Coop

We are thinking of trying a produce delivery service. Does anyone have any recomendations?

Last night Mrs Coop, Coop jr. and myself wenty to Parkside for their 3 courses for $25.00 meal. We had spent all day painting the kitchen and needed somewhere to eat, so why not drive 35 miles into the city, and search for parking just to eat. The effort was well worth it. We were the first geusts to arrive (6:00) and were greeted by the chef. Andrey heard me asking the waiter about a Chianti on the menu and recomended we get the Trerose Vino Noble de Montepulciano. This was a great selection if you are a lover of sangiovese. Cedar, tobacco and rich plum flavours. The chef came by and discussed the menu with us and took our orders before disappearing into the kitchen for what turned into a very busy looking night. Our appetizers were the Bisque, the Beet salad with goat cheese pannacotta and the terrine. The Bisque was very authentic, rich with the flavour of lobster with just a hint of cognac and cream. The beets were thinly sliced and topped with the pannacotta, the plate was garnished with pommegranette seeds and hazelnuts. This was very well executed, I love the light weight of the pannacotta, which still has the great goat cheese flavour. The terrine was also very good, it was served with a dollop of split pea purree. Mrs Coop had the Confit which she would not share so... it looked great and she loved it. I did get a taste of the gratin, and it was very good. Coop jr had the ravioli which he kept to himself as well. I got a taste of the sauce and pistachio truffle butter, very nice. I had the shanks, which were braised and pulled from the bone and then finished in the brown sauce. The meat was then moulded and topped with shitake mushrooms and served with baby vegetables. I really enjoyed this dish, it had the flavours of braised meat but was not overly rich ( I hate the richness of beef stew generally). For dessert the other two had the choclate pots, which were very nice, but nothing like the toffee pudding I had. I can't remember having a dessert so rich and tasty. This is a must have dessert. I have to comment here about the size of the portions. This being a promotion I wasn't sure we would get the regular Parkside size portions. Of course I had nothing to worry about. The appetizers were very generous and the entrees were full size. The desserts were also generous and didn't dissapoint flavour wise. The service was on par with the food, very nice people doing a great job. I urge everyone to put Parkside on their list for Dine Out Vancouver. Buy a bottle of wine or some drinks to help run up the bill, you won't be dissapointed.

The pomme frites at Cafe Campagne. I don't care about wether they have ketchup either! BTW what's with the cute names for grit? Grits of Joy? Sexy Grits? I don't even want to think about sex and Jan Birenbaum on the same night!

What about priming the waiter? Offer him a taste, and you will probably find that you have a nicer evening.

Sounds better then a bottle of grape juice for the same price!

So the evening at Feenie's did happen on Friday night. It was attended by Redhaead, Tete Carre, Coop and their dates. I will be providing average scoring soon when all the votes are in. I found the company very enjoyable, the room over populated and the burger very dissapointing. More at 11:00.

Verjuice she must have had some other quality that made up for this, right?

This is messed up! Should be $1,500.00. Thats exactly 2 of my mortgage payments. For this I get a 3,500 square foot house fashionably close to Vancouver. I can't see myself ever getting a taste of anything from the DRC.

Rhea you just described my lunch today. Twice this week. BTW that must be the most messed up parking lot in town. Like two days before christmas everyday.

Is it as painfull as it sounds?

Everyone seems to mention the song and dance one receives with dinner here, can someone talk about it? I've often thought of going but I hate listening to people making a big deal about the food I'm about to eat.

For Pho I have always liked Kim Phung on Victoria between 42nd and 43rd. I have no idea if it is authentic having never been to Vietnam myself. It's always full of Vietnamese people so you can draw your own conclusions on that. Another good place is Le Do on Hastings a block west of Nanaimo near the corner on the south side of the street. Although I don't like their Pho as much their Bahn Mi and brochettes are excellent. You might also consider Au petit Cafe on Main street. Forget about Vina's various locations as they are too canadianized. BTW has ayone tried the Yaohan Centre food fair in Richmond, great looking food. I had a Bi Bhim Bob from the Korean place and I loved it. Comes with a side of Kim Chi.

If your budget increases I would like to get in a word for Carneros Famous Gate Pinot. I'm not sure of the price because a friend brought it to dinner this summer but the 2000 was the most structured pinot I had ever tasted. I think it probably was expensive, knowing my friend. He is the only person I know who lies about how expensive a wine is. If it costs him $80.00 he will tell you he paid $30.00. Then you will think wow that seems like a great buy, then you go to the store and the jokes on you.

