Fishman the Grape

Fishman the Grape pt. 2.1 - Taylorwood Cab/Merlot Tasting
a wine blog

By Daniel Fishman
Eat Vancouver writer
Friday, June 29th, 2007

As promised, here is the rest of Post #2, about Thursday’s tasting at Taylorwood Wines in Yaletown. Taylorwood offers free tasting almost every Thursday and Sunday, check them out here. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately to some, they sell only BC wines. This week it was Cab/Merlot blends. This is probably my favorite catagory of wine, though I don’t think BC’s generally stack up well against those from France or California. One reason for this may be that most of these wines are referring to Cabernet Franc as opposed to the expected Cabernet Sauvignon that is the principal grape in many (though certainly not all) Cab/Merlot blends.

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Two BC Wines

Fishman the Grape pt. 2
a wine blog

By Daniel Fishman
Eat Vancouver writer
Friday, June 29th, 2007

Well, the wine blog is off to a roaring start, as I had a very interesting interview with Brent Hayman, sommelier at Raincity Grill, who was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to meet with me. I am planning on having that up for next week’s column.

In the meantime, the chairman and I tasted a few wines last night, so I thought I would put up a teaser (more to follow). One administrative note: I have decided to hold off on numerical ratings of any kind until I have had a chance to taste a lot more and see how consistent I am.

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Introducing: Fishman the Grape

Fishman the Grape pt. 1
a wine blog

By Daniel Fishman
Eat Vancouver writer
Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Well, we are always trying to introduce new features here at EatVancouver.net, but I am especially excited about this one. After a lot of talk, I have finally decided to kick-off my wine column, Fishman the Grape. The plan is to try to post a substantial (in terms of length, not value) column every Wednesday night—just in time for the weekend—and also to add random thoughts, comments, notices etc., anywhere else along the way.

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THREATDOWN

by Daniel Fishman
Eat Vancouver Writer
Sunday, June 24th, 2007

Well Vancouver diners, it’s that time again, time for us to keep you up to date on all the threats to enjoyable dining we are facing in Vancouver right now. I know you probably won’t be able to fall asleep tonight, but this is no time to back down. If we stop making up reasons to be afraid, then the terrorists win. So without further ado, let’s get on with it:

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Metro
Address: 200 Burrard St (map)
homepage

Metro Stationed
a news item

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver writer
Tuesday, June 21st, 2007

Word on the street, and by street I mean Opentable.com, is that Metro, the newest venture by Rare owners Brian Fowke and Tim Keller, is open and taking reservations. The following are the three things I know about Metro.

1. Tim Keller is a terrific front of house guy, so the service should be smooth, consistent, and pretty much everything you’d want it to be. Brian Fowke is an extremely talented chef, and so the food should be creative and well-executed. I had the pleasure of dining at Rare a few months ago and it proved an unforgettable night.

Side note: who’s going to be running Rare now that Keller and Fowke are
occupied elsewhere?

2. Opentable has the price range listed as $30 and under, which they say designates the price of a dinner with one drink and tip. They also list the dress code as casual. So, it sounds like Metro will be a fairly affordable and casual option, which is perfect for me considering I’m broke and poorly dressed. Well that’s to say by day my oafish alter-ego is broke and poorly dressed. By night, I am a super sophisticated food critic, entertaining young socialites in my Yaletown penthouse, while still finding time to fight crime and save Vancouver from the recent vampire scourge (because they hate sunny days).

3. The description from Keller explains the concept as, “classic techniques with the influences of Canada’s multicultural society and the bounty of our region’s farm, fields, forests and oceans presented in a contemporary style.” Sounds good, but then again, pretty much every new restaurant in Vancouver can be described the same way.

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The Eat Vancouver Map II

The Eat Vancouver Map Updated
a news item

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver writer
Tuesday, June 17th, 2007

The clock is ticking away on the first Summer Eating update, but the weather has turned into bullshit and shows no signs of relenting. To kill time, I’ve been working hard on updating the Eat Vancouver Map. After finally adding all of the restaurants we have covered to it, I got a comment from sexy Eat Vancouver reader Maggie, who suggested I make use of the various icons google provides so that the map is more user friendly. A hell of a suggestion.

Unfortunately the icons aren’t all particularly useful for a food map, but I developed a rough classification system. It’s still in the works however, and I’m still very open to comments.

Red balloon: Chinese
Purple Balloon: Italian
Pink Balloon: Modern Canadian
Light Blue Balloon: Japanese
Yellow Balloon: Various East Asian
Green Balloon: Mexican/ Central/South American
Burger and Soda: Various pub-diner-quick eats
Fish: Seafood focused
Green arrow and star: Phodown/Vietnamese

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Introducing: The Summer Eatin’ Series

by Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver Writer
Friday, June 8th, 2007

“Here comes the summertime, the feeling’s in the air.
I remember cigarettes, tube socks, sun burns and long blond hair.
Here comes the summertime, yeah it’s coming soon.
I remember living upstairs, drinking iced-tea and swimming pools.”
-Josh Rouse, Summertime

In case you’ve been holed up in some Point Grey-area “garden suite” for the past couple of weeks, the weather in Vancouver has gone from miserable to nearly bearable to halfway decent more times than Paris Hilton has been in and out of prison. As summer unpacks its bags and decides to stay a while, things can only get better. Here at Eat Vancouver, what interests us most about summer is the food. But what exactly defines summer eats? Surely it’s different for each person, but to me it’s light, refreshing, perhaps grilled, and hopefully al fresco. This summer, we want to find the best summer eats in and around Vancouver.

To document our quest for the best of summer eatin’, we’ve created this new Summer Eatin’ series. to seek out and review Vancouver’s summer eats in an attempt to identify the best of the best. Be it burgers (especially relevant given the closure of the beachside Vera’s), hot dogs, sweet patios, margaritas, or mojitos, let us know about places we should check out, by visiting our new message board, the Mess Hall, under the discussion related to Summer Eatin’.

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