mtigges

You're quite right. The genericization of "Martini" is a trend that serious bartenders lament. A Martini is gin and vermouth. (I might grant you vodka and vermouth. But that's it.) Come back to vancouver, Quick. Agreed. I didn't mean liqueors, I meant fruit juices. Either way, doesn't matter, negates martinihood. I'll probably raise hackles with this, but when I read "she LOVES martinies" I presumed the fruit juice, liqueor and vodka drinks that Fiction Five has an extensive list of. For the record, FF has very good food for the prices, but I could care less about the bar. All those fruit martinis and the absolute lack of quality beer just causes a complete lack of interest for me. The wine list is sufficient though, and the food really is good.

Well, is a martini a martini anymore? There is only one in my opinion. But there are all kinds of places popping up that have a dizzying array of fructose laden drinks served in martini glasses. I haven't much liked any of the ones that I have tried at any place so I won't go for a recommendation based on the merits of any of the drinks. All of the places mentioned have great bars, and great food. One hasn't been mentioned, Fiction Five in North Vancouver. The price point is way south of West, and of the other recommendations, but that doesn't reflect on the quality of the food. I don't want to make out like it is as good as West, but I was VERY surprised at how tasty the dishes were. And they have a huge list of fructose and alchohol mixtures which are served in martini glasses. http://www.fictionfive.com/

Kurtis, we're civil, most of the time. I have two pet peeves, noise and smoking. But, they're sort of the same thing. Thankfully there is no more smoking inside, we've discussed patios before so I won't go into it. I remember though going to Victoria Station (a Keg like steakhouse from years back) when I was a kid and not being able to taste my disgustingly sweet Shirly Temple because there was too much second hand smoke slowly curing my tongue. As for noise, everybody wants to talk and have a good time so it can be hard to find a balance for room design. The kind of fun people have and thereby the noise they make is partly determined by the ambience of the room, but regardless of the feel of a place the biggest problem with noise is other diners. That sounds obvious, but there are too many people who don't care about the comfort of those around them (hmmm, a common trait with smokers, funny how that works). Rude and disrespectful neighbours whether they are noisy, messy, stinky or smoky is the number one bain of my existence. So since these problems exist at all times not just during dining, is there much to say to restauranteurs? I'm not sure. If I was running a small bistro or restaurant, I would consider asking loud patrons to try to respect the dining experience of those around them. I have never seen it happen that a restaurant asks a particularly boisterous table to try to keep it down? Should they? I can certainly understand why they wouldn't.

Thought people might be interested, Don Genova makes a couple of comments on Nu today. http://pacificpalate.typepad.com/

I'm not an expert on huckleberries, but my knowledge of them isn't trivial. I foraged and gorged as a kid. I believe that you will not be able to find any in Osoyoos. The reason for this is that huckleberries tend to grow on the stumps of rotting deciduous rain forest trees like red cedar and doug fir. This means that they tend to exist withen a couple hundred kilometres of the coast. Since Osoyoos is smack dab in the middle of one of Canada's deserts I believe that you will have a hard time locating rain forest product. Am I mistaken? Do huckleberries exist in the okanagan? In fact, I have never seen huckleberries at Farmers Markets here in the lower mainland .... and I sell at Farmers Markets now and then. They are just too sparse. It would take too long to pick enough to sell. But they are delicious. As for anyplace to eat in Osoyoos, I cannot offer any help sorry, I have only driven through.

If you want to try an appy like the smoked salmon without doing smoked salmon since it is so common, try smoked sablefish. I am not sure if you can get pre-sliced smoked sable fish on GI, but I at times prefer it to salmon. I would regardless suggest cold smoked over hot smoked. But it's just personal preference.

