Weeknight Sesame Peanut Noodles
These cold noodles can do no wrong—they’re a great light dinner and a great way to use up leftover pasta. They can also sit a few days…
Food and Beverage
Soup Season
Soup is just the best for the busy cook, especially in February when the light’s coming back and we’re rushing in from…
OMG! They’ve Delisted Screech
I’ve had Screech in my cabinet for I-don’t-know-how-many years. I’ve replenished it regularly, and now I’m told that it doesn’t sell…
Sweet Potato Fries With Fancy Mayo
Sweet potato fries are fast and easy and feel vaguely healthy, which checks all the boxes for something you want to eat…
Finger Food For Dark Nights
The MI5 agents came into the house by stealth, wrapped in worn, crinkled purple tissue paper. The package nestled under the tree…
Fried Okra With Spicy Mayo
Okra can be polarizing. Some people are really turned off by the texture, which can tend towards slimy. But if you embrace the slime…
Turkey Salad with avocado
These types of Thai-inspired salads are also called larb or laap. They pair intensely-seasoned ground meat, with bright herbs…
Road Snacks For White Line Fever
On November 26, my sister and I pulled into the Husky gas station at Hope, just off the Trans-Canada Highway.
Honey-Roasted Kabocha Squash
Kabocha squash has a dense texture and a subtle, almost nutty flavour. When roasted, you can eat the exterior…
Jammy Eggs, Anchovies and Bagel Toast
There isn’t a bad time for a soft, jammy egg. In a soup, on a salad, a bowl of steamy rice or on a bowl of cheesy noodles.
Roasted Eggplant Sandwiches
Eggplant is often relegated to classic parmigiana, or baba ganoush. But it can be so much more! Take the time to salt and season it…
Apple Brown Sugar Grunt
Chances are you know someone from Atlantic Canada, you’re related to someone from Atlantic Canada, or you are from Atlantic Canada.
How To Cook A Moose
I want to share with you a success I had this weekend. But first, hands up anyone who has ever overcooked a moose roast.
Karaky Grocery: Tastes of home
International foods from many countries and a variety of cuisine – Middle Eastern, South Asian, European and Japanese.
Old Gardeners Never Die, They Just Go to Seed
Fall is the time when seeds are able to be gathered and stored. And a seed exchange is the perfect place to share some of those seeds.
The cooking fire …
A cooking fire isn’t just a miniature bonfire, and to make a good one takes luck, experience or some advice from someone who’s got a reputation for being a good campfire cook.
Cake recipes from the 1940s and ’50s
When you bake using basic ingredients, you know where they come from. Jump back 1/2 century and try your hand at these home-baked cakes.
Fifty years of meat, sausage and community
The Deli, as it is fondly nicknamed by so many, is a local icon to most Yukoners (not just those in Whitehorse), as well as to many travellers from around the world. (This tribute was written to help celebrate its 50th Anniversary on December 14, 2018.)
Preparing those tasty fish treats
Most Yukoners like to eat fish, but sometimes people want a different taste sensation. Here are some fairly simple options to try: Tasty Fish Treat #1 Ingredients Arctic grayling, filleted and cut into 1-inch squares Shake ’n Bake, for coating Oil, for deep frying Method Shake the fish in a ziplock bag with old-fashioned Shake …
Old-fashioned tasty pancakes
As promised, this week’s recipe is from my Grandmother’s Kitchen and is on great pancakes of the 1920s. Remember, these are not ingredients from a box, so follow the directions to a T. True, old-fashioned pancakes were baked (not fried) in cast iron pans. My wife Lisa and I still have iron pans that we …
Old-fashioned breads, old-fashioned taste from the 1920s
Bread recipes from the 1920s. Home-baked bread from Grandmother was a natural thing and you always knew what the ingredients were.
Old-Fashioned Marmalades from Grandmother Davenport’s Recipes
INGREDIENTS Oranges Peaches Sugar METHOD Wash the oranges and then cut in half lengthwise. Place on a flat surface and cut into thin slices. Hold the slices together and slice through again to make smaller pieces. Wash the peaches but do not skin them. Slice peaches into ⅓-inch thick at the widest edge of the …
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Schnitzel
Schnitzel is really delicious and fairly simple to make, but there is a bit of cleanup afterwards. It can be made with just about any kind of meat or fowl, wild or domestic. It isn’t a very common dish locally and is really delicious using some of that 100 or so pounds of moose meat …
Old fashioned baked breads
If you are from the 1930s and ‘40s, you may still long for those old-fashioned baked breads of all different tastes. You will also know what was in them and, to me, that is what is most important. Remember, those were the days when a man was sure, when walking down the street, that the …
Time for Thai!
The longer I have lived in Whitehorse, the more I have grown to understand that Yukoners crave Thai food and many will drive to Skagway just to taste the delicacies it offers.
Five camping food hacks to get you through the rest of your summer
Over the past couple months I’ve stumbled across a couple of really great hacks that make creating awesome meals while camping way easier.
Birds ‘on the fly’
One of the best-tasting meats comes from game birds. Stripping the bird of all of its bones should be your first step … and the next step, after cooking, is to enjoy.
Let’s go fishin’! – 3 of 3
On land we have voracious bears that will eat almost anything. In the rivers and lakes, without a doubt, the most voracious fish in North America is the northern pike.
Watch out you wascally wabbits!
I would say there are as many ways to cook rabbits as there are all other game recipes combined.
You sure look thirsty… try some lemonade!
The Big Squeeze Lemonade Stand Competition/Fundraiser is August 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Let’s get some mud on them trucks!
The annual mud bog competition is back on July 21 on Robert Service Way
No maple trees? No problem
To find authentic maple syrup, made from Canadian maple trees, you go to Richard Beaudoin. This Yukoner has taken up the task of introducing Yukoners to authentic Canadian maple syrup.
Dawson is gearing up to celebrate Canada Day with both new and old traditions. Here’s the scoop!
The biggest change in the Canada Day Parade in Dawson City, this year, is where it will end.
Ride to Live, Live to Ride
Whitehorse’s ninth annual Ride for Dad is happening … and you can help out.
A second home for the Yukon’s gamers
As the only gaming café and comic book store in Whitehorse, Titan Gaming and Collectables is a one-of-a-kind concept North of 60.
Move over Willy Wonka, the Yukon’s got our own chocolate factory
What’s Up Yukon’s weekly recipe developer, Sydney Oland, has undertaken a new venture, the Yukon Chocolate Company. The new business leverages her eight years of experience in the chocolate-making industry to offer chocolate made fresh from cacao beans.
In search of the perfect poutine
Poutine. This simple, but tasty dish, was officially put in the dictionary in 2014 and listed in the top 10 Canadian inventions of all time.
Many ways to eat moose
Now that you have your moose or deer meat in the freezer, it’s time to get serious about cooking it the outdoors way, inside.
In search of the perfect poutine
Is it possible to find good poutine in Whitehorse – even though we’re the farthest you can possibly get from Quebec?
The green bags of spring
It’s the nature of short Yukon summers for Yukoners to seize every moment and they perhaps forget about things like contributions to the food bank.
Chicken fried bison steaks
While I love using bison steaks, you can totally use any sort of lean, quick cooking steak you’ve got – moose, caribou, even beef.
Let’s use that whole bear
Sadly, black bears have an undeserved reputation of not being very good to eat. A number of Yukon hunters, including me, will dispute that thought as black bear is just as delicious any other animal hunted for meat in the Yukon.
Eat Right, Stay Bright
Breakfast is brain food. According to the Breakfast Club of Canada approximately 60 per cent of learning happens before lunch, making it even more important to get some food in their bellies first thing in the morning.
Baked spaghetti with bison
Everyone has that dish that they always order – for the lovely man that keeps my freezer stocked with wild game: baked spaghetti.
Go Big, Jack
Big Bear Donair shares a parking lot with the old Salvation Army and wouldn’t be the first location many would look to for a new business venture.
What can we do with all this burger?
Ground meat is certainly one of the results of just about any successful hunt and this includes birds. With a little thought, there are a number of ways to use burger besides simple, but great-tasting, hamburgers. Grinding your own meat saves a bunch of money, but if you pay to have your meat ground, you …
Get the best out of the fish you caught
One of the best ways to assure the very best taste of your fish is to kill it immediately after landing it. Throw away the fish chain and any containers that just hold water. Just don’t use them.
Chicken Galore
Travelling back into time to the 1950s you would see some great old cars, but we would like to bring the cherished food recipes from the ’50s forward to 2017. Here are some great old fashioned, tasty recipes. We hope you will try them and enjoy.
Yukon See It Here: Tamara Neely
I found this giant squash for sale at Wyke’s Your Independent Grocer, and was amazed and impressed, because I had never seen such an enormous squash. It’s a 37-pound banana squash, and I wondered who would buy it, and how they would cook it. I went back the next day and found that it had …
Cooking and freezing wild meat
I received a question on just how long you should extend the freezing time of wild, big game meat. There are lengths of time that wild meat should be in the freezer. Big game such as moose, deer, caribou and elk should be kept in freezer for no more than 12 months. Bear meat for …
Moose round steak
Tenderloin and backstraps (striploin) get all the hype regarding being the most tender cuts off any wild game animal. They have a good reputation as they usually are tender unless they aren’t cooked properly – which is very often as many people insist on cooking wild game just like they would cook beef. For many …
Mushrooms From the Open Fields
As a youngster back in the 1950s, one of our responsibilities was to go out in the open fields and pick fresh mushrooms – and to know the good from the bad. There are hundreds of different kinds of mushrooms and some types contain the lethal toxins amanitin and phalloidin. These two toxins can be …
Ris à l’amande (Danish rice pudding)
This dessert is similar to risengrød and is offered to the nisser (gnomes) on Christmas Eve in Denmark
Yukon Share: Harvested gamemeat sharing program
After a few years of effort trying to put this plan together, the Yukon is now up and running with a “Hunters For The Hungry” type of meat sharing program. “Hunters For The Hungry” is in place in all 50 states in the United States and a similar effort in about half of the provinces …
Hot Dickens Cider
The holiday season ushers in all kinds of warming specialty drinks to cozy up with around the house. This Hot Dickens Cider is named after A Christmas Carol author Charles Dickens. I have no idea why, as it’s a variant of the original recipe “borrowed” from my brother. It’s a wonderful warming drink that carries …
Caribbean stew meat with coconut dumplings
These spicy, savoury braised meats are very common all over the Caribbean, in fact you’ll find pigs feet and ox tails as much as you’d expect to find grilled fish.
Mmmmm! Sweet, Delicious, Bread
If you like homemade bread, then let me take you back to my mother’s kitchen, back to the 1950s.
Don’t mourn the soup kitchen, ask what’s next?
For the volunteers who served at the soup kitchen, it was a labour of love and giving back to the community. Closing the doors simply means, what’s next?
Roasted bone marrow with parsley
This classic bistro dish can be found all over menus in Europe and North America, usually served with plenty of crusty bread and salt.
Homemade Treats
Having grown up in the 1930 and 40s, I was used to homemade food such as pancakes, bread and fresh-from-the-garden homemade soups. Nothing was prepared in cans from the grocery store that had sat on the shelves for months. The only thing spread on the garden was cow manure as a fertilizer. So here are some …
Bear pepperoni and herbed ricotta stromboli
This recipe uses bear pepperoni, but you could use salami. Or really anything. Stromboli are delicious no matter what they’re filled with.
Watching for things that go snap in the night
The first week of September, the mice fled the fields and snuck indoors, as mice are wont to do. It happened in the quiet hours of one night. The day before, the kitchen drawers and cupboards were spotless. The next, they were festooned with rodential calling cards: the kind a not-so-observant eye might mistake for …
Happy Beer-day to You!
If you’re feeling dapper this weekend, you’ve got an opportunity to dust off your best prohibition era outfits and celebrate the Yukon Brewery’s 20th Anniversary. The brewery is throwing a shindig to celebrate, offering the public 20 per cent off stock in their retail store (off everything but the booze. Bummer, I know). There will …
Plastic, plastic, everywhere
It is 2017 and plastic is all around us — in our toothbrushes, phones, and children’s toys. We use it to store our food and bottle our water. We put our plastic purchases in plastic bags to bring home. Many plastic bags will get used only once. They might get recycled. They might get thrown …
The Alchemists of Dawson City
Wandering down the dirt roads of Dawson City, you may find yourself charmed by the quirky café nestled right beside a worn-and-torn building straight out of the gold rush. The Alchemy Café was constructed over a period of four years with the architectural brains of Florian Boulais, his wife Sofia Ashenhurst-Boulais, and the muscle power, …
A Passion for Preserving
If you love the gentle pop-pop-popping of a jar lid, you might just be a home canner. For Michelle Christensen-Toews, it’s one of the many satisfying things about preserving food. “You only hear it as you’re clearing up. You’re washing the dishes and you start to hear the popping and you know that things are …
Haska-What Now?
