Rhys Pender: Orofino Vineyards & The Similkameen 1.6 Mile Diet…

Forget the 100 Mile diet. Orofino Vineyards and Bogner’s restaurant of Penticton have redefined the redefining of local. Last month the team put together two dinners that really celebrated local cuisine, sourcing everything from within a radius of just 1.6 miles (2.57 km) of the Orofino winery.

With the trend towards eating and celebrating local food gaining momentum all the time, it was fantastic to see what could be unearthed and discovered from within such a tiny area. John Weber, owner of Orofino, and Darin Paterson, owner and chef of Bogner’s, toured the local farms and hungrily eyed the unsuspecting local livestock in order to come up with a menu to showcase the Cawston region.

Cooking only ingredients grown this close to home is never easy, particularly having to forego some of the staples of the kitchen – oil, most spices, butter, salt. In spite of these, Paterson was very creative – making his own cheese and butter from local milk, cooking chicken confit style and marinating lamb in some delicious Orofino wine. The precious butter was used to luxuriously poach chicken breast and then to give gloss and flavours to the sauces. The team did make an exception for salt justifying it’s history of being traded as currency. Read more

Introducing The Similkameen Valley: 7% And Growing Strong

The Similkameen Valley (wiki) is not a new wine region in BC, but it seems like it has only recently been remembered, or maybe, more appropriately, rediscovered. Located in the very south of BC, just west of Osoyoos, it is surprising that the Similkameen has taken so long to get serious attention. Read more

The Okanagan Coffee Route

Now that I regularly drive the 1.5 hour journey from the Similkameen to Kelowna to teach my wine classes I have had to create a coffee route to keep me fueled along the way. One of the most important things for me in any place is to find out where to get the best latte. It’s easier said than done up here, but over the years in the Okanagan (and now Similkameen) a number of decent coffee houses have popped up in the towns along my new path.

The first stop as I head north is Penticton. There are now two very solid stops to be found. If you are heading up the hill towards the Naramata Bench, a visit to the Bench Market is essential for good coffee and panini (and you can pick up some Vij’s curry for dinner). The second stop in Penticton is a new entry, the Bellevue Cafe. This little spot on Main Street makes for a perfect break as you browse your way through the farmer’s market in the summer months, and with free wireless it is also a good stop en route from which you can send a few emails.

After jumping back in the car and heading north, you are probably just finishing one coffee as you roll into Summerland. The Beanery at the end of Main Street makes a pretty decent latte and I am visiting this place a lot more as the roadwork between Summerland and Peachland causes many unplanned delays.

By Peachland, you can drop into Bliss Bakery for a coffee or sandwich and kill some time by staring out over the lake, but it is the next stop that is probably the most exciting for me.

Now, in one of the many large strip malls that have popped up in Westbank, you can find the Okanagan’s first Caffe Artigiano. This is the now the best coffee in the Okanagan and a forced stop on any journey through the big-box storeland of Westbank. I was there on opening day a couple of weeks ago and was pleased to see the new staff just making latte after latte until they’d reached the expected perfection. It is nice to see such commitment to product quality.

The only challengers to the Artigiano crown are the two Bean Scene cafes in Kelowna (Bernard Ave and Ellis Street). The coffee they call the “Traditional Cappuccino” is actually a small, strong powerhouse with perfectly textured steamed milk and intense flavour. The Bean Scene food is very ordinary, but for coffee they were the first ones here who were really committed to training staff to make it properly.

I have yet to explore in-depth the caffeine scene of Okanagan Falls, Oliver and Osoyoos, or the north Okanagan around Vernon, but at least, for a good length of the Okanagan and Similkameen, we can be sure of finding a great cup of coffee now, another sign of the improving food scene in the Okanagan.

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Rhys Pender is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. Visit his company Wine Plus+ online at www.wineplus.ca.

Good Food In The Similkameen?

It was with more than a little trepidation that Alishan and I made the move out of the Okanagan into the relative unknown of the beautiful but isolated Similkameen Valley. Drawn by the chance to purchase five acres of land that well-suited to a vineyard and the stunning beauty of the area, we made the move anyway. Thinking we were destined for home cooking and nothing more exotic than frozen Vij’s meals picked up from the Codfather’s Seafood Market during our weekly trips to Kelowna, our stomachs were ready for a barren run. When we signed the dotted line to purchase our house, I didn’t think there was an espresso machine in the valley. But things have been much better than we’d hoped.

The first discovery was the Riverbed Bistro. After a long day of shuttling our stuff between Peachland and Cawston, we were finally ready for pizza and a bottle of red wine amidst the rubble of boxes. We headed into town (Keremeos being our new “big smoke”) and discovered this newly opened restaurant, something that wasn’t there a couple of months ago when we were finalising our house purchase. The Mexican pizza turned out to be very good (we are now addicted) and on numerous other visits, their skill with the deep fryer has impressed us to no end. There is something great about a restaurant that only does simple food but does it very well. And they make a decent latté. Things were looking up.

The next major victory for our pioneering stomachs came during a fruit stand stop in Keremeos. The family that runs Sanderson Farms also makes authentic pakoras, samosas and a range of curries. My in-laws, who lived in India, proclaimed the pakoras the best they’ve tried since they left. So now we have our little bistro and some good Indian food sorted. Dare I say it, choice.

We also have the recently opened Benja Thai. I was used to some pretty good Thai food in Australia but so often our Canadian Thai experience has been second to many. Our hopes weren’t high but we kept hearing the local gossip about the new Thai restaurant and made our first foray in a couple of weeks ago. Wow. Some of the best Thai food I have ever had. Spoiled for choice.

The Similkameen has always been considered a bit of a backwater with little to excite the senses. But now with nine wineries (and a few more to open soon), this is developing into its own little wine region. And while it might not have the fine dining we often associate with wine, there is both excellent wine and good, inexpensive food to enjoy. There is the feeling that this is the beginning of something exciting. I will keep you updated as things unfold.

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Rhys Pender is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. Visit his company Wine Plus+ online at www.wineplus.ca.