Galiano artist Dorrie Ratzlaff is nothing if not busy. She’s been studying Traditional Chinese Medicine in Victoria, BC, since last fall. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also been fostering a new storefront, “The Galiano Twirly Tree Shop” that features local artists, and that will be moving to larger quarters on the island for its grand re-opening on February 10.

Even so, she still finds time to eat, and to write the occasional food review. Take it away, Dorrie! And keep those reviews coming.

Imagine thinly sliced corned beef, a stack two inches thick, steaming hot, juicy in the middle of a layer of sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese and warm rye bread slices. Serve it up with a big bowl of beet borscht topped with a generous dollop of sour cream. Bite into it and it is deliciously warm and cozy, juicy with the almost-sweet smoked meat and the delicately tangy sauerkraut. Mmmm! Mmmmm! Mmmmm! Comfort food, at $9.95. Perhaps a bit expensive for some, however, the sandwich is large, the soup warms the cockles of your heart and the meal will last “all day”.

This delicious repast can be had at the Galiano Grand Central Emporium, aka “The Redneck Cafe”, on Sturdies Bay Road on Galiano Island (here’s the link to the “entertainment” page of Grand Central’s webpage. ). The surroundings are comforting, there is a Franklin stove, front and centre, with a warm fire burning when the weather outside is cold and wet and miserable. A Reuben by the fire is the perfect antidote for the gloom of the dark months of winter.

Now there is nothing on Grand Central’s menu that could be compared, bargain-wise, with the five and six dollar plates of rice and stir-fried meats and vegetables that you can get at Vancouver or Victoria Chinatown cafes. However, Redneck Cafe does have some less expensive and delicious items, such as the Wimpy Burger (not wimpy in the beef and cheese department) with side of creamy coleslaw, many times on sale for a mere $4.95, usually $5.95. Now, does that not beat the “golden arches” for a deal, home-made pattie, big puffy burger bun, fresh tomato, lettuce and cheddar cheese, and the side of yummie coleslaw?

On a recent trip to Parksville, we stopped in at Bocca in Nanaimo for our post-ferry caffeine. We found cheerful and cozy Bocca while exploring Nanaimo’s Old City Quarter. It’s a cheerful and cozy little place, with green and blue walls, and tucked away at the end of an open-air mall. Bocca doubles as gallery space for local artists.

They served Cafee Umbria’s Bizzari blend espresso, which is a mellow and ideal for an afternoon coffee. The food looked great but we were on our way to lunch at my aunt’s, so we didn’t indulge.

We did pick up some of their house granola to take home, however, and in a few short days, it’s almost gone. Bocca’s granola does not stint fruit and nuts, and it is sweetened with just the right touch of honey. Next to my own, this may be the best granola we’ve ever eaten.

Bocca, 427D Fitzwilliam Street, Old City Quarter, Nanaimo, BC

For Mr. Vancouverist and me, no trip to Victoria is complete without a stop at Ottavio’s in Oak Bay, where we generally enjoy a coffee and pastry before picking out a few goodies to take home. Ottavio has a very nice selection of cheeses, and on a recent visit we bought a six-year-old Quebec cheddar and a Beemster Gouda from Holland.

We also got some Mrs. McGarrigle’s Canadian Maple Mustard, which won third prize in the World Wide Mustard Competition. This mustard has its good points. It contains lots of crunchy almost-whole mustard seeds. But, being a maple fanatic, I’d like this mustard better with more maple, and will likely add some from the stash I keep on hand

Chocolate was on the shopping list, of course, and Mr. V. blanched when I picked up a 100 gram Amedei Toscano Black 70% bar that was priced at $18. I nearly blanched, too. Had it come to this? Was my search for more and better chocolate about to set us on the path to bankruptcy? Not just yet. Being a good girl at heart, I relented, substituting a small box that contained 5 squares of the Toscano Black that were about 2 grams each.

Amedeiis a relatively new chocolatier, and is attracting a lot of interest and gaining many fans who believe this may be the finest chocolate in the world. Amedei is a brother and sister firm—Alessio and Cecillia Tessiere—who work in Tuscany and who decided to learn how to make chocolate from raw beans, rather than from cocoa mass.

Alessio originally approached Tain l’Hermitage-based Valhrona and proposed that Amadei work with some of Valhrona’s single plantation beans. But Valhrona didn’t believe that serious, quality chocolate could come out of Tuscany, and they sent Alessio packing. Instead of getting mad, Alessio got even. By tripling Valhrona’s price, and paying off the farmers’ debts, he gained exclusive rights to beans from the Venezuelan Chuao plantation.

This year, the Academy of Chocolateawarded Amedei top honours for its Chuao, Porcelana, and Toscano Black 70% bars in the “bean to bar” category.

I’ve only had the good fortune to sample the Toscano Black so far, and found it light and fruity in comparison to most 70% bars. Very tasty and well made, but not memorable. I might feel different if I had a decent amount of the stuff to try, but I haven’t yet found any in Vancouver. Amadei will definitely be a more serious indulgence during my next trip to Victoria and Ottavio. Hopefully Mr. V. will be checking out the cheese and olives while I slip a few bars into our basket.