Raspberries, blueberries, crowberries and cranberries: being on Yukon time means planning your weekends around where to pick once the – dare I say it? – latter part of summer rolls around and hints at fall. There is one berry fairly new to the Yukon scene that is well over and done with by the time …
BonTon Butcherie & Charcuterie
When Shelby Jordan was looking to change her career, she came across an idea that piqued her interest. “I’ve always wanted to learn a trade. I like working with my hands and with food, and I like being creative,” says the long-time Dawson resident. “At one point, I read a book that had an old …
Red Mammoth Comes to Dawson
It’s been a long time since mammoths have been in the Yukon valley, but a new one just appeared August 9, albeit in the form of a café. The Red Mammoth Bistro is Dawson City’s newest coffee and eating establishment, and they’ve hit the ground running. Owned by Emilie Aubin and Paul Wettstein, the bistro …
Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Havarti Stuffed Burgers
My husband came home one day with this weird looking plastic gadget that made no sense to me, until my 12 -year-old told me how to use it: it it’s a stuffed burger press. We’ve been making stuffed burgers for years, but this silly little gadget actually works great. It’s messy and a little awkward, …
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Keema Curry
Keema Curry INGREDIENTS 2 Tbsp oil (coconut oil, canola oil, olive oil) 1 Tbsp curry powder 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1 onion, finely chopped 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 4 cups chopped hearty greens (kale, spinach, beet greens, swiss chard or a combination) 3 cups …
Five Years Later and Still Garlic A GoGo-ing
If Louis Gagnon has learned anything from five years of successfully running a food truck in the Yukon, it’s “Batten down the hatches!” Gagnon says this with a hearty laugh, but securing every food item in a food truck, is no joke. In fact, the French Canadian and long time Yukoner, who runs the well-known …
Honey Bees and Yukoners: A love story
Etienne Tardif, gloved and clothed in white, his face behind a dark mesh veil, slowly lifts a tray from one of his stacked beehives. He’s in a meadow just off the Annie Lake Road, south of Whitehorse. “Whoah… this is heavy,” Tardif says. He looks closely at the tray, laden with sealed bees’ eggs and …
Fresh Fast Food
Culinary queen and DIY entrepreneur Katie Thom might be flying by the seat of her pants, but when she sets her mind on something, she does it, and with force. Though operating a food truck has been on her mind for the last 10 years, it was a decision Thom only made, and fully committed …
Grilled Kofta
2. Divide the ground meat into four portions and shape into 6-inch sausages, place on a metal skewer (or don’t, I had good results just grilling these without any skewers) and drizzle with olive oil. 3. Heat your grill to high heat and grill kofta until cooked through turning often, about 6 minutes. Let kofta …
Don’t Cook Big Game Meats as You Would Domestic Meats
I got my real initiation in cooking wild meats when I first joined the Orillia Fish and Game Conservation Club, in Ontario. We had about 100 members and if you were not active you were not a member. On the last Thursday night of the month we all got together at our club house and …
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Moose Heart Tacos
The hidden trophy of any successful hunt – that should be hauled out of the woods and cherished like a beautiful hide or perfectly curled horns – is the heart. The heart is by far the most delicious cut of any sort of wild game I’ve had the pleasure of eating. And if you’re a …
Why I Love Little Birds
The view overlooking Bennett Lake, after summiting my first mountain, while accompanying a friend on his goat hunt, will stay with me forever. The noise of the wind through the high passes, blowing clouds through the huge expanses below always leaves me feeling a little haunted. The huge span of tundra, the winding rivers, the …
A hot dog by any other name …
To devote an entire issue of What’s Up Yukon to the celebration of the hot dog, one must completely understand exactly what a hot dog is … and isn’t. Immediately what scratches at the mind is the question: What is the difference between a sausage and a hot dog? I laugh, because I know exactly …
Celebrating Sausages
The Germans are known by the nickname “The Krauts,” which comes from sauerkraut, a famous German dish comprised of fermented cabbage. Maybe Germans should be nicknamed “The Sausages” instead, because we have 1,500 kinds of different sausages in Germany – according to the Deutscher Fleischer Verband (German Meat Association). There is a sausage for every …
An Epic Weekend of Hiking
The saying in Yukon is you only truly experience the Yukon when you get out in the wilderness, and those words are accurate beyond belief. From incredible hikes, to a free boat ride, to some refreshing beers and a Sunday afternoon Canadian barbecue… it was a busy, but great weekend! After a month in Whitehorse, …
Bison Dan Dan Noodles
Peanut butter is great. It reaches it’s full potential if you spike it with chili oil & mix it with fresh noodles. Bison Dan Dan.
A Little Gift Shop with a Big Heart
The DuDrop In Gift Shop offers custom license plates while you wait – a memento from the Sign Post Forest to take home…
Oyster Sauce Makes it Better
Not too many years ago, I discovered oyster sauce during a barbecue at a friend’s house. I wasn’t sure what the new flavour was, but I really enjoyed it. I have passed on the secret to many others since then and all who have tried it rave about it. This sauce can be found in …
Filipino Spaghetti with Bison
Filipino spaghetti is the perfect food; it’s meaty, savory, sweet and cheesy. And it’s filled with hot dogs. This recipe uses bison.
Fireweed Jelly
Fireweed Jelly Yield: approximately 15 x 125 ml jars Ingredients: 8 cups fireweed blossoms (no stems or leaves) ¼ cup lemon juice 4 ½ cups water 2 packages powdered pectin 5 cups sugar Method: Collect the fireweed blossoms. Avoid the green stems and leaves. I harvest the blooming stalks while my patient wife picks and …
Ski Bum Pizza Co. is Making Tracks
There’s a new enterprise to the Yukon pizza scene. It’s big, unmistakably blue, and it’s serving up local ingredients atop a wood-fired crust, slopestyle. Ski Bum Pizza Co. is Yukon’s first pizza food truck, and the brainchild of longtime Yukon resident Eric Telford and ‘za loving, culinary wizard, Tara Paczkowski. The engaged duo seem to …
Salmon: Another Dijon Delight
Fire up the barbecue, here’s another never-fail salmon recipe. Salmon: Another Dijon Delight Ingredients: ¼ to ⅓ cup mayonnaise 2 Tbsp of your favourite Dijon mustard 2 tsp brown sugar 2 tsp fresh or concentrate lemon juice ½ tsp dill Black pepper to suit your taste Lemon pepper Olive oil Method: In a mixing bowl …
O – Delicious Oishi Sushi
Oishi Sushi is a small lunch counter located on the second floor above Shoppers Drug Mart on Main Street. It’s truly a hidden gem. Oishi means tasty or delicious in Japanese. The name is certainly an apt description of the food offered. Although it is tucked alongside the hallway leading from Zoomz to Hair Sensations, …
Salmon on a Stick
This shish kabob recipe works well, but be gentle as rough handling will cause the cooked fish pieces to break and fall off the skewer. Ingredients: Any size skinless salmon fillet cut into 1” cubes ½” thick sliced zucchini, enough to put 1 slice between every 2 pieces of salmon ¾ inch pieces of red …
Classic Meat Recipes
Peppered Tenderloin Ingredients: 2 pounds of beef tenderloin 4 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp oil 1 tsp salt ½ tsp pepper A dash of sage A dash of cumin 1 pound mushrooms, trimmed and quartered 1 medium white onion, cut to wedges 2 green peppers, cut in 1 inch pieces 2 Tbsp cider vinegar ½ cup …
Two Million Honey Bees Find Home in Watson Lake
Courtney and Joel Wilkinson, co-owners of Bee Whyld Yukon, are proud to show off their bee yard located just outside the town of Watson Lake, Yukon. Sixty-two of Bee Whyld’s 64 honey bee hives sit on the edge of a hay field surrounded by an electric fence. The warm spring days and budding leaves on …
Dreamtime, Bourbon Time
I’ve always loved the stories where people slip out of the present and into a different time; kid’s stories like Tom’s Midnight Garden, or the Narnia series, or, in adult fiction, The Time Traveller’s Wife. There’s something compelling about the notion of arriving in another time, unmoored from the present, where the universe bends and …
Gypsy Goulash
When you’re in the backcountry, sometimes you don’t have a lot, but you need something fast, tasty and hot. This is a simple, highly adaptable dish that can be made almost anywhere, with a wide variety of ingredients. This version uses kidney beans, but any kind will do. Only the eggs and tomatoes are essential. …
Sowing the Seeds of Spring
The light returns to the Yukon long before the heat and we’re still in the prime season of huge oscillations in temperature between day and night. Mornings dawn crisp – but early – and as of yet we feel no compulsion to head outside until it warms a little. Midafternoon brings mud and even t-shirt …
N – North Dragon Restaurant
We needed to find a place to go for lunch that started with the letter “N”. Well, we needed look no further than the North Dragon Restaurant. We were able to park right outside and go in to check out their display. The staff greeted us with smiles and friendly hellos. They pointed out the …
Ode to Winter
The warm winds of spring have brought with them the promise of little green shoots popping out of their seeds to generate the stuff of salads. There is a brief moment in our northern spring between the holding cold of winter and the heady 24-hour daylight, before our winter habits – frozen into trails through …
Salmon, Salmon, Salmon
Many household freezers have some – or even a lot – of salmon waiting their turn on the menu. Hopefully all our salmon is wild salmon and not the farmed Atlantic Salmon that is so common in stores these days. Farmed salmon looks and sounds to be less expensive, but if all the factors are …
The Life of Rabbits and Hares
Growing up in the 1930 and early 40s was tough times. First, there was the Great Depression, followed closely by the Second World War. For the average family, money was tough, far tougher than today and rabbits and hares often graced the supper plates. Of course the cottontail rabbit was the choice of the two …
Women in Whitehorse – Part 3
From the river to the mountains, Whitehorse is a picturesque place. However, it’s the people that make Whitehorse truly breathtaking. Beauty is found in Yukoners weaving their unique skills and talents into the tapestry of the north. Below is the third in a three part series about some particularly extraordinary women of Whitehorse. Larra Daley …
Making All the Right Stops for a Delicious Evening
Let’s make this as easy as possible. No cooking and no fussing, follow these directions and you will arrive at a delicious dinner destination. First stop, sushi night! Sushi is one of these tricky food-wine pairing combinations. Wasabi, pickled ginger, soy sauce, raw fish, sweetened rice – gah – it is a pairing nightmare. Luckily, …
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Coyotes in the Neighbourhood
Coyotes inhabit everywhere from Central America to the Canadian territories. Originally they resided in the west, but now they reside all across Canada including Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland since the 1980s – they crossed over when ice tied the islands to the mainland. They are somewhat opportunistic in their menu choices, but mammals make …
Veggies à la Barbecue
I bet you can get your kids or even adult veggie haters to enjoy them done on the barbecue. Here are three simple and very tasty methods. Simple Method #1 Cut carrots diagonally, broccoli any size, cabbage in slabs or just about any other veggie. Wrap in tinfoil with a little olive oil and oyster …
Right On, Yukon
I’m from Ontario, but boy let me tell you I would much rather be out here. Where I come from the only outdoor activities families engage in are taking the bus, and burying their heads in technology. You know that the next generation is going to be smarter than you when you’re watching a baby …
What’s the Appeal?
