Chi Restaurant

[Andrew Morrison]

When it first opened I was peeved at the info-light website, but that is no longer the case. As of this past week, they've amped it up.

Check it out.

[Keith Talent]

This is exactly what I'm talking about, the terms local and organic have become so overused as to be completely meaningless. The home splash page claims that they use the very best "local and organic produce." Looking at the menu lays waste to that claim. Everyone knows the gentlly swaying coconut groves of Aldergrove are NOT organic. Neither are the extensive mango plantations in Ruskin, the pineapple fields of the Sumas prairie, or the cherimoya farms of the north shore. To claim these local products are organic are is a bald faced lie. Someone should call them on it.

Do the proprietors think we the public are complete fools and won't notice their cleverly constructed ruse, or are they that clueless as to the providence of their produce? Either way it doesn't reflect well. Then again they refer to themselves in all lower caps, which has always struck me as kinda lame at best, horribly pretensious at worst.

[3WholeCardamoms]

ok,

i know this post is supposed to travel to the 'new moniker for seasonal, local whatever..."

but thank you mr talent for voicing displeasure with the standard restaurant hype re: the whole "we use the localest freshest organicist blah blah".

my thing is that if you actually truly use the good real stuff. smart people who care will catch on and be rewarded for paying attention. f--k the moniker.

as you can seee, i've chosen to, once again, use all lower case. because it just doesn't matter.

[chef koo]

Oh...I really like durian, but as long as the flavour of the jackfruit is similar, I'd still like to give it a try. 

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you actually like durian?

[Ling]

I love durian! It's the king of fruits!

(It's not my favourite fruit, but I think it's very delicious. Sweet and custardy....yum! Especially good partially-frozen, so the smell isn't as bad, imo.)

[Keith Talent]

Have you ever had an organic Saltspring durian? Superb.

[Memo]

Have you ever had an organic Saltspring durian? Superb.

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I agree, Keith. Last summer - at Randy Bachman's birthday bash - I was served organic Saltspring durian. Superb... despite the fact that I needed to plug my nostrils while eating it - and the fact that it repeated on me half-an-hour later (with the acidity/acridity of seagull plop)!

Truthfully, I know what you mean.

[Andrew Morrison]

To claim these local products are organic are is a bald faced lie. Someone should call them on it.

Do the proprietors think we the public are complete fools and won't notice their cleverly constructed ruse, or are they that clueless as to the providence of their produce? Either way it doesn't reflect well. Then again they refer to themselves in all lower caps, which has always struck me as kinda lame at best, horribly pretensious at worst.

This is going too far, I think. (smilies in this post are in no way intended to assert any measure of butchness)

Your accusation of a "cleverly constructed ruse" reminds me of the dirt diggers in the blogosphere. What's next, Raincity Grillgate? A city-wide search and seizure of all menus? If you're looking for some absolutist's ideal of honesty in the restaurant community, call me when you find it, Keith.

Are they referring to pineapples and cherimoya in their harmless little blurb? Is it the mint they use? The tomatoes? We don't have the requisite window into their kitchen and their roster of suppliers to so flippantly toss out that kind of Cheney-esque barb. I assume you are just as clueless as I am as to the "provdence of their produce", at least more so than the folks at Ch'i, so what's the deal?

I realise the thread is about Ch'i, but do you really want to single out one restaurant with a from-the-hip shotgun blast I'm sure was meant for the broader restaurant community?

As for the aesthetics of lower case letters, whatever turns one crank often riles another.

Edited June 1, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[Keith Talent]

Actually, it was kinda just a lighthearted rant, but now that you highlight it, in my opinion these crooks should be taken to task for false advertising. Their produce is neither local, nor I doubt organic. Yet they claim it is. That constitutes a pretty serious level of dishonesty, in my opinion. Really not very different than a steakhouse serving choice but claiming prime, or a car dealer rolling back odometers.

Okay, the above is a gross overstatement, and rather than fraud I suspect one of two explanations, neither of which flatter the proprietors and if it was my business I'd call my web developer and do some editting. Either the powers that be don't care that they are making misleading statements believeing that we the public want to see certain key words, not really being cognizant of their meanings, or they are unaware of what the lead screen of their own webpage says. Neither possibility reflects well on them.

