RemyScalza.com: Independent Journalism

Pit Stop Turned Wine Country: British Columbia's Similkameen Valley

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For at least a decade or so, Canada’s Okanagan Valley in British Columbia has been on the radar of people who like to travel to beautiful places to sip wine and get a tan.  The New York Times even called the area Napa North.  It’s gotten to the point where you have to compete with tour buses for parking spots at some wineries.  But right next door to the Okanagan is another valley where crowds aren’t a big issue: the Similkameen.  Once home to gold and copper mines, the Similkameen has started the slow, gentle slide toward gentrification.  For the moment, some great wineries and restaurants have opened up, but it’s still got lots of character.  I checked out the valley for Western Living Magazine:

Sweet Valley High: Canada’s Similkameen comes into its own

Remy Scalza; Special to Western Living

Life in the Okanagan’s shadow isn’t always easy.  The Similkameen Country, an isolated and starkly beautiful river valley tucked between the Cascade Range and the Osoyoos desert, has long been little more than a pit stop for travellers bound for the lakes and vineyards of interior British Columbia – a place to gas up the car, stock up on peaches at dusty roadside fruit stands and then blast on through to better-known destinations.

But wineries have proliferated in the last decade, with top vintners attracted by the cheap land, spectacular setting and uniquely arid climate. With grapes has come the first generation of progressive restaurants and B&Bs, keen to highlight the valley’s deep green roots and wide-open spaces.

Fruit Reconsidered
“When I was a conventional grower, anywhere from nine to 15 pesticides would have been put on a pear like this,” says 61-year-old Bruce Harker, owner of Harker’s Organics (2238 Hwy 3, Cawston, 250-499-2751, harkersorganics.com). Like many of his neighbours in Cawston, the “Organic Capital of Canada,” Harker ditched the chemicals decades ago.

His 30-acre farm is a great stop for a gentle primer on organics and a basketful of pears, peaches and specialty produce like organic rhubarb. The Harkers started the on-site Rustic Roots Winery (rusticrootswinery.com) in 2008, turning a portion of the harvest into award-winning organic fruit wines. Try the signature Iced Orin dessert wine, billed as “apple pie in a glass.”

To read the full article, click here.

Dining in the Canadian Rockies: Jasper, Alberta

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Editor’s Note: I originally wrote this post for FoodNetwork.ca.

There’s no doubt that Jasper – a resort town in Western Canada set amidst glacial lakes and snow-capped peaks – has some of the prettiest scenery anywhere in the Canadian Rockies.  But for visitors who demand as much from their plates as from their landscapes, Jasper has long been overshadowed by its big sister a few hundred kilometers to the south, the glitzy alpine capital of Banff.

But after a recent trip, I have good news to report: Jasper’s restaurant and bar scene is finally coming into its own.  My culinary adventure started at the Jasper Brewing Company, a brew pub opened in 2005 just across the street from the rail depot.  Inside, the décor aspires toward mountain chic: stone accents and exposed rafters with low, conspiratorial lighting and a big bar.

The beer, crafted with passion by 33-year-old bremaster Dave Mozel, has always been great, with the Honey Bear Ale (Okanagan clover honey plus a hint of coriander) a real must-drink.  But the big news is that the food has finally risen to the level of the beer.  The menu leans towards standard pub classics – wings, burgers, as well as some chops and fish dishes – but what stands out is the freshness and sourcing of the ingredients: Alberta beef and, whenever possible, local produce.

The next day, eager to hit some of the incredible hiking trails around Jasper, I went out in search of a picnic lunch.  A good tip from the concierge at Whistlers Inn led me to the Patricia Street Deli, an easy-to-miss, bare-bones sandwich shop behind Jasper’s main drag.  The guy behind the counter – in classic Seinfeld soup Nazi fashion – barely gave me the time of day, ignoring me as I waited to order.  But in the end I didn’t mind – The rotisserie chicken sandwich on a fresh baked panini with cranberry mayo was astoundingly good.

After a day spent hiking around the sites in Jasper – the Old Fort Point trail with its panoramic views, the emerald waters of Lac Beauvert – I had worked up a healthy appetite for dinner.   But I resisted the temptation to duck into the first restaurant I saw.  More than a few overpriced tourist traps line Jasper’s main street.  The real secret to finding a good meal, as usual, is to follow the crowds.

And on this night, the crowds led to Earl’s, the casual restaurant with locations all over Western Canada.  I know what you’re thinking:  How could I go to a chain restaurant?  To be honest, Earl’s wouldn’t normally have been my first choice, but I’m glad I gave it a try.  Prices are lower than just about anywhere else in Jasper and the simple dishes on the menu are well prepared, flavourful and satisfying.  I opted for an Earl’s classic – the roasted chicken quesadilla, served with warm tortillas and a smoky, house-roasted salsa.