I was making a carrot cake this week for one of the Jack Russell’s birthdays (he gets the carrot ends, we get the cake, seems like a pretty good deal), and the subject of peeling vegetables came up. I have always been reticent about sending the outer portion of my fruits and vegetables to the …
Feeding the North
Food is important to me because I have a large family. Five boys under the age of nine” says Sonny Gray, CEO of North Star Agriculture Corp., as his company will soon announce plans to start construction in the Yukon. Like many in the Yukon he’s concerned about fresh produce. Yukoners like to buy local …
Color Me Blue
It struck me a couple days ago that I have gotten out of the habit of baking, and was missing having nibbly bites about for those mid-meal moments that require just a little something. I briefly mentally bemoaned my lack of muffins, before remembering that this is one of the things that I can actually …
Grazing around the world
Don’t you just hate it when you place your order for a dinner, after agonizing for 10 minutes, and then see something even better being carried past your table to someone else? The Cellar Steakhouse and Wine Bar, at the Edgewater Hotel, finally has as a solution: They are called Tapas. These mini-meals are miniature …
Camp Fire Cake
Sometimes, you just need cake. I’ve baked this from scratch before, but this is the one time I’m going to advocate boxed over homemade: when you’re deep in the backcountry it’s just too much fuss to pack in all the things you need to make a decent cake. The last time I made this, I …
A Pioneering Memoir to Keep the Brew True
“This is how you want to talk about your beers — with pride and a bit of humour too — and to do that, you have to produce beers that you’re proud of.” –Excerpt from Brewing Revolution by Frank Appleton It’s not too soon to say: Canadian craft beer has wrenched the baton of good …
Faint Praise for a Coarse Cultivar
Three foods top my No Thanks list: schmaltz herring, Marmite and kale. My sole experience with schmaltz herring – basically, raw fish preserved in rancid chicken fat – was anything but a gustatory delight. I also tried Marmite once. I even sampled its malevolent cousin, Vegemite, during a visit Down Under. Ptooey. Fortunately, in this …
Benefits of Boxed Wine
If you drink wine in the Yukon, certainly you have had a glass of Copper Moon wine. Maybe out of a glass bottle, but probably out of a box. I personally love that the Yukon wine drinking community has embraced alternative packaging and the pile of benefits that come with it, but there is more …
Border Lines
If I were to search out the exact opposite of local, homegrown food, I would pass through the security gates at an international airport. The sportsbars, food courts and even neo-eco-healthy cafés are part of an isolated microcosm that I’m sure has allowed for evolution in isolation of the trends towards local, fresh food that …
Bingeing on Brassicas
Potatoes, kale and cabbage is a pretty common answer to the question, “What can you grow up there, anyways?” For those of us who get excited about growing, however, it is easy to go kind of crazy even within the parameters of a single vegetable family and the brassicas (also known as coles or crucifers …
For the Love of Potatoes
Let’s go back in time, say 60 some years ago. Potatoes in those days, in my mother’s kitchen, were an everyday vegetable and cooked in some tasty remarkable different ways. Here are some recipes for you to try. Mom’s Hashbrown Casserole Ingredients: 2 pounds of frozen hash browns ½ cup melted butter 2 cups sour …
Bush Gypsy’s Banquette
Sometimes when you’re in the bush you need lots of calories, but you don’t have lots of time (or energy) left at the end of the day. By prepping the first part of this three part recipe for dinner, you have yourself a hearty, quick breakfast, as well as lunch or dinner the next day …
Sweet news: Northern bitters make beautiful drinks
Yukon concocters, experimenters, cocktail lovers and fans of northern botanicals, take cheer! A kindred spirit walks among us. She is Jennifer Tyldesley, and as you will have recently learned in these pages, she makes her own small-batch bitters and sells them under the brand name Free Pour Jenny’s. Tyldesley’s philosophy is similar to my own: …
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Fear of Pie-ing
The circle is often used as a symbol of perfection. The delicious combination of sweet or savoury filling and flaky pastry at its best when round is known as “pie.” The magic number that tells us everything we need to know about a circle is called “pi.” Coincidence? I think not. Perhaps this relationship between …
Bread and Butter
Here are some good bread recipes from the 1950s. Cranberry Bread 2 cups of sifted flour 1 cup sugar 1½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt ½ tsp baking soda ¼ cup butter 1 beaten egg 1 tsp grated orange peel ¾ cup orange juice 1½ cups light raisins 1½ cups fresh chopped cranberries Sift …
Don’t Ignore that Gut Feeling
“Were the gut solely responsible for transporting food and producing the occasional burp, such a sophisticated nervous system would be an odd waste of energy. Nobody would create such a neural network just to enable us to break wind. There must be more to it than that.” –an excerpt from Gut: The Inside Story of …
A Home Away From Home
Stepping into Johnson’s Crossing Lodge nestled off the Alaska Highway at historic Mile 836 feels more like walking into your mom’s living room than a highway lodge. Vintage tins and rusted relics line the shelves overtop a cozy room with tables and chairs. A table top is scattered with hundreds of puzzle pieces waiting to …
Happy Appies
Winter is the time for socializing around the wood-stove at the cabin or just in the living room at home. We all want to be warm and welcoming, but when people “just drop by” we get nervous about what we can feed them as far as snacks and appetizers are concerned. Certainly there are lots …
Growing in the Dark
I was reminded of the importance of seedling density as I wandered away from my usual mung beans and lentils into tiny seed territory recently. While I do enjoy the little sprouts – alfalfas and mustards and the like – I normally can’t be bothered when I am quite satisfied with what I see as …
The Best Trend in Wine
This is a wine trend that anyone could enthusiastically embrace – wine and chips! Planning a casual night of watching a show or reading by the fire welcomes a glass of wine and a little snack into the evening. But the snack suggestions with wine are often fussy and complicated. Hard-to-find ingredients and instructions that …
For the Love of Tomatoes
Allow me take you back to some 65 years to a recipe dated in my mother’s hand written book as 1951. That was a memorable year for me as I had waited patiently for years to reach 18, so I could join the Air Force without my parent’s consent. Over the years I had six …
From the Catch to the Table
For those who don’t like the taste of fish, the reason is because of the lack of proper handling of the fish from the time it is caught to the minute it is served. It might come as a surprise to some, but a fish starts to deteriorate the minute it is hooked. More often …
Old Time Meat Dishes
Allow me to take you back to 1950s when we cooked in a specific way. At a time when we still did not rely on canned goods and most items came fresh from the garden. The following is an example of such. 1950 Meat Pie with Cheese Pastry Top Brown a ½ pound of cubed …
Tools of the Trade
You know that thing you’ve had for years and haven’t been quite willing to part with, though you haven’t yet discovered its particular niche? Mine is a small hand-crank cast iron meat grinder, and the niche has been found. Two in fact, in the disparate realms of ferments and ice-cream. I’ve been on a pretty …
Staying Eczema-free this Winter
For sufferers of eczema, the winter can be an especially uncomfortable time. The dry, overheated indoors and the harsh, cold outdoors can aggravate symptoms. Eczema, which is also called atopic dermatitis, is a condition that causes dry, thickened, itchy patches on the skin. Research points to it originating in the immune system. In those with …
Comfort food can be healthy
“It is really nice here,” says Virginie Hamel as she looks at the high ceilings and natural woods of the Meadow Lakes Golf Club chalet. “And a lot of people from town, too,” says Hamel. “I was amazed at the amount of support I got from the community; Whitehorse is cool like that.” When the …
Homemade Food for the Trail
Finally, it’s here! The season I’ve been waiting for, the season when each day invites a further excursion to extend the trail beyond yesterday’s stopping point. It’s ski season. I got out for my first ski this year on a visit down to Mount Lorne before Christmas, and the next shortly afterwards on my new …
The Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach to Colds and Flus
People often ask if Traditional Chinese Medicine can treat colds and flus. Although there’s no magic bullet when it comes to getting rid of those nasty winter viruses, Traditional Chinese Medicine can give us a unique perspective on how we treat them, reducing the severity, duration and frequency. Miso soup with lots of scallions – …
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Plant-Based Contemplations
If you think Mexican food, you might think meat. Sure, Mayan cuisine includes an exotic array of spices, herbs and plant-based delicacies- elote (corn on the cob often served with crema, chili powder, lime or cheese), tamales (pockets of corn wrapped in banana leaves and steamed), sopes (fried masa dough with beans and other toppings), …
(Hot) Water Water Everywhere (Iceland Age part 1)
Although Iceland has been getting a lot of press lately as a hot – metaphorically and geologically speaking – tourist destination, it hardly seems a likely go-to spot for an agricultural experience. That however is exactly what landed me in the middle of the blustery North Atlantic in October along with seven other Yukoners. We …
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Cast Iron: The Original Non-Stick Cookware Part 2
I have about 15 or so cast iron pots and pans with six or seven of them in constant use. The others, too good to pass by, are kept seasoned and see occasional use. At least one fry-pan is too big for regular use, but ideal for making breakfast for a crowd. It adds to …
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I’ve Got a Gut Healing About This
Hippocrates alluded to the gut as the source of all our ills, and Katherine Belisle, a health practitioner in Whitehorse, couldn’t agree more. Working in the relatively new field of functional nutrition she has been doggedly working to introduce the benefits of eating fermented foods to an increasingly willing audience. Functional nutrition differs from a …
Exercise May Eliminate the Harmful Effects of Overeating
As the season of overindulgence is upon us, binging and overeating becomes an almost daily occurrence. From cookies and treats at the office to endless dinners and potlucks, for the next month we will all likely be filling our bellies beyond their normal capacity. People who for 11 months of the year may eat well …
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Aisy Doodles, November 30, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Oh Sugar, Sugar, You Got Me Wanting You
That addictive white powdery stuff is in everything. From store-bought spice blends to fruit juice to ketchup to even vitamins, it’s everywhere and in much higher amounts than you might think. The average Canadian consumes about 88 pounds of sugar a year. Young people aged nine to 18 and men consume over 100 pounds a …
Big Game Cookery
With the hunting season upon us, it’s time for some special big game recipes. First of all, there is just about no part of a moose that you can’t eat and enjoy. What better to start with than Baked Moose Tongue. BAKED MOOSE TONGUE First prepare a special Raisin Sauce You will need: 1 cup …
Food is Medicine
Is your digestion slow? Feel cold all the time? Tired and achy? Low mood? Lack the energy to get through your day? If any of these symptoms are a problem for you and you’re struggling to feel well, no matter what you try, Chinese medicine and acupuncture might have the answer for you. You could be suffering the effects of Yukon’s long, dark, cold winters. But …
Loco for Mangoes
Perhaps my Yukon upbringing prevented me from eating mangoes during my formative years. Especially in the grateful, sticky chin kind of way that I eat mangoes now. It’s a graceful gorging of sorts. There could not be enough of the sweet stone fruit trucked North to satisfy my Mexican mango addiction. I’ve got it bad. It’s been …
Bordeaux vs Meritage
Picking up a new bottle of wine can be as difficult as cracking a secret code. What do all of these symbols and words mean? What mystical juice is hiding inside the bottle? At the end of the day, we just want it to be tasty – right? Let’s decode one of these mystery words: …
Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy
Being an adult is challenging. Eating well three times a day, every day, for an entire life is one of those things. Doing so while you are also responsible for feeding another being that is growing inside of you at an alarming rate – that’s a whole other level of challenging. If you happen to …
Pickling Salt and Rubber Gloves
I recently came into contact with a terrifying Yukon beast: Mus musculus, the house mouse. After the encounter, I contacted everyone I knew, in complete panic. Kosher and authentic sea salt will also work in place of pickling salt. Rubber gloves are handy things to have around, for cleaning up after mice or cutting up …
Cast Iron
Long before Teflon or other spray coatings were on your pots and pans, cast iron was easy to use and easy to clean. It’s been around for hundreds of years and although always heavy, was brought from Europe by the early settlers to North America. The large cauldrons and kettles, now no longer in use, …
A-moose-bouche
Savoury pies are ideal for cool weather and days that are getting shorter. Moose pairs beautifully with earthy mushrooms and Bonanza Brown ale by Yukon Brewing. But if you don’t have a bottle of Bonanza Brown and a pot of moose stew meat kicking around, then substitute any sort of nutty beer you’d like and …
Boost Your Bone Health
For most of our Canadian lives, we are told that lasting bone strength is a glass or two of milk away. This is reflected heavily in the Canada’s Food Guide, which acts as a foundation piece for nutrition and wellness in doctors’ offices, classrooms and even many kitchen tables. Commercials and other ads push hard …
L – Make Yourself at Home
I picked up my companion to go for lunch at Legends Smokehouse & Grill, located in the Yukon Inn. We were pleased to find it quite busy. The place has a rustic ambience with wooden tables at the front and raised, framed alcoves by the windows. When we entered many patrons looked up from their …
Pickled Rosemary Carrots
Bring on the cozy sweaters and pumpkin spice – it’s fall! My Facebook has been blowing up with harvest pictures: oversized squash, pounds of potatoes, and buckets of berries. I’ve also been seeing pictures of other people’s canning projects, which always inspires and motivates me to come up with new and exciting recipes. If you …
Trail Snacks: GORP and Fruit Leather
GORP, aka Good Old Reliable Protein, and fruit leather are can be bought. Quality varies depending on how much you pay. They’re both easy to make and satisfy hunger pangs. Kids can make them; it’s a good rainy day project. GORP Read store bought GORP for tips on what you will make at home. It …
Curry Cauliflower Pickles
When I was a kid, we had yellow curry powder in the house for exactly three dishes: curried rice with raisins, curried chicken steamed buns and these deliciously addictive curried crab puffs my parents would make for special occasions. Although very mild as far as heat level goes, the power of that spice has always …
Veganize Your Chili
Autumn is here. The Yukon experiences seasons differently than other parts of Canada do. Our southern friends won’t start gearing up for fall until the end of September, but here in the north this lovely season comes in mid-August. Currently the trees are ablaze with neon yellow – stretching as far as the eye can …
Eating for Endurance
What you eat and drink before a long run impacts your performance and your ability to recover, post race. If you’re looking to beat a previous time, or just finish, it’s important to focus on the fuel you are giving your body. Your body’s energy source I sometimes hear runners talk about the different macronutrients …
K – Come See Why People Line Up
Klondike Rib & Salmon is only open in the summer. Both tourists and locals alike flocking to the restaurant. It’s a welcoming place, from the steps up onto the cozy front deck and its patio tables, through the entrance foyer to the dining room, which was originally opened as a tent frame bakery, called MacMillan’s …
Whitehorse: The Edible City
At the downtown community garden in Whitehorse, a beekeeper tends to the newly built beehive in the fading evening light. Nearby, a gardener waters his small plot of potatoes, beans, and lettuce – a zucchini plant takes up a quarter of his raised bed box. Vegetables grow in plots on the other side of the …
Sampling the ‘challenge’
This is the second year that Northern Vision Development has challenged Whitehorse restaurants to make the best burger. This year six restaurants took the bait — The Gold Pan Saloon, the High Country Inn, The Cut Off, Earls, the Steele Street Restaurant and Lounge (which is the Westmark) and the Klondike Rib and Salmon. Six …
Train Your Brain to Hate Junk Food
Craving cookies, chips, ice cream, pizza, or some other delicious-tasting, high calorie food? You know these foods are not good for you, but it can take what feels like an unfathomable amount of willpower to stay away from them. If it seems that the cravings are beyond your control, it’s because they sometimes are. Junk …
That Wasn’t the Plan
I always forget the way this works, how fast things change here. In the hot, hot days of summer, I think it will last forever and then suddenly, one rainy July day, there it is. The chill, maybe a wool sweater, the thought of lighting a fire crosses your mind, and you notice the first …
Making Sangria While the Sun Shines
I bought a nectarine in Juneau a couple of weeks ago. It looked large and rosy and promising. The flesh was firm and yet it gave slightly under the pressure of my fingertips and I thought, “Wow, a real nectarine.” But when I cut into the fruit, the flesh was mealy and dry, lacking even …
Chunky Chipotle Salsa
What do robots dip in salsa? Microchips! Salsa is the Spanish and Italian word for ‘sauce’, and besides being incredibly easy to prepare (chop stuff up and mix together), it’s also flexible in its variation. Salsa can be made out of nearly any fruit or vegetable, to suit any sweet or savoury purpose. Chopped strawberries, …
Don’t Toss Those Tops
Backyard farmers and local food fans in the Yukon will undoubtedly be treated with an endless supply of nutrient-rich root vegetables. This season, when you buy or harvest your bunches, don’t toss the leafy greens that top them. The greens on beets, carrots and even turnips are full of vitamins, minerals, and flavour – just …
From the Ashes of A River Fail: Two Cocktails
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about heading off on a trip down the Wind River. I was concerned that our group, with all our goods and chattels for the 17-day journey, was going to be overweight for the flight to the put-in at McCluskey Lake. Well, turned out there was no need to …
Your Fibre-less Diet is Making You Allergic to Everything. Here’s Why.
