Victoria Summer 2011 Wine Food Coffee Chocolate and Life Chapter 1 · Tuesday July 5, 2011 by colin newell
Andrea and I have been doing more in our life together.
Here is the thing folks. Life is short. This is not a dress rehearsal. Get on it.
So in the last year or so we have started living like there is no tomorrow – because, hey… you never know.
Photo above right – Vintner owner Andy Johnston was brought up on a Welsh hill farm and graduated from Birmingham Medical School in 1971 as a physician, and soon made his way to Edmonton, Alberta, where he enjoyed a 30-year practice as both a family doctor and a businessman.
One of the new items on our journey are the Wine pairing events at the Fairmont Empress. It is a crazy affordable night on the town that is hard to resist.
And with your free friends of the empress membership card (15-20% off a bunch of stuff) – it is downright frugal.
For “friends”, it is around $45 dollars for 5 wines and 5 food pairs.
Tonight the featured Estate Winery was Averill Creek on Vancouver Island.
One note of housekeeping. An Estate wine is a wine that is produced with grapes grown on the farm that is making and selling the wine. It is that simple.
Averill Creek grows all the grapes for all the wine that they sell.
I am no wine expert but what I do know about Vancouver Island wines is – they have most certainly evolved in the last 17 years or so. Why is that? Climate change… in part. Additionally, the skill and abilities of the vintner and a bunch of other reasons.
I am not a wine expert. Have to be clear on that. And this blog is more about a specific wine-pairing event. So here goes…
Tonight we sampled 5 wines. 4 of them were grape wines;
The Pinot Grigio. The Gewurztraminer. The “Foch Eh”. The Pinot Noir. And a bold Blackberry wine, the “Cowichan Black.”
The P.G. (bold, bright and fruity – with lots of sharp acid and citrus) was paired with an Sea Urchin “Uni Veloute” — kind of a fritter… on top of a Salmon tartar. Brilliant.
The Gewurztraminer was mated to a nugget of natural Vancouver Island Buffalo Mozzarella, baby greens and some wild boar bacon. Again, the G. is big and bold with lots of fruit, apple, figs, spice…
Foch Eh? A humorous take on Beaujolais but made Canadian with 100% Marechal Foch. This light bodied red is delicately structured with spicy dark berry flavors, soft tannins and juicy acidity, wrapped up with a lengthy, dry finish. Paired with seared Ahi tuna, prosciutto and asparagus. Awesome balance!
The Averill Creek Pinot Noir. This is a wine in development for Averill Creek. The Pinot is my wine and I know it fairly well. This Vancouver Island example has a few years of development ahead of it. The Pinot’s I pick tend to be big, bossy and in your face. This one has subtle reflection and delicate nuance – light duty fruit and spice… but hey, it was created on Vancouver Island… so that is astounding all by itself.
The pairing of seared duck breast, morel mushroom risotto and fig jus was overpowering for this gentle Pinot — but perfectly prepared nonetheless!
Cowichan Black – a blackberry wine with a 12.8% alcohol bite – and a sweetness perfect for after dinner, on ice cream, flambe or over your breakfast dairy free waffles a la yours truly!
A bit more on the vintner, Andy Johnston: His transition to grape growing was a natural one – his passion comes naturally. At this particular night at the Empress Hotel, he was engaging and informative – encouraging the guests to discover what was in their glass.
Bottom line here folks: Get out there and explore your Island.
If you do not live on Vancouver Island, take another look at your region, neighborhood and city…
And remember: Life is for the living… and the eating and drinking.
Big hats off to Fairmont Empress food and drink manager, Theresa Dickinson, who, in part, makes these events rock. She is a gigawatt of energy and brings a lot of pizzazz to everything that happens at the Empress.
Colin Newell lives in Victoria B.C. Canada and with his loving Wife, Andrea, endeavor to enjoy life just a little.
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Victoria food reviews 2011 Moon Under Water Pub Bay Street · Sunday June 5, 2011 by colin newell
It has been a while since we tried a new brew pub in the city of Victoria – Our fair city has, perhaps, more than its share of good brew pubs; the likes of Canoe, Spinnakers (one of North Americas first brew pubs) and Swan’s comes to mind – all good in their own right – most of whom that have had food offerings that have varied wildly over the years – nowadays they are all pretty passable.
