Ling

I think I have a regular metabolism. I have to get in some exercise 4-5 days a week, or I gain weight really quickly with the amount of food I eat.

Hmm...I'm not sure I understand your question. If you're asking whether my opinion of the food at these places is somehow influenced because Henry knows the chef or owner, the answer is no. If I don't like the food, or am rather lukewarm towards it, I'm not eager to go back. I don't think I'm really influenced if we get special treatment at certain restaurants where we're known. I still evaluate the food on my plate objectively. I think it's cool that Henry knows a bunch of chefs. I've also introduced him to some of the chefs I know in Vancouver, so it goes both ways.

I am really honoured by your words, tamiam. ***** We're about to leave to go grocery shopping. We have a ton of cooking ahead of us today! BTW, the chocolate cake recipe I used yesterday was from the Tartine cookbook. It has its merits, like a very dense and even crumb, which makes it unbelievably easy to level. However, it is not nearly as chocolatey as my favourite chocolate cake recipe, and the Tartine recipe is too sweet even though I reduced the amount of sugar. I'm going to sandwich the layers with caramel and cover it with ganache today.

A thing of beauty, isn't it?!!

Errr...I hope it's obvious from the background that I'm gnawing on the (sous-vide) cooked lamb chop in the kitchen, not in the dining room! The food at DiVino was pretty good. The cheese plate was interesting enough, but not overly challenging, so I could see it appealing to many people. Of the dishes last night, my favourite was by far the gnocchi. Delicious.

That is the sweetest thing, Pan. To answer your question, this week of eating is an accurate representation of how we eat whenever I'm in Seattle or whenever Henry is in Vancouver. We cook (not always multi-course dinners, though), and we hit up a few places for some good food. So while we don't do this everyday of the week, we do this 2-3 days of the week. The blog week is an exception in that I'm down here for seven days, and I'm on vacation. On the 5 or so days when we're not together, I bake a lot so I eat a lot more baked goods. I just didn't have that much time this week to do as much baking as I normally do. I only baked three times this week, and I normally bake five times a week--but often it is very simple stuff, like shortbread cookies or a plain chocolate cake without the filling and frosting. Another thing I bake a lot of is lemon tarts, because they are one of my favourite pastries and I haven't found one in Vancouver that is tart enough. When I am back home, I usually eat four meals a day--early dinner around 6pm and another late dinner at around 11pm. And I have a few cookies or a few slices of cake here and there. A "typical" day in Vancouver for me: 10am: 4 fried eggs, truffle salt, a slice of cake or some ice-cream 1pm: lunch (often leftovers) and some chocolate 3pm: chocolate/baked goods 6pm: mom makes dinner. More often than not, it is rice, a Cantonese soup (i.e. wintermelon soup), a protein dish (e.g. Chinese stir-fried beef with lots of scallions), a vegetable (e.g. garlic chives in scrambled eggs), and one more dish that can be either meat, fish, or tofu. Usually it is tofu. My mom loves tofu, but my dad doesn't, so she makes a smaller dish of tofu. 11pm: same stuff as my earlier dinner I work mostly from home, so that's why I have so much time to eat.

YES! I often eat this for breakfast--4 fried eggs with runny yolks, and a sprinkle of truffle salt. That is actually my standard breakfast when I'm in Vancouver 5 days a week (plus usually a leftover pastry or slice of cake I made the night before.)

Henry says you don't know anything--you're a vegetarian. I'll keep Cafe Apasionato and Lighthouse in mind. Thanks for the tip!

Are we eating that much? Honestly, I think Henry and I just eat a lot on a regular basis so the amount of food we're putting away doesn't seem too excessive to me. I fully expect to gain maybe a pound or two by the end of the blog week, as the food we're eating is a little rich. I didn't even bother to photograph a lot of the random cookies and other junk I munch on everyday, so you guys are seeing, only like 70% of the food I'm eating. I think you asked a great question. I didn't eat a lot of spicy food before meeting Henry, but now I enjoy it a lot. I've probably have had more tasting menus after I've met him as well. Because I visit Seattle regularly now, I'm eating a lot more bread. In Vancouver, the artisanal bread scene is a bit lacking. I don't regularly buy baguettes in Vancouver, unless I'm at Granville Island and can get something from La Baguette. I normally eat HK-style milk bread (fong bao or chan bao--I like them both) when I'm at home, which you can get at all the Chinese bakeries in my town. In Seattle, one of the best things to eat is some Columbia City Bakery baguette with Cremerie Classique butter (from Oregon) and a sprinkle of truffle salt. We snack on this all the time! One of the great things about dating Henry is I have a whole new city to eat in. And the vast majority of the places we eat at are very good, because Henry has pre-screened these places already. Our conversations usually run like this: H: So...are you coming down this week? L: It's your turn to come up. H: OK. L: <pause> So...what do you want to eat on Friday? We plan our days in Vancouver or Seattle together around our meals--going to new restaurants, shopping the markets, cooking for friends, or trying new places. I am really fortunate to have met someone who's as food-obsessed as I am.

