snacky_cat

Heh heh, I rarely rant, but when I do, MEOW! You're absolutely right about the inefficient use of space - they have these massive booths but I rarely see more than 3 or 4 people using them. I've certainly never seen 12 people out at breakfast, which seems to be the capacity of some of those seating areas. Another picky point about Hatch is that they don't open until 9am. Now I RARELY am out and about for weekend breakfasts before 9, but I do know there is a sizeable portion of the population who are these "morning people" I've heard about, and actually eat their meals at 7 or 8am. What kind of place that styles itself as "a breakfast parlour" does not open before 9? Good grief, to quoth Charlie Brown. So yes, those of you who wake up before 9 and desire something MUCH better minus the pretense in the area are much better off going to Seb's (which opens up at 7:30am on weekends, and 6:30 on weekdays.) Check out the weekday breakfast menu and the larger weekend brunch menu for dishes and prices. In all my visits there, I have never been able to get past the bacon and caramelized apple omelette. It is so good that words fail me. I have managed to grab a few bites from my dining partners' plates, however, so I can also attest to the amazing flavours of the banana bread French toast (care to elaborate, mamacat?), the black forest eggs benedict, and the plain scrambled eggs with turkey susage. The bennies are particularly yummy - served on a fluffy country biscuit instead of an english muffin, with a creamy sauce that gives the whole thing a bit of a foccacia taste. The coffee is great (and endless, with attentive re-filling), and you never know what type of bread and preserves you'll get. It's usually some type of brownish multigrain toast, occasionally rye, and I've had marmelade, blueberry preserves, and some kind of currant/apple preserves before. They're all incredibly fresh and homemade, and pack a wallop of fruit flavour. Oh, and I musn't forget that you get a nice selection of fresh fruit with your breakfast, which usually features the extra-special fruits, like pineapple, kiwi and strawberry. You can pick up many of the foods they serve in their market area as well. It's a totally charming little neighbourhood place, very warm and welcoming. One of these days I'll check it out at dinner time - great-looking menu and very reasonable prices.

Argh, I loathe Hatch. I tried to post about it a few months back, but I had the typing equivalent of spitting-mad-inarticulacy and never ended up being able to string together a proper sentence. The food isn't bad, let's get that straight. On my first visit I had the yam/apple/sheep's cheese omelette and on my second I had the maple french toast. Both dishes were totally yummy, and I'd eat either again quite happily. What drives me nuts is the ridiculous menu, the stupid pretense, and the knuckle-dragging staff. 1. The ridiculous menu. Why restaurants insisting on putting together menus that a) require the waitstaff to translate everything into plain english and b) have menu names so absurd that they make Moons over My Hammy seem the very height of literary wit is BEYOND ME. 2. The stupid pretense. This goes with point #1. The whole menu is worded like a shitty open mic night because Hatch is trying to be "East Van". I believe the "stuffed eggs", which are "transformed with one of the flavour combinations at left" are subtitled with "they call these omelettes in Kits". If I wanted socio-cultural propaganda with my meal, I'd open a Chuck-E-Che or something. Hatch's entire philosophy reeks of the East side pride tsunami that swept over this city's underground/indie scene a couple of years back. It used to be cool to work in a record store, now the in job is working as a social worker on the Downtown Eastside. It used to be cool to have a shaggy 60s haircut and no facial hair, now the standard look is long hair with a mountain man beard. It used to be cool to go to the bars downtown, now it's the bars on the downtown eastside. It used to be cool to have money, now EI is the in thing. Anyway, Hatch may be satisfying the hirsute, tattooed thrift-store clad masses for now, but when the stylistic pendulum swings yet again in a couple of years time, that whole menu/philosophy is going to look pretty tired. 3. Knuckle-dragging staff. I've never gotten out of this place in less than an hour. They are chronically understaffed, having to call in reinforcements on both my visits (one of which was a sunny Sunday on the BC Day weekend - who only pencils in 2 staff for one of those mornings?), and the word "proactive" is lost on them. We once stood in line behind several parties of 2 and watched while two recently vacated two-tops sat for over 15 minutes waiting to be cleared. When you've got a line of 10-12 people streaming out your door and room for 4 of those people to sit down, you'd think you'd try to expedite the process, no? Anyway, I hate the place. I'd much rather go up the street to Seb's, where the food is better, the service is on the ball, and the attitudes are checked at the door.

