The best thing I had today

[eatrustic]

Sometimes there's only one thing that stands out in a meal or your daily food and drink experience and other than twittering it out it's hard to give it it's due. So, I thought why not a thread on just one thing? It could be just the appetizer in a meal, a cookie, amazing whiskey sour etc....but only one great thing.

To start off:

The Bacon and Egg Udon served at Harvest on Union. A rainy, dreary Fall day, and getting a bowl of Harvest's B and E Udon (brunch only) made my day. A rich, homemade broth with two perfectly poached free range eggs, a couple of strips of bacon on top and of course the noodles and a few greens thrown in.
All this while sitting in a cozy little shop. Man, was I happy!

[Jzone]

Did Wildebeest for brunch and had the scrambled eggs and bone marrow with parsley salad as well as the special, a tourtiere with beef toungue, foie gras and ham. OMG.

Salad no dressing for dinner lol

[emtrev]

I had the best slice of cake in the city: The Black Rook on East Hastings near Victoria

[grayelf]

Duck confit with peppercorn sauce from Argo. Insanely tasty, and only $12.50.

[pusherman]

Argh! That place is walking distance from my house, but because I work across town I *never* get to go. Why won't they open for dinner? They taunt me...

[grayelf]

I don't think they've ever opened for dinner, but they did have a go at breaky/lunch Saturday service a couple years ago. Didn't last long, alas. A family runs it so I guess they want their weekends, don't blame 'em. Mebbe give 'em a try if you take a personal day? They post their menu for the day online at 11 am so you can check to see if the confit is happening. I've tried other "gourmet" dishes there and they are tasty but the confit is the thing.

[eatrustic]

I wonder if they won't rethink their hours a bit as the whole area is filling up with condos and a nice dinner/diner would be a fine thing.
Depends on what the career arc of the family is I suppose. I remember going there for greasy breakfasts in the late seventies when I worked at the Swedish steel warehouse right beside it so if it's the same folks or even their kids.....

[eatrustic]

The Rum and Eggnog at PourHouse in Gastown.
Made (of course) from scratch for every eggnog! (I'd figured that they would have made up a base but eggs were cracked for each one and it was awesome -and powerful.

Definitely not your grandmother's eggnog!

[fmed]

It's has been a while since I last had this: the "Spicy Roll" from Le Do. A spring roll (cha gio) wrapped in a salad roll (goi cuon). The best of both worlds!

[eatrustic]

Without a doubt the BTIHT was my first Vacherin Mont D'Or of the season from Les Amis. Perfectly ripe and runny and sooo good. (If freakishly expensive).
Luckily you can buy it by the slice so just like Iberico Ham a little piece of luxury doesn't hurt as much as you would think if you get enough for a couple of healthy tasters..

[grayelf]

Duck confit leg from Oyama, pan fried to max out on ducky crispness. Cassoulet not as transcendent as I'd hoped, a bit heavy on cloves and light on beans.

[grayelf]

Thought I should update this post because I *froze* a whole Oyama cassoulet and two duck legs that same day back in November and tonight I busted them out. Only this time I served them with a generous side of steamed veg and meted the same amount of food (plus the veggies) out to four people instead of two. Success! The rich stuff was much better in the smaller portions and counterpointed by the plain vegetables. I daresay that the cassoulet tasted better after its time in the deep freeze, hearsay, perhaps but 'twas true.

[eatrustic]

Today it's definitely Moccia-Urbani Fig Toscano Salami. Bought it on spec while picking up some cheese from Les Amis and it's delicious with a subtle fig taste and perfectly balanced spices with a porky punch.

Any other recs from their lineup?

[LotusRapper]

For yesterday it was the pulled pork sandwich (with garlic lime fries) and my friend's Yucatan sausage @ Falconetti's. The only downside of my PPS was a slice of melted cheddar which didn't belong there (but I shoulda noticed it in the menu) and the bun halves not substantial enough to keep their integrity to the wet sauce.

[KGill]

For dinner this evening, I had cassoulet from Oyama, with duck confit and duck truffle sausage. Nary a vegetable in sight :) It was incredibly rich, flavourful, and filling - one of the best meals I've eaten in months. There might be bloodshed over the leftovers.

[grayelf]

Nice preview of the cassoulet I've preordered from Oyama for today, KGill. Drooling... And veggies are overrated ;-).

[LotusRapper]

The animals you eat ate veggies, so there, it's already in there ;-)

[Quattrociocchi]

I wish they had a "like" button....

[geekmom]

Oh, I think there are some beans in the cassoulet, right? Those definitely qualify as veggies.

I managed to stop myself from buying cassoulet when I was at Oyama yesterday, but it was tough! Too much food in the fridge at the moment.

[KGill]

Oh, my cassoulet never made it into the fridge: out of the car, into the oven, onto the plates! No leftovers, either - dang if the teenager didn't decide to have some, too!

[geekmom]

Haha, sounds like it was a real hit! I will probably plan to make a cassoulet sometime this winter (I do have a bean pot whose purchase I still need to justify!) when I have used up a bit more of the insane amount of food that is in my house...

