Tags
BC, Chris Funnell, Conference centre, Cornucopia, Foxtrot Winery, Gustav Allander, José Maria da Fonseca Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal, Naramata Bench, Paul Watkin, Quinta do Crasto late bottled vintage port, Ramos pinto Duas, Sid Cross, Spanish wine, The Fairmont Chateau, The outsiders guide to the inside: Portuguese Wines, The outsiders guide to the inside: Spanish wines, Top 25 Celebratory reception, Whistler, Wine Seminar
Cornucopia, now in its 19th year, is back this November with 10 days jam packed with wine seminars, chef demonstrations, fine dining evenings and much more. The festival this year kicked off last Thursday 5th November and will be running until Sunday 15th November so there is still a chance to head on up to Whistler and purchase some tickets!
Sponsored by Blue Shore Financial, Cornucopia brings talented winemakers, established chefs and entrepreneurs altogether for one of the best food and wine festivals in Canada.
Despite the rain and grey skies I headed up to Whistler last Saturday to spend the weekend at Cornucopia. Saturday and Sunday were both bursting with events throughout the day, it was hard to decide which ones to pick. I opted for the The Outsiders Guide to the Inside: Portuguese Wines, The Outsiders Guide to the Inside: Spanish Wines, and the Top 25 Celebratory Reception for the Saturday and for the Sunday I had a ticket for Foxtrot Winery: A Passion for Pinot.
The first drink seminar kicked off at 2p.m and was a lot of fun! Presented by Paul Watkin and Chris Funnell the pair bounced off each other with their extensive knowledge of Portugal and the wines from the different areas. There were 12 glasses of different wines to try, each accompanied by a tapas item which were both locally sourced and some quite difficult to get as Paul & Chris aimed to source portuguese food to accompany the wine.
The highlights were the José Maria da Fonseca Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal (smooth and beautifully sweet), the Quinta do Crasto late bottled vintage port and the Ramos pinto Duas. Paul & Chris spent several minutes describing each wine and the prices were offered at the end as they did not want this to be a focus of the seminar. Continue reading
The walk to the springs themselves is beautiful and takes about 20- 25 minutes. Along the wooden panels people have had names and messages engraved, the best one being Clara Richardson will you marry me? I’m pretty sure she would have said yes considering the view she would’ve been looking at, other than her boyfriend at the time.
The springs themselves are quite small so it’s recommended you get there early. We took the 9a.m boat and didn’t have any trouble with overcrowding. There were only about 10 other people there at the time so plenty of room to all have a dip in. The springs are very warm, with the first ones you step in being super hot (you wouldn’t sit in them for too long!) It’s a beautiful cove that feels like a secret place considering where it is. The best part is when you reach the end of the hot springs and there is a section where you can sit down and feel the warm water on your back but then the tide comes in from the front and splashes you with cold water. Super refreshing! There’s a little cafe on a boat back where you get picked up and a beautiful husky dog there to greet you. As it’s in the middle of nowhere they do get away with putting their prices up, $4 for water – eek! However they did do a very tasty coconut oatmeal cookie.
Arriving in Seattle when the lights were dark was a perfect opportunity to see the skyline at night and it was beautiful. We arrived at 9.30 when the air was still balmy, and got to our air bnb apartment for 10ish. It was located in such a great spot and I loved the feel of the place. It had 5 rooms, a kitchen, living room space and although we were sharing with other people it had the feel of just being like your own house. We passed a cool looking bar on the way to our accommodation so decided to walk down the road as it was so close and check it out. It was called Revolver and was set up by a guy who absolutely loved music and had so many vinyl’s but no where to store them so decided to set up a bar and have them on show. The drinks menu had some really cool looking cocktails called drop shots, which were named after bands. We went for the champagne supernova and Black Sabbath. We drank most of the first one separately after trying them on their own and found we actually preferred the taste. Craig ordered some chicken wings and they had some super hot Jamaican flavoured spice on them that after a little bite our mouths were on fire! 
Next stop for our adventure was Portland Oregon. I didn’t really know what to expect from Portland, I just remembered a chat I had with two people in my first week at the hostel where they had said it was definitely worth a visit. We had an early start as our flight was booked for 9a.m. Again we arrived at the airport about 45 minutes too early but it was fine as we sat and got a filling breakfast. The flight was so quick and before we knew it we had landed in Portland at 11a.m. The weather was a scorching 32 degrees and was actually really lovely to come back into having been in San Francisco for the past three days. We jumped on the train and went to the city centre where we knew we could drop our bags off in a place called Powell’s before we needed to check in to our air bnb. As soon as we got to Powell’s we both fell in love with it instantly. If I thought the bookshop in San Francisco was amazing this was about eight times the size and was just incredible. The staff were so friendly and accommodating and there were so many rooms and books it was hard to know where to begin. If it had been a cloudy day I know where we would’ve spent the whole day! 
Next stop on our trip was San Francisco. I know Craig was secretly dreading it because he loved Las Vegas so much and wanted to stay in the heat but I was super excited to be going as had heard so many great things about it. We arrived around 6p.m and luckily our hostel wasn’t too far from the station. We did go around in circles a little bit before getting there but we made it in the end. Our hostel, Hi International, was located on Mason Street, therefore a good spot for getting around. We had booked a private room and when we saw the room it was a really small room with a double bed and then a bed on top. I could just see Craig’s face drop as we had gone form having two double beds and a bathroom to a small kind of dingy room for the same price. I’m quite used to hostels so didn’t mind too much but yes it wasn’t quite as fancy. We both thought the bed on top was pretty funny plus there were bars at the end of the bed so Craig was too tall for it!
If you know me well, you’ll know that I am a huge lover of tea. Consuming approximately four cups a day is no challenge for me, more a habit. My family are Irish so of course I was always going to be a big tea drinker but I would say it’s only been in the last couple of months that I have weaned myself off simply drinking English or Irish breakfast tea and have tried sampling some of those other lovely herbal remedies. Last week with my friend Maz visiting, I wanted to find someone lovely to go and have a good catch up and I stumbled across the most perfect place on West Broadway called 
Yesterday was an eventful and beautiful day despite having less than 5 hours sleep. I started it by cycling down to Stanley park where the Scotiabank charity challenge, where you could choose to run or walk 5k or a half marathon, was taking place. For those who were running the half marathon, their morning had already began at 7am and some of them were near crossing the finishing line by the time I arrived at the charity village to help the 
I’m not quite sure what it is about seeing vegetables in a spiral shape but somehow it makes them tastier. It’s taken me a while to purchase a spiralizer as I wasn’t convinced I’d use it enough but now that I’ve tried it there’s no going back.
One of the main reasons for coming to Vancouver for me was due to the fact I had heard about their diverse and delicious food scene. Therefore when I discovered that the 
TEA and TAKES 