I was locked out of Casa del Cat briefly this afternoon, so I hit the patio at George for a drink and some dessert. Not knowing how long the lockout would last, I went for a glass of Matua Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc instead of one of the many, MANY tasty looking cocktails, which I fear I would have knocked back rather too quickly than decorum (and budget) allows. The menu offers a "seasonal dessert", which at this time is a wonderful milk chocolatey mousse, topped with whipped cream, a chocolate orange nut-dusted truffle, and a sprinkling of orange, red and mauve flower petals. It was beautifully presented, and was vaccumed up extremely quickly. Only the aforementioned decorum kept me from licking the last bit of mousse out from the very bottom of the glass. Service was friendly and attentive, the place looks great, and they have an unobtrusive but pleasantly toasty patio heater which they flick on around 6, when shade takes over that part of Hamilton St.

I will add to my previous post re ælfe: Reason #4 it will not be successful: it's actual name is even more ridiculous than that smushed-vowel atrocity above. It is the Plus Alpha Global Sushi & Bar. Plus Alpha Global? That sounds like one those improbably named ESL language schools, not a restaurant. www.plusalfa.com was frosted on the window on my journey past the place today. You can see their logo, and the accent aigu is neither over the a nor the e - it's over both. Is this even a letter? Seriously dudes. Bah.

I walked past here the other night (as opposed to strolling past, like the other ladies on the block ) and saw the renovations in progress. A name has appeared on the door: ælfe. There's an accent in there somewhere too, for added confusion. Now I hate to pass judgment on a place before it even opens, but this place is doomed to failure for a few reasons: 1. Kiss of death location. This is the one block of Yaletown that has resisted yuppification. You've got hookers on the sidewalks, hookers in the massage parlour, barfights courtesy the guido clientele at Richards on Richards, some sort of fixed-income housing development across the street, a street youth shelter a block up the road, and did I mention the hookers? This block is like the 7th circle of Dante's infernal Hell and the Cozy Corner/Montenegro/ælfe space is right at its core. 2. Unpronounceable name. Is it Alf? Alfie? Elf? Eelf? Eeelfuh? Alfalfa? Dining is not supposed to be an intellectually taxing activity. 3. UnGoogle-able name. The æ is beyond most people's keyboard prowess (Alt+0230 for the curious), and Google just ends up turning it into "ae". All you get is a pile of results for some Spanish language organization. I shall watch this little corner with much curiousity.

The downtown outposts of the Mark James Group restaurants are usually a good choice. The pub side of the YBC is a good place for viewing/drinking, and last time I watched a game there, they had ticket contests going on for all the patrons. You got a MJG-edition Canucks card with a player on it, and if your player scored during that game, poof! Free tickets. At least I think that was how it worked - hockey season was a bajillion years ago and I was drinking. Dix is also another good option - it's generally (and surprisingly) un-busy at game time, and they have a big screen and usually some sort of beer/bbq cheap hockey night combo. The new Earl's in the Paramount complex looks like a good spot too - we walked past there one night and smushed our faces up to the glass to catch the last few minutes of a Lions game on their VERY VERY VERY BIG SCREEN. I could practically read the score from the other side of Hornby St.

