mtigges

I wish I was still ignorant of this. Oh well.

Disclaimer, Sorry Daddy-A. I have to ask, when MB opened on Broadway, it was an epiphany. I LOVED it. It seems to me, it's no longer as good. e.g. there was no way I could have disintigrated a bone with no effort, I had to pull the meat from the bone. Great chew, and incredibly smokey taste. But, now it seems that the meat is much loser on the bones, the bones are easily chewed through, and less flavour. Something has changed, and I'm not a BBQ expert. Moreover, I didn't like DIX. Too sauced, too salty. I've found that as MB has degraded a bit, DIX has improved a lot. Does anyone join me in this sentiment, or is it blasphemous? Plus I enjoy Tony's beer much more. Mark.

I was there about 4 years ago. Not the greatest in my opinion. Better than tony romas, but not by much. Of course not even in the same ball park as Memphis Blues, but it's a completely different style, so it's not a fair comparison. If you're not in Richmond, I don't think it's worth a special trip.

I think all the students should cook for the non-students. How's that? We'll buy all the ingredients, and marvel enthusiastically while you prepare the meal. I wish I had known about this course. I will plan on it for next year. Mark.

Straight. It's a favourite among elderly Germans. My Grandmother ate it every morning, sometimes with berries, or oats. It's closest cousin is cottage cheese. You can probably do anything with it that you would normally do with CC.

This forum has been dead for days. So, I will revive this older thread. I'm drinking stout. Homebrewed yummy, rich, sweet, stout. 14 pounds of Canadian Malting Pale 2 pounds of barley flakes 1 pound roast barley 1 pound chocolate malt For 40 litres. Hopped to about 20 HBU with homegrown fuggles. 1.057 -> 1.015. Wyeast 1084. After a day of renovating a bathroom while it was snowing outside, this stout is wonderful.

These weren't crinkle cut, but they might have been frozen. They didn't appear to be cut there.

Ling, I'm not sure if they have changed. I've been to Diner twice now. The first time, our plates came out hurried, and I don't think the fries were representative of what she normally does. Today they were soft on the inside with great potatoe flavour, and very brown and crispy on the outside. And, my companion wondered if they were battered. They did seem to have some kind of coating on the outside, but I don't think she actually batters them. They were much better than the first time, which was merely average. Mark.

How many people have posted that they dropped by? This is my second post on this thread. I wasn't going to ... but we got a special treatment today I forget who it was upthread that got the patty melt, it sounded so good, that we asked for it too. Only Heather said, hmmmm, been there done that, how about a meatloaf melt? We were in no mood to argue. It was delicious. The fries were out of this world. They were busy when we got there, but everything seemed relatively under control. The wait time had gone down from our previous visit, and there were more people, so I think it's coming around. Plus, when we left we chatted a bit with Heather, and she didn't seem too stressed. Tired, but she seemed happy. I mentioned that she's getting a bit of an online rep, and she quipped back that an online rep sounds kind of salacious. The chocolate souffles are indeed delicious. The place smelled amazing when she popped them in to the oven.

You're welcome Kurtis, and THANK YOU. Michelle and I had a great time. The meads were very enjoyable. My favourites were definitely the ones that tended towards dryness; the cyser and the cranberry. I was the one with the odacity to ask Chris to step behind the bar. I asked him if he was capable of making the best martini I'd ever had. He delivered. And was gracious and enjoyable behind the bar to boot. Thanks to Kurtis and Jeff for not minding, and thanks to Chris for the martini. We stayed for dinner and had an excellent meal. The appetizers were the highlights, both the soup and the smoked salmon cheesecake were out of this world. I loved my main too though, the smoked sablefish. I had the opportunity to enjoy a blue cheese tart that I likely would have never ordered (due to a miscommunication, but a happy accident) ... it was delicious. Thanks Jeff. Great to meet everyone that we hadn't yet. Even to meet with an old friend that I hadn't seen in maybe ten years. Kudos to Little Frog for starting this ball on its course. M.

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, but the space on Mainland formerly occupied by Mira is now sporting "Death By Chocolate" colours.

Just got back from lunch. A mixed review follows. Nice comfy seats. Really loud music, but it was old Stones, so I guess that's ok. Plus someone else asked to have it turned down. They have Red Truck! While not a fantastic beer it is fresh, and very locally brewed. They also have Russels Pale Ale, and R&Bs lager. Two good beers. Anyways, our very attractive wait person took our orders promptly. One meatloaf, two burgers. The meatloaf arrived about 20min later, and was delicious, the mash potatoes tasted like potatoes, not butter or mascarpone. The beans were perfect, and the meatloaf, while good undersized compared to other portions that went out subsequently - it was an end piece. Then our two burgers which came up about a minute after the meatloaf, were promptly served to another table which hadn't yet finished their soups. Hmmmm. But, this was kind of a double snafu since one of those burgers had a salad, and so were very seemingly according to the waitress destined for that table. So, it would seem that both the line and the wait staff were a bit to blame. Our burgers arrived about 5 minutes after, but obviously hurried. They were very good though, and the size definitely lived up to the previous posts. They apologized quickly and politely about the mess - up, they knew that I knew through eye contact what had happened. We were served a tiramisu gratis after we were done. It was by far the best tiramisu I have ever had. $65 for the three of us, that includes 8 beers, which are very reasonably priced at 3.75. I don't know if Iain will blackball me for saying this, but 3.75 for red truck is almost a dollar less than you get straight at the brewery. It was a good lunch all in all. I wanted to try the schnitzel, but I was thrown off by this talk of 2/3 lb burgers. It was a very good burger, with arugala and yellow and red tomatoes, but all in all, I think I prefer the Save-On-Meats burger for pure dripping diner-style burger. I will be back.

