VanEats

In much the same way as I am obsessed with Ma Po Tofu, Robin (my friend David's best friend's wife from Berkeley) is obsessed with Chicken Fried Rice with Salty Fish. Robin is so obsessed that she carries around the Chinese characters for this dish because sometimes Chinese people won't serve it to her thinking that a non-Chinese person would not like the dish!

Hmmm maybe I should do that with Ma Po Tofu! Luckily today we were able to give Robin a nice fix of Chicken Fried Rice with Salty Fish at Spicy Court.

Last Saturday our friend, Mark, came over for an Italian dinner. For our primo I cooked mushroom risotto. I developed this recipe based on a lesson we learned with Roberto, executive chef at Il Silene in Pescina.

For this recipe, you can use any combination of fresh mushrooms. You can also throw in dried mushrooms that have been soaked in warm water for 15 minutes. Strain the soaking liquid to remove and sand and add it to the risotto while cooking.

Spicy Steve is a local South East Asian food expert and celebrity who has a TV show and gives cooking classes. I've never seen the show but his Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian recipes look fabulous. Check it out!

I found this link in our referrals log. It's from aptrentals.net whose tagline is "Vancouver's LARGEST apartment rental guide" and their link text to us is "Vancouver Restaurant Guide". Wow what a compliment! Please don't forget that in addition to restaurant reviews we also have recipes and lots of other stuff. Thanks!

Here are more details that Ann sent to us about the Thai Loy Krathong festival on the 10th that we promised yesterday:

• It is sponsored by the Friends of Thailand Society, whose byline is "a non-profit educational society dedicated to helping Canadians understand and apreciate Thai culture and society."
• It features a concert by the Chiang Mai musical troupe, Lai Muang, who are renowned for reviving authentic Lan Na music.
• There will be a Thai welcome dance.
• There will be demonstrations of Thai food preparation and making Krathongs.

At dinner on Friday, we met Walter's Thai friend Ann who told us that there will be a Loy Krathong Festival (Executive summary: Loy means to send adrift, and Krathong means: a little basket-like boat containing small flowers and other offerings suitable for the water spirits and in Thailand during this festival, people make krathongs and set them loose!

I have added a search function for VanEats on the lower right hand corner.

It will take a day or two for this function to start working because sites on our server are only indexed once a day. If searching is not working by November 1st, please let us know.

To continue our London food photo tour from yesterday, here's a picture of the Chana Dabal Roti from the wonderful and inexpensive Masala Zone restaurant that Barb mentioned in her London 2001 Highlights.