Thanks for all the recommendations. I actually live in Vancouver but certainly on my next trip to TO, I'll be sure to check all these places out. My craving for morcilla has finally been satisfied here in Vancouver with Oyama Sausage Co. on Granville Island. They also make a great boudin noir there.

I think you might be thinking of Moccia Urbani at 2276 E. Hastings. Their stuff is wonderful!

Another option I don't see mentioned so far..... the John M.S. Lecky UBC Boathouse in Richmond. It's a lovely modern stucture right on the water.
http://www.ubcboathouse.com/event-hal...

WOW...sounds like my sushi making skills pale in comparison to you both. I may have to take if up a notch now....:-).

Thanks for the suggestion, grayelf. I wasn't sure if it had to be wooden so that the extra vinegar would get absorbed. Are you talking about one of those tiny hand-held electric fans that people use on their faces?

Thanks for the hint...:-).

Asia Market in Chinatown at 265 E. Hastings also has an extensive selection of these items.

Famous Foods should have some.....I'm sure I've seen Bob's Red Mills brand there.

Bob Mac, I look forward to reading your posts each year. I did follow your advise and hit the Beaches Grocery on our last day. They did have lovely looking chanterelles at $10.99/lb picked by local pickers, they said. Alas, we had no kitchen at Weigh West. Black Rock had a full kitchen and they would have been great pan fried in the morning if we had them a few days earlier!!! Next time....:-)

Just back from a weekend in Ucluelet/Tofino. We spent the first two nights at the Blackrock Oceanfront resort which was a beautiful place with rooms looking out directly on the ocean. The Wild Pacific Trail is right at your doorstep. For our third night we drove up to Tofino and stayed at the Weigh West Resort....more dated but very convenient. Walking along Chesterman Beach was a highlight. Now for the food....:-). As we arrived quite late on Friday, our only option was the appy menu at the Float Lounge at Blackrock. It apparently shares the same kitchen as the Fetch Restaurant. I'm not sure if it's because we arrived as the kitchen was closing, but our food was served luckwarm. We shared the Duck Confit Poutine, the Pemberton Beef Sliders and the Crispy Calamari. The beef sliders were very tasty but the other two dishes definitely suffered from lack of freshness. The beef sliders did go nicely with some dark chocolate porter ale.

The next night we went to Norwood's for dinner. We shared the Grilled Pacific Octopus and Seared Baja Scallop on Truffle Potato Puree, Sweet Ginger Chili Sauce, Leek Hay and Micro Greens....delicious. The octopus was perfectly tender with a nice char and the scallop (2) was large and beautifully seared. Next up was the Sticky Braised Pemberton Meadows Short Rib with Kennebec Fries. These were very tender but perhaps a bit too sweet for our tastes. Finally, we shared the catch of the day which was a prociutto wrapped ling cod with a quinoa side. This was well executed but maybe ling cod is just not my favorite fish as I was a little underwhelmed with the dish. For dessert we headed back to Fetch and had the bread pudding with Bourbon sauce and pecans...quite nice.

The next day we headed up to Tofino. I debated between lunch at Tacofino or SOBO. As Tacofino is here in Vancouver now (haven't had a chance to try them yet though), we opted to go to SOBO. We had the signature polenta fries which was perfectly crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. We also had the special beef brisket sandwich (wasn't keen on the flavoring for the bisket) and the killer fish tacos. I remember having fish tacos from the Feastro truck on the sunshine coast last year and unfortunately, the one here at SOBO paled in comparison....too much chopped up fruit I thought . For dinner, we went to the Spotted Bear Bistro. We shared the tuna tartare appetizer which was served in a jar with an avacado cream puree on top. The tartare was perfectly seasoned. It had a hint of anchovy flavouring which might have come from some Vietnamese fish sauce. It was delicious served with some toasted baguette slices. Next up we had the shepherd's pie made with slow-cooked lamb shoulder, creamed peas and a mashed potato topping....best I've had in long time!! We also had the pasta which was the slow cooked beef short ribs with tomato chillies, arugula, pappardelle and fresh grana padano. I didn't enjoy the flavors here....pappardelle too thick and sauce too runny. The banana bread pudding french toast for dessert was delicious though. I believe this is also on their brunch menu.

Was tempted to go out on a wild mushroom forage as I've heard the area is prime for chanterelles and pine mushrooms.....alas, not enough time and I'm not so confident of my mushroom identification skills!!

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Spotted Bear Bistro
120 Fourth, Tofino, BC V0R2Z0, CA

Thien Kim on Nanaimo also uses it in their bum mam (seafood vermicelli in pickled fish broth)....sounds wierd but is absolutely delicious. It comes on a side plate with other garnishings that you add to the soup just before eating.