Stopped by Mouse and The Bean for lunch today, as I waited for the consignment store around the corner to process the 87 items of cast-off clothing I brought down. I keep forgetting to bring my glasses when I come to this place, as the menu is painted on terra cotta dishes placed wayyyyyy behind the counter. As a result, I only ever end up ordering one menu item - the chicken and mushroom quesadilla. It's quite delicious - wonderfully crispy with good fresh filling. No greasy cheese pools anywhere in sight. Dinner yesterday was take-out from Rangoli. Mr Cat loves Vij's but abhors a line-up, so we finally gave Rangoli a try. We had the Khalonji Chicken Curry and the Punjabi Daal over some homemade rice (with a little butter, salt and cumin). The chicken curry was good, though the "toasted onion" flavour promised on the package was lost on me. It also had "orange fat blob-itis", which is my all-encompassing term for those little clear pools of orange-red-tinted oil/butter/grease that form on top of pepperoni pizzas and in the bottom of many Indian dishes. These little fat blobs sit high atop my list of most feared things in the world, falling only behind clowns and birds, so I skipped most of the sauce and stuck to the chicken. The Punjabi Daal was awesome - the flavours were great, as was the added heft given by beans and other chunky bits of vegetable goodness. Breakfast that morning was at Seb's, and I had my favourite breakfast dish - their bacon and caramelized apple omelette. The sweetness of the apple combined with the salty, piggy goodness of bacon is unbeatable. I also love the Seb's toast and preserves lottery - you never know what breads and what type of preserve you'll be getting, but you always know it's going to be good. Yesterday's bread was some sort of browny grainy yummy thing, and the preserve was homemade marmelade. It was so delicous, I smeared it all over my breakfast potatoes too. Mmmmm.

Just got back from another fine wine tasting at the HSG, this night being a special edition to raise $$$ for Cops for Cancer. Enjoyed the fine company of Mamacat, Mr Cat and Vancitygirl (great website, by the way, girl!), and the emceeing of Edible Vancouver Eric. Had a Hawthorne Mountain Pinot Gris paired with a delicious fried oyster (in the yummy cornmeal batter that adorns the fish of the 'fish and chips' on the menu). Followed that with a Sumac Ridge Gewurtztraminer and a goat cheese soufflé with Raincoast Crisps, which turned out perfectly, to Chef Neil's delight. Even Mr Cat, an avowed goat cheese hater, scarfed down the whole thing with much aplomb. Finished up with a Jackons Triggs Private Reserve Merlot - a 2002, which was a yummy year indeed. Paired wth a beef tenderloin - for what would a visit to the Hammie be without some cow? - atop a polenta ckae and grilled zucchini, all topped with a veal reduction. And, of course, the evening ended with some GBP. A couple of nights ago was Lolita's, which you can read about in the thread devoted to this delightful, if un peu cher, neighbourhood joint. Some random breakfasts and lunches in there takes us back to last Friday, and a dinner at Guu in Gastown with Mr Cat. Enjoyed most of the same menu items as my visit with Mooshmouse and *Deborah* shortly before, with the addition of the BBQ Beef Kalbi - a big skewer of cow-y yum. Heavy on the beef, light on the veggies - as it should be. Unfortunately they were out of the Super Happy Pudding (which, I finally realized the other day, is basically Creme Catalan - official dessert of Barcelona), so we had the Matcha Ice Cream, with a dollop of red bean paste on top.

It was pretty tasty, but I'll take your ghetto sangria any day! I'm a bargain-conscious drunk I couldn't tell exactly what was in the white sangria liquor-wise, but the fruit selection was mango and pear pieces and a LYCHEE! The lychee was completely awesome - a great addition to any white sangria. Mr Cat had no idea what it was at first, and was wondering if something mysterious, like a scallop, landed in his drink somewhere between bar and table. I made him eat it though, and he liked it.

