The Old Vines Restaurant at Quail's Gate Winery was our next winery meal. Quail's Gate is one of the more famous wineries in the Okanagan, and is located in Westbank, across the lake. The Old Vines is also one of the few winery restaurants that is open year-round. They've won awards and commendations from across North America, and so here we were to see what the hype's all about.
The winery grounds slope downhill (it's a mountain after all) and as-is seemingly tradition, gives a gorgeous view of Lake Okanagan. Sadly the day we visited, the much-promised rain clouds had arrived, but we got lucky and had a few dry hours to walk the vineyard.
My participation in this particular Okanagan trip was quite last minute. My parents had planned it out for themselves, and I just tagged along as my employment status took an unexpected turn a week before. This was the first time I'd gone on a trip in years without planning out the culinary stops, let alone allowing someone else to do it for me. I will admit, I was more apprehensive than relaxed about the whole scenario. Actually, until I arrived in Kelowna and met my parents at the Cedar Creek Winery, I had no previous knowledge of their dining plans, nor would it have mattered as my knowledge of the Okanagan was practically nil.
The Cedar Creek Winery is located 15 minutes out of downtown Kelowna, through a beautiful winding road, heading up to wine country. Their Terrace Restaurant dining area offers a breathtaking view over Lake Okanagan, and on beautiful sunny days, such as this, you can choose to dine al fresco on the patio. It was actually predicted to rain all weekend, but we were fortunate enough to stay a few steps ahead of clouds.
It's finally here - the first part of my Okanagan road-trip! This would represent my first "real" trip to the Okanagan in close to 15 years, and the first one which I drove myself. I had a family road-trip back the early-90s when there was NOTHING here except fruit orchards. I then came back about 6 years ago for the Knox Mountain Hillclimb race with some friends, but we were in and out in a day - not long enough for me to see anything. I will say this though, the drive on the Coquihalla was far more scenic back then.
The Coquihalla Highway's been expanded to 4 lanes, which significantly cuts the drive to the Okanagan shorter, but it also dramatically increases the boredom factor. That being said, I'm pretty impressed that I got to the outskirts of Westbank within 4 hours - first time I got the TSX up above 150 kph :-)
The Okanagan Valley is a unique microclimate zone - surrounded by mountains, lined with the massive Lake Okanagan (home of Ogopogo), and also home to Canada's only desert. Seriously. A real desert. With rattlesnakes and other pointy hurty stuff. It's this mix of climates that creates the perfect environment for fruit and vegetable farms - growing essentially everything under the sun.
Pick your own apple, cherry, pear and peach farms are everywhere, along with one of Canada's highest concentrations of wineries. This is about as locavore as it gets. Every grocery store/roadside fruit stand (of which there are plenty) is located a literal stone's throw away from the actual tree that produced what you're buying!
I got a ridiculously good deal on some organic whole chickens a few weeks ago (from T&T Supermarket no less!) and I stocked up. I haven't had too much past experience roasting a whole chicken, so I decided to play around with some more recipes this time.
I found a recipe from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano that fit the bill called "pollo al diavolo" aka "The Devil's Chicken." It's a whole roasted chicken glazed halfway with a mustard/spice mixture for a hit of tongue-wagging heat and flavour. Perfect for a chilly fall eve. There's a lot of play available with this recipe since you can pretty much put whatever spice you want in there depending on the desired effect.
