Category: Trips

Mexico

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

A few months ago, once we knew which week we’d both have free in October, we toyed with the idea of a Euro trip. We wanted somewhere fairly chill, easy to fly to, with decent weather, and where we hadn’t been before. Alas, all of those Euro plans fell through when airfares suddenly doubled overnight, and we pivoted to Mexico. Four days at a resort, three days in Mexico City.

Sun

We left a sulking Bianca and ubered to the airport. Since we were flying Porter and therefore departing from terminal 3, we whooshed through security and grabbed a table at Caplansky’s for some lunch. I had a pretty good smoked meat sandwich, and a Henderson’s Rush beer.

We boarded, and were immediately dismayed – we’d flown on these Porter jets plenty of times, but never this far back in the cabin, and at some point the leg room gets more compressed. I couldn’t even sit straight. So that made for a tough 5.5-hour flight to Puerto Vallarta.

We arrived at PVR, found our way into the right customs line, and were doing pretty well until we hit the baggage hall. So many flights had landed at once that the line to exit the hall snaked all the way back out of the hall…so we had to fight through endless crowds all the way to the end of the hall to get our bags, then all the way back to the entrance to join the exit line, then slowly trod all the way to the exit (where they x-ray your bags). It took over and hour. By the time we found our driver he was wondering if we’d missed our flight.

Anyway, our driver was lovely, and he transported us up the coast to the One&Only Mandarina, driving through lush greenery the whole way. We arrived at the resort, got checked in, and got driven by buggy to our villa. By the way, buggies would become an unavoidable part of our lives the next four days.

Our villa was stunning…lots of space, a plunge pool, literally surrounded by mature jungle trees, and with a great view of the ocean. We could hear waves crashing into the beach below.

Our host reminded us to keep the doors locked lest any coatis try to break in; lo and behold, we immediately saw a family of coatis outside our door, hoping to ransack our room.

We arrived a bit late in the day, so really we just had time to shower, change, and get to dinner at Alma. Alma is where we would eat breakfast every day, and is essentially in the core of the resort. We weren’t expecting much, but my chicken was pretty good, and so was Lindsay’s octopus. We quickly realized that everything here was going to be expensive, including the wine – no all-inclusive, this. Expensive and sweaty.

We got driven by buggy back to our villa, where we pretty much just conked out.

Mon

Back to Alma for breakfast. Pretty great spread, and the only “free” meal at the place, so everyone hits it hard. After eating we had a beautiful walk down to the beach, got changed, threw our stuff on a lounger, and swam in the Pacific (which, for two Northern Atlantic babies, felt so warm).

Once we were out of the water, the staff kept bringing free drinks, food for everyone sitting in our section of loungers (which we couldn’t really get much of – the plates were swarmed the second they arrived). We thought about eating lunch at the Jetty Beach Club just above the seaside pool, but felt we were too wet and stinky (the Pacific smells, man) so we just went back to the villa. We didn’t really eat lunch, which probably ended up being a mistake. We hung out at the villa instead, and swam in our pool.

We wanted to try their treetop bar, so we went as soon as it opened to have some snacks. The bites we ordered – especially the shrimp taco – were excellent, but they arrived after we’d had some drinks, so we were a little tipsy.

I tried two Mexican wines: a sauvignon blanc (which was very good) and a Chardonnay (which was very bad). I shouldn’t have even drunk it; it was brown and oxidized, like it had been stored somewhere hot.

Eventually we went to dinner at Carao, their high-end restaurant, our first of two in three nights. The first couple of courses were very good, but right around the time we were sharing the fish chorizo & cheese dish, something inside me turned. Like, turned evil. The only other time I remember feeling like this was on a Porter flight – I turned white, had a flop sweat, was sure I would vomit (but didn’t) and basically suffered through the last 30 minutes in the air. Anyway, I got up and walked to the washroom. Or, tried to; I had to stop partway and sit on a bench so I didn’t pass out. After a few minutes I came back to the table, white as a sheet. The server graciously waived the mains (which had already been fired) and we left. I might have been able to eat something after that, but not the sea bass and shrimp that we’d ordered. We went back to the room, and straight to bed I went.

Tue

I’d gone to sleep so early that I woke up before 5AM. I let Lindsay sleep while I went outside, watched lightning (accompanied by neverending thunder) out over the ocean, and had a swim in our pool just as the first bits of light appeared in the sky.

We had a late breakfast and then re-attempted our beach plan, but realized that the setup was very different than the day before – I guess the previous day we’d somehow stumbled into a group who’d arranged free drinks & food & better shade, and no one stopped us because they guessed we were American. It wasn’t deliberate…we’d just set our towels down on a free lounger and gotten in the water; when we came back out, the other loungers around us were full.

Anyway, there was no such setup on this day – the only loungers there were very much in the sun, which we couldn’t handle, so we sat near the pool with a worse ocean view. We couldn’t get a drink for the first hour or so. They tried to upsell us on cabanas, but we weren’t paying $400 for a few hours of shade. We got another ocean swim in, but it wasn’t the best experience.

We changed and walked upstairs to the Jetty Beach Club for lunch which, truth be told, was pretty great. We had an excellent fresh fish ceviche, incredible shrimp tacos, and chicken al pastor tacos, and we were stuffed.

Back in the villa we relaxed a bit, with no further plans until dinner. TBH our nerves were a bit frayed. We’re not resort people, and we found a lot of it unsettling – the fact you can’t walk anywhere, the limited options for food, the unrelenting social pressure to tip more, the slightly-robotic service…it just feels weird.

What kind of saved us was dinner. We left the resort and went to the Rosewood resort down the road, just for some variety, and our experience there changed everything. When we arrived the guy who welcomed us made a joke and loosened us up. The guy who drove us to the bar was super nice. Our time at Barra Peñasco was fantastic – a gorgeous ocean view, two strong cocktails, and a free shot of artisanal tequila.

Back down the hill we went to La Cocina for dinner. Apparently our own resort hadn’t, in fact, made the reservation they said they’d made, but the restaurant sat us anyway. We then had the best meal of our stay in Mandarina:

  • Soft-Shell Crab Tacos w/ Smoked Manzano Pepper Mayonnaise, Pickled Fennel, Red Cabbage
  • “Cucaracha” Spiced Prawns w/ Pickled Onion, Coriander
  • Confit Suckling Pig  w/ Mole, Plantain
  • Char-Grilled Corn w/ Chili Alioli, Cotija Cheese
  • Mexican Red Rice & Fried Plantains
  • Bottle of Dominio de las Abejas Rosé
  • Glasses of late harvest Tokaji

Wed

Finally, our luck with the weather broke, and we woke up to a rainy day. We got some breakfast, then retreated to the room for a bit. Eventually we made our way to our appointments at the spa. Neither of us had ever had a massage before, so we got one at the same time. It was weird, but we both felt pretty relaxed after. We then went straight to lunch at Alma. That afternoon it was Lindsay’s turn to feel a little sick before our second dinner at Carao, but she rallied just in time. We were there for their structured taco tasting menu, and it was mostly really good. Great wine pairings too. Here was the taco lineup:

  1. Esquites, sea snail
  2. Tuna tasajo tlayuda, xintextle, capers
    • sparkling wine
  3. Fish taco al pastor, pineapple pureé
  4. Crab tostado, beans, avocado
    • white wine
  5. Blue shrimp al ajillo, black beans, hoja santa
  6. Huitlacoche, eggplant, macadamia
    • orange wine
  7. Octopus sope, pico de gallo, chickpea hummus
    • rosé wine
  8. Wagyu-cross, yuzu-kosho, fennel salt
    • red wine
  9. Seasonal sorbet

Not quite the same calibre as our dinner off-campus the night before, but probably the best of our meals at the One&Only. It was weird to sit directly across from this family from New York though…awkward for any number of reasons. Anyway, we dodged the pouring rain and got back to our villa to pack and rest up.

Thu

Up early for one last dip in the pool before finishing packing and grabbing some breakfast, and then we settled in for the drive back to PVR airport. A different driver this time, but just as beautiful a trip. Our guy shared some local history and farming info, which I was quite into.

The PVR airport was dead easy, since we were on a domestic flight. For reasons nearly inexplicable, we ate Carl’s Jr burgers, and then had a drink at the bar near our gate. Finally, we boarded a flight at a crowded, extremely hot gate, but once we’d boarded we’d sprung for business class so we had some elbow room, even for a short flight

That elbow room came in handy too, because the crew started serving drinks when our ascent angle was still a bit too steep, and the drink cart toppled over. I managed to grab it before it completely hit the deck, but everything on top of the cart – mostly ice – spilled on the aisle. Still: good job, Dan.

