Tough times with Bailout Bitter beer
Howe Sound Brewery has named its most bitter-tasting brew Bailout Bitter in honour of the government bailouts of the financial sector that have taken place in an attempt to mitigate the global financial crisis.
Calling it “bitter ale for bitter times,” the brewery said the new beer will cost less than its other brands.
A pint of Bailout Bitter will sell for $5.50, or about $1 less per glass than other brews, at the company’s restaurant and pub, located in Squamish, B.C., north of Vancouver.
The company is also planning to sell one-litre bottles of the new ale in the coming weeks, at a price less than the $7.10 per one-litre bottle it charges for some of its current brands. The price per bottle hasn’t been set yet as the company waits for bottling approval from provincial government.
“We are trying to inject a little bit of humour into this dire economic situation, while still responding in a serious way to these tough times,” the brewery’s co-owner, Leslie Fenn, said of the new brand.
For now, the beer is only available to patrons at a pub in Squamish , but if Howe Sound has their way, Bailout Bitter will be appearing on shelves on BC and Alberta liquor stores before the Christmas season.
Wine of the Week
My good friends Melanie and Tom recently returned from a trip to the Okanagan and they brought with them a bottle of Pinot Grigio with the name of Ogopogo’s Lair.
Ogopogo’s Lair ($14.99) is a product of the Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery and is named for the area of Okanagan Lake near Kelowna where according to Legend the giant serpent rests when not prowling the lake’s waters.
After trying the wine with a chicken dinner Mel and Tom declared it to be delicious.
Says Mel, “We enjoyed a glass, well chilled before dinner and really enjoyed the crispness and subtle fruitiness. The wine was paired with a traditional chicken dinner. The nice thing about this wine is it would pair well with poultry, seafood or on it own. We both felt this wine was good value for a mid-priced wine. This wine could quite possibly be our new favourite white wine.”
Ogopogo’s Lair won a gold medal at 2007 Okanagan Fall Festival and was named one of the top 25 Wines of Show at the 2007 Whistler Cornucopia.
Ganton & Larsen describe the wine thus – “Our uncorked 2007 Pinot Grigio is bright and juicy with rich tropical fruit aromas. Peach and apricot notes combine with lovely balance and a rich clean finish.”
Purchase a bottle Okanagan’s Lair at the Wine Barrel at 644 Broughton St. or at your nearest BC Liquor store.
Brew of the Week
Swans is one of the most popular eateries and drinking establishments in Victoria and its reputation for quality beers on tap is well deserved. In 2006 Swans, founded by the late philanthropist Michael Williams, was voted Canadian BrewPub of the year.
Although the pub and hotel are named Swans the brewery is named Buckerfield’s after the feed company that was housed in the building before Williams bought it and converted it to the fine establishment it is today.
At the recent Canadian Brewery Awards Buckerfield’s Brewery won a silver medal for its Appleton Brown Ale. This is a ‘London’ style and compares favourably with all of the brown ales I have sampled in my many visits to London.
Swans is well known for its live entertainment, fine artwork and daily special offers. A variety of its Buckerfield’s brews on tap and you are welcome to mix and match.
The Top 10 new restaurants in Canada
The November issue of Air Canada’s enRoute magazine, which annually names the 10 best new restaurants in Canada, is now out.
“The overall level of cooking has never been higher,” says contributing editor Chris Johns in the magazine. He adds that the restaurants — from Victoria to Montreal — give patrons “a true taste of each region.”
Victoria makes the list with Stage Restaurant coming in 10th Place.
10. Stage, Victoria, B.C.
“The small plate/tapas restaurant has become a crowded genre, and standing out requires a flair for the dramatic. Cooking this honest and authentic deserves a standing ovation.”
For a full listing see The Ottawa Citizen article
Stage
1307 Gladstone Avenue, Victoria.
Open seven days a week from 5 p.m. until midnight, and at 4:30 during Belfry matinees.
The restaurant can be reached at 250-388-4222.
Interview with Chef Mark Griffith
Growing up on the east coast and living in Victoria since 1998 Mark has an appreciation for “real” food: locally grown fresh ingredients, sauces and reductions from scratch, seafood, and game. At the same time his travels introduced him to a variety of foods and cuisine and along the way he even learned a smattering of Russian. Teaching courses for the Canadian Diabetic Association keeps Mark grounded in healthy foods balancing some of the more decadent items on the modern menu.
For the full writeup on Chef Mark visit his page on bcfoodandwine.com
Download Netcast - interview with Chef Mark Griffith
Brew of The Week
Didn’t we do well! By ‘we’ I refer to British Columbia and Vancouver Island in the recent Canadian Brewing Awards.
