Coop

It's not Rachel Ray? I feel so used.

Bodegas Costano is a house I have just discovered or did it discover me? Thier wine from Hecula is mouvedre and hmmmmm perhaps Grenache? They also have thier bottling from Yecula and then there is Infierno a monistrell and merlot blend. I have enjoyed all of these wines and would recomend them in the 2001 vintage. So does the infamous Robert Parker, the wine writer not the mystery writer. BTW they are not expensive, well within your budget. The Hecula would also go well with dish washing.

Rick and Skip are brothers? They actually sound nearly alike. I think Skip Bayliss is certainly qualified to make comments on the Cubs considering he has authored 3 best selling books on sports. Having listened to Skip numerous times as substitute pimp in the box, his opinions are strong and sometimes sensationalistic. Perhaps Rick is the same way? BTW has anyone seen Rachel Rays comments on the Alexa E gullet review page? She was obviously reading these forums that mention her. Hopefully Chef Rick the sell out is too! I can't even watch the guy anymore. However Skip rocks!

edm: They always make me feel warm and satisfied at Kim Phung. I'm glad you had the same experience. Have you tried Kintaro for Ramen? It is on Denman street on the east side of the street two doors north of Robson. It's a little more expensive (7.50) for a huge bowl of Ramen, but well worth the visit.

In order of my preference, Sonoma Cutrer (Russian River Ranch), Cuvaison, Deloach, other bottlings of Sonoma Cutrer, Simi, and anything from Winery Lake Vineyard (is it exclusivly Sterling now?).

I don't have access to the link you posted but I can tell you that Matt Kramer has beern a columnist for Wine Spectator ever since the book you speak of hit the shelves back in the early 90's. A lot of what he said in the book was true then but perhaps less true now. I remember he seriously took the Burgundians to task for the shoddy product they were selling us in the 80's. This month in Specator he is dumping on the cork producers. He seems to be less cutting edge now.

In the early 90's I had Martha's 74 at a tasting. It was all that could be expected. Layer upon layer of flavours, leaning to the cedary tobbacco side of things. I also used to love the Cayamus Napa from the 80's. As for dependable I've leaned towards Newton, Alexander Valley Vineyards (are they still around?), Whitehall Lane, Geyser Peak and Inglenook Napa from the 80's. I also remember the 91 Geyser Peak Reserve to be one of the best cabernets I've had. This is now a street less travelled for me as are Burgundy and Bordeaux. It just seems you can do more for less elsewhere. A friend of mine brought a bottle of Spring Valley Uriah to dinner a few months ago, what a wine!

I have been back to Pho Hoang lately and found the pho to be a slight improvment. As for asking for something off the menu, I'm not up toasking the miserable women that work there for anything other then what's on the menu. Here is my list of great Vietnamese places: 1. Kim Phung, great Pho and friendly staff. 2. Le Do, Best all round Vietnamese, good pho, great Bahn Mi etc. 3. Pho Thy, best Bahn mi, best Curry, kind of an old school place, dumpy. 4. Au Petit Cafe, very good all round, busiest place in town.

edm: I remember what it was like when my wife and I were young and eating out. I have to admit we did not get the kind of service we get now in our 40's. In fact we pretty much abandoned the idea of eating out in the city and started travelling to Seattle for good meals. The only place we could count on great food and service was the Cafe de Paris. that probably is why the place still causes warm feelings for us, even after some pretty bad meals in the last few years. I'm surprised you got that kind of service at West. They seem to have a pretty eclectic crowd, and they seem to look after everyone pretty well from whatr I had heard until now. As for the pricing in these places, I think for the experience you get it's pretty damned responsible. As a side note try Cru great food and service for a very fair price. Oh yeah your not the first to compalin about Diva at the Met.

edm: As Desi Arnez used to say "Lucy! you got some splaining to do". Please enlighten us as to why you feel this way?

Luckily I have never had to go to Anton's, it has been narrowly avoided a few times. This Gallo Mercado (chicken of the world?) used to be a deli/store selling expensive gourmet items and sliced chicken sandwichs. Is this not the same now? Is it still open? Last few times by it was dark. The one time I ate there the guy who did my sandwich was very miserable. The sandwich was good though. Does anyone know what happened to Santos.

Wether or not someone should use this forum to say great things about thier own place is open for debate, but to do it undercover stinks! If that is indeed what is happening here. dennpeck is innocent till proven guilty.

dennpeck: I hope you weren't using this forum to pimp a place you work at. If you do please let us know that you are obviously biased. I myself hesitate to rave about my own friend's restaurant, because I think my judgement is clouded by our friendship. As for the West v. Lumiere debate. How lucky we are to have 2 places that have such loyal fans (or employees, ha ha ha). I come down strongly on the West side, as the 3 meals I have had there have been without peer. I also have met Chef Hawksworth and find the guy very impressive. I also think Feenie may be a great guy, but I just can't get past his Food TV Canada persona.

