EAT Magazine 20-03 May|June 2016

Vegg ng Out

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT WE CAN DO WITH CHICKPEAS. pg.36

FOUNDER & EDITOR Gary Hynes

PUBLISHER Pacific Island Gourmet

SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Colin Hynes

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Carolyn Bateman

VANCOUVER CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Julie Pegg

SENIOR WINE WRITER Larry Arnold

ART DIRECTION Gary Hynes

COPY EDITOR Cynthia Annett

REGIONAL REPORTERS

Tofino | Ucluelet Jen Dart | Victoria Rebecca Baugniet | Cowichan Valley-Up Island Kirsten Tyler

CONTRIBUTORS

Larry Arnold, Joseph Blake, Michelle Bouffard, Holly Brooke, Adam Cantor, Cinda Chavich, Jennifer Danter, Pam Durkin, Gillie Easdon, Jeremy Ferguson, Colin Hynes, Tracey Kusiewicz, Sherri Martin, Elizabeth Monk, Michaela Morris, Elizabeth Nyland, Tim Pawsey, Julie Pegg, Kaitlyn Rosenburg, Adrien Sala, Shelora Sheldan, Michael Tourigny, Sylvia Weinstock, Rebecca Wellman. Cover photography by Michael Tourigny. *Special thanks* to Lauren Coulter, a Victoria marketing copywriter and kitchen daredevil who helped us out with this issue’s the cover.

Since 1998 | EAT Magazine is published six times each year. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Although every effort is taken to ensure accuracy, Pacific Island Gourmet Publishing cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions that may occur. All opinions expressed in the articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the publisher. Pacific Island Gourmet reserves the right to refuse any advertisement. All rights reserved.

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ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Gary Hynes

STEAK FRITES

THE YEAR OF THE PULSES (LEGUMES) & A NEW PUBLICATION FROM EAT

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. The idea is to recognize the role of pulse crops in sustainable agriculture and healthy diets. In the developing world, pulses are an affordable and nutrient-dense staple.

“Pulses are important food crops for the food security of large proportions of populations, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, where pulses are part of traditional diets and often grown by small farmers,” said The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

Pulses include beans, chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), lentils and dry peas. There are numerous, classic dishes based on beans. In Nova Scotia, baked beans with steamed brown bread is an economical and hearty, perennial winter favourite; while in France, cassoulet made with white beans (haricots blancs or lingots), duck or goose confit, and sausage is a traditional southern favourite.

In recognition of this important initiative, EAT’s recipe developer extraordinaire, Jennifer Danter, has devised a 3-course menu using chickpeas—yes, even the dessert is made with chickpeas. Go to page 36 for recipes and photos.

Elsewhere, Cinda Chavich is on the hunt for Island pork, Adrien Sala spends the afternoon with Salt & Pepper Fox’s Liam Quinn, Shelora Sheldan writes about pasta master Matt Horn, and Jill Van Gyn sits down for a quiet cup of coffee with the owners of Part and Parcel.

I also have some exciting news to announce. EAT Magazine is publishing a new publication called THE EAT JOURNAL. Part cookbook, part magazine, The EAT Journal is full of beautiful photographs, compelling food stories and favourite recipes—some new, some from past issues. Take a look at page 11 for more information or visit TheEatJournal.com to order a copy.

Gary Hynes

From the EAT Archives

From an article titled “Marching to A New Beet” by Chris Johns in the May | June 2008 issue. A younger Claudio Aprile at Colbourne Lane Restaurant in Toronto is filling a half spherical mould with beet sponge. Aprile is a judge on CTV’s MasterChef Canada

Margaret Mulligan

city eats

by Rebecca Baugniet

g A new French-inspired pastry shop, La Roux Patisserie, is coming to Victoria’s Chinatown this May. Owners Rebecca Godin and Emily Hatlelid promise a place where you can “reward your self, treat a loved one to a pastry and time spent together, or pick up a deliciously memorable gift on your way to a dinner party.” (laroux.ca)

g At press time, Kid Sister Ice Cream Shop is hard at work getting their new location ready for opening. Look for their paletas and ice cream at #10 Fan Tan Alley. (I’m personally counting down the days until I can get another Key Lime Pie paleta). (kidsister.ca)

g Victoria has seen the arrival of three new Japanese restaurants over the past few months – Nubo Japanese Tapas opened at 739 Pandora Ave (former location of the Black Olive). Omakase Izakayaand Sushi Bar is up and running at 990 Blanshard St.

g Kitty corner from Omakase, at 804 Broughton St, preparations are underway for a planned summer opening of The Livet, featuring a charcoal grill, raw bar and rooftop patio, brought to you by Graham Meckling of Stage Wine Bar. Executive chef will be Benjamin Berwick (formerly with Hapa Izakaya in Kitsilano). (thelivet.ca)

g Following months of unsuccessful negotiations, Camille’s Fine West Coast Dining closed their longtime Bastion Square location. Stay tuned for news about a new location. (camillesreastaurant.com) Pig BBQ Joint has closed their Westshore location, to focus on their business downtown. (pigbbqjoint.com)

g Local chefs and food business owners keep giving back to the community. Owner Yasser Youssef and his son Atef have given us one more reason to love Fig Mediterranean Deli – this spring the owners teamed up with the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria to provide “taste of home” food baskets to nearly 40 Syrian refugee families as they move into their permanent housing here in Victoria. (figdeli.ca) If you are interested in learning more about Syrian cuisine, chef Cosmo Means is hosting an evening of Syrian-inspired cooking at Cook Culture from 6-9pm on June 2nd. (cookculture.com)

g The North Saanich-based Roost Farm Centre has received a $20,000 investment through the province’s Buy Local program. The Roost Farm Centre is the largest integrated grain farm on Vancouver Island, complete with a winery and bakery. The wheat grown and milled on the farm is used to make bread on site. The $20,000 investment through the province’s Buy Local program will be used to market the farm as a destination, with the goal of attracting more visitors. (roostfarmcentre.com)

g Also in North Saanich, a new year-round farmers' market, bakery, deli, agricultural education centre, and bistro will be opening soon at Fickle Fig Farm (1780 Mills Road). Farmer owned and operated, the Fickle Fig Farm Market, Bakery and Bistro value honesty and transparency in their old-world philosophy of slow food. (ficklefig.ca)

g Local publishing house, TouchWood Editions, was thrilled to announce this spring that in-house designer Peter Kohut has received a prestigious Alcuin Society Award for Excellence in Book Design in Canada for his original design of The Olive Oil and Vinegar Lover’s Cookbook by Emily Lycopolus. (The Olive Oil and Vinegar Lover’s Cookbook is a unique cookbook based on high-quality olive oils and balsamic vinegars. The author is also part owner of local business, Olive the Senses.) touchwoodeditions.com

g Seafood lovers will want to make the trip to Vancouver for this year’s annual Spot Prawn Festival The Chefs' Table Society of British Columbia will be celebrating 10 years of the Spot Prawn Festival with new and exciting events that include an inaugural Spot Prawn Gala at the Vancouver Club on May 13. The black tie, six-course gala celebrates 10 years of educating locals and visitors about this Pacific North West delicacy. (spotprawnfestival.com)

g Local business Roast meat shop + sandwiches is expanding operations and opening a second location this spring in the brand new Liberty Public Market in San Diego, CA. Tell your friends south of the border! (roastsandwichshop.ca)

IT’S IN OUR HANDS. HAND-CRAFTED BREAD MADE WITH FRESHLY STONE-MILLED FLOUR AND ONLY CERTIFIED ORGANIC OR SUSTAINABLY GROWN LOCAL INGREDIENTS . NATURALLY LEAVENED AND BAKED TO CRUSTY PERFECTION IN WOOD-FIRED BRICK OVENS.

g The Oak Bay Beach Hotel hosts their annual Mother’s Day Brunch on Sunday, May 8, holding a grand brunch in the Grand Lobby, with views of the Salish Sea. Four seatings are available at 10am, 10:30am, 11:30am or noon. Reservations are required. Call 250.598.4556 to reserve your seating. $55 for adults and $27.50 for children ages 2 – 12 years old. (oakbaybeachhotel.com)

g Victoria’s inaugural Cheese and Meat Festival will allow attendees to taste their way through international and local meats and cheeses while pairing them with wine, cider, and beer. The festival, held May 21st at the Parkside Hotel and Spa, aims to showcase both international and local cheese and meat in an experiential tasting format. There will also be an on-site store, which will allow you to buy the product you are tasting. (cheesenadmeatfestival.com)

g On May 28th, six of BC’s top chefs will compete in a culinary war to raise awareness and funds for the Shawnigan Lake Residents’ fight against contaminated dumping in the local watershed. Culinary War at the Lake Shore will feature Tofino restaurant Wolf in the Fog’s chef Nicholas Nutting, and Camille’s chef Stephan Drolet, among others. The event is organized by Matt Horn of Cowichan Pasta and Andrew Shepherd of Vancouver Island Salt Co., working with local event planner Jess Howard. Tickets are $75 per person. (culinarywar.com)

g Two chefs from Victoria will be heading up to the Comox Valley to participate in the 10th Annual BC Shellfish Gala Dinner on June 17th. Garrett Schack, from Vista 18, and Jeff Keenliside, from The Marina, will be joining chefs from Vancouver, Campbell River and Tofino to create a six-course seafood dinner, paired with BC wine or craft beer. The event is put on by BC Shellfish Growers Association. The event is part of the BC Seafood & Shellfish Festival which runs from June 9-16. (discovercomoxvalley.com)

g Fernwood’s favourite food and libation tasting event is back for its seventh year. Fernwood Bites: “Local Fare in an Urban Square” is a food and drink tasting event, raising funds for the Fernwood NRG. Featuring local eateries and chefs, beer and wine, live music and a silent auction. June 19, 5.30pm -8pm in Fernwood Square. $50 per person. Due to access to alcohol, this is a 19 years + only event. (fernwoodnrg.ca)

g YYJ Eats is fun night celebrating local food and spirits brought to you by the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. Taste beer, food, wine and spirits from Chamber members in a relaxed outdoor environment. June 21, 5-7pm in Market Square. Tickets are $50, includes 10 tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets will be on sale at the event. Please note this is 19+ event. (victoriachamber.ca)

g Throughout June, the Victoria Film Festival is hosting the 4th annual Feast: Food & Film festival, screening films paired with food and drink from local restaurants and businesses . Films include City of Gold, Sour Grapes, Ants On a Shrimp. Outdoor screenings at de Vine Vineyards and Phillips Brewing and Malting. More details to come on feastfoodfilm.ca

g COMING UP: start planning your summer now and check out the event calendar for the 8th annual Taste; Victoria’s Festival of Food and Wine. Tickets for this weekend of tastings, seminars and events always sell out quickly. July 14-17. (victoriataste.com)

250.383.1545 • heronrockbistro.ca

Peas in a Pod

It is truly spring. Here on the West Coast, rainy days are fewer and each day seems warmer than the previous. This morning when I awoke, the air smelled sweet and earthy. Market stalls are brimming with asparagus, new spuds, leafy greens and, very possibly my favourite of all spring vegetables, fresh peas in their pods.

Throughout most of the year, many of us (me included) rip open a package of frozen peas—yes, there are some very good brands out there—and toss them into a boiling water bath for a few minutes to go with a Sunday roast or baked fish. Early May, however, means fresh peas-in-theirpods. Shelled to spill forth their sweet green nuggets, they beg for a little culinary imagination. For starters, peas boiled just to bring out their vivid green and scattered into chilled diced new potatoes dabbed with a little olive oil and wine vinegar (perhaps with a chopped anchovy fillet or paper-thin slice or two of prosciutto?) make an easy and marvellous alternative to the usual potato salad. Chilled baby peas and shredded buttery lettuce, napped with lemony mayonnaise is also a quick and easy salad. Equally as pleasant are peas, lettuce, onion and bouillon pureed for a seasonal soup to serve hot or chilled. Or, as an alternative to mashing chickpeas or white beans to top crostini, you can spread a little green love. Some recipes

call for using a processor or blender. I prefer using a potato masher (for hummus and white bean spreads, too) to achieve a chunky, rather than “pasty” texture. A little stock, oil, lemon juice or plain yogurt helps to emulsify the mixture. To amp up the flavour, a sprig or two of fresh mint is nice.

For me, fish and chips are not complete without mushy peas. Alas, few fish-and-chip places here make them. My go-to for mushy peas is Pajo’s on the Steveston docks. I also make them at home to serve with baked cod and oven-fried “chips” and fish burgers. (Or bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie.) Now, there are peas that are mush— and then there are mushy peas. Traditional mushy peas should be starchy, mature, marrowfat peas boiled without fuss or muss, other than a bit of salt, until they reach a slushy consistency (a larger pea makes a better mushy pea). Gussying them up with a pat of melted butter, some chopped parsley and maybe a squeeze of lemon is something I can go for.

Rice and peas are ideal pals. In India, peas are strewn into sweet basmati rice (I’ve been known to do so in the Anglo-Indian dish, kedgeree.) And in Jamaica and Trinidad, rice and peas is a staple. In Italy, the Venetians are known for risi e bisi, rather like a riff on risotto. The

recipes I found online would make a local cringe. Many call for frozen peas, packaged stock and no particular kind of rice. Waverly Root in his excellent The Food of Italy quotes writer Giuseppe Mazotti who insists that to make risi e bisi properly, “you must follow all the rules.” That means rice from the Po Valley; peas that are fresh, sweet, tender and shelled at the last minute; a browned soffritto of oil, butter and chopped celery in which the taste of the celery must predominate; pea pods boiled separately to flavour the water; and a few tablespoons of fresh chicken and beef stock added to the water before adding the peas. Two minutes before the end, the dish gets a lashing of grated Parmesan cheese and “is served with solicitude.” (This last requirement is worth the entire process.)

And let’s not forget pea shoots and mangetouts (baby sugar peas.) Pea shoots added to roasted vegetables is akin to squeezing a bit of lemon over them. Raw, just-picked mangetouts, sprinkled with sea salt, are a heavenly snack. For me, shelling fresh peas is almost as delightful as eating them. Give me a huge bowlful of peas-in-the-pod, a glass of white wine and a comfy chair and I’ll pass the better part of a late afternoon snapping open the crisp pods—fighting the temptation to pop morsels into my mouth as they spill into the bowl.

This spring vegetable is worth shelling out for.

Pam Durkin

Mood Food

Scientists have discovered the probiotics in fermented foods may improve brain health and help combat anxiety, stress and depression.

For centuries the process of fermenting foods was relied upon out of necessity it was one of the few means of preserving foods in pre-industrial societies. Today, thanks to modern science’s confirmation of their outstanding health benefits, fermented foods such as miso and yogurt are experiencing a global renaissance. The recognition is well-deserved. Fermented foods are not only delicious, they’re also teeming with beneficial bacteria known as “probiotics” that can help enhance human health in myriad ways—most surprisingly, perhaps, by influencing our mood.

