Jump to content

Jean Blanchard

participating member
  • Posts

    434
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Jean Blanchard

  1. I'm visiting Vancouver and Victoria this summer for a week so I've been reading (of course) about all of your wonderful restaurants. Of course, the list is now longer than the amount of days that I have available but I'll do my best. I'm wondering if anyone can help me with best places to stay since I know nothing about this area. I want to be close to downtown since I won't have a car. How's the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia or the Rosedale on Robson? Anything better? Where should I go to dinner the first night? Thanks!

    jb

  2. Considering how much time all of us spend in our kitchens I'd say that a kitchen is quite capable of making us happy. I have a long galley kitchen that is great for cooking because I can reach everything. I love my kitchen so much that I added onto my house (so that I'd have more room in living/dining room area to entertain) rather then leave my kitchen.

  3. Ick... ICK... ICK!! 

    A few thoughts :

    1... Alan Thicke is a maroon.  What?  Bob Saget wasn't available?

    2... Who the hell is this Gail person?  I don't feel like putting forth the effort to look it up but I trust that, despite the snazzy outfit, she is not a Captain?

    3... If these are the "celebrities" that they put out there on the maiden voyage, I see no point in ever tuning in again.  Not even for Tom Arnold.

    Oh lord, it was bad.  Bad bad.  So, so bad.  Watching it through the afghan bad.

    Gael Greene has a book out now called Insatiable. You might want to check that out. She's a pretty interesting character. The 10 minutes I watched of the show were excrutiating.

  4. I love you guys! I think that people who love good food are the nicest, friendliest group of people there are. It's nice to have you to share my food obsessions with.

    So far, I've saved tomatoes seeds from Southern Italy and California and grown the best tomatoes and guests rave about them. When I tell them how I got the seeds THEN they roll their eyes. Go figure!

    jb

  5. I spend the month of February in PV. La Palapa is beautiful but the food is mediocre. Go late and sit in the bar to listen to the owner sing (ask which nights he's there). Cafe de Artiste is very gourmet and beautiful. There are three separate areas to dine in, all unique so check them out and make your reservation in whatever one appeals to you. There is also a wine shop across the street that carries a nice selection of wines. If you find a wine you like at any of the other stores, buy it. You never know if you it'll be there the next time you come back. Boca Bento is a newer restaurant in town, I believe over by the grammar school and it is also fabulous. Some friends who are already there told me that the restaurant (Italian) at the Hotel Intercontinental is very good. Haven't tried it yet myself. Trio is always good and also pretty. Piazzetta is fun and good for cheap Italian and I understand that the owner has added a lounge. Barcelona Tapas is owned by an American chef that used to work at a tapas place in my home town. Very good tapas, ask to sit upstairs. There is a frenchman there who used to own a cute little pastry shop with fabulous, typically french pastries. I understand that after a failed attempt at a bigger restaurant, he has relocated his shop but it's somewhere right in town. Try to find it. It's worth it.

    There are so many restaurants in PV that it's impossible to name them all. Like anywhere, some of them fail and aren't there when we come back the following year but there's always more to replace those.

    Have a great time and report back on your favorites. Let me know if I can be of any more help.

    jb

  6. I have many cookbooks that I don't use but just can't seem to make myself part with. I guess it's because I once gave away a cookbook that I went looking for a year later because I remembered ONE recipe that I liked. I've become much more discerning when I buy a cookbook in the last few years but I just bought Recipes by Susan Spungen and so far I'm unimpressed.

  7. I have a request to make biscuits and gravy (sausage) for Christmas morning. I don't have a clue how to make this. I don't even know what kind of biscuit recipe I should use since I've never had this dish. HELP!

    jb

  8. About 5 years ago, I cut my little finger down to the bone while trying to separate frozen hamburgers at 6:00 AM while still half asleep. I know. Stupid. A year ago, sliced the top of my index finger off with the mandoline. I still don't have feeling in it. I also gave the mandoline away - so instead, I sliced my thumb with chef's knife last weekend. I keep a large supply of band-aids close at hand.

  9. I pretty much agree with everything you've said. I would never have even gone into the place or examined the cases as closely as I did had I not had a recommendation from others here. The croissant really was the only pastry that held any interest for me but the breads that were available were quite good. I did see the shelf with white breads (he had a lot of those) and those are the ones that I felt were not worth bothering with but I didn't know if that just was my preference for more substantial loaves. The fact that he told me that he couldn't sell the fennel raisin bread at that store even though he agreed that it's one of the best breads he makes tells me that his clientele may be the problem? Now that I think about it, all of the breads he makes for Pastoral and much better looking than what he had at the bakery.

    You really should try Rolf's for pastries. They are much more impressive.

    jb

×
×
  • Create New...