Sooke

Alright, I'm now in powerblogging mode, and am going to try and cram all the places we've recently been in one session. That's what the cool kids do nowadays. This section is Sooke. Basically the only reason for us going to sooke was so I could work in the famed Sooke Harbour House for a day. The Sooke Harbour House(SHH) played a large part in helping localize the food industry out here and make it trendy to use local, organic and seasonal produce. This place was pretty cool. I called them the day before and showed up the next day fresh and ready to rock. When I arrived it was super laid back, only one cook was there so far, little did I know that he compromised one third of the kitchen. The kitchen itself was large and laid out strangely, but I felt it could probably really get the food out there when it was full and busy. I started helping out a little bit with prep and such, talking to this guy about the restaurant. I noticed he kept jotting stuff onto two sheets. When I asked if they were ordering sheets, he showed me what they actually were. One was his meal plan for the day, at the restaurant they only have a set menu of six items everyday, which they design anew everyday using whatever they have on hand. The second sheet was a gardening order. Basically this comprises a list of all the plants they have in their humongous arsenal of botany. The cooks fill in the list before 12, and the gardeners pick whatever the cooks need for service that day. No more, no less. They supplement that with small Sysco orders and tons of local produce. For example, they got a call around 1pm from a woman asking if they wanted any gooseneck barnacles. The cook responded yes, around 5 pounds. The woman and her husband arrived an hour later with barnacles they picked when they knew how much the restaurant wanted. Insanity and freshness, in a bundle. The food was really cool, flavourful and simple, as is the whole place. It's great. I'll plop some videos up once I get this ball organized and rolling. Anyways, all together a wicked experience, some interesting things I've always wanted to see done put in practice, and a really laid back and cool group of guys in the kitchen.