two Vancouver meals

A lighter, less reflective posting, and back to the whole "this is what we ate" thing I load this blog with. Two meals from today (breakfast, such as it was, involved a muffin-y thing and some coffee): lunch at Brioche and dinner at Wild Rice.

Lunch was a nice, leisurely, casual meal wherein we caught up with Chris.4 and a half years or so since last we saw him, by my reckoning, and since then he had moved from TO to Ottawa and now to Vancouver. He chose Brioche,and we wisely got there well enough before noon to grab a table.

I didn't photograph his food, but by gosh did his potato soup smell marvellous. Gorgonzola and steak flavoured the thick liquid, and the scent was rather like terrific, woodsy mushrooms.

Conrad opted for the BLT caesar salad with tiger prawns.Sounds like hell, somehow, but he liked it.

Mine was a roast beef and gorgonzola panini with green salad on the side.It was a substantial lunch, very good, and though I couldn't finish it all, we did share a couple of desserts.

Most of all, though, it was just good to catch up with Chris, and we'll look forward to seeing him again on future visits here.

No photos of the afternoon activities, so let's just say that Ming Wo got a nice chunk of our time and money! More stuff to crowd into the condo kitchen. Poor Marie.

We met Stephen and Jenny for dinner at Wild Rice. I'd dined there about a year ago, and thought it was pleasant but perhaps promised more than it delivered, mostly because of a dessert none of us liked. Still, the savouries were fine then, and I had high hopes for tonight. A glass of the Township 7 '06 Semillon, and it was on to some shared plates of Chinese/"Chinese" food.

Not all the photos turned out - I was trying not to spend too much time photographing every last thing too many times - and among them was my favourite item, the pan fried chili squid on cold crab noodle. A little sweet and with a good kick. Tasty! We also had a bowl of wild mushroom sweep (local wild mushroom and asparagus chow mein). No good photo of that one either.

So then...

Rare albacore tuna pistachio vinaigrette, micro greens

Lamb shank crispy wontons pickled plum chutney

Pan roasted halibut cheeks beet dumpling, salsa verde

Rock prawn wonton soup

Maui ribs on a coriander white bean puree - a new item not shown on the menu

All of it sounds like a lot, but we soldiered on and managed a couple of desserts to share:Asian pear dumpling, star anise caramel and vanilla tofu "ice cream". Can I say - kindly - that these were like really great MacDonald's apple pies? No, I mean that as a compliment, truly. Also, a chocolate and mango torte, green tea jelly, and condensed milk chantilly. Subtle. Not bad.

Again, another meal highlighted by the company, getting to catch up with Stephen and Jenny,whom we last saw on American Thanksgiving over dinner at their home. It was a lovely night, not too late, and seeing the lunar eclipse on our walk to the restaurant was a great bonus.

Conrad, by the way, is a little teapot, and I love him for it.