Afternoon Tea at Abkhazi Gardens

August 8, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Afternoon Tea at Abkhazi Garden | Korena in the Kitchen As you know, I recently had a birthday, which means I also recently had a birthday tea party with Lynette. We had been meaning to go to The Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden for years but never got around to it – and then when I found out that the woman who has the locker next to me at the gym is the owner of said Teahouse, it finally gave us the nudge we needed to make it happen.

The Abkhazi Garden has a pretty interesting history (it was created by the actual Prince and Princess Abkhazi and their story is rather amazing) and today it is owned by The Land Conservancy of BC and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteer gardeners.

Abkhazi Garden flowers | Korena in the Kitchen

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Tea and Flowers

September 8, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Lynette’s birthday in August meant another tea party for us. We headed to the Butchart Gardens, which is well-known for its spectacular flowers and less well-known for its afternoon tea, which is really quite excellent. Not only do you get a lovely afternoon tea experience, you also get to browse around the Gardens and quite literally smell the roses.

Tea at the Butchart Gardens | Korena in the Kitchen …

Afternoon Tea at the Empress Hotel

August 8, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

Tea at The Empress | Korena in the Kitchen While my friend Lynette was living in China for six months, she made me promise that we would go out for tea as soon as was humanly possible when she came home at the of June. Conveniently this was right around the time of my birthday, so we made a date for a birthday tea party. Our usual spot is The White Heather Tea Room, but in the interest of being a thorough food blogger and adding another review to my tea parties category, we decided to visit Victoria’s iconic Empress Hotel for their famed afternoon tea (the same afternoon tea that serves these scones). It had been years since either of us had been there, and I think the last time we’d been there together was Lynette’s eighteenth birthday – over a decade ago! (Gah!) Even so, this was not a decision we made lightly, because in July at the height of tourist season is also when the price goes up. WAY up. But more on that later.

(At this point, I’d like to apologize for the photos – I forgot my real camera so these were all taken with my ancient iPhone. Also, there were so many people around that I was acutely aware of being “one of those foodie types who takes pictures of all her food instead of just eating it”, so I snapped these quickly from where I was sitting (directly in front of a bright window) and as a result they’re kind of glare-y from the head-on brightness.)

(Wait. I should just pretend I put a filter on them to make them look that way on purpose. Yeah, that’s it. #nofilter #mycamerajustsucks)…

A Wine Tour, Cake Balls, and a Cake with Balls

July 16, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

Winer Tour of the Cowichan Valley | Korena in the Kitchen Last weekend our friends Sam and Whittney tied the knot (for those who are trying to follow along here, Sam is my friend Lynette’s brother. He is also Nate’s good friend, which is how Nate and I met). We were fairly involved in the wedding – Nate was the best man and I made the wedding cake (more to come on that, I promise!) – which for me included Whittney’s stagette weekend. Whittney and Sam live just up the road from us in Shawnigan Lake in a house with lots of extra bedrooms, so the stagette was basically a big girls’ sleep-over at their house with lots of drinking and eating (Sam spent the weekend at my house with Nate).

stagette1 …

The Empress Hotel’s Scones

June 15, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

The Empress Hotel's Scones | Korena in the Kitchen The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. Visit Valerie’s blog, A Canadian Foodie, on the 15th for a round-up of this month’s posts.

This month marks one year since the beginning of the Canadian Food Experience Project, and subsequently, its end as a monthly challenge. Our host and the master-mind behind the project, Valerie, has asked us to close off this phase of the project by reflecting on and identifying our own Canadian voice, hopefully honed through participating over the past year. I admit that I haven’t been the most engaged participant, sometimes barely even taking the time to read the monthly round-up of posts, but simply having this project in the back of my mind for a year, mulling over the theme for each month, has certainly opened up my awareness of Canadian food. And by that I mean more than just Canadian cuisine or particularly “Canadian” dishes, but also the ingredients that grow locally and regionally and the people who cultivate or farm them. I have to say that a lot of this illumination comes from reading the blog FEAST, which details the journey of two food writers eating their way across the country on a Canada-wide road trip. They write about the food they eat, but also about the place and the people cooking and growing it. Perhaps that is what makes Canadian food? The unique intersection of person, place, and ingredients? I guess the same could be said about any kind of food, anywhere in the world, but maybe that’s OK? Obviously I have no answers, just some questions to throw out into the ether. I have no idea if any of this has altered my “voice” to be more Canadian (has it? you tell me!), but I do think it has become part of my own personal food philosophy, and as such, will continue to be something I consider when I cook and eat.

The Empress Hotel's Scones | Korena in the Kitchen …

The New Oak Bay Beach Hotel’s Afternoon Tea

January 15, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Afternoon tea at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel

My friend Lynette and I are self-styled afternoon tea aficionados, and we like to keep tabs on the establishments that serve afternoon tea in Victoria – you know, for quality control. So when I discovered that the newly re-constructed Oak Bay Beach Hotel had such an offering… well, it was high time for a tea party with our friends Whittney and Katheryn. Pinkies up, ladies!