We popped into the Moon Under Water Pub on a very, very, very quiet Sunday afternoon – I think there were 3 parties of 3 folks each finishing up their late lunches and since we were coming in 2:20ish, we were guaranteed a buffet selection of seating options. One of the owner-partners came out to greet us with an overview of what was happening or not happening on their menu that day.
The Moon Under the Water pub is more like a traditional English public house than your typical table service joint downtown – My personal Island favorite, The Crow and Gate, south of Cedar, British Columbia (near Nanaimo) is like this; show up, walk up to the counter/bar, place your drink order and food order, maybe run a tab if you are inclined and take a number to your table. I am used to it – not everyone else would be… but it is fairly clear on the door and on the menu that this is the way that it is. All good.
One of the benefits for me of this concept is that you can talk to the beer keep or host directly about the specialties of the day or something about the beers without having to break the rhythm of the serving person who brings out your grub – although they could be the same person. I personally like the relaxed feeling of running a tab and/or paying for your food ahead of time and only having to worry about a gratuity after the meal is complete.
The Beer Needless to say, with Andrea and My sister Lisa along for this exploration, we were going to try all of the beer offerings (in a responsible fashion of course…) – harder to do when there is only 2 of you. We tried the Blond Ale, the Best Bitter, the IPA and the limited edition Brown Ale.
The Blond is a American style wheat beer with 10% wheat malt. Very crisp without being overarching in the citrus department. Sometimes the Ales can have too much grapefruit and come off a tad puckery (not a skilled beer reviewer folks – just relying on my senses from coffee tasting.)
The IPA was very, very drinkable – delicately balanced. Not to hoppy or aggressively in your face like a lot of other locally produced IPA’s.
I enjoyed the Best Bitter – crisp and balanced with a slightly lower alcohol/volume content than the IPA.
Finally, I shared the limited edition Brown Ale with the table. More complex sugars were present but like the other offerings, they tend towards the conservative end of the beer flavor spectrum for being “more drinkable and less quirky and strong flavors.”
I think as Moon Under the Water brewpub finds their legs, the beer will get more interesting and mature – but for now, I give them top marks. I would much rather drink a polite Bitter than wrestle with a raspberry espresso stout with an oil drum of attitude — especially on a first visit.
The Food – OK. Here is the thing about brew grub. One of my litmus tests for a kitchen is: If you have onion rings on the menu as a starter and they are reasonably priced (between 4 and 7$) and they come from CostCo, trust me folks, I am shooting you down! Joyfully, the bar keep advised me that their rings are hand cut, coated and dipped in house. They are at the higher end of the price point, yes – but so what. They were fabulous, fresh, crispy, hot and a tad oily – served with a paprika aioli.
So you know: An onion ring is perfect (this is the test part), when you break them in two and the coating and the onion breaks at the same time. And when you bite into the perfect onion ring, a piece of onion and breading (coating) comes off in your mouth. Unlike most other places in Victoria (contradict me all your want) where the onion rings come directly from CostCo, Walmart or Thrifty Foods. Selling commercially made previously frozen onion rings in a pub, any pub… is a sin.
The rings at the Moon Under Water Pub on Bay street were worthy of a return visit – if only for the onion rings and some more beer. Enough said.
Andrea and Lisa had “Moon” burgers several different ways with different sides. The burgers were considered “very good” and repeatable – each one came with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato and cheddar cheese (as an add on). Lisa had the mixed salad (very nice and fresh) and Andrea had the fries, thin cut and likely made in-kitchen.
I had the Steak Mushroom Beer pie in puff pastry with the side mix salad.
For those most familiar with the traditional steak and mushroom pie (more mushrooms, less steak), this was the opposite; chunks of lean steak that you actually had to cut up with a knife – and overall, melt in your mouth.
The Pub – Moon Under Water is at 350B Bay Street just before the Bay Street bridge on the Victoria side. It’s in an industrial neighborhood where you would not expect to find a pub. Lots of free parking and overnight parking for those having a really good time. The interior, high ceilings and lots of art, is pleasant and welcoming. The pub has several “snugs” or alcoves for more private gatherings – and a games room. In the main room there are no TV’s that I could see (thank goodness!)
