Vancouver’s stunning Asian banquet – A Chinese culinary adventure awaits, no passport required

The fat dumpling sags seductively at the end of my outstretched chopsticks, proof of its delicate wrapper and perfectly soupy interior. As instructed, I’ve lifted it carefully by the nub that sits at the apex of its 18 perfect folds, sliding the base through a saucer of inky black vinegar sauce. When the soup dumpling bursts in my mouth, revealing all of the hot, porky perfection within, I mumble my best multilingual culinary compliment: “Mmmmmm.”

Though it’s a simple food, the...

GET REAL: Montreal’s Authentically Inauthentic Chinese Food

A middle-aged businessman sat alone in a maroon booth at a linen-swathed table in an upscale Chinese restaurant. A plate mounded with glistening morsels of chicken was placed before him. As he literally rubbed his palms in anticipation, he asked his Mandarin-jacketed waiter for chopsticks, and then, upon his return, a knife. “I love this sauce!” he exclaimed, almost to himself, but loud enough that, seated nearby, we could measure his enthusiasm. “It’s not sickly sweet like the General Tao’s everywhere else.” The waiter...

SEAWEED SEASON

Sea vegetables are among the most nutritious plants on earth – and we are literally swimming in the stuff.

Go out to almost any island beach at low tide and you’ll see electric green sea lettuce and dark purple laver clinging to the rocks, fronds of frilly brown alaria (a.k.a. wakame), and salty sea asparagus at the high water line. Vast forests of kelp shelter small fish and other ocean life just off shore, and their wide flat blades and bulbous floats are often found washed up on the sand after a storm.

For the uninitiated, it can all seem like...

A Fairytale About Nova Scotia Wine 

Alanna McIntyre leads a kind of fairytale life for grownups. The 30-something sommelier and mother of two works at Bishop’s Cellar, a private wine store in Halifax where she faithfully tastes all the wine she helps import from around the world. And that’s just the beginning of her enviable lifestyle, one intricately bound with the story of Nova Scotia wine. 

I am standing on a rise in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley near Canning, the red mud flats of the Minas Basin beyond, the red cliffs of Cape Blomidon at my back. Between the two...

CHANTERELLES EARNS ITS NAME

Authenticity – and mushrooms – at this gem of a restaurant in Newfoundland

Bright orange chanterelle mushrooms seem to light the shaded forest floor before me like the flames of a thousand candles. The trail up Burnt Hill, a 260-foot-high bump at the end of Norris Point, is littered with them. Norris Point a small seaside town surrounded by Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Newfoundland’s western coast. I’m here for the views of the ancient mountains, the wilderness and the sea all around, so I didn’...