You know those moments when you realize something awful? Your whole body goes cold as the dread sets in. Your eyes go wide and the panic rises from the pit of your stomach. Maybe it’s when you remember a moment from last night. Maybe it’s when you discover you just hit reply all. Maybe – …
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More than Just Coffee
I catch Heike Graf between the lunch rush hour at the Caribou Crossing Coffee and picking up her five year old daughter from school. “It was busy today,” Graf, the owner of the coffee shop in Carcross, says while wiping the counter and putting a tray of fresh pizza on the display. The smell of …
The Queen Bee of Klondike Rib & Salmon
The young woman is dancing like nobody is watching, lip syncing animatedly to Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” It is 2 p.m. on a Monday and Klondike Rib & Salmon is packed. Is that a server or a customer? “It could be either,” says Dona Novecosky, craning her head for a better look, a mischievous smile on …
Sherry, Baby
I developed an interest in food and restaurants early. In this I had a companion: my friend Sarah, who at sixteen was a year older than me and even keener than I to explore everything culinary the city of Toronto had to offer. In 1971 the mainstream Toronto restaurant scene was emerging from its love …
Know Thy Microclimate
I’ve put a lot of miles under me this spring between Victoria, B.C. and the Klondike Valley, and had thought I would be riding the green wave north. It is true that there were more leaves out on the Gulf Islands than there were when I arrived at home in Mount Lorne, but in between, …
J – Java Connection – ” It Immediately Felt Right”
It was a nice, sunny day, the day we decided to go to the Java Connection. It immediately felt right, with its friendly and vibrant atmosphere and the sense of community. At the front, tables of two and of four lined up in two rows to allow for ample room to visit and to …
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Cumin Mango Chutney
Having trouble finding uses for your abundant mango crops? Look no further than this exotic chutney, combining the bright, tropical flavour of mango with the warm, spicy-sweet tones of cumin. If you’ve never had it before, chutney is sweet and savoury, with a chunky, salsa-like texture. It’s a perfect addition to a cheese plate, a …
It is All Just About BBQ Jealousy?
When it comes right down to it, perhaps human evolution has all been for naught. My mind started drifting on that particular stream recently, as I watched my neighbour gleefully set up his patio furniture and lovingly polish his brand-new stainless steel barbecue. Several millennia ago, so the story goes, we oozed our way out …
Boost Your Workout the Tasty Way
With the season of marathons and relays upon us, your training plans may be kicking into high gear. And heading into competition – whether personal or with others – you may also be looking for an edge. Enter science. The science behind athletic performance has highlighted the benefit of nitric oxide to improve glucose uptake, …
Mai Tais at the Whistle Stop Pub
Most of us who came of age in the 70s have a Tiki experience somewhere in their cocktail history. Mine was in Jasper, Alberta in the winter of 1975, when I was working at Jasper Park Lodge. My pals and I celebrated every major event – birthday, break-up, good ski day or payday – with …
The Bee Diaries – April 2016
The gentle, warm summer breeze touched our faces as we stood watching the bees. The bees were just doing their thing: flying in and out of the hive, gathering pollen. Suddenly we noticed a large black cloud forming in the southwest. Within minutes of us spying that dark cloud the bees started flying back to the …
The CutOff Restaurant & Pub: Real food for real Yukoners
The CutOff Restaurant & Pub has really nice customers. On a Sunday night, looking at the crowd that has come in for the ever-changing weekly dinner special, you see a lot of long-time Yukoners. Real Yukoners who dress comfortably and laugh out loud. This is what you get when you open a new restaurant 20 …
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H – Hue Oasis – “A Host of Colourful Flavours”
The Hue Oasis Restaurant in the Skky Hotel was a pleasant surprise. My companion and I, even though neither of us had been there before, had high hopes and we were not disappointed. We entered the restaurant through the foyer of the hotel and picked up local magazines as we went in. We were seated …
Wine Jelly
My first try at making wine jelly occurred recently while visiting my hometown of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. My mom and I spent an afternoon together attempting a wine jelly and a cherry whisky jam. I say “attempting” because the results were less than ideal. This could have been due to a number of things: a …
Gluten-Free to be You and Me
I came to the Yukon in the spring of 2012 and that August I noticed a full-page story in the Yukon News saying that more North Americans have gluten problems than once thought. Having been diagnosed Celiac more than 30 years ago, I was curious about the availability of support and reference material for celiacs in …
MAKE A BETTER FIRE
Except above tree-line, good firewood is available in most places in the Yukon but a few days of rain can make pretty good wood too wet to get anything but thick smoke and little flame. A short time spent on preparation can help to get at least a good cooking fire anywhere. In other articles …
Healthy Ways to Soothe a Hangover
If you are indulging regularly in the good old Yukon Happy Hour, you may have met last night’s mean morning friend: The Hangover. He may be dependable, but he sure is a jerk. While the obvious advice may be that prevention is more effective than a cure, we all know that best intentions don’t always …
The Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned takes us right back to the beginning of the history of cocktails. In 1806 a reader wrote to the editor of The Balance and Columbian Repository, a newspaper published in Hudson, New York from 1801-1807, asking about the meaning of a new word: “cocktail.” The editor replied, “Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, …
Diggin’ It Old School
The first thing that people know about me is that I am a city girl. It’s not that I do not have an appreciation for country living, it’s just not something I could do on a daily basis. So, it should come to no surprise that when it comes to gardening I am quite the …
A Good Kind of Fat
Whenever I think of avocados, my mind immediately goes to a cartoon I saw circulating Twitter one day that shows an avocado running away from another avocado in tears. The one standing there looks guilty, and says, “I said, ‘You’re the good kind of fat!’” Aside from the cheeky jab at body image issues, the …
Winter: A Season for Change
“The more things change the more they stay the same” and “The only constant in life is change” are both very cliche and very true. In some sense farming and gardening means things are staying the same. We usually use the same plot of land and plant the same kinds of vegetables. We also raise …
Win the battle against cold and flu season
You’ve probably heard the sniffles and hacking and seen the dark circles beneath tired eyes. You’ve probably heard the murmurings around you in the café at the meeting table, really anywhere there are people. There is something wicked working its way through Whitehorse. It comes in the dark of night and knocks you out for …
Sake!
Yukon Spirits launched two whiskies while I was skiing in Japan. I have not tried either yet (one of them is sold out, I hear) and in Japan, where whisky has been winning international awards since 2001, I drank whisky only once, from a 200 ml bottle of 12-year-old single malt purchased at 7-11 for …
What We Eat When We Eat Alone
No, this is not a book of maps to the McDonald’s in your area. Or a guide to the best Chinese food takeout combinations (that’d be a short book – there are no bad combinations!). It also doesn’t contain coupons for chips, dip, and Oreos (note to the authors – possible improvement? For a second edition?). …
G – G&P Steakhouse – “Come As You Are for a Fine Evening Out”
It was time to go out for dinner and, since my regular companion was still on the high seas, I invited yet another friend. I was the first to arrive G&P Steakhouse on Main Street. As it was a Monday night, I hadn’t bothered to make reservations. I was lucky to get the last table. …
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Don’t Turnip Your Nose
“‘…but gracious me! It’s getting light! Good night, old Turnip-top, good-night!’ A nod, and he was gone.” So ends the sixth canto of Phantasmorgia by Lewis Carroll (better known for having written the topsy-turvy classic Alice in Wonderland), with the parting sally of a young phantom as he leaves the residence of the …
Hawaii in a Mason Jar
One thing I often notice about winter is the way it makes you really appreciate warmth. It feels great to get out of the cold, cuddle up under a blanket and enjoy a hot beverage while you jealously flick through pictures online of other people’s beachside holidays. I’ve lived in Yukon for almost a year …
Everybody Poops. Until They Don’t.
Here is a fun health test you can do at home. Measure out two tablespoons of whole sesame seeds and swallow them with water. Take note of the time and wait and see how long they take to make their way out. This length of time is known as you “transit time.” Timely elimination is …
Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot
It’s easy to distinguish what the latest food trends are when you see the latest creative potato chip flavours. I realize this sounds a little crazy, but let me explain. A recent trip to Superstore had me eyeing up the 60-cent bags of President’s Choice harissa hummus chips. This particular variety is in their “world …
Want to Try a New Restaurant?
In less than a year, Erin Loxam has found her way to the heart of the Yukon — through its stomach. While still a cheechako, she has visited more local restaurants than any sourdough, and has done us the good service of writing about her dining experiences on her blog All Yukon Eat. When she moved …
The Anti Stress Diet
Stress, and your body’s response to it, is inevitable. When it happens in small, infrequent amounts, it can even be a helpful and necessary function of your brain and body. You are hardwired to respond to dangerous situations – like seeing a bear – in a way that prepares you physically and mentally for a …
Fusion of fun and authenticity
A weary traveller can be forgiven for expecting typical food in a highway restaurant, even in a nice place like the Skky Hotel in Whitehorse. Instead, at the Hue Oasis Asian Fusion Restaurant and Bar, they find a passionate dedication to South Asian cuisine in an elegant and warm atmosphere. Heavy cherry-wood chairs sit upon …
E – Earls – “A Cozy Meal in a Busy Place”
It was a beautiful sunny day when we went for lunch at Earls Restaurant. We agreed to meet there at 1 o’clock, but I arrived a bit late. I waited in the lovely broad foyer, wondering if we were eating in the restaurant or the lounge. Either one looked welcoming. The waiter came to …
The Healthy Side of Chocolate
While turning chocolate into a core food group is not the healthiest of ideas, eating it in moderation – and in its pure cacao form – can be a good thing.