Out of a possible 21 gold medals BC breweries captured five and out of a total of 63 medals the provinces breweries captured a total of eleven – the five gold, plus two silver and four bronze.
I was particularly pleased that Victoria’s own Lighthouse Lager won the gold medal as the best North American Style Premium Lager. It was only a month ago that I tried Lighthouse Lager for the first time (at The Beagle on Cook Street) and declared it one of the best lagers I had ever tasted. It’s nice to have my selection validated by such a distinguished body as the CBA (see below).
Out of the 21 BC beers that won awards I am embarrassed to say I have so far only sampled two – Lighthouse Lager and Longboat Chocolate Porter (Gold Medal for Phillips Brewing Co.)
The list of the other medal winners can be found posted by John Boreskie elsewhere on this blog. Over the next few weeks I will sample each and every one of them and pass on my considered opinion. Unlike the CBA official tasters I can’t claim to be an accredited judge but I can claim to have been drinking beer for more than forty years.
As I am still on holiday in Portugal I will make this week’s Brew of the Week the Phillips Chocolate Porter. This unusual beer is a favourite of my cousin Warren and it was he that convinced me to try it during a family dinner at the Four Mile House where they have it on tap. I’m not one for mixing sweets and savories and the idea of chocolate flavoured beer intrigued me. I supposed I shouldn’t have been but I was surprised at the strong chocolate flavour. It’s not really my thing but chocoholics will love it.
Phillips is a Victoria brewery with a wide range of different beers for different tastes. Phillips describes Longboat Chocolate as “Enhanced by a double dose of chocolate, this smooth deep flavoured porter is certain to appeal to both the beer connoisseur and chocolate aficionado.
*The annual Canadian Brewing Awards competition is for breweries of all sizes. Eight certified judges grade the various brews on – appearance, aroma, flavour, mouth-feel and overall impression. There are 21 categories and gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each.
On The Road with Reg
If you have been following this space you know that I am currently on holiday in the province of Algarve on the southernmost coast of Portugal. October is generally a good month to visit the Algarve and this year has been no exception. Apart from two brief storms the weather has been magnificent – warm with lots of sun.
The Algarve is famous for its seafood and you will find some very good fish and shellfish dishes here but my favourite of the regional tastes is chicken piri-piri. It’s my belief that no visit to the Algarve is complete without at least one chicken piri piri feast at a cliff-side restaurant on the Monchique mountains.
There are few gastronomic experiences in the world to compare with a sunny afternoon on the terrace of a Monchique restaurant munching on crispy, spicy chicken, while drinking Alentejo wine and enjoying conversation with good company.
I’ve been to Monchique for chicken piri-piri hundreds of times over the years and have yet to be disappointed. I’ve been with three people when it was foggy and cold and with fifty people when it was hot and sunny but regardless of the climate or the numbers I’ve always enjoyed myself. There is something about the atmosphere of the Monchique restaurants that puts everyone in good spirits.
The first time I went to Monchique, more than twenty years ago, there were five of us – a newlywed English couple, a middle-aged resident woman and a plumpish Scottish lass. We had only just met and travelled up the mountain in anticipation but with no idea of what a treat we were in for.
It turned out to be an absolutely splendid afternoon and my first thoroughly enjoyable day in the Algarve. I don’t remember which restaurant it was but I do remember that we were served by a grizzled old fellow with a toothless grin.
The chicken tasted better than any I had ever eaten before, far superior to the deep-fried variety I had experienced in Canada. The chicken was accompanied by fresh, hand-cut chips and a salad of tomato, lettuce and onion with a light, tangy dressing. The wine was cheap and cheerful; the five of us talked, laughed and enjoyed ourselves so much that we forgot about time and didn’t leave until dark. We departed feeling as though we were friends for life.
The next time I went to Monchique there were eleven in the group. At one point I stopped and marveled at how our happy little band represented seven nationalities and three generations.
So, chicken piri-piri is my favourite meal in the Algarve but what about other local cuisine. Before coming to Portugal I had never eaten rabbit, which Portuguese style with rice is delicious, or chicken cooked in its own blood, a bit rich for me. I had also never eaten lamb fries which to put it bluntly are ‘sheep balls’.
Now I am not a particularly adventurous eater and I didn’t really want to eat some poor sheep’s once proud family jewels but I was cajoled into giving them a try by the garrulous owner of a Portuguese restaurant at Olhos d’Agua. I was doing an interview for a magazine and I asked the gentleman if there were any special items on the menu.
