Hest88

You know, I never thought of this before, but as a consumer who considers herself an informed consumer and who believes in businesses providing as much information as possible, I love the idea of incorporating dessert into the regular menu. What reason is there to hide it from me? I go a number of restaurants with seasonal menus who do have the dessert on the menu. Oliveto in Oakland is the most recent one I can recall. Last time I was there I could peruse the dessert selections and decide whether or not they warranted saving room for. They way they handled the menu was that they just took it away after we ordered, and then just returned the same menu when we indicated an interest in ordering dessert. Perfect solution, IMO.

Wow! I just picked them up here in No. California for $7.50/lb!

Of course I use it for the melting, popping, etc., but in terms of cooking I only use it for artichokes. Fast, easy, and the artichokes actually taste fresh and green as opposed to when you steam them. Now I'll have to try it with corn. How long does it take?

Well, you'd be correct except that since those horrific days I've tried duck liver a number of times at frou-frou restaurants and still have had the same gag reaction. I've also tried pork kidney (which tastes very much like liver to me) at Chinese restaurants with the same result. So, it's the liver. Not the preparation.

Liver. We were normally required to finish our plates at dinner, but liver was the only thing I could never put in my mouth without gagging. I still can't eat liver---unless it's in pate form!

I'm also happy that exists, but I have to fight really hard to not be disappointed every time I step foot into it. I was really hoping it would be someplace like the Granville Island market, but instead I find it so upscale that, like a well-coiffed matron, it leaves me feeling admiration more than love. I wanted to find things there that I couldn't find anywhere else, but with few exceptions it's full of well-established businesses that carry goods I (as an East Bay denizen) pick up all the time at Rockridge's Market Hall or Berkeley Bowl or (gasp!) Whole Foods. It's almost like the Tiffany of foodstuffs---well-pedigreed but far from unique.

Okay, you're bringing up some very ugly childhood memories. Blech! My mom mostly used rock sugar for horrid tonics as well. I don't remember her ever using it for normal dishes, other than the occasional boiled sweet potato concoction. I loved stealing pieces of rock sugar, though I loved stealing bars of brown sugar even more.

I read fast! We may just decide to go to Tofino when we can really walk around and, if it's *really* as heavenly as everyone claims, go back during storm season. I do love a good storm, and I get very little of that here in Northern California. And, of course, when it is storming it usually means I have to slog to work in the rain, which makes the storm less desirable!

Thanks Merlin! During our first trip out to Van Island (for our honeymoon) I wanted to be within driving distance to Victoria so I could replenish reading material. This time around it could easily have been Tofino, but I really wanted to eat at Sooke Harbour House. Plus, I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go to Tofino during storm season. Next, though, will definitely be Tofino.

As a consumer, I love Opentable. Love, love, love. The only time I had a problem was with an old-fashioned, high-end restaurant where I called to move my original Opentable reservation out a week. Somehow that never happened and when I talked to them during a confirmation call (they were confirming for the original week not the new week) they couldn't figure out how to change it either. As a result, when I got there they couldn't find my reseravion. Luckily it was for lunch and they were not busy, but I got the distinct impression that they never trained their staff on how to use Opentable. I *should* have modified my reservation online instead of using the old-fashioned phone route!

Paul, that "dinner cruise" of yours sounds splendid. Tofino will probably be our next Van Island destination (though I'm not sure if we'll be able to fit it in within the next year or two) and I'll keep that in mind.

Actually, one of my husband's favorite things about Canada is the abundance of different kinds of good NA beer. That and the Cuban cigars. Also, Erdinger makes an NA wheat beer that my husband claims is great. Unfortunately, we've never found it sold retail.

My husband drinks Gerstel--which he gets at Trader Joe's.

Personally, I was underwhelmed with Blue Water. Food was decent, but service was appalling--which naturally made me feel as if the meal were overpriced. If you're having a casual dinner where you'll be more focused on each other than how inept the service might be, it should be fine, I guess.

Thank you to everyone who posted their experiences this time around. Prior reviews have made me wonder if I would actually enjoy the experience, but these have really made me wish I lived close enough to take advantage of those rare cancellations!

Thanks so much Merlin! We may end up trying it, but it sounds like we should definitely go to the much lauded Cafe Brio. We're staying at Sooke Harbour House and will probably end up having at least two dinners there, but naturally want to break that up (for our pocketbooks if for nothing else!).

Merlin, you're a gem! I am forever in your debt!

Off-topic: may I ask what hotel you were staying at?

Oh, please go to Temple! We're going to be up in Victoria in Oct and I'm trying to figure out if Temple is worth a visit. Please, please, please be my guinea pig!

Soup. I don't know what it is, since everyone says that soup is the easiest thing to do, but even when I follow a recipe religiously--much less when I try to do what my mom does, just throw things in a pot--my soup often comes out tasteless!

I find that the older I get the less I can tolerate sweet flavors. I used to drink coffee with cream and sugar--so it was more like coffee ice cream. (Caffeine never affected me, so I only drank coffee occasionally and purely for the taste.) Now I'm evolving to cream only. I can picture a day when I drink it black. Same with chocolate. I was one of those milk chocolate fans. Now I'm finding that even expensive milk chocolate is a bit too sweet.

Are the photos incorporated into the pages (and thus hidden) or non-existent in the U.S. version? I flipped through a copy this weekend but didn't see any photos. Makes me think I'll wait for the UK version.

Thanks for the great account!

Is it really faster? I haven't noticed a difference, but by the time I get near the end I'm no longer going by the clock anymore.

Heh, sometimes I forget that not all eGulleters know what jook is! Here's the really long thread we had on jook a little bit ago. Jook thread