We landed, got a little bus into the MEX terminal 2 (which was beautiful, by the way…apparently it was just built new for the World Cup), and met our driver. Whereas the drive to PVR from Mandarina had been an hour through the green jungle, this was an hour‘s drive through a different jungle altogether. The traffic might have been even worse than Toronto’s. I should note: we had, inadvertently, chosen to visit CDMX on one of the busiest weekends of the year: during Dia de Muertos + a Formula 1 race. A very crazy city was cranked up to 11.

We were staying in the Roma Norte neighbourhood, and as we got closer to our hotel we could see cute shops, lively sidewalks, wine bars, art galleries, etc. We stayed at the El Cortes hotel, a relatively new Relais & Chateau property with only fifteen rooms. Ours was small, but beautiful, and had a little terrace surrounded by trees.

A note on trees: they’re everywhere in this neighbourhood, sometimes growing right up through the concrete sidewalks, heaving the pavestones into a diagonal hill to be traversed. But the trees seem to hold place of pride here, which we loved.

We had a dinner reservation, but stopped along the way at Vigneron, an excellent wine bar. Lindsay had an Aligoté (a much richer and more full-bodied example than usual) and I had a lovely Altesse from Savoie – maybe my first time experiencing that grape.

Dinner was a few more minutes down the street at Lina, and it was exceptional. First: great vibes. Beautiful interior, nice service, and we could see everything happening in the kitchen. Second: two delicious cocktails (I don’t always love a Paper Plane, but theirs had a twist, and an actual tiny paper plane) and an excellent wine recommendation to go with our good, a Kindeli Pinot Noir / Syrah blend from New Zealand.

Third: the food was incredible:

  • Cucumbers w/ morita chile, katsuobushi aioli, fried charales
  • Bok choi w/ parsnip purée, turmeric curry, macadamia nuts
  • Fresh corzetti pasta w/ grilled wild mushrooms, sikil pak, hoja santa, cured yolk
  • Wagyu Cross skirt steak w/ charro beans, avocado, salsa borracha
  • Grilled fish of the day w/ lemongrass marinade, green mango, fresh herbs
  • House made naan

All incredible, but that fish was insane — blanketed in julienned lemongrass, mango, and herbs. We walked home, getting a little turned around by CDMX’s diagonal streets, but crashing into bed, very much in love with Roma Norte.

Fri

After a little coffee & tea on our terrace, we got breakfast downstairs at Lotti, which for breakfast is only available to hotel guests . We were offered tables inside and outside; the host worried it might be too cool outside, but we pointed out that we’re Canadian and it wouldn’t be a problem. And twasn’t: we ate a big & delicious breakfast (ultra-dense french toast with figs and mascarpone for me; scrambled eggs & smoked trout for Lindsay) and enjoyed the street life. Note: everyone in CDMX seems to have two dogs. Not one…two.

Lindsay had a bit of work to do back in the room, but we eventually grabbed capps at Café Tilia down the street and made our way (with some difficulty, mind you) across town to the National Museum of Anthropology which everyone had told us was great. And it was, indeed, great: a stunning building, sectioned off by geographic area of Mexico, describing each through various time periods. We only had a few hours so could only see half the permanent collection and none of the special exhibits. Still, by the end, our feet were sore, our throats parched, and our bellies empty. We started the long walk back to Roma Norte, pausing after about 30 minutes to have some drinks and an extremely late lunch. Tomatoes, calamari, gnocchi, prawns, and quite a few glasses of natural wine later, we wandered back to the hotel, pooped. We remembered while running around and climbing staircases that Mexico City sits at about 7,350 feet above sea level.

But here we were, on a Friday night, back at the room around 7pm. Tired and sore as I was, this would not stand. We eventually went back out in search of tacos. We didn’t even attempt the line at Tacos del Valle, instead trying Taquería Orinoco. The lineup was still 45 minutes long, and the ordering chaotic; in hindsight maybe we should have just hit a street taco stand, but on a Saturday night of the second-busiest weekend of the year, our chances weren’t good wherever we went. Anyway, we had two al pastor tacos and a beef taco; the al pastor was just okay, but the beef was good. Overall, not worth the wait, but we got the experience.

Post-taco we wandered around, looking for a place to have a cocktail, but the streets had become overrun with drunk American bros, so it took us a while to find something. We eventually stumbled upon Brew Brew, which seems to be a coffee shop by day, but a coffee-infused cocktail joint at night. Anyway, the vibes were great, there was a gorgeous dog on the patio, the hosts were nice, the music was a weirdly pleasing mix of techno and classic rock covers, and my beer was cold. We closed the place down, more or less, and walked around the corner to our hotel.

Sat

We had definitely left too much to do on our last day, especially a day when the Dia de Muertas parade bisected our route to the art museums and the F1 crowds made everything busier. We started local: after another delicious breakfast at Lotti, Lindsay wanted to visit a local mainly-English used bookstore, as is her wont on trips. We walked over to Under The Volcano books, which is in a dusty set of rooms inside the American Legion building. Lindsay hadn’t felt great on the walk over, but was 10x worse when she left with a Thurber book. We slowly made our way back to the hotel, to change rooms (we’d had an infestation of ants in our room, of all things), where Lindsay started to feel better, so we walked down the street for our lunch booking at Campobaja. By the time we got there she felt poorly again, and I wasn’t so hot myself. Elevation and dehydration were working us over, it seemed. We did manage to eat quite a bit – aguachile (good, but hot), octopus and tuna tostadas (excellent), some kind of shrimp & octopus in a red sauce (excellent) and fish tacos (bad). I had some Mexican sauv blanc; Lindsay had a spicy Marg to kill bugs and instill salts. We left pretty full, and walked home.

Back in the room we struggled a bit to recover. We eventually did, but we hadn’t left ourselves enough time to get across town to the two art museums and back, so we missed out on that part of the plan. At 6:00 we went down the street to see a local Dia de Muertos event, an ofrenda to Dolores del Rio. It was in someone’s house, and we didn’t understand what was happening, and there seemed to be some kind of event in the store attached, and we were very confused, so we admired the ofrenda and just left sheepishly.

We walked around, looking for a place to have a pre-dinner cocktail. After some wandering I remembered there was a wine bar near our hotel called Loup Bar, so we went there. It was incredible. We sat at a cozy inside table and, at my prompting, the somm brought out some fun bottles for us to try. We selected a 2020 Arces (skin contact Chardonnay) Domaine de L’Octavin from the Jura, and drank it like it was juice. Immaculate vibes in the place too; in hindsight we should have stayed for dinner.

Alas, we had dinner booked at Lotti, which had served us so faithfully for breakfast. It was…weird. It was packed and loud, which isn’t bad, but so different than what we had just left, and probably not what our tired brains needed on our last night. The food (radicchio salad, watermelon carpaccio, wagyu tongue, fish of the day, lamb + polenta) was fine, the wine was okay, but they slammed the first few courses out so fast we could barely catch our breath. Like, they were changing my place setting when Lindsay, sixty seconds behind, was still finishing her food. 45 minutes in we’d been served our entire meal…and then we sat there for half an hour waiting for anything else. We eventually got glasses of dessert wine, then waited another long spell for our bill. It wasn’t the experience we were hoping for, and certainly not what we expected from a Michelin-recognized restaurant.

Luckily, the commute home (aka, one flight of stairs) was easy. We packed most of our stuff and drank a bottle of red the hotel had left us as an apology for the inconveniences we’d faced (ant-related and otherwise) during our stay.

Sun

Up, shower, finish packing, breakfast downstairs, and our airport ride showed up. Unfortunately we’d overestimated by quite a bit how early we’d need to leave – F1 be damned, the Sunday drive took half what it did on Thursday – so we had time to kill at the airport. Two bummers, though: first, the United Lounge, meant to be our safe port for the next two hours, was closed for construction. Second, I didn’t realize until well after the fact that my nice new Italian leather belt never made it out of the x-ray machine. I went back looking for it at security but they claimed they didn’t have it. So now I know why they were so insistent I take it off before going through the x-ray, and why my boarding pass – which had been sitting on my rolled-up belt – had fallen out of my bin and into Lindsay’s. Someone at the Mexico City airport has a little side-hustle going, I guess.

Whatever. I just wanted to get home. The flight was very easy – I watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day and tried to get ahead of my work email – and then we were back in Toronto, zipping skillfully through Pearson, crawling through GTA traffic courtesy of a farting Uber driver, and walking through our door to find a screaming kitty.

So there we go: country #24. I think we learned, or maybe re-confirmed, that we just aren’t resort people. But Mexico City? We’ll be back.

So, like, 27 bar.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Just back from a few days of meetings in Vancouver. Even when the days are spent in a boardroom, I always love my time there.

WED

I had an atrocious sleep and had to get up at 4am. I somehow dragged my ass to Pearson and got on my flight, watched Project Hail Mary, and landed in Vancouver before 9am. I threw my bag behind the Opus Hotel check-in desk (my room wouldn’t be ready for hours) and went out in search of coffee.

