Miso-Marinated Scallops with Kiwi-Yuzu Salad

IMG_3224Massaging fresh Pacific Scallops with white miso and sake is a great way to add an extra savoury-sticky layer of flavour to their already dazzling natural sweetness and a quick sauté in butter takes it over the top. The accompanying salad utilizes flavours I learned back in my Wasabiya days that play well with scallops plus add a much-needed, butter-cutting citrus bite.

Everyone thinks that the scallop/kiwi pairing is weird, but not only is it legit delicious but (according to my former chef and mentor Hiro) it’s a classic way to prepare mollusks in Japan. Try a bit of the vinaigrette with a sliver of raw scallop and you’ll see. Read More

Quadra Scallops

Scallops 1When one of BC’s most respected shellfish farming collectives exists only a fifteen minute ferry ride away, it’s no surprise that here in CR we get a lot of opportunities to eat pristine, local seafood. Sometimes it’s at a well-connected cafe-bistro or a shellfish festival or maybe you just know a guy who knows a guy… And that guy is Dave Ritchie. Read More

Synchronicity: Flat Tires and Disco Thistles

Disco ThistleI think I’m starting to believe in fate.

It’s been a crazy couple of months on Quadra, filled with adventures and mis-adventures, happenstance and straight-up, no-joke synchronicity. Every day it seems I’m stumbling blindly, yet gladly into another chance meeting, nutball conversation and potential life-changing experience. Take, for example the morning I got off the ferry and found that my rear bike tire was flat… Read More