Victoria Pt.2

So after an exquisitely fast tour of the island, we're back in Victoria, this time with a serious purpose. We want to catch the biggest, most badass salmon the world has seen, then promptly make it taste like heaven. We split from Comox down to Victoria to jump at a chance to do this without paying a 600$ charter. My 2nd cousins father happens to now be a sport fisherman and general maniac. He's at least 10x as active as I currently am, and more than double my age. Seriously, it's inspiring. On the day we were leaving he was pretty relaxed about the borderline bicycle marathon he was about to undertake. Allow me to remind you that Victoria isn't flat either, so it's not just distance. Despite our comparative sloth, he and his wife were extremely welcoming and let us stay with them in exchange for the promise of dinner to come. We arrived late monday night, and scheduled to go fishing early the next day with no delay.

Fishing was almost exactly as much work as I thought it would be. It's not extreme, but there is some serious thought, planning and work that goes into it. The reason we left so early was because the currents are extreme, and the fish go with them. So we go to fish in between tidal moves. The actual set-up, provided you own and operate a boat(which is a big setup) is not too difficult. They have outriggers, which are basically mechanisms that hold the rods high and tight, and sink the lures to a desired depth. Its really an ingenious system. We went our to the "trap shack" which is an area of ocean just off the coast of Sooke, and typically yields a good amount of fish. Sadly, we hit an off day, and barely anybody out caught a fish. Another area was biting, but the salmon just weren't in the trap shack. We must have changed lures and depths a dozen times each, but still no luck. Not too serious a bump, as my uncle has tons of chinook salmon hanging out in his house already. However, it would have been really nice to catch the fish that was going on the table. Romantic in a way. Another thing I should likely mention is that I got sea-sick for the first time in my life. This has never before happened to me, and I've been boating before a handful of times. It was really nauseating this time out. Not too bad though.


So after that debaucle, we decided to drop the crab trap in the bay outside my dad's cousin's (I still don't know exactly what to call him)house. Crabs are trusty and reliable animals. We got about 20. It was pretty epic. We used chicken in the trap this time, which apparently they go bananas for. We had to thrown most back, as they were either female or too small. But we got three dungeness of proper size and one big ol' red rock crab. So now we had fresh crab, salmon, and a dinner to make. We decided upon canapes and two courses. Canape of crab, salmon in two courses.
Happily, their daughter had recently sent home some produce from Salt Spring, so we got to relive our little experience there. We had crab croustini with apples, sour cream and mint. On the side we made some crab bisque for them to enjoy when we were gone. For first course, we did Sesame crusted salmon with a beet green salad from foxglove, orange vinagrette, orange segments and a wasabi paste. Also had some sliced radishes from salt spring in the salad. I really enjoyed this course. The interplay between ingredients was perfect. Beets and oranges are a great combo, and the wasabi added heat without taking away from anything. The salmon was barely touched, and silky raw all the way through. It was like western sushi.

For second course we did pan seared salmon with sauteed spinach, yam fritters and blueberry sauce. My uncle had a bunch of frozen blueberries, so we cooked down a quick red wine sauce, tossed in the blueberries, seasoned and reduced. Really simple, but still delicious. The pieces of salmon we used were monstrous. I thought the fish must have been at least 40 lbs. The fillets were the thickest I've ever seen, and I've worked with some large fish before. Seared in the pan and finished in the oven, the width of the fish kept beautifully moist all the way through. It was really an incredible flesh to work with.

So we enjoyed a great dinner, the first fine dining style food we've done for company. It was a great success, and hopefully we can do lots more manoeuvers like it in the future. A huge thanks to Guy and Trish for being such wicked hosts. Even without knowing which one of us was related to them until Fabian started speaking with an accent. We had an amazing time and thanks so much for welcoming us into your home and letting us cook good food on a proper stovetop! Next stop is the Okanagan, stay tuned for wining and dining.

Ucluelet

Arite. Going on another binge here. I'm already a week behind, but we're gonna play a game of rapid catch up. You excited? I am. So we start.....

Ucluelet is just south of tofino on the same peninsula-ish weird thing. Sacha's place is kind of in between and off to the side. For those of you looking for a more precise explanation, read a map out loud and pretend it's me.

Ukee, as it's to be referred to from now on, is a pretty amazing spot. Its like Tofino, only less touristed and expensive. We nabbed a spot on the Wild Pacific Trail and slept there a couple nights whilst we traveled the surrounding area. We walked the trail once after we got our fishing licenses, trying to catch fish and crab, with no success. The trail thereafter became the spot for our morning run and our home base for culinary experiments.
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We did a lot around the area, but the definite highlights include oysters and crab. The shellfish out here is stupid, and when you catch it yourself, super fresh. Oysters we bought from the wonderful folks at Fishfull Thinking, a wacky little fish processing plant, small scale but super amazing people and super welcoming even though we came by almost at close. The largest dungeness crab I've ever seen in my life garaunteed. 5 lbs. Ridiculous, this this dwarfed it's buddies in the tank. Other crabs included in this production were the 6 we caught off the government dock downtown. 6 in one hour. Insanity and the easiest meal I've ever purveyed for myself. We made bisque with the shells, busted out the meat and made a crab and gooseneck barnacle spaghetti. It was pretty phenomenal, and the local bear population thought so too. Not only did this guy come a-snoopin' once, but I woke up the next morning watching him saunter around the parking lot nonchalantly like it was no big deal he was a bear who could kill me in my immediate vicinity. To be perfectly honest he was terrified of us, understandably I know, we are some fearsome dudes. I almost ate him.



Cool having a bear experience I guess. We also had an oyster experience. The lady at Fishfull gave us a dozen of the biggest freshest monstrosities that call themselves bivalves. They were huge and so fresh the stood out of the shell. I opened 10 of them with my beater chef's knife, and broke about an inch off the tip on the eleventh. I recommend investing in a shucker for all those who plan to do their own pacific bay oysters. I invested in a screwdriver because I'm crafty like that and can use it to fix our van door, which has been uppity of late.

We also skipped over the bay to port albion, which is a native reserve and has a wild pack of seal-hating dogs. Or just life hating dogs, I couldn't really tell, but they chase everything. Almost caught an otter. We just hit the dock to do some unsuccessful fishing, and basically these dogs were sprinting around and jumping in the water whenever they saw a seal. The seals, for what I'm sure was good entertainment and nothing else, would pop up and bark and dive right when the dogs almost had them, thus keeping both parties relatively occupied. I didn't take pictures, but I wish I had. We got joined by this little native guy named Robert who promptly announced to us that his dad was in jail and that he liked fishing. He showed us a few pretty useful tricks.

After port albion we broke camp and bounced inland, tearing back across to the east coast just as the weather started to turn. Quote of the day goes to the BC liquor store cashier in Ukee who told us that "ukee isn't a fishing town with a drinking problem, its a drinking town with a fishing problem".