Some of you may know that we have challenged ourselves to hike/bike/walk/run 75km per week to combat all the sitting we'll be doing in the car. It’s a lofty goal, but we’re OK with aiming high. While we were in Nanaimo, BC, Lindsay and I went on quite the grueling hike and knocked at LEAST a solid 1km off of our weekly total. How did we accomplish all this, you ask? By ‘hiking’ the Nanaimo Bar Trail, a local guide to all the hots spots in Nanaimo for this exquisite Canadian treat.

As you may have guessed, the Nanaimo Bar, a popular sweet Canadian dessert, originated in the city of Nanaimo. In response to the city’s pride, Tourism Nanaimo's Chelsea Barr (yes, that's her real name) decided to create the the Nanaimo Bar Trail in 2010. With more added each year, it currently has 28 stops and includes various edible and inedible versions. Hikers can even buy soap and get a pedicure in this Canadian dessert theme.

We spent a couple of hours talking with Chelsea as she guided us through one 'section' of the trail. We enjoyed a variety of versions of the bar including:

•   A classic Nanaimo Bar from Perkins
•   A latte and cocktail from Modern Café
•   A deep fried Nanaimo Bar from Pirate Chips
•   A Nanaimo bartini from Acme Food Co
•   A gluten free version from Mon Petit Choux
•   Nanaimo Bar cheesecake from Minnoz Steak & Seafood

Deep Fried Nanaimo Bar from Pirate Chips

Everything was enjoyable, but the gluten-free version actually stood out most to us. It had a touch of cinnamon and the middle layer was almost mousse-like - a pleasant twist on a classic dessert.

Gluten Free, French Influenced Nanaimo Bar at Mon Petit Choux

The exact origin of the Nanaimo Bar is elusive and a much-debated topic. Chelsea explained that, according to the research of the Nanaimo museum, a similar recipe likely came over from England and through various trade exchanges ended up in the Nanaimo region. The first (known) published recipe of a dessert featuring the particular ingredients appeared in the 1952 Women’s Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook and was called the ‘chocolate square’. The first appearance of the title ‘Nanaimo Bar’ appeared in a 1953 Edith Adams column in the Vancouver Sun.

Nanaimo bartini from ACME Food Co — Nanaimo *bar*tini from ACME Food Co

In 1986, there was a town-wide contest in order to determine the ultimate Nanaimo Bar recipe. The contest was 4 weeks long and nearly 100 different variations of the bar were submitted. Joyce Hardcastle’s recipe was chosen, though this choice was a bit controversial because her recipe uses almonds instead of the locally available walnuts.

Nanaimo Bar Cheesecake at Minnoz Steak & Seafood

I highly recommend checking out some stops on the trail if you are in Nanaimo; it’s refreshing to see a city so fully embrace its food legacy. We were quite exhausted at the end of our trail, but that was likely due more to an immense sugar crash than to physical exertion.

Here is the recipe for the town’s chosen ‘ultimate’ recipe. If you’re a purist, you may want to substitute the chopped almonds for chopped walnuts:

**This post was submitted to The Canadian Food Experience Project in order to address this month's theme of 'a regional Canadian food'

-DV

Have you ever snacked on sea rocket that’s been foraged from a west coast high tideline? Neither had I, at least not until we visited Spring Island. If you HAVE already snacked on sea rocket foraged from a west coast high tideline, I think you’re intensely cool.

During our time with West Coast Expeditions (WCE), we were exposed to a number of foods that, despite the fact they’re in our own backyard, we hadn’t given much thought to.

Take seaweed, for instance. I’ve eaten sushi more times than I can count, but I hadn’t realized the possibilities of working with Pacific kelp. There are massive, sprawling underwater forests of it all over the west coast, and while they’re not the easiest things to paddle through in a kayak, they’re vital to the environment.

Kelp forests are densely-populated eco-systems, housing thousands of species and acting as enormous carbon sinks for the ocean. They’re also edible!

James (WCE’s chef) pickled some bull kelp while we were visiting, and we asked him to give us a few other uses for west coast kelps/seaweed, most of which are best harvested in late spring. Here are some of his suggestions:

Bull kelp can be pickled, and/or added to soups (miso is especially good).

Fucus (a.k.a. rock kelp) can be fried into ocean ‘popcorn.’

Giant perennial kelp can be deep-fried, or dried then crumbled.

Finally, sea lettuce is great as a fresh salad with ponzu sauce (sea lettuce is also what's used to make sushi paper).

There are so many other Pacific ocean treats, including sea urchins, oysters (they’re most famous off the east coast of Vancouver Island), mussels, crabs, goose-neck barnacles (which are gnarly, dinosaur-inspired things),

and of course, plenty of fish. I encourage everyone to check out Ocean Wise, a phenomenal program developed by the Vancouver Aquarium that allows consumers to more easily access sustainable seafood. If you’d like to read more about it, here’s a post about Ocean Wise from my time in Richmond.

Several days before we arrived, one of the WCE guides caught an 60-pound halibut from his kayak, and James served (some of it) to us pan-fried, and in ceviche. We also ate locally-caught salmon, crab, spot prawns, and ling cod – Spring Island is clearly a place for sustainable seafood lovers.

On land, there were all kinds of food to be foraged. We snacked on wild salmonberries and huckleberries,

and our introduction to sea rocket was enlightening. It looked like arugula, tasted strongly of wasabi, and led us to a very long conversation about how it could be used (I’d like to try it in a salad with fresh, juicy peaches).

Wandering through the forest, we nibbled on the bright, citric tips of hemlock, which can apparently be used as an appetite suppressant.

There are also various kinds of mushrooms growing in the woods, though you definitely need to know your stuff before attempting to pick and eat those.

James and a few of the guides also tend a small garden, with raspberries and a variety of herbs for cooking.

The food prepared for us by James was far beyond what I’d expected, including our midday meals. Lunches were packed up, loaded into the kayaks, and eaten – picnic style - on one of the surrounding islands. After hours of paddling, a peanut butter sandwich and apple would have easily pleased me, so you can only imagine my utter joy as I ate a Nicoise salad, roasted salmon, fresh fruit, vegetables, cookies, and hot tea. All of this while on a driftwood throne overlooking the ocean.

My final surprise? The day we kayaked over to the nearby Kyuquot First Nations village to get pie from Eric, who was described to me as “The Jewish guy from Seattle who comes here every summer to serve pie from his café.”

He was a friendly man who didn’t seem phased by my immediate first question, “How on earth did you end up here?” Turns out his parents used to work at Bamfield, a marine research field station just south of Kyuquot, so he spent many childhood summers on the west coast.

He still runs a catering business out of Seattle, but he and his wife spend a great deal of time in Kyuquot, and he often cooks for the crew of the boat that arrives weekly to bring supplies to the village.

He just recently had a new ventilation system installed, and plans to serve dinners out of his small restaurant regularly. I had certainly not expected to chat about labneh, za’atar, and sumac with a man from Seattle while on a remote BC kayaking trip. I was already feeling pretty fortunate, and counted myself even luckier after.

-LA

(Parts 1 and 2 of our feature on Spring Island can be found here and here).

To go with all this talk of the ocean, here is BC's Hannah Georgas: