Nourish in the Harbour, James Bay, Victoria

Nourish has two locations. One is out at the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific in the backroads of Saanich (and a short run from the Vancouver Island Tech Park, having passed it many a time while running). The second newer location is in an old converted house in James Bay.

It's a BIG converted house.  We aren't talking a small starter home.  It's a heritage house, a big wooden building, stretching over three storeys (I've been in the unrenovated attic.  It looks like my crazy great aunt's attic.  If I had a crazy maiden great aunt). The first floor has space for 40-50 covers and a coffee bar.  Plus the fully functioning kitchen.  On the second floor, there's more dining space and meeting space if you want to book a nice, vintage feeling area for an intimate cocktail reception.

Back on the ground floor, there's the main business of the general admission cafe/restaurant, pushing out brunch.  The philosophy is natural ingredients, nutrient-rich foods and seasonal choices.  Combined with a desire to make interesting food, and not just quinoa, kale and aubergine stew for everyone.

There was plenty of tasty, tasty kale for those that want it.  One of our group didn't, choosing to pass on the option of an Eggs Benedict piled up on a green-bean-and-kale base (Benny in the Moment), instead of the normal muffin.  Even my love of the green leafed 'super food' passed at that option.  We also passed by on the small cups of bone broth that were on the brunch menu.  It's all very good, I am sure, but not before I have had my coffee!

Instead, I went for a standard breakfast, paired with an americano coffee.  The coffee was good, rich and smooth, with a big flavour to wake up my morning.  So it didn't last to long in the cup.  Was offered plenty of refills of drip coffee, but decide to hydrate with the rosemary infused water on the table.  I assume it was meant to be in the milk bottle, and not a poor cleaning job by the Avalon diary from whom the bottle had been purloined (those things have a big deposit on them, wonder if they know there's about $100 of glassware here?).  The water didn't really taste of rosemary.

The breakfast was a platter of good stuff: a fistful of kale dressed in a light dressing, two soft poached eggs with thick golden yolks, a slice of seed toast, some potatoes and a herb and leek sausage.  The kale was kale.  If you like kale, you'll like it.  If you don't, this is raw kale.  It tastes of raw kale.  The seed toast was crunchy and mostly seeds.  One slice with a smear of butter and little bit of the soft apple was tasty.

The potatoes were rich and earthy and flavourful.  They probably could have been fluffier or crispier... they weren't new waxy spuds, so the consistency of them was -like- they were slightly undercooked. They weren't but, something didn't seem quite right.

The sausage was a let-down (my fault for not choosing the bacon).  It had no flavour beyond the seasoning, and tasted like it had been boiled or steamed, with very little time on the grill.  Grill time makes meat taste better (in general) by the chemical reactions that occur when it browns.  And when the fat in the meat gets a chance to melt and merge around with the rest of the filling.  Wasn't impressed with whatever they had done here instead.

Two of my friends had the pancakes.  These were more like big slices of fresh cake.  Huge thick triangles of oatmeal.  There wasn't much of them, though.

The dining room is great, bright airy and comfortable.  The food is served to please the eyes, the staff are bright and cheery, and everything seems to be working in the right direction.  The menu is encased in an old hard backed book.  Maybe there's just a little sense of trying a bit too hard to be different that unsettled me a little?

That all said I think I'd go back to try some other dishes out.  I like the concepts and the rest of the menu looked good, and I did feel good and ready to face the world.

Juma Food truck, Food Truck Fest, Victoria

The food truck fest was a wash out for me this Friday.  I got downtown as the heavens opened, so hardly had a chance to scout around and see what interesting things were on sale. Once the water starts dropping down the back of my t-shirt, I'm done.  I met my (damp) friends and then headed to a small silver caravan that had a chalkboard offering steak specials and an organic lentil dahl.  I thought about a steak or the Chinese five spice chicken wings, but this wasn't the weather for meat al fresco.

I got the dahl.  3 minutes later, I had a medium sized cardboard tray filled with Basmati rice, wilted greens and a healthy spoonful of a rich brown lentil stew. We headed to my friends apartment to eat, and on the way back, the poppadum shards took the worst of the rain.  I can't really rate how good these were.  Even the best in the world would have gotten soggy.

The rest of the meal was great.  The lentils with spicy, but not with an intense heat.  A flavourful, wholesome mouthful.  The greens counter-balanced the earthy tones of the curry.  The rice was cooked perfect.  I liked it.  I'd order more if I can find them again.

So looking to find out where they were from, I found the website, and discovered it's a farm-to-fork operation, producing their own meat and veg to serve.  The lovely brunette of my acquaintance would approve of their home raised, happy chickens.  I guess it's now a case of following them on twitter and seeing if I'll be nearby again.

As for everything else there... my friends said the Mac and Cheese from the Mac truck was awesome, and the burger was big, fat and delicious.  Sorry for the lack of details.  It wasn't a detail sort of day.

EDIT: https://streetfoodapp.com/victoria/juma ; This will help you find Juma, and I guess other food trucks in town.

