Cactus Club Cafe - Broadway and Ash

So, in a shocking turn for us, I am writing about a chain restaurant - and it is going to be good things! The world may be winding down anytime now.

We were in Vancouver on the weekend for a meeting my husband had and when it ended we chose the Cactus Club Cafe. This was largely because it was right there, the sushi place down the road had bad reviews on Urban Spoon. Also our 18 month old was getting hungry (and trust me that is one appetite we all must bow before!)

What a delightful accident it turned out to be. The decor was modern with a bit of kitsch but comfortable and not too noisy given a very full house. The service was very attentive and timely. They accommodated our 18 month old very nicely and they had proper changing facilities which is so much nicer than changing a diaper on the floor of a public restroom!

Between my husband and I we sampled the Tuna Tataki, the Ravioli starter, the Ravioli main, the braised short rib sandwich and the apple gallette. Everything was very tasty with good presentation and reasonable portions. The highlight however, by far, was the Ravioli. The starter one comes with prawns and I had the main without scallops. Both come with pine nuts, crispy sage and a buerre blanc sauce that rock our socks. Rich and creamy but with enough acid to be bright in our mouths. This sauce was a glorious blend of flavour, one of those moments when the sum of the ingredients truly exceeded the parts. They came together seamlessly, in fact we struggled to try to discern the parts and have been working at it ever since.

Though not cheap this meal had sufficient bang for the buck and I would go back as there were other things that caught my eye and I would like to try. Though the struggle will be not having that glorious ravioli EVERYTIME!



http://www.cactusclubcafe.com/

Devour Restaurant in Victoria

Rumour has it that Devour on Broughton is supposed be a great place to eat. I have not been there yet, but I hope to get there shortly and report on it.

Anyone that has been there, please drop me a line with your thoughts on it.

Madrona Farm Fundraiser

I got this from Iambic Cafe.

Madrona Farm Benefit: a Grand Old Shindig(Co-sponsored by Share Organics)
Saturday January 9th, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
The Orange Hall, 1620 Fernwood Road.
Price: $20 regular / $15 for the underemployed. All proceeds donated to Madrona Farm and the B.C. Land Conservancy.

Performers: Poets Lorna Crozier, Tim Lilburn, Carla Hesketh/Funk, and Melanie Seibert; Flamenco Guitarist Gareth Owen & Alma de España; Island Thyme Morris Dancers; The Rabbleberries; and the Great Giffoni, Magician.

Kuku's Buffet will not open

I got some take away from Kuku's the other night and asked the owner about the status of the buffet. He said it cost him $8000 in the permitting process, but that Saanich was now requiring about $60 000 worth of renovations to the building for him to open the buffet. He said at that price he is not going forward, I do not blame him as restaurants are more often money losers and not money makers.

The owner did say that he was looking for a restaurant space that needs no changes. If/when he finds this he will consider opening the buffet there.

Rosi's Bistro on West Saanich

This is a small restaurant in a strip mall across from the Med Grill. The decor is very Brick, 1980's and our table was wobbly. The bread is bad. But the pasta is great! Wine by the bottle is very affordable. The food is not so affordable. Overall a mixed bag.

We dined with our 17 month old and fortunately we came equipped with a booster seat as they did not have wither a high chair or a booster. On the other hand the staff was helpful and amenable to our requests for an extra plate and that sort of thing.

On entry do not expect much. The interior, as I said, is very basic. That said there are signs they are trying, but they need a bit of help and, I suspect, some money.

The menu is fairly large and printed on basic white paper. Also not inspiring. Even higher quality paper, without typos and stains would have helped. I am always a bit suspicious of larger menus too, though the limited selection of ingredients was reassuring to me. On the bright side there were several vegetarian options, though nothing vegan jumped out at me.

They brought us bread, it was from a bag. Not good, even if they tried to dress it up with balsamic and oil in shakers for your use. This is the type of bread that will be covered in mold before it gets hard or crusty and is dry even when at it's freshest.

We started with the bruscetta sampler. For twelve dollars we got three squares of the bag bread with our choice of topping from about a half a dozen options. We won't say more about the bread. The toppings were okay. Good flavour combinations and fresh ingredients.

The main courses are what saved this place. I had the baked cheese manicotti. One manicotti roll was the perfect portion and it seemed to be fresh pasta. The marinara sauce was yummy and they had used generous but not ridiculous cheese on top, which created the lovely crusty, gooey, cheesy topping I had truly be searching for. A few more seconds in the oven would have ensured the proper creaminess in the ricotta filling which was a bit pasty due to that lack. Again though, flavour was good and my portion was just right. I had a glass of Pinot Grigio with dinner which was a nice glass with the dish and a generous enough pour that I could sip through appetizer and dinner. My husband had a scallop and pancetta bowtie pasta that he was very happy with. His portion was generous and he was pleased by the amount of scallop (five big ones)and pancetta. He didn't finish his and took home a doggie bag that he enjoyed later. The one thing was that those main courses were pricey at fifteen and nineteen dollars respectively this was not the budget conscious meal that the decor suggests.

