Beebs

I've had it in both goat and lamb hotpots, with Chinese lettuce (the stuff that looks like romaine). The sauce had the fu ru in it, but I've not had it as a condiment to the hotpot. The fu ru & goat/lamb go really well together, although I prefer lamb (goat is a bit tough and stringy). The past couple days I've been stir-frying baby bok choy with fu ru, garlic and ginger.

What's the best way to take these things out of the jar without completely munching them up? I've tried chopsticks, spoons, forks...they always end up breaking into bits. Is there a trick to this? I want to be able to take out a whole, unbroken cube.

I would drink this! It's actually a pretty common bubble tea/pearl milk tea combo at Hong Kong & Taiwanese tea houses and it's surprisingly not bad. I would not, however, drink a durian, avocado & mint milkshake - gaack!

Vandan, if you haven't found it already, you could try Finest at Sea on Arbutus and 33rd-ish (in the stripmall). I thought I saw some in their refrigerator. Although you could probably just make garlic aioli yourself in 5 minutes. Hellmans mayo + mashed-up garlic, thinned out with a little evoo and lemon juice is a pretty quick & dirty way of doing it.

Where can I find a wide selection of flavoured syrups, like Torani brand? I'm looking specifically for orgeat. I'm aware that the Bay has a small selection of the basic flavours, like caramel and vanilla. Starbucks has their own stuff, but not orgeat. Galloway's and Whole Foods both don't carry them. And I think Canterbury Coffee only wholesales them, so I won't be able to buy it directly from them. Haven't tried Meinhardt or Gourmet Warehouse yet, though. I want to use orgeat for mixing drinks. Any suggestions appreciated - thanks!

I've just found my new happy place for meats! Today I went to Chong Lee market on Victoria & E 48th (by the Value Village) because I've been told that they have excellent products. And oh wow - it is meat heaven! They've got their own full-scale butchery in the back (I think they wholesale to restaurants - from what I could see, their butchery operation is huge), and everything is amazingly fresh looking. But what really blew me away was the incredible variety of meats - beef shanks, entire beef hearts, chickens with head & feet attached, pork feet, tails and even brains! And it is inexpensive beyond belief. I didn't look too carefully at their beef roasts and steaks, as they were still stocking it for the morning, but I'll be back later this week for that. I also want to see if they've got squab and check out the duck selection. I came home with a "bubble" beef shank, pork hocks, and ground pork, all for well under $10 (plus another $10 for non-meat stuff). And even though this is a butcher topic, Chong Lee has a wide array of fresh, frozen, and dried seafood, and Asian vegetables (I found banana flowers!), many of which I do not have the faintest clue what they are. Fruit selection is a bit more pedestrian - the usual apples and pears.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if one day we woke up and discovered all Subways had magically turned into local mom & pop banh mi joints overnight? I think I've been to Subways all of two times in my lifetime...and only because the other option was McDonalds. The bread is stale, lettuce wilted, and there is something very strange about the tomatoes. Actually, make that three times. I think I ordered only a soda there once.

1. Coffee Crisp. Love them - can't resist the bags of little ones you get around Halloween. 2. Kinder Surprise. Because there's a toy inside. 3. Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates, the ones wrapped in gold foil with the hazelnut cream inside. They taste best around Christmas.

I've always fluffed because it looks nicer when served. I don't care for the look of a big cakey clump of rice on my plate.

Crown Royal used to (still do??) come in these purple cloth drawstring bags. As a kid, I used to keep my crayons and toys in there.

Taiwanese fried chicken nuggets are so delicious, I could eat 5 pounds in one sitting. They're little chunks of boneless chicken thight that's been coated in some kind of seasoned rice flour and/or starch (I think). The coating is fluffier and lighter than karaage or American fried chicken, fried with chili peppers and basil. Best part is the crispy pieces of skin. There's a Chinese restaurant here that specializes in a spicy fried fish (sole). Pieces of fish with the skin attached, floured, then fried. Garnished with piles of chopped fried garlic, shallots, and chilis. They also take the fish bone with the head & tail attached, flour and fry the whole thing, crispy enough to eat the bones.

"World-famous" makes me cringe. If your dish is "world-famous," how come I've never heard of it?? "Honest" food/cooking. What does that mean anyway? Honest as opposed to dishonest food/cooking? My dad loves using this word to describe some types of cuisine. It makes me want to scream and run my head into a brick wall.