Regarding the vitamix, there are two containers available. The original is a wet mixer but more recently, there is a dry mixer available for just the purpose of grinding grains. Vitamix had a demo of this about a year ago at Costco. I got taking up with it and purchased it thinking I would be making all these delicious breads. I'm more of a cook that a baker though and sadly, it has yet to be used. I have high hopes for it though when I get motivated enough.

I believe they do sell biltong. I haven't tried them but I've heard them talking to other customers about the products. They are very friendly and wouldn't be surprised if they are the same people.

My last attempt at making sushi was quite positive with ingredients bought from Fujiya in Vancouver and Black Ocean Seafood in Richmond. The later has a great selection of frozen sashimi grade seafood of all kinds. The sushi rice I bought at Fujiya was Temaki Gold and was very good. One thing I wish I had was a proper wooden sushi rice mixing bowl. I used just a wooden salad bowl but it didn't have enough surface area.
Besides, salmon and tuna, unagi is also an easy thing to find. It comes prepared and all you have to do is throw it in the oven and then cut it up into desirable pieces. Fish roe is also an easy thing to find as decoration. For spicy tuna rolls, I chopped up the tuna and mixed it with a combination of japanese mayo in the squeeze bottle and srichacha chilli sauce. I'd like to find a better recipe for a spicy tuna marinade though as it tasted a bit ordinary. I've had much better at some of the better sushi bars here in town. I'm not sure what the secret ingredient is. Another interesting marinade for the fish is japanese ponzu sauce which has a citus flavour.

Cafe Regalade on W. 4th also does a great breakfast/brunch! The yogurt with fruit compote is delicious as is the Toulouse cassoulet.

My favorite butchers are at Supreme Meats in Burnaby (close to 1st and Boundary)
1725 MacDonald Ave
Burnaby, BC V5C 4P3
(604) 299-0541
It's runs by two chinese brothers from South Africa. They have the best selection of pork products that I've seen and their prices and quality are great. Recently, they've been stocking flatiron steak which is a favorite of mine if you don't mind trimming it yourself. Last time, I asked them for beef brisket. They brought out from the back a whole trimmed beef brisket (about 8lbs) for me. I think it was $2.79/lb. It was amazing....half I made into a delicious beef rendang curry and the other half I made Jaime Oliver's steak and guiness pie. This cut is perfect for stews and anything that requires braising.

This great to know as I'm one of the lucky ones that lives in Coquitlam...;-). We usually frequent Sushi Bar Shyun in Poco which is run by a husband and wife Japanese couple but it's good to know there is now another option in the area.....will be trying it soon!!

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Sushi Bar Shyun
2063 Lougheed Hwy, Port Coquitlam, BC V3B1A7, CA

Sounds like a plan....we can discuss it at the pizza crawl tomorrow.

This past week, I had two great group dinners at Tableau Bar and Bistro in the Loden Hotel and Hawksworth in the Hotel Georgia. Tableau provided a lovely private room for 16 people that was part of the restaurant with a set menu for $55/person. There was a choice of three appys, three mains, and two desserts. The room was great but I think you are paying a bit of a premium as the a la carte prices in the restaurant don't seem to add up to so much. For Hawksworth, we decided to sit in the restaurant as it was just 8 people. Here we were able to order off the regular menu. For all groups larger than 10, they have an abbreviated menu at two price points, $52 and $60 again with three choices in each appy/main/dessert. The cost reflected the a la carte price point. They have private rooms that I guess they use from the hotel but there is a mimimum spend for the rooms which would put you over budget. You would also lose the ambiance of the restaurant. For both our meals, when the wine, tax and tip were added, they total came to about $120/person. The restaurant at Tableau was low key as I guess it's in a less busy area of downtown but we were in the private room so that didn't really matter. Hawksworth was definitely trendy, hip and happening but also very loud. I liked the menu at Hawksworth better. Tableau has more of a French bistro lean.

Another food blogger that I met at a Chowtimes dinner told me about this place too.....
http://www.coryroan.com/world-eating/...
I believe this was the original location of a restaurant called Noor Mahal (not related to the current one) many years ago (maybe 15 or 20 years ago)....it used to be one of the only places in Vancouver back then that served dosas. The dosas were very good. It closed down a while back and there have been several Indian restaurants in that location since. It's good to hear the current restaurant in that location is serving good dosas again!!

