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

…

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)…

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!

…

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….

Tea Party!

July 18, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

This year is Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

Crab pâté and smoked salmon are delicious.

I love tea parties.

Head over to the SeaChange blog to see how I combined these three facts into something worth raising your pinky for. 😀

Afternoon Tea at the Gatsby Mansion

June 2, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

July 2012 update: The Gatsby Mansion has recently come under new ownership and has a new chef, and their afternoon tea is now very good. Read my new review here!

Once again, Lynette and I had a hankering for afternoon tea, and as the White Heather Tea Room was closed, we figured this would be a great time to try out one of the other establishments in Victoria that serves tea (there are a lot of them). We decided on the Gatsby Mansion, and brought our friend Candice with us. Frankly I’m sorry that this was her first afternoon tea experience, because it was definitely sub-par. Hopefully that means it can only get better from here!

As you can see above, the Gatsby Mansion restaurant is beautiful on the outside, and the restaurant inside has definite potential from a decor point of view, but it felt like it was trying to be grand without really making the full effort to BE grand. The ceiling of the room we were in was very ornately painted, and I couldn’t decide whether it was pretty, or pretty awful. The fake crystal chandelier was definitely leaning towards pretty awful, however.…

Afternoon Tea at the White Heather Tea Room

March 19, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

My friend Lynette and I are secretly little old ladies at heart. One of the defining things about our friendship is our undying love of tiny sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, and tea, and we often celebrate the milestones in our lives by going out for afternoon tea. Heck, we don’t need a milestone – any occasion is a good excuse. We have even gone so far as to dream up a “Tea Tour” of the English countryside, wherein we would travel from tea shop to tea shop, sampling afternoon teas and writing reviews to publish in a book (who knows how realistic this is, but a dream is a dream, right?). In preparation, we have been to nearly every afternoon tea-serving establishment in Victoria, from the quintessential (and expensive) Fairmont Empress Hotel to the more-British-than-Britain (and now defunct) Blethering Place, but we have not yet written any reviews.