Cut off from the mainland, it can be hard for an island to be self-sufficient. But from coffee roasters to salt makers, when it comes to its food scene, Vancouver Island can take care of itself. Check out some of these unique culinary trends happening in Victoria and area.
The Latest in Coffee
Victoria might have its roots in tea, but Queen city residents love their cup of joe, as well, as evidenced by the more than 10 coffee roasters found in the city. At the trend-setting Discovery Coffee, try a cold brew, a process that tones down coffee’s acidity or, for something completely different, order a nitro-cold brew, coffee kegged and infused with nitrogen to give it a creamy mouth feel (the same process used by Guinness).
At Discovery, they’re all about coffee education (there’s a full-time coffee educator on staff), so they offer a “coffee education series,” where you can learn more about things like coffee history or palate development/sensory perception and do a cupping (a tasting to learn about coffee notes and flavours).
If you’re a long-time Victoria resident, you might remember 2% Jazz as an outdoor coffee kiosk that was located just yards away from their current location in the developing Hudson district. Before you order your latté at 2% Jazz, spend a few minutes watching the on-site roasters make the perfect batch of coffee beans. Then sink into the ambiance of what 2% describes as “a third wave café” with “a second wave feel.”
If you didn’t even know that we’d left the first-wave coffee shop, second wave was the beginning of the coffee culture movement from “bad” coffee to better quality, specialty coffees; whereas third wave is the movement to consider coffee as an artisanal product – like wine.
Harvesting the Sea
Unlike inland ecosystems, Vancouver Island offers plentiful food from the sea: salmon, prized wild spot prawns, Fanny Bay oysters, creamy sea urchins, and line-caught halibut, just to name a few local delicacies.
But Amanda Swinimer of Dakini Tidal Wilds knows the sea has much more to offer. Since 2003, Swinimer has been hand harvesting seaweed to make her own dried kelp and teas and to sell to local chefs at restaurants like the Q at the Fairmont Empress.
On a tour with Swinimer, you can watch her harvest kelp at low tide as she teaches you about its health benefits (she says it’s the most concentrated mineral source on the planet and most easily assimilated by the body), and how to identify and cook with it.
At Saltwest in Sooke, they also harvest the wealth of the sea to make handcrafted gourmet sea salt. On a tour, you can learn all about their sea-extraction process and view the traditional sun-dried evaporation techniques they use before making their gourmet blends like spicy ancho chile or applewood smoked sea salt.
Feast from the Forest
Talk to any chef creating “true Canadian cuisine” (which celebrates peak seasonal ingredients and pulls strongly from indigenous roots), and you’ll hear enthusiasm for cooking with fir tips. At Snowdon House in North Saanich, they do more than cook with fir tips – they harvest their own from the 1,600 Douglas fir trees planted on their property. Founder, Laura Waters, has developed a line of products like vinegars, dipping sauces and bread mixes that feature the fir tips’ distinctive flavour.
You can also experience all the forest has to offer with Spirit Culinary Excursions. On her Happy Trails Eco Edible Tour, founder and award-winning indigenous chef, Shirley Lang, together with an ethno-ecologist, will guide you on a walk through the rainforest before Chef Shirley creates a sumptuous feast incorporating the forest’s gifts – natural delights like wild goose tongue grass, wild sorrel and spruce tips.
Learn More on a Foodie Tour
Even if you’ve lived in the city for years, you’re bound to learn a thing or two on a local tour with knowledgeable historians. On the Pedaler’s foodie cycling tour, you can sample some of the best local artisan food in the city with stops at places like Cold Comfort, where they specialize in small-batch ice-cream (try the ice cream sandwich – hands down, the best you’ll ever taste), or Dobosala Cantina. Dobosala is the first Victoria restaurant to take advantage of a new bike lane that passes right in front of it, where they serve up flavourful Indo-Pacific fusion dishes (think crispy duck and pork samosa dumplings with tomatillo salsa verde and chili-date chutney) from their ride-through window.
Off the Eaten Track’s walking tour will take you to places like the Public Market in the Hudson building, where you can sample flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pies from Victoria Pie Co. before you sit down to discover Sutra’s (part of the Vij family) unique poutine – an Indian mashup of the Canadian favourite, made with cassava fries and paneer cheese, smothered with yummy butter chicken sauce.
Then, on your way to Canada’s oldest Chinatown, listen to historical tales of Fan Tan Alley opium dens and casinos, prior to eating culinary delights like Asian-inspired noodle dishes at Bao, or “pretty, but not pretentious” French pastries at La Roux Patisserie (their flavour-selection of macarons is mind-boggling). Fudge lovers can rejoice with a stop at Catawampus Fudge & Funk, where they’ve been making the city’s best fudge for over 45 years.
Are your taste buds watering? Put on your stretchy pants, then head out to discover some of these culinary delights.
For more information, visit Tourism Victoria at www.tourismvictoria.com
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