Coop

I used to get burgers from the U district Burgermaster. It was cool, and the burgers were saucy. Is it still there? Also the U village Safeway used to have a wine section to rival all wine sections is it still worth visiting?

Ben: You are correct about me owing you a report on West. I did not want to jump on it too soon, feeling it needed some sober thought before composing. I will start by saying that in the last couple of years my wife and I have pulled away from restaurants that offer what some would call fine dining. The reason for this is we were constanly dissapointed by the lack of excitment we found both in the room and on the plate (I think 2 good examples of dissapointing meals were ones had at Pastis and 900 West). This being said all my fears were put to rest by dining at West. To begin with the room is brilliant. Upon entering you notice how large but warm it is. First thing I noticed was the bar with the wall of wines from floor to ceiling. On the far wall is the kitchen concealed behind paned glass. It looks brilliant. The hostess greeted us then offered us the opportunity to sit at one of the chef's tables (of which there are 2). We declined the offer wanting to sit in the room. After being sat at a beautiful table we were offered apperitifs. White wine for us, a Pinot Blanc I recall. Then came a very well thought out wine list. From which we made our selection the Shooting Star syrah. We have long been Jed Stelle groupies so what could be better. We were soon joined at our table by chef Hawksworth. The chef knew I was an E gulleter and was making sure that every part of our experience was going to be the best he could offer. We also found David's presonality to be warm and genuine. This is off to a great start. We decided after much thought to go with the Chef's menu. Here we were flying blind. Suspecting though that we would love everything brought to our table. Amuse Bouche Chicken Ballontine Slice of chiken sausage bursting with what else Chicken flavour. Oyster Custard with Dashi Soya Maybe my favorite dish. Combined the texture of custard with the mineral and brine flavour of the sea. Very nice. Ahi Tuna Carpaccio with Fresh Wasabi, Apple Dice and Celery Jus Slices of seared Tuna rare in the middle on an apple and celery dish. As with all the dishes you could smell them at about three paces from the table. Unbelievably intense clean flavour of celery and apple highlighted above the richness of the Ahi. Oh boy. Sunchoke Soup with Black Truffle Crostini Soft cream soup with crostini of diced mushrooms monted with truffle oil. One could taste all the ingredients on thier own and together no easy trick. Sablefish with Shimeji, Shitake Mushrooms and Manila Clams A perfectly seared piece of Black Cod sitting on a bed of delicate soba noodles, surrounded by intensely flavoured roasted chicken broth. Maybe as good as anything I have ever eaten. Roast Cannon of Lamb with Lamb Osso Bucco, Butternut Squash Gnocchi and Aromatic Jus A piece of Lamb loin roasted and sliced like a tournedo accompaning a piece of lamb shank sliced across like osso bucco. Very nice dish to end the evening and finsh the wine. We were also served a pair of brilliant desserts the highlight was the passionfruitsauce around mine. It seemed to fill the area around our table with the aroma of passiofnruit. Excuse my lack of words concerning the desserts which were brilliant but I seem to be out of words. We finished the dinner with two crema topped Americano's. A comment here must be made about the service. It was what one must expect in a fine dining experience but only better. The thing that I noticed was the service of the people who were not directly responsible for our table. It was warm and effficient. This seems unusual. I expect the waiter, manager and hostess to look after our every need, which they did well, but it was the other staff that seemed to also be concerned with how the experience could be made as perfect as possible. On the way out the door we were again met by the chef and the manager who asked us about our experience. What could be said, other than all was even better then we had expected and I expected a lot. The hostess also presented us with a personalised copy of our Chef's menu in a silver folder as well as a press kit. Nice touch. I believe next time we go back we will order from the regular menu, the entrees looked great. We then walked to our car and back into our mundane lives in the suburbs. I should also note that on the way through the bar we met E gulleter Jonathan who I should point out has 2 sides to his face unlike his avatar. Now only he owes the board a report. Cheers Coop

In Vancouver we have a sporadically available food mag called City Food. It is published by Rhonda May. I have not seen it in a while but believe it still exists. It is an excelent publication and even though it has advertising they seem to tell it like it is in the industry.