“Oh yes, we have sweetbreads. You must try some.”
I had eaten sweetbreads once before, coincidentally at Monchique. On that occasion I was told that the small kidney-shaped morsel on my plate was thymus gland. But when the restaurant owner began describing his sweetbreads I realized he was talking about lamb fries, gulp sheep balls!
“Actually, I just ate,” I sputtered nervously.
My host continued to insist, however, and eventually, not wanting to look a coward, I capitulated. Shrugging, I thought “What the hell” and said, “Okay…but just a couple.”
I was hoping the delicacies would be served as a paté or maybe a grilled hamburger patty. Imagine my chagrin when the owner, doing his best to please, approached the table carrying a plate laden with sheep balls. There were six of them! And believe me by the size and shape there was no mistaking what they were. They were oval-shaped and grey and served with tomato and onion garnish.
Thankfully there was plenty of bread to hand and I can eat almost anything with hardy Algarve bread. With the ‘balls’ spread flat I was able to get them down without gagging, all the while nodding and grinning at my host.
Once the little repast was over and I was feeling rather brave and proud of myself I asked the man if he had any other jobs outside the restaurant business (most restaurant owners in the Algarve have a second profession).
“Oh yes. I’m a veterinarian,” he replied, obviously enjoying the look of astonishment that crossed my face.
Actually the sheep balls didn’t taste too bad but I’ll stick to chicken, with piri piri of course.
Wine of the Week
I have a strong preference for dry wines but there are occasions when a sweet table wine goes down well; such an occasion is a hot, sunny October afternoon in southern Portugal.
My cousin Cindy’s husband Alex is not a big drinker but he does like the berry wines produced near his hometown of Ladner. Two years ago, when Alex and Cindy visited Portugal, they brought with them, as a gift, a bottle of cranberry wine from Wellbrook, a 55-acre heritage winery in Delta. Maggie and I had forgotten about it (the bottle not the winery) until last week when we came across it while cleaning a back cupboard.
Wellbrook recommends the cranberry wine with duck, pork or chicken. We chose to have it with chicken piri-piri, a famous dish in the Algarve region of Portugal where we are on holiday at the moment.
A chicken piri-piri dinner consists of pieces of chicken - breast, wings, legs and thighs - basted with spicy piri-piri sauce, slow-cooked on an open grill and accompanied by hand-cut fries and a salad of tomato, onion and lettuce. Piri-piri can be ‘hotted up’ to suit, but in most Algarve restaurants it entices the taste buds with no more pain than a tingle to the lips.
The Wellbrook Cranberry wine turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for chicken piri-piri with the sweetness (but not too sweet) mingling nicely with the piri-piri. It went even better with the traditional almond tart that followed. I love the taste of cranberry and can understand how this particular Wellbrook Cranberry won the 2006 Gold Medal at the All Canadian Wine Championships.
Wellbrook Cranberry - alcohol content 11 %, sweetness rating 2, price $12.90. Serve chilled.
TASTERS – Martin Toseland has compiled hundreds of misprints for a new book Steroid Hit the Earth A: The Catastrophic World of Misprints and I liked this one excerpted in the Daily Mail:
Winners in the home-made claret section were – Mrs. Davis (fruity, well-rounded); Mrs. Rayner (fine colour, full-bodied); Miss Ogle-Smith (slightly acid, but should improve if laid down).
Brew of the Week
From what I can find out there are no Portuguese beers available in British Columbia but be sure to let me know if I am wrong. So this week I will tell you about a brew of another kind.
Most countries have their own version of ‘firewater’ and in Portugal it is called medronho. In the Algarve province (where most medronho is produced) it is called the ‘spirit of the devil’
How strong is it? Well there was one Scottish bar owner who would promise unsuspecting tourists from the Old Country that if they could down six shooters of medronho in succession they could have it for free. Now the hearty Scots are well known for their ability to hold their liquor but only one ever met the challenge and he collapsed soon after downing number six.
But medronho isn’t meant to be gulped it’s meant to be sipped – as the unsuspecting Scots found out to their discomfort. The alcoholic content of this clear (when distilled properly), crisp liquor ranges between 45 and 60 per cent.
Medronho translates as ‘arbutus’ in English and the medronheiro tree, which carries the berries that the liquor is made from, is a member of the arbutus family.
I don’t believe medronho is available for sale in B.C. but if you have Portuguese friends you might ask if they have any homemade stuff hidden in the cupboard. Just remember – sip it.
