LEdlund

Since we're in town for less than 24 hours and have quite the list of places to go (shopping-wise in addition to food-wise) we decided to stick to Vancouver. Next time it will be Richmond for sure! So is Red Star have cart or menu service?

On our list for lunch on Saturday is Mistral, Ocean 6 Seventeen and Phnom Pehn. We're narrowing dim sum to either Sun Sui Wah or Kirin Cambie. But I'm stumped for someplace to go for drinks late on Saturday. I'm guessing we'd be getting somewhere around 11 PM. The only two places that I know of for cocktails are Delilah's and Lickerish and I have a feeling that Lickerish is no longer there. Seattle is a notorious for places closing early. Please don't tell me Vancouver is the same

I think there are 12 or so of us coming and I believe most of us are staying at downtown hotels. Some will have cars and some are taking the train so we'll have transportation.

A group of us Eger's are coming up this weekend to have burgers at Feenie's on Saturday night (yes - we are crazy like that!) I'm looking for suggestions for the best place for a group to have lunch on Saturday, drinks after burgers (I don't suppose you have anything like Zig Zag in Vancouver?) and dim sum on Sunday. Any suggestions?

One per neighborhood would be nice. Or at least one in my neighborhood.........

I just noticed the 8th Avenue Inn for the first time a couple of days ago. There's a decent burger place near there called Blue Moon Burgers. And I rockdoggydog and Mr Ledlund and I had a good lunch at Conor Byrne's yesterday.

Henry, have you been to Elemental? I vote for there. Only because I am a cruel person and I'd love to see you smack down Phred on this blog. He treated a friend of mine so rudely that I refuse to provide his business with any revenue. My own schadenfreude aside, what about that new tartine place in Madison?

There's a great Portlock store by the Ballard Locks. They have lots of different sizes and gift packages. I've given this a number of times. Especially for work situations where I don't actually know the recipient.

I haven't eaten dinner at Salish but I've had brunch there a number of times. Back in the day, it used to be quite the special occasion place to go for brunch. A year or so ago we took my father there for Father's Day and it was very disappointing. The food was very simply okay and the service was horrible. My father asked for coffee three times and then finally went up to the station and served himself. Not at all the experience I remember from my youth. The view is nice though (as long as you have a table by the window). I vote for Union.

Coming from Seattle, I've only eaten at clarklewis on your original list. We did, however, eat at Park Kitchen this last weekend and really enjoyed it. The menu is local and interesting and the portion sizes are perfect for sharing multiple things. The menu changes weekly so I can't speak to others food experiences but everything we ordered was interesting and well prepared. I wish the plating had been a little less......rustic. But that's just my thing.

Okay, you're off the hook. And good point about the pasta, etc. I think you should be the guinea pig and give them a try - then come back and tell it how it was

Don't tell Fay Jai

I've had the Dungeness crab salad many times and love it. I think the crab is shredded or gently pulled apart as opposed to chopped. I always figured it must be a very time consuming job!

I thought the Seattle water came from the Cedar River watershed. No? I have a friend that used to work there and I could have sworn that's what he told me. But, I have a notoriously bad memory I'm surprised to hear that folks think we have decent tasting water in Seattle. Am I the only one who can smell that chlorine-y smell? I can smell it even when the glass sitting on the table. I don't think of myself as a snob about many things, but the smell and taste of unfiltered Seattle water is a deal breaker for me! By the way, I am born and raised here so it's not that I'm noting differences from what I'm used to.

The tap water here is Seattle is horrible. Of course it is safe to drink - it just smells and tastes of bleach or whatever treatment chemicals they use. I couldn't live without my Brita filter.

Thanks for the reminder that I need to get back to Harvest Vine. That chicken liver dish looks fabulous!

Didn't that used to be a Tully's? I didn't realize it became a Juan Valdez........ There's a Juan Valdez on 5th that is empty every time I go by it. I'm surprised they would open another location in Seattle.

