nwyles

When I was in London England, there was a pub call the Maple Leaf and they imported Clamato. It was so nice to have a Caesar after being away from Canada for two months.

Last three places : "C" for lunch on Sat. See other threads for heaps of praise piled upon each other. White Spot for pancakes on Sunday morning after wife ran Scotia half marathon. She was running, I was sleeping. Perfect. And a trip down memory lane : ended up in New West late Sunday so grabbed a pizza at Me & Ed's with the kids. Had a Soprano ( I think as in "The Soprano's " ) Anyways, proscuitto, bocconcini, fresh tomatoes, basil chiffonade, EVO, spices etc. on the thin crust with no edge. Devoured it. Loved it. Used to go there lots in my yute. Forgot how good it really was. I think we will make another trip there one day as the kids liked it as well. Got to stand up up on the bench and watch the pizzas being made. This allows for five minutes of sanity. Worth it !!

Once again, I am glad that I hosted the first "egullet Dinner". The bar gets higher each and every outing. A fat fingered tradesman like myself could not hold a candle to what the crew at "C" did this weekend. Chef Belcham's skill, Leonard's organizing and Harry's generousity have made this luncheon an affair to remember. Thank you. Neil

I would ask that this phrase be stricken from this thread. This is a picture that would disturb even the freakist of you out there !!!! Lee....................... you are one sick dude. Also, it was beef, not pork, you sick puppy !!!!!

I have a stack of beer eveluation forms that were left. I will attempt to gather them all and add our findings into the Beer discussion group. Lots of educated items in there like " yummy" , "beerlicious" etc.

Thanks to all that came. It was a great day, a fine lunch and a good unwinder. I'm sorry I did not get to hang with y'all as much as I would have liked. It has been a busy weekend and the prepwork fell a little behind. We had a great night at the Hammy only to be brought back dow to Earth with a resounding thud by a visit from the City of Vancouver Patio Police. I would add a bit more about that but as I have learned in the past,you never know who is reading your stuff and how it could come back and bite you in the ass. Cheers to all, Neil

Arne : Did I tell you that this brisket has been in brine for quite some time - over 30 days. I would imagine that this might have something to do with the string effect. We will see on Saturday fo the tasting. Cheers Neil

Bridge and Tunnel Crowd

We make pancakes, 7 days a week, for the past four years in our house. If we go out for breakfast, it is to the White Spot for, you guessed it, Pancake Pirate Pak. The upside is now the kid can make his own pancake mix, he is just not allowed to cook it himself yet. He is only four( nearly five ! ). I think I am in a breakfast rut.

I think this should reflect the new basic four food groups Sugar group Grease group Alcohol group Chocolate group Must keep a balanced diet.

What is Vancouver Life Magazine ? And where did they get my picture ? I have never heard of it.

Hey, I am not over analyizing it !. It was a real good shake ! I would hope they have good syrup as it is one of the very few things that they make there. Could have been Hershey ? It certainly did not have that strange aftertaste that a McDonald's shake has, you know, that you can still taste 1 hour later.

I had the chocolate, no whip. Really good. Try the chocolate. Who drinks vanilla shakes ?? That's weird.

I think it called called SOHO

The fox and the fiddle is by the Library

Tama Sushi @ Broadway and Fir. I used to go when I lived in Kits. How long has it been closed. Fox and Firkin @ the Library ? Fox and Fiddle....what was it called ?

Send them down early, I have two high chairs and one booster. They can walk around Yaletown after dinner, give her your credit card and send them to Urban Fare to pick up a few essentials

Try Puddifoot's They have a store in Kerrisdale but also a restaurant supply in South GRanvill area. Jason Puddifoot is the owner and he would know the best. The # is 604-263-0971

Ling's food consumption is the stuff of legend. She is an eating machine. Do not doubt her. Never, and I repeat, never offer to pay for dinner before she orders. You will be sorry. 24 ozs of BBQ pork is just a little snack between meals for her.

