Best BC Summer Beers of 2016

Shawn 1 Comment

2016 Summer Beer ListAnother summer has landed here on the West coast and it’s shaping up to be extremely busy for the EDB team. There’s work, seafood festivals, pop-ups, bike trips to various places on the island and mainland plus visits with friends, family and all manner of industry establishments all packed into the next two and a half months. Whew!

To offset all this madness it’s important to always set aside a few moments of calm here and there to unwind the mind and body… And crack open a craft beer! *Ksssssht*Yes! Once again it’s time to have a look back at my favourite BC brews of the spring and forward to the bombers I’ll be savouring all summer long.

Read More

Sesame Tuiles

Shawn Leave a comment

Sesame TuilesMaitre D: “And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint.”

Mr Creosote: “No.”

Maitre D: “Oh sir! It’s only wafer thin.”

  • Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (Don’t Youtube it… You’ll lose your appetite!)

A tuile is not a mint, but it is the very definition of “wafer thin”. Half way between a cookie and a cracker the classic tuile is a sugary almond snack from France (“Tuile” means “tile”) that looks exactly like a Pringles potato chip and is traditionally served with sweet cream. Nowadays tuilemaking embraces both sweet and savoury flavours and is molded into a wide variety of shapes for stuffing, decoration or just eating out of hand. Read More

Veneto (Victoria, BC)

Shawn Leave a comment

Veneto 1It’s 6 ‘o clock on a smoldering afternoon in Victoria and my wife and I are hiking down the main drag, one blistering cobblestone at a time. We’re desperate to get back to our hotel room out of this ocean of people and car exhaust. Sure, we could hang out downtown but our dinner reservation isn’t for another couple hours and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sweat in this hipster inferno any longer, especially with all these MEC bags full of biking gear and cookbooks weighing me down.

I’m ready to start shoving tourists and crusty punks out of my way when I see the Rialto Hotel off in the distance; its grand double doors wide open, inviting me to drop everything and sit at the long marble bar where an angel with wings of cascading vintage glassware is pouring two fingers of Victoria Gin into an icy shaker with a wry grin.

I grab my wife’s hands and drag her inside, bags discarded along the way. We collapse into the tall chairs lining the bar and breathe in the stillness, seemingly miles away from the heat and crowd. The marble is cool to the touch and I can smell mint and lavender bitters on the air… We’ve arrived at Veneto, Victoria’s premier craft cocktail oasis… Thank the Gods! Read More

Hunt Gather Talk Podcast

Shawn Leave a comment

Hunt Gather Talk LogoIt’s been a while since my last Podcast Roundup and I’m itching to share all the new food and culture content that I’ve discovered floating out there for free in the interwebs. I haven’t shuffled my lineup in a while and I’ve only added one new Foodcast as of late… But it’s a game changer and certainly big enough news to warrant its own post!

Hank Shaw has his own Podcast! The beard and brains behind the exceptional food blog-turned cookbook empire Hunter Angler Gardener Cook has started recording his free-form discussions (sometimes with guests) about everything his blog is famous for: Hunting, fishing, foraging and cooking all manner of wild foods. Read More