I found it at what would become a daily stop for the rest of my time there: Nine Bar coffee. (Not to be confused with Nine Bars, a long-closed frequent haunt of mine when I used to work at Yonge & St. Clair in Toronto.) I hung out on the patio and caught up on some work.

Eventually I needed some lunch, or rather, late breakfast. I wandered around a bit, eventually being lured in by the “wine bar” sign outside of Provence Marinaside. I had a chorizo scramble w/ piquillo peppers, marinated tomatoes, fresh herbs, gruyère cheese, and dutifully finished eating before ordering any wine. Their by-the-glass list was no joke though: I had a 2015 Chateau Montus Petit Courbu from Gascony, and a 2021 Comte Abbatucci il Faustine Rouge from Corsica. Neither were spectacular, but both were interesting, and that’s what I’m chasing the most these days.

By the time I finished up there my room was ready, so I walked back and promptly had a 2.5 hour nap. That never happens to me, but I was on a crazy sleep deficit. Lil nap, lil shower, right as rain.

I had an early solo dinner at Elisa, a Michelin-recognized steakhouse a block from the hotel. Fantastic meal, and a type of steak I don’t ever remember trying before.

  • Appetizer
    • cured hamachi w/ preserved lemon, coriander and soba, celery leaves, micro cilantro, thyme, olive oil
    • glass of 2023 Domaine de Chantemerle Petit Chablis
  • Main
    • 12oz holstein ribeye, USDA prime
    • fried brussels sprouts w/ brown butter, parmesan
    • glass of 2023 Brancaia No.2 Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Dessert
    • glass of 2010 Chateau Monteils Sauternes

It was then I was glad that my hotel was nearby. I did take a little loop down by False Creek to get some fresh air and walk off a tiny bit of what I’d just eaten, but then wandered back to the hotel and crashed.

THU

Back to Nine Bar for coffee. Breakfast pastries from Faubourg. Work in the morning, meetings in the afternoon. Group dinner at Acquafarina, which I thought was pretty good.

  • Appetizer
    • caesar salad: baby gem lettuce, parmigiano reggiano, house-made dressing
    • glass of Gavi di Gavi
  • Main
    • cacio e pepe: rigatoni, pecorino romano, cracked pepper & dehydrated honeycomb
    • glass of Etna Bianco
  • Dessert
    • twix aranciata: spiced caramel cream, milk chocolate ganache infused with orange zest, crunchy wafer, walnuts & almonds

Then a walk home, mercifully.

FRI

Nine Bar, again. Then all-day meetings. Dinner was at a place called Glowbal:

  • Family-style Appetizers
    • house baked brioche bread w/ whipped brown butter, tomato jam
    • burrata w/ piperade, pistachio & potato crumbs, grilled focaccia, aged balsamic
    • fried brussels sprouts w/ pickled granny smith apple, lemon-tahini, grana padano cheese
    • crispy humboldt calamari w/ calamansi black pepper jam, scallion
      • Glass(es) of The Hatch Pinot Blanc from the Okanagan
  • Main
    • 8oz Canadian Black Angus tenderloin
    • broccolini
    • glass(es) of Burrowing Owl Cabernet Franc
  • Dessert
    • glass of Auslese Riesling

I was glad to once again have a walk back to the hotel, because…holy moly. Someone get me a fruit plate.

SAT

Up at 5am for my flight home, but I didn’t mind. I thought of it like pre-adjusting to Eastern time. I watched Pressure on the flight.

This visit was way too short, but any time I can spend in Vancouver always feels a little magical. It feels like home, even though I never lived there.

NB, sandwiched between NS

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We’ve just returned from three weeks in the Maritimes. Those three weeks were broken up into six distinct…phases? Segments? Legs? Let’s say phases.

Phase one of six: Bedford

After a morning of errands and lunch at Aloette, we scrambled to get packed and leave for the airport. Luckily the Porter flight was easy, as was our drive into Bedford. There’s certainly an advantage to travelling in the summer vs. the winter. The next day was a fairly lazy one: breakfast with grandparents, late lunch at Finbar’s with Toronto friends who happened to be in the province, then backyard hangs and dinner with Lindsay’s sister. On our last full day there we enjoyed another lazy morning, a few errands, one more drink with Tess & Aravind before they flew back to Sweden, and then hangouts & dinner & Taboo with Lindsay’s siblings.

The next morning we got up, drove a few minutes to the local IMAX theatre, and watched The Odyssey, which I thought was excellent. We returned to Lindsay’s mom’s place for lunch from Cha Baa Thai, then got on the road to begin phase two.

Phase two of six: Nova Scotia AirBnBs

We arrived in the Annapolis Valley and checked into the Omar Gandhi Guest Cabin, which I’ve been obsessed with for a while. It’s absolutely stunning, from the design to the surroundings. We were pretty tired, though, so we just picked up some local pizza from Nayya, and some wine from Benjamin Bridge, and went to sleep amongst the trees.

We were really as our leisure the next morning, wanting to fully enjoy the the gorgeous space. Eventually we drove to Planters Ridge winery for lunch (spicy red pepper soup; fishcakes and chow; chili crisp ranch salad; corn crème brûlée) and a tasting. We then made an ill-advised decision to drive to the Blomidon lookoff, which due to road work was all too brief. We had to be back at Benjamin Bridge for a picnic by the Gaspereau river, which was stunning. Our dinner at Terroir at the Old Orchard Inn that night was okay, not great…certainly not worth the money. The menu:

  • Cocktails
    • Orchard Fog: Earl Grey, lemon and honey-infused gin, clarified cocktail, dehydrated lemon
    • Salted Peach & Thyme (non-alc): fresh peach and thyme simple syrup, bourbon based
  • Appetizers
    • East Coast Oyster Bar: six East Coast oysters freshly shucked, served with a blueberry & thyme mignonette and grated horseradish & lemon.
    • Smoked Tuna Tataki: Quick seared & sliced rare tuna Togarashi with chili-crisp & ginger ponzu. Garnished with pickled daikon, cucumber ribbons, lightly dome-smoked & served with crunchy wontons.
  • Mains
    • Ricotta Gnudi: Delicate ricotta and parmesan dumplings with preserved lemon, simmered in a honey garlic milk thistle crab cream sauce, finished with arugula-pecan salsa verde, panko crumble, and seared Digby scallops.
    • Smoked Pork Chop: Oulton’s smoked center cut chop, charbroiled and brushed with lemon & garlic brown sugar BBQ sauce. Topped with corn succotash.
      • Lightfoot and Wolfville Ancienne Chardonnay
  • Dessert
    • Homemade apple pie

When you drop >$300 and the homemade apple pie is the most remarkable part of your meal, something’s wrong. Anyway. Lesson learned.

The next morning — my birthday — we left the AirBnB, had lunch at The Library Pub, picked up some wine and a book, and drove through some unknown-to-us roads to to Elderbank. There we found our next AirBnB, a geodesic dome overlooking the Musquodoboit River. We opened some bubbly, enjoyed the nature, played some games, ate our weird chicken parm dinner (but the carrot cake was excellent) and got some sleep.

The next morning we were up early, struggled out the door, and pointed our car toward Cumberland County, to begin phase three.

Phase three of six: the farm

After a brief stop at Masstown Market, we drove on to Parrsboro, meeting my parents for lunch at Harbour View. Fish & chips and fried clams ensued. We drove back to the farm and the relaxing commenced. Lindsay skunked me twice at crib, we watched the Jays game, and I fell into a very deep sleep. The next day was the epitome of farm languor: I won 3 games of crib. We took a walk, though we were chased back inside by flies. We made pulled pork for everyone. We watched the Jays game. We slept.

After some Sunday breakfast we drove to our friend’s cottage, where brother #2 and the S-I-L had been staying. We walked to the beach, and eyed the cottage for sale next door. Then we drove on via Tidnish (another road never before taken) toward Shediac, to commence phase four.

Phase four of six: New Brunswick

We arrived in Shediac Bridge to find our beautiful AirBnB. We quickly realized it contained even more space than we though, both indoors and out. But we also quick realized it contained no laundry. That would be a problem, since Lindsay didn’t have enough clean clothes to last the week. It was too late to do anything about it that night, so we drove to Moncton for groceries & supplies, picking up donairs on the way home. One more Maritime task completed.

Though Monday was a holiday, we discovered a brand new laundromat in Shediac, and confirmed it would be open. It was very clean and efficient, and we were in and out practically in the time it took to walk across the road to Timmy’s. We returned to our temporary home, worked on the beautiful deck, made sausage & eggs for lunch, and stepped inside when it rained. A cooked dinner of salmon & vegetables hit the spot, after all the fried food we’d been eating.

The next three days were drive-to-the-office days for me. One day I saw a car burst into flames on my drive home. One day we drove all the way to the Bouctouche dunes to visit the beach there, but left pretty disappointed with the swim quality. One way it was too hot to do anything. We tried multiple times to visit Chez Leo, but it was far too busy.

