mamacat

The one caution about this very tasty dish is the bones....much as I enjoyed the flavours, I found that having to remove small bones from my mouth on just about every bite took away from the experience. Perhaps when you have it, the day's ingredients will be less problematic.

I've just packed all my cookbooks in preparation for my forthcoming move to a new condo in Port Moody so I'm working from memory. There is a recipe in the Bishops book that Snacky referred to earlier that I just love. It is a salad made of sliced fresh beets with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. So good.... Great pictures "Deborah"....your mushroom tart dish looks sinfully good!

The lamb is, indeed, yummy. Also, anything with pork. What the hang....EVERYTHING is fantastic. Enjoy, Lorna! Can't wait to hear what you think of your meal.

Sounds like an e-gullet event waiting to happen!

Ditto everything Snacky said....this was one memorable meal! If your Christmas budget allows just one meal out, go to Senhor Roosters. You will be amazed by the food and charmed by the Chef. It's only been 2 hours since we left and I'm already thinking about our next visit.

Interesting column in today's Vancouver Sun by George Jonas about restaurant ambience. He talks about decor, service, clientele and concludes that for him, the best place is a roomy, bright place with great food and service where he feels as though he is going to his club. He makes the point that such a relationship with a restaurant takes time to build and that customers have as much of an obligation as the restaurant owner to build that relationship. I think he's right on the mark and would be interested to hear about fellow e-gulleters views on the restaurants where they feel they have been able to build this special kind of relationship. For me, of course, the HSG comes to mind.

Great Pictures, Joie....here it is, only 5:30am and I'm salivating just looking at them! I'm just back from several days of meetings in Victoria and Ottawa. In Victoria, I attended a formal dinner held at the Navy Officer's Mess (beautiful location - right on the water). I had always heard that Navy cooks were great, but not so the night I was there. The roast beef was tough, the yorkshire pudding both looked and tasted like a baseball, the potatoes and veggies were tired looking and the sole efforts at presentation were folding the slices of roast beef and serving the horseradish in a mushroom cup. The dessert saved the meal, though. A white chocolate cheesecake that was light and fluffy. Better luck in Ottawa where I took my sister to Merlot, the revolving restaurant atop the Marriott hotel downtown. This is a very, very good hotel restaurant and they have just recently started serving a prix fixe menu with two choices each of appetizer, main course and dessert. The appetizer we chose was a maple brie in phyllo with a wild blueberry compote and a few artistic greens on the side...very nice indeed. The main course was sea scallops, beautifully seared and served with artfully arranged grilled veggies and polenta and dessert was apple crumble with port-laced ice cream. At $40, the meal was excellent value. My work group had a casual meal one evening at Mangia in the market area. We each had different versions of pasta and all were both tasty and abundant. From there the dining became more mundane...Swiss Chalet, Louis Steak House out in the east end, and room service. I'm glad to be home!

If it is after Dec. 12th, I'm in!

Oooo...Ooooo (my best Ronald Horshack impression), can I come to GBP class too?

Oh my...I shouldn't look at pictures like that before I've had dinner. Count me in - I can't wait to sink my teeth into one of those luscious burgers. I'm stuck in meetings in Victoria and Ottawa from Nov. 30 - Dec. 12 so if we could work around those times, this mamacat would be very grateful!

That's quite an endorsement...worthy, perhaps, of a special meeting of the Burger Club?

My favourite dish of the year was the first course of my birthday dinner prepared by none other than my precious Snacky-cat. It was slices of pear, lightly sauteed in butter and then topped with blue cheese and deep fried sage leaves. Marvellous! Second choice would be Chef Wyles' saffron risotto topped with a perfectly seared scallop (one of his Taste of Yaletown creations). The last of the top three would be a wonderful cold beet salad topped with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette from one of John Bishop's books.

Cute, Snacky...you do have a way with words! It will be hard to have a game of Jenga now without thinking of food.

Well, there's always my smoker ... Try THIS thread for more discussion of succulent lamb. A. ← Many thanks, Arne... I'll work my way through all the recommended places starting with Maria's. Of course, I could always trade some of my Ottawa lamb sausages for a portion of your roast lamb!

