Summer fun food and drink - 2010 Vancouver Oly rant · Friday August 29, 2008 by colin newell
My definition of irony:
Gordon Campbell and his band of merry scoundrels (The Liberal Party) are dropping in the polls.
Now wouldn’t it be ironic (Don’t you think…) if Gordo was ousted in the next election? An election date that he cast into law.
And he would miss Jock Fest 2010…
At least as premier of the Province that is…
By then he could be a member of VANOC… which is largely land developers anyway.
Something to think about. In the photo above, Mister Premier deflects bad words, thoughts and odors with his fingertips – let’s see if he can pull the next election out of his hat. What!? No hat? Whoops!
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Summer fun food and drink - Choux Choux Eat like France in Victoria · Wednesday July 16, 2008 by colin newell
830 Fort Street in Victoria B.C. Canada – on the North side of this bustling one way street – huddled in the middle of a scrum of antique stores and government offices is Choux Choux Charcuterie.
According to their website: “Choux Choux Charcuterie is Victoria’s premiere charcuterie. They specialize in house made pates, sausages, smoked and cured meats. Their products are made on premise, using only fresh, free range, un-medicated pork from Sloping Hill Farm in Qualicum Beach, Mill Bay rabbits, Cornish Game hens and chickens, free-range chicken livers, Quebec foie gras, and Cobble Hill lamb, when available.”
Food expert, Mark Engels, joined me for my first lunch here – and apart from the wall of cheeses, meats and bread that I saw in this cute little walk-in, I did not know what to expect… Okay, I did. Meat. Meat and more meat. Smoked meat. Cured meat. Cheese. More meat. Some bread. Meet. Cheese. Strange Cheese. More meat. Apparently this is a meat lovers paradise. Personally, I like to eat less of the red stuff and more of the green stuff – and I encourage everyone to do the same. Anyway.
When I saw that the lunch special was Sirloin with a swirl of steamed spinach and a lump of blue cheese… I thought to myself: “Self, what on Earth are they going to do with this?” Well – not surprisingly, our 2 identical orders arrived: 2 plates, 2 handsome slabs of beef perfectly cooked (medium rare I think) – about 1 ounce of steamed spinach and 2 or 3 ounces of melting grainy blue cheese on top of the steak. This is crazy, I thought. The French don’t eat like this… or do they?
After resisting the urge to growl and snap at anyone that came near my dish (we were, after all, sitting at a busy sidewalk as civil servants and beautiful people walked by) – and I knew they were looking at my sirloin. I growled under my breath – my upper lip curling slightly revealing perfectly sharpened incisors.
Anyway. The beef was insanely tasty and I felt pangs of guilt with each alternate bite and surges of a B12 rush with the other bites. The perfect follow-up to this feast would be curling up on the sidewalk with a good bone or chasing down a frisbee or a tennis ball.
But at $10.95, this was a fun and filling meal – heck, if they were to add frites (French fries all dressed) they could probably rival those beefy slabs from Brasserie L`ecole. Maybe just maybe.
Next visit: Cheese and bread. And that’s a promise!
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident, University employee and Pop culture savant. His food reviews on this blog make up for the endless political drivel!
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Summer all fun, food and drink marathon why is this family smiling · Friday July 4, 2008 by colin newell
Why is this family smiling? Well. To be honest, I think they have been watching my latest CoffeeCrew.Com poll with great interest. I picked out, what I thought, were the most promising 12 cafes in Victoria – excluded communities include Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Western Communities and anything North of the Malahat.
And yes, that leaves out some pretty amazing places – but one thing at a time.
The purpose of all of this, apart from the shameless self-promotion that I am getting… walked into The Black Stilt cafe today and introduced myself to the owner and he pointed out the giant banner over the food display case… CoffeeCrew.com is holding a poll of the cities best cafe – so vote for us or get the heck out!
Or something like that. Cannot be sure really. Seemed threatening. Then again maybe not.
That and the winner gets a custom Reg Barber tamper for the Bar – made in solid gold, silver or maybe aluminum… and a handle of organic farmed bird friendly balsa.
It also gives me a sense of how many CoffeeCrew readers, if any, live in Victoria.
So far I am pretty sure that there is at least 1. We have had about 200 votes in 24 hours – and you can only vote once in 24 hours… unless you change locations really quickly.
The 3 voters in the photo above seem pretty cheerful. I figure they have visited all 12 cafes today and sampled most of the drinks – the kid is probably on her 20th espresso – which would account for her cheerfulness. The parents, I gather, will be awake for a few more days.
Anyway. Vote for your favorite.
And feel good about it.
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Gas Price Rant #15 Criminal investigations coming to Victoria B.C. · Thursday June 12, 2008 by colin newell
Sometimes there is good news.
And although the skies over Victoria B.C. Canada did not rain gold coins, virgins or 20 dollar bills today… there is some interesting activity on the ground…
close to your neighborhood Gas station… maybe.
On the other side of the country, criminal charges have been laid against 13 people and 11 companies accused of fixing the price of gasoline in Quebec.
The suspects and companies operated in Victoriaville, Thetford Mines, Magog and Sherbrooke.
And we all know that gas prices in Victoria B.C. Canada are fixed by a automated telephone system called Viper. It’s collusion. It’s price fixing… and it’s criminal. And maybe, just maybe, lower Island residents may get a wonderful dose of schadenfreude.
As Jackie Gleason use to say… “How SWEET it IS!”
And although I personally have no evidence that criminal charges are about to be laid in the Victoria area… I can hope. And you can hope with me.