Trotter eh? Next time I'm in C town I should stop by his diner and try the blue plate special with a cup of joe.

Years ago I recieved a gift of Gevalia for supporting a Seattle NPR station. they sent me half pond bags of 3 blends of beans. I found them to be less then fresh. For me freshness is the issue. Here in coffee mad Vancouver we have the option of finding small roasting houses with retail operations. My favorite is Continental on Commercial drive. I have found however beans from a company in Chicago called Intelligensia to be worth seeking out. I believe they have no special offer just great coffee. I have also heard good things about Peet's, but alas I have yet to try thier beans. Good Luck.

Yes Junior we ate at Hermitage on Friday night. It was very nice, the room was homey and the service was excellent. We had a lentil salad with veal cheeks to start. We enjoyed it very much, the lentils were Lentil du Puy and perfectly cooked and dressed. We had Duck confit for main courses. It was less then inspiring but still good. We finished with A Pear poached in Red wine with a cassis ice cream. This was the stand out dish for me. It married very well with the Jadot Beaujolais Village we drank. One thing I found very unusual was the beautiful porcelain china the food was served on. Although very colourful and artistic it made the food look rather dull in comparison. One thing I have to say about both Bacchus and Hermitage. They are both good restaurants, but the week before we dined at West and it has ruined us for places like this. Its like comparing my golf game to that of a PGA pro. Once you dine at West everything else seems to pale in comparison.

Bought a Sangiovese and Montipulciano blend wind with this DOC. I can not find anything about this wine. Where is this DOC located?

My wife and I dined at Bacchus last night and found the experience to be positive. Mushroom Soup for me Goat Cheese Pave for the wife. Soup was in a mushroom broth and contained an assortment of mushrooms including Enoki, Button, Shitake and Crimini. The Goat Cheese was sauteed and served with grapefruit on a few slices of beets. Score wife 1 me 0. Halibut in Potato Crust for me and Coq au vin for my wife. Halibut was pretty average. The Coq au Vin was exceptioally good. Served on a bed on pureed potatoes with carrots and green beans. Garnished with crisply cooked bacon. Score wife 2 me 0. Lemon Tart for me Choclate Cake for wife. Both desserts were excellent. My Lemon tart was very intensely flavoured and the Choclate cake was warm and delicate much like Mrs Coop. Score Wife 2 1/2 Coop 1/2. One note the wine mark up was pretty brutal. Had a bottle of Perrin cote du rhone for $45. This was the best buy on the list in our price range. Most ridiculous selection would have been Farnese Sangiovese $7.95 in the Liquor store $33 on the list. Have other E gullettors taken advantage of this promotion? It seems to be successful and even extended in some places.

Where did that movie come from. I began watching it a couple of weeks ago on regular TV and got hooked. The ending surprised the hell out of me. Did it go straight to video. It is worth watching. Although I expected Steven Segal to appear at some point. It just looked at the start to be one of his disposable revenge flicks. Than it seemed to become a real movie and we couldn't look away.

My wife and I went to West on Friday night and are happy to report that all is well. Having not dined at Ouest I can't compare the two experiences. However I have never had a better time in a restaurant in my short (46) life. I will be posting a review in the next couple of days on the Ouest page. Shall we start a new thread for West? Also I should say I think that that the room was very nice and the sculpture was stunning.

I second the vote for the cassolet at Campagne. Had it once and was too large for little me (6'5 ' ' 235).

This is just the break I am looking for. Here is the plan I fly to New York make reservations at the Restaurant. Than I get one of those multi coloured afro wigs and a John 316 sign. Than as the food comes out I scream Your the Man to know one in particular. Now of course one of the NBC executives notices my obvious talent and next thing you know I have my own show like Kieth Famie.