So what has science revealed about these time-honoured foods? Evidence shows that fermentation increases the protein, vitamin, mineral, fatty-acid and antioxidant content of whole foods. Conversely, it also “neutralizes” certain anti-nutrients that occur naturally in some foods, like the phytic acid in grains. That’s important because phytic acid can combine with minerals in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. However, what really has scientists gushing over fermented foods is their phenomenal probiotic content. Research reveals these benevolent micro-organisms can help lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation, improve intestinal health, enhance immune function, combat obesity and reduce the risk for certain cancers.

And now studies suggest these “good-for-you” bacteria can also exert a positive effect on one’s psyche. That’s right—scientists have discovered certain probiotics in fermented foods may improve brain health and can help reduce anxiety, stress, depression and other mood disorders. Mood food indeed!

Just how do probiotics in foods wield their “feel-good-factor,”? It seems there are several pathways through which specific microbes influence brain health. Their ability to increase nutrient levels in food is one factor. For instance, they increase tissue levels of calming minerals like calcium and magnesium and anti-inflammatory, anti-depression omega-3 fatty acids. They also increase nerve cell resiliency and help to maintain optimum levels of neuropeptide brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In addition, the beneficial bugs also reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol and raise levels of the neurotransmitter GABA, a deficiency of which has been linked to depression. And there’s more good news. GABA isn’t the only neurotransmitter certain probiotics can boost. Evidence indicates they can also help elevate levels of serotonin, just like Prozac! If you’re not impressed yet, consider this. Lactobacillus acidophilus—commonly found in yogurt, and sauerkraut—improves the functioning of cannabinoid receptors in the spinal cord that are critical in regulating pain. Similarly, researchers have discovered a plethora of these health-enhancing bugs can also quell inflammation, a bodily reaction that is both a cause, and a byproduct, of many mood disorders.

If you’re assuming that popping a probiotic supplement will deliver the same outstanding benefits—think again. It’s important to note that the vast majority of these studies were conducted using fermented foods—not probiotic pills. Clearly, the alchemy of fermentation is critical in bestowing upon these foods their widespread medicinal properties. A perfect example of this phenomenon is milk. Fermenting milk—as in yogurt, kefir and hard cheeses —significantly alters bioactive peptides and other chemicals that can directly influence central-nerve functioning. It isn’t just the probiotics in these foods that produce their mood-elevating factor, it’s the synergy of the benevolent bugs and other byproducts of fermentation. What’s more, nutritional analysis reveals many probiotic pills don’t survive the trip to the intestines—they’re destroyed by harsh gastric conditions along the way.

Why would you want to pop a pill anyway when there are so many sublime fermented foods to choose from. There’s literally a smorgasbord of tasty treats awaiting you, including red wine, kimchi, miso, kefir, sourdough breads, hard cheeses, yogurt, kombucha, amazake, tempeh, kvass, sauerkraut--even dark chocolate. Clearly, incorporating these healthy foods into your diet is one scrumptious way to chase away the blues!

g GET FRESH By Sylvia Weinstock

Cherries

Plump, juicy cherries are the sweetest of all the stone fruits, which include plums, peaches, and apricots. Growers in BC’s Okanagan Valley and Creston Valley produce cherries that have one of the world’s highest Brix, a measurement of the sugar content in sweet fruits. These high Brix BC cherries have a superlative varietal flavour. They are pampered with tender loving care in comparatively small orchards, and hand-picked and hand-packed for shipping. These fertile valleys provide the ideal environment for growing cherries that are prized worldwide for their size and taste. They are exported to the United States, Europe and China. Seventy-five percent of Canadian cherries are grown in BC; the remainder are grown in Ontario.

Sour cherries are used in most cherry products, including dried cherries, jam, pie fillings and juice. They are firmer than sweet cherries, so they retain their shape and texture when cooked, and their tartness mellows to a delectable complex flavour. Sour cherries have higher levels of antioxidants than sweet ones. They are one of the few foods containing high levels of melatonin, which helps alleviate stress and insomnia. With the exception of Ontario, sour cherries aren’t widely grown in Canada and are imported from the United States.

The deep flavour profile of cherries is enhanced by

pairing them with chocolate, dairy foods, spices and herbs (saffron, chives, sage, verbena, ginger, cloves, thyme, cinnamon, bay leaves, black peppercorns, fennel), other fruits (berries, stone fruits, citrus), almonds and coconut. Balsamic vinegar, grappa, Marsala, sherry, kirsch and brandy are excellent liquid cherry pickings. Luscious red cherries inspire sweet and savoury creations that elevate their unique flavour. Indulge in a vanilla-laced, lemon zest sparkled cheesecake that doesn’t need baking, made from mascarpone, cream cheese, goat cheese and sour cream, and adorned with cherries cooked in sweetened balsamic vinegar. Slide your taste buds around cherry clafouti, trifle, Pavlova, zabaglione, streusel, or rustic cherry raspberry tart with ricotta and blanched almonds. You’ll say pretty please, with a cherry on top, when offered kirsch-flavoured Black Forest cupcakes, dripping with chocolate ganache and bursting at the seams with cherries and pastry cream, or rice pudding sprinkled with pistachios and topped with roasted cherries that have bathed in dessert wine, orange and lemon juice. Keep it simple by cascading cinnamon-clove spiced cherries over coconut ice cream, shaving up some cherry granita, or dipping cherries in dark chocolate. Explore the savoury realm by pairing duck with brandied cherry sauce, pickled cherries with roasted

chicken, goose or pork, or beef tenderloin with a cherry sauce enlivened with horseradish, black peppercorns, port, grenadine and kirsch.

Cool down with refreshing cherry and stone fruit sangria, cherry lemonade, mojitos, or cherry-lime margaritas.

Use dried cherries in a sauce for braised veal, in pistachio cherry nougat, or in gluten-free cherry-oat-datealmond butter bars.

Celebrate the first appearance of BC cherries in June and enjoy different varieties through the summer, until the beginning of September. For July harvests, find local farms that grow cherries at islandfarmfresh.com/products/Cherries and bcfarmfresh.com/farm-products/cherries

g DISH By Joseph Blake

Bugs on the Menu

Two Victoria film makers launch a documentary film about the age-old practice of eating insects. And no, they don’t taste like chicken.

As unappetizing as it might be for some North Americans to contemplate, humans have been eating insects for millions of years. Most of the world’s population still forage and feast on insects, the central point of a new documentary called Bugs on the Menu. by the Victoria-based 291 Film Company. Producers Mark Bradley and Ian Toews asked a Victoria delicatessen, bakery and restaurants ranging from a burger joint to modern fine dining to use insects in their creative offerings in the documentary film and website

Part and Parcel include cricket powder (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like) in their Cricket Cavatelli. Big Wheel’s Critter Fritter Burgers use the product too. Olo has a dessert called Caramel Cricket Crunch Sorbet and Clay Pigeon serves a dish called Orange Ricotta Cricket Pancake. Choux Charcuterie includes cricket powder, mealworms and crickets in their Wild Terrain Terrine. And chef Tara Black uses cricket powder in Origin Bakery’s Hearty Bug Nut Brown Bread.

“The opportunity to play with cricket powder was fun,” said Tara with enthusiasm. “It has a very interesting flavour profile, really warm and nutty. It’s a very sustainable agricultural source, much less taxing on our environmental resources like land and water. It’s a much more ethical animal production with a more conscious outlook.” The young baker says the powder is high protein, high fibre, low calorie and has a variety of minerals like iron and calcium. “It’s a new way of thinking, not just a new product on the market.”

One of the main aims of the film is the “normalization” of eating insects, director Ian Toews told me recently (the practice is also known as entomophagy). “With the Internet and information spreading so fast and so widely, the interest in insect eating as a healthy, sustainable, delicious diet has taken off in the West. It’s been a legitimate part of cultures for all of human history all over the world. The last 200 years of noninsect eating is a very short, weird time in the millions of years of insect-eating that preceded it. And, says Ian, it is still going on in traditional cultures around the world. Bugs on the Menu visited South Africa, Mexico, Cambodia and insect food companies in North America.

Ian, the critically acclaimed, Saskatchewan-bred director of Grasslands and

The Clay Pigeon’s chef Marko Nizic experimented with Orange Ricotta Cricket Powder Pancakes & Almond Cricket Brittle.

Rebecca Wellman

Landscape as Muse, and his 291 Film Company partner (and the film’s co-producer) Mark Bradley brought their University of Regina film production degrees to Victoria a couple of years ago. Toews had 16 years in the business by then and has seven short films and more than 60 televisions episodes on his resume now. His films have been shown in more than 50 countries.

Bugs on the Menu links insect eating to environmental sustainability, food security, insect farming, creative cooking, 21st-century high tech, indigenous practices in the face of climate change, water and land degradation of current agricultural practices and impending population increase around the world. Between segments on traditional African locust and cricket harvesting and eating and Mexican ant foraging and feasting are scenes of North American gourmet dining and product development in the West where chips and various healthy protein bars are made from insect powders.

One amazing segment captures 1,000 members of New York City’s exclusive Explorers Club dining on a multi-course gourmet menu of insects. Another sequence visits the oldest cricket farm in North America, Louisiana’s Armstrong Cricket Farm. Originally an industrial fish bait industry in the 1940s, 80 percent of the operation’s crickets were used in pet food from 1975-1990. Products for human consumption took a big leap in 2012.

Vancouver star chef Vikram Vij and his wife, chef Meeru Dhalwala, are in the film too, extolling insect-eating’s sustainability and offering their restaurant’s recipe for roasted cricket flour parathas.

Asked his favourite insect meal, Ian showed his ready enthusiasm for the subject.

“Oaxacan Honey Pot Ants are the coolest. The colony stores sacrificial ants with honey-pollen-swollen abdomens in underground chambers. They’ve got big, golden bellies the size of a pea, and each of the ones I ate had a different flavour profile. They really are varied. It was like a dessert wine tasting.”

“There are many varieties of texture, flavour and how insects are prepared,” the film maker continued. “Roasted mealworms are like bacon puffs with a nutty flavour. Bee larva is sweet and tender. Crickets are stronger flavoured and varied texturally.”

The Bugs on the Menu World Premiere Screening will take place at NORTHWESTFEST (Edmonton, AB) on May 7th (northwestfest.ca/2016-film-schedule). After Edmonton, the film will have a theatrical run in Canada and the U.S. before premiering on the CBC’s documentary channel in the fall. Bugs on the Menu will have its Victoria premiere at The Vic Theatre on May 13th and 15th at 7:00pm each night. The filmmakers and local chefs will introduce the film, and promise to serve some bug food! Tickets available online, or by contacting the Vic Theatre box office at 250-389-0444.

Visit the website (bugsonthemenu.com), which features an animated history of entomophagy, recipes from local chefs and webisodes in which local chefs talk about the insect ingredients and prepare dishes from them.

Wild Terrain Terrine featuring mealworms and crickets was created by Choux Choux Charcuterie chef Matthew Swiech for Bugs on the Menu.

Rebecca Wellman

REPORTER

RESTAURANTS | CAFES | SHOPPING

(left) Eggplant, ricotta, olives, poblano, onion pizza.

(top) Famous Original owner Matt Quinn and Chef Kevin Macneil. They’re eating a Classic Pepperoni.

Photography by Rebecca Wellman

Black curtains obscured any views into the long shuttered space on lower Yates. Over time, a playful series of signs announced a new business in the works. First an Internet café, then a Blockbuster and then the most hilarious: a Guy Fieri-owned enterprise advertising meals such as two Slurpee cups filled with nacho cheese tied together with 25 bacon strips. Obviously, our legs were being pulled. Word on the street pegged the space as a future pizza joint with cheap beer. What to believe?

Finally in February, with curtains gone, a neon sign announced Famous Original, a New Yorkstyle pizzeria. Mystery solved.

Housed in a long, 2,400-square-foot heritage space formerly home to Carnaby Street clothing, Famous Original came about through a handful of inspired Victoria minds, most notably Matt Quinn, a long-time restaurant manager/bartender/events coordinator, and Andrew Wilkinson, tech guru and founder of the interface design firm Metalab.

The team of “entree-preneurs” hired designer Caleb Byers for the interior decor, neon signage and playful branding, and chef Kevin Macneil to realize their plans to “fill a void” in Victoria’s pizza landscape by creating a fun, casual place with an affordable and equally fun menu.

The 60-seat brick and wood interior invites with cozy banquette seating and lofty tables to oversee the open kitchen where pizzas are tossed to order and hand-formed into enormous 18-inch pies, available whole or by the slice. Staying true to New York style, the dough is made with a high gluten bread flour and egg to give it a good chewy texture and crispy bottom crust. This ensures it’s pliable enough to be folded in half and eaten without losing the toppings—another New York distinction.

Famous Original is not in pursuit of the artisanal per se, but of “getting ingredients that taste the best,” says Quinn. The organic-based tomato sauce is thick and rich with a hint of sweetness and provides the base for 11 different pies from a classic cheese with full-fat mozzarella to Hawaiian with a spark of jalapeño to anchovy, pepperoni and a stacked veggie of eggplant, ricotta and green peppers.

The name and the crown depicted in the neon sign is another nod to the Big Apple, where Ray’s Pizza, opened in 1959, generated copycat variations with crown-logoed names such as Ray’s Original, Famous Ray’s, World Famous Original Ray’s, etc.

The pies are cooked, traditionally, on a deck oven, and at Famous Original, they use a vintage Baker’s Pride behemoth weighing in at 1,500 pounds. At a steady 600 degrees, it can bake pies in eight minutes flat.

Shameless menu additions include Tater Tots dressed up with dipping sauces (“Like a pizza poutine,” says Quinn, “a great bar snack”) and pizza pops, a house-made stuffed calzone, deepfried to perfection.

Beer on tap or in cans is affordable. “It’s as cheap as we’re legally allowed!” say Quinn, who notes that Victoria responds well to value.

The fun and value continue with soft-serve ice cream and working vintage arcade games at the back of the space, offering fun for entire families of pizza lovers.

BY SHELORA SHELDAN

The sleek new interior of Famous Original.

Veneto, the resto-lounge adjoining Hotel Rialto at the corner of Pandora and Douglas, has been a fixture on the local cocktail scene since it opened seven years ago. Simon Ogden has been the visionary behind the bar and Tod Bosence the executive chef leading the dozen kitchen staff that produce a popular menu of entrees and small plate offerings. If you’re making dining plans for the evening and are thinking of Veneto for a warm-up cocktail at the bar, think about staying for dinner. Chef’s fresh sheet stands amongst the best culinary options in the city.

“We’ve always had entrees on the menu, but since last summer we’ve started offering main courses featuring local, seasonal ingredients on a fresh sheet that changes every couple of weeks,” enthuses Tod.

Tod has led Veneto’s kitchen since day one, a local boy who launched his cooking career as a 14-year-old whipping the butter for breakfasts at Smitty’s. At 16, he worked in a now-defunct pizza kitchen on Oak Bay Avenue before landing at Hunter Morrison’s Dominion Hotel, where he worked for six years and apprenticed, picking up his Red Seal at Camosun College.

