We re-visit La Belle Patate - fine poutine on the West Coast · Saturday March 14, 2026 by colin newell
First open in late 2008 (bless their hearts!) La Belle Patate is at 1215 Esquimalt Road a block or two (maybe three) past the
Civic Center and Esquimalt’s original strip mall.
Their specialty is Montreal smoked meat sandwiches and Poutine.
Poutine – dish of French fries, topped with a thick beef (or vegan) gravy and a healthy scattering of cheese curds. And for those who feel that this might not be the most healthy combination of ingredients – We are completely ignorant to the fact that Poutine is a cruise missile with your arteries in the cross hairs. But good. So Good!And today we returned after a break… of a few years. Why?! – Why did we deny ourselves for so long!?
Walking through the doors, today, we were greeted with a hearty Colin Newell! (and Andrea! ) from Matty – We ordered two “Steamie” - the dreamiest of hot-dogs (dressed with kraut and mustard…) and a small order of BBQ Vegan gravied Poutine..
The hot dog is steamed and served on the standard bun with cheese, onions and any assortment of common condiments.
The Poutine, which arguably should be served on a skull and cross bones patterned plate, is as described above; fries, gravy, cheese curds… is so comfort food that every bite is yummy inducing. We washed it all down with a couple of samples of Matty’s private collection of Spruce Beer – - Spruce Beer is a carbonated water (with very little sugar ) and some curious botanicals. You love it or you don’t. I love it!
Lunch for two with more protein that is socially responsible – barely 14 dollars.
Matty is such a gentle giant – I regretted being away so long – but all the warmth and memories flooded back. No, you cannot have poutine every day – once in a while – when you need to feel the love that is all around you!Colin Newell is a Victoria resident (retired 2 years) and a big fan of friendly food and great coffee. With coffee mug in hand, he wanders the streets looking for the ultimate caffeine truth!
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Winter all food, fun and drink marathon begins - muffins updated · Tuesday October 14, 2025 by colin newell
I make my own muffins. Partially because I like to know what I am eating – and I have a hard time paying $2 for a muffin that contains stuff that I am not interested in… or may be allergic to. Lately I have been using Goat’s milk or Almond milk or a blend of the two.
Here is my recipe for Colin`s Kitchen Sink Muffins – they are healthy, rich in nutrients, low in fat, not quite vegan and if you are looking for daily regularity, they are as predictable as sunrise and reliable as gravity. Enjoy.
Dry Mix
2 Cups Whole Wheat flour and 2 Cups All-purpose Flour
1 cup Each; rolled oats, corn meal and (oat or wheat) bran (total=3 cups of grain)
1.5 Cups dark brown sugar (can be reduced to taste)
1 Tbsp Baking Soda and 1 Tbsp Magic Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Kosher or Sea Salt
2 Tsp Organic Saigon Cinnamon
(Optional extra spices); 1.5 Tsp Allspice, 1.5 Tsp fresh ground nutmeg
Wet Mix
3/4 Cup unsweetened Apple Sauce
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
3 Eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla
2 Cups Buttermilk OR 2 Cups Lactose-reduced 2% Milk OR 2 Cups Soy milk OR 2 Cups Almond milk OR 2 Cups Goat’s milk
Add Wet to Dry Mix – Do not over-mix.
Add from 2 to 4 cups of the fruit of your choice – I use finely chopped mango, or apple, or fresh figs, or anything in the way of frozen fruit medleys – the sky is the limit.
Put equal amounts in pre-greased or pre-Pammed pans – I use a pro-Ice Cream scoop for quantity management.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven – (or 22 minutes in a convection oven…) check for degree of done with a toothpick. Poke the muffins. If the picks come out clean, you are good to go. Let cool in pans for about 10 minutes and then air dry on cooling grid. Makes about 22 freezer ready muffins.The Coffee.bc.ca blog has been on the air for over 30 years! Edited and created by Colin Newell – long time Victoria B.C. resident and food/coffee/culture writer…
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Vegan roasted eggplant curry · Tuesday February 18, 2025 by colin newell
Sometimes a damp winter night calls for something warming, nutritious, delicious and comforting.
This eggplant dish meets all of those criterium — and it’s vegan too!
Now normally one would bake the eggplant in the oven, but we opted for 12 minute batches (x2)
in a air fryer at 380 degrees F. The air fryer is quicker and way more energy efficient. I could write a veritable treatise on how we use the regular oven less and less and less in favour of the small, quicker, faster, better air fryer appliance.