Late last month, during a trip to Victoria, we visited the site in the Ferndale neighbourhood where Keith Dewey of Zigloo Design is building “Zigloo Domestique,” a house constructed from eight cargo shipping containers and which will soon become the Dewey family home.

The concept of using shipping containers for shelter is not new. Containers have been used as shelter in many ways including for emergency and disaster housing and for military operations world wide, and as live/work spaces in Container City in London, England.

But the past few years have seen development of a container architecture movement that is dedicated to transforming containers that were destined for the scrap yard into livable, attractive, modernist homes.

To build Zigloo Domestique, Dewey bought eight scrap containers for less than $3,000 each, stacked them over a concrete foundation, and welded them together to form the bones of a three-level, 1,800 square foot home.

Although 1,800 square feet may seem modest in an era of monster homes, thoughtful design has ensured more than adequate space for Dewey, his wife, and their twelve-year-old daughter. The basement, which is mainly below grade, contains the utility area, one of the two bathrooms, and a bedroom/activity room for the Deweys’ daughter.

The main floor is divided into a family/living room, and a kitchen that will feature all drawer-based appliances, leaving plenty of room above the working space to display the family’s art collection.

The upper floor is divided into a master bedroom and a studio. This level also contains the second bathroom, which has a skylight above the tub. A curved steel roof above this level provides airy ceiling heights of 9½ feet.

All rooms wrap around a central open staircase. Domestique also has five balconies and in-floor radiant heat. Interior walls will be finished with drywall over spray foam insulation. Pieces that have been removed from the container configuration have been used as fencing.

Domestique sits on a panhandle infill lot, about 4,000 square feet, with very little street front exposure. It has a range of attractive outlooks, including a gracefully aging brick apartment building, neighbourhood gardens, and, in the distance, Mount Baker. Nearby are the Belfry Theatre and the Fernwood Community Association, which is rehabilitating an existing two storey storefront building to provide affordable, multi-family housing.

There is a range of advantages in using containers for construction. Because they are so inexpensive, construction costs run around $150 per square foot, compared to around $225 per square foot for conventional wood frame construction. Money saved on basic construction can be reallocated to higher quality more enduring finishes. Even though containers aren’t particularly attractive in their original state, they can be a blank canvas for creating an attractive home design.

Layouts are constrained only by site limitations and building code requirements. Container houses offer the same functionality as conventionally built houses. They can be finished with any kind of cladding including cedar, steel, and glass.

Containers are also extremely strong. They are overbuilt to protect their cargo and to withstand harsh elements. They can be stacked up to nine high, and still withstand hell, high water, and the earthquake everyone around these parts seems to feel we are overdue for.

Containers are easy to transport to the building site, and construction is much quicker than with conventional wood or steel framed dwellings, both of which add to their cost effectiveness.

Could Dewey’s Zigloo Domestique concept have a place here in Vancouver?

Ninety percent of the world’s cargo travels in shipping containers, and as far as the cargo industry in concerned, containers have a very short useful life. If they get scratched, dinged, dented, tagged, or just begin to look a little the worse for wear, they are consigned to the scrap heap where they may slowly rust away for years before they are recycled.

Thanks to our buying habits containers arrive on our shores full of stuff. And when they are not dumped into the scrap yard, they are shipped back empty to Asia to bring us even more stuff.

What with Vancouver’s city council approving highway oriented retail on Marine Drive, more big box stores are inevitable. There will be plenty of spare containers kicking around.

Although Mayor Sam Sullivan announced it a couple of months ago during the World Urban Forum, Vancouver’s Eco-Density initiative hasn’t started to take shape. Whether Sullivan’s Eco-Density program comes to fruition or not, Vancouver is short of developable residential land.

Container-based structures are not only affordable, they can have very compact footprints, are stackable, and can be made to look attractively modern. Perhaps they should have a part to play in this (or any) city’s intelligent densification.

Other links to explore:
Steelhome at Blogspot
Adam Kalkin
Shipping Container Architecture

On the BC Day long weekend in August we combined a trip to visit family with some exploration of the Cowichan Valley.

We were up early Saturday morning in order to get to the terminal fon time for our 9:55 reservation. BC Ferries has been unforgiving more than once when we arrived seconds past the half-hour cut off time, and we were in no mood to forfeit our place in line on a Saturday morning of a long weekend.

In Nanaimo, we made our usual stop downtown at Perkins Coffee before checking out some of the nearby stores, including the Flying Fish, and A&B Sound to pick up a copy of Amadou & Marian’s “Dimanche a Bamako.”

Our first stop in Duncan was at the Community Farm Store, which stocks a wide range of organic chocolate. I loaded up on some smaller bars, including a 35 gram bar of Green & Black’s Maya Gold, which is consistently good and was, in lieu of lunch, quickly devoured.

