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Welcome to the class! Also fun to have Chef Tony mistaken me for you right from the get-go. Ha he looked embarassed. I was like "why does he keep calling me Brian?" Maybe it is true...all asians go look alike. Sorry I digress, the goat/brie walnut/pistaccio breaded/friend cheese has got to be the tastiest thing I've learned to make so far...oh my god.

I think steeps on broadway is a good gauge. Their teas range from $3 to $7 I think. I am more than happy to spend about $5 to $6 on a really good pot 'o tea. The flowering ones are even more expensive I think.

Mmm Garlic Mayo Fries....mmmm Otherwise I think Marcello's is open pretty late (1st and around grant I think)

Overrated. I'm not sure how Donuts and Coffee became the norm but I don't find it that good. I mean it's sugery and addictive but yeah...doesn't do it for me. Then again I don't drink Coffee and I'm diabetic so go figure

I took my baguette home and .... got yelled at. Because Sandy and her sister ate the WHOLE THING! We took the Jam we got at the wedding over the weekend and ate the whole thing mmmmm. Hmm I wonder if you can chop the gnocchi board in half to make TWO boards What a great class last night! I'm slated to make that salad for thanksgiving at home.

Actually we just use the portable stoves and the split sided pot (one side for satay sauce and the other with a broth of sorts). Hmm I don't think I've ever used the charcoal hotpot!

I'd love to have a hot pot on the roof of my building.maybe next no non rainy fall day i should get some foodies together

There's a new bubble tea house which opened 1 block from Dragon Ball called Gizmo. Anyone been? I heard they are giving away free bubble tea for a limited time as a way to draw people away from DB and to show off the fact that they atually have places to sit

Thanksgiving starts with a social call from my Aunt who usually calls about 1 week before thanksgiving. She chats with my mom and talks about all sorts of great food and how "we" should all make this and that and how yummy it would be. Usually the conversations ends with my Aunt saying something like "ok then it's settled we'll all have a big family dinner at YOUR place <points to my mom>. You make all the food and I'll bring the guests and wine". Hilarious. My mom is dupped every year. She ends up looking shell shocked every time and then gets to work on preparations. I'm not sure how many years this has happened but every time she seems to not realize why my Aunt is visiting - always in October We go for the turkey/gravy route. I sometimes make my Foccacia bread as well as sushi (yeah not so traditional). My mom makes Turkey and throws in something very ethnic like Afghani food or Curry or Malaysian Lhaksa mmm.

Uhh for $99 I'm sure Neil could give us some pretty fine dining Mmmm Man how do you make a cake for 'Ling' when she's the dessert expert. That's like buying an engagement ring for a girl who works in a diamond shop!

Is this the same deal as before? 2 can dine for $99? Sandy and I went last time and I quite enjoyed it but then again we arn't the type to order too many drinks. Maybe a shared glass of wine with dinner so it ended up being like $110 plus tip. LOTS of food tho, we couldn't finish! Wes

Mmmmm foood. Must.eat.must.eat.at.yaletown.

^ But faster! I've never ordered something elsewhere where they take your order and return in under 1 minute with your bowl of food ;p

Too bad you're not going to Nu. Desserts are $3.50 or something! Damn what a deal!

' I'm going to get behind my flame shield before I start [steps behind] My theory is that it is also a bit easier to open a japanese restaurant because the key to good sushi is good ingredients (fish). And Japanese food is simple in the sense that it is SO good without having to go into elaborate spices and other things. Simple, good food. So I think the barriers to entry are a little easier. A little bonito, seaweed, miso can go a long way. Then throw in the triage of Mirin, Soy Sauce and Sake and, well i swear i can make my cornflakes taste japanese Thai food although that that complex might need a bit more in terms of getting a retaurant started I'm chinese buy my uncle is thai...makes for really good family dinners mmmm... [/steps out from behind shield and runs screaming]

Yeah I think they do that at Dubrelle as well. I recall being called at night and told to "come over to eat marvellous desserts" because she had too much. It was a tough job but I managed to "help" in this task

My bolding! Sorry, but that's much more a reflection on your friend than on the food at Tojo's! ← The fact that he/she went to a fast food joint is not the point though. If I drop $200 on a fancy dinner I expect to be sated. Bottom line i should at the VERY LEAST be sated. I dopped $200 on a dinner at the Wikininnish and although I was thinking "oh man im going to be hungry after this" I was overwhelmed by like 14 courses plus palet cleansers. I had to yell uncle before dessert arrived. Sandy took me to Tojo's and perhaps my expectations were high (they should be) I was not very impressed. I will say that the food was solidly good but certainly NOT worth the money. There are several other places with similar quality fish for less. I heard of some place in Richmond from Alex which carries parts of Tuna which you can special order and they have it flown in from Japan fresh for the day you want it. IMHO Tojo is good, but not worth the money.