Before opening up Veneto, Tod spent a decade in the kitchen at Olympic View Golf Club and for two years served as executive chef while opening the restaurant at Bear Mountain.

“Our kitchen features three or four new dishes every couple of weeks. My favourite right now is the braised pork belly with a soy-maple glaze topped with pan-seared scallops and a drizzle of chili-basil-garlic oil,” he explains. “It’s sort of a ramped-up version of bacon-wrapped scallops.”

Hotel Rialto’s director of sales Rob Curtis joins

us at the bar and, overhearing his chef’s favourite dish, adds, “Tod uses Indian, Asian, Spanish and Middle-eastern influences to put a spin on classic dishes like that. All of our features are under $30, and we usually offer a couple of seafood dishes and a beef dish.”

“Pasta with chicken and braised short ribs with chili chorizo are other current features,” chef chimes in. “We make our own burgers too from ground Alberta sirloin butt. I make a ‘secret burger’ that changes weekly.”

“It’s no longer much of a secret,” Simon Ogden adds with a laugh. “The ‘secret burger’ became too popular to be a secret. I should also mention that our entrees have very generous portions and, like my cocktail mixes, provide good bang for the buck.”

A 27-year veteran bartender, Simon teases chef Tod that one of the most popular bartenders at Veneto is a Red Seal chef who used to work in Veneto’s kitchen.

“All my bartenders work with classic cocktails, spirit-forward mixes with intricate flavour balance and a deep knowledge of cocktail history. We like to take our time and have a conversation too. We try to find out what the customer likes and make something memorable.”

The elegant, 90-seat room includes 56 seats in the modularly designed dining room that lends itself to large groups and office parties as well as intimate dining or after-hours drinks and tapas.

DJ Primitive has been keeping the sonic ambience cool and mellow for the last four years on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

“It’s a comfortable, convivial atmosphere with a very wide-ranging clientele,” says Simon.

BY JOSEPH BLAKE

left: Beef tenderloin medallions with grilled asparagus, stuffed potato cakes, red wine demi glace. right: Veneto chef Chef Tod Bosence

Rebecca Wellman

Imagine Studio Café

Dorothy Morrison calls her Imagine Studio Café “linen, lace and a little bit of hood.” After a couple of decades working in what she describes as “grassroots community development—gangs, drugs, guns and suicide prevention in Edmonton, Ottawa and Victoria,” she wanted to create a café inspired by what she’d learned and the sense of community she’d witnessed during her travels in southeast Asia, Mexico and Europe.

Imagine Studio Café opened in December 2015 after major renovations transformed the 1940s wood-framed bank and shipwright’s studio (which later became an electrical marine supply store and finally a safety supply store before Dorothy took over). Next door to Finest at Sea Ocean Products and Food Truck and across the street from Fisherman’s Wharf Park, the café’s large windows look out onto Erie Street, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Victoria Harbour beyond the park.

She built a ramp front door entrance and stripped out three incarnations of the old building’s walled and boarded-up darkness to create a bright, open space with an auxiliary studio that’s used weekly (currently Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.) for hatha yoga practice, impromptu musical performances and occasional art shows.

“I wanted to create a safe place, an interculturally sensitive public space,” Dorothy tells me while describing her vision for Imagine Studio Café. She has hired a handful of teenagers (1618-year-olds) whom she calls, “Wild! My gang! Kids from all abilities.

“A First Nations friend from Alberta came and blessed the café with sage. We’re inspired by indigenous spirituality, and some of our menu items are First Nations-inspired creations—foraged food, berries, recipes that elders and neighbours have shared with us.

“We use wood-fired bread and beautiful buckwheat and seed bread, homemade butter, Finest at Sea’s smoked salmon, local organic fruit and vegetables, on-tap Salt Spring kombucha, local cheese, lots of foraged food and house-made ingredients in our seasonal, always-changing soups, sandwiches, breakfast and brunch dishes” (the café closes at 5).

During my visit, 18-year-old Sonya Culbert serves a steady stream of customers. I gather many are regulars and friends from their warm salutations and hugs as they order at the café’s coffee bar/baked goods display counter, a recycled trophy case from the old Oak Bay High.

Dorothy Morrison graduated from Oak Bay, so the old trophy case and the office doors she salvaged from the school’s demolition and uses as temporary room dividers for special events have a personal nostalgic resonance. She has created an airy, comfortable space with strong historic echoes by peeling back to the old brick wall, exposed white-washed beams and wood-framed walls. At one end of the room, an array of houseplants perch on wooden crates soaking up the morning sun through a wall of French windows. The café feels like somewhere in my old hippie past.

The blackboard message below the coffee machine reads, “You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” The message over the bar reads, “The cure for anything is salt water—sweat, tears or the sea.”

“I was the first person Dorothy hired,” Sonya Culbert tells me with a shy smile. “I like learning about people and how they work. This job is very people-oriented, very community-oriented. I love that.”

BY JOSEPH BLAKE

Rebecca Wellman

Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Salt Spring goat cheese and their very popular home made buckwheat bread

Hide

Seek

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“

To let work take over our lives is folly. There are too many important things that need time, such as friends, family, hobbies and rest.”

The quote by Carl Honore perfectly describes the feeling that Hide + Seek transcribes. The space is open and bright, but it’s the small details that bring the comfort and friendliness that one seeks in a café. From the custom built wooden bar to the sleek 70’s-esque furniture, and the colourful, playful art adorning the walls, it feels refreshing and cozy all at once.

Owners Jesse and Jamie Owens are calm and soft-spoken with warm smiles, sparkling eyes, and a passion for really good coffee. They focus on family and community in their business, and with two small children as inspiration, they have successfully created a space that caters to professionals and families alike. Tall two-person tables line the long and narrow room for those looking to hide out, while cozy sitting areas rest in the corners if you’d rather seek friends. The front window has a low bar with tiny stools, reserved solely for their little guests – wooden blocks included.

It all started while the couple was on their honeymoon almost ten years ago, they decided they loved being in coffee shops so much that all they really wanted was one of their own. At this time they frequented Caffe Fantastico, and Jesse soon went on to work for them for six years, spending almost half of that time as a roaster.

In line with their dedication to coffee, the pair opted for a manual-lever espresso machine, which requires more skill and pulls out more flavour compounds from the beans. The resulting coffee is rich and viscous with toasty notes and

little bitterness. The beans are from Fantastico, with the proprietary blend for drip, the Cause Way blend for espresso, and a weekly rotating blend for their sharing board – from 1:00-4:00. In the afternoons they offer pour-over, aeropress, or soft brew coffee-for-two, complete with a plate of cookies.

The Africano is rich, deep, and perfectly balanced, served on a small board with a glass of sparkling water to cleanse the palette. The house-made Pear and Apple ‘Poptart’ is light, flaky, and just sweet enough. Jamie used to be a baker and whips up goodies for the shop; Poptarts and Orange Cardamom Cake are on the menu for now, and chocolate chip cookies too if you’re lucky! You can also find Empire Donuts, and gluten-free cookies from Real Food Made Easy. For the savoury folks there is toast on Crust Bakery bread with toppings of honey, Gruyere, or avocado.

Although they are in a village with five other coffee shops, they’re not worried about competition and instead like to focus on the community aspect. The Owens’ love café hopping, and as Jamie says, “I don’t feel like there could be too many coffee shops, because I need to go to all of them in one day!”

Hide + Seek has only been open since last November, but it seems like they have fit right into the village scene. The service is attentive, personal, and relaxed, all while there is a steady stream of people coming, staying, and going. As for what the future holds, the young family is taking it day-by-day for now, enjoying the excitement of their dream coming to fruition.

BY LAURA PETERSON

Owners Jesse and Jamie Owens relax at their cozy-chic Hide + Seek Coffee in Oak Bay.

Rebecca Wellman

The EAT Journal, by EAT Magazine, 100 pages, 7.5 x 9.5” Pacific Island Gourmet Publishing. $12. To order from EAT for $12 (+ shipping) visit

Let Them Eat Croissant BODEGA

Most afternoons, circa 3 p.m., my wife and I stage a prison break from the Digital Era. There is coffee, strong Italian coffee tempered with foamed milk. And there are croissants, proper little minicroissants with crackling crusts, yielding interiors and that defining balance of butter and sugar that underscores their Frenchness. Nothing else will do.

The pastry was officially born in 1839 at the Boulangerie Viennoise on the rue du Richelieu, at the time owned by an Austrian artillery officer. Its finesse captivated gastro-centric Parisians completely, and soon it was the centrepiece of the continental breakfast. It was also one of the huge successes, along with the Eiffel Tower, of the 1889 World’s Fair.

But it seems the croissant was around even before this: history notes that in the 18th century, Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat croissant,” not cake.

Fanciful stories affiliate the pastry’s origin with a still earlier time, the defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the siege of Vienna in 1683. As the story goes, triumphant Viennese bakers embraced the crescent symbol on the Turkish flag and turned it into a pastry. (This is given ridiculous contemporary credence by a fundamentalist Muslim fatwa banning the croissant only three years ago.)

Along with subprime mortgages, ISIS and kale and quinoa salad, the 21st century has brought us the “cronut.” New York chef Dominique Ansel fused the croissant and doughnut (think crossing Audrey Hepburn with Justin Bieber, and patented the name. Three years later, it’s a global sensation in the order of, well, poutine.

At the height of the frenzy, addicts were queuing up in front of Ansel’s Bakery six hours before opening time to sink their teeth into a cronut. Scalpers were reportedly selling the buns for $50 apiece on Craigslist. And don’t forget Dunkin Donuts, its croissant lately mutated to a combination fudge croissant donut (filled with chocolate fudge inside and laced with chocolate icing on the outside).

Vancouver’s inventive Swiss Bakery renamed it the “frissant” and kicks it up with everything from rose black tea to

marshmallow, chocolate and pretzels. In Victoria, go to the Crust Bakery on Fort for their version of the cronut.

The traditional croissant languishes. Blame mass-produced supermarket products. Blame bakeries and restaurants buying from the commissaries. Fifty percent of croissants consumed in Paris come from frozen packages. Younger French consumers don’t seem to care.

Dishearteningly, we’ve run smack into this decline on our last three visits to France. From the independent boulangeries of Provence’s medieval villages to the swank bakeries of the City of Light, we’ve encountered dud croissants devoid of butter, sugar and finesse—really just crescent-shaped bread.

Thankfully, not all is lost: When you see people lining up at a bakery, you know you’re in good hands.

In our country, supermarkets cut costs by substituting edible oil for butter. Read the ingredients list. If it’s butter, give it a shot. If it’s oil, run.

In Victoria, you find the biggest, butteriest and priciest croissants at the French Oven in the Hudson Public Market. Artisan boulanger Nick Castro uses a recipe from Lyon. His fastidiously prepared dough takes 24 hours from prep to out-of-the-oven. He’s expanded the line from pain au chocolat to a breakfast variety stuffed with bacon and cheddar. Welcome to croissant culture

But like the rest of you, I’m subject to cost and convenience, and I’ve made a not-bad-at-all deal with the corporate devil. Where do my wife and I find the delightful mini-croissants for our afternoon escapes?

My editor interrogates me mercilessly, threatening the keyboarder’s nightmare, the thumb screw. A wuss from the start, I confess. We get ours from … from … the freezer shelf at Walmart.

So, pristine foodies and EAT loyalists, I’m mounting the steps of the guillotine you’ve so vividly imagined for me. But to paraphrase Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, it is a far, far better thing that the croissant will be out of the oven before my head drops into the basket.

Sweet, flaky, buttery and oh-so French—a real croissant is hard to come by these days.

Gems

Hidden gem alert! It is easy not to notice Restaurante La Tortilla tucked into a series of storefronts on a somewhat grubby block of Esquimalt Road. But you need to slow down and step inside. The Rojas family from the Guerrero province of Mexico is creating regional dishes like empanadas, enchiladas and huaraches, and the Mexican community is eating here. So is the gluten-free community. Only one dish, the mole sauce, has wheat in it, and it is prepared in a separate area. There are no burritos or chimichangas—those are not authentic.

The menu is set up according to fillings and receptacles for those fillings. Three of the possible fillings are barbacoa, slow-cooked pulled beef in a sauce made of guajillo chiles; machaca, fish of the day marinated in orange juice; and a vegetarian option to be discussed with the server. These fillings can be placed into main dishes ranging from $7 to $10: tacos, tortillas, huaraches and empanadas. The empanada with barbacoa was one of my favourites: the cheese was chewy, the beef soft and mediumspiced, and the corn wrapper was a standout, being flaky where others I’ve had elsewhere tended towards gummy. Huarache, meaning “sandal” in Spanish, is an oblong corn patty topped with your filling of choice, as well as beans and slivered cabbage. You may be more accustomed to shredded lettuce as a side and topping, but in Guerrero province, they use cabbage. I also tried the special Enchilada Platter with Mole ($15), big enough that I took some home. The mole sauce was complex and delicious, nothing like those weird powdery sauces you buy in a jar. This one gets its base from sesame and its spicing from cinnamon, cloves, pepper and lots of garlic. The decor is cheerful with flags and vivid colours—a great place for the whole family.

Cheryl’s Gourmet Pantry

2009 Cadboro Bay Rd. at Foul Bay, 250-595-3212

Hot, cold, eat-in, take-out, a quick bite, a catered feast, this place does it all. While I have in the past picked up an entire Thanksgiving meal here, this time my focus was lunch under $13. The three-salad sampler for $10.95 is a good way to go for a meal with variety. There are nine salads to choose from, too many to expound upon here, but I can tell you this—all are interesting. The baby kale in the kale salad is young, tender and luminous with its light, lemony dressing and made even healthier with the addition of sunflower seeds and strands of carrot and red cabbage. A second example, the quinoa salad, is zipped up with almonds, chickpeas, parsley and cranberries. For a warmer lunch, the Soup and Half Sandwich for $10.95 is a good way to go. The beef and barley soup was rich and filling with plenty of both ingredients. And the roast chicken sandwich required widening your mouth into gaping maw position to bite the slab of fresh chicken breast, Cheddar, tomato, cucumber, sprouts and romaine. For a full-on hot meal, the chicken sundried tomato artichoke crèpe ($11.95) is plump and creamy, though lightened with the citrusy quality of the artichoke hearts. The space has a few tables for a quick bite, but lots of customers take the fresh foods from the café and the casseroles from the store freezer home with them..

Brunch & Lunch

7

Elizabeth Nyland

Owner Cheryl Schultz behind the enticing display case filled with prepared foods.

BALANCE: QUALITY, CREATIVITY, & EXECUTION.

“Outstanding! From the food to the cocktails, to the invi ng yet contemporary atmosphere, what a gem.”

