In Vancouver, regional cuisine has become a bit of a mantra -- and sometimes a mug's game -- with chefs rolling every conceivable cut of wild salmon into their favourite French recipes and declaring it Pacific Northwest fusion.
Raincity Grill was a pioneer in the local movement and remains one of the best at showcasing the bounty of British Columbia. Chef de cuisine Andrea Carlson is so committed to using regional ingredients, you won't even find lemons or olive oil in her kitchen.
Last week, during the darkest depths of the local growing season, Carlson leaped several steps forward (160.93 kilometres to be exact) with the introduction of her new 100 Mile Tasting Menu, using only foods -- and wine -- that are grown, raised or processed within a 100-mile radius of the restaurant.
The five-course menu, unveiled to customers last Saturday, was inspired by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon. The two Vancouver journalists have been chronicling their year of living on a 100-mile diet in a series of articles published in The Tyee ( ) that are now being turned into a book.
Smith and MacKinnon had some sound ethical motivations for trying the diet: According to the World Watch Institute, a Washington-based environmental research organization, the average American meal typically travels somewhere between 2,400 and 4,000 kilometres to get to the dinner table -- gobbling up 17 times more petroleum products than a meal using locally produced ingredients.
The challenge certainly hasn't been cheap or easy to accomplish. Smith and MacKinnon, once strict vegetarians, started eating fish.
Carlson, however, had an even more daunting challenge. She had to make the menu taste really darn good, or at least good enough to justify its price of $60 per person ($85 with wines).
Dinner starts off on a tasty note, with an amuse bouche of root-vegetable crisps (parsnips, sweet potato and sunchoke) that come with tomato chutney and preserved garlic tomatille for dipping.
Alas, there will be none of Carlson's famous flatbread. As Smith and MacKinnon discovered, locally sourced grains and flours are almost impossible to find. "I'm okay without flour," says Carlson. "But I'm a bit heartbroken about [the lack of]legumes and soy beans."
Considering that Carlson had already forged some unique relationships with local growers for her special fall menu (one sourced entirely from products grown in the Agassiz/Kent region of the Fraser Valley), she says the 100 Mile Menu was fairly simple to create -- or at least easier for her than it would be for the average consumer.
The Agassiz menu featured Bruce Swift's aquaponic Coho salmon, which he raises in land-based pens. The 100 Mile Menu uses his Coho roe as a zesty topping for Carlson's silky smooth Redonda Island oyster pannacotta.
Fish would seem a no-brainer, but it's not that simple. Of the 32 commercially available fish species in B.C. in 2004, only five (all salmon) were caught in the Strait of Georgia and mouth of the Fraser. Shellfish is far more plentiful in these parts.
Carlson makes use of Cortes Island honey mussels (a naturally occurring hybrid) that are just as sweet, although substantially smaller, than some of the local varieties I've tried before.
The menu also features sturgeon from a closed-containment farm in Sechelt. The fish is served with a Brussels sprouts and bacon sauté that is so delicious it will convert even the most die-hard Brussels sprouts hater. The bacon, made from a rare, heritage Berkshire breed of pork, comes from Sloping Hill Farm in Qualicum Beach. The restaurant bought an entire pig. It shows up again as roasted loin in the next course, with a soggy chestnut gnocchi that doesn't quite work.
Carlson had originally planned for an additional lamb course. Unfortunately, general manager and sommelier Brent Hayman couldn't find a full-bodied red wine big enough to match it. The Garry Oaks winery on Salt Spring Island makes a lush, Bordeaux-style blend, and the restaurant does carry it. But because the grapes were grown in the Okanagan, it didn't make the official menu. (The pork loin is paired with the Garry Oaks pinot noir).
Hayman admits that although he was initially skeptical about finding enough high-quality wines, the island vineyards came through. His suggested wine menu also includes a crisp pinot gris from Salt Spring Vineyards, the citrus Bacchus varietal from Chalet Estates on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula, a full-bodied chardonnay from Saturna and the divinely smooth Brandenburg No. 3 from Venturi Schulze Vineyards in Cobble Hill. This caramel-rich dessert wine is so yummy, the final course -- a red Bartlett pear carpaccio with hazelnuts and blue-cheese soufflé -- paled in comparison.
Water drinkers are out of luck unless they ask for it from the tap. Raincity's mineral water is trucked in from Miller Springs in Oliver, 258 miles away. They could have used Whistler Springs, but according to Hayman, Whistler doesn't have the right bottle. It's plastic.
The bottom line? Carlson is one of my favourite chefs in the city. The 100 Mile Menu, alas, isn't necessarily her tastiest. But given the limitations, I'd still recommend you go the extra mile to try it.
Raincity Grill is located at 1193 Denman St., 604-685-7337
Alexandra Gill