Final verdict: Don’t expect any Araxis showing up in Jasper anytime soon, but there are a wealth of new, adventurous restaurants in town emphasizing local ingredients, freshness and value.  True to Jasper’s rustic roots, the atmosphere is unfailingly welcoming and informal, with an optimistic, young vibe.  Other great choices include Evil Dave’s, an inventive bistro with a tongue-in-cheek evil-themed menu, and La Fiesta, the always-crowded tapas bar.

Click here to read the original post at FoodNetwork.ca.

Dining Aboard Canada's Rocky Mountaineer Train

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Editor’s Note: I originally wrote this post for foodnetwork.ca.

Preparing a three-course meal for several hundred guests is a test of any chef’s mettle.  Add to that the challenge of prepping, cooking and plating aboard a moving train and you’ll get an idea of Frederic Couton’s job as executive chef on the Rocky Mountaineer.

British Columbia’s luxury rail line, the Rocky Mountaineer runs its glass-domed, double-decker trains from Vancouver up and over the Canadian Rockies and into Alberta.  I recently had a chance to experience the Journey Through the Clouds, a two-day trip  up the Fraser Canyon, through Kamloops and over the Rockies at Yellowhead Pass.

For the train aficionados aboard, it was the trip of a lifetime – a ride through stunning alpine scenery on Canada’s equivalent of the Orient Express.  But, as I was surprised to find out, the trip has a lot to offer foodies as well, especially if you opt for the top-tier Gold Leaf Service.

Breakfast, for starters, is no casual affair.  As the train entered the mouth of the Fraser Canyon, we were led from the upstairs viewing car to the dining car on the lower level.  The narrow space holds an intimate dining room: banquettes with window views laid out with white linen tablecloths and gleaming silver.

I opted for the Sir Sanford Fleming breakfast, a variation on eggs Benedict named after one of Canada’s rail pioneers.  The poached egg was served over Montreal smoked meat on top of a fluffy crumpet and topped with creamy tarragon Hollandaise.  While the scenery blurred by outside, I got to know a few fellow passengers dining at my table, travelers from Los Angeles visiting Canada for the first time.

After breakfast, I took a peek inside the car’s galley, a space no wider than a shipping container where 144 gourmet meals are prepared every day.  A crew of seven white-aproned cooks were already hard at work slicing and grilling for lunch.  Overseeing the controlled chaos was executive chef Couton.

French-born and trained – with a thick accent to prove it – Couton worked at Vancouver’s famous Cannery Restaurant before coming to the Rocky Mountaineer.  “It’s not like other kitchens.  There are a few tricks you have to learn,” he said over the rumble of the rails.  “When you open the fridge, you open it very slowly.”

When we crest the Fraser Canyon and enter the arid BC interior, it’s time for lunch.  Locally sourced and organic ingredients – including BC Salmon and Alberta beef – feature prominently on the menu, as does wine from the nearby Okanagan Valley.  I opt for the Alberta pork tenderloin, which comes with a confit of sweet onions, as well as market veggies and whipped garlic potatoes.  How the food was plated so artfully on a moving train – each carrot in its place –  remains a mystery to me.

By the time we finally reached the Rockies on our second day, talk focused almost as much on food as on the stunning peaks outside. Over the duration of the trip, we were treated to black tiger prawns and Alberta sirloin, Fraser Valley chicken and honey-glazed salmon.  The highlight for many, however, was a much simpler pairing: local cheeses and B.C. wine, served each afternoon as the province’s mountains and canyons rolled by.

Click here to see the post on FoodNetwork.ca.

On a Taco Mission in San Francisco

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I visited San Francisco for the first time earlier this year.  As a traveler, the city can be overwhelming – so much history, so much culture, so many tourist traps.  I decided to skip the Fisherman’s Wharf and the cable cars and instead caught the BART to the gritty Mission District.   Home to a huge Latin American population, the Mission is revered among taco lovers for its cheap, authentic Mexican cuisine.  I spent a day trolling the neighborhood’s main drag for the perfect taco and wrote about the experience for BCBusiness Magazine.

Travelling to San Francisco

Remy Scalza; Special to BCBusiness

October 2010

At the southern end of Mission Street, amid the fruit stands and pawn shops, is a sign that reads simply La Taquería.  Here in America’s taco heartland – San Francisco’s gritty Mission District – that name speaks volumes.  There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of taquerías packed into the neighborhood – humble taco joints serving Mexican street food to clientele who know their jalapeños from their habaneros.  To call yourself La Taquería – literally, the taco stand – in this context is brassy, even confrontational.  It says, “I alone am worthy of the name: the one, the only.”