On Friday I worked from the house in the morning, then we set out for Bedford. After multiple stops along the way, we made it just in time for me to sign in to one last meeting for the week, during which Lindsay left with her family for another cottage– thus beginning phase five.

Phase five of six: Brother & Bramble

While Lindsay and her family drove to the Annapolis Valley, I drove downtown to stay with brother #1, happily relinquishing any further driving duties for the day. We went to Eliot & Vine, a place that’s long been on my wish list. I had tuna crudo w/ saffron aioli, pickled chilies, red onion, capers, olive oil, crispy quinoa, and a glass of DeMorgenzon Chardonnay, followed by the ravioli w/ goat cheese honey ricotta, San Marzano tomato sauce, grilled vegetables, and a glass of Claude Val Rosé. Unfortunately it was almost unbearably warm in the restaurant (we were sat right next to the front door, which remained propped open during a heat wave for reasons that are beyond me). Anyway, we got home, chatted for a bit, and watched a documentary about the Barkley Marathons.

The next day we walked to the (very cool) Brewery Market and back, which was enough to leave me soaked in sweat. A cold shower never felt so good. We killed the rest of the day until friends arrived; the brother smokes steak and chicken, and we had a feast. Once they left, the brother and I watched episode one of President Curtis, then episode one of BoJack Horseman. Then I went to bed and slept for eight hours.

On Sunday I arose, did a bit of catching up on work & life, and drove back to Bedford to await everyone’s return. Once the crowd rumbled in we got ourselves sorted and then drove out to Lindsay’s dad’s for dinner and various animal encounters. The next day we got ourselves ready to depart, bringing in one final lunch from a local seafood spot, which would come back to haunt us. On the drive downtown to our hotel, Lindsay got violently ill — everywhere — and we had to go back to Bedford to clean up. The second attempt, several hours later, went better.

Phase six of six: Halifax.

We arrived at The Muir, our Halifax home away from home, shortly before 9pm. We got ourselves situated, ordered room service (an excellent burger for me, miracle-working chicken soup & brown bread for Lindsay), unpacked, and passed out.

Tuesday got off to a slow start, as expected. I got coffee and pastries from the nearby Java Blend. We eventually tried to visit The Narrows for lunch but it was closed, so we went to Chainyard instead. We (okay, Lindsay) bought some books from Agricola Street Books, and I got a cortado from the new location of Espresso 46 before we returned to the hotel to reset. Lindsay had supper plans with Kealin, so they took over the reservation we’d made at Bar Kismet. Meanwhile, I met up with brother #1 and his progeny for some incredible pizza at Lou Pecou. We had a special, kind of a souped-up Margherita, and a “One Night in Marseille” — tomato sauce, bocconcini, pepperoni, caramelized fennel seed, pickled mustard seed, basil, Parmigiano Reggiano. I had a glass of local Parlan Nadurra skin contact l’Acadie Blanc. We each had a buckwheat chocolate & sea salt cookie for dessert.

Wednesday started slowly as well. Java Blend again, and relaxing. Then: pastries from LF Bakery, coffee with the siblings, drinks with Andrew at Good Robot beer garden. We bumped into Tim picking up burritos from Dee Dee’s, then ate them in Point Pleasant Park and walked around the trails and beaches. After some brutal traffic getting home we rested up for a couple hours, then went just down the waterfront for dinner at Mystic. Our second time there was very good, if not quite as good as our initial visit back in December.

Lindsay had the ‘Fauna’ menu:

  • snacks
  • acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora, sea mustard
  • lobster agnolotti w/ ns saffron, yogurt, cattail, kelp vinegar emulsion
  • koji beef tenderloin w/ juniper, spruce, caper, bone marrow black garlic shoyu, tamarack aioli
  • baby halibut w/ stuffed mussels, smoked polenta, sea asparagus, daikon, bouillabaisse cream
  • rhubarb w/ ns honey ganache, brandy snap, tonka bean almond, rhubarb compote sorbet
  • sweets

I had the ‘Biota’ menu:

  • snacks
  • acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora, sea mustard
  • cured tuna loin w/ crab mayo, apple, ginger sumac crepe, aonori cucumber
  • scallop w/ sea lettuce gratin, sea asparagus spätzle, lardo koji turnip, goldenrod cream
  • wolffish w/ brioche, scallop, crab, fennel, asparagus pea, crab hollandaise
  • sea buckthorn curd w/ white rum sponge, caribou moss, ponzu ice cream
  • sweets

We both had the wine pairings, but there’s no way I’d remember them all. The courses I remember most fondly were the caviar with a South African Chenin Blanc and the scallop with a Piemonte Nebbiolo rosé.

Thursday, as you might expect, started slowly. We slept in. We ordered room service. We did some work, and eventually had a late lunch at Drift (lobster hushpuppies, a cheeseburger, a Marque salad). We met Rickie and Bea for drinks at The Narrows Public House, the inside of which was one million degrees Celsius. Then, though I wasn’t feeling well, we walked to Reta’s for dinner with Lindsay’s dad & his wife where I managed to rally enough to eat. We had:

  • snacks & appetizers (shared)
    • devilled eggs w/ crisp chicken skin, togarashi, tobiko
    • fried squash flowers stuffed with goat cheese
    • little gem salad w/ giardiniera vin, spicy salami, cured yolk, sourdough, green goddess
    • parisienne gnocchi w/ cacio e pepe
  • mains
    • swordfish w/ potatoes, brown butter capers, white lemon, green beans, almonds (Lindsay)
    • duck breast w/ cornbread, brassicas, black garlic pickled cherries (Dan)
  • dessert
    • corn & caramel swirl ice cream, all around

We’d hoped to get to BKS, the speakeasy in the Muir, but given how I felt, we opted out.

Friday was the last day of our trip. We got breakfast sammies & coffee from Cafe Lunette, checked out of the Muir, picked up Lindsay’s mom and sister, grabbed pizza from On The Wedge, packed the last little bits, and drove to the airport.

Our flight from Halifax to Toronto was quick; our 31km commute home from the airport took nearly as long. We arrived home to find one very happy, vocal, matted, clingy cat.

A (work) week in Halifax

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This past week I was in Halifax for two different work purposes. Just one day out the five I was there was kind of damp, otherwise it was a gorgeous week.

Sunday: Vino Volo, an easy flight sitting next to someone I knew, a long commute into downtown Halifax because one of the bridges was shut down, the Prince George Hotel (my home for the next five nights), Stillwell (where 2 beers and a large Japanese fries was $21 and I was asking myself why I don’t live there) and then, much later, Rosie’s Burgers.

.:.

Monday: classic Halifax weather (fog like a blanket), day one of a conference, lots of trips to the Weird Harbour on Barrington, then EDNA for dinner:

  • Aperitif
    • glass of muscat/grenache gris orange wine
  • Appetizer
    • beet salad: pickled and roasted beets, whipped ricotta, hazelnut, mint, radish, cucumber,
      maple-balsamic reduction
      • glass of pinot noir
  • Main
    • pork collar w/ carrots and apple and dill
      • glass of grenache/syrah
  • Dessert
    • chocolate coconut mousse w/ hazelnut praline, strawberry coulis, chantilly cream
      • glass of sauterne

.:.

Tuesday: gorgeous weather, day two of the conference, more Weird Harbour, Gahan House with a big crew, and a sunset sail around the harbour on the Tall Ship Silva.

.:.

Wednesday: the other Weird Harbour, a walk down Spring Garden and back through the Public Gardens, a full day of meetings, dinner at Salt + Ash, wine at Peacock (they let me pick the wine, so Slovenian Cabernet Sauvignon it was!) and more perfect weather.

.:.

Thursday: day two of meetings, still more Weird Harbour, another gorgeous day, and after the meetings wrapped a colleague and I walked to brother #1’s house for a bbq and the Canada/Qatar match with brother #2.

.:.

Friday: hotel breakfast, one last Weird Harbour visit (along with what I think was the Spanish SailGP team), airport, terrible pizza, and an easy flight home.

VORTiC Part 4: into Calgary

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Victoria
Okanagan
Road
Trip
into
Calgary

Fri Apr 17

Shortly after leaving Frank we turned north and began the long, boring drive up to Calgary. There was plenty more snow, and a few more deer.

Driving into Calgary was kind of annoying. Lots of bad drivers on the highways. Still ice in the underpasses. Knuckleheads cutting me off and forcing me to miss turns — which, in a city with as many one-way streets as Calgary, is a serious pain. Parking lot full of slush. And then we couldn’t get into our friend’s condo, as someone had…glued her lockbox shut. What the hell is wrong with people? And why did Calgary hate us so much? Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes trying to scrape the glue out of the lockbox before giving up and checking into the Calgary Le Germain.

