To see some of the great entries received in the contest, scroll down to your heart’s delight. There are more entries on Page Two.
Oyster Mania, Tofino, the Far Out, Far West Coast of Canada: I think it’s safe to say that I consumed more oysters in one weekend than I ever have before at the Clayoquot Oyster Festival in Tofino.
Dana and I were invited up to the Oyster Festival and since it’s been a while since I visited Tofino we loaded up the car with junk food and took off. The road map to Tofino is always good for a laugh, as it shows the destination in pretty much a straight line from Port Alberni, when in fact almost the entire route is twisty-turny-up-and-down. But there are rewards, including the drive through Cathedral Grove, where rotting pumpkins left as distant reminders to Halloween dotted the rocks along the highway.
We were staying at the Long Beach Lodge resort, a first for us, right on the beach in Cox Bay. The rooms there are large and comfortable, with cosy gas fireplaces and DVD players for the TV. The only thing we didn’t like was that there is nothing but a wooden blind between the bathroom and the bedroom. I like my bathroom audio privacy! However, we weren’t there to spend a lot of time in the room, and headed straight for the beach, as the tide was very low. Surfers and beachcombers were out in droves, and the light was that long, low, intense sunlight that made it perfect for photos.
On The Beach
I’ve always been fascinated by tidal pools, having grown up in landlocked Ontario, and the sealife on the rocks and pools in Cox Bay were like a playground of discovery and excitement.
Mussels and goose barnacles crusted the rocks, and we found some mussel shells that were at least 8 inches long. I’ve eaten goose, or goose-neck barnacles as they are sometimes called, in the past, but haven’t been that impressed. That opinion was to change later in the weekend.
Also on display were several colours of seastars, sea anemones and wild patterns in the sand, sculpted by the wind and the sea. The sun set rapidly, providing some more great photo opportunities.
Dinner
The salt air and beachcombing gave us quite the appetite, and we were in for quite the meal at the Wickaninnish Inn, just down the street from the Long Beach Lodge. Over the next 4 and a half hours, which is too long for any meal, we were treated to a 7 course meal presented by the new executive chef at the Wick, Andrew Springett, formerly of Diva at the Met in Vancouver, and Canada’s Bocuse d’Or competitor in Lyon, France in January of this year.
Andrew doesn’t officially begin his job until next week, but was asked in to do this dinner. While many of the courses were hits, others were misses and almost every dish that was supposed to be hot, arrived cold. I’ve had much better from Andrew in the past, and I’m sure this was a bit of a glitch, given his recent arrival in Tofino.
Oyster Farms and Purple Trucks bearing ‘Killer Fish Tacos’
On Saturday I clambered on board a sleek Zodiac whale-watching boat as a group of journalists was hosted by Don Travers and Kati Martini of Remote Passages. We were out to visit the oyster farm of Roly Arnet. A brisk 20-minute ride found us in an inlet of Meares Island, surrounded by floats holding lone lines of oysters being grown for a shucked product we most often find sold in tubs marked ‘Mac’s Fanny Bay Oysters’ in the supermarket. After Roly told us more about his farm, it was back to the dock in Tofino and lunch at SoBo, named as one of Canada’s best new restaurants by En Route magazine. In reality, SoBo is a purple movie catering van set up in a parking lot and run by Artie and Lisa Aiher, formerly of the Long Beach Lodge. Everyone raves about their ‘Killer Fish Tacos’. Add me to the list. Make sure you try to contact them before you visit, as they will likely have closed up the truck for a couple of months over the slowest times in Tofino.
The Oyster Festival
Saturday night was the evening of oysters at the Seventh Annual Clayoquot Oyster Festival at the Calm Waters Hall at the Tin Wis Resort in Tofino. This is considered one of the social events of the year in Tofino and tickets were sold out weeks ago. Suffice to say there were about 3 to 4 thousand oysters consumed during the evening, raw, cooked, smoked and otherwise. The appetizers were raw, but then 11 different restaurants presented their best take on the oyster, and I was asked to judge the results, along with Tim Pawsey of the Vancouver Courier and Urban Peasant James Barber. 11 more oysters later, we had consensus, and SoBo came out on top, both with the judges and as the People’s Choice. The winning dish was an oyster tostada, with a fried cornmeal-crusted oyster atop a bed of jicama slaw and a still-crispy taco shell. Yum!
