Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Dropped by Griffins (in the Hotel Vancouver, 900 West Georgia) on Tuesday evening with the Food Bloggers Meetup for their 50% off food special (only until November 30th). Special Dining Offers To celebrate Vancouver's 125th anniversary and 123 years since the opening of the original Hotel Vancouver on May 16th, 1888 - 900 West & Griffin's have some special features , including: $18.88 Lunch feature available in 900 West Lounge from 11:30 - 2:00pm - Menu changes daily Griffins $23 Three Course Dinner Menu*, based on seasonally available ingredients 50%* off food in Griffins - Sunday through Wednesday 4:30 - 6:00pm  * These offers are available until November 30th, 2011. Special menu price can not be combined with any other offers. As everything on the evening menu includes their gorgeous dessert buffet, this is actually a pretty fantastic deal. Even without this offer, considering you get access to the all-you-can-eat made-in-house dessert buffet, Griffins is a...

Like shoes?  Register here . The strangest things land in my e-mail inbox. This one actually sounds interesting -- if you're a girl, I guess. * * * Join Charisma Matters and Fashionista Bootcamp for an exclusive workshop with an image expert on your shoes and what it says about you! Let’s get together with Joyce Lau, the image expert. She is offering a workshop on shoes & what they say about you. And what is the best place to talk about shoes, and apply our knowledge? – A shoe store! It's called Town Shoes , and located in Pacific centre in downtown Vancouver. This is a private event that will be held after hours. I will try to find directions to the shoe store and will post it later. Men: You think it's about the size of your feet, but it's actually about the style of your shoe. What is yours saying about you? Women: Flats, stilettos, wedges and open-toes. What you wear is who you're going to attract. Men: You think it's about the size of y...

For the last day of the Chinese Restaurant dine-out event happening in November (1st to 18th) , I went to Fortune House Seafood Restaurant for their party-of-10 $300 set menu . Fortune House is pretty snazzy looking from the outside and seems quite popular every time I walk past it inside Metropolis at Metrotown . Inside, it's spacious but sort of typical-looking. Same as with just about every Chinese restaurant, expect to see staff of all levels pitching in everywhere. And don't expect fawning politeness from service staff -- no, not even the hostess who seats you. And honestly, if you don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, get a warm body who does to help you. Most of the time you can get by with something simple, but if it's anything more complicated than you showing up and asking for a table for two, you might have a scary time with the language barrier. For example, I had set up my dine-out night weeks in advance, and as interested parties signed up, I expanded...

Hi Everyone! Look what landed in my e-mail box today: 2-for-1 holiday drinks at Starbucks from November 17th to 20th, 2pm to 5pm ! Share holiday joy with a friend at a participating Starbucks store. November 17-20 from 2-5 p.m., when you buy one holiday drink, you'll get another one of equal or lesser value for free. Our most-beloved holiday beverages are here, including Peppermint Mocha , new Skinny Peppermint Mocha , Caramel Brulée Latte , Eggnog Latte and Gingerbread Latte .

Came back tonight from Cibo Trattoria in the Moda Hotel . Another overpriced meal. Excellent food mostly and deserving of the various awards it's garnered since opening in 2009, but the price tag was frightening. Here's the damage: $5 Sicilian Pannelle (3 triangles) $8 Crispy Pig's Trotters (3 pieces plus token coleslaw-like salad) $5 Fried Egg and Tuna Bottarga  Bruschetta $55 Truffle Quail (quail with some potato and, apparently, enough truffle to price it at $55) $24 Two glasses of white wine $8 Chocolate Nemesis "River Cafe" After tax it was $119.84 ! The Pannelle was delicate and interesting to try if you've never had it before. Fresh from the fryer, it was very cripsy on the outside and spiced enough to be salty and tasty all on its own. The inside was hot and creamy with some rosemary (?). Overall, definitely finger food and not for the ham-fisted as you'd just destroy it. Pick it up not too close to the end or the crust will just sn...

Vij's and the more casual eatery next door, Rangoli, have always been places on my list, but the daunting lineups bugged me. Just this past Friday night, I had a dinner booked with Nasha Indian Restaurant (through OpenTable ) but discovered the restaurant was actually CLOSED that evening -- despite the OpenTable booking. So my dining companion and I walked down Granville and decided to give Vij's a try even though it was pushing 7pm. The wait was an estimated 2 hours. We nipped over to Rangoli and accepted a ~30 minute wait instead. It was also awfully nice of them to bring out cassava (?) fries dusted with some salty/spicy powder and roti for nibbling while you're waiting. The menu at Rangoli is much smaller but adequate. The portions look small, but you'd be pleasantly surprised how filling they are -- just like in every Indian restaurant. Naan bread here is on the thicker side -- almost a quarter inch thick -- and can be more filling than you think. (You can s...

I'm not sure if you've read about it in the WestEnder or the Georgia Straight, but there's a Chinese Restaurant dine-out event happening in November (1st to 18th) . It's like Dine Out Vancouver, only geared towards groups of 4, 6, or 10. Last Friday I managed to pull together a few foodie buddies to go to Prince Chinese Seafood Restaurant (very handily close to Renfrew Skytrain Station. We were only a party of five, so we had to settle for this menu instead of the expanded menu for 10: Dinner Menu Set For Four to Six... $25 per person Seafood Soup Served in Fresh Whole Coconut Stir-fried B.C. Dungeness Crab and Eggplant with Amoy Premium Soy Sauce Stir-fried Diced Alberta Beef Tenderloin with Red and Yellow Bell Peppers Prince’s Tea-smoked Chicken Poached Choy Sum with Dry Shrimps and Garlic Nutritious Five Grains Fried Rice (serving by person) Passion Fruit Crystal Pudding Lots of plusses and minuses to the experience. If you've mostly done Dine Out...

Someone actually asked me that on Monday. I was on my way home on the Skytrain on Monday morning. A young woman got on and asked where the train was going. We talked a bit, and it turned out she really didn't know and didn't really have anywhere to go. She was apparently originally from Winnipeg. Admitted to physical and mental disability, although of what kind, I really didn't know at the time since some disabilities are not apparent, but still very real to the person. From what I could gather, for the short term at least she didn't have anywhere to go, and had nowhere to stay for the night. It was hard to say what sort of resources she had in her small bag, but I didn't pry. She also had curious difficulty holding onto a few free newspapers. It was unclear why, but she kept dropping them. Anyway, I suggested she find a payphone and call the Crisis Centre  to get some local resources. I told her that she could just call the operator and be connected for free....

Walked out of the Pan Pacific Vancouver on Saturday night with a $144.42 bill (before tip). Yoicks! Was it worth it? Yes, but for inobvious reasons. Anyway, here's how the bill (before 12% Harmonized Sales Tax) broke down: $9.50 one brandy alexander $11 one glass of wine $4.95 one peppermint tea $5.50 one mocha latte $98 two Italian Buffet The Saturday-only reservations-definitely-required Italian buffet features almost more types of ( made in-house ) desserts than hot and cold buffet items. Nothing particularly imaginative on the menu here. Quality is good considering it's a buffet -- which means the hot food sits in buffet servers and cold items sit exposed for way too long. This situation can't be helped and is a common malady of any buffet anywhere, so you must expect a deterioration in quality if you go even one hour later. Happily, the dessert selection of mostly light cakes and is generally unaffected by this, although ham-fisted diners may butcher a cak...