Bring your appetite for a foodie adventure in Parksville
Parksville-Qualicum the new culinary destination
I’d be lying if I could tell you exactly what I’m eating.
There are mysterious greens in the “wild craft salad,” unidentifiable herbs floating in a fragrant teacup of soup, something pickled, something curried, and other things sprinkled with seeds and spices and, I think, vegetable ash. And then there’s the soda, bright purple, naturally fermented, funkily floral.
It’s all very good, though, vibrant and fresh as only foodstuffs plucked right from field and forest can be.
Which makes sense, since what we’re dining on is Mandolyn Jonasson’s Forager’s Board at her charming eatery, Island SodaWorks Bistro in Qualicum Beach.
Jonasson, it turns out, is a magician when it comes to fermentation and flavour. She is also one of a new generation of food-obsessed locals radically changing the food scene along what was once arguably B.C.’s sleepiest stretch of coastline.
Parksville and Qualicum Beach are neighbouring towns just a short drive north of bustling Nanaimo.
For decades, they’ve been retirement communities and summer beach destinations, known for their sandy shores, lush gardens, a slow pace of life, and a ye olde English flavour to the cuisine.
Dining here typically meant fish ’n’ chips or chowder at a traditional pub or a waterfront restaurant like the Shady Rest, which has been serving bowls of plump clams fresh from nearby waters since 1924.
But in recent years, there’s been a sea change in these parts.
Credit the farmers, crafters and cooks coming of age at the same time as the region welcomes an exodus of Vancouverites cashing out of the city’s overheated housing market.
Although there are still plenty of seniors here — the two communities fall in the top three “oldest” in B.C. according to the 2016 census, with 52.1 per cent of residents over age 65 in Qualicum Beach and 42.4 per cent in Parksville — many of the newcomers are young families with a taste for the kind of globe-trotting, farm-to-table cuisine Vancouver is known for.
And increasingly, they’re finding it here.
It’s the kind of food executive chef Eric Edwards has been quietly serving at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort’s Cedars Restaurant for years. He calls it “rustic contemporary:” Think planked salmon, steamer bowls, rotisserie chicken, legendary brunches, and now, with the addition of his new stone oven, gourmet pizza.
Over at the Treetop Tapas and Grill, though, his team really lets their imagination fly. In this cosy aerie atop the resort’s award-winning Grotto Spa, guests nibble on decadent bites of “healthy-ish” bison from Black Creek, goat cheese from Salt Spring Island and shellfish from Baynes Sound, all prepared with artistic flair and serious chef skills.
But Edwards isn’t the only chef who’s upping the culinary game in Parksville-Qualicum.
CView Restaurant & Lounge is a chicly modern dining room in the stylishly renovated Qualicum Beach Inn, where chef Shaun Spooner features fresh, innovative takes on easygoing favourites like chilispiked clam chowder, ahi tuna niçoise, or a seafood Cobb salad loaded with shrimp and crabmeat.
At the Beach Club Resort’s Pacific Prime Restaurant, meanwhile, executive chef Rick Davidson serves elevated comfort food such as his Tomahawk steak experience and the VIU Sturgeon Trio Tasting Plate, in which sturgeon raised by students at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo is served roasted, hotsmoked and cured with bright, flavourful accompaniments.
All three chefs are endlessly inspired by the wealth of exceptional local ingredients.
Parksville and Qualicum are not only surrounded by the rich bounty of the Salish Sea and wild foods foraged from nearby forests, they are located right between two extraordinary farming areas, the Cowichan and Comox valleys, which produce everything from heritage poultry to some of the province’s best honey, cheese, bacon and organic produce.
Of course, there are also great products right here, too, like the organic heritage pork from Sloping Hills Farm and cheese from Little Qualicum Cheeseworks.
The cheesery is located at Morningstar Farm, a family-run operation that is both attraction (with petting zoo and demonstrations for the little ones) and a modern working dairy farm that produces award-winning cheese that range from creamy fromage frais to umami-rich aged blue cheese.
And it’s not just fine food that’s on tap here, craft beer has become a thing, too, with Mount Arrowsmith Brewing and Love Shack Libations serving up flavourful brews along the B.C. Ale Trail, while just down the road in Nanaimo, Chateau Wolff and Millstone are producing promising vintages from estate-grown grapes.
And then there is Jonasson’s soda. She was bottling it for a while and even selling it at Whole Foods, but now only offers it at her bistro and a couple of local restaurants. It’s probiotic rich and made mostly from locally farmed or foraged ingredients, such as spring violets or spruce tips. She’s made more than 350 different sodas so far, and is still experimenting.
There’s a whole world of flavour right in the back yard that is Parksville-Qualicum, Jonasson has discovered. Now the rest of the world is discovering it, too.