[Andrew Morrison]

Their produce is neither local, nor I doubt organic

Any data on that?

They say they "use" the very best local and organic produce. That leaves them with a lot of semantic football fields to waffle within. Without including the word "exclusively" on what you see as their offending front page, your point just dries up and withers as a baseless accusation. The only thing I know about Ch'i is that it's a business - and as such they'll do their very best to persuade.

I agree that the world of restaurantdom is full of asterisks these days (which would make for an interesting topic in itself), but singling out one to weather your storm is offside by a yard or two. This is not a case of "rolling back odometers", but that of you warming to your own Talented enthusiasms (and that's fine).

Edited June 1, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[Keith Talent]

Their produce is neither local, nor I doubt organic

Any data on that?

They say they "use" the very best local and organic produce. That leaves them with a lot of semantic football fields to waffle within.

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I don't have the British Columbia Ministry af Agriculture figures on organic coconut production last year with me here at home, I left them on my desk at work, but if memory serves, it was zero. I'd be willing to bet heavily on nada if the final Jeopardy category was "Canadian tropical fruit production" and I was trying to unseat that guy from Utah that was on that roll. So no, I have no data points, but don't think that hurts my arguement that their mango isn't local.

With regards to debasing the philisophical nature of my arguement to one of semantics, well then whatever. If you want to play the Marsha Brady "Exact Words" game, so be it. We all recognize the implication of the claim, regardless of lawyers disection of individual words. Wasn't it stud extrodinaire that Bill Clinton that argued "it depends on what your defintion of is is." Fact remains they inted to imply that their produce is both organic and local, two claims that are false.

And it is unfair to single C'hi. But then again this isn't Sesame Street and if someone feelings are hurt, tough, feel free to proof read before sending your website live next time.

But more importantly, you neglected to offer a counterarguement that their actions are analagous to offering prime steak, yet plating choice. For a start, I'd be very very suprised if any Thai on Vietnamese tropical fruit is organic. Secondly, looking at that ambitious and quite delicious sounding menu, I'd be suprised that a new small independent would have the market pull to procure local produce year round.

Regardless, this has been blown way bigger than it needed to be, their crime is no worse than the athlete that claims to give 110% or the actor that says it's an honour just to be nominated. Idiotic cliches don't reflect well on the speaker, and your first impulse is to cry bullshit loudly when hearing them. And that's what C'hi did, used the foodservice cliche du jour. No harm, no foul. (Shit, that's a cliche isn't it?)

Cheers

[seanw]

Andrew,

I hope you will have the balls when you eventually start writing your blag/blog or whatever for Westender to highlight such misappropriations perpetrated by restaurants, more business patsies are not required. You could actually be doing a public service, & get paid for it(free meals not included ,afterall it would be difficult to remain impartial) I wish you good luck & hope for plenty of criticism, when/if warranted.

Cheers Sean

Cheers

[Daddy-A]

It's a shame the folks from Ch'i who saw fit to promote their restaurant on this very site, are not here now to answer these questions.

A,

[SBonner]

I have not been back to this restaurant for a sveral months... I was planning on going again this coming week but I've heard a number of their talented servers have left and the sommelier is now gone. Any similar comments heard lately?

Cheers,

Stephen

[lauraf]

I have not been back to this restaurant for a sveral months... I was planning on going again this coming week but I've heard a number of their talented servers have left and the sommelier is now gone. Any similar comments heard lately?

Cheers,

Stephen

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When we were there last weekend, Assistant Manager/Bar Manager Sean Clendenning was keeping things running very smoothly - no qualms at all about the service. Not sure about the sommelier though . . .

[~cayenne~]

Just saw they are on the list for the "Taste of the City" event tomorrow, with three interesting offerings. Funny, one of them was a dish that included crab and watermelon, which reminded me of a dish Rob Feenie was presenting on City Cooks the other day (yesterday?) which also included those two ingredients.