Sparkling, Award-Winning, and Organic

At this time of year, our thoughts turn toward sparkling wines. And here’s a BC winery that makes not just good, but excellent, bubbly: sparkling wines that consistently win gold medals at international competitions. Even better, three of their four sparklers are Certified Organic.

Recent Observations from Vancouver’s Bar Scene

By Debbra Mikaelsen

I came of age in one of those small Canadian towns, where a young* person’s social life typically unfolded at bush parties. They took place halfway down some logging road, with participants sitting on stumps around a smoking fire, while Foreigner blared from someone’s car speakers. The only appropriate beverage was beer.

It wasn’t easy to fit in. I didn’t like REO Speedwagon, plaid flannel, slivers in my bum—or beer.

Its smell is intoxicating, with hints of vanilla, guava, pineapple, and lemon. I just can’t seem to take in enough of it. Every fall when quinces make their way to local markets, I anticipate the wonder of rubbing the golden skin of this pear-like fruit, and inhaling its heady, tropical fragrance.

To me, apples are cool. Not in the colloquial sense—with their present ubiquity and generic anonymity, they are hardly the pomegranates or starfruit of the day—but in the memories they conjure up. No matter how many hot apple pies or fresh-from-the-oven baked apples I enjoy, the associated memories always have a distinct bite in the air.

In my mother’s kitchen there used to be a soup tin of grease left over from frying bacon on Sunday mornings. The fat got reused for cooking, adding flavour to many dishes. I have never had a similar can in my own kitchen, however; the trend for a while was to move away from animal fat, toward margarine and vegetable oils. Jump ahead 35 years and a number of big thinkers about food are accusing margarine of crimes against health and flavour. Many chefs are embracing butter and bacon with enthusiasm.