Vancouver weather

Ahhhh, the blessing of Conrad!

There's a quirk to our frequent travel back west that manifests itself in unusually fine weather in this rainy, grey, wet west coast city. Conrad is responsible, we have decided. Oh, he's seen rain and snow here - heavy frost here the past few days as well. Generally speaking, though, his experience of Vancouver is sunshine and little else. The people here should be pleased that he visits so often!

Dinner is on, though it's a little while until Marie gets home from work. Conrad and I have had a busy day of personal business, shopping, swimming, lunch, more shopping, a nap, and now sorting through everything that will need to come back to Canada with us. Good luck to us! Christmas shopping, you know! Anyway, we've got a nice bit of cheese from the market and a loaf of fig and anise bread to go with it. Chicken is braising on the stove with dried morels, and I have Brussels sprouts on standby. I hope that tonight I do not burn myself as I did the other night (though the halibut on cauliflower-saffron puree was tasty). While cooking is on the go without me, some photographic proof of the Conrad factor at work on Vancouver:

We drove into the city on a sunny (of course) Wednesday. Not as much snow on the mountains as there was a few days earlier, or so it seemed.




Yesterday (and again today) we awoke to dense fog in the downtown. Our "view" was rather constrained, though the last foggy shot hints of the sun about to burn off the fog before too long.

But cool out, definitely. Rather a wonderful day to get outside, stop for the excellent coffee at Safari,and then enjoy a lunch on Granville Island later on.Coconut squash soup = yummy!!

And another sunny day in the city, though looking east in the photo, one can see the remnants of today's fog.

Let's go to the mall(s)! Today.

Ah Jeph, introducing me (and, by extension, Conrad) to Robin Sparkles. There were a number of points on Tuesday when he and I burst into singing that line and more. We hid it from my parents as best we could.

Tuesday, before our return to Salmon Arm, we did, indeed, go to the mall. Mum and Roy don't get as far afield as Kelowna, at least not often, and I thought they might enjoy the wider selection of stores. Once the mall opened at 10, we began shopping - all of us. Conrad and I picked up a few things to keep at the condo in Vancouver, and we did a wee bit of Christmas shopping. We spent almost 4 hours there. Wow. Lunch was at Milestone's, a reliable chain.
My Thai chicken tacos were not anything close to dinner the night before, but the chicken and slaw were both tasty and light.In any case, both Mum and Roy quite liked it.

I wish I had photos of the drive back. Specifically, after we stopped for some produce at Swan Lake in Vernon,we took the back road through Silver Creek. The late afternoon sun lent the valley a warm glow, and if we weren't trying to get to Gort's Gouda in Salmon Arm before it closed for the day, we might have dawdled on the way home.

Once back in Salmon Arm, we dropped in at the... mall. Yep. Needed to get those Coffee Crisp to bring back to Chicago, you know. Anyway, we'd already been there the morning before for a browse (scoring some knives, of all things - my favourite make!) and Mum and Roy's regular coffee time at Chester's. We behaved and did not have cinnamon buns!


On schedule for today in Vancouver? Oh, likely a visit to Pacific Centre. Yep, a downtown mall. I really am very smalltown BC, aren't I?

Old Vines Restaurant

Friday morning already? I'm getting behind on this blogging thing. Ack!

Hopping in the wayback machine, taking a ride all the way back to... Monday night. Dinner in Westbank at the Old Vines Restaurant, Quail's Gate winery. Four years ago we had dinner there with Megan and Paul at the end of a summer day of wine tasting,and as Quail's Gate is a winery we particularly like, we were (of course) glad to go back. Did I mention that it's an Opentable.com establishment?

;-)

Mum and Roy in tow, we settled in to a quiet dining room.

On to the food, and Mum and Roy each started with a bowl of the soup of the day, a roasted tomato puree with creme fraiche. Yes, I'm too lazy to add in the diacritics.

Conrad's bitter greens: Little Creek arugula, frisee, radicchio, roasted local pumpkin, Carmelis Farm goatgonzola, spiced pecans, pear and star anise dressing

My pan seared wild diver scallops with white beans and bacon, Stoney Paradise Farm cipolini marmalade, warm bacon vinaigrette

Roy's free run chicken “Coq a u Vin”: Pinot Noir braised north Okanagan chicken leg, lardons, pearl onions, button mushrooms, Yukon potato purée, and some Brussels sprouts that were so lightly cooked that Roy would not stop going on about how raw they were. To hear it once, fair enough. To hear it all through the main course and on into dessert? A little much, sorry to say.

Dining with the parents proved challenging with Mum's dinner choice as well, for she opted to have the duck Napoleon appetizer as her meal. Before she ordered, she said to Roy she wasn't sure about ordering it because she feared the duck would be rare since that's how it's done nowadays. Still, she ordered it, and rare it was. Cold, smoked, rare. She gave it all to me, ate the greenery, and refused any offer of my fish. I love my parents, but the main course was a little trying for all of us, i think. The duck was delicious, by the way.

