VanEats

Here's a photo of the front sign of Mario's Amato Gelato Cafe home of the wonderful Gelato that Barb and I both love.

A while ago we featured a news item about community kitchens. At work we recently purchased "Many Hands: Community Kitchens Share Their Best," a compilation of well tested recipes used by community kitchen groups in Vancouver.

My brother-in-law Ted comes to town approximately twice a year from Toronto on business. Most of the time, he stays at the Granville Island Hotel.

Last night we tried the restaurant attached to the hotel, The Dockside Brewing Company. It was a beautiful night so we started out at the bar which has a panaromic view of False Creek.

We then moved to the patio which is nicely set up for al fresco dining.

This weekend I visited Mario's Amato Cafe twice! Mario's Gelati has been a long time establishment in Vancouver serving, in my opinion, the best gelato and ice cream in town. And in the brief Vancouver summer, what could be more refreshing than a delicious scoop of authentic gelato?

Here's my review.

Last night, Barb and I went to the Velvet Cafe for the first time. And we had a great time!

We are so blessed to have another great restaurant within walking distance from where we live. The Velvet Cafe serves tasty Indian food in an intimate, cozy, small and well appointed room!

A great place to escape from the summer heat and the hustle and bustle of Broadway.

For our work get together yesterday, I bought some excellent pork chops, chicken sausage and lamb sausage from Jackson's Meats and as always they were very tasty!

Caterina Fake, a Vancouver based writer, weblogger and web designer, linked to our review of Vij's in 2000 as well as to an interesting discussion of its interior. Thanks Caterina! For a more up to date perspective on Vij's, check out our recent newsitem about Vij's from 2001.

To close off our Seattle stories from last weekend, while we were at Pike Place Market last Saturday, we tried the wonderful sweet and savoury goods at Piroshky Piroshky (1908 Pike Place Seattle, WA 98101 (206)-441-6068 piroshky@piroshkypiroshky.com). It's a small bakery run by Russian immigrants where everything is freshly prepared on premises.

Both the sweet and savoury piroshkys (which are like little rolls or pies) were delicious (nice light pastry and yummy fillings).