Ingredients
4 cups cubed eggplant
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp avocado oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-inch cube of ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Rice for serving (optional)
Directions
Cut the eggplant into a dice – salt the eggplant for around 15 minutes (for reduced bitterness) and to dry it.
Toss it into a bowl with a tablespoon of vegetable or avocado oil – mixing thoroughly.
Divide this mix into 2 – and cook in the air fryer as indicated above.
Meanwhile, open your 14 ounce tin of diced tomato, the tin of coconut milk and the tin of chickpeas.
Put some vegetable oil in a pot (heat it on low) - take a 1/2 of a large onion – chopping it up.
Take 3 large garlic cloves and finely mince.
Put the onions on into the oil to soften for 2 minutes – add the garlic – add a tablespoon of prepared mince ginger.
Still for 2 minutes. Combine.
Add the spices: Paprika, coriander, the curry powder, pepper and salt. Stir for a minute.
Add the tin of diced tomatoes and coconut milk – stir and let it come to a boil.
Add chickpeas (don’t forget to rinse) - and add roasted eggplant.
Simmer for 15 minutes. Serve over rice pilaf.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident, coffee drinker and writer and has been haunting the internet since 1995!
Seville Orange and Lemon Marmalade with a twist · Sunday January 26, 2025 by colin newell
I’ll admit it — with an English and Irish family heritage, I am a bit of a marmalade junkie. I’ve been enjoying it since I was a kid – and thankfully have had access to some locally made farm marmalade – albeit with imported Seville oranges.
For some reason or another, I had forgotten about the last batch that I made (a whopping 4 or 5 years ago…) and it was a combo of Seville Orange, Meyer Lemon and Quince. It was epic. Just the right consistency with just the right amount of peel or rind.
About a year ago I had discovered that there was 3 or 4 bottles kicking around. And knowing how diligent I am when preserving (bottling/canning) it, I cracked open a jar one Saturday morning to enjoy with hot, black coffee. What a treat! I was so taken by how delicious this was, that I gave away some of the remaining bottles. That was a smart move as before too long, I was completely out of this previously preserved confiture. Another Saturday morning rolls around and I head for the cellar to see what might be hiding behind forgotten or feared bottles of canned salmon, mystery chutneys and unmarked bottles of what could possibly be distilled dark matter.
Bingo. A bottle of marmalade from one of my wife’s girlfriends “Angie” — while not the Angie from the Rolling Stones song, this Angie whips up a wicked Marm. So thrilled by it I was that I reported it to her — and she said, “That batch is from 6 years ago – why did your wait so long?!” How can I explain… “Hidden behind bottled toxic waste…” Anyway, I was kicked into action!
Anyway. The recipe for my latest concoction!
12 to 14 Seville Oranges (in season from January through February.)
2 to 4 Lemons of any ilk, stripe or varietal.
Have piles of white sugar handy (enough to light up the eyes of your family dentist…)
Juice the Oranges and Lemons with one of the manual juicers shown at right and/or left.
Put aside the spent/juiced rinds of the lemon and orange in a pot.
Put the pulp and seeds into a small pot for a special treatment afterward.
When you have all the juice set aside (in a measuring pot, carafe or what-have-you) put it in the fridge covered.
Take all of the seeds and pulp that you have and put them into a sauce pan with enough water to cover the mixture.
Bring the mix to a very light boil and then reduce to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. This seed/pulp mix gets this treatment to generate lots of extra pectin (which is key for setting the marmalade. )
Run the pulp/seed/water mixture (which should be in almost sauce form) through a very fine strainer or cheese cloth. The liquid from this exercise goes into your pot/carafe/jug of juice. The seed/pulp remnants go into the compost!
Take your lemon and orange rinds and remove as much pulp as you can that might be left over. Ideally, you want the skins or rind only.
For robust or rustic marmalade, you can use ALL of the rind/skin of all of the fruit but I would advise against that if you are making this marmalade for the first time. Use 1/2 to 3/4 of the skins that you have available.
I tend to cut up the skin/rind into strips that are no more than 1/2” long and as thin as you might think worthy or appetizing. I use a very sharp knife for this — so be very careful! This is where the work gets super risky. Process as much rind as you think worthy of going into your marmalade. I used the rind of every piece of fruit and it the result is: One very thick and rustic marmalade! You have been warned. OK. You have your sliced rind/skin at the ready.