There is a Goan Cultural Association here in Vancouver. At the functions which I used to go to as a kid, most of the food was catered by private individuals. I believe this is still the case and there are several known individuals in the community that now cater the events. When I want a good fix of Goan food though, I usually head to my sister-in-law's place. She goes to Goa yearly and brings back all the various masalas to recreate the various dishes. She's also in the process of publishing a cookbook dedicated to Goan cuisine. It really is very unique in my opinion, especially our sweets.
I believe Vij's has had Goan dishes on his menu at some point also.

I believe it was your blog where I got the recommendation for Area 31. Your meal sounded and looked delicious. I think we might do lunch there and then head to the festivities at Coconut Grove in the evening. From the website, it looks like they'll have all the best food trucks there.

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Area 31
270 Biscayne Blvd Way, Miami, FL 33131

Any thoughts on Area 31 which appears to be open on July 4th?

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Area 31
270 Biscayne Blvd Way, Miami, FL 33131

Thanks for the suggestions......Crumbs on Parchment looks great! Morgan's doesn't seem to be open for breakfast. We're from Vancouver and Japanese is a real forte here so I'm leaning towards Sustain or Atlamare at this point.

On the website, Cafe Sharuku looks like it's open for lunch.

Hi there,

My husband and I will be visiting Florida from July 3-10. We will be arriving Maimi at noon on Sunday. I have booked brunch at Michael's Genuine Food. For dinner, I am debating between Michy's, Sra Martinez, Altamare and Sustain. All the menus here look good so I'm having a tough time choosing. Food is of utmost importance so maybe something to contrast the brunch would be nice. July 4 is a tough day as the above restuarants are closed. We've decided to go the festivities at Coconut Grove in the evening where there will be food trucks. I'm interested in trying the fish sandwich from The Fish Box. I'm hoping for some suggestions for lunch that day.

Tuesday we have an all day tour to the Everglades but we'll have time for a good breakfast....maybe Enriqueta's sandwich shop. We'll arrive back in Miami quite late - 10-11pm so I'm looking for a late night place....was thinking of Sugarcane or Cafe Versailles but other suggestions would be appreciated.

Wednesday, we'll be driving up the coast to Melbourne and we were thinking of stopping at Cafe Sharuku in Ft Lauderdale for lunch.

Thanks for your help!

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Michy's
6927 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33138

Sra Martinez
4000 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL

Several years back, I took part in the MS Bike Tour Cowichan Valley Grape Escapes. It was a great twist on fundraising.....a culinary/wine tour through the Cowichan Valle on a bike. The course is all set out for you. It occurs yearly in August and if you go to the MS Website the route is outlined which basically highlights all the best places to visit. You can access the information here

http://www.cowichanvalleygrapeescape.com/day-1-points-interest

http://www.cowichanvalleygrapeescape.com/day-2-points-interest

http://www.cowichanvalleygrapeescape....

I loved the area so much after this trip that a couple of years ago I took my husband for a culinary tour of the area. We went for a three night getaway in August. We stayed at the Stone Wood Inn in the North Cowichan area which was amazing. They had a beautiful swimming pond built right into the property and the breakfasts were a real highlight to our day. We went kayaking for a day to Maple Bay through Wilderness Kayaking and there is a nice restaurant there called Grapevine on the Bay. Don't miss the farmer's market in Duncan on Saturday. For other dinners we went to Amuse Bistro in Shawnigan Lake and The Masthead in Cowichan Bay, both highly recommended. A nice day trip is a hike along the Cowichan River bed. We also went to the Sunday lunch at the Fairburn Culinary farm served family style on their patio which was quite nice though a bit on the pricey side.

Sooke Harbour House is beautiful. My sister got married there several years ago but is quite a trek from the Cowichan valley. You might want to venture a bit north of the Cowichan Valley to Chemainus. They have a very nice theatre there and I remember going to a lovely place for high tea there called The Twisted Sisters Tearoom.

There are two places that I usually go to get my Portugese supplies......
Universal Bakery at 3815 Rupert St (they also have great Pasties de Nata)
Latin Supermarket at 1680 E. 13th
The farinheira sausages are also very tasty, just panfried with some scrambled eggs.

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Universal Bakery
3815 Rupert St, Vancouver, BC V5R2G7, CA

Was just in Victoria on the weekend and I can add Ulla to the list. Everything we tried was delicious. We also stopped by the Wildfire bakery which would be a good lunch option.

The closest I've come to the boudin noir is the morcela (a Portugese Blood sausage) from several of the Portugese shops in Vancouver. I was on a morcilla hunt last fall which lead me to Oyama. I bought a big supply of bourdin noir and morcilla from Oyama at Christmas. It freezes well. It was my first time trying boudin noir and his version was even better that the morcilla. The Portugese morcela is from a supplier in Toronto and is more similar to the Spanish morcilla.