The other bars were disappointing. Gabriola Gourmet Garlic’s Red Hot Chilli Chocolate Too! bar was a strange concoction. Callebaut Chocolate coated a ganache that contained flakes of hot pepper that were prickly and unpleasant, and didn’t harmonize with the chocolate. This bar definitely needs more work to ascend beyond the novelty class.

Even worse was Endangered Species Premium Organic Smooth Dark Chocolate Bar. This should have been a winner, given that it claims in large letters on its packaging that it contains 70% cocoa, but it was dismal, waxy, and overwhelmingly cheap tasting.

We stopped by Coffee on the Moon, which always has good espresso, and then set off, dopios in hand, for Cowichan Bay. There we visited True Grain Bread for dinner rolls, and then, Cowichan Bay Seafoods, for some Indian Candy, which we ate while checking out some of the boats visiting that weekend for the Cowichan Bay Regatta. The salmon had been previously frozen, and was carelessly made with skin still on. It was dry and disappointing. Up till now, we’ve always liked their Indian Candy, but will think twice before we buy it again.

That evening, after a family dinner we took a walk through downtown Duncan, browsing the E. J. Hughes paintings in the window at Pacific Outlook Gallery, and then stopping in to check out the nearly new Craig Street Brewing Company. It’s an attractive, airy room, with a solid pub food menu, though we didn’t get a chance to try their food or beer this visit. The crowd at the pub was young, loud, jolly, and mainly blonde. It remains a mystery to us from where so many attractive twenty and thirty-somethings have appeared in a reputed retirement haven.

We slept late on Sunday morning, then ventured out to Merridale Cider for lunch at their La Pommeraie Bistro. It was a glorious, sunny day, and the best part of lunch was sitting on the patio, overlooking the orchard. We ordered off the brunch menu. Mr. V. had the frittata, which was fine, and I had an omelette that was overcooked but contained a very nice brie along with ham and chanterelles. It was accompanied with some lovely, chewy, multi-grain toast from True Grain Bread.

After lunch we went to Silverside Farms where we bought some of their blackberry vinegar, blueberry port, and a pint of their early blueberries. We haven’t tried the port yet, but since returning home we’ve made a couple of salads with mesclun, some of their blueberries, a little bocconcini, and a vinaigrette made from the blackberry vinegar. Very nice.

We then went to visit Mike Dohm’s at Cobble Hill. Mike had gone to Victoria for the day, so we wandered around for awhile, and I took some pictures. Pig Roast aficionados and other friends of Mike are welcome to check them out on my Flickr site.

After another family dinner, we settled in to watch the Chronicles of Narnia, which was a decent adaptation of Lewis’ “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”, though a bit slow-paced and surprisingly bloodless, considering the epic battle scene.

On Monday morning, we went to the Dog House to hunt for E. J. Hughes as well as for a bit of brunch. The Dog House diner is a Duncan landmark, having been there for over fifty years, It is also where where Ted Hughes usually takes his meals. He wasn’t there, but our waitress, a comely blond lass, gave us a broad smile when we asked about him, said he was a very nice man, and pointed out his usual table.

Food at the Dog House is typical diner fare, made without flare. I ordered the eggs benedict with complete understanding that the hollandaise would come from a package. The benedict was exactly what I expected, accompanied by fluffy hash browns which mainly stayed on my plate. Mr. V. ordered corned beef hash (one of his weaknesses) and unfortunately this dish veered to the grim side. But what with him being a Duncan boy, this could not have been a surprise.

In the afternoon, we visited family friends on Gibbons Road who gave us some early bounty from their garden—huge zucchinis, tomatoes, beets, and a parsley plant. It seems the reason our parsley didn’t come up this year is it’s a biannual. So,with a little luck and sunshine, we’ll have fresh parsley every year from here on.

The beet tops were steamed for last night’s dinner, and the beets themselves were slow roasted. Now they’re sitting in the fridge, marinating in apple cider vinegar and five spice, with a touch of chipotle flakes.

Before starting out for Gibbons Road we stopped at Serious Coffee’s new Duncan location. They serve a rich and syrupy espresso that reminded me of Lighthouse Roasters in Seattle. It was a good cup, but since Mr. V. loves Coffee On the Moon’s espresso, on our return visits we’ll likely be drinking more of theirs than Serious Coffee’s.

We left Duncan for the drive to Nanaimo around 5:00, and arrived at Departure Bay about an hour before our boat. It was a typical hot and sunny day at the terminal. Everybody’s windows open, people out of their cars, walking their dogs. And off in the distance, someone’s hi-fi drumming gangsta rap.

Right next to us was a family travelling in two vehicles. Whiny kids were making too much noise; mothers, grandmothers, and fathers were talking loud nonsense trying to drown out the whiny kids. We were just sitting there, windows down like everybody else, trying to keep cool, doing our best but failing to ignore our obstreperous neighbours.

Then Mr. V. got a brainwave. Turned the stereo up loud, playing Amadou & Marian. Pretty soon everybody shut up because their heads were bobbing and they were grooving on the music. I got to read my Globe and Mail in peace. A perfect way to end the weekend.