So the Left Bank is OK? We drove from Palm Dessert once to have lunch there but when we saw the place we passed. Probably a mistake though because we had an underwhelming lunch at the Kaiser Grill. I've eaten 50 restaurant meals in this area in the last 8 years and only remember a couple of decent ones. All at Tommy Bahama's. It5 may have been the Baja Margaritas that clouded my judgment.

Keith at the risk of ending up having my posts ignored by some of the posters here(I already think most of my posts go ignored anyway) I agree with you. This forum should be for all opinions. I personally don't care for BC wines, and I have always taken people's recomendations of them very lightly. Yes for $50.00 you can buy a red wine from a small producer that is very good, but does it compare with what the same money will buy from the other great wine regions? In most cases no. I agree also that the industry has been promoted and financed with government money and has yet to show the results we were all led to believe would be forth coming. I have also used your emperors clothes reference when I here otherwise sane chefs promote BC wines as the equivilent of the finest in the world. The wine buying public will continue to vote with their dollars on this issue. Outside of BC the sales seem to be very light. I doubt this is from lack of promotion. Find me a BC wine that compare with these value wise: Coudelet de Beaucastel 2000 $27.95 Case de L'Ermite 2001 $23.95 Perrin Vacquerayas Les Chasselet 2000 $22.00 Omaka Springs Sauvignon Blanc or Kim Crawford around $23.00

No, and now that I've seen a picture of the steak, I'm not planning on it either.

So vserna, seeing you won't say I will, or more correctlyThomas Matthews from Wine Spectator: Finca Sandoval Manchuela 2001, This international style red offers a saturated purple colour, lot's of toasty,smoky oak and plush texture. Flavours lean toward chocolate and coffee, with notes of plum and mineral. Syrah with Mataro (Monistrell?). Best from 2004 through 2009. Sound great, wish we could get in Vancouver. Just had a bottle of Casa de L'Ermite 2002, so my alegiance is obvious. Hecula, Thelmo Rodriguez, Castell del Remei and Nekkeas, are the names of the producers I would look for, as well as Finca Sandoval if I could find it.

You know, I actually liked the room. I think that the location is a bit odd, sorry Syd, but who really cares. This is a great restaurant. I think the press for it has been very good, so I suggest we ( all of us who love Union) should suck it up and not be so sensitive when someone finds something about the place they don't love. I would say that the decor is minimilist, It works for me, I also love the W hotel, too bad it's so dark though!

Your right I have always enjoyed the wines made by Ric Forman, but they seemed so much more attainable price wise when he was at Sterling and Newton. I especially loved the Diamond Mountain Ranch Cabernet from the early 80's. I beleive Forman had a hand in those.

Please excuse me if I have these facts mixed up, but didn't someone named Pearl (spelling?) just advocate invading France? Would this be good for the wine industry or bad? Would Haut Brion then be an american wine? We seem to have a larger then usual bounty of well priced French wines in our stores here in Vancouver so who am I to complain. Does Mr Bush's government have any problems with Italy? With all the great vintages there it would be nice to see americans boycott them for a year or two.

What about Gil Nickel? He was the first of the new generation of Napa wine makers. Take a wine of dubious character and no history and charge more then anyone could imagine paying. Get people to bid ridiculous prices for it at the Napa charity auction, and your on your way. Everyone from Justin Pahlmeyer to Ric Forman owe him a debt of gratitude. Who would of dared to charge the kind of money you can get for a bottle with the word Napa on it if it wasn't for Nickel? This post is only half tongue in cheek.

SuzanneF asked about the Vancouver Burger Club and to give her any information that might dispell the thinking that we are all "white collared middle aged jerks". We have only had one meeting of our club and it was attended by 9 members. It was at Moderne Burger. We are having our second meeting this friday at Feenie's. As for the second thing I am unable to speak to it as it pretty much describes me to a T.

Shellback, be careful about what you say about J@# F@#%es on this board. It's a sore subject with someone from New York who thinks it's the finest place in our city.

I personally like the steak and eggs and frites at Cafe Campagne. Is that close enough? When in Seattle we seem to walk everywhere we go. We went from the W to Brasa in 10 minutes once.

I think that the fois gras and chicken liver parfait at West was the best single thing I ate this year. I'm not surprised to hear Gotham sucked. I think it's a place for Lawyers and their receptionists to be seen.