With carne asada like this, however, it’s hard to argue.

The Mission District is just a brisk subway ride from the cable cars and fishermen’s wharves of San Francisco’s well touristed center.  But in appearance, demographics and culture, it’s a world away.

Click here to read the full article on BCBusiness.

Beyond the Slopes: Culinary Touring in Whistler

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Photo: Remy Scalza


Editor’s Note: This post was originally written for FoodNetwork.ca.

Once upon a time – in the late ‘60s when Whistler was just a gleam in developers’ eyes – chili, poutine and other ski bum staples defined the culinary scene.  Fast-forward a few decades and the resort town, firmly ensconced as North America’s premier ski destination and still flush with Olympic afterglow, is a certified foodie mecca, known nearly as well for its fine dining as its world class slopes.

I checked out Whistler’s summer dining scene over the weekend, on a whirlwind, belly-busting tour that embraced everything from burgers to pork cheek ravioli.  A few big trends are evident across the board.  First, the hundred-mile diet is alive and well in Whistler.  Every bistro, snack shack and restaurant I tried emphasized local ingredients, specifically, fresh produce and meats from nearby Pemberton and from the Fraser Valley.  Second, snooty is out; casual and casually elegant is in.  Even fine dining spots have revisioned their looks, aiming for an informal, welcoming atmosphere that appeals to locals and well-heeled out-of-towners alike.

Here’s a quick run-down of my culinary adventure in Whistler:



Photo: Remy Scalza



Araxi: Now a household name thanks to Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen, Araxi is a superlative restaurant hitting on all cylinders and clearly at the top of its game.  Ambiance and service are impeccable – a real model for other restaurants to emulate.  Chef James Walt’s menu – while rooted in West Coast standards like wild BC salmon and Qualicum Bay scallops – also wholeheartedly embraces locally grown produce and locally raised pork and lamb.   The encyclopedic wine list – 42 pages, with its own table of contents – is a bit overwhelming but sure to please the most discriminating of winos.

Click here to read the full post on HGTV.ca.

Water into Wine: Drought in Canada's Wine Country

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Photo: Remy Scalza


The Okanagan wine country in western Canada is an amazing success story.  Twenty-five years ago, nobody had heard of the place and the only wine being made there was barely drinkable plonk.  Today, it’s one of North America’s most promising wine regions, lauded by The New York Times as the “Napa of the North.”  But behind the beautiful countryside and increasingly impressive wines is a big problem: lack of water.  Much of the South Okanagan is desert, and the demands of agriculture and a new wave of wine tourism have stretched limited water resources nearly to the breaking point.  I wrote about the region’s water problems and growing pains in a recent article for BCBusiness, a magazine based in Vancouver.

Tourism Threatens Water Security in the Okanagan

By Remy Scalza for BCBusiness Magazine

In the bone-dry southern tip of the Okanagan Valley, just outside the town of Osoyoos, a network of footpaths winds through thickets of sage and antelope brush. Braving the midday sun, a few hardy hikers – red-faced and sweating – push down the trail, leaving faint footprints in the sand and keeping an eye out for the rattlesnakes that make their home here, in Canada’s only desert.

What awaits around the final turn in the trail must first seem illusion, a trick played on the eyes by the shimmering South Okanagan heat. Abruptly, brush gives way. Neat rows of vines rise from the desert floor, leaves interlacing into a vast and improbable tapestry of green.

Here the path dead ends, sparse foot traffic giving way to the steady pulse of people and cars in the parking lot of Spirit Ridge Vineyard and Resort, one of a wave of new wineries and resorts to open in the South Okanagan in the last five years. In shorts and visors, visitors by the mini-busload spill into the wine shop, restaurant and wellness spa. Out back small children throng an oasis of pools, while duffers hack away on the Technicolor greens of a nine-hole course edged by sand and sagebrush just beyond. Surrounding it all, running right up to the 226 desert suites and vineyard villas at the sprawling resort, are grape vines: Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Merlot, ripening in the summer sun.

Click here to read the full article on BCBusinessOnline.ca.