Mr Cat and I checked out Lolita's too, a couple of nights back. I was totally gobsmacked by the price of the sangria - $8.25 gets you a highball glass. Tax is included in their prices, but c'mon - $8.25? You can get jugs of perfectly decent sangria at Guu on Thurlow for something like $11. We had an order of chips and salsa to start ($4.25, no freebies here). Salsa was the standard North American watery kind, but the tortilla chips were fantastic - freshly fried, a little puffy, and dusted with some sort of chili powder mix. They were the crispy bastard offspring of a regular tortilla chip and a piece of Bin's Navajo fry bread. Both of us opted for the tacos ($13 for two, with extra tortillas, and small side portions of rice, beans and salad). There are 4 flavours to choose from, and we each tried two of them. Mr Cat had the pulled chicken and the carne asada, which apparently were really good (particularly the chicken) but I wouldn't know as I couldn't snag myself a bite. I had the halibut with mango salsa and the potato/mushroom/goat cheese. Both were delicious, and I particularly enjoyed the fish tacos. Soft, perfect masa flour (I think) tortillas, fresh lettuce, great sauces, and what I think was pickled red onion to garnish. Delish. The accessory beans, rice and salad were yummy too. Great food, if slightly small portions. Avoid bar drinks unless you want to re-mortgage your home. Not a good place for people with claustrophobia or personal space issues.

Mamacat and I just returned from the annual fair visit/social anthropology field trip. We both had the TC Brat from Hot Dog Jonny's, doused in their yummy cranberry mayo. Followed that up with a hot Fisher Scone with raspberry jam. It was a delicious reminder that I have a package of Fisher Scone mix in my cupboard waiting for its time in the sun. While it is horribly overpriced, I do recommend a visit to the PNE (particularly a stop at the Motocross show) for any of you who are having a difficult time sticking to a diet. 300lbs of woman spilling out of some Daisy Dukes and showing off 6 inches of thong underwear was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As Mr. Cat would say, "There aren't a lot of people here, but there sure are a ton of 'em."

I was truckin' around the neighbourhood today and passed Diavolo in the 1200 block of Richards, on the east side. I've walked past this place a few times since it opened a year or so ago and it confounds me every time. It took a few passes for me to figure out it was even a restaurant at first - the windows are frosted over, the door is usually closed and there's no sign of a menu anywhere outside. I only figured out that food was served there when a patio suddenly appeared outside one day, complete with table settings. No patrons in sight, however. Google searching the place turns up very little. EveVancouver has the only blurb mentioning actual food items anywhere on the internet. All the other hits seem to indicate the place usually plays host to cocktail party/mixers for the cheesy club and tech industry set. Anyway, it got me thinking... 1. Has anybody ever been in this place? Does anyone even know anything about it? 2. What other mystery restaurants are out there? Tell us about the places you've passed that made you stop and think "Is that a restaurant or a front for money laundering?" - the places that are never open, the places that you never see anyone in...

The Cat family has been making weekly pilgrimages for Chinese food for the better part of a decade - call us Occidental Tourists, if you will - and have never been frightened off by Chinese-only signs. Indeed, it is the opinion of this humble clan of bohunks that generally the less English and the less white clientele, the better. We are, with the exception of the sole Briton in the group, quite gastronomically adventurous, and PapaCat is always up for authenticity. So the same spirit that takes us to BBQ joints on the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks in inner city America and makes us wander San Francisco for 3 hours on foot looking for a Beatnik-era cafe that Dad last saw 30 years ago often brings us to Chinese restaurants that don't see a lot of white clientele. We find the food is much more interesting (no Kung Pao Chicken or General Tso Beef) and we're more inclined to try novel foodstuffs. Tripe, for instance, is something that, were it properly translated on a whitey-friendly menu, we would probably skip over. On the other hand, when we're at a restaurant with little English and we point to a dish arriving at a nearby table (which is tripe, unbeknownst to us) and say "Give us one of those" (or, more accurately, we point wildy and gesticulate and say "one! one!"), we end up trying - and LOVING - something we would have shied away from. There's also the novelty factor involved - we have had great luck wandering into packed Asian-oriented establishments in the middle of dinner and managing to score a table, just because the front of house guy is so amused that a family of loud, crazy-looking white folk showed up for soup buns. So we're pro-non-English. In fact, the Crazy Sun Blue Moon Mega Gold Food Palace, or whatever it was that Lee visited, is now on our list. We're even bringing our Jewish friend from Texas on our next outing.

