fud

OMG Christina's! Sandy and I were there like 3 years ago! Ocas is a gorgeous island, the pictures are marvellous!

Thanks everyone! I made it last week and the fesenjoon was pretty good (chicken was a little dry - I know to reserve it a little earlier in the process). The tahe-dig was...well...not so good. I think the rice needs to be cooked less initially - the rice was all soft before I added it to the potato pot. I plan to cook it much less next time. I DID notice that after soaking the rice overnight it was already soft! Did I buy low grade basmati? The pot I used was also not non stick so the potatoes didn't come out very easily. But the potatoes were nicely brown and very cristpy...the saffron I added to the bottom added some nice aroma. I will be making this again!!

Yeah I figure this to be true as well. I hope one day I will know someone who knows someone who knows how to get there. I love covert stuff. Like the covert restaurants inside condo units in asia.

Thanks Pez, I see they have the "voted best burger" news on their web site In case people need directions: [MAP] I may have to try their pulled pork sandwich before the meeting

Indeed it does. I was a little confused what they were when I first saw their booth. I thought initially they were a recruiting agency or an investment advice group. I remember this. We had to actually visit them at their estate to get on the list. Also Nichol's is tiny. It's quite literally a small barn side-house where a nice lady pours you tasters.

Hatch on broadway by Main/Kingsway is closed and will be replaced with a new restaurant (name escapes me at the moment).

Hi Lise! I like Flying Fish as well. I work out in the Tri Cities so sometimes I need to indulge in cuisine out here Another favorite in the area is St. Street Grill! Welcome aboard!

I love the 'Wik. The pictures are gorgeous! We went to the Naramata Bench Party last night at the Roundhouse . They had a nice setup with food sandwiched between wines. Many local favorites where there (food-wise): Lumiere - They served a wonderful foie creme brulee (oh my god SO rich) Aurora Bistro - Chef Jeff presented a (duck?) pate encrused with toasted sesame seeds with a pumpkin (relish?) CinCin - They had a lamb dish which we missed Le Gavroche - Manny was present carving out hunks of a pig (in true portugese fashion) served with shoestring fries and the gravy made from the drippings C - I'm drawing a blank but I remember it being a salty meat (not proscuitto though) wrapped around something good with a little "shot" of vinegarette (same pipette as the one used by Nu for their beer/oyster shots) <??> Inn - A sweet crispy crepe served with scallops Wines were so plentiful that I enjoyed myself too much and ended up unable to tell the difference between wineries. We had a wonderful pear wine by Spiller Estates as well as a rich full bodied Syrrah by Nichol's (2003 Reserve!). A wine I had never heard of - Laughin Stock presented a bordeaux blend which I found to be a little too young and tangy tasting. Lang had a marvellous fortified Muscato dessert wine and Elephant Island introduced a Cherry Wine (which I didn't really dig). The event included a fashion show and more wine and of course CHEESE! Yum! The cheese guy started giving me dirty looks so had to stop eating cheese towards the end of the evening.

I am pretty sure you can get it at Choices, Capers, and Famous Foods. I've seen it stocked up to the ceiling at Whole Foods. Very popular with the health food crowd. ← Thanks guys, I talked to my Persian friend and he insisted I buy the Persian or Greek branded ones and something about the big-ars 'Bazaar' in North Van. Must be the same one mentioned upthread. Looks like Fud's going heading to lonsdale today

I finally made my way out to Fat Burger last week to see what all the hubbub was all about. Apprently not much. The place is decorated in an attempt at a diner style but the posters were all musicians and I wasn't sure if I was in a hard rock cafe or a burger shack. As a weird aside the bathroom was playing what I could only describe as porn music (or perhaps a dubbed porn film?). But these are all just ambience comments and the real question was - are the burgers good? I didn't get the impression this was the type of place to request a burger done medium but i did note that they had signs everywhere stating that they COOK their burgers fresh when you order em. Oh. So it's not McDonalds. Well I kinda knew that already. What I didn't notice where big declarations that the meat is brought in fresh every day and ground on site. Now that would impress me I got the 1/3lb patty and loaded it with everything imaginable including the chilli. The burger was a little dry but otherwise pretty good. I had to try Sandy's to get the actual patty flavour since mine tasted like - well - chilli. I liked the flavour of the patty but for some reason the 1/3lb felt small. Maybe it had lost some moisture and shrunk? Would I go back for the burgers? yeah maybe but I don't know if I'd go back for THAT burger at THAT price. It was pretty steep for what they advertise as "better than fast food". The search continiues.

If you were a crazy man looking or Pomogranate Juice/sauce where would you look? I want to make a persian dish tomorrow which I've been dreaming about!

Although the threads is "after dinner" desserts I wanted to mention Dominique's catering on Steveston. I believe his web site is http://www.sugarart.ca He makes these lovely little bon bons and of course specializes in wedding cakes. Oh man I can't wait to drop in and do some sampling!