Reserva ons accepted

Open 7 days a week 5 PM un l late

Happy Hours

5 6 PM and 10:30 un l close

Italian Bakery

At the Italian Bakery, we have been hand molding and baking scratch bread at the same location for 38 years. Although we are also a fine pastry and cake shop and a European caffé and Gelateria, our breads still stand out. Come and try our naturally leavened organic breads or our 100% unbleached, untreated classics. Discover our history and all our secrets at italianbakeryvictoria.com

Mushroom and goat cheese pizza with balsamic glaze

The Cornerstone Café

1301 Gladstone Ave. at Fernwood Road, 250-381-1884

Expansive ideas are behind the mission of The Cornerstone Café in Fernwood, and now the café is itself expanding its menu. The Fernwood NRG non-profit owns and runs the café, and profits support a wide range of charities, including affordable family housing right above the café. The good-heartedness of the mission is matched by the warmth of the café, with its exposed brick and paintings by local artists. The Cornerstone has long been a community coffee shop, but now it is expanding to pizzas for dinner. The flavours on offer are Chicken and Brie, Classic Pepperoni, Five Cheese and Mushroom and Goat Cheese. My mushroom and goat cheese pizza was in the style of Neapolitan street food, with a thin yet soft crust topped with generous smears of pesto, dollops of chèvre,

cremini mushrooms and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. This 12-inch pizza went for $12.50 and was enough to make one person very full or feed one adult and one small child. Even more affordable is a nicely crisp turkey cranberry panini for $7.30 with its generous layer of the piquant berries to add interest. It could, however, use a dash of salt and pepper. The café also stays true to its roots with a wide range of teas and coffees. The Silk Road teas are purist-friendly, with evocative names like Philosopher’s Brew and Moonlight on the Grove and are served loose leaf in a small filter with a side plate to keep the table clean. This is a modest café with relatively simple offerings, which perfectly fits with the laidback character of the Fernwood neighbourhood.

Elizabeth

Nyland

The first time I really gave any thought to the bowl as a meal, I was a young mother seeking cooking advice from a friend. “This is a great recipe to have in your back pocket,” Lisa announced, before describing her Goddess Bowl recipe, which involved a mound of brown rice topped with portions of roasted butternut squash, beets and broccoli and then finished with a drizzle of Braggs soy seasoning. It sounded like a simple but satisfying vegetarian meal, but when I tried it out, I found it needed some other component. So I added crumbled feta over the roasted veg. The Goddess Bowl was a great place to start, and it has served us well over time, but my bowl repertoire has certainly expanded since that first conversation.

Bowl food has many things going for it, but the main ones, I believe, are comfort, convenience and versatility. There is something inherently comforting about eating out of a bowl—perhaps because this is the vessel we use for soup, the ultimate comfort food. Bowls are convenient, not just because you can easily curl up with one on your lap to watch Netflix, but mainly because you can create a complete nutritious meal in one dish and control your portions of each element, if this is important to you. As for versatility, bowls are the original culinary playground. There are endless possibilities for flavour and texture combinations, and you can tailor bowls to suit any

tastes or nutritional restrictions—useful for families with selective eaters or allergies.

Sheena Hogan, chef and kitchen manager at Be Love on Blanshard Street, summed up her philosophy for building bowls saying, “The brighter the bowl, the better for you it will be.” She explained that the macrobiotic bowl is the basis for the bowls they create at Be Love. Choose an ancient grain as the starting point, and then add your protein. At Be Love, this means sprouted beans or legumes (sprouting helps release the gasses naturally present). Fill out the bowl with colourful, vibrant vegetables and finish with a sauce or condiment. The result, Sheena says, should be a “balanced clean meal that is good for you and good for your digestion.” Sheena changes up the bowls with each season and likes to use a theme as inspiration. For example, the Ital Bowl, which was added to the menu for spring, has a Rasta theme and includes jerk beans, callaloo (a stewed Caribbean dish made with spinach or other leafy greens), pineapple and a Caribbean-spice cashew sour cream.

So what makes up the perfect bowl? It really is a matter of personal taste. You can take your inspiration from a favourite restaurant bowl (The Glory Bowl from Whitewater, in Vancouver, perhaps, or the Crispy Smoked Chicken Bowl from Relish that earned EAT’s Dish of the Year award back in 2013). These days, I like to keep my fridge stocked with a variety of bowl building blocks. A

little prep on the weekend cooking grains and roasting vegetables will give you enough ingredients to assemble quick lunches and dinners for several days. A recent bowl was made with cooked farro, leftover roast chicken, roasted beets, mixed greens, crumbled feta, toasted sunflower seeds and a spicy lime vinaigrette. Stocking different condiments such as sauerkraut, kimchi, Korean chili paste (gochujang) or sriracha enables you to really mix up the flavours and add some heat or tang to your bowl. By switching up the elements and using different sauces and condiments, your bowls will never get tired. Look to our recipe inspiration board below or wherever it lands up on the spread for ideas on how to build your own bowl. If you want a little more guidance, The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon cookbook (Ten Speed Press, 2015) is an excellent resource.

Recipe inspiration board:

Grains (20-30% of the bowl): Quinoa, Farro, Rice, Millet Protein (5-10% of the bowl): Smoked Tofu, sprouted black beans, French lentils, chicken breast, crumbled feta, tempeh.

Vegetables (40-60% of the bowl): Steamed broccoli, roasted beets, baked sweet potato wedges, roasted butternut squash, bok choy, sea vegetables, avocado. Extras: your favourite fermented foods, sauces, vinaigrettes and condiments, herbs, nuts, seeds.

GRAIN BOWLS: Build a nutritious meal in a bowl with ancient grains, sprouted legumes, colourful veggies and a spicy or tangy condiment.

By Rebecca Baugniet

Lydia Beauregard

Sidney, The Shortest Distance to Far Away

Be sure to visit with local fishermen as you stroll down the iconic Sidney fishing pier Catch your breath at one of Sidney’s quaint restaurants many with spectacular oceanside patios.

Summer starts with the Sidney Street Market (Thursday nights, 5:30-8:30, May to September 1). Catch an outdoor concert at Beacon Park on Sidney’s waterfront or a performance at the Mary Winspear Centre. Sidney is known as Canada’s only Booktown so be sure to peruse the 5 independent bookstores during your visit.

If you are bringing little ones, the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea and the Sidney Historical Museum offer a special hands-on experience not to be missed.

New to Sidney is the Victoria Distillers, one of Canada’s oldest small-batch distillers. Opening May 20th, Victoria Distillers will offer tours and tastings. Visit distinctlysidney.ca for more information on Sidney’s restaurants and businesses.

YOUR ISLAND ESCAPE

A perfect blend of contemporary style and comfort. Rejuvenate at Haven Spa & Salon and enjoy casual oceanfront dining at Haro’s Restaurant & Bar. Visit Victoria Distillers at Seaport Place and explore the countless shops and boutiques in the charming town of Sidney-by-the-Sea. Located 5 minutes from Swartz Bay Ferry, Washington State Ferry and Victoria International Airport.

Rich in history and surrounded in natural beauty, Sidney is the gateway to Vancouver Island and one of the most scenic cities on the west coast. Complete with a vibrant boutique-shopping district and many quaint dining options, you won’t know where to start.

The Salt & Pepper Fox "getting his taco on" and helping welcome some newcomers to the food scene at La Taqueria. Photo by Adrien Sala

THE SALT AND PEPPER FOX: WHO IS THIS GUY?

A few days before the official start of spring, Liam Quinn sat down at The Drake Eatery on Pandora Avenue to meet with a writer who was about to be 30 minutes late. In most cases, a chef who runs his own operation wouldn’t tolerate that kind of behaviour. He’d get angry at the writer for wasting his time and send a nasty text message to not-so politely tell him to screw off. Chefs are busy people. But that didn’t happen with Quinn. Instead, he sent a simple message that read: “I hope you’re okay.” It was his way of saying “hurry up” without being pushy, a shoulder shrug of acceptance without letting himself be a pushover—which is essentially the vibe he projects.

It’s not that Quinn isn’t busy. He is. Incredibly. As The Salt and Pepper Fox, he operates a lunch delivery business in which he makes pretty much everything from scratch with fresh local ingredients, assembles the lunches by hand and delivers them all over town himself, one by one—all (somehow) for around 12 bucks per order.

“Everybody is out there hustling hard and these things happen,” he says after the writer finally arrives. “Plus, it gave me a chance to have a beer and talk to these guys.”

By “these guys” he means the bartenders. Over the course of our meeting and interview, we’ll go from The Drake to La Taqueria to the Garrick’s Head Pub. And all along the way, the tall, tattooed Salt and Pepper Fox seems to know a version of “these guys” in every location. In fact, he knows them between locations. We get stopped multiple times while walking by people who are either friends or clients or colleagues, which is interesting when you learn that Quinn feels the local food scene in Victoria “can be a bit cliquey.”

IT’S NEVER A STRAIGHT LINE

“Food has always been a part of my life,” says Quinn . Growing up in Halifax, he was surrounded by fresh food. His uncle was a fisherman. They’d regularly set up picnics and have lobster boils by the sea, where the family would feast on the local catch. “We’d eat two lobsters each and have a good time.”

In the eighth grade, his mom met a sailor and decided to take a chance and move her small family to Victoria. Arriving on the exact opposite coast from Halifax, Quinn felt like an obvious outsider, carrying with him the hallmark Maritime accent. But it wasn’t long before he started to build a community, playing in bands and at 17 years old, getting hired on at Eugene’s Greek restaurant.

“I never intended to be a chef,” he says without a hint of his old accent. “I was just a punk rock kid working to pay rent.”

While working at Eugene’s, he received a call from David Bohti, who would eventually go on to become a lifelong friend and collaborator. Did Liam want to come work at Pescatores? he asked.

“It really felt like fine dining to me at the time,” he laughs. “I was a bit scared. I had never really seen much better at that point. Anyway, I basically worked between both places for the next six years.”

At Pescatores, Quinn started to consider his future, as any young adult does. Questions about what was next surfaced in his mind, and at the urging of his sous chef, he was persuaded to go to the Culinary Institute in Charlottetown, N.B. But before he could do that, he needed to do some upgrading.

“I had dropped out of school to work in the restaurants, and I had to do adult classes to get my diploma before I could get in.”

Working two jobs and going to school, Quinn got a view into the lifestyle of a chef, which is never really a 9-to-5 job. There are almost always stupidly long days. But he handled it because he believed it was worth it.

“I thought the school was super-prestigious,” he recalls. “But when I got out there, I discovered it was really just a bunch of kids who didn’t know what else to do with their lives.”

CONT’D

“Everybody is out there hustling hard and these things happen,”

Feeling somewhat underwhelmed, Quinn started looking for other opportunities. He applied for and landed a six-month internship at a restaurant called Waterloo House in the Bahamas, working for the first time with chef Justin Simeon. It was a lauded position that put the energy of being in a working kitchen back into his bones. He never went back to culinary school. Connecting with Simeon was the first part of his years-long journey back to Victoria. Following the internship, he spent four years in Calgary, helping Simeon open a number of restaurants, including awardwinning Rush.

“I don’t like to say I got burnt out,” he says of making his choice to leave Calgary and come home to Victoria. “I definitely worked a ton of hours and was tired, but I knew I always wanted to come back. It was just time.”

BREAKING INTO VICTORIA’S FOOD SCENE

After returning to Victoria, Quinn decided to take a bit of a breather and just absorb the scene. He worked as a barista at the Parsonage Café, where he eventually took on the food program.

“It’s weird, though,” he says. “I’ve been back in the food scene for four years and I’ve done some big events since then and I run my own business, but I feel like a lot of people still think I’m just a guy who makes breakfast bagels.”

This is where the cliquey-ness of Victoria’s food scene comes into play. Quinn is a fixture in the local downtown community. He’s cool with “D-Boy” at Lucky Fortune Tattoo, he knows “Ketner” from Hey Happy, Jordan at Still Life, the guys at the record shop in Fan Tan Alley. Everyone likes him. He is affable and a good conversationalist. He’s an easy guy to hang around with and has an abundance of experience in food. But he still finds it hard to break through to the inner circle.

“With the more established food community, I feel like they don’t even know who I am,” he says, jokingly adding, “It’s like, do I have to wait for an invite in the mail to be part of the larger scene?”

When I ask him about that struggle, he laughs again. “You’re going to make me go there, huh? I think, basically, it’s really easy to rub somebody the wrong way or get on their bad side by doing something innocuous—but I don’t think there is room for that kind of attitude here.”

For Quinn, cliques or protectionism are not the way forward. He wants people to work together, quickly adding that that’s how we get to compete with food scenes in bigger cities. He is also proud of what he does and loves working in the community.

“If I’m competing with anyone, it’s Subway or whatever. A local food truck or restaurant? That’s not my competition, that’s my community.”

WHAT IS NEXT FOR THE SALT& PEPPER FOX

Toward the end of our evening (and, admittedly, after a few mescal margaritas from La Taqueria), I’m struck by Quinn’s quiet vision. He talks like a guy who has just kind of rolled with it all along, but there are hints throughout that say otherwise. He claims to be a guy who is “just slanging lunches,” but at the same time he talks of teaming up with his girlfriend, urban food garden designer Tara Campbell (who was heavily involved in the development of the Food Eco District in Victoria and runs a blog called The Nectar Thief) and getting a small piece of land to grow and harvest a lot of his own food. But before that happens, he plans to grow the Salt and Pepper Fox to a point where he can pay “respectable” wages and get his staff health plans, “probably over the next 18 months.”

My suspicion is that in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be seeing and hearing more of the Salt and Pepper Fox—and that the invite he has been looking for won’t be long coming; more likely, he’ll be the one sending them out. E

“I don’t like to say I got burnt out,”

The Making of a Pasta Artisan

Matt Horn turns ancient, organic and stone-ground grains into eight styles of handcrafted pasta and nine of frozen ravioli.

By Shelora Sheldan

Pasta’s influence on the world’s palate is profound. Its starchy goodness is western society’s go-to for almost any occasion. Consider the abundance of Asian ramen and udon noodle shops on our urban streets and Italy’s encyclopedic array of shapes and sizes in our pantries. It’s difficult to resist the noodle’s allure. It’s versatile, easy to cook and fills you up, especially in times when stretching a dollar is tantamount.

The downfall of pasta’s popularity is the use of highly processed durum wheat, keeping it affordable while sacrificing key fibre and nutrients. But recently, pasta’s profile is seeing a shakeup of sorts. To address diets and dictums, varieties have increased, crafted from organic, whole wheat, corn, quinoa, black beans and rice flours. Taking it a step further still, heritage wheats are being resuscitated, coming back from the brink of extinction to be cultivated and appreciated. Ancient wheat varieties such as emmer, spelt and khorasan are all coming into play, rich in fibre and nutrients, turning the noodle on its head.

They’re grown not by Fortune 500 industrial conglomerate farms or used by celebrity chefs to further their careers, but by a humble group of exacting and hardworking individuals, artisans passionate about sustainability, the local food movement, community and health.

In the heart of the Cowichan Valley, I visit chef and pasta artisan Matt Horn hard at work at his Cowichan Pasta Company. Since 2010, he’s been making and selling a line of fresh and frozen pastas using locally grown grains and ingredients, born out of a chef’s desire for the best product. The valley is a fitting location for any artisan. Celebrated for its farm-to-table precepts as well as its wineries, cideries, fishing and foraging, it’s also home to North America’s first CittaSlow designation. It is the first company of its kind in Canada.

