Memo

Bloody Mary. Great idea!

My old bartending-school pal, Condoleeza, couldn't resist emailing me the latest Pam Frier installment. You can't help but get the impression Pam's in her cups when she sits down to write her ramblings from Saltspring. "I made myself a martini the other night and a very good thing it was." "I poked further into my stash of booze..." "I then discovered that what I had sipped was not a martini at all." "The whole martini business is really so complicated that you might as well go for three and forget about it." Condi noted Pam's mention of some hangover cures: "Rub half a lemon into the pit of your drinking arm... wear a gauze surgical mask soaked in sake... eat a fried canary... suck down a pickled sheeps eye in tomato juice..." Memo - 600 grapes in a bottle of wine (wake me in the morning)

BEWARE THE SMALL GREEN FENCE! Although I've cancelled my TC subscription, I still get friends who - wanting to taunt me on a Wednesday morning - email me samplings of "The Freir". This morning's coffee tasted somehow better, until I realized I wasn't reading a Lewis Carroll launch - but Pam's halucinogenic column. Senator Reg and his lovely wife Penelope sent this (with my bolding of key phrases): "Many years ago a business friend introduced me to sushi, and when we lunched together we'd explore the unknown corners of the menu. One day we found ourselves in the sashimi section, and the precious scraps of perfect fish came to table elegantly arranged on a long narrow plate, with a small green fence separating each kind of fish... "We found it [mint] growing beside our nearest firehall, and called it firehall mint. We help ourselves to it from time to time, until during building improvements a load of gravel was dumped right on top of the mint forest...so we took a root and planted it in a container on our deck, where it proliferated. Alas, it had lost its fiery flavour. I think it must have been drawing strength from its relationship to our brave volunteer firefighters..." Memo - When you see a doggy pee, it's near a firehall usual-ee!

There's always Waiterforum, the gullet's next-best friend. Memo - Don't sleep in the sandbox, darling. Don't stand in the pouring rain.

Just cancelled my TC subscription - after another embarrassing Wednesday edition, with its folksy food column by the non-worldly Pam Freir. "How many kinds of citrus fruit can you name?" she starts. "I wrote down all I could think of -- orange (sweet and sour), grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin." She lives on Saltspring, so I can only assume she's out of touch with the citrus world at large. Anyone else have any comments on the TC's choice of folksy food writers - Eric Akis, Pam Freir and (my favorite) Pam Grant? Memo - kumquat here, you little pomelo you!

Alexandra Gill married herself - and I believe her reception was also at The Beach House. Memo - the girl I call my own, she’ll wear satin and laces and smell of cologne

This Saturday Globe review wasn't even one of her regular Friday reviews of the week. I am curious, however, whether there is any substance to her statement about Rare's suffering (flavor-wise) with the advent of chef Quang Dang? PS - surely (I hope) someone in Vancouver can tell me where Quang Dang is now? Memo - dang if I didn't forget my reading glasses

The Royal Family send Kitty and me a Christmas pudding from Fortnum & Mason each year. Memo - pudding lots of love into the holiday season

And just what kind of grass are you talking about....LOL ← I've fortunately weaned myself off the Saltspring Vineyards wines long ago. All that hemp culture on the island really permeates the vines. I have no tolerance for the regional/seasonal hippy-shack, green-grass taste. I prefer tobacco any day. Memo - when vacationing in Cuba, my bottom line is a tan mark

Alderlea make some fine wines. I agree with your description of their Pinot Noir. However, at close to $40 a bottle - double it if you're in a restaurant - I won't be buying their product with any frequency (when I can choose from a world of great wines for half the price). Memo - dreaming of the day the BCL will bring in a $12.00 Bierzo

I just returned from New York city - where I was surprised to find Chilean Sea Bass on a lot of menus. I did question staff: "Isn't that endangered?" The reply was always:"I don't think so." It certainly seems to be a US (United States) thing - rather than a WF or eG thing - that Americans maybe aren't so aware as we are about sustainability (the US is the largest importer of CSB). Anyhow, it's been a long time since a topic other than "Where's the best tapioca pudding in Vancouver?" showed up on eG - and has caused some actual discussion. Memo - I treble when I eat the bass

They're likely to turn up at delicatessens. Phone first. Memo - lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

Nice....never heard the phrase "Napa North"....please tell me this is a Calistoga reference as me thinks any reference to Napa in Canada may be a tad in the double point rings or in the numbers. ← Sadly, this is not a Calistoga Chamber of Commerce-inspired spin - but a Cowichan Valley reference. The spin doctors are making Napa North a hot property, creating the illusion that foodies are sprouting from the earth. Memo - it takes time to build a mountain, it takes time for love to grow

And I wonder how much fossil fuel is burned up by air-freighting it to North America? Memo - reporting from Napa North, the land of local, regional, seasonal

Reading about Ling's Chilean Sea Bass dinner on Urban Diner (Food Porn, Nov. 29) - I got all hungry for this endangered fish species. Anyone in Vancouver have it on their menu? Memo - that record you're playing, it's like really rare

While I enjoy - and regular drink - many BC white wines, I've got to say - despite their high retail cost - most BC reds leave a grassy-green taste in my mouth. I've never heard anyone use this characteristic in describing BC reds, but - almost unanimously - that's in there with the fruit and the asphalt. I've come to the conclusion that green-grass is part of the BC (red) terroir. Memo - it's good to touch the green green glass of home

I know you only want Lower Mainland recommendations. However, the sweetest can only be found on Vancouver Island - at Oxford Foods in the Cook Street Village, Victoria. $3.79 a box, great price. Memo - orange you glad you asked?

Not only does it read like it - but if you play "Octopus's Garden" while reading this thread, you'll laugh your head off. Memo - my tentacles control my decibels

Pam and I shared some bifstek cigarillos - with an f-ing fantastic chirribusco - at TEMPLE in Victoria. It's so great to visit Victoria and dine out with Pam. Memo - pray, pray, pray for an edible day

I could use Some xiao long bao - Right about, Now The Shanghai Wind shows me, How (excerpt from "Life in a Richmond Moment") Memo - the longer the noodle, the bigger the house

I certainly get raw after eating their food. Memo - orifice and artifice

You need to order it in advance. Memo - I love Salt Lake City in the winter - when it drizzles, I love Salt Lake City in the summer - when it sizzles

That peppyre knows her salt. Crack the salt... Expose the chicken... Slice into juicy-chickie... Memo - chickie-chickie boom, chickie-boom

I think you have to decide what will be your editorial policy. Do you want to give honest reviews of the food? The dining experience? Do you want to steer clear of brutal honesty - and focus instead on, say, everything but the restaurant and its food? Restaurant Magazine in the UK has looked at restaurant reviewers' columns - and has rated them/broken down their content according to how much (percentage of copy) is devoted to the food, to a description of the room, to unrelated topics - particularly how much is all about them (the reviewers). Some reviewers make it a point to barely touch on the restaurant - and it then becomes all about them, who they're dining with, aren't we special and self-absorbed, etc. Someone like AA Gill still draws a cult following (I'm a fan) - but he hardly treads into the depths of the restaurants in his columns. Memo - are you an urban diner or an urban whiner?

You hazard right, Madame. And I dare say it's superior to a Croque de merd! Memo - croque pot makes for a light head