We spent all day at Ambleside today. This is the market that received a little bit of bad review on this very site. Today, it was excellent. There were I think 6 farmers selling produce. All excellent stuff. Some zucchini and eggplant varieties that I had never seen before. But unfortunately I have a very sad tale to tell. The Riverview hospital either sits on or neighbour to parkland. This land was originally and still is partially zoned for farming. The intent was to have a segment of the patient population of the hospital to help on the farm. I think it worked for a number of years, but fell into obscurity until recently. A super nice guy, young, about 30, named Jonathan (he had the stall next to us) left his safe and well-paying computer programming job to farm this land. He leases stewardship of 20 acres and grows a multitude of vegetables. He has many hardships there, one being a lack of electricity (meaning no refridgeration so all his produce is stunningly fresh, way better than the other vendors), but chief among being the local pheasant population. The terms of the lease stated that out buildings and electricity and pheasant control would be provided. None of this has come to fruition. He is hanging up the hat. In my opinion, young guys like this going out and farming in his fashion, so close to the city, and making a go of it should be applauded and supported. The province ok'd him to control the pheasant population, but local parks said no. Now he has decided to not farm the land anymore. He stated that local naturalists are pissed about his presence, a completely organic farm, that it interrupts the natural preserve of the park. I believe that his farm in this setting provides a unique opportunity for stewardship education. It's a real shame that he can't make a go of it. He's decided to go pick wild mushrooms all fall, and then get back to tech in the winter. A huge loss I believe.

There was another. On Esplanade just west of Lonsdale was a great little izakaya style Japanese bistro. Very bland on the outside, stylish, but black door, black window, very small signage, only the name of the place. I can't remember the name, a Japanese word, but no obvious notion that it was a restaurant. It turned into a gawdy cheap-ass left-over fish sushi joint about 8 months in.

I'm not positive about Tai Pai Tung style. Not sure what that is, but despite it's neighbourhood and appearance, the Congee Noodle House on Broadway and (just off) Main is the best congee I've had in the city. My ex went there often for breakfast congee.

We spent the entire day at Lonsdale Quay. There were two farms, one orchard and an apiary. The orchard, Jobsthof Orchards from Oyama had the best Peaches I have ever had. I ate about 10 of his beaten up ones for free. We were right beside him. The farms had lots of excellent produce, except the corn, was picked more than 2 days ago (by the look of it). And you should all be relieved, we were the only craft there, unless you count the salsa guy and the pastry lady.

I have been cultivating a mild interest in cheese making as well. I don't want to hijack the thread, but my guess is that if someone knows the answer to the rennet question they probably know where to get unpastuerized whole milk too, right?

I'm one of those western kids that ran screaming from the neighbourhood when you smelled from five blocks away that your mom was cooking liver and onions. If you're like me, you might not like the liver lap cheong. I've always given the slices from those to my wife.

Have you made this? I'm curious about the result. If my amateurish guess were asked for I would call this dish "pork charcoal". Are those really the right times / temps?

My guess is that they meant suckling pig. It's a traditional opening course in cantonese banquets for important birthdays or other special occasions. Read here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=49705&st=0 BTW, it's delicious.

Mr. Talent has ranted the correct. Nicely said. I was being diplomatic. Thanks for entertainingly saying what I was too chicken to say myself. But while I'm embarassing myself by admitting to being wooed by a touchable infomercial, I'll embarass myself further and use an Emerlism. A bamix is a boat motor. See: http://www.bamix.com/ I believe it to be very good, and recommend it 100%. My brothers Mother in-law has owned one for somewhere around 20 years. Definitely a good machine. [edited to add: Welcome to eGullet Sandi.]

I don't love the PNE. Not even a bit. Last time I went was to take my cousin who was visiting from Europe. And, my wife had never been. I ate donuts. I almost bought a blender. The time before that I bought a bamix. I hope to never return. Sorry if I sound curmudgeonlike. The bamix is good, though I still feel unclean for buying something from what amounts to a live infomercial. Can anybody else own up to buying kitchen utensils from the PNE? Mark.

Mark- R&B in Vancouver, Canada??? Or Vancouver, Washington?? ← sorry. Vancouver, Canada. http://www.r-and-b.com/

Based on PaoPao's descriptions, we cycled up there for lunch today. Excellent. We had the yucatan chicken, thai chicken, sirloiner, and carmen brought out the veggie for us to try. All were great. Have to go back for the pork sausages. Highly recommended.