Company from Ottawa....many wonderful meals....up 3 lbs. in 2 weeks. For starters, Jenn and I introduced our friends to the great brunch selections at Seb's (I finally made it past the banana bread French toast and had a lovely salad with pears, goat cheese & nuts). Of course, we took them to the HSG during TofY and they were mightily impressed with mixed grill (particularly the Hangar stead) and GBP. At Lumiere we did the multi-course meal and even though the servings are small, I still couldn't finish all the courses; my friends, however, were quite happy to assist! As I mentioned on another thread, although the food was totally amazing, I found the experience as whole marred somewhat by the room itself which I found too full of tables and too warm (the place was packed, even though this was a Thursday). Off to Whistler we went with the intention of having both lunch and dinner out but our lunch at Monk's was so good (we all had burgers of varying descriptions) we never did make it to dinner, opting instead for a seared scallop salad lovingly prepared by Ottawa buddy back at our suite at the Intrawest resort. Monk's, by the way, does yam fries and while they were very good, they don't come anywhere Neil's at the Hammy. One special treat - there is this little store in Ottawa called Ayoub's and the owner/butcher makes these incredible little lamb sausages. My friends, knowing how much I love these things, brought two large packages of them. Cooked up with rosemary and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, they are the best! You can bet I'll be bringing more back when I'm in Ottawa in early December. Friends have now gone but I'm afraid the eating hasn't stopped. Jenn and I did our usual Friday thing at the Hammy (we each order a carpaccio and then split an order of mussels and finish off with GBP) and last night was Burger Club at Stormin Norman's. That was so much fun! I tasted Elk for the first time and also had a bit of Jenn's muskox. Great burgers in a very friendly environment. It was also nice to meet so many e-gulleteers. Altogether, some memorable meals...well worth the 3 lbs!

But in the meantime, I will be paying full price to try the hangar steak and the GBP.

My grandmother was a cook on the lake boats that ply the Great Lakes. As a result of a work-related injury, she came to live with us while I was still in elementary school. Needless to say, the quality of meals in our house went WAY up after she moved in. From then until she died when I was in my late teens, I had no interest in cooking whatsoever. To this day, I regret not having learned her secrets and try as I might, there are some things that I have simply never been able to duplicate - incredible light, fluffy donuts made with mashed potatoes; turkey and rice soup to die for and macaroni and cheese with oh so crispy crust but soft, mushy, cheesy delight inside. Wish you were here, Grandma!

Stormin Norman's got a huge review in the Sun's West Coast Life section today which means it may be busier than normal in there this weekend....has Norman been warned that a bunch of e-gulleters will be descending upon him?

Only one day to go until turkey time....yahoo!! Thanksgiving is a big, boisterous meal always held at the home of Snacky-cat's dad. He has turned into an amazing cook over time (last weekend he made a ciaopinno [spelling?] that was the best I've ever had) and his turkeys have become masterpieces. He does one batch of traditional sage & onion stuffing and one "experimental" batch of something new each year. There is also the traditional mashed potatoes, usually some kind of yam dish, other veggies, cranberry sauce and really yummy gravy. Dessert is always pumpkin pie made by either his partner or me, both our versions being equally yummy. Snacky-cat, who is normally very careful about what she eats, throws caution out the window when a turkey dinner is to be had...it is the only thing (aside from GBP) that can make her overindulge. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Several years ago, before the company I was then working for went belly up, we used to have our Christmas parties at the Pavilion in Stanley Park. Cocktails in the room with the big fireplace (huge wood fire going, of course) and then dinner in the large room next door. The place was always beautifully decked out with Christmas decorations and the buffet dinner was surprisingly good...roast beef, whole salmon and a slew of salad and side dishes. There is a stage in the large room for a band and lots of room for dancing once the buffet tables are cleared. Current work group does something a little more sedate...the turkey buffet lunch at Country Meadows golf course in Richmond. Again, surprisingly good food for a buffet and a lovely room with ceiling to floor glass windows looking out over gardens and the golf course.

A sin indeed but don't make the amuse smaller...it was SO good! The ToY menu is excellent, Neil, and amazing value. Our guests from Ottawa found it hard to believe that a meal of that quality could be had for that price.

I was at Lumiere last night and the food was as spectacular as I remember it...couldn't make it through my nine courses, though, and my out-of-town visitors had to help me out with dessert. The room was packed with the result that it was very noisy and quite warm, both of which detracted from the overall experience. There is a restaurant in Ottawa called Signatures...it is attached to the Cordon Bleu school there...and the room is magnificent. If only someone could create a place with Signatures' ambience and Lumiere's food; what a wonderful place that would be! We will all be looking forward to your final post, Manuel. Enjoy your remaining restaurants!

While I appreciate the fact that some really good food is available for those times when you simply don't want to cook (and you all know I'm a big fan of Pan-O-Pan), the fact that this sector of the food industry is growing so quickly is kind of sad in a way as it points out how lack of time is destroying one of life's greatest pleasures...that of just playing in the kitchen and producing wonderful, home cooked meals for family & friends. Sometime I just want to stop the world and go back to simpler times when my Grandma cooked all our meals and made the after-school cookies that had me rushing home every afternoon.

For years I was torn between having a good cheddar cheese or ice cream with my apple pie until one day I baked the cheddar cheese into the crust and had the ice cream on the side. Works for me!