Hest88

Cafe Rouge is my favorite too. Though, granted, I would still consider it my favorite if they served nothing but their incredible fries. Mmmmm, pommes frites.

We went to JoJo's once, but we were rather unimpressed. Solid food, but there was so much hype about it at the time I guess there was no way they could live up to it. I suppose I'll have to swing by there again. We had a great meal at Downtown when they first opened, and then a god-awful one earlier this year. Anything that needed actual cooking by the kitchen was uninspired and one was downright tasteless, and the cheese plate was the smallest thing I'd ever seen. Perhaps it was just an off-night, but I think I'll have to drag my husband kicking and screaming to give them another chance.

Well, I'm a purist, so my favorite are Ruffles, then Lay's or something similar. I've found that the gourmet kettle-cooked kind are too thick for my tastes. I don't like having to chew so much to eat my potato chips. The one exception are Kettle Chips Krinkle Cut Salt and Pepper chips. I'd never had pepper on my potato chips before and was amazed at how well it brought out the potato flavor. Every so often I also get a craving for salt and vinegar.

Sorry, I can't remember, but I believe commercial prunes are made from a certain species of plum, so though you'll get prunes from your tree, they might not dry in the same manner.

This might be a silly idea, but have you tried taking your favorite recipe and just decreasing the amount of vinegar and/or increasing the amount of pepper?

Mmmm, Titus, mooncakes that taste like fig newtons; now that's something I can get behind. However, the great thing about fig newtons is the fig to cookie ration, so I guess the mooncake version would still have too much filling to be really good.

Titus, good to see you back. Vancouver is an incredible place for Chinese food. I hate the "malling" effect--which we have here in the South Bay as well--but oh I love having access to all that authentic Chinese food and goods. I really only use the fermented tofu now as well. And, truth be told, I haven't used cooking spirits in years. I've just gotten too lazy and it doesn't make a big enough difference for my tastes to bother. I will use garlic, but what I've found makes a huge difference to me is to chop up a jalapeno and throw it in. So, my lazy method is to heat up oil, throw in garlic, jalapeno, two cubes of the spicy, fermented tofu, and then throw in the blanched ong choy. Really the most time consuming part is "pinching" it. If I'm stir-frying just enough ong choy for myself as a snack, I'll even skip the blanching.

Ugh, mooncakes. I like them as simple as possible, just the paste, no yolk. But then, I'm that way with most foods. I can only swallow a sliver or two each year, though. Most of my relatives get too many boxes that they then try to give away to other people. The older generation definitely likes the kind with yolks best, but most of them have been told to watch their cholesterol, so they usually tell me not to get them the ones with yolks anymore. My mom, like me, can't stand more than a smidgen each year. Come to think of it, of all of my relatives, only two will admit to actually like them all that much.

Nathan, you sneak! I didn't think about ethnic restaurants. Mmmmm, pho. I'm awarding you the prize.

LOL! As another Chinese person, I agree with you. My lip curls everytime one of those "Best of" polls comes out naming Yank Sing the best dim sum in the Bay Area. As I've said before, I used to love Yank Sing as a child purely because they had jello-filled oranges and the like.

My (Chinese) parents were taken to Kirin on Cambie twice by my uncle when we were in Vancouver. They reported it was very good, high-end dim sum.

I'm pretty fond of Chevy's tortillas and chips, and though I miss the ceviche they had when they were still a smaller local chain, I still find their fajitas consistently tasty.

Mmmm, I love beef ribs. I find, though, that I can only find short ribs at my local butcher shops; I have to go to the supermarket for the kind of beef ribs you're talking about.

Okay, I was invited to dinner the home of very good friends. The husband is a pretty good cook. The wife, who can barely microwave a potato, would always tell me of the great stuff her husband would make and boast that he only uses real butter in his baked goods. (As a home baker, I refrained from saying, "No, duh!") So, we sat down to dinner and picked up my bread, spread some butter on it, and bit down. It was...margarine! I hadn't had margarine since I was a kid and could barely swallow the piece I had in my mouth. Blech, yuck, p-tooey! The rest of the meal was fine, but I'll always remember that meal as the one where I was subjected to margarine.

Tana, I live in North Oakland, but work in downtown SF.

Thanks Mudbug! I never paid much attention to the specifics of vegetables. Until I was well into adulthood I never realized that the horrible, bitter vegetables my parents grew in the back yard and loved to eat blanched was the same thing as the chives I used as herbs!

I never remove it, partly because it's one of my favorite parts of the rib. It gets crisp and tasty.

Oh, I'm slurping up the drool...

Also just popping in to say how much I love your writing. I'm not a professional chef, and probably a decent though not great home cook, but I love reading about the pros. You are one of the few food-related authors I never hesitate to buy in hardcover.

Oh great. I have a large water bottle that I routine re-fill with the Alhambra water at the office. I thought I was being environmentally sensitive, but now I find I could be jeopardizing my health? Is there no winning?!?

Merlin, thanks for the advice. We're not planning on making the trip until Oct 2004. Right now it looks like we may end up staying at Sooke Harbour House instead, and save the Wick Inn for another year--perhaps during storm season. By then, hopefully the food will have improved! I didn't realize they were building more suites. Kitchens would be really welcome.

Ong choy stir-fired with fermented tofu. Dry-rubbed ribs. Beef or pork.

I just got back from Vancouver, and had an experience that reminded me of Titus Wong's query about cooking ong choy--back on the favorite chinese veggies thread. Titus said his ong choy was always tougher than what he remembered, and a bunch of us shared our cooking tips. Well... As many of you know, Vancouver is considered one of the best places for Chinese food in North America and you can easily find Chinese food stuffs there that are still unusual in the U.S. So, we were at an upscale Hong Kong style seafood restaurant and ordered ong choy. When it came, the stems were yellower than I was used to, plus they were flatter. My mom perked up and told me that it was "water" ong, not the usual ong choy I've always eaten. I pressed my mom and my dad for more info. They said that the "water" ong is actually grown in water, unlike the ong choy I get in the Bay Area, which is of a species grown in soil. I was very puzzled, since I always thought that all ong choy was grown in water, but they insisted that that was the case. The "water" ong choy is thus more crisp instead of crunchy (does that make any sense?), and indeed was the case. It was a subtle difference, but the choy was definitely less fibrous and more delicate and giving. So, Titus, now I'm wondering if what you were talking about had nothing to do with cooking techniques at all but everything to do with the kind of ong choy you were comparing your efforts to?

Loved the winter melon in soup that my mom used to make. Still not old enough, I guess, to like bitter melon. Blech! Come to think of it, I doubt I'll ever be old enough. Hairy gourd is one of dad's favorites, but again something I find inedible. But then, I can't stand zucchini either.

We stayed at the Aerie for our honeymoon and are now thinking about going to Wickaninnish Inn, with perhaps a stop-off at Sooke Harbour House, for next year's anniversary. I've been taking notes from this and older threads, so all your opinions are much appreciated.