Wanderlust and Words

Saskatoon is a fabulous place to live, but I do wish there were some vegetarian restaurants or even more vegetarian options on the restaurant menus. Some restaurants have been offering the same token vegetarian main course for years! So I love visiting Vancouver, and British Columbia in general, because I have so many more food options. Not only are there vegetarian restaurants, but the menus often list vegan and raw options as well. It’s awesome to be recognized and to have choices. Bandidas Taqeria serves really great Mexican vegetarian food. The corn tortillas are fresh and handmade. The menu has lots and lots of choices, and it changes frequently to satisfy their regular, daily customers. Some dishes include tofu, others tempeh, and there are vegan options (house-made soy sour cream and Vegan Gourmet cheese.) I had Chile Lime Fajitas – marinated tempeh with sautéed strips of poblano chiles, onions and red peppers, served with rice and beans, salsa, sour cream, red cabbage and

Yaletown is a very trendy neighbourhood – Pink Lime Salon and Bar, divine vines: contemporary floral design, Kosmic Scizzors, Bombay Brow Bar (“rock your brow. indian style”). The old warehouse loading docks are now home to brand-name restaurant patios. Yaletown is a place to see and be seen. Challenging Stereotypes Raw Canvas , with its mismatched wooden chairs, easels and paint, seems out of place. But Steve Merkley likes to challenge stereotypes. His first Yaletown business was a yoga studio. “I wanted to put yoga, a deep practice, in what is perceived to be the most superficial place [in Vancouver] and see what happens.” Now, he has opened Raw Canvas, a combination of social space and art studio. The restaurant area in Raw Canvas is warm and welcoming. There’s art on the walls and a simple but interesting menu. It’s a comfortable place for a glass of wine and a good book or a quiet conversation with a friend. And don’t be lulled into thinking that a grilled cheese sandwich i

“an ancient forest and garden oasis by the sea” Milner Gardens Milner Gardens , located near Qualicum Beach/Parksville, is an entrancing mix of old-growth Douglas firs and delicate roses, rhododendrons and azaleas. The 70-acre garden and woods are located on a point overlooking the Strait of Georgia so in one afternoon you can enjoy forest, garden and ocean. (slideshow below) I really enjoyed the woods and gardens as they are much more natural and untamed than Butchart Gardens. You can wander the paths, moving from majestic cedars draped in moss to fragile bunches of pink roses, and end your visit with a traditional English afternoon tea in the Camellia Tea Room – china cups and saucers and scones with Devonshire cream. La Boulange Now, I realize you won’t have an appetite after tea and scones, but you should still stop at La Boulange on your way to or from the Gardens. Clare and I strongly recommend the cinnamon buns and chocolate fudge cookies. And trust us – we’re connoisseur

Have Fun and Enjoy Life Vancouver Island offers so much variety. After a morning on the beach, we headed inland to Morningstar Farm at 403 Lowry’s Road, Parksville to visit Little Qualicum Cheeseworks and Mooberry Winery . Lori Palmiere, the wholesale manager and one of Little Qualicum’s first employees, provided an in-depth tour of the farm. The farm was a really fun place to visit. There was food and drink, fresh country air and lots of animals, and goofy signs encouraging visitors to laugh and play. Farm Animals The goats are particularly friendly, but you can also tour the barns and meet the young calves and the hogs. In March/April, there is a calving festival when 10-20 calves are born. Morningstar was the first farm in British Columbia to receive SPCA certification after being inspected to make sure the farm met the SPCA’s standards for animal welfare. They also work with The Land Conservancy to improve the quality of their 68 acres. You can take a self-guided tour throu

Land Warmed by the Sun The Cowichan Valley , just north of Victoria, is rich in farms and culinary businesses thanks to its warm, protected climate. You could spend days and days visiting all the different wineries and farms, but we only had one day . . . . Organic Fair My first contact with Organic Fair was through their fair trade organic chocolate bars (available at The Better Good in Saskatoon). There are 15 different choices, ranging from Canadiana with maple syrup, sundried apples & alder smoked salt to Capetown with figs, rooibos and Clementine. The owners have a half share in a cocoa bean farm in Costa Rica and a background in essential oils and chocolate, which explains the interesting flavour options and good quality chocolate. Their first chocolate bar was Corazon, which they made for their wedding – “fall in love with the perfect marriage of floral rose, sweet honey, complex cacao nibs and a kiss of vanilla. A rose is often a token of the heart, and Corazon means

Clare and I spent three nights at a resort directly overlooking Rathtrevor Beach near Parksville on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The bay is shallow so when the tide goes out you can walk for miles and miles over the wave-rippled sand, admiring the crabs, the sand dollars and the seaweed still lifes. It’s a magical place. I hope that future generations of children will have a chance to build sand castles and play on the beach like our family did. Here’s a slideshow of some of my photographs. Rathtrevor Beach

Part Two: Food and Spirits It’s obvious that I love good food and drink. But it’s the people I’ve met over the past few weeks who have made my culinary adventures so exceptional. As with so many professions, it’s not enough to simply provide a good product. You also need to connect with your audience – and it’s that personal connection that really sells your products. Here are a few more of the people and products that I connected with at The Main Event, the opening event of Taste, Victoria’s second annual Festival of Food and Wine. Victoria Spirits Victoria Spirits is a two-year old, family-owned business. I confessed to Peter Hunt, the Master Distiller, that I knew nothing about gin or other hard alcohols, so he patiently showed me their products. I was surprised to discover that the Oaken Gin, which has been aged in new oak does not taste of oak but instead has a slightly-sweet caramel taste and colour. The gin is handcrafted in small batches in a wood-fired still and infused

