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[Travel] Dinner at the Naramata Inn – Add To Your Must-Visit Okanagan List!

Posted in Canadian, Dinner, Eat Local, Favourites, Fine dining, Hotel Dining, Joyce, Meat, Okanagan, Restaurants, Seafood, Travel, West Coast, Winery Dining, tagged beef tartare, duck breast, halibut, Naramata, Naramata Inn, Ned Bell, Okanagan, Recommendation, scallops, Thompson Okanagan, Wine Pairing on July 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Whenever we go on our winecation with our friends B&K, we always include a “fancy night out” with a wine dinner at one of the restaurants in the area. For our trip in June, I had my eyes on the 112-year-old Naramata Inn.

Two years ago, famed Canadian chef and Okanagan-born Ned Bell, his wife Kate Colley, and two business partners have taken over Naramata Inn and breathed new life into this heritage building. Naturally, the kitchen is led by Ned, who is no stranger to the Vancouver restaurant scene and local foodies. The menu is all about fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, and quality is basically guaranteed. And with that, it’s been on my radar ever since and now was the perfect time to dine there.

Food

The menu is a prix fixe 2-course or 3-course menu, and we all opted for 2 courses.

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[Travel] 21-course Tasting Menu at The Willows Inn Restaurant, Lummi Island

Posted in Dinner, Eat Local, Fine dining, Great Views, Hotel Dining, Joyce, Restaurants, Seafood, Special Occasion, Travel, U.S., Washington, West Coast, tagged Bellingham, Farm to Table, Farm Tour, Loganita Farm, Lummi Island, Tasting Menu, The Willows Inn, Washington on August 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Mr. and I recently went on a 10-day road trip to the States. Kicking it off was a celebration of our 4th wedding anniversary and we spent a night at the quaint Willows Inn on Lummi Island, Washington. Lummi Island is a small island just a 10-minute ferry ride southwest of Bellingham.

The upscale inn deserves a separate post but the highlight of the evening was definitely our dinner at the restaurant. It serves up a 21-course tasting menu every evening, yes 21 courses, that changes regularly and seasonally. It features locally grown produce and other locally fished, foraged and farmed products. And in addition to their kitchen, they also have an outdoor wood-fired BBQ and smoker.

Obviously, with 21 courses this is not your everyday dinner out. The menu costs $225 per person with optional wine pairing for an additional $150 per person. You also don’t know what’s on the menu as they rotate it often. You only receive a copy of the menu at the end of your meal. So you ask, was it worth it?

Without further ado, let us indulge you with a feast for your eyes.

Food

Toasted kale leave, local black truffle, crumbled rye on top — elevated kale chip with the fragrance of truffle and extra crunch from the rye crumble

Wild rainier cherry in nasturtium leaf, wild chamomile, elderflower essence — what an interesting bite. Enjoyed the crisp sweetness of rainier cherry against the herbaceous chamomile and nasturtium. The elderflower essence was made into a little dollop of jelly that combined everything.

Sugar snap peas from their garden, pureed and combined with cream then it’s piped back in the pod — It’s like crudites in a fancy bite. You can taste the freshness of the sugar snap peas. (more…)

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[Travel] Gabriel’s Cafe, Nanaimo BC

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Burger, Cafe, Casual, Eat Local, Joyce, Lunch, Nanaimo, Restaurants, Sandwiches, Sustainable, Travel, Vancouver Island, West Coast, tagged Breakfast, Brunch, Explore Vancouver Island, ExploreBC, ExploreVancouverIsland, Gabriel's Cafe, Lunch, Nanaimo, Pancakes, salmon burger, Vancouver Island, Wrap on August 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

For those of you who follow me on social media, you would know that we took a trip to Vancouver Island. It was a pretty epic trip — travelled from Nanaimo to Port Hardy and San Josef Bay in the northwest corner, and everywhere in between — 2,300km in 9 days.

First stop, Nanaimo. It was brunch time when we arrived in Nanaimo. Downtown Nanaimo has no shortage of brunch options, and Gabriel’s Cafe caught my eyes. Gabriel’s is about eat local, farm to table.

Food

Ordering wasn’t an easy task for me, because I was just recovering from a bad stomach flu. I had to pick something light so I avoided pulled pork, braised beef, or anything rich and heavy. I opted for the Breakfast #11 — Coconut Milk Pancakes with Roasted Apples, Seasonal Fruit and Yogurt. I thought coconut milk pancakes wouldn’t be too heavy and there would be a good dose of fruit on the plate. Haha the portion size was not for the faint of heart. (more…)

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Vancouver Fish Company – The Ocean Wise Festival 2016 Menu

Posted in Dinner, Eat Local, Great Views, Joyce, Neighbourhood Gem, Outdoor Dining, Oysters, Patio, Restaurants, Seafood, Sustainable, Taco, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged Albacore Tuna, clams, Dungeness Crab, Granville Island, Haidacore Tuna, Linguini Alle Vongole, Mussels, Ocean Wise, oysters, prawns, Salmon Tartare, Seafood, seafood boil, Tuna Taco, Vancouver Fish Company on March 29, 2016| 1 Comment »

The Vancouver Fish Company has opened its door since September 2014. Located right at the entrance of the Granville Island, this seafood restaurant has been using Ocean Wise ingredients but only just recently that it has officially signed on as an Ocean Wise partner. And to celebrate, it’s running its first ever Ocean Wise Festival and I was invited for a tasting of the menu.

Food

Not all festival menu items are new; some are simply customer favourites that they want to highlight during this time. First up, Fresh Shucked Zen & Glacier Oysters. According to the restaurant, Zen & Glacier are two lesser used varieties farmed in BC, and they’re more affordable than some more commonly known ones.

Zen reminded me of Kusshi – thinner flesh, delicate, crisp with a cucumber finish.

Glacier, on the other hand, is more plump in shape.

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[Dine Out Vancouver 2016] Edible Canada at the Market #DOVF

Posted in Bistro, Canadian, Culinary Events, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Eat Local, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Sustainable, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged #DOVF, Arctic Char, bison, Bourguignon, Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Out Vancouver 2016, Edible Canada, elk, Granville Island, Posset, profiteroles, Tagliatelle, tartare, venison on January 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Since our first visit to Edible Canada on Granville Island close to three years ago, it has been added to our list of staple because it has seasonal offerings and quality is consistently good. So for this year’s Dine Out, we decided to go back once again because it had an interesting “Canadian” menu. And we made it a double date with Bryan and Kathryn.

Food

In addition to the regular $30 DOV 3-course menu, you have the option to pay extra to upgrade your dishes. For example, Kathryn and I opted for the Surf and Turf Tartare Trio for an extra $10. It included three types of tartare (from left of photo): Venison, Elk and Arctic Char. I was quite happy with this option. Each tartare had its own flavours – venison was rich, gamey and it was mixed with some blueberries; elk had the resemblance of beef and the tartare reminded of traditional beef tartare with cornichon; arctic char was creamy and was similar to salmon tartare. The tartare trio came with the Amola salt truffle chips. They were crispy, nicely seasoned, with lots of truffle aroma.

Mr. and Bryan went for a regular appetizer, the Braised Alberta Oxtail. It was rich, moist and tender. The kubocha squash risotto was slightly overcooked, a bit mushy, and the risotto to meat ratio was a bit off. There was too little oxtail meat, or too much risotto on the plate.