Wow! I had no idea I had made such a negative impact with my orginal question! I had never come across this type of cake before, and was turning to my eG posse for help. Lucky for me someone else saw the post and sent me information on financier cakes. I now make them regularly with much success! I'm not a dolt, really - just embarrased now to admit my ignorance! Lauren

You're missing the memories of your youth growing up in Seattle and hitting Dick's on the way home from the clubs. You do that enough times and then you become nostalgic for it. We recently went there with SeaGal who, in the past, shared your confusion over the love of Dick's. We were at the Wallingford location just before 2 AM, the place was packed, and we were starving. As we ate our burgers and watched "the show" she said, "Now I understand the appeal of Dick's" But I want to know which Seattlite calls Dick's fries the best in Seattle........That's just crazy talk.

Hey - rockdoggydog, Malarkey and I were at Union last night. We could have shared a cocktail! We stopped in for drinks in the bar after dinner at Veil so we were probably there after you'd left.

Dang! I should have gone there. We had CRS from Larry's last night (it was fab). $23.99 for sockeye and $33.99 for king.

Great thread Chris! I was just thinking about the same thing. My first attempt at the maple cured bacon is done but came out too sweet for many savory preparations. I'll stick to traditional breakfasts for that one. I have some linguica from my local charcuterie class and I was thinking of making feijoada with that. But I also have some kielbasa I made in that class and am looking for fun and different ideas to do with that. My go-to kielbasa dish is to layer sliced or quartered new pototoes with green beans, zucchini and onions and top it with chunks of kielbasa. Bake it at 350 degrees until the potatoes are done. Yum.

Since I Tivo the show, it sometimes takes me a while to actually watch what I have recorded. It's so hard to avoid this thread because I don't want to know who was asked to "pack their knives and go"! I finally had a chance to watch the latest episode over the weekend. As I've said before, I am a reality tv junkie. I don't believe there was any way that Steve and Steve didn't have a complete understanding of what they were getting into. I think they had a great time with it all and have a crazy story to tell for years to come about their commitment ceremony. Stephen had to go after this episode. He spent no time in the kitchen. Even plating his own dish! I do believe that Stephen has a great eye - but he hasn't proven himself with his food. And I love to hate people on reality shows, but when the are so clueless about themselves, and downright mean to people, I lose patience. He went on and on about needing to train the wait staff so that Steve Steve had a great experience. But they weren't being judged on their dining "experience". They were being judged on the food. He seems to forget that. Dave just cracks me up. I think he is highly emotional and knows it. He seemed to really pull it together this episode and LeeAnn was great to point that out. His catering experience paid off. LeeAnn has disappointed me the last couple of episodes. I thought she was a stronger leader than she has come across. The fact that she let Stephen do his own thing and didn't step up to take the lead kind fo bugged me. On the other hand, having her menu selected wasn't much of a reward, was it. Maybe she was wise to not take the lead. Still, I think she or Dave will be the next to go. And I totally agree with MellisaH regarding the need for a "Tim". I said that to my husband after the first episode. It doesn't make any sense that Tom has access to the chefs behind-the-scenes during the challenge and then sits as a judge. Either keep him out of the kitchen and as a judge or allow him to mentor and not judge. I haven't read Tom's blog yet, but his comment about switching to another fish is unfair. It didn't appear that they had the option to switch the menu around after it was selected by Steve and Steve. That said, I would have taken the frozen wild salmon over farmed Atlantic salmon anyday. It seems most of the fish coming out of Alaska is flash frozen on the boats anyway. My boy, Harold, let me down on that one. Regarding the cake, at first I thought it was horrible that they chose to use a cake mix. But then Tiffani said something about not having time to do it over if it fell, etc. and the choice made sense to me (after having my easter cake fall - I had sympathy). Even if they have the skills to pull it off, they didn't have the time. It was beautiful with those orchids - great job LeeAnn. I believe the final two will be Tiffani and Harold. I'm still pulling for Harold! Lauren

Unfortunatley I had to forge ahead with this before I'd received a response so I went with my gut and futzed with the recipe. First I whipped the egg whites to a light froth. Then I added 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the dry ingredients. As alanamoana points out, after refrigeration, there is no pouring of the batter. With all that butter in it, it was amost carving of the batter! Also there was no pressing of the rhubarb into the batter (I was using a loaf pan). I ended up having to spoon everything out and mix it all together in a bowl, then spooning it back in. It took 45 minutes to bake until a toothpick came clean as opposed to the 30 minutes mentioned in the recipe. I have to say, the flavor of the cake was very, very, good. But it was certainly weird. Next time I'll try it as written and see what happens.