No, no, no, the truly evil inner child would have you make your grilled cheese in the VCR! Toasters are for the good kids. Mamacat and I hit the PNE every year, primarily as an exercise in people-watching. We usually go to Jimmy's Lunch for the obligatory onion fill, and invariably a bag of donuts is consumed. I would happily time this year's visit to coincide with the Daddy-A/Ling Greasy PNE Slop Cage Match 2005. I watched many a milk-drinking contest in my UBC days (who can down a 4L jug of cold milk the fastest, no peeing/puking allowed), and the thrill of competitive eating simultaneously excites me and motivates me to keep going to the gym. Anybody know if Hot Dog Jonny's is going to have a stand at the fair again this year? When their Denman St. location closed, I remember hearing rumblings that they would continue to show up at the PNE...

Oh, how could I have forgotten one of my all-time favourites when I started this thread? The pizza joint on Cornwall half a block east of Yew - which was Sgt. Pepperoni's for a good long time - became Beaver's Pizza a few years back, though I believe it has changed nomenclature once again. Anyway, back in the Beaver's period my friend Craig and I would amuse hourselves for hours (well, ok, minutes) coming up with slogans for the place, like "Eat out at Beaver's tonight" and "How about a hot slice of Beaver's?".

To commemorate the passing of everybody's favourite oddly-named Vancouver eatery, I thought I would start the weird-names thread. What better way to honour our fallen ghetto-flavoured soup joint, and to find its successor as Restaurant-as-Punchline. So chime in with your favourite strange restaurant name. Might as well open it up to oddly-named dishes too. I'll start. Tony's Beef Noodle on Cambie around 41st. The only thing that would make it worse would be calling it Tony's Beefy Noodle. Maybe they could only afford so many characters for the sign.

Go-Go Station, purveyors of the car wheel cakes, looked like it was of Japanese provenance. This is based on my hazy recollection of seeing the filling flavour list written in Japanese rather than Chinese, and the fact that the head Go Go guy looked like a crazy samurai, with long flowin' hair and what they refer to in Whalley as a "bitchin' 'tache".

I popped my night market cherry last week in the company of some fellow eGulleteers. While my camera's memory card was mostly given over to photos of us eating meat on a stick and some videos of the awesomely bad Bon Jovi cover band that was on stage, I did manage to get a few food-only shots. I stuck them in a photo album for everyone to look at. The meat-on-sticks was generally quite good, particularly at the It's All About Grill stand. They've taken food-on-a-stick to the next level by offering foodS-on-a-stick, with various combos including asparagus and bacon, weiner and bacon, and some other stuff (if it didn't feature the words "and bacon", it slipped under my radar.) My other favourite were the car-wheel cakes at the awesomely-named Go-Go Station. I stuffed a few Nutella cakes in my mouth and sampled the Mooshmouse strategy of eating a bite of Nutella cake followed by a bite of peanut butter cake. Tasty, and the cooler peanut butter cake reduces the molten chocolate lava feeling that a warm Nutella eruption leaves in your mouth. A good time was had by all, and if you enjoy food on a stick, you won't be disappointed, particularly if you get a second wind around 11:30pm, when the stands slash their meat-on-sticks price by half. I also got an excellent Pom Pom Purin showercap, and I think I'm going back soon to buy some outfits for my cat.

A couple of my Edmonton favourites are Bistro Praha and Marchyshyn's Home Meat Market. Bistro Praha is tucked away on a small street downtown, near Eaton Centre or whatever it's called these days. It's only a brief walk from the Fairmont (5 min maybe? I always end up at the Westin, which is a touch closer.) It's open until 2am or so, and offers wonderful eastern European food and a good beer list. If you're hungry around midnight, go here for a snack - my favourite is the picked herring and sour cream on apple slices. Marchyshyn's, about a 15min walk from the Fairmont (straight up 101st, I think, behind the CN building) is the purveyor of the finest Ukranian susage in the land, in this half-Bohunk/half-Frog's opnion. Buy a couple of rings and bring them home. Just don't pack them in your carryon. Unless of course, you want to smell like a pig that wandered into a garlic patch. You might get the whole row to yourself on the flight home.