We didn’t have long to shake that whole encounter off, though, as we were meeting our friends Stevie & Sarah at PARK by Sidewalk Citizen. Sarah had booked it, and what a find she made — food is listed below, but the decor, the vibes, the staff were all terrific.

  • Appetizers
    • Labneh
    • Tabbouleh
    • Charred Carrots w/ fermented chili-honey, sesame, ricotta
    • Parisian Gnocchi w/ mushroom, labneh, truffle, 12-month manchego
  • Main, shared
    • Three Cuts of Beeswax Dry-Aged Lamb (12-day dry-aged sirloin, 12-day dry-aged ribs, 21-day dry-aged leg) w/ house garlic fries, garlic toum, red pepper jam
  • Dessert 
    • Daily Donut (strawberry + almond)
    • “Turtles” Ice Cream
    • Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake
  • Drinks
    • Various beer, wine, cocktails…at this point of the trip I wasn’t keeping track

I’ve never heard of dry-aging lamb in beeswax, but my god…it was incredible.

We walked home, chatting, and then Lindsay and I staved off crashing long enough to drink some Burrowing Owl “Athene” (which was tremendous) and change our flight.

Sat Apr 18

After two weeks in the west, in which we’d encountered every type of weather possible, it was time to go home. We showered, packed, and scooted over to Kensington. Our plan had been to leave the wine we’d accumulated along the way at our friend’s condo as a means of payment, but since that plan fell through and we hadn’t the spare kilos in our luggage to bring them home with us, we gifted them to Sarah & Stevie along with some treats from COBS. But really, it was just an excuse to see them again and play with their level-10 adorable dog.

We left them, drove to the airport, dropped the rental car, checked into our flight, and had an easy flight home. There we found one very happy, snuggly cat.

.:.

And so: thank you, BC. Despite nearly killing me in a mountain pass, you remain my second-favourite province.

(Calgary, you on the other hand can suck it.)

VORTiC Part 3: Road Trip!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Victoria
Okanagan
Road
Trip
i
C

Tue Apr 14

While Lindsay had a virtual meeting, I went and got us breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and coffee/tea at Queen Of The South. By the time I had the goods her meeting was ended, and we finished packing up.

The next phase of our plan was to drive across the bottom of BC, ending up in Fernie. I’d never been through that part of BC before, and TBH didn’t have much time to research anything in between. I figured we’d just stop somewhere for lunch, and otherwise blast on through to Fernie in a day.

We left Osoyoos, and headed east on the Crowsnest Highway. We immediately started climbing, taking in beautiful views as we crested Anarchist Mountain, and passed through farmland and forest. We drove through a bit of snow at a high mountain pass but quickly drove out of it, and paused to take pictures of Christina Lake.

A few minutes after leaving the lake, we began another climb. We saw signs about needing winter tires through the end of April, but given how warm it had been when we left Osoyoos we figured it didn’t apply that day. Silly us. Not ten minutes later, we found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. Five minutes after that, as we drove over the Paulson Pass, we lost control of the car in the snow-covered road at least once. (It turns out we had all-weather mud + snow tires, but not full winters.) We managed to keep it on the road, white-knuckling until we descended toward Castlegar and the snow turned back into rain.

We pulled into the Lion’s Head Pub, and ordered beers to soothe our jangled nerves. While we drank those and waited for sandwiches to arrive, we looked up traffic conditions for the rest of the Crowsnest. Turns out the next section of highway, Kootenay Pass, was already much worse, and would remain so until Thursday morning. We found a live webcam of the pass, and instantly knew we didn’t feel safe driving through it, so we hurriedly changed plans: we booked an AirBnB in Castlegar for two nights and shifted our Fernie AirBnB to Thursday night. Luckily our post-Fernie plans were very fluid, so we had little to reschedule there.

We finished our meals and killed some more time at the pub (they were awesome, and we resolved to return the next day), stopped for coffee, got some groceries, and drove to the AirBnB — they were fantastic and had the place ready for us in ~90 minutes. It had lots of space, a mountain view, laundry facilities, and a comfy bed — for us, at that moment, it was a palace. And most importantly, we were safe. We assembled a charcuterie board and drank sparkling wine from the Okanagan, barely remembering the 20 degrees that had welcomed us just three days before.

Wed Apr 15

Obviously we had no plans, considering we weren’t expecting to be in Castlegar. We took the opportunity to sleep in, relax at the AirBnB, and catch up on emails (and blogging). Eventually we went out for coffee & pastries at Crumbs, then to a park by the Columbia River (I was humming Woody Guthrie all day).

It was pretty cold, so we popped back into the Lion’s Head for some food & drink. Too much food, honestly — their portions are out of control. Bursting, we drove back to the AirBnB, drank a bottle of Tantalus Chardonnay, and tried to save up energy and luck for Thursday.

Thu Apr 16

We had a pretty sleepless night, honestly. We kept looking at weather updates and highway conditions and live webcams of Kootenay Pass. Around 3am Lindsay worked out a plan to avoid it, while I worked on plan C: abandon the south of BC and strike north for Revelstoke.

When we finally got up for good, we were pretty sure plan C was what we’d go with. But our Fernie AirBnB host messages to say their roads were fine, and we decided to go with plan B: take the Kootenay Lake ferry instead of driving over Kootenay Pass. We collected snacks and coffee at Crumbs, said goodbye to our safe haven of Castlegar, and drove north.

Driving along the Kootenay River was beautiful — it was hard to keep my eyes on the road. We eventually made it to Balfour, where the ferry crosses the lake. Unfortunately, the larger ferry was out of service, and we didn’t make it onto the smaller one, so we’d have to wait 90 minutes. Just enough time to eat some lunch at The Landing. When the ferry returned we got right on, and enjoyed a gorgeous 35-minute trip across the lake. Lindsay commented that it might have been a blessing in disguise to be delayed and rerouted this way — when would we ever take such a picturesque ferry ride again?

That’s not sunshine on the mountaintop. It’s last night’s snow.

On the other side of the lake we had a lovely, winding drive. Lindsay curated a mountain-themed playlist. We spotted lots of deer on the roadside. The weather was lovely, save one really bad spot along Moyie Lake between Creston and Cranbrook. Eventually we reached Fernie, grabbed food from the first place we saw (Subway), and got to our AirBnB. We drank a bottle of Nk’Mip Pinot Noir and slept like the dead.

Fri Apr 17

I woke up early, and caught a glimpse of the mountains before they became shrouded in fog. We packed up and moved on, grabbing a late breakfast on our way out of town at The Bridge Bistro.

We drove east, thinking it would be an easy drive, but once again hit miserable weather at Crowsnest Pass. Luckily, we got through it, and then stopped somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for decades: the Frank Slide. I’ve read about it. I’ve sung along live to the Rural Alberta Advantage song about it. But it’s not the same as actually seeing it.

We drove up to the interpretive centre to see the slide from above. We didn’t go through the full tour, but we did chat with one of the guides for a bit, and go out onto the catwalk to see it up close. You can’t really grasp the enormity of it until you see it up close, and that makes it fairly unique in terms of natural disasters: explosions last for an instant, hurricanes pass, fires go out, etc. But this pile of rock would take a century to move, so there it’ll stay forever, reminding us of the town buried beneath it.

Anyway, somewhere in the snowy mess of Crowsnest pass, we’d entered Alberta. It was in this godforsaken province that our journey would end some 24 hours later.

VORTiC Part 2: The Okanagan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Victoria
Okanagan
R
T
i
C

Fri Apr 10

After landing at the Kelowna airport we rented a car. It was 20 degrees and sunny in Kelowna, so we were sweating by the time we reached our car, but we’d cooled off by the time we drove to our AirBnB in West Kelowna.

We were scheduled for dinner just minutes down the road at Quail’s Gate, but after the previous nights’ onslaught we couldn’t handle another big dinner. We cancelled that reservation and, in a fit of misguided nostalgia, opted to pick up donairs instead. Then back to the AirBnB to watch the new season of Temptation Island. Trash for the body, trash for the mind.

On the plus side, it felt REAL good to sleep in a king bed again.

Sat Apr 11

So good, in fact, that we slept right in. I got up, made myself coffee, and sat on the deck with it, looking out at the lake.

We still got our meal in at Quail’s Gate, though: we booked in for brunch, and drove the ~20 seconds down the road to the winery. Their restaurant is meant to be very good, and the brunch (with a jazz duo!) didn’t disappoint. We had:

  • appetizers
    • salad
    • whipped nduja sausage, honey & mint gastrique, grilled sourdough
      • 2016 reserve Chardonnay for Lindsay
  • mains
    • Dan: cassoulet w/ unearthed farm beans, lamb merguez sausage, duck leg confit, pork belly, poached egg
      • 2023 Stewart family reserve Pinot Noir
    • Lindsay: liège waffles & duck leg confit w/ poached egg, duck & foie gras gravy, crispy duck skin
      • 2023 Estate Pinot Noir

We did a quick tasting afterward, which wasn’t great — the kid who did our tasting was on his second day, bless him, and didn’t know any of the tasting notes. Plus, it was way too busy in there — we felt like we were inconveniencing them by buying two expensive bottles of wine. Anyway.