I went to a beer/food pairing tasting last night. The beers featured were all from R&B Brewing, a local micro here in Vancouver. Alison the brewer is just about the nicest person I have ever met, and the most attractive brewer to boot! All the food was delicious and paired very well. Course 1. Sambuca spinach oyster rockefeller, paired with their Kristal Weizen. This beer has shown very well at GCBF. It's their favourite. Due to the filtering this beer is bright, and lacks an assertive phenolic clove flavour. The effects of the bavarian yeast are there, just more subdued. Course 2. Goat feta and mixed green salad, raspberry (I'm pretty sure they said raspberry, but it wasn't very assertive) vinagrette. This was paired with the Pilsner. IMO this is their best beer. A classic pilsner. Our water is pretty good for proper brewing of Pilsner, I don't think Alison treats the water. Course 3. Pork tenderloin with Jalapeno jelly and cornbread. This was served with their Pale Ale. Their's is a pretty standard American style pale ale. Right in the middle of the road with bitterness and hop flavour/aroma. IMO, this was the weakest pairing. The spiciness of the jelly was too assertive and influencing on the flavour of the beer. I feel their IPA would have been a better choice. Course 4. Beef brisket, barbecue flavour, cole slaw and potatoe salad, sides. An amber was a great choice for this. On a colder day I think Porter would have been great, but we were on a warm patio and the amber was perfect. There's quite a bit of caramel tones in the amber and that paired nicely with the sweet barbecue sauce of the brisket. A good time was had by all. Big thanks to nwyles for putting it on, and to Alison and Barry from R&B. Mark.

No doubt they're up there, but I can't believe any top four in this stat that doesn't include either Belgium or Czech Republic. I believe it's Czech, Germany, Belgium. After that I'm not sure.

My favourite way to eat beef tenderloin as a pan seared steak is with a slab of foie lightly melting on top of it. I suppose this is straying off-topic ... so ... does anyone in town keep such a dish on the menu? I've had it at Lumiere and at Quattro di Gusto. Because of the inedibility of the veal tenderloin (way past the rare I asked for) and the carbonacious nature of the nickel sized pieces of liver (I doubt it was actually Foie Gras) I will never return to this restaurant for a main. The worst main course I have ever had bar none, golden arches is better. The appetizer we had was amazing though. Mark. ← Which restaurant ? Lumiere or Quattro ? ← Quattro. Sorry for not being more clear. In their defense, it was a slow Sunday night, we were a late seating, it wasn't empty though. And the appetizer (even though I can't remember what it was) was amazing. Really delicious. It made me have high hopes for the main I guess. As a relatively ignorant and amatuer cook, there is no way I would have let that leave my kitchen, I was surprised they did. I would have to presume the head chef wasn't there that night. Mark. [edited for a spelling mistake.]

My favourite way to eat beef tenderloin as a pan seared steak is with a slab of foie lightly melting on top of it. I suppose this is straying off-topic ... so ... does anyone in town keep such a dish on the menu? I've had it at Lumiere and at Quattro di Gusto. Because of the inedibility of the veal tenderloin (way past the rare I asked for) and the carbonacious nature of the nickel sized pieces of liver (I doubt it was actually Foie Gras) I will never return to this restaurant for a main. The worst main course I have ever had bar none, golden arches is better. The appetizer we had was amazing though. Mark.

With the patio and all the tables, couldn't C squeeze in 100?

Despite my low post count, our gracious nwyles happily served up his Hanger special on our table tonight. I believe that for me the question of "Best Steak In Vancouver" has at least in the near term been definitively answered. It wasn't Neal at the grill but it was great. Huge depth of beefy flavour, earthy mushroom in the sauce. Really good beef. I have posted in another thread about purchasing Hanging Tender, this thread made me believe that I possibly had bought something that was merely ascribed as such. But, I think I had the real thing. Neal showed me tonight that a bias slice, and proper trimming is key to making this cut shine. It was nice to meet Neal. A gracious host, and my wife loves his charm. We were lucky that he was able to come by the restaurant tonight. A very enjoyable night out. Have the hanger if you haven't. Mark. Oh and that GBP really isn't too bad at all.

I was just going by what the book that B-Jo sold me says. Seems like a very comprehensive book. I typically judge the quality of a book (cooking or not) partially by the depth of its index. This one has both German and English and extensive indices. It failed my initial glances by not including a recipe for Sauerer Zipfel, but it's ok, that one is quite simple. I'm pretty sure that my Mom never used any larded roasts either. I guess I will just go with the triangle tip roast. Thanks everyone!