Ooooh, good idea for a thread! Mamacat and I are always driving around on sunny weekends seeking out foodstuffs. The Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour features a pile of interesting stops in the Fraser Valley. We did this one a couple weeks ago and visited McClennan Creek Dairy for their goat cheeses, the Little Farmhouse Country Market, where we picked up some Little Qualicum Dairy cheese, and Wisbey's Veggies, the little produce stand that could. We often stop by Lotusland Vineyards, also on the tour, to pick up their 2001 Merlot. A lot of their other wines are so-so, but the 01 Merlot is fantasic. Get yours now before my Mom buys it all. The Agassiz-Harrison Mills area also has a circle farm tour, which we have yet to do. It includes Farm House Cheeses as well as a ton of other spots. And on the way down to the States, we invariably stop at Casa Que Pasa on Railroad Ave. in Bellingham for carne asada burritos. This is a Mexican cantina run by a bunch of vegan-friendly gringos and whose primary clientele is the bedraggled indie rocker students of WWU, so don't expect any authentic Mexican-ness. It's just realllllly good, cheap, plentiful food (our usual order of a gaint carne asada burrito, a quesadilla, and a couple of margaritas during happy hour runs about $12-14US.)

Yup, we munched on what the virtual menu confirms was "Sashimi grade Ahi Tuna seared rare, spicy tuna tartare as salsa, shitake mushroom sui choy egg noodle chow mein, sweet soy Pinot Gris lime sauce". Let the tuna conniption fits begin! (Oh, and I must ask, why? I have vague recollections of ahi-put-downs some time ago, but like many things, it has been lost to my wine-rotted memory.)

Mamacat - the newest eGullet member and my dear mother (say Hi to the Vancouver forum, mamacat!) - and I just returned from an amusing evening wherein we kidnapped a few unsuspecting American tourists and dragged them to the Hammie for the GBP. We were at La Terrazza, enjoying their 7-for-7 special (a selection of 7 small plates and 7 glasses of wine for $7 each, to celebrate their 7th anniversary). Having started with a spinach salad with cold smoked tuna and McClennan Creek Dairy goat feta chez snacky-cat beforehand, we only snacked on one course each. Yes, admirable restraint indeed. So as we were dining, we chatted to our server about how 7-for-7 was a wonderful idea, and the conversation turned to how summer was a slow season for them. Somehow that segued into the business sent their way by concierges, at which point the couple at the table next to us (on their small but delightfully leafy and shady patio) piped up and said they were sent there by the concierge at the Westin Bayshore. They were in town for a few days from NYC. Fortified by a couple glasses of wine, our table and their table quickly fell into conversation, which invariably turned to where we liked to stuff our faces locally. We, as full-fledged GBP junkies (if only it made you thin like heroin, my god, my life would be perfect), instantly began preaching the gospel of the Hammie, and had rather quickly convinced them not to have dessert at La Terrazza, but instead to follow us up the street, where we would safely deposit them at Our Holy Lady of the Dessert. So after our paying our respective bills, we led them through Yaletown and deposited them into the care of Chef Neil, and right next to a table anchored by Mooshmouse and *Deborah*, who - coincidentally - had a plate of gingerbready goodness sitting in front of them. Mamacat and I declined dessert as we were on a mission to reach Chapters before closing, and we left our newfound American friends on the patio at the clubhouse. While we do have the smallest sliver of regret for poaching some La Terrazza customers, it was totally worth it. We also left them with a list of must-eat joints downtown, including Parkside and Chambar, and they pledged to go to Parkside tomorrow. So if any of you are there, say Hi to Mitch and Lillian from mamacat and I. Lunch today was the usual Tuesday trip to Matzusushi in Coquitlam, where I had my favourite piping hot asparagus tempura roll. Dinner on Sunday was Primo's, a restaurant which gives me transferred embarassment. It was a favourite of mamacat's back in its heydey, but it's now just a bizarre shell of its former self, and I've never seen more than 10 people in there. (NB: I didn't pick the joint, it was Dad-of-snacky_cat's-GF's-daughter's choice.) I had the chicken fajitas, the skillet vehicle of which was filled with a good centimetre of oil, though it did have the virtue of offering a half-chicken's worth of chicken. Had some white sangria, which lacked in alcoholic bite what the chicken made up for with oil. Meh. Anyway, the point of that whole post was to say that if you ever encounter kindly strangers in a restaurant, take 'em to the HSG. I'm sure it's good karma or something.