While the recipe competition was intriguing, the absolute highlight of the evening was the oyster ‘slurping’ competition. Entrants were judged on quality, not quantity, with attention paid to gusto, sex appeal and the auditory delights exhibited while slurping a maximum of three oysters. The first entry came from two women, one an all-in-black raven-tressed beauty who exuded sensuality from every pore, and her partner, a voluptuous blonde who had purposefully worn a low-cut top to display not only her ample cleavage, but to delicately house an oyster in the shell. The band struck up a tango, and the duo’s performance was capped by the dark-haired woman dipping her partner low, and slurping the oyster from between her breasts. That was just the start…I would go on, but the performances got even more x-rated from there.
Oh, almost forgot. The West Coast Goose Barnacle Harvesters Association had a table at the Festival, and I absolutely loved the barnacles as they were presented, boiled in sea water with a bay leaf, and served at their juiciest with what tasted like a butter and white wine sauce. Look for more on that story, and my Food For Thought on the Oyster Fest, early in 2004. In the meantime, enjoy some photos from Tofino by clicking here.
Life has been quite busy with work for the past little while, but I wanted to tell you more about Cornucopia while it is still relatively fresh in my mind. Saturday morning and afternoon I took in two of the many seminars offered. The first one was with Michael Smith, from The Inn Chef and Chef at Large on Canada’s Food Network. The topic was browning techniques, and over the course of an hour and a half Smith not only provided some very valuable information about how to properly make caramel, brown meats, and caramelize onions, but also was quite entertaining in regaling us with quick and funny stories from behind the scenes of his TV shows. My favourite story was one in which he totally forgot all of his professional training and loaded a blender full of a soup he wanted to puree. Of course when he flicked on the switch the blender virtually exploded and sent hot soup flying all over Smith, the kitchen, and even the camera equipment. It took them over an hour to clean up to start shooting again. Smith had to admit a gaffe that took place in our own session, as his instructions to the cooking students helping with the class were taken a little too literally. A standing rib roast wasn’t loosely covered in foil when it came out of the oven, as intended, but was tightly wrapped in foil, keeping in too much heat and overcooking the roast. It was well past the medium-rare he intended, but we still happily devoured slices of it with a caramelized onion-balsamic vinegar condiment, mashed potatoes seasoned with browned butter, and steaming mugs of mulled apple cider.
The second seminar I observed with that of John Ash, culinary director of the Fetzer Winery in California. John’s theme was new twists on traditional foods for the holiday season, and I picked up lots of recipes and tips on doing different things with cauliflower, stuffing and salads, as well as a neat recipe for brining a turkey with maple syrup before roasting it that I’m dying to try. For those recipes and the Michael Smith mulled cider recipe, go back to PacificPalate.com and click on the Recipes/Recommendations link.
The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing and getting ready for the big winemaker dinner at Araxi restaurant. This Top Table restaurant owned by Jack Evrensel and named after his wife Araxi pulled out all the stops for this dinner. Chefs from all the Top Table restaurants helped out with the meal, which featured wines from Rosemount Estates in Australia and Robert Mondavi wines produced in Australia in a co-operative venture. I was intrigued by one menu item produced by Frank Pabst, new executive chef at the Blue Water Café in Vancouver. He produced ravioli stuffed with snails grown on a farm in Salmon Arm. I asked Frank about the snails and while he couldn’t provide much detail, rest assured I will likely take a trip to Salmon Arm next summer to investigate. Sorry I can’t get there sooner, ha ha. Other highlights of the dinner that night included a thick slice of fragrant pine mushroom atop a delicately-cooked piece of sablefish, and some tender and juicy venison. Our tablemates included food stylist and journalist Nathan Fong, and sushi master Tojo, who along with a couple of Nathan’s friends, kept our table the most lively of the restaurant.
A digital accident (actually human error) erased all the photos I took on Sunday night of a delightful dinner we had at Quattro in Whistler. Our highlights were fantastic duck confit, and a couple of very butter Cuban lobster tails that left us begging for more.
When I got back to Vancouver I received a great email from our CBC Early Edition Cornucopia Contest winner Ann Paulsen, who reported she and her partner Rick had a great time, as you can see from the photos she sent along.
All in all, Cornucopia was a great weekend, kudos to the Tourism Whistler team that put it together and all the restaurant and hotel staff who treated us so well. Don’t forget to check out the photos from Cornucopia on the ‘More Cornucopia’ gallery and others listed to the right of the blog.
