Tastebuds
Recently during a family trip to Vancouver, British Columbia my mother, father and I had a marvellous food journey through Victoria Public Market at the Hudson on Vancouver Island.
I truly enjoy this type of sample eating because I find that it inspires me to create new dishes and revisit old ones with new flavors, techniques, ingredients. As you will come to discover I am more of an experimental home cook and while I’ve encountered enough disaster to know if a formulation may work or not, like everyone, I get into a rut from time to time reverting to the same flavors because they are “sure fire”. Having a sample tour at Victoria Public Market was, if you will, a palate cleanser - a refreshed look at how I can improve from starters to desserts! Every food outlet in Victoria Public Market was amazing but I must highlight a few whose offerings my family and I enjoyed especially and have inspired and challenged me.
Salt Spring Island Cheese
This local vendor specializes in handmade goat and sheeps cheese and has a wide selection of infused cheeses. At this outpost we picked up a couple of cheeses for our family picnic post hike in Lighthouse Park. My choice was the tapenade topped chevre. Cripes. The creaminess, the goodness! Oh! An up-flung arm to shade my eyes from the glory would not be an exaggeration. The real take away for me from this stop was the importance of pairing. Yes I could have literally ate the entire container of cheese in one sitting… alone… but it put me to mind of creating sumptuous sandwiches which I used to do before eating bread evoked looks of distain and finger pointing ridicule… from even small children.
Why not two lightly toasted slices of bread with Apple Fig Ginger chutney, Salt Spring Island garlic chèvre which covered with roasted garlic and dripping with olive oil and infused with rosemary, thinly sliced and crisped roast beef, caramelized onions topped with fresh spinach? Do you see what I mean? Pairing! What about taking a Sour Rhubarb Cherry Chutney and pairing that with a lovely truffle infused chèvre. A new look on pairings. Salty, sweet, tart, picante!
Cowichan Bay Seafood
Of course being West Indian we are big lovers of fresh fish! During our stay I think we ate fish in some form or other every. single. day. Naturally we enjoyed our main course at Cowichan Bay Seafood. My parents and I love to share food so we ordered halibut tacos, and salmon nuggets (and went back for a second order of salmon nuggets).
My first bite of the halibut taco was actually unexpected. I was prepared for slices of halibut and traditional taco style julienned vegetables. Instead, I was slightly taken aback but in the most enjoyable way possible to discover that the halibut had been minced and mixed into a sweet slaw of sorts with fresh corn, dressing, cilantro etc. This set me to thinking. Preparing a taco or any sort of filling like this means that all the flavors are freshly infused throughout each bite!
Why not rellenos de papa, (not fried) stuffed with an extra fine minced slaw of sorts made of red snapper, bok choy and pickled ginger? Now this could be good. I rub my hands together in experimental glee!
The French Oven
I love pastry. Especially when there is something delicate involved! The French Oven, offered every portable French pastry one can think of. Our visit there made me once again face facts. Fact: I am not the best baker. I concede. Baking is art and involves true skill. Perhaps it’s patience, most likely it’s science but in my partnership with Vicky, we have determined that the stronger baker (her) should take the lead in this area. After oohing and ahhing over the trays of baked goodness that only escaped my dribble by virtue of their glass encasement, I finally selected a lemon tart. I savored that little treat through our tour of Buchart gardens in the late afternoon. The take away?
Why not try again? So baking is not my forte. I do enjoy it. Why not keep trying until I have something that I can set down on the Live Well table without feeling desolate and making sort of half-hearted apologies about how it looks bad but tastes good?
At Live Well Food Co., we both aim to keep learning and cultivating ever budding tastes at every opportunity. I certainly learned a thing or two which I hope to present soon through Live Well.
Thank you Vancouver!