Bourdain Coming to Vancouver

[Ling]

How fast are tickets selling out and how soon do we need to commit or pay.

I bought my tickets last Saturday, and there were perhaps 20 ppl ahead of me on the list. I think they are selling around 170 tickets for Opus.

[Chef Fowke]

So therein lies the opportunity. Neil, I think you should approach Barbara-jo, invite her to join in the dinner at 10pm, as well as the Raincoast handler and Mr. Bourdain's roadie. Alternatively, perhaps we could price the Fowke/Wyles/Hamilton Street Grill dinner to include a book and ask him to attend at 7pm to kick things off.

Neil,

Maybe send Anthony some of my Pastrami...it is the best in the world (at least better then Katz NYC) [i can also do something called seafood, NWP, etc...]...that should be enough to secure his appearance! And if need be I will smoke/cure/draw bile from the snake!

P.S. And I still have one bottle in my inventory of Nathan's Famous (the original Coney Island) Deli Style Mustard that I will crack for the occasion that Wesza gave me last year!

[Chef Fowke]

Nope $!@%*&!....

The Mustard's best by date was May 29th, 2004 . I will try and get some more....or maybe Grey Poupon can sponsor the event.

[peppyre]

I'm planning on buying my tickets for Opus on Friday, so hopefully they aren't sold out yet. Of course, the egullet event is sounding better than anything else going on. What does everyone think about possibly moving this thread to one of the other boards to generate more interest? I wouldn't be surprised if people from say WA or OR want to join us. Especially if Chef Fowke is doing Pastrami Also, if you want voluteers to help organize, I'm in. I organize for a living!

[nwyles]

Feel free to move this thread to another board.

I am only an " associate member " and do not know how to do this yet.

I would love to get in touch with Anthony through this board and make him aware of this discussion. Does anyone know how to do that ? If so, do it !

I would also like to bat around a few ideas on what could / should happen if we can get this event going. ( beside gorging ourselves on Chef Fowke Pastrami )

How about a dinner menu from recipes from his book. I know it might be a little late for people to eat if they are not in the restaurant business , but if you are - it is prime time for food . t would be nice if the man himself would join us for dinner ( As Jamie said 10:00 P.M. might be an -

unusually early bedtime

. As he will be in the neighbourhood, this could be possible.

Any ideas ?

If you want to send it via e-mail "hamiltonstreetgrill@telus.net"

Cheers

Neil

Edited August 9, 2004 by nwyles (log)

[jamiemaw]

i just spoke to the PR person at Raincoast Books. I mentioned both the 7pm and 10pm slots. She's going to get back to me shortly.

Idaelly, it might be best if he were able to join in for drinks and canapes (bison legs etc.) at 7, and perhaps return at 10 for dessert (Nanaimo bars, fruit leatrhers).

Jamie

[peppyre]

and Brownies

[Foodie in Vancouver]

I would love to join in but have been hanging back thinking that I don't have the drinking ability necessary to keep up with the crowd - especially when you started talking about the snake's blood. Little unnerving for us amateurs. But it is starting to sound like a lot of fun - so what the heck - I'm in.

[stovetop]

Why don't we get all local products and show what we have in this great province.

There is so much; Mr. Hill from hills food, can great some great protein.

Also there is so much great produce around van.

There is so much you can do.

Where do you begin.??????

steve

[Chef Fowke]

It would be great to meet Bourdain!!

But I am caught up on this snake thing...

I just read an article (see following) and I want to get some and try!

(from Bjørn Christian Tørrissen's visit to Thailand)

What happened was that they fastened the snake by its neck to some gadget on the wall. Then they made a small cut on each side of its uh... throat, or upper, upper body, just below the head (it is kinda hard to describe body parts of snakes accurately, don't you think?), and ripped off the snake's skin, all the way to the end of its uhm... bottom. It was very apparent that the snake was still alive, as it objected against the butcher's administerings by hissing and moving its body vigorously. The uhm... "tail" was fastened to the wall, and a cup was set below it, so that the snake's blood could be collected. The meat was simply cut off in pieces, and pretty soon the small cobra stopped moving around. I had the option of having the meat grilled, shish kebab-like, or to have a soup made of it.

So, that was how I came to feast on a bowl of snake soup and drinking snake blood on November 16, 1996. It had an interesting flavour, but I couldn't help thinking about the snake's last, silent cries. I guess I should go to my local butchery at home more often and realize that animals die in various ways there as well in order to let me enjoy meaty meals.

