with heirloom tomato bisque, vanilla jasmine rice, pickled sea asparagus and chanterelle mushrooms. Both were utterly delicious. The sausage was perfectly flavoured and not overwhelmingly gamey, and the accompanying braised sunchokes and cabbage were the perfect complement, even though I still don't know what a sunchoke it. I snagged a bit of the salmon too, which was divine. And I tried my first heirloom tomato! Now I'll have to add "designer tomatoes" to my shopping list, along with designer clothes and designer bags and designer shoes. We finished off with Rhubarb Buttermilk Cobbler - lemon vanilla roiboos sorbet and got blueberry all over the table in our mad rush to shovel it in our mouths. Delicious, and that lemon sorbet was out of this world. Perfect tart accompaniment to a sweet and hot bowl of blueberry. All in all, a totally fantastic meal at a very charming spot. Not sure if I saw kurtisk around, but I think Chef Jeff put in an appearance at the table next to ours. Do your next out-of-town visitors a huge favour and take them here to show off the fruits of our fine province. And then head up Main St and hit the bingo. Yeah!

Ah Joie, thank god you weren't blogging on Saturday night. What happens at Chez Moosh stays at Chez Moosh. Nice Seb's photos - I should print these out and carry them in my wallet, since I'm always blabbing on about how awesome that place is. Maybe they'll give me some sort of evangelist's discount.

Thanks all for the great suggestions Mr Cat's brother gave us our very own Costco card on his business account, so now we can buy crap by the wheelbarrow-load. The final menu, clocking in at just under $200, is: Samosas from the place at 49th and Fraser Fujiya sushi Pan-o-Pan shells with savory cream fillings Fresh vegetables with a dip from Mamacat's recipe files Chutney cheese torte, also from the Mamacat files Hot crab dip, again courtesy Mamacat Pastry-clad brie and cranberry (M&M meats) Spinach mini quiches (homemade, with help from the 180 MINI TART SHELLS FOR $15 from Costco) Bruschetta Cheese plate (St. Andre and Herb-crusted chevre from Costco, with the megapack of variety crackers) Assorted bread things And, to appease the proletariat masses, the ubiquitous: Spinach dip Chips and salsa Shrimp ring And someone's ordering pizza in the middle of all that too. Oh, and we have a giant chocolate buttercream cake that will feed a small army. Anyway, thanks for all the great ideas. I'm sure the bland palates of the science crowd I'm feeding this all to will scarf it all down. Next time I will ask for - nay, demand, a bigger budget.

Heh heh, Memphis Blues is on the list, as is Fujiya. I thought of both those places about 5min after posting the original message. I tried to engineer an outing to Costco but every single coworker with a Costco card has let them expire over the last couple of months. Might have to hit up Mr Cat's brother and his card tonight. I was also thinking of just baking a metric assload of cupcakes tonight. Keep the ideas coming. You guys rule!

So we're having a goodbye party for two coworkers tomorrow night, and our lab was put in charge of supplying the chow at the last minute. We found out mere moments ago that we only have about $200 to spend, and this needs to feed 50-60 people. I NEED IDEAS! I'm looking for places in the Vancouver/Burnaby area that offer good deals on finger food items. Some of the things on the food list are: Samosas from the place at 41st and Fraser where they're 3-for-$1 A couple of sushi trays (anyone know a cheap good sushi tray place on the west side of Vancouver? The savory creams from Pan-o-Pan Lots of baguette and spreads/patés Olives (what's the cheapest place for these? Commercial Dr.?) Cake (need a big cheap slab cake? Suggestions? If anyone has any tips on where to find good cheap stuff, please send 'em my way. I need to get most of the shopping done tonight/tomorrow. Eeek!

The weekly Ukranians-do-Asian dinner saw us at Kedah House the other night. We ordered a mix of chicken and beef satay, roti, lamb biryani, mee goreng m____ (can't remember the last word in the name), beef teriyaki and chicken curry. All of the dishes were outstanding, and I'm quite pleased that I got to take home the leftovers The lamb biryani was probably my favourite dish - it arrives on the table and you just see rice, then when you dip your spoon in, you find a massive culinary treasure trove of large, soft, perfectly spiced lamb chunks underneath. Everything else was fantastic, with the beef teriyaki and mee goreng getting high marks from other members of the Cat family. Service was courtesy who I would assume to be the daughter, who was very sweet. She explained all the different noodle options to my noodle-crazed Dad with much patience All in all, a great place. Dinner for 5 (with leftovers!) before tip was $49.