Conrad's grilled wild Pacific spring salmon with roasted Second Wind Farm beets with fennel, Pinot Noir reduction. I should mention that Mum drank no wine, while I had only one glass because I was driving. Roy's taste veers to off-dry whites (which I can totally appreciate), and that left Conrad to have his beloved Pinot Noir. The wine list mentioned the Family Reserve, but not by the glass. Still, no harm asking, right? Happily, the waiter had noted an opened bottle, so he brought us the remains. It made for a generous glass for Conrad - more than a full pour) and enough for me as well. Better still, he charged us for one glass only. By the time of Conrad's meal, he had downgraded to the "regular" Pinot Noir that was more readily available, and as the wine pairs so well with salmon, which he loves, his dinner choice was simple.

My BC sablefish: roasted fillet, smoked black cod potato brandade, cauliflower fondue. I'm really into cauliflower lately, it seems, and add in salt cod, and I was quite delighted.

None of us took dessert wines, though I had a latte (and Conrad was fascinated by the spoon design).

Mum, Conrad, and I shared a plate of five local cheeses. No, I can't name them all save to recall that the blue was from Poplar Grove, a winery/cheesery (fromagerie?) on the Naramata Bench.

Roy forgot the Brussels sprouts as we mowed through three creme brulees: pistachio, honey vanilla, and chocolate espresso. The middle of the three was his favourite.

And that was our "gourmet" meal for the trip. We've dined more simply since, though well enough, definitely. Anyway, it's only Friday at breakfast time - we'll see what more we dine on before we leave for home tomorrow.

3 Kelowna wineries

Still much to blog, and we're only at breakfast on our second day in the Okanagan. The mall (yes, the mall - let's go to the mall, everybody!) opens in an hour and a half, so we've got a bit of time to get more photos up. And heck, isn't it better to read about our latest jaunt west in nice, digestible bits? (And as it turns out, I'm adding the photos to this on Thursday morning in Vancouver)

Part of the point of this expedition to Kelowna was to visit some wineries, and we managed to get to three on the east side of Okanagan Lake yesterday. It was a pleasant afternoon for a drive, though we might have liked it a bit sunnier. Ah well.

Up first: Cedar Creek. We'd had their wines before in restaurants, and thought they were nice. That's faint praise, I know, and to be honest, I don't know that we had ever had their better wines, truly. Still, the name is an appealing one, and we wanted to visit it, so at about 2:30 we pulled up to the winery shop on its hillside perch.



Once inside, Conrad, Roy, and I opted to pay to taste the higher end wines. The result? A few purchases. The 2005 Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir, the 2005 Estate Select Chardonnay, and the 2005 Estate Select Syrah. Roy found them a bit dry, so he opted out of the pricier tastings and went for the more basic ones before settling on a bottle of a Dry Riesling to purchase. We also bought an inexpensive red blend in case we wanted something to sip back at the hotel after dinner (we didn't, though). A successful first stop.

Since it was nearby, we thought we'd pop in at St Hubertus next. We really didn't know their wines well, but heck, why not? One of the co-owners (as it turned out) greeted us in the driveway - he was on duty at meeting visitors and opening the shop for them. A November Monday is not a busy time for visitors at Okanagan wineries, though it is a busy time for the winery workers otherwise. We were delighted to get to come in and see the rebuilt facility - the fires of a few years ago hit some of these wineries hard, and we could see the skeletons of trees up above.



As for the wines, well, we didn't enjoy them as much as we did the ones at Cedar Creek, to be honest. They seemed lighter, thinner, less complex. Still, Roy again liked the Dry Riesling enough to buy it, and I bought one as well. Conrad and I also purchased a Pinot Meunier in part because it's unusual to find such a wine.

We didn't think we would go to any other wineries for the rest of the afternoon, but on the way back into the city we caught sight of the Summerhill pyramid and detoured slightly to drop in there.


The winery has a terrific view of the lake, and a restaurant taking advantage of that. I think Roy and even Conrad were already a bit tired of tasting, and I have to concede that neither the Pinot Noir Conrad tasted nor the Merlot Roy appealed to any of us. Conrad's Pinot was funky, and not in the desirable way. Roy's Merlot tasted cooked - like it had been kept warm too long. I liked the Cipes Pinot Noir Brut (a rose sparkling wine) enough to buy it, decided against the Ehrenfelser (too cloying), and bought a bottle of the 2005 Enchanted Vines Solus Foch. Interesting smokiness to the wine, so I thought it would be fun to crack open one night down the road.

And with that, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. I don't think we'll get to any wineries today, but with the haul from yesterday afternoon plus a few bottles from the winery we dined at last night, we're nicely set for at least a few days here!

See Jeph?

We do eat junk food on rare occasion.

You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.

No, I'm not in the photos, so there's no "blackmail" material floating around out there. Rest assured, though, Conrad was not the only one enjoying the A&W (are there even any A&W restaurants in the US anymore????) onions rings. Breaded. They rock, seriously. And they rock even more for being served in a bilingually labeled bag.Rondelles, indeed! This was in Merritt, I should say, en route to Salmon Arm. A town of 7088 in the 2001 census, and of that number, 175 spoke French as a first language, and 20 others were bilingual. Happily, they, too, could order and enjoy the rings!