PHAT on West Fourth is now closed. There's a new Korean BBQ joint going up on W Fourth, though, in the old Mantique space between Cypress & Maple.

I think restroom conditions absolutely reflect on the restaurant itself. There's no need for a restroom to be over-the-top with fireplaces and tv's (Cactus Club comes to mind), but at minimum they must be clean and well-stocked, faucets and toilets fully operational, with proper ventilation. It seems to me that a poorly-kept restroom shows a lack of attention to detail and a disregard for guests' comfort. I mean, if a place like Denny's can meet all the minimum requirements, I don't see any reason that a highly-rated fine-dining restaurant can't do the same. My restroom pet peeves are restaurants that use the restroom for storage. I do not want to see mops & buckets, boxes of dinner napkins, and tableclothes cluttered all over the floor. Please put them where we can't see them.

Oh good, I'm not the only one! Leftover pasta fried up with an egg, cold pizza, soup, ramen....I'll eat anything for breakfast. The husband thinks it's totally vile that I do this. Latest grab and go brekky is a raisin English muffin with a slices of cheese and ham. Makes DH gag a little, but hey, you've got the best of both worlds in one bite!

Savoury, 9 out of 10 times. If I have a sweet for breakfast, I need to follow it up with a bit of something savoury. One of my favourite brekkies is oatmeal with brown sugar and boiled eggs sprinkled with Maggi sauce - a bite of sweet, a bite of savoury!

Sardine and anchovy tins irritate me. I hate how when I pull back the tab, sometimes it breaks off in my hand, leaving me with a half opened tin with the curl of metal sticking up and no way to get the rest off. And it also makes me crazy when I pull back the whole cover, but the very last bit on the end is stuck. So when I finally wrestle that part off the tin, the metal cover snaps off and I get a lovely fine spray of anchovy oil in my face.

Oooh...dangerous topic! I don't have a waffle iron, so I'd pick waffles if it's available. Especially the Belgian kind. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. At home, it's french toast - with sausages on the side, maple syrup on top of everything. For whatever reason in my head, pancakes must have bacon next to it, but french toast must be eaten with sausages on the side.

Yes, it does. It also makes my upper lip sweat.

It's been quite sometime since I was there last, but I've really enjoyed Casa Verde on Commercial Street (not Commercial Drive). I believe it's still operating. It's a family-run business with excellent Portuguese fare. I think the piri piri chicken is only available on weekends, and you'll need to call ahead to reserve a chicken as they run out really quickly - well worth the trouble though! Recommend phoning ahead for hours - I recall they had some odd closing days/hours. I've heard/read that Senhor Rooster is noteworthy, but never having been there myself, can't say for certain.

My first thought was Restaurant Connor Butler, but I have no idea if they still do this/ever did this. I vaguely recall hearing something about domes and vapours some while back when they just opened. My second thought was DC Duby Chocolates....but I'm pretty certain it's chocolates only, and I'm not sure if there's even a retail store, or just online and wholesale.

The 1,000,000 Macaroon question: How did it taste ? I use both granulated garlic, powdered garlic if I think a dish might be too wet and want the juices to be adsorbed as it cooks. Delicious! Interestingly, leaving out the fresh garlic wasn't detrimental to the final product at all, as I thought it might have been. It was a bit more mellower with just the granulated garlic, though. I am bringing a leftover meatloaf sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Mixed meatloaf last night. Dumped in a whole pile of granulated garlic....but forgot to add the fresh garlic that normally goes in it. I think my mind was on this topic, and the fresh stuff completely escaped my head.

Cheetos, the puffy kind. I am its slave. Bread and cheese, especially gorgonzola and rustic bread. I rarely buy gorgonzola now, because I will eat it till I throw up.

You could also try experimenting with tea or herbal/fruit infusions as a substitute. Some teas, surprisingly, have a lot of similar characteristics to wine and liquors. You could try replacing whisky with lapsang souchong, strong Assam-type teas for beer, or a fruit & berry tea in sweet applications. Or find a scented tea like almond or blackcurrant to replace amaretto and cassis. I recall a thread somewhere titled "Cooking With Tea" (I think), but I can't remember whether that's in the Tea & Coffee Forum or this one....