rcousine

Thanks. I stumbled across that deal this weekend; the 250 ml jars, probably more suited to my needs, are the same unit price, but either way that's about half the going rate! This weekend I had some helpers, and we pulled a huge number of apples out of the tree. I haven't weighed them yet, but my estimate is 80-100 pounds of apples. We're talking three green garbage bags loaded to near their weight capacities. Time to make some crab apple juice!

Since we don't know what those expectations were, it's difficult to say. If you were expecting "tasty" by Greek Festival standards (over salted and covered in garlic & olive oil) then yes, by all accounts, you would have been disappointed in the lamb at Pear Tree. Nothing wrong with either, but the comparison has me at a loss. A. ← I expected that the food would be first-rate. I hoped that there would be interesting subtleties or pleasant novelties in the flavours and textures. I am fond of saying that the most interesting thing about Tojo's omakase (the one time we went) was that it was a lesson in how sushi should taste. I think what I meant was that the lamb was a bit bland, and that the jus, while a nice sauce, was not an especially creative match for the lamb. My taste in lamb may just be informed by having in-laws who are Greek, and who every couple of years roast a whole lamb for Easter. Lamb at the Greek Fest is not my favourite lamb. I'd probably go to Vassili's on Kingsway for the best I've had outside of my in-laws' back yard. I should say that the lobster cappuccino, despite the pan I gave it above, was the most interesting dish of the evening. It tried to play with the texture of lobster by foaming it, and came off with something that was evocative of the sea itself. I didn't find the dish entirely to my taste, but could see where it was going. If I was being more arrogant, I'd say that the foam could have stood to be a little firmer, but reasonable people may differ. You know what really offended me? That the same bland salad had the temerity to return to my table twice, and not be very good either time. That, and I still can't figure out what was going on with the presentation of the chicken dish. It was just weird. You could blame my unrefined tastebuds for this annoyance, but I've eaten at a lot of pretty nice, pretty expensive places that did impress me. It's possible that the mistake was that we stumbled onto the four dishes we would like the least on an otherwise great menu. And as I said, the service was excellent, there were moments of interest (if not greatness), and the meal was pretty good. It just wasn't so good that I'd pay a hundred bucks to experience it again. Had the menu been half the price I would have described it as a pretty nice place. Perhaps my sense of marginal value was offended. Maybe the question is better phrased thus: what's the Pear Tree's signature dish, and why?

No laughing! I work a block from the nearest Sally Ann...let's see if this works...

Two things: We make a monthly meat run to Bonetti's in Aldergrove. Their prices are really good, but the first time I tried them, I couldn't believe the tremendous difference in taste between their meat and, well, any supermarket in town. It was even a little bit eerie. I don't think they're especially underrated, being one of the most famous pastry shops in town, but I go to Notte's Bon Ton almost every week and get a couple of those lovely bite-sized morsels out of their front window. It's my little post-bike-ride treat on Saturday mornings.

Thanks for the suggestions! If I can't find anything else, I happen to have an inside contact at Canadian Tire, so I'll talk to them.

Last three... Went to The Pear Tree in Burnaby on the weekend, and was sadly disappointed. Were my expectations too high? You be the judge: The food and service deserve high marks for technical merit. No bonehead failures like an undercooked chicken or some such. My wife's starter was a pea-shoot salad with pear slivers. It was nice, though you couldn't taste any pear flavour, so why bother? My "lobster cappuccino" was a dish where they foamed a lobster bisque. Interesting, novel, but not great. I had the lamb main course, which was topped with some tasty scallops, and had an interesting jus underneath. But the lamb itself was . . .fine. I had tastier lamb at the Greek Festival on Boundary Road this year. And the pea-shoot salad returned as a side dish with my order. My wife's chicken was perfectly pleasant, though I thought it was good rather than interesting. But the presentation was just weird: four or five slices of chicken breast buried under a tan-coloured sauce, with not even a random sprig to break up the plate. Okay, there was some gnocchi off to one side. Did you know that gnocchi is rougly tan-coloured too? Seriously, it reminded me, looks-wise, of some sort of cafeteria mystery special. It was so weird I briefly wondered if it was some sort of culinary jest, in the style of the lobster cappuccino, only this time referencing bad cafeteria food. Again, it tasted pretty good. It just looked odd. So nothing really bad, but given the entree price of $20-30, and that pea-shoot salad costing something like $10 as a starter, I expected, well, the best food in Burnaby. I dropped nearly $100 on a meal, no alcohol, and it just wasn't impressive. I would have been much happier spending twice as much at Tojo's, or half as much at any number of nice places around town with good food. Pear Tree is widely acclaimed: what did I miss? The room is nicely styled.... Oh, and the other two "last threes" were Pajo's in Port Moody, which is always tasty for fish and chips (rumor for you: they're planning to open a year-round location in Port Coquitlam), and the Lougheed Wonton House, which has moved from its closed location on North Road by Lougheed Mall to St. John's Street in Port Moody, where Yan's used to be. Oh, and we had the Peking duck, which was pretty good. That last one is a major upgrade, since Yan's was a bit of a cruddy greasy-spoon Chinese restaurant, while Lougheed Wonton is a very good greasy-spoon Chinese restaurant. So good for me, not so good for everyone over by Lougheed Mall .

So thanks to my usual hobby turning into a charitable fundraiser, I suddenly have gone from needing 24 canning jars to needing a 100-200 or more. Can anyone suggest a good place to buy jars and other canning supplies locally? I can get everything I need (except maybe the canning racks and whatnot) at Save-On, but I really just want to make sure that I'm getting a good price, and not missing out some kitchen supply wholesaler that will sell me jars for .25 apiece or some such (Save-On is somewhere around $7-12 for 12 jars, depending on size and style). If anyone is interested, I'm (mostly) making crab apple jelly. My church has a crab apple tree on its property, and for the last few years I have collected the apples and turned them into a surprisingly good jelly. If any of you have access to crab apples and haven't made this stuff, I recommend it highly.