10 Acres Bistro, Downtown Victoria

I was heading down to Las Vegas a couple of weeks back and the lovely Brunette of my Acquaintance deserved a fine meal for letting me go down solo.  The idea of farm-to-plate is appealing.  Knowing where the food comes from means that the chef can build menus that suit the food, get it in fresh and roll with the seasons.  Then again, I've always been told not to visit an abattoir, so maybe I don't want to know too much about where my food comes from.

At least my meat.  There's is nothing too bad about cuting down some Kale and Chard, or digging up potatoes.  Unless you are allergic to mud and grime under your fingernails.  But fresh veg that you've grown does seem to taste better.

Can 10 Acres capture that?

The location has been a few different places since I've been here. One memory of it was back when I first moved to Victoria. Some poor guy dressed in chef whites holding out menus for tourists at the lower end of Government street.  He looked desperate and tired. Tourist didn't want to be bother, however passionate he seemed. I have no idea if the food was any good, but I did feel sorry for him trying to drum up trade.

10 Acres doesn't seem to need this tactic to get them in.  When I got there at 4pm to book a table it was quiet.  When I got back two hours later, it was full, with guests being turned away, much to the chagrin of one local. He seemed to think that it was a terrible shame he couldn't get a seat, being local and all, and that was more important that tourists.  The bar area was full up at all the corners; the patio heaters were keeping the semi-outdoors space warm; and the warren of narrow rooms down into the back of the restaurant were all full.  Though parking the poor lady on crutches down two sets of stairs seemed a little unreasonable

We got a high, bench table near the bar. A highly enthusiastic server set us up with some drinks.  She made up a ginger beer and bitters combination for me, which sharpened up the taste buds.  The sharp, bittered ginger drink was fantastic and matched well with my meal.  Good move to cater to the driver well with something interesting but teetotal. The Brunette got a fancy Negroni cocktail, as I recall.  She liked it, and the wine with the meal got a big thumbs up too.

For my meal, I ordered the half-chicken from the rotisserie.  Mostly because I am a sucker for good roasted chicken, but partly because with an early flight the next day, I didn't want anything too heavy (fish and chips; or a creamy Tagliatelle were both consider).  I didn't want steak-frites, as I was expecting to eat steak on vacation (I didn't get any the end, but never mind).  And I didn't want to have the risk of a seafood stew with a clam gone rogue.

I ignored that risk though to try one of the Brunette's mussels on her big bowl of Salt Spring island bi-valves.  There were just done... like -just-.  Ten second less in the pot and they'd have been a warm mess.  But cooked to this point, they weren't tough, or beginning to mush up.  They quivered there in the white wine sauce, garlic filtering through the meat of the mussel.  Well worth it.

We also ordered a side of the seasonal vegetables, all from the farm.  A whole mix of veg, all roasted long enough so they were on first name terms with each other, but not yet overly friendly.  Carrots, parsnip, strings of green veg.  Tasted great, with that fresh picked flavour I've had from my own vegetables.

My chicken was juicy and moist with a rich glaze of sauce. The skin had got crispy in all the right places, while the interior was cooked through perfectly. The fresh roasted potatoes had that combination of a crisp skins and battered, soft insides.  The kale coleslaw was also fresh, and had a crisp bite to it.

It was a little -too- fresh though, and I had to send it back to the kitchen after over turning one leaf to find something that shouldn't have been there.  The server grabbed it straight away, apologized and whisked it off.  She offered us a free dessert after depositing the plate in the kitchen. A cook came out a few minutes later with a fresh dish, and profuse apologies for the problem.  They handled this very professionally.  I'd prefer not to have my farm fresh food that farm-like, but things happen.  They dealt with it... though I did toss over the coleslaw a lot on the second run, and probably should have asked for it without.  Just because it stuck in my head that I might get a repeat.

As an aside, I was a little unsure if I should relay the problem. I liked the food there. The Brunette loved it.  I like the locally sourced and cooked simply menu.  It is home-cooked kitchen table food. It's not fancy.  It's not pushing any bar into the exotic, or technical gastronomy.  But executing the simple concept itself is a challenge, to keep it simple and unfussy.  I was a big fan of the place up until that point.  And three minutes after getting my replacement dish, a big fan again. My goal is not the cheer-lead for restaurants in Victoria and write bland, happy reviews.  My goal is to write about what I thought, tasted and saw.  If it is an unfair reflection, I'm happy to discuss it.

So, they sorted us out a free dessert, with no problems... a rich chocolate zuccini brownie.  Moist, flavoursome and finished up a good meal.  We wandered out after settling the bill with happy stomachs and a wrapped up portion of chicken that, I'm told, went down a treat cold in sandwiches the next day.

The restaurant would suit a small group looking for a casual meal, or a couple looking for a relaxed meal out.  There's a good range of beers and wines, though the bar service was rather slow, as the Brunette pointed out as well.  But the food was a hit overall.  The space has a great feel.  Would visit again.