Travel

It’s the nature of a pretty port town; we get a lot of tourists. And every so often you run into a traveler looking for someplace to eat that offers a genuine slice of the local terroir...

While in the city I adhere, for the most part, to a diet of refinement and good ethics. That is, I seek out good quality food that more or less honours the trifecta standard of organic, fair trade, and local. But when I’m on the road these rules can admittedly slacken a little —sometimes a lot...

This profile of beekeeper, Helen Kennedy, was originally printed in Tourism Kelowna's "Snapshots of Kelowna."

Even before you take a bite, the Harbour Street Brasserie sweeps you off your feet. A beautiful garden and breezy front porch are the first sights...

So this is what bread feels like, I thought, walking across the red-bricked streets of Ann Arbor, with red brick buildings on either side of me, on one of the most excruciatingly hot days of the summer. I had come from cool and breezy Vancouver Island to Ann Arbor, Michigan on a mission; to experience the nationally-famous, world class deli known as Zingerman’s...

Halifax’s Farmers’ Market, born in 1750, is Canada’s oldest continuously-running farmers’ market. It is also, according to food mogul Anita Stewart, one of the top ten markets in Canada...

I had 2 free days a couple of weeks ago (doesn’t happen very often!) so I stole away for a 36 hour Seattle summer sojourn.  Took the Clipper down standby (nerve-wracking – I got the very last seat!), and a few short hours later was walking the hilly streets of Seattle.  

I was one of four fortunate food and wine media to clamber aboard the Rocky Mountaineer, and travel the tracks from Vancouver to Banff.  Based on previous railcar dining, and despite assurances to contrary, I remained disinclined to think of fine cooking in terms of train travel. But Rocky Mountaineer’s GoldLeaf kitchen team, with Executive Chef Frederic Couton (formerly of the Cannery) at the helm proved me wrong.

A whistle-stop visit to Calgary recently showed that cowtown chefs are dishin’ up more than honkin’ big steaks (not that there is anything wrong that). 

Vancouver contributor Julie Pegg tours rural Ontario for the local flavour.

With fewer and fewer visits “across the pond”, I was beginning to lose touch with the wining and dining scene in the city that spawned the magazine. So with laptop, overnight bag and a 5am coffee firmly in hand, I aim for the first ferry on a rainy Friday morning to mix a little business with pleasure.

As world athletes gather to compete in Vancouver this month, an international gathering of a different ilk takes place across the country, in Montreal. 

Not that I needed another reason to visit the wild wet west coast of Vancouver Island.  My list is long. For me, like countless others, Tofino and Ucluelet are a special place.  The sheer ruggedness of the coastline, the supreme power of the waves, the majesty of the forest.  I will never tire of the echo of crashing surf, the scree of the eagle and the sound of silence – at times, all at once.

Staff from the Victoria-based BBQ joint headed south last month to attend the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and came back with some stories. Grab some ribs and beer, and enjoy some armchair travel courtesy of Pig BBQ. 

Readers, I may have taken a little break from my web duties, but never from my wining and dining. Here is a bit of what I've been up to. On May 17th and 18th, EAT Liquid Assets columnist Larry Arnold and I swirled, sniffed, spat and scored along with thirty-some other judges from across the country at the 29th All Canadian Wine Championships in Windsor Ontario. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it

I was down in Sin City a few weeks back, hanging out while my fellow was at his annual hoteliers conference. I popped in to see an old school chum, a Victoria boy and sommelier whose passion and career path has taken him to great vinous heights in Vegas.

This week I finally checked out the new menu—and chef—at Diva at the Met. I’ve always admired Chef Quang Dang from his long sojourn at C Restaurant, but wondered how the rigorous simplicity of that ethic would transfer to a larger, more complex hotel kitchen operation. I needn’t have worried. In addition to being one of, if not the youngest, hotel executive chef in the city, Chef Dang is also one of its most inspired.

Nothing settles my grumpy side more than a foodie toodle from Vancouver. If up and out early, I’ll fuel up on gas, eggs and toast at a truck stop. A mid-morning start, and I’ll nose out a bakery for a warm savoury scone or buttery tart to nosh on over a locally roasted java. Hopefully that same bakery will have a loaf or two of hefty wholegrain or rye to take home. Late summer meanderings tend to follow farm stands brimming with the season’s bounty, or a family-run dairy offering rich milk and butter from their own cows.