Growing up on the east coast and living in Victoria since 1998 Mark has an appreciation for “real” food: locally grown fresh ingredients, sauces and reductions from scratch, seafood, and game. At the same time his travels introduced him to a variety of foods and cuisine and along the way he even learned a smattering [...]

Didn’t we do well! By ‘we’ I refer to British Columbia and Vancouver Island in the recent Canadian Brewing Awards.
Out of a possible 21 gold medals BC breweries captured five and out of a total of 63 medals the provinces breweries captured a total of eleven – the five gold, plus two silver and four [...]

If you have been following this space you know that I am currently on holiday in the province of Algarve on the southernmost coast of Portugal. October is generally a good month to visit the Algarve and this year has been no exception. Apart from two brief storms the weather has been magnificent – warm [...]

I have a strong preference for dry wines but there are occasions when a sweet table wine goes down well; such an occasion is a hot, sunny October afternoon in southern Portugal.
My cousin Cindy’s husband Alex is not a big drinker but he does like the berry wines produced near his hometown of Ladner. Two [...]

From what I can find out there are no Portuguese beers available in British Columbia but be sure to let me know if I am wrong. So this week I will tell you about a brew of another kind.
Most countries have their own version of ‘firewater’ and in Portugal it is called medronho. In the [...]

I am currently on holiday in the south of Portugal, a region I have been visiting annually for 24 years. I stay in the town of Portimao in the province of Algarve which is famous for its many hours of sunshine, beautiful beaches and villages with old world charm jostling with modern resorts rampant with [...]