the other tony

Terragusto is good. They are great at the Italian idea of having a few simply prepared offerings and doing them well. Spiaggia is good too, but quite the opposite. A michelin-like effort at fine dining. Tramonto's other Italian restaurant, that is downtown- Osteria via Stato is fairly authentic Italian (as opposed to american italian) and I find is particularly good for groups because the first few courses are served family style. One place/chef not mentioned is Dean Zanella at 312Chicago. Full disclosure- I used to be the sous chef there, but I honestly believe that it is even better than when I worked there a few years ago. Dean works closely with local farmers and makes a tasty, honest effort at cooking in an Italian style with ingredients from Chicagoland.

I DOV at Metro on Thursday night with my wife and her parents. Among us, we tried all of the dishes. The duck on the land dish was perhaps slightly undercooked and the halibut on the sea dish was perhaps slightly over. That being said, the food was spectacular relative to my dine out expectations. We had a bottle of tempranillo which was probably not the perfect match for everyone's meals, but in my mind better value/ quality than the required VQA offerings. I had a look at the regular menu and also liked the order by the ounce concept at Metro and will definitely go back. The only real complaint is the horrible music. Remember when boutique hotels where all the rage in the late 90s and they played loud trying too hard to be cool music in the lobby? Metro is not one of the "resto-lounges" that Vancouver apparently can't get enough of, at least I don't think they are trying to be...

I checked this thread out before a business trip to Calgary last weekend. I ate a Divino (http://www.crmr.com/divino/) one night and Blink (http://www.blinkcalgary.com/)the other. Wine list at Divino was excellent. Brad, the sommelier, was very cool and helpful. I had a fantastic 1/2 bottle of Condrieu and a bottle of Nicolas Potel Bourgogne. I ate a basic Lyonnaise salad. Simple and good. I normally don't play chef when I am dining, but I did ask them to leave the tomatoes off. It is the middle of January! Main course was Buffalo noisettes with morels, gnocchi and english peas. Flavors were very good. Too bad the buffalo was burnt from a too agressive sear. Once I filleted the seared side off of each large medallion, it was very tasty. Gnocchi were average. I was a bit worried when I first ordered that they were shipping in fresh english peas. I would like it if they just said, "frozen"- there's nothing wrong with that. I was able to taste a few more things at Blink, because my wife was able to join. You'll notice I drank less wine though! BTW, we had an excellent bottle of Amarone. Overall, the list is a bit too mainstream for my taste, but not bad. We started with a Golden beet salad with anise scented goat cheese and a Foie gras parfait. The beet salad was excellent, in part because of its distinctiveness. The beets were earthy, instead of the ubiquitous roasted sweet. This allowed the sweetness of the goat cheese to shine. But the star was clearly the foie. Perfectly creamy and delicious with a nice layer of fat surrounding. Mmm. Split a Crispy pork- perfectly crispy skin; perfect proportion of tasty meat to succulent fat; whole mustard seeds in a bit of jus; with a puree that I think was apple, but can't remember. For the main courses we had Beef ribeye and a Short Rib special. The ribeye was cooked a perfect medium rare and came with butternut squash, crosnes and a couple of other tasty ingredients. The braised beef shortribs was a special. Perfectly tender with crosnes, thumbelina carrots, lardons, mushrooms and a rich, flavorful braising jus. Service was excellent. Brittany put up with a lot of questions from us and either knew the answer or quickly found out. For example, where is the lamb from? What are Saskatoon berries? What is their season? Some of the answers we didn't really like- e.g. the lamb was from New Zealand. We found great Alberta raised lamb at the Calgary Farmers Market the next day. Which, btw, is a fantastic market. The most entertaining bit of the night was the amateurish behavior of the couple next to us. They only had entrees, although the menu is clearly laid out for at least a couple of courses. They ended the meal by excoriating Brittany, who we thought was quite good. They were complaining that they were still hungry and trying to prove they knew what they were doing by saying they’ve eaten at the Four Seasons Maui. Who cares? Overall a great meal. Exceeded my expectations even with a couple of missteps- new Zealand lamb and fresh raspberries in January on the dessert menu. Especially when compared to the culinary wasteland I was expecting, Calgary was outstanding. The Farmers Market did have a bit of flown in crap, but overall one of the best market's I have ever been to. Rivals Green City Market (Chicago), Alba~Italy, etc. I know that at the peak of the season, the other ones may be better, but this is Calgary and it is open year round!

I am booked for Metro on Thursday night and I will be there! I haven't been to any of Chef Fowke's places yet- I know, I have been living under a rock- and am looking forward to it...

Since Vallarta's at Renfrew and Broadway is considered by many to be Mexican, I thought I would comment here. In my experience, it is definitely the not Mexican I am accustomed to from Chicago. Fortunately, as soon as I realized that the family running the show is actually Guatemalan, I ordered pupusas. The pupusas are quite good. The Mexican fare is average, at best.

if you come for the food, you'll stay for the surf. i only began exploring the food of the Big Island about two months ago when i moved from the mainland, but i wouldn't get your hopes too high. lots of mediocrity to be had. with that disclaimer, here are some recommendations... there is a thai place in kona at the king kamehamaha shops that has very good crispy duck the ice cream shop in hilo across from the bus station has great bubble tea hawaiian style cafe in waimea is good for local grinds bubba gumps has decent breakfast if your in kona merriman's is great and getting better every day (i'm slightly biased about this one)

Those of you interested in further reading on this subject would enjoy Brenner's treatment in American Appetite. She gives a thorough and evenhanded account of the evolution ("revolution") of American cuisine and food culture. While there are clearly hundreds of examples of the lack of a developed food culture in America, there is a sustained movement which seeks to raise food to a level of respect within a society which is still young in historical terms.