Excellent thanks so much SwissKaese! The spelling you gave me had more hits on the search site! I believe traditionally this persian dish is cooked with duck but I think beef or chicken will work just as well!

I tried doing a search but I think I'm not spelling the name of this dish correctly. It's a wonderful dish of meat and walnuts and tonnes of pomogranate. I had it at my friend's house and they served it with saffron rice on top of thinly sliced potatos. I would love the recipe. It's one of those (mom reciples) I ate and I'm too embarassed to call up his mum I'm sure there might be a thread here on this already so I'd love a link to it! Thanks so much!

A wonderful (mostly Main Centric) day today We got up and headed down to Aurora Bistro for some brunch. We got the duck benny with the....<drool> duck bacon.....Mmmmm smokey and ducky and good. I also ordered the black truffle eggs. You get the awesome burst of truffle flavour on a flakey puff crust. And of course....the donuts. Yum! It's sweet yet savoury. We made our way south and ended up at WingNuts after lunch and decided to pop in. We had the original hot as well as the double smoked bacon wings. Quite good. 24 for 12.99 was not a bad deal (although I recall university days of 0.05 wings) so it's hard to say that 0.50 a wing is a good deal. But I did like the flavours and admired the Wall of Flame . I'll be back to try to get on that wall. Dinner at home became dinner in Richmond and we ended up at Shanghai River for some Taro Duck (my favorite dish) some "Siu Loong Bow", the awesome fried mayo shrimp, hot and sour soup (done right!), the crispy bits in soup (heheh dunno what it's called in english) and the ultimate finisher - deep fried bananas smothered in molten sugar and then dipped in ice water!

Do you think this is because diner's expectations are lower or their tolerance of lower standards higher? I have always been a fan of some of hte innovation behind McDonalds. The book Fast Food Nation talks about a potato canon which launches potatoes in rapid fire towards a wall of knives in a matrix pattern to create the fries we know today. Stuff like that is pretty incredible.

Ahh if that's true then did you get a unified "Arashi-Masen" when you arrived? And a crescendoing "Arigato-Gazaimas!" starting with the waiter closest to you moving away from you and getting louder till it hits the chef/crew in the back? If not I'm not sure I want to try it

I fully intend to

Havn't been to... - Le Crocodile - Diva - Lumiere - Cioppino's - La Terrazza Can cross off list - Beach House - C R U - Il Giardano - Parkside - Storman Norman's - Rare To eat next - Lee's Fried Chicken (Richmond - Apparently has new name) - Witch burger (maple ridge) - Burgers Etc... (burnaby) [*burger club!] - Le Regelade - Paprika's - Bearfoot Bistro

If the deal goes through I'll be moving 5 blocks closer to Seb's (tee hee!) I just can't leave Main. It's a wonderful area! Also can't wait to pick up Bee Bim Bop sauce at the Kim's market on broadway. Aside: I just got 4 more rave (read: so excited they kept jumping up and down when talking to me) reviews on the donuts at Aurora. So if my sunday works out as planned I will be paying a visit to see what this hubub is all about. Personally I'm actually going for the duck bacon.

OMG. Sunshine diner for breakfast and a shake then stop off at cupcakes to finish me off. I better move to maple ridge and ride in to burn it all off.

A shame that is closed down but in Vancouver, a personal favorite was Pho Bich Nga No matter how you try to make it sound non vulgar it always seems to come back to being vulgar in some way.

Oh that's brilliant! We tried poaching them in olive oil and some basil but the basil is WAY too strong. We also tried steaming them in a slightly acidic citrus steam bath but the cheeks didn't have much flavour (am i cooking them too much?). I need to work more with this medium. I know they can be SO good I just need to figure out how!

This is what I found as well with the review. A line was crossed. Food critics regardless of whether people regard them as good or bad or whatever should talk about the food and the restaurant and even the ambience. But when they move on onto talking about the individual people I think they cross a line. Stick with the food. I agree with the posts above, if you don't like a particular review written by a food critic, don't read their damn reviews . But on the other had if you are a food critic, lay off the reviews of personality or people. Review the food/place. Leave the personal stuff to you discussions with friends or whatnot. Keep it out of the column.

Amen. The RARE thread was top of the pile on the Vancouver/Western Canada group for the day! What person who hasn't been is not interested in what all the bellyhoo is about? Ducky said something that rings and resonantes with the Chef of Rare. Live by the sword, die by the sword. If you're going to open up your place to an online community you get the bonuses of having a lot of your work and "stuff that happens in the back" brought out to public domain. This transparency is really cool (it takes shows like 'opening soon' to a whole new level) but it also leaves you as a restauranteure naked and exposed. I think it's kind of cool and I hope the Rare guys/gals take this sort of thing as a super constructive experience and make use of the chance to prove the reviewer wrong. I bet she would be happy to see that happen too.