Fresh back from a week-long driving trip on Vancouver Island, here’s a mash-up of my best food moments. If you’re headed that way soon, I hope they’re helpful. If not, then at least they may be entertaining to read!
First off: Victoria. Best known for high tea at the Empress and beautiful gardens, this touristy town and hopping off point to other spots hasn’t historically been considered a foodie town. In fact, it’s pretty widely acknowledged for its mediocrity when it comes to dining. But I think that might be changing – at least based on these two restaurants I ate at….
Brunch at Jam was a 45-minute wait in a line with young people who looked like they were planted straight from Portland. Ditto the plank wood walls and vintage signage announcing “Farm Fresh Eggs 2 cents.”
A blackboard with the morning specials featured a Brioche French Toast topped with lemon mousse and fresh strawberries and blueberries that I ever so reluctantly turned down in favor of buttermilk fried chicken on French toast topped with tomatoes, scallions and sour cream and served in a pool of jalapeno honey bourbon sauce. Trust me, it worked.
Fortunately, my neighbor to the right was having the special and, when she caught me coveting hers, asked if I’d like a taste. She took my fork, jabbed a big chunk of her breakfast on it and handed it back. It was as delicious as I’d imagined. The lemon mousse was not too sweet and the brioche – both on my and her dish was springy yet dense.
I also ordered their hash – and it was the best I’ve ever had. This hash wasn’t just a mix of sausage and potatoes, but crumbled biscuits and gravy too, all topped off with two massive eggs with beautiful orange yolks. My daughter had a bowl of black beans and bacon. Enough said.
But the most memorable part of the meal was the grapefruit brulee. Not grapefruit creme brulee, but literally half a grapefruit topped with sugar and blasted with a torch until it got that crunchy, toasty hard top. Breaking into the sweet candy top and down into the sour grapefruit was brilliant. I’m hoping this trend catches on here in Seattle.
Dinner at 10 Acres was fabulous too – and thoroughly packed by 7 pm on a Friday night. The owners bought their own farm in 2011, and you can now quite literally find the fruits of their labor on your plate. This Bistro/Bar/Farm has a large outdoor deck that’s got enough heat lamps and a glassed-in fire centerpiece to keep you warm on even a chilly evening. Blackboards throughout the restaurant tell you what fruits and vegetables are currently being harvest on the farm, and offer whimsical illustrations and quirky text like:
Broccoli: “I look like a tree.”
Walnut: “I look like a brain.”
Mushroom: “I look like an umbrella.”
Banana: ‘I don’t like this game.”
Before I tell you the absolute best part about this meal, a couple farm-style tapas runner-ups:
• House-made pate with a Scotch egg in the center, served with blueberries, a mustard gelee, a pickled cherry and toast points
• Quinoa fritters (battered but not a tad greasy) with hummus
But the star of the show is the rotisserie chicken. On Friday night, it’s only available beginning at 6:30 and until it sells out. We got there at 5:45 and put our order in. I was skeptical. How good can chicken ever really be? It was phenomenal. Crackling, well-seasoned skin gave way to moist juicy chicken over which you can pour the pan drippings on (yup, they serve them up on the side as you would maple syrup). The home fries and big helping of salad greens were thoughtful, but it’s just too hard to stop eating the chicken.
Dessert was a chocolate pate with crushed pistachios and whipped cream with Fernet Branca (it’s not just taking over cocktails but desserts too!) and raspberry coulis.
Other memorable food moments in no particular order:
Weird Canadian Potato Chips: Ketchup chips, yum. Why don’t we have them here?
Haggis & Cracked Black Pepper, Flamegilled Aberdeen Angus, Cherry Tomato & Herbs…The verdict is still out.
The tiny “Donut Shop” in Port Alberni claiming to have: “The Best Donuts on Vancouver Island.” I didn’t have any other donuts on Vancouver Island so I can’t defend their assertion but Chocolate with Peanut Butter Cups, Maple Bacon and Chocolate Walnut and Chocolate Almond give Top Pot a run for their money.
Shopping at Goats on Roof Old Country Market in Coombs. Yes, there really are goats on the roof. But the market is a veritable treasure. Where else can you get artisan baked bread, dozens of types of jerky, every gourmet food imaginable, self-serve local unpasteurized Fireweed honey, lunch (cafeteria style), toys, art supplies, homewares ala World Market style and ice cream? Some of the things I bought: Pitted red sour cherries (to serve in cocktails), pickled walnuts, peach bitters, blood orange olive oil, Saskatoon Berry compote, red cocktail napkins with illustrations of moose on them (for the holidays?)
Roasting marshmallows on our fire pit outside our log cabin in rugged, beautiful (chilly) Tofino. (Too bad I passed up the bag of pink and white marshamallows on steroids back at Goats on Roof.) Since we didn’t buy S’mores fixings, my daughter went all Paula Dean on us and plopped hers on top of a chocolate donut. New take on the cronut? Also, urban roasted marshmallows served with a pot of chocolate and Nutella cookies at Clay Pigeon in Victoria.
Farm-fresh heirloom tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil and drizzled with blood orange olive oil. Eaten on a deck overlooking high tide in Parksville. That same tide, the next morning, would be way out and reveal a massive oyster and clam bed (with locals gathering the bivalves in buckets) – and loads of sand dollars to collect.
Buying a live Dungeness crab and trying to get it into a pot of boiling water with no tongs. This involved frightening my daughter when the crab angrily fought back as I tried to grasp him with two spoons. I finally succeeded and in 15 minutes he was boiled red and ready to eat. I’ve never cooked and cleaned a Dungeness crab before, but I’m very adept with east coast blue crabs. Basically, it’s just the same, only bigger. The warm, white chunks of meat may have finally converted me from Dungeness hater. My daughter couldn’t get enough = another live crab the following night. For just $15 a crab – and considering what you pay for it at restaurants — it was money well spent.