Raspberry Ultimatum
At the beginning of January I set myself the task, for 2016, of clearing the cupboard of experimental aquavits, infused spirits and liqueurs. A task that was easier set than done, especially when the experimental beverage, put up with such hope and optimism two years before, turns out to be nasty and medicinal-tasting. Such was the …
Is Winter Really That Wicked?
Yukoners are no stranger to harsh winters. However, we don’t mind it as we are used to the snow and the cold and we’ve found a way to adapt ourselves to this chilly side of mother nature. For the cigar company CAO they decided to capture the essence of winter in the form of a …
D – The Deli – “Euro-mazing”
The minute you walk into The Deli at Yukon Meat and Sausage you know you are in a special environment. The place simply smells like, well, like Europe. The shelves are stocked with delightful offerings from Germany, from Holland, from Denmark, from England. Many of the items are imported directly from overseas, but Yukon Meat …
Keep food costs down as prices go up
If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to budget better and save money, the rising cost of food will make it a tough one to keep. After increasing an average of three per cent in 2015, food prices are expected to continue to rise in 2016. The Food Institute of the University of Guelph …
Taking Stock
In Scottish households it’s a New Year’s tradition to scour the house clean on December 31st to prepare for the coming year. My household has a fair whack of Scots’ influence, and I will say we passed the vacuum over the rugs on the 31st, but it wasn’t until January 3rd, when I broke a …
Chicken and Egg
Smooth and brown, the eggs slip through the machine where they are held up one at a time to the light. The light shines through the shells and illuminates the interior of the egg and then the machine moves the egg down the light so the next egg can be inspected. This process, called candling, …
Healthy resolutions you can keep
Some of the most common resolutions made in the New Year are about health. Almost 70 per cent of consumers surveyed by Nielsen in 2015 had made resolutions focused on staying fit, healthy, and svelte. Of course, the most commonly broken and failed resolutions are also those about health. Perhaps this is not surprising. How …
Punch
A familiar sight at many a gathering during the holiday season is the punch bowl, ranging in formality from fine, etched crystal to battered salad bowl, filled to the brim with a fruity, bubbly concoction, set on a tablecloth stained here and there by the berries that slipped ‘twixt cup and lip and surrounded by …
C – The CLAIM – “What’s Your ‘Delicious?”
We were excited to go to The Chocolate Claim. We knew it was popular with the lunchtime crowd, so we opted to meet at 1 p.m. and to bring along two friends to reserve a table. Turned out to be a good move. My companion and I got in line while our friends headed to …
Jamaican Baked Bananas for Christmas
Delicate and fine, the American Beauty Rose china service was surrounded by gleaming silver cutlery, platters and serving bowls passed down through family generations. All set on crisp, freshly ironed linen tablecloths, the dining room was ready for royalty. I was 10 years old. A working class Caucasian kid on a mixed family street in …
Stay Healthy in Old Age with Vitamin D
Until December 21, the days will continue to get shorter. The light will be limited and far from adequate to produce Vitamin D, even in those who manage to expose their skin to the sunniest parts of the day. According to a Statistics Canada report called Vitamin D Blood Levels of Canadians, 40 per cent …
Cooler Tips
These days the word “cooler” can mean a pre-mixed alcoholic beverage, but it’s also the name of an insulated box to keep your food and drinks cool. Coolers come in various shapes, sizes and prices. A really large one seems like a good idea until you try to lift and carry it after it has …
Working for Free: Gaining so Much
There was a time in my life when my father called me a professional volunteer. Working for a handsome wage was much less of a priority in my youth. It started with summer camps, and continued to take me all over the world to share pieces of myself with others; yet, I would argue I …
Tea Time
Named one the hottest food trends of 2015 by Canada’s Hospitality Business Magazine, Canadians are drinking almost 10 billion cups of tea each year. Second only to water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world, and with good reason. With endless combinations of healthful herbs, spices, and fruits, there is a tea to …
Old Friends and Family Recipes
When my Mom and Dad were a young couple living on Avenue Road in Toronto their local watering hole was the rooftop bar at the Park Plaza Hotel, one of Toronto’s most elegant drinking spots. Mom and her best friend, who lived in the same building, would hop on the Avenue Road streetcar and ride …
Putting an End to Picky Eating
If you have a picky eater at home, you are not alone. For many parents, dinner time can be a battle. Between changing tastes and an unwillingness to eat different foods and different textures, getting your kids to eat a healthy, balanced diet can be a challenge. Fortunately, a recent study offers help that could …
A Little Bit of Brazil
Different types of tobacco are grown throughout the beautiful country of Brazil – each with its own special taste. The good people at the CAO cigar company thought this was something worth commemorating. Thus, the CAO Brazilia cigar was created. In recent years, CAO created Brazilia Carnivale as a follow up. Unfortunately, I was not …
Tonic or toxin?
Ah, arnica. Renowned for its power to soothe sore muscles, sprains and bruises, and a common gateway drug into the wonderful world of the do-it-yourself apothecary. Most often it is in the form of arnica oil, where the bright yellow flower heads are wilted and then used to infuse oil that can be used in …
Boost Your Health with Flax
If you’re not eating flax every day, it’s time to start. While it may not seem like the sexiest superfood in its tiny boring brown package, its many nutritional superpowers will soon have you thinking otherwise. High in fibre, omega-3’s, and lignans, just two to four tablespoons of ground flax a day can offer huge …
Switching Up the Drinks Menu
In the world of beverages, everything old is new again. The cocktail revival of recent years has been matched by a revival of interest in old-fashioned, non-alcoholic refreshers. On food blogs, in restaurants and in modern cookbooks you’ll find recipes for herb or fruit-infused waters, fruit and vinegar combinations like shrub or schwitzel, fermented drinks …
Hobgoblins, Skulls, and Warlocks
While the chip and candy industry churns out boxes of treats for the kids, there lies another type of treat adults can enjoy at Halloween: creepy cigars. With names like Insidious, Exorcist, and Warlock, there is a niche market of cigars with freaky name. First, the cigar called Insidious. Line this cigar up with the …
A Buffet of Freaky Treats
Halloween parties for the mature crowd can’t simply offer a feast of candy and chips. We have issues such as cholesterol, blood pressure and the adult palate to keep in mind. Luckily, there are many healthy party snacks that can be served. Here are some ideas. For a sophisticated-but-creepy appetizer try black caviar. Grab some …
Dancing for Doggies
On Oct 31st Whitehorse residents will have a chance to work up a sweat to some sweet electronica tunes at the second annual Masq dance party. There will be a full bar, photo booth, catering, music and a costume contest with prizes from Air North, Earl’s and Yukon Brewing. The event is a fundraiser for …
Fine Wine Starts in the Garage
There’s at least one person for whom the drought in California has a silver lining. Luigi Zanasi is hoping for some magic to come out of his garage this year, thanks to the intense wine grapes he believes the California drought has produced. An economist by profession, and an enthusiastic gardener, Zanasi has been making …
Get Your Greens
Whet your appetite for lunch on Lillian Loponen’s new canvases at the Yukon College Hilltop Bistro this fall. The show, called Touch of Green: Enchanted Places, explores the colour green in washes and gestural brushstrokes. The show will be on display at the College’s fine dining lunch restaurant until mid December. Jacqueline Bedard, the Director …
Giving Churchill’s Brand a Try
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was known for being an avid cigar smoker. Among his favourite brands were Romeo and Juliet, and Camacho. In fact, six years ago, a Camacho cigar that belonged to Churchill was estimated to be worth between $1,500- $,2200 by the auction company Christie’s. The company Camacho Cigars was founded in …
Better Together
The Potluck Community Co-op is ready for its next step. For the past year and a half the Potluck, focused on ‘good food’ beginning with local and organic, has run a weekly pop-up shop with online ordering. While ‘breaking even’ according to board member Bernie Hoeschele, the little business has been challenged by wanting to …
Five Steps to a Healthier Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has long been my favourite holiday. Surrounded by friends, family, and food, without the stress that bigger holidays like Christmas bring, what’s not to love? Traditionally a celebration of the season’s harvest, Thanksgiving is a holiday of abundance. While that abundance is something to be grateful for, it can also lead to food hangovers …
Extraneous Bananas
When your friend blows into town, you hang onto your hat and lay on the groceries, especially the Stolichnaya Vodka, or “Stoli”, as he calls it. Your friend is a Martini drinker, and particular about his cocktail of choice. He likes a dry Martini, so the vermouth must be dispensed via a tiny spray bottle. …
Here’s a tip: spruce makes for a great cocktail
Like so many Yukoners during this crazy low-bush cranberry season, I’m clearing out the freezer to make room for berries. In the process I’ve unearthed several treasures: 10 kilos of pork bones, 3 duck carcasses, 2 whole Taku River sockeye, undated, and best of all, 3 bags of spruce tips, harvested in 2014, that I’d …
Romeo vs Alec
We may never know what started the infamous feud between Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets, but I can tell you the nature of the feud between Romeo and Alec. The Romeo I refer to is the cigar brand Romeo y Julieta, and Mr. Alec hails from the Alec Bradley Cigar Company in America. Alec Bradley has …
Curing without killing
Nitrates, nitrites, nitrous… makes me think of big industrial fertiliser companies, laughing gas, and that wheee sound the cars in videogames used to make when you gave them an extra burst of speed. They also raise a flag as something to be consumed in moderation, or not at all, because of various reports over the …
Cuisine for a cause
Off the southeast coast of Africa lies the beautiful island of Madagascar. While the children’s Madagascar movies paint a nice scenic picture of the island, there are serious issues taking place. Rachelle Czerwinski was born and raised in the northwestern region of Madagascar and now lives in Vancouver. She left the country in 1984 when …
Crabapples and Calvados
It’s August 31 and the snow is halfway down Gray Mountain. In downtown Whitehorse the leaves are still on the trees and many of them are green. This morning I talked to my sister, who lives in Parksville but used to live here, and she said that in 1992, the snow fell on September 13 …
It’s Been a Slice
If you’ve walked past Bocelli’s Pizzeria lately, you may have seen a small sign in the window advertising its farewell. The local makers of saucy, thincrust Italian-style deliciousness are closing their doors. On Friday, August 28, the pizza oven will fire for the last time. Bocelli’s has been at the corner of 4th Avenue and …
Unjunk your junk food…
Whether it’s to get you to your next meal, for the kids to fuel up between their many activities or just for a tasty treat, snacks are central to our daily eating. With the growing number of snacks and treats that can be bought at the grocery and health food store, it’s definitely more convenient …
The Appropriate Road Trip Beverage Strategy
Key to the success of the summer road trip is an assortment of the beverages appropriate to each occasion, and the necessary equipment to concoct and serve them. Take this morning, for instance I am sitting on a camp chair outside Pinedale Auto Wreckers on the outskirts of Prince George, British Columbia. The fence beside …
The Darker Side
Yes, TV and movies in colour are enjoyable and entertaining, but there is something about black-and-white film that sparks intrigue – especially the genre known as film noir. In my opinion, the acting in these films was perfect. You didn’t have to endure a team of B-list actors, cheesy plots, or special effects gone wrong. …
Dem Bones
Pike are notorious for being boney. As a child, I developed an intense fear of choking on fish bones. Not from any horrendous experience, but probably from my little-girl brain taking an off-hand comment from my mum to be careful way too seriously. Don’t get me wrong, choking isn’t any fun, but it doesn’t mean …
Not Just Heineken
I recently re-visited Holland, the country I grew up in. I have learned over the years, in speaking to fellow ‘Dutches’, that how I experienced things in my childhood – or, for that matter, when I go back to the place I spent my childhood – these are just my experiences, not necessarily something uniquely …
Black Bengal: the land of milk and honey
Yes, the promised land was intended for Moses and the Hebrews. But that was in the BC era. In the AD era, CAO, a Nashvillebased cigar house, gave way to Black, a promised land in itself. CAO started out in 1968 as a pipe making factory. In 1995 it went into the cigar business, and …
Chewing the Fat
Dietary fat. Few issues in the world of healthy eating spark as much debate. While some stay away from it, others put tablespoons of butter in coffee. Over the past few decades, we, as a culture, have been on and off with fat more times than most of us were with our high school sweethearts. …