This thread has me curious about SmartChicken. It's the first I've ever heard of it. Are these only available in the US? The SC website has a "grocer locator" but it doesn't include Canada at all. That is a good clue that it's not available here but it isn't the last word. Does anybody know more about this product?

"Most"? The last time I checked (in the NJ, at least) only the Guinness Extra Stout is coming from Labatt (InBev). Guinness Draught, in keg, bottle and can (the latter two with "widgets") were still Irish-brewed and, I'd guess, far outsell GES in the US. Has this changed? (I don't drink much Guinness, tho' I still have some bottles of Irish brewed GES and a bottle of GFES cellared that I should drink soon, I suppose. I had a six pack of O'Hara's Stout a week or so ago and enjoyed it a lot.) ← I didn't mean most of the varieties, but I'm quite certain that the vast majority of beer which is labeled as Guiness is brewed by Labatts. Admittedly I wrote that without checking the absolute truth though. I can buy bottles brewed in Ireland for export, and I can go to one (! to my knowledge, The Irish Heather) restaurant in Vancouver (~ 2 million people) which serves kegs from Ireland.

This sounds like Kilkenny. Very low bittering, hence the sweetness. As its origin is the British Isles it typically has half or even less the carbonation that is typical of factory produced lagers.

Please forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but when you said "we" had a strike, what did that mean, and what is LDB? It's probably that my head is especially thick right now, and I'll be embarrassed, but I am interested to know what you're talking about. Thanks! ← I could definitely have been more explanatory. "We" being the royal we. There was a strike of a canadian trucking union which affected mostly the distribution of macroswill. And the LDB is the liquor distribution branch. All distribution of alchohol is requlated by a central provincial body here. They run the stores, and license a few private stores. It's better in some provinces than others. In BC we have a mediocre beer selection compared to Ontario, and in Alberta the distribution and sales of beer and wine are very open, almost private. Much less regulated. For instance in the main regional area of Vancouver there is only one LDB branch that is open on Sunday (that I'm aware of). This means it is VERY difficult to purchase quality beer/wine on Sunday. Alberta has a beer store in every mini-mall, and they stock better breweries not just macroswill. Mark.

Hanako in Guildford, not close to downtown, but it seems this is a family spot opened up by the former chef of the Canada Place Japanese restaurant that recently shut its doors. Anybody been? I've heard one good recommendation for it.

I don't pressure can, but I do use the water bath method. I think that this is relatively important. If you don't kill the bacteria, there is the chance that they will continue to produce CO2 and produce bombs. This can be alleviated for the most part by storing at <5C and/or releasing the pressure every now and then. The other reason to stop the bacteria is to ensure that the flavour does not go too sharp. I think that a water bath method leaves good bite to the kraut.

We had a strike a year and a half ago which greatly affected shipping of product from the major canadian brewers. This was a good thing since it meant the LDB had to find some alternate products, they stocked more craft brewed products. Flying Dog was one. But they only had Old Scratch (an amber lager) that I found. And I have to say it was quite mediocre. It certainly wasn't bad but nothing special. For all the interesting malts (munich and dark crystal) it tasted suprisingly bland. It might have been a travel issue though. I could be in the minority in this opinion since it has shown very well at GABF in 2004 and 2005.

Best bang for the buck IMO is short ribs. Though they're getting more expensive due to popularity. Then lamb shanks. But a good beef blade pot roast is pretty good too, and very cheap.

Have you read here

Hell KT, I think people driving around in Hummers with gas at $1.20/litre obscene. Mmmmmm .... cake. A. ← Sorry to go way off-topic ... but you started it. My neighbours boss has three. He lives in Roberts Bank. He commutes EVERY day to North Van in an original hummer. The wife drives around in an H2, part of that driving is taking the kids to play hockey in North and West Van. They will shortly receive their H3. Now that's obscene.

Personally while my value scale does not allow me to participate in a meal which would cost $1000, I don't think that that price is out of line. Everytime I have eaten at Lumiere it has been in the area of $200. I would expect this event, Trotter and Feenie, to be 5 times as good or in that range. By the sounds of it, there about 1.5 times as many courses in this meal too. That price tag doesn't shock me in the least. I just couldn't justify spending it given my budget. Mark.

Unfortunately not open for lunch. So, we went to YBC instead. A shame, the room looks nice and Heather seems nice. The unassuming menu sounds great. But unfortunately no lunch service. I really wanted to try the spinach spaetzle.

I wish anyone all the success in the world, but I really hope that this doesn't negatively impact the soup cafe in the quay. I will be very sad if I can't buy his stocks anymore.