[Peter Rodgers]

Not quite today, but here are a couple of notable items:

1. The "fried chicken" at Ho Yuen Kee. Arguably, the best we've ever had.

2. The scallop appetizer at Wildebeest. For that matter, everything we tried was excellent (the mortadella salad, the mentioned scallops, the pork jowl and the quail).

[waver]

I had a great chive-stuffed pancake at the new Taiwanese noodle place (Chef Hung?) at UBC Westbrook Village. Can't comment on the noodles as I think I ordered poorly, but the pancake was great: crisp on the outside and loaded with chives and garlic on the inside.

[LotusRapper]

In the village or in the basement food court of the University Plaza building (where McDonald's is) ?

[waver]

In the Wesbrook Village, the new development near Save-On Foods.

[LotusRapper]

Thanks Waver :-) Guess in my '80s mindset I keep forgetting there's anything else other than the original village !

[waver]

Well at least you knew there was a MacDonald's in the Village. There certainly wasn't in "my day."

[LotusRapper]

Oh trust me, McD wasn't there in my days. If you'd remember the old Bus Stop Cafe (btwn old Math Bldg and Commerce Bldg), B & C lots, the Barn Cafe, Yum Yums, etc .... that was my days ;-)

[Georgia Strait]

and the cinnamon buns in that big coffee shop in what i think was geography building? kind of at the north end of the main mall - on the west side toward some dorms - i get very confused out there now - it looks like a corporate campus city ; (

do they still make those cinnamon buns?

[LotusRapper]

That should be the old Bus Stop Cafe (where a White Spot is now):

http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/search/collection/arphotos/searchterm/Bus%20Stop%20Coffee%20Shop/mode/exact

Dunno about the cinnamon buns, but now that you asked I'm totally curious. Used to practically live on that ..... $1.25 or so plus a large coffee packed 'nuff sugar and caffeine to last me the 8-hr day.

And don't get me started on the ponderosa cake !

http://www.adrianliem.ca/2008/02/15/u...

[FAM04]

Im couple of days late but I was lucky enough to attend Gold Medal Plates on Friday. Wow was there some excellent food. Standout was the winning dish by Mark Filatow of Waterfront Wines in Kelowna. Beautiful Bar M Ranch lamb loin, belly and neck (sausage) with a potato croquette. Great execution and seasoning with clean flavours. I really liked the lack of sauce and found the neck sausage fattiness and spice complimented the lamb beautifully.

[chloebell]

eatrustic - I want your dish!!!!!

I had a little bit of White Burgundy left over from last night, popped an acorn squash in the oven, EVOO, kosher salt, cumin, chili powder - a nice little lunch while my 4-legged girls napped. (not much to eat in the kitchen since T'giving is the star of the week and my frig is full)

[flowbee]

Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Wild Ale. Amazingly fruity and yeasty IPA, tasty and dangerous at 8.8% ABV.

[vandan]

Where might you have bought such a beautiful tasting thing,and how much $$ was it ?

[flowbee]

They have it at some BC Liquor Stores:

http://www.bcliquorstores.com/product...

The listing on the website shows Lucky 13 but that was the old Lagunitas seasonal. It's actually Little Sumpin' Wild now. I saw a bunch at the one at Bute and Alberni, for example.

Also available at Brewery Creek.

[yuyu]

I've only ever seen it at Liberty on Commerical, Legacy in Olympic Village and O'hares, a tiny pub/liquor store in Richmond..I love that beer!

[vandan]

Had one last nighf verh tasty and thankfully didn't taste like it was 8.8%

[peter.v]

Was downtown at Chapters drooling over various food books and decided to walk down Robson to Jinya for some ramen. Had the black garlic tonkotsu ramen and was very impressed. Pretty incredible flavor and in my mind, preferable to the toroniku at Santouka in terms of top ramen bowls in the city. Especially when the price difference is considered ($10.75 for the Jinya black ramen, $16 for the toroniku at Santouka).

[fmed]

I love that Black Ramen. I had it at least once a week for the last couple of years now. It has over time become my favourite bowl of ramen in town.

[gnashingshitfactory]

Pineapple..on sale.. locally (Richmond) 2 for $5.00
Cut & quarter it..
Dog drools until she gets 50% of what I eat ;-P..

[grayelf]

Bahn xeo at Mui Ngo Gai. Seconded closely by the thit kho to.

[queueueuq]

I made a batch of sea salt caramels (regular fleur de sel inside, topped with sel gris). Oh god. I'm an absolute masochist when it comes to testing my own willpower.

[LotusRapper]

Irish Stew, I made early afternoon. Just felt like one of those days, some hearty meaty thick tucker that stick to yer ribs :-D

[DBinNOLA]

Fresh beets cooked and chilled for a beet salad, fresh beet greens cooked with bacon and onion, served over jalapeno corn bread. All cooked by me! Best meal I have cooked this month.

[vandan]

Tri tip (medium rare) steak and eggs cooked lovinging for and by moi