We drove across the lake to Kelowna, where we tried to go to Cedar Creek, but they weren’t doing regular tastings, just some kind of rosé launch party, so we changed plans. For some reason I forgot Martin’s Lane was right next door, but no matter: we drove to Tantalus instead, and it was excellent. It was busy, but they got us a table, and we dove in. The tasting room manager Alexa looked after us (which meant she got occasionally called away to tend to some bachelorette party departing at the same time, or by a cute dog named Tobias), but we tasted through their lineup and loved just about everything, including the view.

We left with a plan to order a case, and maybe join the wine club if we didn’t find anything down the valley that convinced them otherwise.

[Narrator: “They did not find anything down the valley that convinced them otherwise.”]

It was getting late in the day now, so we drove back across to West Kelowna and got ourselves ready for dinner, again near the AirBnB. I’d never been to Mission Hill, but I’d had their wine. While they had only a limited menu for their indoor restaurant at this time of year, we still got to take in the grandeur of the place. It really is quite a spectacular spot.

While our table had none of that view, our meal was nonetheless very delicious:

  • bread
  • ravioli doppi: roasted squash, mortadella, walnut
    • 2022 Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon (terrace exclusive)
  • braised beef shoulder stuffed with mushroom, w/ estate honey glazed beets, pommes duchesse
    • 2022 terroir collection Meritage
  • apricot kernel flan w/ oat crumble, dark cherry compote
    • 2014 terroir collection “Silver Ranch” Riesling icewine

Our server Mackenzie’s family was also from the east coast, and she visits PEI each summer, so we bonded over that a bit.

We got home just in time to beat a heavy rainstorm. Considering we’d already been in BC for a week in early April, and this was the first rain we’d seen, we felt pretty lucky.

Sun Apr 12

We woke up to find the rain had mostly stopped, which bode well for our drive. We showered, packed up, departed, and headed south. First stop: coffee and maple-glazed bannock at Kekuli. After that we had a lovely drive along the lake to Penticton.

We weren’t sure where to eat lunch. The two spots Lindsay narrowed it down to while I drove were a Turkish placed called Elma on the lakefront, and Kin & Folk on main street. We opted for the former. We had Cilbir and Sucuklu Yumurta and a cocktail (sans alc for me) which was okay, but not great, and certainly not a lot of food. So we went on our way, and did something slightly nuts: we drove downtown and ate a second half-lunch at Kin & Folk. Okay, maybe 3/4 of a lunch:

  • Mr.Chan’s Family Fried Rice w/ egg, “perfectly seasoned ham”, secret family sauce, bok choy, marinated shiitake mushrooms, braised daikon, fried tofu
  • Korean Fried Bao Buns w/ chicken, baek-kimchi, kewpie mayo, crispy things, cilantro
  • Roasted Sesame Salad w/ water chestnuts, pickled carrot & daikon, cherry tomatoes, beets, crispy noodles, cashew, ricotta, roasted sesame vinaigrette
  • cock/mocktails

Completely stuffed, we kept heading south to Okanagan Falls. We stopped at Liquidity Wines, which had been recommended by our waiter in Victoria two days prior. The first thing we noticed was the incredible view:

The next thing we noticed was that the wines were pretty good. We satin the sunshine and admired the view, got some tastings of off-limits bottles, and ended up shipping a few home to Toronto.

A short drive later and we were in Osoyoos, checking in at Spirit Ridge just across the lake. We had the upper floor of a townhouse, with lots of space and a view of both the lake and the mountains. I opened the bottle of Quail’s Gate pinot we’d brought down from Kelowna, sat on our patio, and took in the view.

Dinner that night was in the onsite restaurant, The Bear, The Fish, The Root & The Berry:

  • cocktails
    • Anarchist Mountain Whisky Sour: Tumbleweed Anarchist Mountain Canadian Whisky, fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, egg white, Angostura bitters (Dan)
    • Stoneboat Vineyards Bubble Boat Brut (Lindsay)
  • appetizers
    • fry bread w/ berry wojape & sunny butter
    • Three Sisters salad w/ local greens, beans, corn, roasted squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, maple mint dressing
  • mains
    • pan seared West Coast salmon filet w/ roasted red pepper sauce, coconut wild rice blend, 3 sister sauté veg, sweet & sour escabeche (Lindsay)
    • confit duck leg w/ white bean cassoulet, chard & chard chutney, elk chorizo, beets, saskatoon berries (Dan)
    • bottle of Blue Mountain Reserve Cuvee Pinot Noir
  • dessert
    • “Mushroom”: caramel & white chocolate mousse,  salty caramel,  pear compote,  almond sponge cake,  feuilletine,  peach pate de fruit,  chocolate crumble,  sponge cake,  sweet rock,  tuile leaf

The food was good, if unspectacular, but that dessert was a work of art. They even let us take it back to our room (along with the rest of the bottle of wine) because Lindsay wasn’t feeling great. We ate it, and drank the wine, and watched more Temptation Island.

Mon Apr 13

After a decent sleep, we slowly mobilized for an afternoon of wine tasting. First, though: lunch. We stopped at Queen Of The South on the way through Osoyoos for coffees and huge sandwiches, then drove north.

Our first stop was Phantom Creek, one long on my radar. It is a stunning winery in a gorgeous location, and the wines kept up with the scenery. We liked everything we tried, and ordered one of each to be sent to our home.

Next up was Burrowing Owl, which TBH is showing its age a bit. Still, we enjoyed about half of what we tasted, and left with a couple bottles. Last stop of the day was Nk’Mip, right next door to our hotel, and an old favourite. We got there just before closing so the tasting room was nearly empty, and we got to have a little extra chitchat with our pourer. We left with three bottles.

We chilled in the room a bit before we realized we’d need more food, so we did the easy thing and went back to The Bear, The Fish, The Root & The Berry. We kept it simpler this time:

  • appetizer
    • Bannock w/ black bean hummus, roasted vegetable ratatouille, sunflower seed romesco, corn & hot pepper succotash
  • mains
    • pan seared Pacific Lingcod w/ chestnut pasta, peas, chorizo, spinach, white onion velouté (Lindsay)
      • glass of Hester Creek Winery Viognier
    • 6oz bison flatiron steak w/ steak fries, spicy green salad, chimi chimi, garlic aioli (Dan)
      • glass of Road 13 Select Harvest 74 K Block

We were feeling a little pooped; all we could manage to do was finish Temptation Island so we could leave that silliness behind us.

Little did we know, plenty more silliness would ensue shortly.

VORTiC part 1: Victoria

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Victoria
O
R
T
i
C

Sun Apr 05

We got up early on a cold, grey Sunday morning, showered, packed the last of our suitcases, and headed to the airport. We were off to our first real vacation(ish) of the year.

A smooth drive to Pearson and a speedy breakfast at Fionn MacCool’s later, we walked straight onto our flight to Victoria, BC. The genesis of this was a work trip, but we decided to build a longer trip around it, hence we flew a couple days before my colleagues. We were excited: neither of us had ever been to Victoria.

The flight was easy (love those Porter jets), and we had a spectacular view of the Rockies as we flew over, as well as the ocean and Vancouver island as we descended into the Victoria airport. A cab took us downtown and dropped us at our first hotel: the Victoria Regent. The suite was dated, but very spacious, and had a balcony with a great view of the harbour and the provincial parliament buildings. It would do for a couple of days, surely.

I needed coffee, and badly, so we went to find some. It was beautiful and sunny outside, so much so that when we arrived at our first choice for a coffee shop (Hey Happy) the line outside in the sun gave us pause. Instead, we walked one street over to Habit, fought our way through a crowd of German(?) students, and sipped cortados.

We walked around downtown for a bit, and along the waterfront, before heading to an early dinner at Wind Cries Mary. We had the chef’s tasting menu:

  • cocktails: Body Of Work for me, Spice Of Life for Lindsay
  • endive, apple, walnut, goat cheese salad
    • Vancouver island sparkling
  • king salmon, romesco, potatoes, fennel, sprouts
    • Vancouver island rose
  • duck breast, barley, green bean, beet
    • Franconia
  • peanut butter pie
    • cherry wine

On the way we picked up a couple bottles of wine, a few cans of beer, and a bottle of Gueuze Tilquin Quetsche (maybe my favourite beer of all time) at Vintage Spirits. As it turns out, we bought too much — we’d have little opportunity to drink it, and either dumped some of it down various sinks or left them in hotel fridges. Anyway, we didn’t know that yet, so we blissfully drank that gueuze on the balcony and admired the lights of Victoria’s inner harbour, happy to be back on an ocean.

