Pacific Palate, Jan. 17/06 Dine Out Vancouver

If you’re looking for the Italian Express cookbook contest, click here.  For the next few weeks you’ll find everything you need from my various radio shows posted here instead of my website while my webmaster is away.  Oh, and my wife Ramona has a new blog called The Lasagna Project.  Check it out.

Pacific Palate for January 17/06  Dine Out Vancouver 

This morning’s show featured a preview of the wildly popular Dine Out Vancouver concept.  The official duration of the promotion is January 20th to February 4th, but some restaurants have begun their menus already and others will extend past the 4th.  To find out which restaurants are participating, visit the Tourism Vancouver website. The listings will also tell you which restaurants are still accepting reservations, and have menu information as well.  For help with some restaurants that have live, on-line reservations, visit OpenTable.com and check for Vancouver restaurants.

I was lucky enough to do a couple of previews for Dine Out Vancouver.   One of my favourite dishes was found at Umberto’s Circolo, a divine duck breast coated in five-spice rub and served with mixed stonefruit chutney and a truffled bread and butter pudding.  Of course I stole tastes of my dining companions’ plates and can highly recommend the sablefish and veal medallions.

Over at Nu, I had two dishes that rank among the best restaurant courses I’ve had in months.  My first course was a salad of goat cheese, frisee and beets topped with walnuts.  The beets were sliced so thinly they just melted into my mouth.

And then there was the braised duck legs with spinach and white beans, a very comforting cassoulet-style dish that really hit the spot on a very damp and dreary Vancouver evening.  This dish is a very generous serving, and along with the salad or mushroom soup starter and your dessert, is an incredible bargain at $25.  Spend $17.50 more and you get a trio of wine pairings as well.