It is an unassuming space – does not bug me at all – and any reviewers that would find fault with this are not actually food reviewers, they are self acknowledged interior designers… obviously.
The staff are very, very friendly, informed and informative about the menu and the beer.
Going back? Definitely!
Colin Newell lives and works in Victoria B.C. Canada – edits a very old coffee website and writes for EAT Magazine.
Victoria Spring 2011 - Good Eats - Tofu dirty rice re-boot · Monday May 30, 2011 by colin newell
Andrea and I have tossed this screaming hot recipe around a couple of times – almost always with wonderful results. Here is today’s snapshot. This is NOT a truly vegetarian dish… but it could be with the removal of the “chicken” based stock and Ham.
1 large Onion
1 Red Pepper and 1 Yellow Pepper
1 Anaheim Pepper
2 Jalapeno Peppers
2 tablespoons tomato paste.
2 cups rice
2 cups “chicken stock”
1 package (400g) extra firm Tofu
3 tablespoons Emeril Lagasse Creole Spice mix
2 cups diced Ham
1/4 cup canola oil
Step 1 – put rice on to cook (set aside once fluffed)
Step 2 – chop all peppers and onions into small chop (dice)
Step 3 – Combine 3 tablespoons creole mix with 1/4 cup oil to make a liquid paste
Step 4 – Cut Tofu into 1 X 1” cubes. Toss into creole oil/paste mix
Step 5 – Pan fry Tofu until all sides are browned/crisp + set aside.
Step 6 – Heat 1/4 cup oil in large pot. Add all onions and peppers
Step 7 – Saute veg for 10 minutes until softened.
Step 8 – Add tomato paste to 1/2 cup chicken stock
Step 9 – Combine rice + veg + tofu to complete dirty rice,
adding remainder of stock.
You can garnish with green onions, cilantro or even sprinkle whole or crushed nuts.
We warned – this is a VERY hot dish. Not for the faint of heart.
Creole Spice Mix:
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Makes 2/3 of a cup.
Victoria Spring 2011 - Reading with Grant Lawrence at Bolen Books · Monday May 16, 2011 by colin newell
Andrea and I attended a book reading at Bolen Books, Hillside Mall in Victoria B.C. Canada – featuring Grant Lawrence, author of Adventures in Solitude, CBC host, former singer in a Rock and Roll band, outdoors man and self described raconteur…
(And) That latter talent, Grants reading and telling of stories, brought out to shine in one of the first Spring evenings where the Sun poked through a Venusian thick cloud cover that has not broken in what seems like months.
I picked up a copy of Grants book way back in the Fall of 2010 – just prior to a trip to Hawaii, shortly after it had been released… and was more than pleasantly surprised – and if you have not read my little review, it is over here
My wife, Andrea, describes Grant Lawrence as adorable (in much the same way as the staffer at Bolen Books introduced the author) – and got that extra kick when the “voice” was finally attached to the face and the energy within the book. We are big supporters of CBC radio and Grant’s engaging and quirky deliver is an almost instantly recognizable ingredient in today’s CBC radio product. In person, Grant is a natural story teller with a down to Earth folksy and self effacing tone – surprised as much by the success of his soft cover as he is with the engagement of the audience.
And the funny twist for me was the reality that I had read the book cover to cover twice before starting to “bed time” read it to my dear wife – whose response to its first few chapters was less than stellar. And let me clarify this – I often read stories while we are getting ready to fall asleep and the genre is generally action filled Science fiction or mystery… and for some reason, my reading of Grant Lawrence’s work was coming off as a little too poignant. Imagine that. I mean, Grant’s early years were most certainly angst ridden – by any measure. But my deliver was magnifying the sorrow beyond that which was a pleasant read.
So when Andrea heard Grant deliver a troublesome passage (The Pot Luck passage as I call it…) and when it was over, she turned to me and declared “We need to start reading Grant’s book again… but work on your delivery!”
Because as Grant reads it, it is adorable and sweet and yes, poignant.
Gotta work on that part of my style.
Anyway – if you haven’t got a copy of “Adventures in Solitude” – by Canadian author Grant Lawrence… get on it.
Colin Newell lives in Victoria, gets paid to write occasionally, gets rewarded for drinking coffee constantly – and whose opinions are often darker and stronger than the brewed beverage.