On

On behalf of myself, all the wonderful staff that have passed through these doors, and wineries that have been part of this experience...

We thank YOU!!

The doors will close for the last time on May 23rd.

Please stop by to wish us well, and of course stock up on all your favorite BC Wines!

The 35-year-old co-founder works out of a pint-size atelier in Cobble Hill, sharing space with another artisan, Brad Boisvert, a cured meat producer and chef. Stainless steel work tables, a La Monferrina pasta machine, a walk-in cooler and a dehumidifier for drying the pasta—this is Matt Horn’s studio. Here he works alone six days a week listening to ’90s classic rock and handcrafting eight styles of pasta and nine frozen ravioli, including four seasonal varieties. On the day of my visit, Matt was using stoneground organic khorasan wheat (commonly known as kamut and grown in Armstrong B.C.), which boasts a rich, nutty flavour. It’s the conduit for a ravioli of stinging nettles, hazelnuts and cream cheese, all local of course, a special order for an up-island chef. This was followed by a batch of squash and hazelnut ravioli for his own company.

Matt started connecting the farm-to-table dots fresh out of the culinary management program at Ottawa’s Algonquin College in 2000. His first job was at that city’s long-established Domus Café under chef John Taylor, who started the region’s Slow Food movement. “It’s where I learned most of my craft,” says Matt of the eatery, which emphasized local, regional and Canadian cuisine. “Getting to meet the people who grew the food was amazing,” recalls Matt. “The farmers would come in, like ‘Crazy Dave,’ the chicken farmer.”

With his new vocation, Matt vowed to return to the Island. He had attended Shawnigan Lake School and was smitten with the area’s “natural environment and laid-back lifestyle.” When a cook’s position opened up at Cowichan Bay’s Masthead restaurant, he jumped at the chance, taking his soon-to-be-wife Genevieve Maguire with him. When the head chef he worked under quit Matt was thrown in to running the kitchen for the next four years. “There was a lot of push [there] to make it as local as possible,” says Matt. “I was getting to meet all the producers in the area, from Victoria to Qualicum Beach—and 11 years ago there weren’t a lot! I enjoyed that aspect of seeking out the best product,” says Matt. “And that’s how Cowichan Pasta started up. I wanted to use as much local product as possible.”

He started working out of Shawnigan’s then Amuse Bistro, with a KitchenAid pasta attachment and a little freezer. His first two offerings were a Dungeness crab squash ravioli and a Cowichan Bay spot prawn ravioli. Smoked chanterelles, freshly foraged nettles and seaweed were also some of the other fresh ingredients incorporated into

Matt Horn making pasta at his atelier in the Cowichan Valley

“he works alone six days a week listening to ’90s classic rock and handcrafting eight styles of pasta”

this Farm there WERE some Wine Chicks. After 18 amazing years we are moving on ....

“Don't cry because it's over - Smile because it happened" —Dr Seuss We leave reading "Oh The Places You'll Go!

pasta and sold as fresh noodles and frozen ravioli in bags enough for two at local farmer’s markets.

“The flour, the cheese, was all Cowichan Valley,” says Matt, “but we have diversified now,” referring to the grains grown in Armstrong. “The wheat was coming from Qualicum Beach,” he explains, “a hard spring wheat that we were having stone-ground at True Grain. It’s a very hearty wheat,” he adds, “and produced a nutty, dark-brown product that some people had issue with because it wasn’t a regular white pasta. But,” he notes, “it was grown on the Island, and I was determined to use it!” Selling his first products at the Duncan Farmer’s Market, the biggest question was, “Why is it brown?”

What didn’t work during those early days? “Halibut and sea asparagus was not well received,” says Matt. “And it gets back to having to explain what sea asparagus is.” Nettles, another hyper-local ingredient, while a big hit at the farmer’s markets, was found to be too obscure for the retail shelves. Save for those custom chef orders, it’s been taken off the roster.

It was around that time that he met Bruce Stewart, who had just purchased Cowichan Bay’s organic True Grain Bakery, where the wheat was being stone-ground. “We were grinding semolina for Matt’s pasta,” says Bruce, “and he was interested in the different grains we used at the bakery. It really impressed me how passionate he was about working with local products.” When Matt mentioned that he’d like to open a pasta company, the two tossed around the idea over a couple of beers before Bruce became a 50-percent partner, overseeing the stone-grinding of the wheat for the pasta and advising on financial matters.

Each organic stone-ground wheat varietal used at Cowichan Pasta is ground into semolina and maintains its unique characteristics. For example, some, like spelt, are higher in protein with a coarser texture. Khorasan is a little lighter and “in tune with what people are looking for in a pasta,” says Matt. To make the bell-shaped campanelle, it has to be “super, super dry.” Emmer, with a history dating back 8,000 years, is low in gluten and easier to digest for those with gluten sensitivities but is harder to shape into anything except fettuccine.

“The moisture is important,” explains Matt, “it’s always changing. They all take water differently. If it’s messy or sticky, it won’t come out of the machine.” While he uses a machine to knead and extrude the dough, checking the moisture status requires a hands-on approach to feel the dough and make any adjustments. “Some days I wish I was just using one grain (durum) to make pasta,” laments Matt, “to make it a little more uniform. Unless I wanted to get into the technical side of measuring moisture with expensive tools, I’m using my hands to play with the mixture and make sure it’s as close to the last batch as possible. It’s also more rewarding,” he adds, “making the product with all those challenges.” Spoken like a true chef and artisan.

Cowichan Pasta has amped up production since the early days, from 200 ravioli made late into the evening in a borrowed kitchen, to 70 to 80 kilos in an eight-hour shift.

Matt and his wife, Genevieve, and their two young daughters still eat pasta a couple of times a week, citing the ravioli as a quick, easy and healthy meal for kids. His favourite? “The khorasan campanelle. I love doing a smoky cream sauce with spicy Italian sausages loaded with lots of veg,” he admits.

To appeal to a broader audience, Cowichan Pasta changed their packaging to entice the local grocery chain Thrifty Foods. Gone is the cardboard label over a cellophane bag. Instead, a gorgeous navy blue and white box with a large grinding stone logo and die-cut window showing off each pasta shape sits pretty on the shelves of Thrifty’s 26 locations.

Success continues for the small company, and pasta’s influence endures, without sacrificing quality, ingredients or lifestyle.

The latest development sees a pallet of the company’s dried pasta heading to Nova Scotia. “To sell a product,” advises Matt, “you have to have a great product—something different than anyone else. And that’s what we have.”

To find out where to buy Cowichan Pasta Company products, visit their website at cowichanpasta.com for retail locations as well as online sales. E

The Pork on Your Fork

It’s easy to imagine that the pigs snuffling around in the straw at Stillmeadow Farm are enjoying themselves. With their mouths curved into permanent smiles, they charge across their big pens, muddy snouts aloft, when they see Tom Henry approach, the guy who scratches their big floppy ears and brings them regular treats of vegetables and day-old artisan bread.

It’s true that these spotted “plum pudding pigs”—a rusty orange Tamworth and chunky black Berkshire cross—are destined to become breakfast bacon and pork chops, but today they have lots to eat and drink, room to socialize and an open pasture beyond the barn door. They seem to be facing their fate without stress or fear.

If we’re going to eat meat, this seems to be the ideal way to make it. Tom’s pork is not inexpensive but it’s ethical, and he sells it to chefs and butchers who care about how and where the meat they serve is raised.

Still, Tom Henry is pragmatic about pork. Stillmeadow

Farm is a small operation, but one of the largest on the island. He ships 20 pigs a week to a small abattoir in Duncan, sending about 1,000 pigs to market each year. He raises his pigs in a series of converted poultry barns, with access to outdoor pasture in good weather and no farrowing crates for sows, even though he says such confinement can be good for protecting tiny piglets from being crushed by their mothers, at least for the first few days after birth.

While he’s not big on labels—the natural, organic, certified humane guarantees you’ll find on today’s pork products—Tom is a niche pork producer with particular protocols, and when you buy Metchosin pork, it’s from his farm.

If you’re looking for happy pigs, this is a good choice.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

When it comes to the pork on your fork, there are many

questions to ask, and often some pretty confusing answers.

A query about the origins of the pork chops on a major supermarket meat counter is met with a quizzical expression, and a promise that it’s a local product and the finest quality, of course. And what’s local?

Well, probably B.C. or Alberta or Saskatchewan at least, says the guy in the white apron filling the shelves.

And how is it raised? Free-range? What is it fed? What is the breed? Um, not exactly sure.

You’ll need to go to a small grocer, specialty market or butcher to find out exactly where your pork’s coming from or, better yet, talk to a local farmer.

Here on Vancouver Island, there are just three main pork producers: Stillmeadow Farm in Metchosin, Tannadice Farms in the Comox Valley and Sloping Hill Farm near Qualicum Beach. All have “farrow-to-finish” operations—that is, they breed sows, birth piglets on the

Do you know where your pork chop comes from and how it was raised? Cinda Chavich gives EAT readers a primer on Island pigs.

The naturally raised porchetta, provolone, broccolini, salsa verde sandwich at Roast. Photo by Rebecca Wellman

farm and feed them to market weight for slaughter. Each farm has different production methods and raises different breeds, but you’ll see their branded pork on local meat counters and restaurant menus.

You might find other labels on pork, too—BC Pork, Johnston’s pork, “hormone and antibiotic free” pork, Certified Humane® pork, even pork with no origin at all. It’s pretty safe to say that this is all what’s known as “commercial pork,” raised in the modern industrial manner. Pork from the BC Pork Producers Association, labelled BC Pork, comes from the 18 commercial farmers they represent, most processed at Johnston’s in Chilliwack, a packer that’s developing its own brand for this local, Fraser Valley pork.

At the other end of the scale are the small mixed farms and hobby pork producers, often organic operations raising heritage breeds and selling meat directly to consumers at the farm gate.

And then there’s commodity pork, the vast majority of what we buy. We produce 30 million hogs across Canada, mostly in large-scale operations, with sows confined to small farrowing stalls and their offspring fattened to market weight in the fastest and most efficient way possible. It’s the reason pork is some of the cheapest meat on the market.

As they have with chicken and eggs, however, consumers are demanding more humane conditions for farm animals. Large supermarkets and restaurant chains have responded with the Certified Humane® label for meats. While it’s an improvement, critics argue that this humane labelling amounts to green washing of the large commercial production system, tweaking but not substantially changing the way most pork is produced.

And buyer beware: the “hormone-free” and “antibioticfree” labels on pork are mainly marketing. Hormones are banned in pork production in Canada and the U.S. so all of it is “hormone free.” As well, there are prescribed withdrawal times before slaughter for animals that have been treated with antibiotics, making all meat “antibiotic free.” The label “raised without antibiotics” indicates the animals were never given antibiotics.

BC PORK

In British Columbia, commercial pork production happens on a much smaller scale than in most areas of the country. In fact, B.C. produces just one per cent of the pork produced in Canada. Only 10 per cent of the pork consumed in B.C. is raised in the province, and just a tiny percentage of that on Vancouver Island.

Like the entire B.C. pork industry, Vancouver Island pork production has been shrinking as a result of assaults on many fronts—from free trade to rising feed costs and provincial government regulations that closed many small slaughterhouses. The competition from much larger producers across Canada and the U.S., even the price of real estate, conspire to keep pork production low in B.C., says Geraldine Auston of the BC Pork Producers Association.

There are 18 commercial producers in B.C., down from 25 just five years ago, and most are relatively small family farms, sending 3,500 to 10,000 hogs to market each year. The only island-based commercial producer is

Tannadice Farms, although owner Allan McWilliams says his operation is much smaller than most.

“We have 75 breeding females and are marketing 30 pigs per week,” says Allan of the Tannadice fresh and cured pork you’ll find at independent grocers and on restaurant menus. “We’re the last holdout of the island producers—15 years ago there were eight commercial producers sending 250 hogs a week to market.”

Sloping Hill Farm near Qualicum Beach is another branded island pork producer, but unlike Tannadice, which raises Landrace-cross pigs in closed barns, they produce a free-range, Hampshire, Duroc and Berkshire cross that’s favoured by chefs for its flavourful, wellmarbled meat.

You’ll find free-range, heirloom pigs on several smaller farms across the island, too, farmers that buy a few weaner pigs each season to fatten for market and sell directly from the farm gate.

At Blenkinsop Valley Farm, hobby farmer Twyla Rusak has a small herd of 30 Berkshire and Ossabaw Island hogs, a rare heirloom breed revered by sausage-makers for its ultra-high fat content.

“The meat is dark, marbled and full of flavour,” she says of the animals she feeds with vegetable scraps from The Root Cellar.

Omnivore Acres is a small mixed farm in Saanich where Jim and Catherine Gowans raise 40 pigs outdoors on pasture each season and sell directly to customers. Jim, a long-time livestock nutritionist and swine expert, has devised a special diet for their pigs that’s augmented by corn, apples and vegetables from their market garden, producing pork with a healthy, Omega-3-rich fatty-acid profile.

The Gowans are small, responsible pork producers and that’s the ideal, but they say the conditions for raising pork on the island are not. For one, there’s a lack of infrastructure for small livestock producers, few large animal veterinarians and very limited access to island abattoirs to process pigs.

“Challenges for production include high feed costs due to transportation and lack of knowledge and support to potential new farmers,” adds Catherine Gowans. That all makes it difficult to compete with low-cost, imported commodity pork that’s sometimes labelled local, even when it’s only cut or processed on the island.

PORK ON THE PLATE

With all of these local choices, you’d think most chefs would be serving island-raised pork. But it’s not always that simple.

It’s often butchers and charcuterie makers—those who can use a whole pig and all of its parts—who buy premium heirloom animals from small island producers. Larger retailers and restaurants that specialize in pork can have trouble finding enough of the cuts they need from small local suppliers.

There’s always a line-up at Roast in the Victoria Public Market, and most of the customers are waiting for a juicy porchetta sandwich, topped with crunchy pork crackling.

“It’s our number-one seller,” says Maryanne Carmack of the pork loin, spiced and wrapped in pork belly and roasted to perfection in their combi oven. With the Roast’s requirements for such specific cuts, it’s impossible

to source their pork from local producers, she says.

“We buy belly and loin and we have pretty rigid specifications,” says Maryanne of the BC Pork the sandwich shop sources from Johnston’s in the Fraser Valley. “We would love to source locally, but we need a consistent size and type of animal. Most local farms are raising a variety of heritage breeds, and while they’re super tasty, we have systems and recipes and need a specific product every time.”

The BC Pork they source from Johnston’s is commercially raised but high quality and delivered fresh every week.

“If we had more access to local pork we would buy it, but they can’t keep up with our demand,” she says.