Hotdog Destiny
On July 4 my family headed to Skagway for the Independence Day celebration. Since I was about to write a piece for the WUY Hot Dog Issue, I thought, “What a great way to sample the Americana hot dog culture and stuff myself with delicious mystery meat.” We arrived just in time to catch the …
Love Your Liver
We usually think of our liver in relation to alcohol, but in reality its relationship to our health is much more complex. The liver is a living organ that processes and filters almost everything that goes into our bodies. Every day we are bombarded with toxins that have the potential to damage our body. These …
An Orange Dog
National Hot Dog Day approaches on July 23. Those who celebrate will most likely be found grilling hot dogs on the barbeque or over a fire. Die-hard hot dog lovers may opt to make their own. In the Yukon there are opportunities to experiment with local game recipes. Regardless of what you use to make …
Bitter Lessons and Sweet Memories
Gin is the quintessential summer spirit, especially for those of us who live above the 49th parallel. Rum, tequila, and bourbon more properly belong to the south, evoking sea and sand and dreamy afternoons under the liveoak tree. Gin, however, was invented in the Northern Hemisphere, first appearing in Holland in the 17th Century and …
Alligator’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese
The grilled cheese sandwich was the very first dish I ever cooked by myself. I was about eight-years-old and barely able to see over the stove, but that didn’t matter, I made it perfect. The grilled cheese is in my blood, not literally of course or I’d have a fairly serious situation on my hands. …
The Condiment that Some Take For Granted, and that Others are Really Into
Mustard. It calls to mind sausages, one side of the inside of a sandwich (the meat side), pretzels, Dijon, grainy, spicy, Germany, France, omnipresent condiment, pestle and mortar, seeds, curry, and for some reason, fine beer. But Saskatchewan? No. Roslyn Woodcock recently learned that 90 per cent of the world’s mustard is grown in Canada, …
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Your Garbage is Better than Mine
“Wow, you found a gold mine!” This was a recent Wednesday, around 11:37 a.m. My co-workers and I answered the call from the City of Whitehorse to spend one hour picking up garbage around our worksite. This was the “let’s go make Whitehorse beautiful” call of duty. There was no lack of junk to pick …
A Tale of Two Gardens
A Whitehorse friend recently told me about a useful book called The Gin and Tonic Gardener, by Janice Wells, a gardener and newspaper columnist in St. John’s, whose thesis is there is no gardening problem so large that it cannot be solved by a gin and tonic in a deck chair. Gardens, she posits, should …
Freezing Fish
Over the years a few people have told me that due to a loss of flavour, they do not freeze fish and only eat them fresh. Certainly a well cared for fresh fish has a slight flavour edge on one that’s been frozen, but not enough difference to avoid freezing your catch. For most of …
That’s a wrap
Arriving home after time away, without stopping by the grocery store, may seem overly optimistic, but I was rewarded by finding the freezer just as I had left it. While the remnants of last year’s harvest are certainly dwindling, there is plenty to keep me going as the new crops begin to poke their heads …
Cocktail Hour on the Tsirku Glacier
I first encountered Campari in 1980 at a hotel bar on Alonissos, a small island in the North Sporades group of islands in the Aegean sea, halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki. Camparisoda was the favourite beverage of a group of northern Italians who returned to the island year after year, and it soon caught on …
Learning from the Locals
Returning home after traveling can bring culture shock that’s just as discombobulating as that experienced when heading off to the far side of the globe. I’m learning that staging the return helps ease the transitions of climate and jet lag, as well as culture. One of my main reasons for traveling is the fresh perspective …
The Emperor and Me
Peep this — the word cigar comes from the Latin word cicala, which means “large insect”. When the Spanish started discovering cigars in the 1700s, they turned cicala into cigarra, since cigars resembled the shape of a cicala. The French put their spin on it and called it cigare, and by the 1800s the English …
Bourbon and Words to Live By
On a sunny Saturday a few weeks ago I joined 70 other curious souls at a bourbon tasting and barbecue cohosted by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce and the Yukon Liquor Corporation. Seventeen different fine and rare bourbons were set up at three tasting stations in Waterfront Station, while a long table of crispy chicken …
The Thai Box
Guess what I did today? I ate Thai Food. Coconut rice! Pad Thai! And I didn’t even have to go to Skagway. All I did was walk along the river to Rotary Peace Park, where a little red trailer was serving a small selection of the food I’ve missed since moving here. It’s called the …
Heavenly Tastes Paired With a Devil’s Brew
What’s Up Yukon’s editorial staff reminds you that tobacco can be harmful in all its forms. Mark Twain once said, “If I cannot drink bourbon and smoke cigars in heaven, I shall not go.” Ah yes, there is something about that pairing that sends connoisseurs into a dream world. Today I will explore this world. …
Inspirational Cocktails in New York City
There was fog hugging the ground at La Guardia Airport. Flights had been cancelled all day. My companions and I sat in Ottawa, checking the board and watching our fl ight get delayed. We sipped Pinot Grigio. We ate nachos. Finally, finally, we boarded our plane. Two of us were supposed to be in New …
Serving dinner by the truckload
There is the story of an ice cream shack in Carcross that had no ice cream for the weekend. So, an employee of G-P Distributing put foam insulation in the back of her car and made the 90-minute round trip to stock up the freezer. That’s an amazing story to anyone but Kyle and Tyler …
Im-mead-iate Satisfaction
The title is a misnomer. Perhaps it is ironic, but I’m not literary enough to remember the nuances of such terms. At any rate, it is inaccurate. The moose ribs I cooked up last week were anything but fast food, and that’s one of the reasons they were so good. The cooking itself took time (ten …
Learning As I Go
In an interview, Bob Weir, rhythm guitarist for the Grateful Dead, admitted somewhat sheepishly, that yes, it was a bit embarrassing learning how to play the slide guitar on stage. All his mistakes were out there for the audience to see. Judging by the success of the Grateful Dead’s live shows from the mid ‘60s …
Potatoes Grow Anywhere
Formerly the Ramada, now the Days Inn, sits at the edge of the Whitehorse industrial area. It’s parking lot and big-box-store land, the concrete jungle of our Northern capital. It’s windy and dusty and, according to Francis van Kessel, general manager at Days Inn, the perfect place to grow potatoes, carrots, beets, and maybe kale. …
The Tip of the Iceberg
Like those who attended the first Sex Pistols concert, I too like to take credit for discovering something revolutionary: the iceberg. In 1996, I attended Grade 9 at the now-defunct Christ the King Junior Secondary on Nisutlin Drive in Riverdale. As the days of spring took hold, it was not uncommon for me to walk …
How Farmer Friends Lead to Pretentious Wines
This is a story about ice wine, and we will get to it in a roundabout way. Recently my husband Hector forwarded me an email from the farmer who, last fall, had sold us half a pig, four chickens, and our Thanksgiving turkey. He and Hector have developed the kind of old-fashioned, collegial relationship between …
Cherries for the Delayed Win
Last holiday season I cajoled members of my family into forming teams and entering a contest, invented by me, entitled, “The First Annual Shake-off, Stiroff Cocktail Competition,” to be held on Christmas day just prior to dinner. My 85-year-old mother agreed to be the judge. There were many things wrong with this idea. First of …
Bailey’s
It may not be a bar where everybody knows your name, but they sure as heck have seen you shoveling your driveway. It’s a neighbourhood pub. Its busiest nights are between Monday and Friday as Porter Creek welcomes home its residents after a long day of work. And Bailey’s Pub and Grill may not be …
Shakespeare Re-told: Macbeth
Food is a hardworking component of any television or film crew, serving as prop, symbol, characterization, and plot point for numerous scripts. Jerry Seinfeld has a cupboard full of cereal, and pizza-delivery on speed-dial, and when Seinfeld based an entire episode around waiting in line at a Chinese restaurant, it spurred a minor revolution in …
Nourishing The Heart
As the days lengthen and I embark on ever-longer forays out into the world, I remember wistfully the easy goal of foraging. Foraging itself is not effortless, but during the snowless seasons the decision to do so is. It is simply part of the reason I wander — both the carrot and stick that goad me onward. In the winter, it takes extra effort to get away …
Vacation’s Over, Kid
Recently my wife and I went to Mexico. Rather than bring our three-year-old daughter, Emily, we decided to fly my mother from Quebec to take care of her. Emily doesn’t get to see her grandmother too often so we knew a week with “Nana” would be one of spoiling, late nights, and treats. Which is fine. …
Keeping Hold Of That Festive Spirit
Is it really true, is another holiday season has come and gone? So much anticipation, preparation, anxiety or eagerness, and then once again time plays its disappearing trick and we find ourselves in January. Whether you love the Christmas/Chanukah/New Years/solstice season , or hate it, it seems to whizz by. Well , I refuse to …
Lewis’s Scotch Tablet
Lewis’s Scotch Tablet Ingredients • Pour into a greased tin or tray with at least a two-inch lip. • Score the top in a one-inch cube pattern when it has cooled a bit.This will make it easier to cut into cubes when completely cool.
Second Best Grilled-cheese Ever
Superlatives aside, I did just finish a pretty amazing sandwich. First, let me describe the creation that, to date, is the pinnacle of my gustatory experience in the realm of that iconic thing: the grilled-cheese sandwich. It was consumed perhaps a month ago, when I dropped in on my friend Lori, who is a dab …
Breaking Bread and Serving Tea
Most nights, I go somewhere in the hills behind Riverdale, buried in all my warm clothes, and there, standing still, I look at the sky for long hours, until the cold air makes its way through my layers. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, an opening in the clouds reveals dim lights over the northern horizon. Or, …
Big House Red
I was in the Yukon Liquor Corporation about six weeks ago, when I was delighted to make the acquaintance of an old friend. Looking for an interesting red, I saw a familiar label on an unfamiliar carton. On the bottom shelf of the American wines aisle, there stood an octagonal, blue and brown cardboard carton, …
Haines Junctions’ Baker Goes Old School
When Dave Thompson found out Boyd Campbell was selling Haines Junction’s Village Bakery and Deli at the end of last summer, Thompson didn’t immediately jump to take Campbell’s place. He wasn’t sure if it was worthwhile to continue his lifestyle of working every single day of the summer, just for six to seven months off …
Hard Work with a Sweet, Sweet Payoff
It took a five hour drive down the Klondike Highway, a 14 km uphill hike, four small breakdowns and three bleeding blisters, but when the smell of camp smoke and the sound of motors reached my senses, a wave of relief rolled over me. I made it in time for dinner at Uncle Berwyn’s Birch …
One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four…
It’s planting time and one of the last things we plant are potatoes. We put in all of our cold crops first because if there is a late frost the seeds of these plants and even the seedlings are able to deal with the cold stress better than a potato plant can. In fact, “seed” …
Of Course You’ll Stay for Dinner
You aren’t sorry for inviting them to stay, because they are all your kids’ best friends, but what can you make for dinner to satisfy a group that size? If you are a planner you’ll have many containers of spaghetti sauce, chili and stew in the freezer, but what if planning isn’t your strong suit? …
Exploring Good Service in Whitehorse
When I first travelled to Canada and the United States I was impressed with the service I got — from the smallest breakfast restaurant, to a fancy steakhouse. Among other things, I enjoyed being called “sweetie” and “honey,” by servers, and I found North Americans have higher standards than Germans. Back in Germany I told …
Spring Sprouts
“Spring has sprung,” cries my body as it soaks up the sun streaming through my window at two o’clock on a glorious March afternoon. It retracts the statement the following morning as I crouch, shivering to light the fire. But, ever hopeful, it repeats the whole affair each day, confident that soon, it will be …
Food Talks Explore Complex Relationships
Recently, there’s been more focus on our food — what is in it, and where it comes from. Living in the North, securing a steady supply of food is a topic in our food conversations. Between March 26 and 28 this conversation continues with the lecture series, Yukon Food and You – Food Talks, hosted …
Bison Hunt: On The Table 5/5
When serving bison, ideally the first meal is raved about. If not you’ll have difficulty serving the remaining 2300 pounds in the freezer.
Matching Wine to Cheese Fondue
I’m always interested whether when people choose the foods for dinner first, and then select accompanying wines, or vice versa. I use both methods. Several weekends ago my partner and I hosted a cheese fondue in honour of a friend’s birthday. The recipe called for a white wine to melt the cheese. We don’t really …
Bison Hunt: In The Kitchen 4/5
Nutrient comparison: fat per 100 grams of lean cooked meat: bison: 2.42 grams; choice beef: 10.15 grams; pork: 9.66 gram. Why we hunt Bison.
