A few months ago, I had heard about the opening of a new diner-style breakfast spot being opened up by the owners of Cobre. The word of mouth has been pretty positive, so I thought I'd check it out. The menu offers a true diner breakfast experience with prices to match and the decor has most of the trappings of a classic diner with small, simple tables, a few large booths, a colourful decor palette and seating at the bar.

The first time I ever went to Deacon's Corner I was so appalled by the level of service (read: pitiful, atrocious and unorganized) I vowed never again to return. BUT last weekend we were looking for a place to eat in the morning and wanted to eat somewhere that was walking distance from my house and reasonably priced and we could think of few options that were both close and cheap. As the day grew older and the sun hotter, I felt my convictions about Deacon's Corner withering away. My hunger hastened the weakening of my resolve and I found myself standing in that familiar door way, waiting to be seated.

The 2009 B.C. Provincial Elections are being held at a time of global economic turmoil, which has left neither our country, nor our province unscathed. It's really no surprise then that recent polls have shown that the economy is the top issue of concern in this round of elections, with crime taking second place over health care. However, when I spoke to both the West End NDP and Green party candidates, decisive issues regarding housing, homelessness and infrastructure seemed to be the central issues surrounding their campaigns.

Last week I had a chance to sit down with Drina Read, the West End Green Party MLA candidate, who ran in the by-election last year and is running again to represent her party's principals, which she believes, "unites us."

At times, the political battlefield of our provincial politics can be a hard one to navigate. It's often difficult to get a sense of what a candidate's actual platform is or what sort of causes and what kind of politics they stand for. It requires a lot of reading, research or active face-to-face meetings to really determine whether or not a candidate is worth your vote.

I, myself, feel daunted by the task of becoming as fully informed a citizen as I should be and I won't deny that my own knowledge of municipal and provincial politics is dismal, to say the least. But, in an attempt to be a responsible and engaged citizen, I decided, after having encountered he and his volunteers on my block at least a few times a week, and after having seen his viral campaign video, to go and talk to my local West End NDP candidate, Spencer Herbert, about why I should vote for him.

Vancouver Fashion Week states on its website that, "Since its debut in 2000, Vancouver Fashion Week has ... [been] hailed as the West Coast's most prestigious industry event." Since my partner JP and I had never been, we attended the first night of VFW in anticipation. To organize an event like Vancouver Fashion Week is no small feat, and both JP and I acknowledge that there was a lot of hard work and enthusiasm put into building Vancouver Fashion Week as an event that has now, over the last nine years, become a staple of our city's fashion scene.

Vancouver Fashion Week is an event held to showcase new and established local and international designers who pay a fee to be part of the line up and benefit from the exposure and the coverage garnered by the VFW name.

Our experiences that night were mixed with our enthusiasm for the event and the designers, but tempered with our dismay at our points of interaction with unknowing and uninformed backstage staff who could not provide us with information regarding the main designers and distributors who were showcasing that night.

I don't want to be another person tooting the horn of Daniel Boulud's Bistro Moderne, but try eating here, and you too might share in this fate. The original DB Bistro Moderne in New York is said to have been a model for Rob Feenie's eponymous ex-restaurant, so it's no surprise that when Feenie's closed, the real deal came to replace it.

DB Bistro Moderne offers an interesting approach to casual cuisine because it plays off a balance between quality and comfort. Stefan Istel, the Chef de Cuisine at DB Bistro, stays true to the French culinary heritage that both he and Boulud share, but is inspired by the casual comfort of American dishes. Their menu seeks to bring the quality and complexity of French fine dining together with the familiarity and gratification of the American dinner palette.

If you're looking for a great place to eat Chinese style noodles at recession friendly prices, check out Sha-Lin Noodle House on Broadway at Cambie. I went there with two friends and we ordered two fried noodle dishes, one soup noodle dish, and green onion pancakes for under $30.

The best thing about Sha-Lin is that they make their noodles in house and curious on-lookers can watch the chefs pulling, pushing, dragging and cutting the noodle dough through the glass that separates the kitchen from the dining room. As you can probably guess, the names of the noodles are "pushing" noodles (a thick, udon size noodle), "dragging" noodles (skinny noodles), "cutting" noodles (wide, flat noodles) and "pulling" noodles, which I didn't have, but can guess are skinnier noodles not much different from the "dragging" noodles. I could be wrong with my guess so any one who knows can feel free to correct me.