First, a little background on the location: the new Oak Bay Beach Hotel is actually the third incarnation of the hotel. The first hotel was built in 1927 and unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1930, when an exact replica of the hotel was rebuilt on the site. The hotel became immensely popular, and in the 1950’s Victoria’s first neighbourhood pub, The Snug, was opened on the premises, soon becoming a local landmark. Passing from owner to owner, the hotel and its popularity stood in it all its 1930s glory until 2006, when it became clear that the building needed such extensive renovations and updates that it would be necessary to re-build from scratch. So they did. They dismantled the old hotel, saving much of its architectural elements and furniture to be re-used in the new hotel, which opened in 2012. While I am unable to draw a comparison because I never visited the old hotel, the new one certainly is grand, and judging by how bustling it was with locals just hanging out in the lobby, pub, and coffee shop, I think it’s still got its old charm….

An Afternoon at Teafarm (plus a chocolate cake!)

August 7, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. The theme for this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project is “A Regional Canadian Food Hero”, which can be broadly defined as anyone involved in food growing, production, education, activism, or the like, working to preserve local foods, skills, traditions, or to define the local terroir.

{For some reason, I had a hard time writing this post – sometimes it’s difficult to put an experience in words. I wrote several drafts, one of which accidentally got published a few days ago, so apologies to anyone who got a bunk notification in their reader or email. This is the real post!}

The Cowichan Valley is home to many farms and artisanal food producers, one of which is Teafarm, located just north of Duncan in the Westholme area. My friends Lynette, Ang, and I visited on a beautiful Sunday in July for their “tea + sweet pairings” menu, and ended up having a pretty wonderful afternoon, sipping tea, enjoying chocolate goodies, and basking in the farm’s pastoral bliss. Believe me when I say I am not at all exaggerating about the bliss part.

Welcome to Teafarm!

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Breakfast at The Old Fork in Duncan, BC

March 24, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Huevos Rancheros @ The Old Fork, Duncan BC

Huevos Rancheros at The Old Fork

Since moving away from Victoria, Nate and I have bemoaned the fact that there were no great breakfast places in the area. “Going for breakfast” is a Big Deal in Victoria, which is home to many breakfast joints, all of which have lineups out the door by 9 am on weekends. We were pretty stoked when we saw an ad in the paper for a new restaurant in town that featured breakfast – and not just any breakfast, either: The Old Fork‘s Deep South inspired all-day breakfast menu boasts ridiculous biscuits and egg bennies, pulled pork combinations, and insane sounding French toast. They only opened at the beginning of March, but we heard great things about the food from Nate’s parents, so we decided to give them a try yesterday morning.

The restaurant is located in the Silverbridge Motor Inn but feels completely unlike any motel restaurant I’ve ever been in. The interior has been totally re-done and has a sort of barn/industrial feel, with rough planks on the walls and decorative metal pieces. This might not sound like the coziest decor, but it really works and is actually very inviting and funky. There were only a few other people there when we arrived at 9 am (no line up – just one perk of not living in the city!), so we were seated immediately. The staff was very friendly and attentive, the coffee was plentiful and delicious, and everything on the menu sounded so good, it was hard to choose. Nate finally settled on the Heuvos Rancheros (with homemade enchilada sauce) and I got the Praline Bacon French Toast.

Praline Bacon French Toast

The food arrived quickly and we dug in happily. Nate wished the Heuvos had more cheese and he missed the crispiness of the tortilla that he’s used to, but the ingredients were tasty and fresh. He said the shredded hash brown on the side was the best part – crispy and golden but not oily. My French toast was as decadent as I was expecting: thick French bread dipped in egg batter with praline’d pecans embedded in the sides, topped with bacon and melted cheddar. I was initially unsure of the cheddar, but it balanced out the sweetness of the dish and the whole thing was really good.

We were finished our meal within 30 minutes, and our bill was less than $30.00, which is a steal compared to the $40.00 we were used to spending on breakfast in Victoria! We will definitely be back to try out the rest of the menu, which includes some equally delicious-sounding lunch and dinner items (including house smoked focaccia bread. OMG!) 🙂

A Visit to Merridale Estate Cidery

November 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Back in September, when the sun was still shining warmly and the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, Lynette and I went to check out Merridale Estate Cidery. It’s been on our to-do list for a few years, and by convenient coincidence, I now live literally about ten minutes away from the property. Merridale makes traditional hard cider from apples grown on the premises, and in addition to cider, they have started making other types of spirits such as vodka and fortified ciders (but more about that later). They also run a fantastic bistro (open year round) and outdoor kitchen (open in the summer) that feature their products in many of the dishes, as well as lots of other local ingredients. We showed up on a Sunday for brunch and enjoyed our meal in a sun-drenched, covered patio area. Lynette had a chicken pasty and potato-leek soup:

I had a breakfast pizza topped with local chorizo and bacon and a poached egg. It was fantastic.

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Afternoon Tea at the Gatsby Mansion – Take II

July 30, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Last year, Lynette and I had a memorable afternoon tea experience at the Gatsby Mansion – unfortunately, memorable only in how bad it was. However, after seeing several very positive reviews about their new menu and new chef, we decided to give the Gatsby another chance. I am very happy to report that the difference between this visit and our last was like night and day, and that the afternoon tea at the Gatsby is now quite lovely and totally worth checking out….