On the Road with Reg
I am currently on holiday in the south of Portugal, a region I have been visiting annually for 24 years. I stay in the town of Portimao in the province of Algarve which is famous for its many hours of sunshine, beautiful beaches and villages with old world charm jostling with modern resorts rampant with bars and nightclubs. The Algarve is often referred to in guidebooks as the Portuguese Riviera.
TWO FEMALE HORSES
Like most Canadians visiting a foreign country I try to speak the host language. But for short-term visitors to the Algarve I recommend that they stick to please (faz favor) and thank you (obrigado for a male, obrigada for a female).
Almost all people working in the service industry in the Algarve speak English and you will make life easier for them if you stick to English rather than try to speak Portuguese. That’s because they are more likely to understand your English than your poorly (inevitably) pronounced Portuguese.
The majority, if not all, of the restaurant menus in the Algarve are in Portuguese, English and German which means visitors can order a meal without too much difficulty. But travel off the beaten track, or take a trip to Lisbon or Porto. and you better have your book of translations with you. Even then, mind you, it won’t be easy.
I learned all this twenty-four years ago. Arriving by train from France in August 1984, I found a comfortable little hotel (Flamingo) in the center of Lisbon. After a much needed and much appreciated bath I went down for dinner. The restaurant menu was (naturally) in Portuguese and at the time my Portuguese vocabulary consisted entirely of ‘Uma cerveja faz favor’. My waiter, a look-a-like for Sgt. Schulz of Hogan’s Heroes fame, spoke no English.
I did spot one familiar word on the menu, Americano, so I ordered the Frango Americano believing that it would turn out to be something vaguely familiar. It was – fried chicken. I noticed that the Frango Americo came with ‘batatas fritas’, and as my chicken was accompanied with chips, I now new the Portuguese words for what we on the other side of the Atlantic, strangely enough, call French Fries.
The next morning I ordered ‘toast’ for breakfast and was served a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. This is how I learned what ‘tosta mista’ was.
I lived on tosta mistas until I reached Portimão, the town, which was destined to become my base in Europe. For my first meal I ordered ‘lulas com batatas fritas’. I hadn’t a clue what lulas might be but at least I knew I would get fries with whatever came. Lulas turned out be squid cooked in their own ink, quite tasty actually.
Ordering drinks in those early days was also a problem. Waiters in the Algarve at the time generally assumed that any tourist (estrangeiro) who sat down at a café would want a beer or a soft drink. So when I asked for “Duas aguas faz favor” the waiters would look all confused and respond “Beer?” “Coca Cola?” Inevitably I would break down and say in English, “Two waters please.” (The plastic bottles were much smaller back then).
When I expressed my consternation to a Portuguese friend who spoke perfect English, he burst out laughing and said, “You were ordering two female horses”.
As I grew tired of tosta mistas for breakfast I learned that the word for toast was ‘torradas’. I went to a café directly below the language school I was attending and requested in my finest Portuguese, “Uma torradas faz favor.” The poor young waitress looked at me as though I were some raving lunatic. I persisted in Portuguese but to no avail. The teenager went away and came back with the manager. I repeated my request in Portuguese. He shrugged and threw his hands in the air, so finally in frustration I said in English, “An order of toast please.” I settled down to yet another tosta mista.
Again I went to my English speaking Portuguese friend and explained my predicament of not being understood in the language of his country. He burst out laughing, “You were asking for a bullfight!”
A bullfight is spelled ‘tourada’
Like I said, it’s all in the pronunciation.
APPETIZERS – A bar-restaurant named Seattle Style recently opened in the nearby (to my Portuguese hometown of Portimao) fishing village of Alvor. I dropped in with friends last Sunday because the owners were doing a charity event to raise money towards the purchase of a mini-bus for the local orphanage. Several musicians performed for free and all of the food and drink proceeds went towards the charity. The first entertainer was a jazz singer named Annette and it turned out she was from Richmond, B.C. Annette told me that she had gone to the Algarve to work for one summer season and that was eight years ago…
I left Victoria on the day of the annual Strathcona Hotel Golf Tournament and so missed out on the fun. Tournament organizer Craig Olson kindly e-mailed me the results of the well-oiled day at Cedar Hill Golf Club – what he could remember of it: The low gross champion was Ben Griffin, a member of the B.C. Willingdon Cup team, at 59 and his team-mate Mitch Couch shot 61 off an eleven for a low net championship total of 50. Needless to say, their team, which included pro Ian Stone of Uplands and birthday boy Dave Tuttle won the team low gross. Tuttle also took home a new fridge for his KP on the 1st hole. The low net team consisted of the Strath’s own Brock Olson, David Atkinson, Dave Gros and Nat Thorpe. Low staff went to Brock with a 64.