So, overall, I would say go to Rosi's, skip and bread items, and go straight to the mains. The portions are generous enough to fill you up and it would keep the bill in check. And expect to feel you eaten in someone's kitchen, not the dining room.

Growing Wheat on Vancouver Island

Eat Magazine has an interesting article in this month's issue about growing wheat on Vancouver Island. Actually they will be covering this over this and the next two issues. I experimented with growing wheat in 2008 and did not find it particularly useful project.

There is something romantic about being able to buy bread that has been made from locally grown wheat. You can buy local wheat at For Good Measure Bulk Food in Cadboro Bay for a price of $3.30 to $4.40 a kilo - a lot more than the less than $10 I pay for 10 kg. It is not only expensive, growing it locally is not a good use of the land.

You can buy bread made with local wheat at Fol Epi, True Grain in Cowichan Bay, The Roost and Wildfire bakery.

The problem with wheat is that does not produce a lot per acre, one should expect to harvest about 2.5 tonnes per acre. This is not unreasonable in areas where the land can not be readily used for other crops - such as on the prairies. On Vancouver Island this does not make sense.

An acre on the Saanich peninsula could produce the following:

• 20 tonnes of tomatoes
• 12 tonnes of strawberries
• 20 tonnes of apples
• 3 tonnes of grapes
• 25 tonnes of carrots

Growing wheat on this land makes no sense for best use of the land, the farmer's business or food security. We have land here that con do so much more.

In the distant past wheat was grown here because we did not have the transportation infrastructure to move the wheat around as easily as today. To move back to growing wheat means moving backwards in how we use the land.

Wheat stores well and transports well, you can move it in bulk by train. Tomatoes, apples, berries and other fresh crops do not travel nearly as well and require trucks. Each kilo of wheat that is grown here displaces the potential of close to eight kilos of produce. Each train car load of wheat we grow here means we need about 20 semi trailer loads of produce to be trucked here from elsewhere. This means local wheat has an interesting impact of CO2 emissions through the loss of local land for other local production.

Not Really about Good Food

There has been an ongoing rumour that McDonalds does not use Canadian beef, or at least uses a lot of beef that comes from rain forest deforestation. This is not true at all. Mcdonalds is one of the single biggest purchasers of beef in Canada. They buy 29 000 000 kilos of beef each year.

There seems to a desire out there to believe that McDonalds is some horrible corporate citizen because they are such a big corporation. Certainly the food they sell is hardly good for you, but so then is a burger and fries and a mom and pop greasy spoon. In many ways McDonalds is better than most fast food restaurants - they make it easy to know the nutritional information for their products

The internet rumour continues on and on, new people keep perpetuating it. It seems there is visceral hatred of such a successful fast food operation. Because McDonalds is the biggest, somehow they must be evil.

I have no love for McDonalds but I impressed with how they run their business. They make a product that is consistent globally. In fact their Big Mac has been used as a measure of how well currencies compare in values. Normally currencies are evaluated using the relative cost of a basket of goods to arrive at what is called Purchase Price Parity. In 1988 the Economist started with the idea of the Big Mac index as a joke, but it turns out to be a very good measure of PPP. McDonalds can make the same Big Mac in 120 countries.

Consistency is important to the company. Not long ago I bought a quarter pounder in Tsawwassen on the way to the ferry. Once I was in the line up I found the burger to be cold, the cheese was unmelted and there was a lack of condiments. I phoned the restaurant and they offered to replace it. I explained I was in the line for the ferry and could not get it. They said they would have a credit for me for a new burger whenever I came through again. About five months later I was going through the drive through and said I had this credit. With no fuss they either found the note of the credit or just gave it to me.

I have also seen what the company can do for teenagers interested in learning to be leaders of teams of people. They allow 15 year olds to be promoted to shift supervisors if they show a desire and ability. I am hard pressed to think of many other venues where a high school kid can get some real responsibility in their lives.

I know the downsides of the food. I have watched Morgan Spurlock's movie Super Size Me and I loved it. I let my kids watch it and they took to heart the message that fast food is not good for you. But at the end of the day there are times when I am on the road and do not have the time to stop to eat somewhere. It is at moments like that I get the McDonalds food.

There is a place for McDonalds and their food.