Anyway. Been there, done that.

Lets get some snake and see what we can do! Or maybe make pastrami from it...

[DameD]

Here's the deal with Anthony Bourdain, at least as I understand it.

Booksellers now 'bid' with the publisher to host well known/celebrity authors at their stores (typically now with a charitable component as well), although in this case Barabara-jo is obviously using two adjacent venues. Because her tender came with a cost attached, we can be assured that Mr. Bourdain will be signing books and gladhanding at Opus and Bar None at a high rate of knots.

But you will notice that they have allowed an hour of downtime between the events (to scoot upstairs for a cleansing ale and some cobra hearts), and that the latter one is over at 10pm, which would mean an unusually early bedtime for the lad, even if he's in the middle of a 20+ city book tour.

So therein lies the opportunity. Neil, I think you should approach Barbara-jo, invite her to join in the dinner at 10pm, as well as the Raincoast handler and Mr. Bourdain's roadie. Alternatively, perhaps we could price the Fowke/Wyles/Hamilton Street Grill dinner to include a book and ask him to attend at 7pm to kick things off.

Cheers,

Jamie

Jamie you are just full of great ideas, first the review of the previous month and now this! I am up for either, though i think i am just going Bar None, with the little green fairies and snakes...

[Chef Fowke]

This looks good...

Where are we at? Jamie and Neil have made some cursory inquiries and I am out hunting snakes ....

(instead of drinking the blood of the snake lets cure and smoke it, cerviche and a simple snake pastrami)

[stovetop]

Snake loins marinated in tequila, ginger, lime, Thai basil, smoked chipotle juice, extra extra v irgin olive oil, freshly ground coriander, fresh Italian parsley and fresh tri colour ground pepper.

Then sear in realy hat pans or eat it raw!!!

steve

[Ling]

The snake soup at Kirin is pretty good.

I'm not up for drinking snake blood though!

[jamiemaw]

Mr. Bourdain's handlers got back to us pronto via the PR director at Raincoast. He will not be available between 7 to 8 pm. There is a chance he might come along after the Bar None event.

My suggestion would be to convene the dinner at 7 for 7:30 at Neil's fine establishment--a terrific way to put faces to handles.

Cheers,

Jamie

[nwyles]

We should try and send word to him about the Cobra Cerviche. If that does not get him to hang out with us , what else can we do ??

Thanks for finding that out Jamie.

Now we will have to seek out a way to contact him to join us later.

If not, whatever, it will be a good chance for a bit of fun either way.

Keep this post going !!

Neil

[Foodie in Vancouver]

At the risk of sounding uninformed, which restaurant is Neil's?

[Chef Fowke]

At the risk of sounding uninformed, which restaurant is Neil's?

Just follow your eGullet decoder ring...it will show you the way.

[beans]

[tofino]

I officially have my tickets for the Opus event, and would love to be included in any 'unofficial' event taking place that evening at whatever the cost. I am coming in from Tofino, so why not blow the wallet for one night in the big city - haha!

[DameD]

Just wondering what is happening with this event.. are we meeting at Hamilton Grill.. time, price (?) and then hitting Bar None with Mr. Bourdain to convince to try the 'Cobra Cerviche'..?

[nwyles]

I'm sorry , I have been negligent. I will try and get down to Books to Cooks and get some contact info for Bourdain. Either way , I think we should have an Egullet getogether at the Grill. All we need is a show of hands as to how many.

Neil

Time, etc to be decided as we get more info.

[jamiemaw]

May I suggest that anyone interested in both meeting Mr. Bourdain and meeting fellow egulleteers book for the Opus event from 5 to 7. Then we'll take a show of hands, work together with Chef Neil at the Hamilton Street Grill to design a four course menu, with drinks from 7:15 to 7:45, dinner following.

Make sense?

Jamie

[nwyles]

Makes sense to me.

Jamie , what would we do without you.

Cheers

Neil

[Daddy-A]

Makes sense to me.

Jamie , what would we do without you.

No kidding! Apparently mentioning Jamie's name at Lumiere will get you a beer for about $6! Although I'm pretty sure that's a Kokanee

I'll volunteer to keep the "LIST" for the group ... God knows I have NOTHING else to do. Besides, it'll give me an excuse to come down for some pastrami. Right Neil???

PM me with your name (real & handle), and number attending.

DA