Some New Wines to Look For and Try
Since September there have been some good additions to the Yukon Liquor Corp. (YLC) shelves. October and November seem to be emerging as the wine tasting season in the Yukon. In the span of five weeks, I participated in, or organized, three events: the October Rotary festival in Whitehorse, the second annual tasting held by …
A Beeline for the Honey Brew
During my frequent beelines to the Fat Tug IPA and other craft beers at the Whitehorse Liquor Store, my eyes catch a glimpse of the solitary bottles of Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew beer, but then they move on. I’m not against honey or Fuller’s, but I do remember trying this beer years ago and deciding …
A Chicken and Egg Story
Last year our chickens stopped laying eggs. For the first time in a decade we had to buy eggs instead of selling them. The egg strike, as one of our customers called it, lasted five months. But by the time they started laying again, their replacements were already in the barn. The life of a …
Beer in China
I wanted to write something positive about drinking beer in China. After all, they are the world`s largest consumers of beer and a major hop-growing nation. They also have the fastest-growing beer market in the world. Their beer production doubled in the past decade to around 48-billion litres of beer per year. That’s about twenty …
Scottish Beer? Ay, Laddie.
The problem with being a great whiskey-producing nation like Scotland is that it becomes all you’re known for, Okay, there’s also bagpipes, haggis and Caber tossing. But Scottish beer? Do they even make beer in Scotland? Yes. McEwan’s Scotch Ale was the only Scottish beer I heard of growing up. It could be seen gathering …
Winter Gardening
Years ago I was asked by a Japanese helper what kinds of plants grew here in the winter. I laughed and said nothing grows, it is all frozen solid. She was amazed. In many places they rotate their crops based on the season. Heat-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers can be followed by crops that …
Thanksgiving in Haines
My friends and I spent Thanksgiving in Haines this year. We thought we would catch some fish, drink some beers and see some bears. Only one of those panned missions out. The fish weren’t jumping, or running, or whatever fish do. We saw a few dead coho on shore, but that was it. And we …
A Sexy Fall Surprise
I usually wait until Christmas to lurk around the Whitehorse liquor store in search of sexy new beer products, but September brought a surprise: Guinness Black Lager. Guinness has been throwing some heavy coin into advertising this new product. The U.S. commercials adopt the beautiful-people-cocktail-party-scene to portray the beer as a sleek, sophisticated drinking option. …
Yukon Harvest Time
I can’t believe it’s almost over. This summer was one of the best on record as far as gardening goes. We always had lots of produce to harvest and a sell at the markets. But the garden doesn’t stop producing just because the Fireweed Community Market is done for the season. In fact, there are …
Autumn Brings Renewed Interest in Chiantis
While we had an exceptional summer, part of me welcomes the changing leaves, grey cool days, slower pace, stars, and northern lights. This change of season has brought me back to our kitchen, making pasta, pizza and roast meats. And my partner and I have rediscovered the pleasure of Italian Chianti wines from Tuscany. We …
Technology is Not Always Good
We tend to think of technology in terms of the newest laptop or slimmest, Internet-capable phone. What is the connection between technology and food? Technology so inundates our society that we overlook what technology has done in the food system. We shop for the least-cost fuel, consuming it mindlessly. Just what do the words “food …
How Pure is Your Beer?
There are the purists who believe beer should be simple. The Bavarian Purity of Law of 1516, the famous Reinheitsgebot, stated that beer could only be made with water, malt (malted barley or malted wheat) and hops. Louis Pasteur wouldn’t discover yeast for a few hundred years. Some suggest the Reinheitsgebot was just designed to …
What’s in a Name?
A Fat Tug by any other name would be just as hoppy. But the name of your beer can entice or drive your average beer drinker away. I probably wouldn’t pick up a six pack of Camel Squirt if that beer even existed, but a bottle of the Belgian beer Verboden Vrucht (Forbidden Fruit) with …
Beer and Sport
It doesn’t have to be an epic battle between the forces of good and evil. I believe beer can live in a symbiotic relationship with athletic pursuits. It’s all about balance, expectations, pacing and choosing your sport wisely. The expats in Malay had it right — drinkers with a running problem. The Hash House Harriers …
Making something illegal that used to be legal is a tricky road to manoeuvre.
Making something illegal that used to be legal is a tricky road to manoeuvre. Opium? Sure, I understand. DDT? Makes sense. But making booze illegal after being freely produced and imbibed for hundreds of years in North America — what idiot dreamed that one up? Prohibition was heavily supported by the women of Canada and …
Making something illegal that used to be legal is a tricky road to manoeuvre. Read More »
Beer Memories: The good, the bad and the ugly
I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic about beer lately. I don’t remember my first beer but I do remember my first six pack — not a pretty story. I was 15 and went to a house party — a handful of teenagers hanging out drinking and watching an old horror movie called Q about a …
No Judgement. Really.
I’m not going to tell you what you should drink. I don’t care if you ferment raisins with brewers yeast in a garbage pail. I’m a laissez-faire kind of person. You can drink your Bud Light Lime, your Wildcat or your Pabst Blue Ribbon. You don’t have to be sheepish. Why would I care? Most …
Fundraising Fun avec Vin
About a year ago, I worked with Yukon Artists @ Work on a project called “Canvas Confidential,” a fundraiser to help Yukon artists if illness prevented them from working. As part of this event, we hosted a wine tasting, and had very specific criteria for the chosen wines. First, we had to order wines from …
An Evening of Delightful Beer Pairings
The number on my phone glared at me in ugly black digits: 2,020. My Fitness Pal app wasn’t being very friend-like, accusing me of eating over 2,000 calories in a single sitting. I undid the top button of my jeans and decided it was worth every bit of gut-distending discomfort. It’s not often you stumble …
A Good Wine to Serve with Moose
As Yukoners, one of the real treats we have is access to a broad selection of game meats. While I don’t hunt, I am lucky to have friends who have generously shared portions of their moose and caribou meat. I have been wondering what might be a good type of wine to serve with game …
700,000,000,000 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall (would take 220,000 years to sing)
We feel the need to make a few comments on the $700 billion subsidy that has been the big financial news in the US last month. We have a real hard time trying to get our heads around that number, 700 billion. It sure seems like a lot of zeros. Global beer production last year …
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Making Wine Without Getting Your Feet Dirty
As a wine drinker and (wine) lover, I was spoiled by the years that I lived in the United States. To this day, my recollection of the price ($5.99) we charged for Yellowtail Shiraz at the wine store I worked at keeps me from being able to swallow, and pay, the $14.85 asked for in …
Holiday Gift Ideas for Wine Lovers
Sometimes, finding that special gift for someone who is a wine lover seems like a daunting challenge, so I’d like to devote this article to some suggestions for Christmas gift ideas. First of all, though it’s a nice thought, don’t feel obliged to buy a bottle of wine for the wine lover on your list. …
Good Friends, Good Food and Good Wine
The best wine experiences that I have enjoyed have been dinners with friends, often under unexpected circumstances. There was a night in the mortuary of the English Cemetery in the middle of a traffic circle in Florence, Italy, where I drank wonderful, local Tuscan reds with an Anglican nun as we shared a potluck, candle-lit …
Closing out the Old Year and Ringing in the New!
As I reflect upon the approaching year end, I would like to thank you, the readers, for providing me with encouragement, enthusiasm and support for my articles. I hope that they have encouraged you to explore new wine territory and given you new ideas of wines to try. I look forward to continuing to taste …
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Consider an Italian For Your Own ‘House’ Wine
One of the things that I have been delighted to find, moving from the United States back to Canada, is that a much greater percentage of wine drinkers prefer red wine to white. And I find myself wondering, like many other observed behaviours, “Is this a Canadian thing or a Northern thing?” Regardless of the …
Feeding Spirits, Not Just Stomachs
The thing about chefs is that they can work almost anywhere. Because of this, cooking is an ideal job for the restless spirits among us. In a crowd known for its wanderlust, Gordon Parton is somewhat of an anomaly. Parton is the head chef at Gadzoosdaa Student Residence, where students from small towns live while …
Open-That-Bottle-of-Wine Night
For 10 years, living in the United States, I read the Wall Street Journal to keep on top of developments in the business world. But it was the Friday edition I looked forward to with true delight. Every Friday was, and continues to be, some of the best writing on wine that I have ever …
A Toast to New Pairings and Good Matches
I mentioned in one of my last articles, in 2008, that I am a big fan of red wines. I have found, to my delight, that there are far more of my fellow wine drinkers, here, who choose red wines over whites. I wondered if this was a Canadian thing or a Northern thing. Having …
IPAs explained
I’m an unapologetic hophead, and consider no beer too hoppy to drink. I love the constricting bitterness. I love the resiny, citrusy, nostril-doping snort of a good, hop-filled American-style India Pale Ale (IPA). I wasn’t always this way. If you handed me an Ice Fog IPA 20 years ago I would have pawned it off …
Opening That Bottle Again
I have a confession. After encouraging friends and readers to participate in Open that Bottle Night, I remembered I had committed to attend the Rotary Club banquet where I found myself sipping the only red offered, a Jackson Triggs Merlot ($8.75). It’s a passable food wine and I will admit to it being infinitely more …
What’s Bubbly Without the ‘Buzz’?
For some time, my editor has been urging me to explore the world of non-alcoholic wines and I have to admit that I put off his request, perhaps not being really sure how to approach the subject. Or perhaps it was just that, to me, as a wine drinker of 30-plus years, the whole concept …
Berliner Weisse: The Champagne of the Spree
My colleague, Don Murphy, recently visited Germany and before he left, I sweet-talked him into bringing me back a special beer. Several weeks and 18,000 kilometres later, he appeared in my office with the booty: a squat bottle of Berliner Weisse. I had read about this beer but never tasted it. Known as the Champagne …
Savoury Edible-Plant Gardening
Edible-plant gardening is a doubly exciting venture. We all know that food tastes best when it can be consumed soon after harvest. By growing edible plants in your windowsill, you take advantage of the fresh harvest at your finger tips. Herb gardening is a rewarding and useful experience. Consider experimenting with plant varieties not available …
Spanish wines? ¡Si!
I, and the fellow wine enthusiasts I know, seem to have wandered from country to country in the process of discovering wines. We have familiar territories and sometimes work up the courage to explore new lands. I grew up tasting French wines first and, later, Californian ones. In the 60s, when I was a child …
Wait a Second, That’s Not Beer
I like beer —anything heavier and I can easily overdo it. I just don’t have the pacing right. So when I was asked to check out the Whitehorse Fine Malt Society, I didn’t respond with my usual enthusiasm. After all, I still had some foggy residual effects from a rabid Robbie Burns scotch night a …
Sipping Rosé Wines for Spring
The return of the light and the steady drip drip drip of the snow melting has re-awakened my yearning for all that the Yukon has to offer us in our other, non-winter seasons. Last week, I stopped at the Liquor Corporation store to look for a couple of rosé wines (rosé meaning “pinkish”) to try …
Talk About Those ‘Craft-y’ Beer Drinkers
The renaissance of craft brewing in Canada all started with a single beer. We are not talking about the first bottle rolled out the door by Granville Island Brewing, in 1984. Nope, we are talking about that experience enjoyed by every dedicated craft beer drinker somewhere along the road … that time “the beer” set …
Craft Brew Paradise at the T&M
Andrea Pierce is a fiery creature. She is also a beer aficionado and the new face behind the bar at the Town and Mountain Lounge in Whitehorse. Pierce is responsible for the resurgence in popularity of the sleepy watering hole. The T&M lounge now has the best beer menu in town — hands down. Pierce …
Beer Packaging
Ah, sturdy and stout stubbies. Macro beer dribbling down your chin because of the bottle’s bad ergonomic design. I remember photos from the 1970s of my uncles with mo’s, long hairs, adidas shorts and Molson Canadian in stubby form. Cut to the 1980s where stubbies were essentially a third character in the Bob and Doug …
Kitchen Sink Wines
With the exception of New Years Eve, I think I drank two glasses of wine in January — not propitious behaviour for a wine writer. I even missed having something nice for my birthday, but I guess the flu followed by pneumonia is a decent excuse. I even managed to lose 10 pounds, which under …
U-Brew Basics
Not long after I met my partner I bought him a beer kit. This was in the mid-1990s, when microbreweries were starting to come into their own. I was still drinking Kokanee, but I would often pick up a six pack of Big Rock Traditional Ale as a diversion and because it was hip at …
Wine Indoors or Out
Two weekends ago, a friend and I drove up the road from Rabbits Foot Canyon, to Fish Lake, to take her dog for a walk. While the roads were mostly dry, there was still a good foot or two of snow scattered intermittently along the path that we walked. The sky was blue and the …
A Great Wine Match for Salmon
I suspect salmon and hospitality have been partners a long time in this part of the world. The salmon makes regular appearances in the artwork of the First Nations peoples all along the Yukon River and across the mountains to the BC Coast. I look at the old black and white photographs of the native …
Watching the Scale Ain’t Where I’m At
I can’t say I’m one who watches my weight. I mean, where’s it gonna go? (Zing!) I’ve had the same basic kind of body shape since hitting puberty. A slightly rotund body, finished off with stick arms and chicken legs. I ain’t no Mr. Universe, but at least I’ve had the same pant size for …
They’re Not Just Pretty (They taste great, too!)