Where is Union going? Does anyone have a link to a menu for Mistral?

redarmy: Could we have the same mother? I have heard this kind of talk for years about resaurants. If we haven't heard of it, god forbid we would want to broaden our horizons. Even though I constantly surf the web for food and restaurant ideas, read the papers and Vancouver Magazine, troll the streets looking for new places, there still are places I have not heard of! Would I try them? By all means!

Mrs Coop and I are planning our annual fall trip to Seattle. We are looking for a dinner recomendation. Our first night we will be returning to the Harvest Vine, so we are covered there. We also need lunch recomendations. We have already done both Campagne's, Le Pichet, Sazerac, Tulio's, Dahlia Lounge, iCon Grill, and a few others. I have heard Mistral is good is it? Do they have a web site? I am open to suggestion.

My wife and I used to dine regularly at the old location back in the 80's. It was a very cozy room on Thurlow just south of Robson. The food in those days seemed to be more Bistro/Parisiene then from Chef Jacob's native Alsace. We tried to go to the new location one day for lunch but were turned away because they just didn't want to seat us for a late lunch, it was around 2 pm. We just thought that was a bit off putting so we never went back (we had also had a terrible dinner in the old dlocation just before they moved). I geuss it is time to forgive.

Cru is casual. Look as hip as you can. No boots. Le Gavaroche was at it's best in the 70's, so if this is your choice think Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

I think you may like Cru. It's a very nice room with great food and service. I think it's romantic but we have been married for 21 years. So my opinion may not hold much water. http://www.cru.ca/ http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=74&t=23829&

Actually made it to Parkside last night. Love the room and the location. Only complaint about the room was after dinner I used the men's room and noticed that everyone in the place had a view of me standing at the urinal. This was a new one for me. Mrs Coop and I started with glasses of Sancett a very nice refreshing wine from Gascony. We had a bottle of Rodriugeuz 105 to pair with our meal. I decided on the Chef's tasting menu while my wife ordered 3 dishes off the menu. My first dish was an hierloom tomato salad with goat cheese pannacotta. This was perfect, I love goat cheese but find it too heavy in a salad this pannacotta solved that problem as it was full of goat cheese flavour but still very light in wieght. Green Zebra's, Yellow, and Red Grape tomatoes were featured. Mrs Coop had a beautiful Sunchoke soup with a touch of truffle oil. Very Nice. Next I had a Lamb Ragout with a green pea Ravioli. This dish looked and sounded great but didn't quite do it for me. It just didn't seem to come together and had kind of a raw feel. There was some chunks of Orange zest that added to the rawness. Then I had a very nice Oyster Stew and Mrs Coop had Sweetbreads in a brown sauce with Papdrelle. This was also very successful. Perfectly cooked sweetbreads in a very rich sauce. The pasta was cooked perfectly. To finish I had Venison in a green peppercorn and plum sauce. This was very interesting in that it was quite sweet as well as peppery. I liked it very much. Our other dish was a Scallop and Corn risotto in Lobster Jus. Very nice risotto surrounded by a lobster bisque type sauce. I think this was the best dish of the night. We finished with excellent Americanos accompanied by anise seed biscotti. A very nice way to finish a meal. We found the service to be friendly and very efficient. Chef Andrey popped by to ask if everything was good and then got back to work. All and All a very nice evening. After dinner we took a walk up Robson street into what has become a bustling Japanese and Korean food mecca. Guu, and Kintaro were busting at the seams with customers as were a couple of Korean places whose names I can't remember. At the same time the MacD's had two people nursing coffee's the Pizza hut was empty and there was one customer at Subway. What a great sight that was. The whole evening would have been perfect except for the obscene grill smell coming fron the DQ at Denamn and Robson.

I believ that I like more then I dislike. A chef at cooking school told me he can learn from even the most inane cooking show: Like: Jacques Pepin, Micheal Chiarello, Julia Child, Bourdain (although I think some posters kiss his ass way too much), Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver (I like the dishes he makes and the music), Anna Olson, Sarah Moulden and even Martha Stewart (great geusts). Dislike: Lagasse, Puck, Brown, and Food TV Canada chefs Michael Smith, Carlo Rota, Kathleen Daehlman, and smarmy Alton Brown. Also everyone on Cooking School Diaries.

I respect your honesty.

So Mr Camp what would it cost for you to become the "Face and Voice" of Mad Dawg 20/20 or Night Train? A thousand? A Million? If you were would your future writrings carry the same integrity they do now?

Yeah but what about Flemings? It couldn't be owned by Outback. Could it? I hear that someone bought the Icon Grill with thoughts of francising it's potential. Is this true? Has Fleming's in Seattle closed? What about Roy's is it gone? Niether list Seattle locations in thier ads.

I like to be thanked for the effort. as for compliments a little bit is enough, otherwise I find them a bit insulting. I'm not stupid enough to think that anything I cook is on par with the cure for cancer. A simple "this is good" or "I enjoyed it" will suffice. No need to say "YUM YUM YUMMMMM". If you do you may not be invited back.