THE PORK CHOP CHALLENGE

The good news is, if you want an amazing local pork chop to slap on the barbie, it’s as close as your local grocer or butcher shop. Peppers in Cadboro Bay offers three kinds of pork, from the premium Metchosin (Stillmeadow) pork to island-raised Tannadice pork and BC Pork. Tannadice brand pork is also available at Country Grocer and at McLennan’s Island Meats. At Slater’s Meats, the thick chops are cut from Fraser Valley pork that arrives fresh via Hertel Meats in Port Alberni. Root Cellar owner Adam Orser sources his pork from at least three different places.

“We take two to three pigs a week from Berryman’s,” says Adam, describing the local, free-range pork from Saanich in the meat case and used in their house-made fresh sausages. The local “island” pork comes from Tannadice Farms while the BC Pork is from Johnston’s. The Red Barn sells both Metchosin (Stillmeadow) pork and conventional pork.

The Village Butcher has fresh cuts of Stillmeadow pork, while the cured sausages and pork products at The Whole Beast start with Stillmeadow, BC Pork from Johnston’s and sometimes other farms.

“Between the Village Butcher and me, we buy six to 10 pigs a week,” says The Whole Beast’s Cory Pelan.

“And we’ll buy the odd pig from a smaller farmer if the breed is neat and the feed is interesting or there’s a story behind it,” he adds, describing one Salt Spring Island farm where the heirloom Ossabaw Island pigs were finished on apples.

At Choux Charcuterie, chef Matt Swiech creates a variety of pork sausages and cured pork products and sells brined, ready-to-cook cuts. They bring in whole pigs and butcher them at the shop, as well as local pork from Stillmeadow, Sloping Hill and Johnston’s, he says.

Or if you want to buy your island pork directly from the farmer who raised it, head to the meat counter at Ravenstone Farm Artisan Meats in the Victoria Public Market. Logan Smith says they buy 40-50 heirloom breed weaner pigs each year and finish them outdoors on their small farm at Qualicum Beach to sell in their own shop— the only farmer-owned meat counter in town.

Premium pork has a premium price—50 to 100 percent more than commodity pork—but the flavour and texture are superior, especially when you can find a thick chop on the bone that’s expertly cut. For the juiciest chop, brine it in a sugar/salt brine for several hours before grilling.

C h ic k p e a C h i c

CHICKPEA BURGER

GARLICKY GINGER VEGGIE PICKLE

SRIRACHA CASHEW CREAM

FRESH SPROUTS

TOASTED BUN

You could say we’re bonkers for garbanzos or simply full of beans. But chickpeas are this years “it’ ingredient. Having been the unsung hero of vegetarian fare for years, they’re now the meaty sustenance of style in the kitchen and on your plate. Remarkably versatile, the subtle flavour lends itself to creative savoury and even sweet dishes. Go on, dare to go meatless!

Spicy South Asian Sliders

Move over meat. Burgers have a new love this summer: garbanzo beans! For best results, make the slider mixture a day before cooking and leave enough time to soak the nuts for the sauce overnight.

MAKES 8 TO 10 SLIDERS

Sriracha Cashew Cream

1 cup unsalted cashews

½ cup Thai coconut milk

½ cup chopped cilantro

1 lime, juiced

1 Tbsp Sriracha sauce

2 tsp sea salt

Sliders

2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1-398 ml can, drained and rinsed

1 cup cooked quinoa (TIP: Try a mix of white and red or black)

1 cup chopped cilantro

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 Tbsp sriracha sauce

1 Tbsp peanut butter

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/3 cup breadcrumbs + extra for coating (Tip: Panko works well)

Olive oil + butter for frying

8-10 small buns

For the sauce, coarsely chop nuts in the food processor. Turn into a bowl and top with enough cold water to cover. Let sit, at room temperature, at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.

Drain cashews, and then place back in the food processor, or for a creamier result use a bullet or vitamix. Add coconut milk, cilantro, lime juice, sriracha and salt. Whirl to blend as smooth as possible. Taste and adjust seasoning – you may want to add a little more coconut milk. Makes about 2 cups. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

For the sliders, place chickpeas, quinoa, cilantro egg, ginger, sriracha sauce, peanut butter and soy sauce in a food processor. Whirl to mix, but don’t process to a smooth paste. You want some chunky bits. Scrape into a bowl and mix with 1/3 cup breadcrumbs. If you have time, refrigerate mixture overnight. The flavours blend and the mixture firms up better.

Form into 8-10 balls, and then flatten into patties. Lightly coat with more breadcrumbs. Working in batches, pan fry sliders in a mixture of melted butter and oil, about 3-4 min per side. Start at high heat, and then reduce to medium as needed. Keep warm in a low oven until ready to serve.

Serve on toasted buns spread with cashew sauce. Top with a punchy Asian-style pickle (see below) and fresh sprouts.

Garlicky Ginger Veggie Pickle

Similar to a Cantonese pickle, but with the addition of fennel, this is a cross between a slaw and pickle. It is crisp, sweet and sharp all at the same time. For ease, slice veggies on a mandolin. Great topping for burgers, sandwiches, tacos, salads - you name it!

1 cup thinly sliced cucumbers

1 tsp sea salt

1 red or yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 cup shaved fennel

½ red onion, thinly sliced 1½ cups rice vinegar

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup thinly sliced ginger (leave peel on)

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1-2 chili peppers, halved

1 cup thinly sliced carrot rounds

Place cucumbers in a large bowl and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt. Let stand, at room temperature, for 1 hour. Rinse and drain. Place back in the bowl (rinse out first) and add pepper, fennel and onion. Set aside.

Fill a non-reactive saucepan with 11/2 cups water. Add vinegar, sugar and ginger. Bring to a boil, stirring often to dissolve sugar. When boiling, add garlic, chili peppers and ½ tsp salt, and then remove from heat. Stir in carrots, then let cool for 15 min. Pour mixture over veggies in bowl and let cool completely. Divide between 2-1 L Mason jars. Refrigerate up to 1 month.

Crunchy Spring Salad

A punchy creamy hummus dressing is an ideal match for spring asparagus and fresh peas. Crispy salty chickpeas layer in an interesting texture.

SERVES 4-6

2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1-398 ml can, drained and rinsed

2 Tbsp olive oil

Generous pinches of sea salt & ground black pepper

¼ tsp each smoked paprika and ground cumin

¼ cup homemade or store-bought hummus

2 lemons, juiced

1 lb thin asparagus spears

1 cup shelled peas

For the crispy chickpeas, preheat oven to 400F. Pat chickpeas dry with a kitchen towel, then spread out a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and cumin. Toss to mix. Roast, stirring occasionally for 35-40 min. Turn heat off, and let cool completely in oven. Store in an air-tight container, at room temperature, up to 3 days.

For the dressing, blend hummus with lemon juice. Thin with hot water, if needed. Blanche or steam asparagus and peas until tender-crisp. Drain, and then toss with dressing. Arrange on a large platter and sprinkle with half the chickpeas. (Use up remaining crispy chickpeas for other salads or snacks.)

CRUNCHY SPRING SALAD. THINK FRESH FROM THE MARKET PEAS, CUCUMBER AND ASPARAGUS. DON’T FORGET THE FRIED CHICKPEAS.

Double Trouble Ice Cream Sammies

Besides quality ice cream, the key to a good ice cream sandwich is a cookie that’s soft, even when frozen, yet can stand up to the chilly filling. Surprise, surprise, this one, made with chickpeas, is both soft and yielding. Be sure to use two different types of ice cream to take it over the top.

MAKES 12 COOKIES FOR 6 SAMMIES

1¼ cups cooked chickpeas

2/3 cup almond or peanut butter

¼ cup maple syrup

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

¾ cup chocolate chips

6 cups ice cream

Whirl chickpeas in a food processor until well chopped. Add almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Whirl to mix until smooth. Occasionally scrape down the sides.

Scrape into a large bowl and stir in chocolate chips. Batter will be soft and sticky. Refrigerate to help firm up, at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Form dough in 12 large balls, then space out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a fork, flatten each ball.

Bake in preheated 350F oven until set, about 15–18 min. Cookies won’t “brown” but they will feel firm to the touch.

Let cool on baking sheet 5 min, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Scoop ice cream into 6 portions. Sandwich one portion between two cookies. Wrap in plastic wrap, and then gently squeeze cookies to flatten ice cream. Repeat with remaining ice cream and cookies. Freeze until ready to serve.

CLASSSIC CHOCOLATE AND HOYNE DARK MATTER ICE CREAM FROM VICTORIA’S COLD COMFORT

text, recipes, food styling Jennifer Danter photography Michael Tourigny

art direction Jennifer Danter & Gary Hynes

CHICKPEA & CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

LIFE, LOVE, LUNCH.

EAT goes behind-the-scenes at Part and Parcel in Quadra Village.

Part and Parcel is a restaurant made manifest by two of the best restaurant and food minds Victoria has to offer. Grant Gard and Sterling Grice are well known in Victoria for the time they’ve put in in the trenches of restaurants such as Pescatores, Bon Rouge, Ferris’ and Brasserie L’Ecole. It was through the years of dedicated service to our tiny food-centric town that Part and Parcel came to be one of the bestloved dining spots in the city. I sat down with Sterling, Grant and Grant’s wife, Anna, on an off day at the restaurant. It was nice to see the three of them take a breather from the hectic pace that typifies the daily activity of the tiny eatery. Gone were the throngs of diners, quiet was the normally buzzing kitchen in the back, and peaceful were these three friends and partners. Anna, with the lovely breezy demeanour that so personifies the restaurant’s service operations, kept our thrift-store coffee cups full as we chatted.

Grant never set out to be a chef. When I asked him about his first cooking job, he proudly exclaimed, “I was a sandwich artist at Subway!” It was a way to make money that gave him time to skateboard and party, which is what he came from the East Coast to do. “It was a means to an end. I wanted to be a kid.” Grant moved through the ranks of Victoria restaurants, becoming a sous-chef by the time he was 21. At the same time, Sterling, who carries award and reputation as one of Victoria’s favourite industry servers, was following similar footsteps in front-of-house. Both Sterling and Grant had their eye on one place in particular: Brasserie L’Ecole. For a Victoria chef, this is one of the best places to be mentored and to truly be immersed in technique. For a server, this is where you are able to serve some of the most discerning palates, be around exquisitely executed food and work with a kitchen team that believes in the heart and soul of French brasserie cuisine. In the fall of 2008, Grant and Sterling were hired within two weeks of each other. “It was a huge coup [for both of us],” remarked Sterling, “[Brasserie L’Ecole] was and probably still is the best restaurant in Victoria.” Sterling was soon spending his days at his Asian street-food joint, Foo, which he was getting up and running, and his nights at “Brass,” putting in 16-hour days. After Foo

Words Jill Van Gyn Photography Dean Azim CONT’D

took off, Sterling started to eye up Grant for another partnership, “Grant was my favourite kitchen guy. Kitchen guys can be dicks. Grant was not only not a dick but he was the hardest worker there. He was always the first guy there and the last guy to leave.” Grant had found his stride at Brasserie and became enamoured with the use of local ingredients and the way he could transform them. After years of working in various positions under the tutelage of Sean Brennan, learning all he could about how to utilize the best our farms and forests had to offer, it was time to make a go at a solo career.

Grant and Anna Gard teamed up with Sterling to formulate a plan. Grant had spent some time doing food reconnaissance in Portland and was adamant about setting up a food truck. However, the trio quickly realized that Victoria is not a city built for this type of business. “It’s not like Portland or L.A. where you can just pull up and park in the street. You basically have to pay rent to use someone’s parking lot.” When the location in Quadra Village came up in February, 2013, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It had been a restaurant for years, first as a fish and chip spot and then a kebab shop. Not so fast. “It was the ugliest thing you have ever seen,” says Sterling “and it had never even been zoned for a restaurant.” The Gards put in more than 80 hours of scrubbing grout alone. As the team worked to get the restaurant ready, they did battle with the city, never knowing until the day they opened if they would be fully licenced and permitted.

For Anna and Grant, Part and Parcel is a reflection of how far they have come in their personal lives. “If you had told us 10 years ago that we would own a restaurant, we would have thought you were lying.” Anna and Grant struggled for years with substance abuse. The pair has been sober for 10 years this April, and Part and Parcel embodies their commitment to repairing their lives. The restaurant became a way to express the lives they had lost, which comes through in how the restaurant is run. Anna has grappled with depression and anxiety for many years, in addition to substance abuse. With addiction behind her, managing her anxiety became a focus. This is one of the reasons the restaurant is part counter service, part table service.

“I wanted to reduce the sense of urgency and anxiety that you get when ordering straight from the counter.” At Part and Parcel, you can browse the menu at your leisure, put your order in and the dish will be brought to your table. Not only does this reduce anxiety for the customer, it also creates a sense of ease for Anna herself. The bright, airy and relaxed atmosphere adds to this sense of ease and has allowed Anna to become an integral part of the restaurant.

Part and Parcel is a good example of what Victorians want to see Victoria become in terms of how food represents our Island culture. Victoria food lovers are a relaxed and laid-back people, but we are ferocious when it comes to the use of our beloved Island ingredients. We want interesting, new and ground-breaking, but we also want integrity, authenticity and a little bit of our mum’s cooking thrown in. Part and Parcel has achieved this.

“It was the ugliest thing you have ever seen and it had never even been zoned for a restaurant.”

CONT’D

left: Grant and Anna Gard

right: Scenes from a day at Part and Parcel

Making a falafel

Scenes from a day at Part and Parcel

Philomene

Grant spends his time exploring new ways to use offal, repurposing vegetable waste for flavourful oils, turning burnt bread into a textured seasoning, and revelling in the seasonal produce he gets from Square Root Farm on the Saanich Peninsula. Anna dedicates herself to bringing heart and soul to the restaurant, running the front-ofhouse, ensuring that everyone is cared for. Sterling, known for his stellar eye for the behind-the-scenes aspect of running a restaurant, manages the business end and looks forward to the day when he can retire to a small island knowing he has done his part for Victoria.

Revealing a story behind a restaurant changes how you experience the space, how you see the people behind the dishes, and how you appreciate the food that is served. Today when I walk into Part and Parcel, I can feel the sigh of relief and contentedness breathed out by the owners. The years of 16-hour days, bad tips, mouthy customers, spilled wine, oil burns, personal struggle, recovery, marriage, love and loss are honoured in the daily routine of the restaurant.

As Grant puts it, Part and Parcel has a simple objective: “Learn things, feed people and make people happy,” and we are only too pleased to come along for the ride.”

Part and Parcel

2656 Quadra St.

11:30-9:00 (closed Sunday and Monday)

Open for lunch and dinner

778-406-0888

www.partandparcel.ca

Instagram: @partandparcelvictoria

“Grant spends his time exploring new ways to use offal, repurposing vegetable waste for flavourful oils, turning burnt bread into a textured seasoning, and revelling in seasonal produce.”

Drizzling chicken jus over pork belly confit

Local List Guide

DUNCAN

HUDSON’S ON FIRST

Award winning dining in a beautifully restored heritage home. Local ingredients, classic techniques and made from scratch cooking are a just few reasons to visit us in Duncan more often. Celebrate Bubbles & Brunch, Lunch and Dinner.