One of the delights of owning a hobby greenhouse is that that there are many varieties of plants that can be grown in its warm, humid climate. Often we tend to think of growing mostly tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and that certainly was the case when we grew vegetables commercially. There are greenhouses that are dedicated …
They’re Not Just Pretty (They taste great, too!) Read More »
Pass the mint, please …
If you have just one little empty spot in your greenhouse, I would consider planting just one or two peppermint plants. Peppermint does grow outdoors, this is true, but it grows profusely in the greenhouse. I learned this by accident as for years I had planted peppermint outdoors and it did so-so. Mind you, our …
The Young at Heart Are Growing!
One of the delights of consulting and promoting gardening is that once in a while you stumble into on oasis that you did not know existed in Whitehorse. I was asked by our editor to check out what “The Seniors” up by Yukon College were doing, and when I eagerly drove up there recently and …
The Italian Connection
I guess when most of us think of Italian food, we think spaghetti and those old-school straw-covered flasks of Chianti. I am channelling that scene from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp where they slurp on opposite ends of the same pieces of spaghetti and then share the meatball. So when I spent 10 days in …
The Mysterious Widget
Guinness is peculiar. It tastes creamy and has a fine-textured head you just don’t find in most other beers. You can chalk that up to the presence of nitrogen. Most beers just contain carbon dioxide. If you cut open a can of Guinness pub draught, you will discover a plastic orb with a pinhole opening …
What’s ‘Fun’ in ‘Funky’
It’s full-on summer. Kids are out of school; Canada Day is past and every weekend from now until the end of August will be packed with the warm-weather activities we all love but have such a short time to enjoy. Seems I’m grilling every second or third evening (not that I mind) and looking for …
Well on my way to becoming a big ‘loser’ …
Crystal Light has become my new best friend. You see, you can take your mundane water right from the tap and, one powdery package later, you have one instant ticket to flavour country! Even as my two fingers scurry across the keyboard, my taste buds are enjoying a journey of tangerine goodness. I don’t usually …
‘Greening’ Your Greenhouse Garden
Approaching the last six to eight weeks of our active growing season, it’s time to take a critical look at your greenhouse.
What do you pair with muskrat?
I, like many wine enthusiasts, love the challenge of finding the right wine to pair with a meal. Many people start with this simple axiom: white wine with white meat; red wine with red meat – not a bad starting place as few things taste better than a citrusy Sauvignon Blanc with mussels, or a …
Growing Sweet Trees in the North
After a great deal of research, the University of Saskatchewan has developed cherry trees that are cold tolerant to -45. Ingrid Wilcox describes several of these varieties, the best known and most successful of which is the Evans Cherry Tree.
Winter Beer to Warm the Cockles
The weather outside is frightful but a beer could be delightful — even if it’s not the first drink that comes to mind after a brisk day in a wintery wonderland. Most people don’t crave beer after freezing their extremities. Hot chocolate with Baileys? Maybe. Hot toddy? Yes please. Most beer can’t transition from cold-and-carbonated …
Herbal Flavour Well-Preserved
With harvest in full swing, I am often asked for suggested uses of herbs other than drying or freezing. To enjoy your herbal harvest year-round, I like to keep a selection of herbal vinegars on hand. To make herbal vinegar, gather herbs early in the day before the sun has a chance to bake the …
Reds for a Gathering
It’s always fun to be on the lookout for new wines to try, and this past weekend gave me the opportunity to explore two tasty and moderately priced red wines from Italy. They come from less familiar areas of Italy, that nonetheless are making excellent wines. There’s a wonderful trend in wines from countries around …
Films That Make You Thirsty
Julia Child, the late, great American cookbook writer and chef, was profoundly moved by her first French meal when she and her husband arrived by ship, in Rouen, France, in November of 1948. She wrote: “We began our lunch with a half-dozen oysters on the half shell. Rouen is famous for its duck dishes, but, …
Pairing the Sweet with the Sweet
I had some friends out to my cabin this past weekend for a great fall dinner with pasta and several good Oregon pinot noirs to try with the main course. For dessert, one of my guests brought a wonderful, home-made Tiramisu. I recently read an article that called it “heaven in your mouth!” All those …
Gifts for Wine Lovers
As the Christmas and holiday season roll around, several friends have asked me for gift suggestions for the wine enthusiasts on their gift list. Without knowing the wine tastes of their enthusiast friends, I am hesitant to suggest a particular wine, but often suggest wine-related items that have caught my attention and are available locally. …
From the Middle East, to the Maritimes, to the Yukon
My eyes were closed as my teeth rested in the juicy, flavourful shawarma. It was beautifully spiced and juicy meat, wrapped in a warm pita along with lettuce, hummus, tomatoes and a homemade Tarator sauce. I was instantly transported back in time, 30 years, to Oromocto, New Brunswick. It is where I tasted my first …
From the Middle East, to the Maritimes, to the Yukon Read More »
The Little Grocery That Could [And Did]
Sometime near the end of October, I was making pumpkin soup with a friend of mine. There was one missing ingredient: fish sauce. We meticulously sifted through the shelves of a local grocery store, but came up empty-handed. We got the staff involved in the search – still nothing. Just before giving up, my friend …
A Toast to a ‘Sparkling Season’
With the drop in temperatures, the shorter days and the recent snowfall, I am reminded that we are headed into the holiday season. Few places give me more of that happy feeling, of the anticipation of Winter Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years … the whole stretch of holiday celebrations and events, than the …
Not just any ol’ sandwich
“It’s a meal.” “It’s a work of art.” I had never heard so much gushing over a sandwich. A sandwich. Its very creation began as a flirtation between meat and bread in the same meal until it was finally used as an edible plate. The Earl of Sandwich liked to play cribbage without getting his …
Wine Throughout the Year
As we race toward Christmas and the new year of promise that follows, I can’t help but reflect on the wonderful and poignant experiences that have transpired over these last 12 months. Post-Christmas, last year, began with a wonderful evening among friends at a cabin in Tagish, meeting and making new and special friends and …
Get Thee to the Brewery
I was lucky enough to “help” Rob Monk tap off a cask ale at Yukon Brewing a few weeks ago. Truth be told, there was a bit of spillage as the spigot flew from my hand, but Rob is quick on his feet and he deftly rectified the situation with minimal loss. The cask was …
A Happy Start To The Holidays in Dawson City
Christmas and New Year’s are fast approaching us here in the Yukon, and this weekend reminded me what a beautiful and magical place we live in. If Whitehorse was not beautiful enough, I just came home from driving 500 km through low-angle sun and fresh fallen snow to Dawson City. The Klondike Institute of Art …
Wine for a Winter’s Eve
So now the rich, velvety darkness of the Yukon winter has descended and the temperatures at my cabin have dropped below minus 20, several evenings. And yet, it is probably my favourite time of year here. The blue lights are strung in the trees along Main Street and are alight by 4 p.m., as the …
Considering the Glass … of Wine
I was introduced to a neighbour who is planing to open a restaurant and it got me thinking about wine glasses. The restaurant is expecting to serve red and white wine, something bubbly, and some port-style wines. This covers pretty much the range that any basic wine drinker might expect to taste at home. It …
Special Wines for a Special Night
Several weeks ago, I mentioned OTBN, or “Open That Bottle Night”; on Saturday, Feb. 27, I had a small dinner at my cabin to celebrate it. Many of us have a special bottle that we have bought, or been given, and saved for a special occasion; so the intent of the evening was to gather …
Thai Food: A Delightful Challenge
Last Saturday evening, a friend of mine invited me and several of my co-workers to dinner at her cozy little apartment. My friend is an artist, and her work and her exploratory nature have taken her all over the Pacific Rim. Along the way she washed dishes in tiny island restaurants, trading her scrubbing skills …
Two Chilean Reds and One Surprise Ending
Sometimes you set out to explore one thing, and end up discovering something completely different. Such was the case, recently, and I wanted to share what I found. I had been thinking that I have not devoted enough time to getting to know South American wines, and felt that an article on those might be …
Wine Ephemera
Our copyeditor for What’s Up Yukon recently sent an e-mail to me, where she related that she had stumbled across an alternate definition for the word “Methuselah”. She cited the online dictionary where it said: Methuselah PRONUNCIATION: (meh-THOO-zuh-luh) MEANING: noun: 1. An extremely old man. 2. An over-sized wine bottle holding approximately six litres. ETYMOLOGY: …
A Bold, Brassy White – Organic, Too
Over the coming months, I hope to explore some new wines that I have not tried before, and also make a concerted effort to look at wines by country. A recent dinner I had with friends in Tagish was the perfect opportunity to explore some wines from Chile. When invited to dinner, I always ask …
In Search of a “Local-ish” Organic Red
I noticed, when I worked as a wine merchant, that wine enthusiasts love a challenge. Occasionally a customer would come into the store, and relate a menu he or she was planning for a dinner, and ask for advice about wines to serve. Invariably, two or three of us would huddle, pose more questions of …
A Pre-Harvest Harvest
Whenever the beginning of August rolls around, I think more of harvesting the fruits of my gardening than the actual gardening. And harvesting has been the in progress for a couple of weeks already. The Swiss Chard has been cut and has re-grown twice now. I just trim the upper leaves leaving about 15 centimetres …
Korean food: ‘different’ is good
Running a restaurant in a hotel comes with one priority: good food to help guests start their day. And, remember, guests come from all over the world, so the food can’t be too “out there” and the staples need to be covered: eggs and burgers. But many hotel restaurants can’t survive on business from just …
The Ideal Wine Collection?
As I mentioned in my last article, I have been invited to develop a wine list for a restaurant that a neighbour of mine plans to open in the next four to six weeks. I was interested, and flattered, that she wanted my input. It also occurred to me that if a reader wanted to …
Know Your Tomato
Did you know that banana peels and eggshells help to make your tomatoes grow? When buried in the bottom of a planter or spread around the roots of your tomato plants as you transplant them into the greenhouse, fresh banana peels act as slow-release fertilizer providing potassium and trace elements. The peels should be cut …
Legado Munoz: A Terrific Spanish Red
We’re plunging into the winter and holiday season at full tilt and for me this is a season of getting together with friends for dinner and searching out new and more robust wines to bring to the table. The falling snow outside makes me yearn for strong tasting reds to bring warmth and light to …
“Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrivé” (Almost)
By the time this article is in print, we will be on the cusp of the Beaujolais Nouveau season. Each year I look forward to the experience and wait impatiently for this new French wine to arrive on the shelves as soon as possible after the third Thursday of November. Each year the Georges Duboeuf …
Get Your Greenhouse Ready
Hey, Yukon! It’s gardening time! Time to get that greenhouse ready! If your greenhouse has a supplementary heating system, chances are you’ve already begun planting, and your greenhouse is up and running. For those people whose greenhouses lack a heating unit, now is the time to prepare the greenhouse and get it ready for those …
Monk-made Belgian Brews
I would like to write about a fabulous bar I went to in Whitehorse that served a wide selection of Belgian beer but, unfortunately, it doesn’t exist. Instead, I recently went to the Chambar Restaurant in downtown Vancouver and was greeted by one of the best beer menus in miles – all Belgian. Chambar is …
Eat Your (Northern) Broccoli!
This past September, I was privileged to attend the seventh annual Circumpolar Agricultural Conference in Alta, Norway. Alta lies just below the 70°N latitude, which makes it a bit farther north than Old Crow. The Circumpolar Agricultural Association (CAA) was founded in 1995 in response to the ideas created at the first Circumpolar Agricultural Conference, …
H2O 101
Now that we are almost at the end of June, I find my plants are growing very fast. I’ve already harvested the first of my Tumbler tomatoes at the end of May, as well as some of the chili peppers. Regarding peppers and cucumbers, I am harvesting the fruit on the smaller side thus giving …
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Due to some travelling adventures in Latin and South America, I was introduced to chili peppers in the last 10 years or so. Approaching the use of chili peppers cautiously, I did acquire a taste for them, enjoying their legendary heat as they added a jolt of stimulating flavour to food. Peppers range from spicy …
Wine and Wine Gift Ideas for the Holidays
As we are invited to holiday gatherings at friends’ homes and begin to realize that our runway for shopping for gifts is rapidly running out, I had a few suggestions for the wine lovers on your list. At this season, we are often dashing in to the liquor store for a bottle to bring to …
Tasting France’s Most Famous Wine
Now that the Yukon snows have finally arrived and the all-too-brief weeks of skating the magically bare icy surface of my lake are done, I am looking forward to short, early twilights leading into our the long winter nights. For me this is the time of year to reconnect with friends, sit over long dinners …