VanEats

Today we finally had brunch at Gramercy Grill. It was very good. We had French toast stuffed with cream cheese with a fruit compote and an omlette with smoked chicken and cheese, a coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice for $25. Everything was good and tasty! Highly recommended.

On our first date, Barb and I tried to go to Cuu Long and it was closed!

We went back and the rest is history :-) !

Cuu Long is cheap and has flavourful Vietnamese food. It's not big on ambiance but the food more than makes up for it! Tonight we had #26, "Salad roll with meat and Shrimp" or "Goi cuon" for $4 and "Grilled pork & spring roll over vermicelli cakes/assorted vegetables", or "Banh hoi thit nuong, cha gio" #41 for $9.

The Cookshop at City Square Shopping Centre (the same midtown Vancouver mall where Safari Pies is located) 3-555 West 12th Avenue (at Cambie), telephone 604 873 5683 has an excellent and extensive selection of cooking supplies. We like their stuff so much that it's part of our wedding registry!

As a bonus for registering there, we get 2 gift certificates for their cooking classes. Luckily they expire in Feb 2002 so we have plenty of time.

My best friend and best man, Roël, just got back yesterday from Umberto's cooking school in Tuscany! And his photos from Umberto's school are fantastic! They make me want to go to Italy tomorrow!

Luckily, we will be there in early October as part of Mama Margaret's tour and also for a one day class with Judy Witts of Divina Cucina! Needless to say we will file a full report here!

Amarcord is the name of a Fellini film and also a wonderful Italian restaurant in Yaletown.

One of the great things about getting married is all the gifts that you get :-) ! For their gift, David and Jeanne graciously treated us to dinner at Amarcord.

It was our first meal at Amarcord, but David and Jeanne are regulars. We didn't try any of the pastas but they sounded fantastic and most were around $15.

The mains were about $19-$27 average with lobster and crab and other seafood costing more.

Our friend David Powell gave me his mum's recipe for traditional chocolate pots de creme. It sounds delicious (quote from David: "This dessert is bliss!") and easy! Thanks, David! I'll have to give this a try!

Today's lucky dip was Jugo Juice (warning website has gratuitous use of Flash) on Hornby at Nelson (995 Hornby Street). I had the Mango Magic smoothie with an energy boost! Just the thing I needed to energize my downtown shopping chores. Tons of mango and good to the last drop!

This reminded me of the smoothie bars that Greg and Yalan always take me in San Francisco!

Last night, Barb and I had a fine meal at the Raga Restaurant on Broadway. Yet another good restaurant within walking distance from where we live!

The highlight of the meal was the tandoori chicken and the Paneer Vindaloo (cheese in a hot chili sauce which was yummy!). In addition to this we had the Punjabi Fruit Chat (banana, apple, and potato with tamarind and spices), the Raga Special (tandori chicken with lamb curry and dal and dessert) and a beer all for $41.