See now I really don't get it because my avatar is of a dog. One who looks like my noble beast Audie.

OK i've never seen my Avatar maximized. I sort of saw her as a healthy,wholesome cheerleader like you would see at a college football game. Obviously I will need to change my opinion on that. I suppose you can tell that most of this is tongue in cheek. However I will be changing my avatar to something more Al Goreish. Maybe him kissing that bastion of wholesomness Tipper.

Why not Wouest. We are going tomorrow night for the full meal deal. Looking forward to it. I have stopped looking at the web site though because I was changing my mind so often. It's like the premature ejaculation joke. "What do you mean premature? I've been thinking about it for weeks."

Can someone explain this thread to me. I didn't get it when it was on Chowhound and I don't get it here either. Is eat, eat, eat a regular contributor or are they the same person who was removed from Chowhound? Why are people obsessed with this description of a little T and A? Please enlighten me.

My wife and I were able to secure reservations at Bacchus and Hermitage. Any comments on Hermitage? We love confit du canard so we thought we would take one for the team.

I have been thinking about this thread for a day now and have decided to add something more positive then my blast at Stadlander and the rest of the Food TV Canada psuedo celeb chefs. For my money the most exciting cooking show ever was Cooking Live with Sara Moulton. I remember seeing some of the most influential chefs and writers in America on the show. If not for this show I would not have heard of Bourdain, Payard, Dispirto, Grand, and many others who's names are not mentioned. Part of my dislike for the Canadian version of Food TV stemmed from them cutting this show and giving us Ken Kostic in return. Instead of watching ground breaking chefs cook and talk of a craft they obviously loved we were given a mugging fool who could barely use a knife. This seems to be a theme on the Canadian channel, feeding us trained monkey chefs and houswives who seem intent on taking thier act to Vegas. You can tell by the advertisments for ready to serve meals in a bag they feel that the enthusiast is not watching. I hope not.

I've just got to comment on that piece of crap Stadlander. He is the most arrogant, know it all, self-grandizing piece of Euro-trash ever to sneak inside my TV screen. However the people that I really can't understand are the assholes who pay $150.00 a head to sit in the mud and eat the shit he creates. Hang on I think he's from Ontario. No need to explain.

Suvir: I respect and admire your stand on the bean issue. I believe you could build a political platform based on this issue alone. Will you be running?

As you probably noticed I have been monitoring this thread all day. I am interested in the goings on at wouest because my wife and I are looking forward to a dinner at the restaurant on Fri. 17. I noticed also chef Hawksworth was logged on a few minutes ago, so i hope to see a posting from him telling his followers (stalkers?) all is well.

Bin 941 and Bin 942. Innovative and not at all like a Red Lobster. We've got crab legs!

So are we to conclude that Hawksworth is no longer at the restaurant? I doubt that any of us that post here care all that much about the Werner Foster pickle dish hanging from the cieling or Fine Corinthian leather in the Crysler Cordoba. Why have they changed? Is Chef Hawksworth still the man? Has Ricardo Montalban resurfaced as the new manager? Who can answer these questions? If not you Gilbert than who?

So Gilbert I notice little mention of Chef Hawksworth. Other than the quote from F and W. The question on my mind is: When I come there for dinner on the 17th will Chef Hawksworth still be the chef. I only ask this because you seem to have mentioned the pastry chef and the restaurant director but do not mention the Chef in the present term. Is this a thinly vieled hint that Chef Hawksworth is no longer in the restaurants employ?

I believe you miss the point here. The Cowderheads have yet to recover from the curse of the Bambino. What he really said was "the food will never be any good once I leave" after the Red Sox traded him to NY. Kimble is the Bill Buckner of the food world. His magazine routinly boots grounders to first. The only real food reference I connect with Boston is from Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon keeps saying "How do you Like Them Apples?"