Remember that old, old Ian Thomas song, “Painted Ladies”? The line in the chorus that runs, ‘painted ladies and a bottle of wine, mama’… That’s what came to mind when I walked into Whistler’s Bearfoot Bistro right after the Cornucopia Crush event last Friday night. The restaurant and surrounding lobby and banquet areas of the Listel Hotel were full of painted ladies…and a couple of painted men. Many of the women were nude except for their paint, and were tastefully decorated to represent many of the brands of libations they were helping to pour. In the photo gallery you’ll see what I mean, especially the de Venoge Champagne and Granville Island Lager ladies. (viewer discretion advised)
The director-general of de Venoge Champagne, Gilles de la Bassetiere was in town from New York City, and was pouring his product from a huge bottle, I believe this size is called a jeroboam.
Bearfoot Bistro owner Andre St. Jacques always knows how to throw a good party, and this was no exception. The after-party is designed to give a place for people to let their hair down after Crush, mingle with some winemakers, and have just a little (or a lot) more to eat and drink. This year the kitchen pumped out dozens of bite-sized hamburgers made with rich Kobe beef, and ‘porno cones’, small servings of popcorn shrimp and fries with mayonnaise, all wrapped up in a paper cone torn from the pages of adult magazines.
Several uniformed RCMP officers made the rounds of the club after midnight, but didn’t seem to find anything illegal going on, which must have made Tourism Whistler/Cornucopia organizers Lynn Chappel, Danielle Saindon and Catherine Adams very happy.
After a few glasses of champagne and a ‘consumed-on-the-dance-floor’ Mike’s Hard Lemonade, it was time to call it a night. We were probably some of the first people to leave, after 1am, and many others were there until 3:30 or 4am. That’s why the ‘Recovery Room’, a new feature of Cornucopia, came in handy the next morning. In a room of the Conference Centre, you could ease your hangover with free supplies of Pepto-Bismol, French fries, ginger ale and chicken noodle soup. More about day two activities at Cornucopia later, but first for the photo gallery from the After Party, click here.
Well, here we are at Cornucopia, the annual Whistler blow-out of wine and food, carefully scheduled during a lull in between summer and winter activities at the resort. Whistler Village certainly comes alive during this weekend, and there’s no shortage of opportunities to party, drink, eat and have fun…oh, yeah, you can even learn a lot about food and wine as well, but more about that later.
The premiere event at Cornucopia is Crush, the Friday night bash that took place this year in the newly renovated and quite spectacular Telus Whistler Conference Centre. 85 wineries were pouring this year, so there was no shortage of fermented grape for the tasting. Where the event fell down a little, and this seems to be a perennial problem, is with the food. With hundreds of people cramming into the ballroom, there weren’t enough places to get food quickly. Long line-ups abounded, and people waited for up to 35 minutes to get a little taste. My fiancée Dana and I were lucky, we were invited to a pre-Crush media party at Araxi, where we wisely consumed large quantities of raw oysters and other fresh seafood nibbles at the restaurant’s new seafood bar, a gleaming expanse of stone and highly-polished stainless steel. There we met the most height-mismatched partiers of the evening, Hidekazu Tojo of Tojo’s, and Food Network Chef At Large Michael Smith. It’s safe to say that Smith towers about two feet above Tojo, but the two plan to work together on a project in Vancouver in the near future. Speaking of projects, watch your local TV listings for an entire hour devoted to Tojo’s exquisite Japanese creations. I’m not supposed to say anything, but the show is hosted by a certain homemaker celebrity whose stock has waxed and waned over the recent past.
Back to Crush. While we didn’t bother lining up to sample the food, we did manage to sneak a few raw oysters that were being shucked by the dozen, and visited with a couple of our favourite winemakers, Ben Stewart of Quail’s Gate Estate Winery, and Howard Soon of Calona Wines. Then we did lots of people watching, and snapped a few pics of the people who actually bothered to dress up for the event. At this point I’m turning the blog over to Dana for her thoughts on the fashion plates…
Hi Y’all! As Don mentioned above, I decided that this year I would spend some time talking to people who looked as though they’d actually spent more than 5 minutes on themselves before coming to Crush. Given that our culture here in BC is focused on casual comfort I was pleased to see that at least some people were willing to dress better than their chinos and plaid.