163 First St. Duncan, BC, 250-597-0066, hudsonsonfirst.ca

DUNCAN GARAGE CAFE & BAKERY

Nutritious and unbelievably delicious vegetarian breakfast, lunch, baking, grab'n'go, coffees,smoothies and more. Using only the best ingredients-organic and local of course!Busy, Happy, Funky and welcoming downtown vibe. Open 7 days/week.

330 Duncan St., Downtown Duncan (across from the railway station), 250-748-6223

SALT SPRING ISLAND

HENRI PROCTER REALTOR

New kitchen, new home? Henri is an award winning Realtor, serving Saltspring for 30 years. Positive, friendly and professional, Henri will excel in finding your perfect match.

Henri Procter, MacDonald Realty, 250.537.1201, henriprocter@gmail.com

101-170 Fulford-Ganges Rd., Salt Spring Island, realtysaltspringisland.com

FERNWOOD ROAD CAFE

A funky little café with an incredible view, great coffee and lots of home baking - for breakfast, lunch and dessert. Winter hours (closed Wed) Weekdays 9-5pm, Weekends 10-5pm.

325 Fernwood Road, (just across from Fernwood dock, north end) Salt Spring Island, 250-931-2233, fernwoodcafe.com

MATTICK’S FARM

ADRIENNE’S RESTAURANT & TEA GARDEN

Come in and experience our Restaurant & Tea Garden. We offer daily specials that feature local and fresh items. Enjoy the sun on our outdoor patio these upcoming months, and feel free to make reservations by giving us a call!

We are open daily for Breakfast, Lunch and Afternoon High Tea in our Restaurant, Deli, Bakery and Ice Cream. 5325 Cordova Bay Road, Victoria, BC, 250-658-1535, AdriennesTeaGarden.com

VICTORIA PUBLIC MARKET WHISK

We are coming out of winter with a new attitude! Lots of great ideas at Whisk at the Market, featuring stacking silicone steamers by Chef'n, spiralizers by Westmark and lots of new Spring linens. Wedding registry available. At the Victoria Public Market, 778-433-9184, whiskvictoria.ca, Facebook and Instagram. Open 7 days a week

CHEESE

THE HAPPY GOAT CHEESE COMPANY

The Happy Goat Cheese Company is located in the idyllic Glenora Valley, just south of Duncan. Using traditional methods, we make aged, raw milk cheeses using fresh milk from our own herd of happy goats. 5060 McLay Road, Duncan, BC 250-701-7533, info@thehappygoat.ca

5 Canadian Cheeses Under 5.

by Laura Peterson and Andrew Moyer

Standing in front of a cheese counter with dozens upon dozens of cheeses can be daunting, especially when the responsible person in the back of your brain is telling you how expensive they all must be. In part, this is true. With the sorry state of global economics and the increase of milk prices in Canada, it is not great news for the price of cheese. But fret not! There are still many affordable cheeses to be had. Here, we list 5 of our favourite Canadian cheeses that can be found for under $5/100g at most delis:

Le Calumet

Produced just west of Québec city in the small town of Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly by Fromagerie Bergeron, this young smoky cow’s milk gouda is perfect for a midday snack and shines in the kitchen. The cheese is aged for only 6 weeks before being lightly smoked, giving it a supple and smooth texture that begs to be melted. The name is an ode to the Native tradition of smoking a peace pipe before business - calumet de la paix - a symbol of peace, friendship, and hospitality. A great companion to beer, try with blonde ales or pilsners.

Noyan

Owner and cheesemaker Fritz Kaiser has been making cheese for over 30 years using traditional methods from his Swiss upbringing. In Noyan, south of Montréal on the border to New York, Mr. Kaiser creates a large variety of cheeses, one of our favourites being the namesake Noyan. It is brushed with brine for about 6 weeks and can be aged slightly longer, making for a semi-firm cheese with a smooth texture speckled with small ‘eyes’ and a nutty, fruity flavour with hints of mushrooms and dried hay. As it ages the strength of the rind increases, bringing a bit of funk into the mixture. Pair with medium bodied white or red wine, or with red ales or lagers.

Bleu Claire

From some of our very own Islanders we have the lovely Bleu Claire. In the valley below Mount Arrowsmith in Parksville, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks crafts 16 different styles of cheese. With their own herd of mixed breed cattle (including the rare Canadienne) they ensure a high quality of milk for all their cheese. The Bleu Claire is firm and crumbly while still maintaining a smooth texture. Slightly sharp and

a little tangy with only mild blue veining, it is a great blue for beginners or for seasoned blue lovers alike. Blue cheeses love white wine, dessert wines, and many styles of beer.

Nostrala

In a picturesque valley in the Kootenays we find Kootenay Alpine Cheese Co., crafting old-world style raw-milk cheeses from their own herd of cows. Their Nostrala - meaning ‘of this place’ - is a wonderful representation of the high quality milk they produce. The cheese is washed with brine and aged in caves, giving the cheese a slightly earthy flavour with notes of nuts and fruit. It is a great example of a simple cheese done very well. This would do well with a medium bodied red wine.

Chevalier

If you are looking for your rich brie fix this is the cheese for you. The triple-creme cheese has cream added to the milk, which seriously amps up the buttery flavour and unctuous texture. Although it is owned by one of the dairy giants, it maintains the profile of something made with care. This would pair wonderfully with a sparkling wine or a coffee porterthink coffee and cream.

But please, don’t let the dream of cheap cheese throw you off the more pricey options! You can be sure if you spend $10 on a sliver of one of the finest cheddars in the world (ahem: Montgomery’s Clothbound), you are going to have a stellar experience. The cost may seem ridiculous to some, but in actuality it is quite conservative. There are many factors that go into a cheese price, from the cost of raising the animals all the way to distributing it around the globe. Important to note as well, the yield from milk is incredibly small; on average, 10 litres of milk will yield little over 1 kilogram of cheese, sometimes much less. In the end the small producers do not end up with much left in their pockets, especially considering the long days and tedious but careful attention to each wheel of cheese - it is a true labour of love!

With all this in mind, we hope that this helps your financially responsible self be a little more easy going at the cheese case so you can guiltlessly indulge in that wedge that has been eyeing you up from across the room.

Pale Ale with Argentine-Style Hotdogs

THE BEER: Chase My Tail Pale Ale Yellow Dog Brewing

(Port Moody BC)

The beer screamed at me that it was a West Coast pale ale with the first sip. Its golden colour, its soothing malty start, and its hoppy bite at the end told me so. Like most people, I usually don’t drink especially light beers through the winter, so to me, this kind of beer marks the beginning of summer in B.C. The first day I can sit out on the back deck after work in glorious sunlight pushes me into the nearest liquor store to buy some pale ales, like Chase My Tail Pale Ale.

ABV: 4.5% 650ml bottle (facebook.com/YellowDogBeer)

THE CONCLUSION:

THE BITE: Argentine-style Hotdog

The last couple weeks have been sunny and warm and, in light of this, my family’s cooking has gone from inside to outside. Fire up the bbq! I wanted to have a hotdog, but something that was a bit more interesting than the usual hotdog of mustard + ketchup. So I turned to the Argentine-style hotdog, which uses chimichurri, salsa, and pickled red onion to give the usual hotdog a kick out the door. When I made the pickle, I threw in a hot chili (or two) to give it that extra punch.

I’m not sure which was better: The hot dog, the beer, or the summer sun. Probably the beer. Regardless, the beer’s slight hoppiness works in unison with the hotness in the pickled onions. The malts play well off the chimchurri and go really well with a nice rich hot dog; better to go with something heartier like a big ole’ smokey than a small “frank” so that the taste can cut through the various layers.

Colin Hynes

—By Shawn Soole

Forest to Glass

Classic cocktails from the farm and the rainforest.

pairing of complexity that melds nicely. To give it some brighter tones, Okanagan Spirits Maraschino Liqueur and Phillips Fermentorium Hop Drop were added and then finished with just a few drops of saline solution. The saline is the oddest ingredient in the mix but does the same to the drink as salt does for food. It makes it pop. This all gets stirred down and garnished with an in-house housemade sweet pickled fir tip.

For the past year, we’ve been talking about the explosion of local spirits and the distilling culture in British Columbia. More and more, the emergence of signature drinks using strictly local ingredients has become a focus for local restaurants.

Now we’re going to move into some classic renditions and twists using those same superb B.C. ingredients. First up is Stump Gin from Phillips Fermentorium, used in a cocktail I created for Olo Restaurant called Foraged & Found. I crafted this cocktail as the restaurant’s “house aperitif.” It is reminiscent of an aperitif of yesteryear called Martinez, which was imbibed on cruise ships and in fine restaurants before guests moved to the dining room for supper.

Stump Gin is not for everyone. It’s a niche item, perfect for creating cocktails that typify the West Coast and meant to give the experience of drinking a gin martini while walking through a rain forest after a rainstorm.

We started with Stump Gin and Odd Society Bittersweet Vermouth, a lovely

Foraged & Found

1 oz Stump Gin

1 oz Odd Society Bittersweet Vermouth

2 dashes of Phillips Hop Drop

2 barspoons of Okanagan Spirits

Maraschino liqueur

3 drops of 20% saline solution

Glass: Small coupe

Method: Stir and strain

Garnish: Pickled fir tip

The next cocktail is The Shirley, a drink created for Sooke using hyper-local ingredients from one of the newest and smallest distilleries in British Columbia, Sheringham, and one of the oldest meaderies in the province, Tugwell Creek. I love what Jason and Alayne MacIssac are doing at Sheringham—such a small, lovely distillery that delivers amazing products. And as mead becomes more mainstream throughout the U.S., Robert Liptrot and Dana LeComte at Tugwell Creek are right there.

The Tugwell Creek Solstice Metheglin, a traditional mead flavoured with Caribbean spices and ginger, is one of the products that works so well as a substitute for a classic aperitif like France’s Lillet Blanc. This makes the mead a great addition to classic-style cocktails. In this case, we are creating a martini-style cocktail. Seaside Gin, the latest release from Sheringham, is mixed in traditional proportions with a dash of the Apothecary Elder Growth Bitters to round out this seaside-inspired cocktail. Finish with an olive or get adventurous with a piece of sweet pickled sea asparagus.

Shirley

1 1/2 oz Sheringham Seaside Gin

3/4 oz Tugwell Creek Solstice Metheglin

1/3 pipette of Apothecary Elder Growth Bitters

Glass: Small coupe

Method: Stir and strain

Garnish: Olive or pickled sea asparagus

Come find Larry Arnold only at Brentwood Bay Metro Liquor

Rebecca Wellman

g TERROIR By Michaela Morris

Going Native

Imagine eating the same ingredients for dinner, night after night. You could change things up by roasting or barbecuing instead of frying chicken, sautéing rather than steaming broccoli and mashing as opposed to baking potatoes. No matter how skilled and creative you are, I guarantee you’d quickly become bored. Luckily, we have access to a huge range of proteins and vegetables as well as diverse ethnicities of cuisine. Most of us take full advantage of this and eat broadly.

Then why do we limit ourselves when it comes to wine? The world offers hundreds of grape varieties, many of which make intriguing and satisfying wine. Yet the majority of wine drinkers never venture beyond a handful of familiar favourites. It’s a shame to stick just to these. Wine provides the same variety you look for in your diet.

Not surprisingly, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah/Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc all make the top 10 list of most planted grapes worldwide. Pinot Grigio/Gris isn’t far behind. These all produce great wines and are popular for good reason. Referred to as “international grapes,” they have proven adaptability and make themselves at home in various climates and soils in such far-flung places as France, Chile, Australia, California, British Columbia and beyond. While they’ll taste different depending on their provenance, their varietal characteristics typically shine through, making them reassuringly recognizable.

Countering international grapes are those categorized as “indigenous.” These varieties are rarely found outside their country of origin and sometimes haven’t even journeyed beyond their actual birthplace. They are inextricably linked with the very specific place where they grow. Obviously international grapes have precise origins too (many call France their original home), but they have become just as or even more famous in their new digs. Indigenous (a.k.a. native) grapes, on the other hand, often haven’t yet had the chance to show what they can do on foreign soil. And those that have been transplanted are usually unrecognizable next to examples from the motherland.

With an estimated 550 genetically identified grapes and about the same number yet to be identified, Italy is the country richest in native varieties. This nation is playing to its strength and has increased focus on correctly recognizing its indigenous grapes and reviving many that were virtually extinct. Ian D’Agata, author of Native Wine Grapes of Italy, is fond of pointing out: “Ninety percent of all French wines are made with only 15 varieties and 90 percent of California wines are made with eight varieties.” You can probably guess which ones those are.

Italy isn’t the only country well-endowed with grape varieties. Less than one-third

crispy pork belly & pan seared chili-basil scallops

Let wines made from indigenous grapes transport you to exotic locales and give you a true taste of a region’s culture.

Indigenous Lacrima grapes. Courtesy of Stefano Mancinelli

the size, Portugal reports approximately 250 varieties, claiming the largest amount of native grapes per square kilometre. Though larger than Portugal and Italy combined, Spain and its 400 grapes should not be discounted either. Greece, one of the oldest wine-producing nations in the world and responsible for spreading viticulture throughout the Mediterranean, conservatively estimates 300. Many more countries such as Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Georgia are all teeming with their own unique gems.

Indigenous grapes aren’t necessarily better or worse than international varieties. They just had a different fate. While Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot bask in international fame, Hungary’s Furmint and Bulgaria’s Mavrud remain relatively obscure. Limited production and distribution make it harder to achieve celebrity status. Certainly not all weird grapes are wonderful, but many of them are. Poor winemaking may have held some back. Others may have been abandoned due to their low yields when quantity was more important than quality. Finally, political or religious circumstances in certain countries have curbed quality, production and/or export.

When our shelves are bursting with fabulous Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, why care about these lesser-known indigenous grapes? First of all, they’ll transport you to amazing and exotic locations, giving you a true taste of the region’s culture. As the world grows smaller and more uniform, these native grapes are an increasingly important and precious point of difference. They are intrinsic to their local ecosystems and truly sustainable. If a grape has been thriving somewhere for centuries, it likely gives the best expression of its place. It’s also more eco-friendly to nurture than rip up and plant with a more popular newcomer. I believe it’s our duty as wine drinkers to support the preservation of native grapes by drinking them.

I offer nine below that serve as a jumping off point for further exploration.

Tasting Notes

Whites

2014 Jidvei, Feteasca Alba, Sec, Târnave, Romania $12-13 SKU #410845

More than 2,000 years old, Feteasc Alb is one of Romania’s most planted varieties. A popular grape for sparkling wine production, it is also used for still wines like this. Clean and citrusy with fresh pear, bay leaf and a salty twist. Makes me want to eat fish and chips.