My fiancee's sister took a chocolate course with VCC. Get this. You spent all class making these chocolates and THEY KEEP them. That's right. You don't take them home. In fact even more ridiculous - they SELL them in their store. Someone correct me but don't you need some kind of food safe to make food for public consumption (sidewalk meat stands notwithstanding)? She was totally unimpressed and will never recommend that school to anyone. She also took a pastry course with AI and said although the course was pretty good she found them extremely disorganized (the teacher didn't even know she was scheduled to teach this course). They didn't get their 'kits' till the 3rd or so class and then it consisted of what looked like an ikea knife (might be nice, it didnt look like much on first impression). Regardless the course seemed ok just disoraganized since even the teacher did not know where anything was in the kitchen. And the apron you get says AI and not Dubrelle...she was a little choked hehe.

Yeah that is correct but the Korean seafood pancake is kind of an integrated pancake too! But totally different flavour

Hey! I just left the rest of the meat in for another 30mins and its getting nice and tender mmm! I'm going to stew it a bit longer then! yeah i bet a 2 day course would be great...good way to 'taste' the course and see if it suits you!

So I made a salad consisting of - Mixed greens - Apple - Pear - Orange - Feta - Lime infused olive oil and Balsamic - A little ginger and garlic Then I made a stew with some beef I had (low quality ) So I made chopped up some stuff for the Mire Poix - Carrots - Onions - Red Pepper - Parsley - Potato And some spices which I roasted mmmmm The finished product? Looks pretty good although the meat was still tough after 1.5 hours of stewing...darn tough meat!

You are hardcore! And you love pastries! You know I figure you might not benefit much from these sorts of pastry classes then. Instead maybe take an advanced course or talk to the chef and see what he/she thinks I'm making a salad and stew right now..slighly different from last night but I wanted to make sure I understood the principals

In case he doesn't know HSG = Hamilton Street Grill and yes it's worth a visit. I will second the notion of going to - C (I am ALWAYS happy here) - Aurora Bistro (They put things together you never would have though possible) Anyone here think Tojo's is overhyped? I was not too impressed with it. There are better sushi places to go than Tojo's for sure I think.

Not that I've taken the pastry course but I would hazard a guess it is like anything else that revolves around education. You could probably learn everything you need by experimenting on your own and picking up a bunch of books. I'm pretty sure I could also be in the same boat with the cooking class if I actually set aside 3.5 hours every monday experimenting with food and reading cookbooks. But I've come to the conclusion that I am a lazy butt! And I need to have a course which I am paying for to motivate me to comit to learning and experimenting. On top of this, Chef Tony fasttracks a lot of the tricks of the trade for us (some things I've learned in the class would take a long time to find if I were to skim through books on cooking). I think the course if worthwhile because it puts you in front of someone who really know's what they are doing and you get to interact and experiment with said expertise in house. I think this is the value-add to taking a course like this one over experimenting at home. Of course experimentation at home is a MUST in conjunction with the course to solidify what we learn. So I bet you will learn some neat industry tricks of the trade. But I also bet you could find these tricks if you read enough pastry books I guess the big questions is whether you want to have a time set aside every week for 8 weeks (or something) where you can consult with a really experiened pastry chef and perhaps try some things you might not want to try at home. In terms of learning "advanced" pastries and what-not, I don't think that's the marketted value add of the course. Chef Tony told us what he really wants us to take away from his course isn't a pile of recipes, but an increased confidence in ourselves and our cooking. A confident cook is or will soon be a good cook. When you're not afraid to add a little fennel or basil or cumin to something because you KNOW what it will do to your dish, you become a better cook. Same goes for Pastry I think (although with baking the "equations" are more strict and cannot be deviated as easily!) Is it worth the money? I'm already more confident and it's only been 2 classes! Now I'm not guessing every step of the way. I understand what kinds of steps need to be made and more importantly, WHY. And the class is a wonderful medium to learn this stuff. Money well spent IMHO Actually do you know who is teaching the pastry section?

Bing - spot on. I have a Jar full and nothing to put it in! Hey Daddy-A can we add it to the Caveman Pulled Lambwich?