wrapping up Vancouver

I got back from Vancouver around dinner time on Wednesday, having "enjoyed" a night with a raging sore throat.  I now have a cold coming on.  Yay?  Yes, I've tested.  Twice since my return.  Negative.  Just a run of the mill cold.  Ugh.

So with that and a busy return to work, I haven't made time to catch up on the rest of the Vancouver trip.  I shan't break it down into multiple entries.  Let's whip through a bunch of stuff instead!

I saw friends.  Sherri! 

It's been a few years, but we caught up over coffee.  Chris and Allister! 

I saw them both last month, and we'll see them out east later this month.  Jenny and Steven! 

We'll see them again in eight days when we are up there for Steven's 60th birthday.

Merp was around.

We had beers! 

And cocktails. 

Including a purple Last Word (made with Empress Gin).  

We ate well, especially an enjoyable evening at Joe Forte's

and an excellent lunch at Nightingale

and a dinner we wish had been better at ViJ's

and a super dinner at Chambar

and a nice dessert at our hotel restaurant.

 I showed Van New Westminster oh so briefly.

We made it to English Bay. 

And that's that, other than all the condo stuff.  Conrad and I will be up there again in 5 days!

why yes, this IS a blog entry

Oh gosh, I know, I know. Let's not count the months. Let's just talk food.
I have just re-read Todd's excellent, mouthwatering, truly delightful account of the dinner he and Michael had at Posh. I'm floored. Not simply because my best friend should have been writing a blog on his food adventures for some time now given his narrative, no. TK had quite a meal, and I can't compete.

But blogging is not competition, or not in my opinion. Our meal tonight can't measure up, but at least I can honour his meal (and ours) a little by once aGAIN turning to the blog.

Conrad and I are in Vancouver for a few days. Wedding planning, that sort of thing. Escaping the recent snow in Chicago, enduring the typical winter rains back west. Loving it. Much coffee consumed. I promise, we've been in the pool, too.

Our Valentine's date night was at the same place as last year, in fact: the Terminal City Club, in its dining room, 1892. We put on suits, hopped in a cab, and headed downtown in pouring rain. I'd seen the special menu beforehand, and I had a few ideas in mind as to what I thought might make for a nice night.

A few points before I describe the food:

• it's good to be back in a place in Vancouver where we are recognized and welcomed back. That's part of the reason we love Safari Cafe in the mornings, so.
• with the exception of special events, photography is not permitted in the club. A shame, because the food is often plated quite nicely.
• we rejected the special menu.

That last one was tough. Halibut cheeks? Oh my, yes, please. But we were lukewarm on the red meat options, and there weren't swap-outs possible. Also, Conrad is a huge chocolate freak, but I merely like it, and it wasn't my mood tonight. The table next to us (whom we overheard all too well, sometimes amusingly so) did have the special menu, and the chocolate desserts looked gorgeous. Tellingly, however, they couldn't finish them.

Some lengthy deliberation and negotiation, and Conrad and I had decided:

• a bottle of Bruno Paillard Champagne Brut Premiere Cuvée. This opened up so delightfully as we went along, progressing from a fruity, lemony start to toasty apple notes later. Splendid.

• baked oysters with spinach and gouda for Conrad
• celeriac veloute with wild mushrooms for me

• a shared Bibb lettuce salad with a light gogonzola dressing

• seared ahi tuna with a crab and potato hash and a lemongrass cream sauce for Conrad
• pan seared sablefish with spotted prawns and maitake miso broth for me

• a trio of cheeses with a glass of a Rioja for Conrad and a glass of the Joie Noble Blend for me

• two raspberry and two cassis truffles.

There's the outline, now the commentary...

I didn't taste Conrad's oysters, but to judge by how meticulous he was at cleaning out each half shell, I'd say they were good. My soup? Delicious. A certain meatiness from the mushrooms, and I gleefully swabbed out the last bits with some of the bread provided.

The salad was fine. I mean, look, we wanted greens, we wanted simple. We got it. I just wish the little slivers of apple and celery had had more flavour.

My fish kicked serious butt on his. Beet greens, tempura mushrooms, the unctuous sablefish? So much better than his nice but a little overcooked tuna.

