Just finished a crazy tasting of top Canadian microbrews. Top ones, http://t.co/WNT2JZjO, http://t.co/mgSu7ADf, http://t.co/yiK7BC2H
| 11 October 2010
Planning a trip to the Western United States? How about spending a few days taking in Oregon's New Olive Oil Celebration?
The Willamette Valley has been growing pinot noir and pinot gris grapes for the past four decades. But recently, Ken and Penny Durant, and others interested in diversifying, have embraced a new agricultural and culinary trend in Oregon – olives. The Durants planted a small olive orchard in 2005 and now have 13, 000 olive trees on 17 acres in the Willamette Valley. Two years ago they built the Oregon Olive Mill, Yamhill County’s first olive oil pressing facility, and Oregon’s largest. To celebrate the 2010 olive harvest, the Oregon Olive Mill will host the 2nd annual Olio Nuovo Festa on the weekend of November 19-21st. This three-day event honours the age-old Italian tradition that exists around the first pressing of artisan olive oil, celebrating the olive, the harvest and the pressing of the new olive oil. Olive varietals pressed at the Oregon Olive Mill include Arbequina from Spain and Koroneiki from Greece, as well as a Tuscan olive blend. Read more
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| 01 September 2010
Kick-started by an English ex-pat whose 1867 saloon sparked a city-sized development, Vancouver was founded on the idea of a good drink. But since the days of Gassy Jack Deighton — that fella on the whisky barrel plinth in historic Gastown — the bar scene here has lurched around like a drunk on payday: plenty of quantity but not enough quality. Luckily, recent years have seen a toast-triggering transformation.
Mirroring a renaissance in BC wine and micro-brewed beer, Vancouver suddenly has enough great watering holes to make bar crawling a worthy pastime. From new character taverns like Six Acres to gastropubs like Three Lions and cocktail-hugging haunts like Habit Lounge, there’s never been a better time for a citywide tipple or three. And the best of the older bars still cut it too: the brassy Yale, the den-like Brickhouse and the reinvented Irish Heather easily hold their own among the upstarts.
Intrigued by this dizzying resurgence, I launched an exhaustive weave around the city’s freshly hot bar scene. But rather than stopping after a few brews, I kept on going … hence the new book, Drinking Vancouver: 100+ Great Bars in the City and Beyond. Now that I’ve finally sobered up, here’s a six-pack of some of my favourites, complete with libation tips and raves from their regulars.