Mudslide Buries Vineyards in Western Canada

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The Okanagan Valley has been called a Canadian Garden of Eden.  Wedged between two mighty mountain ranges, the valley is dominated by glacial lakes and sprawling vineyards and orchards.   Balmy summer temperatures have drawn growing numbers of wine tourists in recent years, and Okanagan wineries have garnered recognition from Conde Nast and other authorities as among the best in North America.  A freak mudslide devastated a corner of the Okanagan last week, after a ruptured dam spilled tons of water and debris onto prime farmland.  I reported on the disaster for Wine Spectator.

Mudslide Buries Okanagan Vineyards

Debris buries 40 acres of vines in British Columbia; dam failed

Remy Scalza
Posted: June 18, 2010

A dam failure triggered a massive mudslide in western Canada’s Okanagan wine country this past week, burying approximately 40 acres of vineyards and orchards under soil, rocks and debris, in some spots up to 25 feet deep. The slide destroyed five homes and blocked the region’s main highway. Although no one was injured, property damages are estimated to be in the millions of dollars, and affected vintners and residents are now asking if the disaster could have been averted.

“My Chardonnay is under five feet of mud. You can’t even see the top of the plants,” said Rasoul Salehi, executive director of Enotecca Winery and Resorts, which manages the LaStella and Le Vieux Pin wineries. Enotecca’s vineyard in the Okanagan’s acclaimed Golden Mile grapegrowing zone was among the worst hit. The mud destroyed 3 acres of Moscato Bianco and Chardonnay vines, including some of the oldest vines in the valley, as well as winemaking equipment, vehicles and an outbuilding.

Click here to read the full article on Wine Spectator.

Olympic Winos: Great grapes at Vancouver 2010

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Vancouver’s Winter Games have an official credit card, cola and cold medicine, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s an official wine gracing Olympic tables.  Last week, I had a chance to cover the Olympic wine scene for Wine Spectator.  Among the highlights: discovering North America’s first Aboriginal-owned winery, tasting with Napa Valley wine royalty Margrit Mondavi and sampling the Olympics’ own brand of bubbly.   The reporting was included in a special Olympic Unfiltered column on WineSpectator.com.

Olympic Champion Lindsey Vonn says, ‘Cheese!’

WineSpectator.com

Inside the big Indian longhouse erected in the heart of downtown Vancouver, a bit of Olympic history is taking place. Vancouver 2010 marks the first Olympic Games ever in which an Aboriginal community—Canada’s First Nations peoples—has participated as an official host. Guests at the Chief’s House, as the quirky, postmodern Aboriginal Pavilion is known, enjoy traditional Inuit throat singing, buffalo burgers and wines from North America’s first native-owned winery . . . .

Click here for the full article on the Wine Spectator site.

The Dark Side of Japanese Dining: Izakayas

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There was a time, not too long ago, when the closest thing to Japanese food you could find outside Japan was Benihana.  Then the came the sushi craze, introducing North America to the wonders of the California roll.  Now Vancouver – long a pioneer when it comes to Asian cusine – finds itself in the midst of another culinary wave from Japan: the izakaya invasion.  A sort of Japanese pub, izakayas are rowdier and more debauched than any sushi joint.  I had a chance to check a few out for this article for The Washington Post.  

Vancouver snapshot: Japanese cuisine beyond sushi

Welcome to the dark side of Japanese dining: izakayas. Greasier and louder than a sushi joint, these Japanese pubs have invaded Vancouver, B.C.

Izakayas have reportedly been around for a few hundred years in Japan. Their patrons, mostly men, congregate after work to drink and snack on deep-fried tofu, chicken and savory salads — the buffalo wings and nachos of a parallel universe — before heading home, often roundly soused. But like the hibachi and sushi before it, izakaya cuisine has found a global following, and Vancouver, with its strong ties to Japan, is at the forefront of the izakaya explosion.

Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.

Exploring British Columbia's Ice Wine Country

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The guys who make ice wine are kind of like the Ice Road Truckers or Ice Pilots of winemaking. They don’t harvest their grapes until the dead of winter, when temperatures dip to 15 degrees below freezing. Usually, they work at night, when it’s so cold that the clusters shatter off the vine and the grapes themselves are frozen solid. From their sacrifice, we get the heavenly stuff known as ice wine – sweet, potent and addictive, like wine but superconcentrated, purified by the cold.  I got the chance to explore British Columbia’s ice wine country in an article for The Washington Post.

December is harvest time for ice wine in the Okanagan region of Western Canada

By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post

For the grapes, it must be agony.

High above Okanagan Lake, in a frozen corner of western Canada, the wind is whipping through the vineyards in icy blasts. Long after first frost, deep into winter, the grapes here have waited, shivering on the vine. Now, in late December with the temperature falling fast, their polar purgatory is nearly over. It’s harvest time in ice wine country.

Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.

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