Part One: Vancouver Island Wine Imagine! Over 52 tables set up offering wine and food from Vancouver Island and the mainland. It was an exciting opportunity to sample a wide variety of different products and talk to the producers. I am extremely grateful to Kathy McAree, Travel With Taste and event organizer, for giving me tickets to The Main Event, the grand opening of Taste, Victoria’s second annual Festival of Food and Wine. Congratulations, Kathy. The event was well organized, beautifully laid out, and I had a great time. It wasn’t possible for me to sample all the wines or to talk to all the producers, so I focused on Vancouver Island wineries. I learned a great deal – here’s just a brief overview. Ortega – the Island Wine Jane Ellmann, Muse Winery , describes Ortega as “patio wine – summer in a glass.” It’s also known as the Island Wine as this is one of the few areas where it is grown. Ortega is a dry, fruity white wine. I really enjoyed it and would like to compare the Or

Food, Culture and History One last bakery/deli in Victoria. My sister lives near Oak Bay Village , and I always make my way along the Bowker Creek path to spend a half day visiting the stores in Oak Bay Village. The Village's Tudor-style architecture is a humorous reminder of Victoria’s strong British roots, and you can still enjoy a British-style tea at the Blethering Place Tea Room. But there are other cultural strands weaving their way through Oak Bay Village, and one of the most tasty can be found at Ottavio Italian Bakery and Delicatessen . Ottavio is a third-generation family business owned by Monica Pozzolo and Andrew Moyer. Monica’s grandparents owned a pasticceria, bar & gelateria in Torino, Italy for over 40 years, while her family has operated The Italian Bakery on Quadra Street in Victoria since 1978. The store carries over 25 extra virgin olive oils from Italy, France, Spain, Greece and the United States. One of the staff helpfully points out some of the

Environmentally-friendly business practices Human activity has a huge impact on the environment. I can take my own mug to the coffee shop, and many restaurants and delis are replacing styrofoam with materials that are more easily recycled, but that’s just a small piece of the puzzle. I was heartened to hear about the Black Stilt Coffee Lounge in Victoria, which has a much more comprehensive approach to being environmentally friendly. Here are just a few examples from a very long list of their environmentally-friendly practices: • Maintain a compost pile and use compostable paper towels and cutlery • Purchase recycled and post-consumer paper products • Unplug equipment at night to reduce phantom loads • Use a low-flow dishwashing wand and the sanitizing dishwasher is only run when full • Increased compost and recycling storage to minimize waste pickups and reorganized bakery and coffee deliveries thereby reducing total number of trips to the Black Stilt by over 10% Black

“There's nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.” (River Rat, Wind in the Willows) It was sunny and hot – the perfect day for a boat ride so I headed down to Victoria Harbour to catch one of the tiny harbour ferries that chug back and forth in the summer. I started out by taking a one-hour tour up the Gorge Waterway. It starts out as a really industrial area with roadbed and car recycling plants but changes to gracious waterside homes. You can stop off along the way for a tour at Point Ellice House or lunch at Fol Epi Bakery  at Dockside Green as well as various other locations. After lunch, I hopped back on a ferry and went round the point to the Delta hotel. I then meandered along the harbour walkway to Spinnaker’s Brew Pub where I enjoyed cider and bruschetta. Afterwards, I continued walking to the West Bay Marina at the far end of the harbour where I caught a ferry ride back to town. Other options are to rent a

Food, Community and Integrity I sneak a peek through the open door of the bakery and glimpse the baker using a paddle to slide a pizza into the wood oven. It’s lunchtime, and Cliff, the owner of Fol Epi Bakery, is busy so I sit down on the deck with my lunch. Fol Epi is located at Dockside Green , a new environmentally sustainable neighbourhood development, which is still under construction on the Gorge Waterway, a very industrial part of Victoria. Across the waterway is a roadbed recycling plant. Cliff, one of the original owners of Wild Fire Bakery, opened Fol Epi in January 2009. I imagine that it has been a somewhat rocky start as Dockside has been slow to develop. Cliff is a member of the Slow Food movement. All the ingredients are organic, and they are sourced locally as much as possible. They make small batches of just a few quality products. After lunch, Cliff generously takes a few minutes away from the oven to talk to me, apologizing for the flour on his hands. I am st

Surly Blonde, Blue Buck, Chocolate Porter, Accusation Ale Phillips beer is “proudly brewed in a little brewery at the bottom of a mid-sized island on the left side of a very big country.” Phillips rolled out its first beers in August 2001 and  proclaims itself to be the younger brewery in Victoria: because they are a new business, because their oldest employee is 40, because of their ties to the skateboarding and arts community. Now, there’s an art to making beer, and Phillips beers are excellent, but I fell in love with their artwork. Shawn O’Keefe has been designing their labels from day one, and they’re gorgeous. They also use hand-painted wood signs designed and painted by the Dobell Brothers to advertise outside the brewery and at locations where their beer is sold. Again, amazing artistic talent. Bill, our guide on one of the twice-weekly brewery tours, says his job title is “Funmaker.” And they do have fun at Phillips. After losing a lawsuit regarding the name of one