I know you would LOVE Porcella! Their charcuterie is really amazing...it's also a lot fattier than the stuff from Oyama (Vancouver), which I know you love. Personally, my ranking is: 1) Porcella 2) Oyama 3) Salumi ETA: I just put a chocolate cake in the oven. The bowl of cake batter I ate was very promising, so I have high hopes for this new (to me) recipe.

Well, I definitely wouldn't use it for puff pastry, as it seems to soften at room temperature a lot quicker than butter. I did freeze it and grate it into my pastry for the wattleseed lamb pies a few days ago (when someone had a dairy allergy, and I wanted to use as little dairy as possible for the menu). It was fine in the pastry, but it melts really quickly in the oven, I'm assuming, which made the pastry dissolve on your tongue as soon as you bit into it. I use duck fat mainly for cooking meat and potatoes, though I would also use it for sauteeing vegetables. Oohhh duck fat white sauce. That's a new idea...let me know if it turns out well.

The gastrique was made using the regular method. I used a mix of champagne vinegar and balsamic vinegar (only to cut costs--the balsamic he has is pretty pricey), and then the sugar came from a combination of peach preserves and fresh peaches I pureed. Then I strained the reduced mixture and came away with a few tablespoons of peach gastrique. To that, I added diced poached, and skinned peaches for "peaches in peach gastrique". (I would give you measurements, but I didn't use a recipe. Actually, now that I think about it, neither of us used any recipes for any of our Iron Chef dishes.) The avocado cream (not foam) is pureed avocado with lime juice, salt, pepper, and cream cheese. Just whiz that up in the food processor until it's smooth and creamy.

This is one of the best lunches I've ever had! In case you were wondering how Porcella's charcuterie compares to Armandino's at Salumi, I would say that Salumi products are more heavily spiced, and have a slighter coarser texture. Also, it is much leaner than the Porcella products. I was really won over by Porcella's charcuterie. My favourites were the pork rillettes, the saucisse sec, and the coppa. I also got a nice piece of rabbit and foie gras pate to go. We just had some for dinner, along with a domestic blue cheese and I also had a bowl of the mint ice-cream I made. In a few hours, we'll be checking out a new wine bar in Ballard.

Forgive me, I was so rude to forget that we had met before. I was kind of surprised when an apparent stranger came up to me at Union and asked us if we were here for our anniversary. Of course, I will never forget you now, tighe!

The souffle came out great, if I remember correctly. By that point, I had already been making chiffon cakes for awhile, so I knew how to fold the egg whites properly without deflating them too much, so it did rise nicely. I remember feeling proud of my little accomplishment! And it must've tasted great, because I wouldn't have remembered it 12 years later if I didn't enjoy it thoroughly.

I just wanted to chime in on the praise for tonight's dinner. Everything was absolutely beautifully prepared--just simple, clean flavours and impeccable quality. The foie does deserve a mention--it was one of the best foie dishes I've ever had. There is something extremely hedonistic about biting into a piece of foie that is over an inch thick! The heirloom tomato soup and poached diver scallop was probably my favourite dish after the foie. Just incredible how much flavour was in the soup. (And yes, the crust on the Wagyu...I have never tasted such a buttery crust on steak! I said this to a server and he says it's seared in Plugra...no wonder. Mmmm....) I also see how Henry neglected to comment on the dessert this evening. It was delicious--the cake was not too sweet, and had a moist, dense crumb. Lovely. The service was also flawless. Ethan (both of them!) are really great guys. Thank-you for a beautiful evening.