2013 KVINT, ‘Solaricco’ Fresco, Moldova $13-14 SKU #882605

Moldova has traditionally favoured French varieties; recently, however, indigenous grapes have been popping up in blends with international ones and occasionally appearing on their own. Here, Pink Traminer (a relative of Gewürztraminer), Aligoté (a less-common grape from Burgundy) and Moldova’s own Viorica variety give pungent aromas of jasmine tea, apple blossom, orange peel and candied rose petals in this dry, juicy and tangy white. Drink with Indian cuisine.

2014 Luzada, Albariño, Val do Salnés, Rías Baixas DO, Spain $16-18 SKU #886333

From Spain’s soggy northwestern region of Rías Baixas, Albariño (known as Alvarinho in Portugal’s neighbouring Vinho Verde) has risen out of oblivion and is starting to gain a global reputation. Luscious and ripe with guava, peach and melon balanced by zesty lime and a steely backbone. Think fresh halibut with a spicy fruit salsa.

2012 Château Megyer, Dry Furmint, Tokaji, Hungary $20-$23*

Hungary’s Furmint is one of the key grapes responsible for the world’s greatest sweet wine: Tokaji Aszú, arguably the world’s greatest. It’s also capable of making appealing dry wines like this. Expressive, round and minerally with tasty apple peel, apricot, white grapefruit zest and a blanched almond finish. Begs for roasted pork.

Reds

2013 Porca de Murça, Douro DOC, Portugal $13-14 SKU #114322

The Douro Valley is a hotbed of intriguing native grapes usually blended together in sweet fortified wine called Port. The same roster of varieties, including Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca, make equally powerful dry reds. Serve this mouthful of licorice, violets and black plum with lamb burgers.

2011 Zagreus ‘Vinica’ Mavrud, Bulgaria $21.49 SKU #233965

Bulgaria’s flagship grape Mavrud is battling it out in the vineyards with international varieties like Cab Sauv. Show Mavrud some support! Grapes for Vinica are dried for two to three months, concentrating flavours and grape sugars. Prune and blackcurrant are offset by tea leaf, tobacco and cocoa. Rich, chewy and substantial with round tannin, it would be a treat with venison.

Cont’d on page 53

Top shelf ouzo, chardonnays from from Macon and BC and a rising winery from Oliver lead this month’s selections

Spirits

Isidoros Arvantis Ouzo of Plomari Greece $28.00-34.00

The ouzo of Plomari is considered by many to be the best ouzo of Greece. It is the most popular and I for one cannot argue the point. Now available at reputable liquor stores throughout the province, I have purchased and consumed several litres and have never felt better. Under its influence I have become a witty conversationalist and definitely better looking. I am sipping a glass of Plomari on the rocks, as I write this little missive and it is virtually oozing with the flavours and aromas of anise, herbs and sweet spice. The Ouzo of Plomari is the perfect aperitif on a hot summer’s eve. Perhaps over a game of backgammon, but if you are considering drinking through dinner and over the rest of the evening just remember to lock up the porcelain! Consider yourself warned.

Champagne

Ployez-Jacquemart Champagne Extra Quality Brut NV France $45.00-50.00

When it comes to Champagne this must be one of the best values out there. The NV Brut Extra is superb in everyway. The blend is 60 % Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the remaining 40%, Chardonnay. Golden tints with a very fine mousse and an alluring bouquet of ripe apples, fresh baked bread, citrus and minerals. Full bodied and snappy with supple fruit and crisp acidity. The finish is unbelievably long and intense.

Whites

Marie-Pierre Manciat Macon “Les Morizottes” 2012 France $30.00-33.00

Winemaker Marie-Pierre Manciat is a pupil of the “hands off school of winemaking;” unless something goes terribly wrong let each terroir express itself, according to its personality. This translates into wines of great purity and texture. This lovely Mâcon is a fresh straightforward Chardonnay with a whiff of melon, citrus and spice on the nose. Balanced and elegant with a lovely creamy texture, supple fruit flavours and a long clean finish.

Liquidity Okanagan Chardonnay 2013 BC $22.00-25.00

Barrel fermented and aged sur lie for 11 months, Liquidity Chardonnay is a serious

Bonamici Merlot-Cabernet Franc Okanagan VQA 2013 BC

quaffer. Very aromatic, with citrus, pineapple, butterscotch and toast on the nose! Ripe and concentrated with a soft creamy texture and tropical fruit, spice and smoke flavours nicely balanced clean bright acidity.

Pfaff Traditional Alsace Gewurztraminer 2013 France $19.50-23.00

There is nothing subtle about this wine. It is a classic Alsatian Gewurztraminer of the post-modern genre. A veritable potpourri of exotic spice, lychee nut and rose petal aromas. Fat and lush with a wonderful oily texture and sweet fruit flavours.

Chateau St Jean Sonoma County Fume Blanc 2012 California $20.00-22.00

This Fumé Blanc is a Sauvignon Blanc, with a splash of Semillon (4%) and a dollop of Viognier (2%). A small percentage of the final blend has been fermented and aged in oak to round out the palate. The result is splendid. Very drinkable with a subtle smokiness underlying fresh citrus, peach and apple blossom aromas. Nicely balanced with ripe fruit flavours, vibrant acidity and a lush creamy texture.

Reds

Bergerie Da La Bastide Pays d’Oc Rouge 2014 France $11.50-13.50

The vineyards and wineries of the Lanquedoc have become one of the best sources of easy drinking “bang for the buck” wines priced to sell. This tasty blend of Grenache, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is light and fresh with bright acidity and juicy cassis and vanilla flavours.

Chateau Pesquie Le Paradou Grenache 2014 France $15.00-17.00

Le Paradou is another great value from the south of France. One hundred percent Grenache from 75 year-old vines, Le Paradou is aged in concrete tanks for 7 months. Medium to full-bodied with sweet fruit flavours and supple tannins. Simple easy drinking.

Chateau De Santenay Bourgogne Vieilles Vignes 2012 France $31.00-33.00

Medium-bodied with delicate cherry nuances on the nose and concentrated fruit flavours, nicely balanced with a fine patina of tannin and a clean dry finish.

Bonamici Merlot-Cabernet Franc Okanagan VQA 2013 BC $22.00-25.00

A very pleasant discovery over dinner at Café Zanzibar in Brentwood. Bonamici Cellars is a virtual winery based in Oliver. Winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in British Columbia Wines in 2014, this is definitely an Okanagan label to watch for. There is plenty going on here with concentrated black currant, strawberry and spice on the nose. Medium to full-bodied with gobs of fruit nicely balanced with polished tannins and a long finish.

Gran Mauro Primitivo del Salento 2014 Italy $15.50-18.00

This hearty Primitivo from the flat dusty plains of the Salento peninsula forming the heel of Italy is full-bodied and concentrated with blackberry, tobacco and spice flavours. Nicely balanced with a rasp of tannins providing structure and a long powerful finish.

Terroir cont’d from page 51

2008 Boutari, Grande Reserve, Naoussa PDO, Greece $22-25 SKU #140111

The Naoussa region in northern Greece is home to the top-notch Xinomavro grape. Often compared to Italy’s Nebbiolo, Xinomavro is similarly structured (firm tannin and pronounced acidity). Enticing with sweet spice, dried fruit, leather and a hint of autumn leaves. Beautiful alongside steak and grilled mushrooms.

2013 Stefano Mancinelli, Lacrima di Morro d’Alba Superiore DOC, Italy $30-33 SKU #71704

Stefano Mancinelli helped nurture the Lacrima grape back from the brink of extinction when only seven hectares remained. Today almost 200 hectares are planted in the hills above the Adriatic coast in Italy’s Marche region. A delightfully aromatic red with gorgeous scents of violets and lavender along with dried rose petals and fleshy cherries. Try this exotic elixir with pork and fennel sausage.

2010 Stina ‘Majstor’ Plavac Mali, Brac, Croatia $59-65 SKU #785121

Stina’s Majstor is a testament to Croatia’s incredible wine potential. Crafted from the indigenous Plavac Mali grape, which boasts Zinfandel (known locally as Crljenak Kaštelanski) as one of its parents, it offers grilled herbs, maraschino, subtle smoke, tamarind and cinnamon stick underlined by grippy tannin. Barbecue ribs?

Prices exclusive of taxes.

*Private wine stores only. All other wines available at BC Liquor Stores.

The Up Island Notes

COWICHAN VALLEY | UP ISLAND:

“Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures.” Said M.F.K. Fisher - so have a little wine and cheese - or mushrooms and local shellfish, under the moon, this June!

Cobble Hill is the happy home of the new Market@the Barn,1438 Fisher Rd under the red roof behind Cobble Hill fairgrounds. Open Friday nights and Saturdays. Come on and check out the evolving collection of stalls filled with locally made foods, produce and artisan products. While there be sure to drop in your ballot to win a gift certificate to the Cowichan Pub. contact themarket@gmail.com for details and times.

For all you fans of Sip & Savour Salt Spring, rumour has it that Salt Spring Island and the Chamber of Commerce- along with past participants of the stellar fall event - such as Auntie Pestos, Hastings House, and Rockfish Cafe might be coming together to host a spring version! Details were still in the works as I wrote this so if you are interested I'll post updates on twitter at; @come2yrsenses

Don't miss out on iconic Bill Jones' Deerholme Farms First Nations Celebration Dinner – May 21st (Victoria Day Weekend) – a tribute to the foods of the local first nations from our fields, forests and oceans. In addition, on Saturday, May 28th attend a First Nations inspired cooking class compiling Native food culture and ingredients. Learn to cook marinated clams cooked on a hot rock, traditional salmon cooked on cedar stakes, seaweed and oyster casserole and finally blackberry fry bread with a grand fir infused honey. www.deerholme.com for details.

May 20th sends off the first seasonal night of Dine on the Dock in Ladysmith, every 2nd Friday. For an economical $20, each evening features a local guest chef creating a variety of meals including a vegetarian option. What could be better than an evening of good food, enjoyed on the water in a beautiful setting! This event sells out regularly so be sure to get your tickets in advance. (lmsmarina.ca/events/dine-on-the-dock)

In Erington on May 1st learn everything there is to learn about growing mushrooms at your own home without any fancy or expensive equipment. Easy techniques for propagating and expanding mushrooms that you find in the wild, on the grocery store shelf, or from cultivars you purchase “ready to go” from suppliers. You know you want your own regular supply of home picked mushrooms to go with that hot- off- the- grill bbq steak! www.jessicawolf.ca

Do you like to experiment with ethnic foods? If so, renown cookbook author, chef and blogger Bryanna Clark Grogan will be the guest chef at Stir Cooking School in Nanaimo teaching you to create a 4 course Peruvian Dinner on May 12th. Peruvian food is one of the most diverse cultural mixes including Spanish, African, Chinese, Japanese and Italian influences. Complimenting the flavours; local craft beers. info@stircookingschool.ca

And last but definitely not least, the annual B.C, Shellfish Festival in Comox runs June 10-19th. Choose from multiple venues and events including an oyster farm tour, and FreshFest at Old House with chef Ned Bell. Lots of details still in the works so visit bcshellfish festival.com for updates and ticket info.

Should you manage to take in some of these wonderful foods, you might just need some aspirin to go with your full-belly 'aches' but I bet you'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

KIRSTEN TYLER

TOFINO | UCLUELET:

As of May 1st the full details about Tofino’s annual culinary festival Feast Tofino, which runs through May, will be online at www.feasttofino.com . This month-long

smorgasbord of culinary events draws early season visitors to the area to experience Tofino’s unique boat-to-table culture. It’s a chance to interact with local chefs, fishers and foragers, as well as guest chefs who make the trip for special Feast events.

Feast means dine around menus about town, many special dinners and events, and a dock festival event on Saturday, May 14th.

One of the special events is the 3rd Annual Boat to Tailgate Party, a popular celebration of the local fishing fleet and a fundraiser for local salmon research. This year’s event will be held in the Trilogy parking lot on Tofino’s harbour from 6-9pm on Saturday, May 7th and attendees have the chance to contribute to the barbecue personally by fishing that same day with any of Trilogy’s fishing fleet. The catch will be cooked up that evening by local chefs and enjoyed with live music.

On May 12th enjoy a six-course dinner prepared by local and visiting chefs in the beachside gazebo at Pacific Sands Beach Resort on Cox Bay. The Chef’s Long Table event also features sustainable fisheries information from the Ucluelet Aquarium.

Saturday May 14th is the Tofino Dock Festival, an afternoon of tasting and enjoying on Tofino’s inner harbour. Fresh seafood, educational tours of sustainable seafood processing and preparation demonstrations will all take place at the 4th Street working dock.

And finally, the 2016 Dirty Gourmet presented by Pacific Surf School and Shelter Restaurant is a weekend event of biking and gourmet food in the wilderness. Based at Mussel Beach Campground, you can come for the whole weekend of adventure or just dinner and live music by local band Little Saturday on Sunday night. Camping must be booked separately, all information on the website. For all event tickets and more information, please visit the website at www.feasttofino.com

Another extremely popular annual Tofino event (and an EAT-sponsored event) is the Tofino Food and Wine Festival, scheduled for the weekend of June 3-5 this year. Now in its 16th year, this weekend is a celebration of the marriage of food and wine, done Tofino-style. Grazing in the Gardens on Saturday, June 4th is the main event – an afternoon of tasting and sipping in the rainforest of the Tofino Botanical Gardens. Visiting and local chefs and wineries, cideries and breweries all come together to provide locals and visitors alike with an afternoon to remember. Other planned events include: a Patio Party at Long Beach Lodge Resort, the Cocktail Show at Schooner Restaurant, the Sunset BBQ at Shelter Restaurant, and the Morning After Bubbles and Brunch at Jamie’s Rainforest Inn. For more details and for ticket information, please visit www.tofinofoodandwinefestival.com.

Exciting news from Wildside Grill – plans are well underway for a sister location of this popular take-out joint at Pacific Sands Beach Resort. Surfside Grill will start with a similar take-out menu to Wildside, with some fun beach food add-ons like soft-serve ice cream, kebabs and churros. Owners are fisherman Jeff Mikus and chef Jesse Blake, who pride themselves on boat-to-table cuisine. The new location will be more of the same philosophy, and Mikus says they are eventually hoping to have a patio and liquor license at the new location. Opening date is some time in early summer, but watch www.surfsidegrill.com for up-to-date information.

And chef Cam Young’s new Sea Monster Noodle Bar will be open in early May at 421 Main St. on the Tofino waterfront. Open for lunch and early evening, Sea Monster will feature fast casual fare focused on take-out but also with indoor seating. Meat, seafood and vegetarian noodle and Asian street food dishes will add a welcome new element to our small town. Chef Cam is well known in Tofino, most recently with Shelter Restaurant, but also from stints with Tacofino, the former Spotted Bear Bistro, and Middle Beach Lodge. We look forward to this new venture and another quality addition to our vibrant culinary scene. —JEN DART

You deserve to be greeted, served, and remembered by the great people who work here. You deserve food that is cared for, crafted by the best chefs, and respected from the earth to your plate. You deserve wine and drink that is selected by the best of palates for your palate. You deserve to have all of this in an environment that makes you comfortable from the moment you open our front door. At Stage you are never taken for granted.