VanEats

Thank goodness and long overdue!

From The Way We Eat Now:

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Tom Peterson, one of our readers, wrote in (thanks!) to say that walk-in reservations are no longer accepted at the French Laundry. I will update our French Laundry Part 3 soon. Looks like the only way to get reservations (other than through the painful manual phone and the online process) is through a local concierge. This is not good. There has got to be a better way that keeps both customers and the restaurant happy.

If my sense of location is correct, Tamarind Bistro is replacing the Picasso cafe on Broadway a bit east of Burrard. And it's opening soon.

If anybody has any further info, please leave a comment. In the meantime, here's a photo:

A bit west of Burrard on Broadway (which takes the place of 9th avenue), I noticed that 9th Avenue Grill is opening soon.

If anybody has any further info, please leave a comment. In the meantime, here's a photo:

Urban Bites (16th and Arbutus, in the same mall as the Ridge, 604 733-2483) fills a definite niche in the Kits area. Gourmet food for eat in, takeout or free (!) delivery within 3 km radius. Much better in our humble opinion than the scores of fast food options that abound.

Just the thing for a stressed out couple of new parents like ourselves.

From the following photo, it appears that the Gastown Curry and Grill (which is supposed to open today according to an ad in the Georgia Straight) is replacing Matsu at the foot of Cambie in Gastown.

We finally tried the takeaway curries at Vij's Rangoli.

And we can happily report that the Raw Sagar, Garlic and Garam Masala Beef Curry ($8.00) and the Garnet Yam and Green Chili Dumplings ($6.50) dipped in the Creamy Tomato and Onion Curry ($6.00) as per Vij's personal recommendations that night were all excellent.

My favourite was the beef curry: flavourful, not spicy with tender chunks of beef. Mmmm. I just love the way the beef works so well with the spicing in this dish

Top writes:

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Hi,

I'll be visiting Vancouver from Portland, Oregon end of this month. Onething I've been dying to find is a decent Teochew porridge place, ala whatyou find in Singapore or Malaysia.

Does anyone have a recommendation for such a place?

Thank

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Please leave a comment if you know of such a place.

Today, I discovered Peter Hertzmann's A la carte via an email from Jeff MacIntyre.

All I can say is wow! Peter like Barb and I, is waisik. But in addition to Chinese food, he is also obsessed with French food.

At $6 a pound, Jay Springs Lambs ground lamb is not cheap but boy is it worth it. Juicy, flavourful and not gamey. Mmm, they make beautiful burgers. Worth checking them out the next time they are at the market which is scheduled for June 5 at the East Van Farmers market.