High style has never been about comfort and given that it gets bloody cold up in Whistler, it is a convenient excuse not to dress up for Crush. However with Whistler being lauded as an internationally-renowned resort, one might expect to see buttery soft leather outfits, designers galore, carefully manicured nails, and fabulous shoes, and lots of that oh so popular word, “ bling”. Indulging my own passion for great design has always been limited by a serious lack of funds, so I was counting on the vicarious pleasure of watching other people of style. Alas, this year the pickings were slim. Armed with the digital camera, I stalked and pounced on people who looked as though they’d actually thought about their outfits. Some women commented that their fashion choices of the evening were motivated by what I can only describe as reactionary dressing. The most common sentiment was “No one ever dresses up anymore, so I’ll show them!”
Others were there to pick up single guys, and one couple was savouring their first weekend away from their young children and burp-up stained clothing. Few, if any, people I talked to were dressed up because they loved fashion for its own sake. You may have also noted that there are few pictures of men…sorry, couldn’t find any well-dressed men at Crush. Believe me, I looked…hard. I did see a guy at the afterparty at the Bearfoot Bistro who sported a criss-crossed studded leather bondage harness under his leather jacket…and the odd man who looked uncomfortable in a suit….but fashionable men? All I can say, is if you’re the type of woman who loves wrinkled chinos, scuffed sneakers, plaid shirts and ugly acrylic sweaters, then this is your place!
For photos of some of the people I thought looked stylishly cool, and a few who were less than so, click here.
You decide who’s who….
One good thing about all the travel I do back and forth to Vancouver is that it gives me the opportunity to try new places to eat, and new shops to rummage through.
One new-ish restaurant I’ve been to a couple of times now in Vancouver is called Hapa Izakaya on Robson Street. (Hapa Izakaya, 1479 Robson St. Tel: 604-689-4272)
It’s modeled after a typical Japanese-style bar, and all the servers gustily shout greetings as you walk in the door. A friend who went there for the first time thought there was something wrong as they shouted, then realized this was friendly, not antagonistic.
You slip off your shoes, which go into little bunks at the base of the tables, and hop up onto platforms or belly up to the bar. It’s not a place for quiet conversation, and the décor is black industrial chic, definitely a hip and happening place. This isn’t a sushi restaurant, although there are a few raw fish-style offerings. This is more typical Japanese bar food, washed down with lots of beer or sake. My favorite snack is a little bowl filled with edame, soybeans boiled in the pod, then seasoned with a little salt or soy sauce. Most of the fun comes in squeezing the bright green soybeans out of their pods and into your mouth. Another good dish was a bowl of cold, chewy cockles. Doesn’t sound that appetizing, but after massaging a few with my teeth I was hooked on the texture and the healthy level of spicy hot sauce in which they were marinated. My favorite dish of the night was the lightly-pickled mackerel. One whole fillet, carved into tiny slices, and lightly broiled with a blowtorch right at your table. The mackerel is rich and oily, and one fillet goes a long way. Two of us ate and drank well for about 40 dollars in total, and the staff all cheerfully shouted at us again as we left. This comes under my category of Cheap and Cheerful, and will be featured on my Pacific Palate show within the next couple of months. To read Tim Pawsey’s review of Hapa, click here.
Late last week I headed over to Saltspring Island for a quick tour of a salmon farm. This is a pilot project that is examining the feasibility of raising salmon in closed bags of ocean water, instead of in the typical net cage system, the one that has spawned so much controversy over pollution under the cages, transfer of sea lice to wild salmon, and escapement of farmed fish into the wild environment. It’s a difficult topic to wade through, and farmed salmon protesters have done an excellent job of distorting or exaggerating the situation to the point that what they say is often taken as gospel. The farmed salmon industry, on the other hand, has done a poor job of fighting back with their own point of view, and their own facts and figures. I’m a consumer of wild salmon, I prefer the taste and the texture, but I feel salmon aquaculture does have a place in today’s society and economy. The companies spend a lot more time preventing escapement and pollution than most people know, and the idea that this one company has spent millions of dollars on Saltspring to look at alternative methods of farming shows a commitment to the environment and will be a story I’ll be telling next year. It was a bitterly cold and windy afternoon on Saltspring, and the bags have been emptied of this year’s ‘herd’. Some Atlantic salmon remained in the net cages, and we could see them leaping and slicing through the air. So far the company has discovered that it CAN raise salmon in a bag to maturity with low mortality rates, but the cost of doing so is 37 percent higher than salmon raised in the traditional net cage system. I’d love to hear what you think about the farmed salmon controversy. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and submit a comment. That’s all for now, watch for much, much more over the next few days of craziness I’m about to experience at Cornucopia in Whistler.
To see photos for this entry click here.
