Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Until 2014-May-17, The Fish House in Stanley Park  is having a special 5-course Chef's Tasting Menu , priced at $85 per two persons. Celeriac Velouté - prawn and black truffle fritter Duck Terrine - Brome Lake duck, Sakura Farms pork, house-made preserves, moutard du monde Butter Poached Haida Gwaii Halibut and Frisée Salad - sweet peas, cherry tomato, butter-fried crouton, warm bacon vinaigrette Braised Beef Short Rib - 72 hour braised 8 oz boneless short rib, Dungeness crab and wild mushroom arancini, sweet crab bisque Layered Brownie - rich fudge brownie, dark chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache The Fish House is one of the few restaurants that still serve warm bread before a meal. You get a generous basket plus lobster oil mixed with black vinegar (in lieu of butter). The portions look kind of skimpy on each plate, but all taken together (especially if you aren't shy with the bread), it's a filling meal. Combined with great service, $85/2 is fairly good val

Last Friday I finally got myself down to  Fable . I hadn't prioritized it much before, but since MealShare.ca added them to their roster of contributing charities, I bumped it up my list as part of organizing outings to all Lower Mainland MealShare.ca restaurant partners. Fable a rather smallish and tight-feeling place, and because they don't have that many seats and therefore probably can't absorb a bunch of people no-showing on them, Fable has rather severe reservation restrictions on larger parties (6+). Before you book your big all-girls-get-together or whatever, you'd best call first and inquire about the limited-choice menu for larger tables as well as the refund policy on reservation deposits. Because it is a smaller restaurant, go for their second dinner seating at 8:30 PM if you can handle it -- That way, you won't get kicked out for eating slowly or lingering to chat with your friends because there's no third seating waiting behind you. Food

Compared with regular skinless hot dogs ,  Yves Veggie Cuisine Jumbo Veggie Dogs  have a very well-duplicated good look and feel to them, probably because they don't have to try hard to look like unprocessed meat. The taste is rather bland in comparison, but also less salty if you are watching your sodium. If you are going to use them just like hot dogs -- that is, put them in a long bun and smother the taste with condiments -- then this Yves vegan hot dog will give you the look and feel without significantly missing the taste. However, if you really like the distinctive slightly sweet taste of hot dogs, then you will definitely miss that here. Whatever you want to say about the preparation of hot dogs , it does produce a reasonably tasty product, especially when lightly pan fried. If you focus on the flavour of the dog itself, then Jumbo Veggie Dogs won't be a good substitute.