Comfort Food
Colleen’s cooking From South African flavours to chocolate STORY & PHOTO BY MARCIA JANSEN
You’d be surprised by how many different nationalities live on Salt Spring Island. And each one of them has their own comfort food.
Marcia Jansen is a Dutch journalist and writer who has lived on Salt Spring since 2012.
Colleen Bowen moved from Cape Town, South Africa to Canada in 1988; from 35° above to 35° below Celsius. “I met my Canadian husband in Cape Town. He asked me to come visit him in Jasper and I’ve never left. That’s what you do when you’re in love,” 63-yearold Colleen smiles. “I arrived in Jasper in springtime. The mountains, the turquoise lakes, the grizzly bears, it was all so incredibly beautiful. The winter was different. It took me a while to get used to the cold temperatures, but I learned to ski and skate on the lakes and learned to appreciate the winter time as well.” When she left her home country, South Africa was on the brink of a civil war. “It wasn’t a difficult choice to leave South Africa. It was before Nelson Mandela became president. He got released from prison in 1990, two years after I left, and the country was in turmoil back then. I found it hard to live in a country where three-quarters of the population is being discriminated against and where the gap between the poor and rich is so large. Some people can put blinkers on and live in gated communities, but I can’t. In all those years I’ve never thought of going back other than on a vacation, but wherever I live, my heart will always beat to an African drum.” Sixteen years ago, Colleen left Alberta and moved with her now 25-year-old daughter Sam to Salt Spring Island. “I came to Salt Spring for the first time during a kayak trip and ended up looking for a house. I wanted a new life for me and my daughter, a new horizon to explore. And after 16 years I still feel very fortunate that we can live in this beautiful place.”
Colleen Bowen at her Chocolate Cottage on Salt Spring.
In 2010 she bought a local chocolate business and started a new adventure. “I am a foodie and had my own restaurant in Jasper, Malowneys Wine Café. But I didn’t want to start a restaurant again. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also hard work. Especially when you live in a tourist community like Salt Spring Island. In summer it’s crazy busy and in winter you have to scramble to make a living.”
October/November 2016 – AQUA – Page 39