Mon Apr 06

We had a bit of a lie-in as we adjusted to the time change, but eventually got ourselves out to a big breakfast at The Ruby on Johnson. Lindsay had the sausage Bennie; I had fried chicken & waffles. We were loading up assuming we’d miss lunch, you see. We walked back to the room and got ready for the day’s activity: whale watching!

We’d booked with an outfit called Prince of Whales (get it?) to go look for killer whales. We did a 3-hour tour on a big boat (it was too cold for a zodiac) and ended up seeing a pod of three killer whales: two females and a male. We observed them from a distance before they surfaced right next to us, and then they were gone, chasing some other food. It’s always incredible to see them, and to spend time on the ocean.

After a rough & cold ride back, we realized that, in spite of our huge breakfast, we were too hungry to wait all the way until dinner. We popped into Finn’s, right next to our hotel, expecting a mediocre tourist trap. There were some rocky service issues to start, but the food (prawn tacos, smoke steelhead rillettes, fish & chips, beers) ended up being really good.

Back at the hotel, we showered off the salt water, changed, and eventually went out to what we expected to be the fanciest dinner of our visit to Victoria: Marilena. We were not expecting the vibe we got as soon as we walked in — huge space, with a mix of power dinners, retirees, and whole families with kids climbing on banquettes — but once we settled in to our table, we started to get it. Our server (and our somm) were extremely nice and guided us through the evening. Here’s what we ate:

  • oysters on the half shell
    • glasses of Bauchet ‘Signature Cuvée’ 1er Cru NV Champagne
  • Masunosuke: ora king salmon sashimi
  • Tsunami: lightly torched hamachi, jalapeño, ginger, citrus ponzu
  • milk buns
  • grilled octopus w/ n’duja sofrito, braised gigante beans 
    • bottle of CheckMate, ‘Little Pawn’, 2022, Okanagan Valley
  • Wagyu: A5 Hida, Gifu Prefecture 8oz
  • grilled broccolini w/ red wine vinegar, garlic
  • roasted wild mushrooms w/ garlic confit
    • glass of Tempranillo, Olivier Rivière, ‘Las Viñas de Eusebio’, 2020, Rioja
    • glass of Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, Orofino, ‘Red Bridge’, 2022, Similkameen Valley
  • ice cream & sorbet: burnt orange, yuzu, passionfruit-pineapple
    • Ratafia, Domaine Henri Giraud, Champagne Solera (1990-2019)

All of it was absolutely delicious, but the Wagyu was the best I’ve ever had in my life. Also, the somm had a bit of fun with us, doing a blind tasting of three reds. It was a smart upsell maneuver too: I picked the Rioja, which was a Coravin selection and 4x the cost of Lindsay’s Orofino.

Weirdly, the very-late-lunch probably moderated our appetites somewhat for this meal, which was lucky, since it was the much more expensive venue. Worth it, though.

Tue Apr 07

It was moving day, so after I ran to Saint Cecilia for coffee we checked out, left our bags, and went for lunch a few blocks away at Maiiz, a Mexican place in the heart of Chinatown. We had duck tacos and chilaquiles and churros, and had to dodge a tortilla production line to get to the bathroom. Good stuff. After that, it was on to the next hotel.

My work function that week was at the Fairmont Empress, and we checked in for a few nights. There was a mix-up with our room, so we ended up with two double beds. Because the room was small and we were traveling with two huge suitcases, one bed was dedicated to luggage, and we did our best to cram into the other bed. Bit of an adjustment when you’re used to a King. Anyway. I was shortly off to a work dinner, which was also at Wind Cries Mary, where we’d eaten two nights before. Bad planning on my part, obviously.

Wed Apr 08

I walked to get a coffee at Discovery, then jumped into a full day of meetings, with a side trip to The Buchart Gardens.

Lindsay found herself various spots around the city in which to eat and grade papers. When my meetings ended my colleagues and I went to The Bard & Banker for dinner, then Lindsay and I met up after at Humboldt Bar. We ate a bit more food, and drank cocktails:

  • Food
    • Ricotta gnocchi, braised lamb ragout, parmesan crumb, gremolata
    • Charred broccoli w/ Romesco, pine nut Parmesan crumb, grilled lemon
    • Rosemary Parmesan hand-cut frites w/ nduja aioli
  • Cocktails
    • Life in The Woods: wheated bourbon, candy cap mushroom, tart maple water, wild blossom honey, cypress, grand fir
    • Poison Dart: Nicaraguan white rum, sotol, passion fruit, aji amarillo, lime, orange, pineapple, Orinoco bitters
    • Lost Luggage: Rangpur & Oaken gins, manzanilla sherry, preserved lime, hinoki, eucalyptus
    • Theory of Colours: Summer Garden gin, rhubarb, riesling, jasmine

Thu Apr 09

Another day of meetings, this time including a sped run to Routine Coffee. After work I didn’t join everyone for dinner at 10 Acres Commons (except for a quick drop-in to say hi) because Lindsay and I had our own dinner reso.

Dinner was at a place called Unicorn Sparkles. It was in an unmarked door in a courtyard. We didn’t know we were in the right place until we saw a neon unicorn on the back wall. It was dimly lit and there were four tables. This wasn’t a fancily-designed restaurant; this was a storage place a few guys decided to turn into a restaurant. So we sat down and asked for the “Today’s best things” menu. And then they absolutely pummeled us with food.

  • Cheese and salumi balls
  • Sprouting broccoli + anchovy butter
  • Duck carbonara pasta
  • Dungeness crab stuffed pasta
  • Gnocchi, buffalo mozzarella, artichoke, tomatoes
  • Liverwurst agnolotti
  • Cheeseburger raviolo
  • Coconut cream pie
    • We got the drink pairings. I couldn’t possibly remember them all. There were two wines from Malivoire. A sherry. A Hidden Chapel cab/merlot. But yeah, it was a mish-mash.

It’s hard to overstate how much food this was. On the fourth course when they brought out Dungeness crab pasta we thought, “Oh wow, what a cheeky way to end the meal!” And then they brought out three more pasta courses. It was all delicious and the music was good and the staff were all like sweet and awkward and it just felt so communal and chill, but my god our stomachs hurt. We could barely walk home. I was still full the next morning.

Fri Apr 10

Moving day once again. We got room service and then checked out of the Empress, leaving our bags behind while we went in search of lunch. We ended up around the corner at the Courtney Room, where we successfully killed a couple of hours.

  • Cocktails
    • Seabird: wayward char #3 gin, aperol, oat, citrus
    • Pineapple Express: mezcal, mia amata, citrus, pineapple, anise
  • Food
    • milk buns w/ cultured butter, sea salt
    • carrot & miso soup w/ fried leeks, creme fraiche
    • beet salad w/ ricotta, elderflower vinaigrette, buckwheat
  • Wine
    • Lightning Rock 2022 Brut Nature, Elysia Vineyard, Okanangan (Lindsay)
    • Neighbourly 2024 Pinot Gris, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island (Me)
    • Tantalus 2023 Chardonnay, Okanagan (Me)

We mentioned to our server that we were headed to wine country that afternoon. He gave us some winery recommendations, some of which we knew, but one of which we didn’t: Liquidity. We filed that away for later. And that Tantalus glass ended up prophetic too.

With that, we walked back to the Empress, collected our bags, got in a cab, and headed to the airport. Time was tight — we arrived at 3:09 for a 4:00 flight, and if it wasn’t for our Nexus cards skipping us past most of the security line, we wouldn’t have made it. Once again, we walked right onto our flight, and headed east.

Next up: the Okanagan Valley.

The grand tour

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I spent some of this week on a rapid tour of the Atlantic provinces. After flying to New Brunswick Monday, I joined some colleagues on Tuesday and drove to PEI, stopping for lunch at C&B Corner Cafe along the way. After work stuff in both Summerside and Charlottetown, followed by dinner at Ada, we drove back across the bridge, crossed into Nova Scotia, and got a few hours’ sleep at an airport hotel. The next morning we woke up to flight cancellation notifications, but some hurried rebooking later, we three + one more were on our way to Newfoundland. We landed in Gander around 2pm local time, which means we’d touched all four Atlantic provinces in 24 hours. After a brief stop, we were off to St. John’s.

I can’t remember when I last visited Newfoundland, exactly, but I think it was 2003. I would’ve liked to have stayed in St. John’s a bit longer, but we packed a lot in as it was: we made some Thai food at a work event (run by a company cleverly named Yes, Thai!), had an extremely oversized Burt Reynolds shot at Yellowbelly Brewery, had a terrific breakfast at The Bagel Cafe, a good cortado at Toslow, and a bunch more work stuff before heading to the airport.