Steve : I remember breaking the $10.00 per hour glass ceiling 20 years ago. I was a god amongst those I worked with as I could now show them the way to higher wages ! I think minimum wage in B.C. was in the $4.50 range. Now minimum wage is $8.00 and cooks wages have not increased that much. I realized quite some time ago that the only way I was going to make any money at this was to own my own place.

ACID, As always, an interesting view. It certainly has been a fun ride for the last year or so. Egulleters have beat a path to my door and many others. I have a party of 25 people coming from New York later this month for hanger steak, every couple of days, strangers ask me "are you him ? " I just chuckle and say yes. I think they just want to know what the monkey in the cage looks like. Are the restaurants too soft on the egulleters? Not really. I think that everybody has to take a deep breath and sit back and reflect on what exactly they are trying to do or say. We live in a very small town with an incredible amount of restaurants. I find that the Vancouver is both incredibly hard and soft on their restauranteurs. Look at the raging debate about Feenie. An excellent chef who quite often takes a beating. Or the Kolachy, a simple product that sometimes is touted as the "next coming". The micro cruitiquing of the Heather : man, there is something that got a little crazy. I imagine that this forum would be quite different is our city was a bit more spread out and not so accessable. We are ten minutes away from everything and that certainly has made quick meet and greets all the rage. It does not take too much effort to find a quick lunch mate. Most of us know who the others are and certainly know many of the Chefs in this town. With all of the TV shows, media agents and interviews that go on, I do not think that a person in this city does not know what Hawksworth, Feenie, Vij or Tojo look like. With everybody somewhat familiar with each other, it is hard to really get the knives out and lay into someone. As for egulleters, they are great consumers who beat a path to the fav rave's door in flocks. As a man who is just trying to make a living, I do not see this as a bad thing. There is also an air of familiarity with most of them as they have a sense of who they are dealing / talking to. I see the "reviews" here as long form comment cards. You can either agree or disagree, but at the end of the day, the doors will still open and everybody has to go back to work. What restauranteurs do with comment cards is up to them : they can react in a positive fashion and use the information to improve, or throw them in the garbage. It is somewhat similar here, just they tend to stay in your face a little longer. It is so often a matter of taste but people treat them as absolutes. Too much salt, too little salt etc. I found this lacked flavour , I noticed the sublty that the chef was going for etc. Take a big breath. It is just dinner, Not the "Last Supper".

What ?? Burned to the ground ??

I know the manager at 7th and Cambie ( Government Store ) and he has had people come in a berate him about the prices up the road. I understand that the uniforms are still somewhat similar. If that is so, it is totally to trick the public into paying more. BTW, how was the selection ? Anything different or just the same old with a heftier price ?

I seem to recall that in New Zealand, he had a 100 % television share. I'm not sure if I am using the right term, but he is the only person ever to do so.

I never said anything about that restaurant being busy. It certainly was at times, and was less as the kitchen went downhill. your 4th problem (which I considered your biggest) was that your amazingly strong kitchen team was being totally eroded through overworking and underpaying. and don't tell me this was circumstancial - it was policy. the demise of the team is the demise of the restaurant. of course, there were many other reasons. I've seen it so often Gerald that I believe this sometimes. It was about the only conclusion we could all come up with then. There seemed no other reasonable explanation to loosing strong staff members over another dollar or two an hour. I think many chefs and owners do it because they cannot find good people. Maybe this is because they are unwilling to pay for it. ← Hopkin, I work 80 to 90 hours a week, not because I can't find good people, but more over, because it is hard to find trustworthy people. I have had a little run of theft or "shrinkage" awhile back. It was a heart-breaking experience. This is actually the reason I sent you a PM about 6 months ago. I was in your store and witnessed some money being taken but nothing being rung in. Having just been through something similar, I wanted to give you a heads up. Unfortunatly, I never heard back from you and then too much time had passed. Neil