The cheeses were fine, but the wines with them were each rather lovely. I think Conrad's richly fragrant red might have been the winner.

Oh, the truffles, the truffles...

A fine night, and a leisurely pace. The meal of the trip, though it's up aGAINst boil in a bag from ViJ's and last night's fun sushi with random service at Zipang.



What will tomorrow bring?

And that, friends, brings me back to blogging. For tonight. Happy Valentine's Day, what remains of it. I have the love of Conrad, and I revel in what I share with friends and family whom I love so dearly as well. And, it must be said, in the very good meals I get to enjoy time and aGAIN.

dining out in Vancouver

After my name, the word "Food" is the most important in the name of this blog. So then, images of dining in Vancouver this week:

Dinner at La Brasserie on Monday night:
Alsatian onion tart (appetizer shared by the table)
truffled poutine (appetizer shared by the table)
cheeses (appetizer shared by the table)
rabbit with spaetzle (my dinner)
halbut (Conrad's dinner)


Lunch on Wednesday from the market on Granville Island:
perogies and cabbage roll


Dinner at Campagnolo on Wednesday night, sitting at the bar in back:
Victoria Gin martini
Chef's choice pizza (artichoke heart, chanterelle, cheese)


Dinner at ViJ's Thursday night (an atypical USian Thanksgiving meal)
Venturi-Schulze Schönburger 2007
Punjabi Heart Attack (in the spoons) with quinoa salad (appetizer shared by the table)
deviled eggs and bell pepper fritters (appetizer shared by the table)
jackfruit in masala (appetizer shared by the table)
pork tenderloin and baby back ribs (Conrad's dinner)
kheer (my dessert)
kulfi (Conrad's dessert)
(no good shots of the venison, alas)

So far so good with a few meals more to go! Rest assured, we may be in Canada this week, but we are keeping the tradition of much eating for Thanksgiving going.

date night: Vancouver

Our last night in Vancouver, Sunday night. Date night for me and Conrad. A day together of driving around shopping/sightseeing. A meal where we could dine well, drink well, and just enjoy each other's company. So of course, we pick what is pretty much our favourite restaurant in Vancouver: ViJ's.

Not familiar with it? Imagine Rick Bayless had an Indian restaurant instead of Frontera. Refined Indian cuisine, no buffets, west coast ingredients incorporated into the mix. Decent wine list. No reservations.

Oops.

We got there at 5:25, just before the first seating. Too late. The line stretched past the sister restaurant and toward Granville. We knew we had a wait on our hands.

Our friend Brian recommends going over to West for a cocktail, and, in fact, you can leave your name and wander off. I didn't feel well enough dressed to try West, though, and anyway, we did get a seat in the bar area (one seat - I let Conrad sit down most of the time). A glass of wine each, waitresses bringing around hot salty snacks. Not a difficult wait. We sipped slowly, then sought guidance on a nice bottle of wine, settling on a LaFrenz red we hadn't had before. Opened it, got started sipping that slowly, and BINGO! A table!



The previous time Conrad and I had been in ViJ's we did a similar thing to this visit: here is the wine, now build food around it. My only caveat - no lamb lollipops. I've had them before, and they're fine, but I wanted something different. The waitress brought over the wine director (whom we'd talked to the time before) and we were off and running.

Appetizers:

• Lamb, beef, and paneer samosas
• Yam, paneer, and cabbage kofta in pureed lentil curry (Brussels sprouts underneath there)

I loved the kofta especially, though I think it was only a moderate success with the wine.





(we loved the wine, I should add)

Dinner:

• Rajasthani style goat curry with lightly spiced vegetables
• Beef tenderloin with ginger, onion, and date chutney on mung bean and sesame seed rice pilaf with ground fennel curry

The beef was marvelous on its own. The sweetness of the chutney was just right. The goat? Best dish with the wine, in fact. I was pleased.

Conrad and I ate very very well. No dessert - we were well-contented. I took a cup of chai, and then next thing we know the wine director has brought us two small glasses of a sweet sparkling wine. Cheers! We shook his hand gratefully when we left, and you know we've got our eye on another meal there next trip west!