Our flight from St. John’s back to Halifax was delayed nearly two hours, but I still had lots of time to buy a bottle of NS dessert wine before my connection back to Toronto. I watched Warfare (imdb | letterboxd) on the way.

I spent a lot of Friday trying to figure out why I felt so tired when I got back. Flying and driving (or, passenger-ing, really — someone else did all the actual driving) doesn’t really tire me out, but I guess wall-to-wall socializing with a lot of people I don’t know still does.

Xmas 2025

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Fri Dec 19

One very bumpy flight (due to a windstorm which knocked out power all over the province) later, we were on the ground in Halifax. The 20-minute drive to Bedford through rain and wind was even worse than the flight, but we made it. We tried to sleep, but a disruptive cat made it difficult.

Sat Dec 20 – Mon Dec 22

After a bit of shopping we drove to the farm, arriving just minutes after brother #1 and his progeny. Brother #2 was laid up in hospital, but sister-in-law #1 and their kids came over for a big feed. The next day brother #1, my dad, and I drove to the hospital visit the missing brother, then got home for lunch just in time for brother #1 to head back to Halifax. After that, many games of crib ensued. On Monday brother #2 was being discharged so I picked him up and drove him home; afterwards, there was more crib and a movie (Secondhand Lions). A typical quiet time at the farm, less the nightly visits next door to sip some wine.

Tue Dec 23 – Thu Dec 25

On Tuesday we drove back to Bedford, stopping at Truro along the way, which included lunch at the Nook & Cranny, coffee at NovelTea, and a lot of one-way street confusion. A few more errands along the way and we were back in Bedford, eating dinner, drinking eggnog, and listening to East Coast Christmas.

We spent the 24th (mostly) chilling, eating lobster rolls with grandparents, drinking wine, and watching Die Hard.

Then: Christmas! Which looked a lot like Christmas Eve, TBH: eating, drinking, grandparents, games, silliness.

Fri Dec 26

Moving day. I got up and went to a light version of the Dickinson family reunion, this time hosted by brother #1 at his new place. It was fun to see some family, even if illnesses and travel meant the crowd was diminished. Someone even brought a rare curiosity: Cumberland (County) Trivia!

From there I drove down to St. Margaret’s Bay to meet Lindsay and her brothers at their dad’s. Seafood chowder, Dubai chocolate, lots of animal interactions, and a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck.

From there, the brothers went back to Bedford while we drove to downtown Halifax, checking in to our Halifax home: The Muir.

Sat Dec 27

God, we missed a king bed. Best sleep in a while. We eventually headed downstairs to Drift for breakfast, ran out to do a couple errands (nearly freezing to death while doing so), had a coffee at Café Lunette, and went back to the room to relax. I watched the three Stranger Things episodes that came out Christmas Day; Lindsay Stardew’d.

The only solid plan we had in Halifax before we arrived was a dinner reservation at Mystic, recently named the best new restaurant in Canada by En Route. We arrived for our reservation, and things started off a little shaky — our cocktails (Yellow-Eyed Grass for Lindsay, Silverweed for me) took a weirdly long time to arrive, but they were taken off the bill. Once the food started, though, we quickly realized why it’s garnered so many accolades.

Fauna (Lindsay)

  • Snacks (cheese gougère, cheese and zucchini tart, corn crema)
    • 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
  • Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
    • 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
  • pasta w/ lobster raviolo, lobster cream, NS saffron chanterelles, seaweed brioche
    • 2022 Gachot-Monot Pinot Noir, Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune
  • tart w/ foie gras, cherry, black apple chutney cured duck salad
    • 2015 Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris, Furstentum Grand Cru
  • wolf eel fish w/ brioche, scallop, crab, sea asparagus crab hollandaise
    • 2023 JM Boillot 1er Cru Chardonnay, Montagny 
  • [some kind of sunchoke dessert that isn’t on their online menu]
    • 2019 Grüber Roschitz Beerenauslese Chardonnay, Niederösterreich

Biota (Dan)

  • Snacks
    • 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
  • Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
    • 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
  • tartar of tuna & veal w/ crispy toro horseradish meringue, Jonori flatbread
    • 2024 Le Morette Bardolino Chiaretto Classico
  • arctic char w/ sea asparagus scallop, koji turnip friske, juniper yogurt, ponzu butter
    • 2023 Lucien Crochet Sancerre
  • ribeye w/ beef tongue potato, maitake, kale kombu, tamarack vinegar jus
    • 2020 Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin
  • chocolate w/ koji caramel, ganache, pineapple weed cremeux miso, black honey ice cream
    • 20 Year Old Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port

Honestly, every course was amazing. Incredible flavours, perfect balance, strikingly presented. Lovely staff, especially the sommelier, who we ended up chatting with quite a bit (we knew some people in common). I even bumped into a colleague there. Anyway: one of the best meals we’ve had all year, for sure. Maybe the best.

Sun Dec 28

We didn’t stay in bed too long before ordering breakfast up to the room. After a while we struck out to meet up with Patrick for a quick (and awful) coffee at Cafe du Port, then collected their mom and walked back down the hill to Darya for brunch. We all had their buffet, and left stuffed to the gills with delicious food. Those two left to go about their days; Lindsay and I crawled back to the room and had naps.

Dinner that night was at Peacock Wine Bar, and it was basically a reunion of five of the six people who had assembled Friday night…just with different drivers. Here’s what we had:

  • Shared plates (everyone):
    • Focaccia w/ fermented chili butter
    • Burrata w/ lavender, sichuan, plum, black sesame toasts
    • Local vegetables w/ yogurt herb dip
    • Chicken fried halibut cheek w/ scallion gribiche, pickled cauliflower
  • Mains (just Lindsay and I):
    • Dan: Braised pork belly w/ leek, fingerling, mustard cream, plum
    • Lindsay: Tagliatelle w/ wild mushroom, sage, pine nut
  • Drinks (just Lindsay and I):
    • Dan: 22 Rustenberg Chardonnay, Stellenbosch / 24 Gérard Bertrand Gris Blanc Rosé, Languedoc-Roussillon / 24 Tenute Rade Barbera La Pruma, Piedmont / Madeira
    • Lindsay: NV Blomidon, Crémant, NS / 20 Gérard Bertrand, Genora, Vin Orange, Languedoc-Roussillon / 21 Chateau Escalette, Cote de Bourg, Bordeaux

Mon Dec 29

Got up (not easily), packed (not carefully), ate some breakfast (not bad), checked out (not a hassle), had a quick coffee date with friends and their new baby (too cute), picked up Lindsay’s mom nearby (too easy), saw Lindsay’s grandma (too briefly), drove to Bedford (too fast), ate a donair (too messy), re-packed (too painful), and then waited to find out how long we’d be delayed due to weather (too stressful).

VERY frustratingly, Porter was playing like everything was okay, so we made the very treacherous drive to the airport thinking we were only 40 minutes delayed. Just as we checked in, they closed the runways at the airport, but they wouldn’t officially cancel our flight. Everyone knew the flight wasn’t going to leave, but they wouldn’t formally cancel it, so we couldn’t rebook or get our bags back. A plane full of people sat in the airport for hours, with no information, no updates….just a bunch of meaningless “your flight has been delayed by 15 minutes” emails, stating to times that had no basis in reality. I know the weather was the root cause of this situation, but Porter fell down INCREDIBLY hard on the job when it came to looking after its passengers.

Finally, around 8:30pm, they officially cancelled our flight. The email confirming this wouldn’t arrive until 1am, but right away I could see that we’d been rebooked on a flight the next morning. We walked down to get our bags, which came out at about 9:55pm. Then it took us forever to get an Uber in a brutal windstorm. The driver got us back to Lindsay’s mom just as her power came back on from a 2-hour outage. We crawled into the house, weary, but glad we had a booked flight and a place to sleep. Other people were being booked for flights several days from now, and every hotel around the airport was totally booked.

Tue Dec 30

Woke up to emails saying our flight was already delayed from 9:15 to 10:00 — not exactly surprising, since there’d be such a backlog of flights trying to get out. But then it kept going: 11:40, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30. We got nervous. But eventually the delay notifications stopped, so we went to the airport, and finally got on. Glory be.

2025 wasn’t done with us yet though. Our flight was another half hour delayed, ans then — after a landing almost as bumpy as the one in Halifax that started this trip — we, along with about a dozen other people on the plane, realized our bags never showed up. Most of the passengers got theirs. Us lot didn’t. The Porter baggage desk was uniformly unhelpful — they just told us all to scan a QR code which led to a third party app.

So we’re home. But our luggage isn’t. Bianca’s happy though, and that’s all that matters.

UPDATE 1: bag #1 arrived around 5pm on Jan 1. No sign of bag #2.

UPDATE 2: bag #2 arrived around 5pm on Jan 2. Much to our relief, the bottle of Lightfoot & Wolfville 2017 Brut sparkling inside had not broken or exploded.