Just got back from a fantastic dinner at Bin 941. It was Mr. Cat's first time there, and he loved it. It was my ass-tillionth time there, and I, as always, loved it. I wouldn't wait 40min outside a men's bathroom for many other restaurants in this town, that's for sure. I started with a "Bingria", their version of sangria. Red wine, a bit of ice wine, some apricot brandy, and lots of chopped apple, orange, and even a few raspberries. Mr. Cat commenced consumption of a bottle of the Yalumba Viognier, based solely on the strength of my recommendation afetr the last HSG wine tasting. He enjoyed it thoroughly, as did I, after downing the Bingria in the proverbial one fell swoop. We ended up being the accidental beneficiaries of a misplaced pork order, which was quite delicious. Accidental free pork is really the tastiest of the porcine dishes. That was followed by our actual orders, some scallop and prawn tournedos as well as an ahi tuna and chow mein deal. Both were delicious, especially the leek tempura galette thingamob that accompanied the crustaceans. It was like the Emily Post of onion rings - totally refined. Finished up with the phyllo-ed beef tenderloin that, while incredibly good, will never match the sheer orgasma-tude of the tenderloin at the Taste of Fiction waiterblog dinner. Drank the Grey Monk Pinot Auxerrois with that. We couldn't get ourselves into the red spirit tonight, but the two whites were exemplary - and budget-friendly - choices. Breakfast was the usual lazy-ass foray to Melriche's in Yaletown. Yummy apple cinnamon pancakes (cinnamon pancake with big slabs of apple smushed on top) and a booth big enough for two to spread the morning paper across. The <insert gratuitous polysyllabic word here> preantepenultimate </pretentious> meal I shoved in my maw was a big load of mussels and peel-n-eat prawns at Milestones last night. Now, while we are all quick to criticize Milestone's for their general plebeian crapitude, I have to say that their mussels were amazingly tasty. They must have received a golden batch from their suppliers, because every mussel in the dish was incredibly plump, juicy and moist. Considering the last bucket o' mussels I ate (in Detroit, which I'm sure explains EVERYTHING) was the sea-borne equivalent of Biafrans (i.e. emaciated, though mercifully free of circling flies), the Milestone's version was a ridiculously tasty relief. Now I'm going to go roll around and digest. We are off to a wedding at Rossini's in Gastown tomorrow night. I will report back with any Big Al sightings.

I'll eat my way through that pastry case with you anytime, Joie I wonder what the best wine pairing for an ube cake would be? For anyone who stops by to grab some of the boat tarts (hint: they come wrapped in coloured cellophane and make fine additions to gift baskets of food items), GET THE PINEAPPLE ONE. Oh man, those things are GOOD. I might have to go get one today.

One of our family's old favourites for birthday parties is the purple potato cake at Goldilocks, which definitely falls under the heading of "taste adventure". You can see a picture of the rolled version here, though they also do a round version which, if memory serves me correctly (it's been YEARS since I've had one of these), uses a more whipped cream-like icing in place of buttercream. The cake itself is quite good - again, if my crappy memory is on form today - it occupies a nice niche flavour and texture-wise somewhere between the sweet and dense Western style sponge cake, and the less sweet, fluffier style you get in many Chinese bakeries. Goldilocks is definitely worth a visit, if only to gawk at the purple cakes. They have a pretty big range of products there, including these ridiculously yummy cookies that are shaped like canoes and filled with different fillings (you can see a couple of them in the "Pies and Pastries" picture on the main Bakeshop webpage.)