Hmm...what can I say about the role food plays in my life? I grew up around great food. My parents are huge "foodies" (ack, I hate that word! ), as long as it pertains to Chinese cuisine--or should I say, Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine. (I should mention that I grew up in Richmond--a suburb of Vancouver--and we have a huge Chinese population up here. When Henry first came to Richmond, I took him to one of the Asian malls and he thought the experience was so surreal, because it was just like being in Hong Kong.) I have always eaten very well at home, and until I was old enough to have dinner at my friends' houses, I thought everyone else ate as well as we did. My parents raised me on chicken and abalone congee when I was a baby. I got bird's nest soup in exchange for good report cards. On our birthdays, my mom would take two days off work just so she would have time to cook the 15 or so different Chinese dishes she wanted us to have on our birthday. And yes, she used to take pictures of the food too--so perhaps that is where I get it from! I have never eaten much American fast food, not even when I was a kid. Fast food for our family was going for wonton noodles (well, my favourite was beef tendon noodles.) So to this day, I don't care too much for pizza or burgers...of course, I will have some if it's from a place that's known for a particular pizza or burger, but it's not something I usually go out of the way for. I remember going grocery shopping with my parents on the weekends when I was a kid. And grocery shopping would be a whole day affair, because my parents buy their vegetables from the farmer's market (when in season), and then hit up at least another three grocery stores getting only what they think is the "best" at each market. A stop at the Chinese seafood counter would always be last, so the fish would be freshly killed and we would have it for dinner two hours later. Of course, growing up around all this, I was never afraid of killing any live fish my parents would bring home. I remember killing and gutting a huge salmon in the backyard when I was maybe 10, and then spraying the driveway with the hose to wash away all the blood. I touched on this in an earlier post, about how I started baking from my mom's Five Roses cookbook when I was in grade six or so, and partly it was because she no longer had time to bake as often for us kids. Another reason was because I wanted to try other cuisines that my parents never really attempted--I remember one of the first things I chose to make for lunch out of that cookbook was a cheese souffle. I guess I must've been 11 or 12 by this time. These are dishes that I saw cooks on TV preparing, that I have never tasted. So naturally my childish curiousity took over and I knew the only way I would be tasting a souffle anytime soon would be to make it myself. My first (western) fine-dining experience was when I was 17. My then-bf took me to The William Tell in Vancouver for a Valentine's Day gift. And for every special occasion after that, I would ask for dinner at a nice restaurant in lieu of a gift. During the five years we were together, I ate at many of Vancouver's best restaurants. I also began reading online menus and cookbooks during much of my spare time, to learn more about cooking techniques and flavour combinations. In the last year and a half, I have been especially fortunate to have experienced a lot more good food than I have ever thought possible. And I also find it extremely flattering that a lot of culinary students and home bakers PM me for help on dessert ideas or recipes. Andrew Morrison, a local food writer, has also recently given me my first online food column, which will be launched next month on UrbanDiner.ca Ultimately, I do think that there is no greater pleasure than sharing food you've made with people you love. I do think that what I post online is a greater extension of that, as I hope to pass on a bit of that same passion towards food that my parents instilled in me.

Did you like the coffee at Zoka when you lived here? That's another coffee shop I really enjoy. Here's what we have lined up for tomorrow: First, we are meeting up with EGer dandelion for coffee at Caffe Senso Unico. Charles and Melissa, whom you've met earlier, will be taking us to Porcella Urban Market. It's a gourmet food shop that also does its own charcuterie. I have heard nothing but praise about this place! And finally, William Belickis is taking us to a wine bar in the evening. On Friday, we will likely be grocery shopping for our Chinese banquet meal, and then cooking all day. I'll try to remember to get more shots of the prep. Now, I have to get ready for dinner at Union. I think the chef, Ethan Stowell, has a special tasting menu for us!

It really is! Not only is it massive, but it is a quality collection. It's well-chosen and diverse, and it is marvellous to see how the joy on Judy's face when she shares it with people!

Oh please... Only 2 more months 'til we get to show you around!

^Yes, guess who got to sit next to Emily--ME!!!!!! The desserts that night were from her A Passion for Ice-Cream book. Judy's collection is her pride and joy. She has a very generous spirit and likes lending them to people who she thinks will appreciate them, so we are very lucky! BTW--the books I borrowed today are great. One is the new Tartine book, and another is one from City Bakery (in NY). Also, a great European dessert book that looks super fancy. Pan--you don't know HOW many pictures we had to delete because they were too blurry. Luckily, I took 4 or 5 shots of each dish, so we got some decent ones here.

I think it's OK for baking, but again, not something I eat on its own.

I bought the Santander chocolate because Gourmet magazine had a chocolate taste-test a few months ago, and Santander rated #2. I personally use Valrhona as my "benchmark" because I've eaten so much of it over the years, and I know the taste very well. If a chocolate is not as good as Valrhona, I generally don't think it's worth eating. (I apologize if I sound like a know-it-all-snot, but I'm just being honest. I can get Valrhona at TJ's for $2.69 a bar, so why waste money on Santander, which is $6 Cdn a bar?) The Santander bars are chalky, don't have a long finish and have an unappealing, fake nougaty-vanilla smell when you open the package. I have not baked with it yet so it could be good (or at least, not bad) in a baked product. I would not buy this particular brand again, though. ETA: Some chocoholics might notice that I have Phinney3000 (local Seattle stuff) and E. Guittard. I use the E. Guittard in my baking sometimes because it is moderately priced, and pretty good. It's not something I would eat alone, though. I do not like the Phinney3000 chocolate...that particular bar is the "Bread" bar, which contains salty crispy pieces of "bread" (kind of like very small pretzel pieces.) I don't like the Scharffen Berger bittersweet and semisweet baking bars too much, but I do like their 99% unsweetened baking bar more than the 99% Valrhona bars.

Our first date didn't end after the Mistral dessert tasting. Henry then drove me back up to Vancouver, dropped me off at home, and then got a hotel room for the night. The next day, he waited until I was finished work, and took me out to dinner again in Vancouver before he drove home.

No, I feel bad--I haven't had it yet, and I remember your recommendation from awhile back! I am always rushing around, trying to eat and drink at as many places as possible when I'm down here. I promise I'll go there before the blog ends, and take pictures of Caffe Senso Unico (and my Americano--with crema! BTW, no crema today at Vivace, as usual.)