Put all your juice/extract mixture into a suitable pot or dutch oven. Slowly heat while adding 1/2 cup sugar per orange and an additional cup for the lemons. Add your sliced/diced rind. You should have gotten 4 to 6 cups of juice from your lemon/orange juicing combo. If you seem short of fresh juice, you can add 1/4 cup or 200ml (give or take) of bottled organic juice of almost any kind. I used Pomegranate. It’s not too flavour forward but it adds a bit of colour.
Safety note – from this point forward, we are dealing with increasingly hot material. The desire is to bring the liquid/rind mixture to a minimum of 222 to 225 degrees (F) or 104.5 © – at this temperature, these materials if spilled on a human or other living thing can maim or kill. Be very careful.
Common sense here folks: If you have small children, pets or inexperienced kitchen people, keep this in mind – this is a high-hazard activity.
Items required at this point include an accurate analog or digital thermometer — ideally a purpose built candy thermometer.
Additionally, you want the marmalade mixture to pass something called a wrinkle test.
To perform the wrinkle test, add 1/4 teaspoon of the “liquor” or “syrup” in the mix (after it passes 222 degrees) to a plate that has been in the deep freezer for a minimum of a 1/2 hour. Put the plate back in the freezer for 5 minutes or more. Remove the plate and run your finger into the small pool of liquor. If it wrinkles in front of your finger, it has reached the critical set point. If it hasn’t, keep boiling!
When your mix is at that magical “set” point, you want to bottle it. I use glass jars with lids and rings. The discussion of this technique is beyond the scope of this blog — but I could create another blog entry. The two photos above illustrates part of the process. Some other “makers” sometimes pour paraffin wax over the top of the jam/jelly/marmalade before putting on a lid. I use the boiling water immersion method because it is time honoured, safe and guarantees a long shelf life.
Once you get the hang of “basic” Orange marmalade, it opens up a galaxy of infinite variety in terms of additional ingredients, juices, spices, fruit peel and on and on and on – if anyone reading this knows something about adding liquor to marmalade batches, please chime in – I like the idea of the flavour of a single malt whiskey — but I have not idea as to when to add it or how much. Thank you!Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident and long time writer on the subject of coffee and food culture. He can often be found taking up space in a local cafe sipping the best brew the World has to offer.
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Instant Pot Spicy Cauliflower and Cheddar cream soup · Monday October 23, 2023 by colin newell
Winter time is the right time for soups — and our Cauliflower, Cheddar Cheese, Cream and Chili soup is delicious, satisfying and dreamy!
And while it is not yet winter, we can happily call this a harvest recipe – Andrea quipped that practically everything on the dinner table came with our hands and out of our garden — apart from the Cauliflower — I have yet to create the wonderful ones that I find at my local farmers market.
Stuff you are going to need!
• 1 medium head Cauliflower
• 1 tbsp Garlic
• 1 Sweet onion, small
• 1 fresh Jalapeño – chopped – seeds IN or OUT
Canned Goods
• 4 cups Chicken broth or vegetable broth
Spices
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper • 1/2 tsp Salt • 1/2 tsp Chili flakesOils
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
Dairy
• 3/4 cup Milk or Table Cream! (Use the cream, trust me!)
• 1/2 cup Smoked Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups White cheddar cheese, sharp
• 1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese
Here’s how you do it!
In the insert of the Instant Pot, add olive oil and diced onions.
Using the Saute function, cook the onions for a couple of minutes until they begin to turn translucent.
Add minced garlic and stir for about thirty seconds, until it becomes fragrant.
Turn off the Saute function by pressing Cancel.
Add chopped cauliflower, broth, salt and pepper.
Select a cook time of five minutes at high pressure.
When the cook time is complete, perform a quick release of pressure.
After the pressure has released and the valve has dropped, carefully remove the lid and press Cancel to turn off the pressure cooker.
Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to your desired consistency.
Create a slurry by whisking together the cream.
Pour into the hot soup, stirring to combine. Allow this to thicken for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally (if needed, you can use the Saute function to simmer the soup).
Add the shredded cheese combo, stirring until melted.
Serve, topped with additional shredded cheese and chives, if desired.And now for your entertainment, some Hawaiian slack key guitar that I recorded after several trips to the Islands!
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