Sweet Treats in Nanaimo

The Bastion, Nanaimo

I mentioned already that when we were in Victoria last time, we discovered the joys of the Nanaimo Bar. This is basically a layer of chocolatey, coconutty, biscuit base, then a thick layer that is something between a mousse and a set custard, all topped with a thick chocolate layer. The middle layer is often in a variety of flavours, and our favourites in Victoria were mint for me and peanut butter for Nic. They are rich, messy to eat, and the best ones are delicious.

They originate, logically enough, in Nanaimo, a town further up the east coast, so naturally, we had promised ourselves a trip there the next time, so that we could investigate – by which I mean sample – more of these sweet treats. Of course, that was all before we had decided to do this fitness kick, but a promise is a promise, and we were doing well with our diet at the time we were planning this, so figured we could afford to give ourselves this one.

St Andrew's United Church, Nanaimo

If we’d have known then how badly we would stall on the weight loss in Victoria, we might have given Nanaimo a miss, but as it was, we got a bus here from Victoria, and settled in to enjoy fewer than we would have done in our old ways, (we did at least resist the deep-fried version,) but more than was truly sensible.

And the verdict from the Green jury, was that the first and last were the best. Top place went to our first bar, from Bocca Cafe, where the peanut butter and salted caramel versions were god, but the simple original flavour was excellent.

Smoky Joe's maple syrup and bacon Nanaimo bars

Second place was not actually in Nanaimo, but just outside town, in Smoky Joe’s BBQ steakhouse. Their maple syrup one has little bits of bacon added to the chocolate on top, and everyone knows that bacon makes pretty much anything tastier, but it loses top position for being maybe just a bit too rich. Half a bar would probably have been enough really, but we valiantly battled through.

9/11 wreckage, Nanaimo

Aside from its namesake chocolate bars, Nanaimo doesn’t honestly have a whole lot of attractions. It’s on the coast, which is nice, and it has a bastion, which dates from 1853, and was part of the old Hudson’s Bay Company fort. We didn’t go inside, but apparently there are exhibitions on the trading company, the armaments, and some of the belongings that the colonists would have brought over with them.

One imported item that we hadn’t expected to see in Nanaimo, was a piece of the World Trade Centre wreckage from 9/11. It seems that the local Fire Brigade wrote and requested a piece, and now have it outside their Station.

There are a few interesting shops, and a couple of decent places to go out, in particular, The Vault, which has reasonable food and great live music. We saw two bands there, and especially enjoyed one called Fever Feel.

Goats on the Roof, Coombs

We also did a couple of day trips out, most of which I’ll cover in separate posts, but which included a visit to nearby Coombs, which I’m fairly sure Nic included purely to see a place called Goats on the Roof which, you’ve guessed it, has goats grazing on its grass covered rooftop. He maintains that it was also to see the Old Country Market, but as that wasn’t overly exciting, I suspect it was all about the goats.

Goats on the Roof Old Country Market, Coombs

Grace United Church, Coombs

Court House, Nanaimo

The rest of Victoria

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Despite our best intentions for our four weeks in Victoria, we found ourselves struggling with keeping to our diet. It wasn’t that we were being terribly bad – most of our meals were still strictly by the rules – but we found ourselves wanting those little extras, especially if we went out. Like the time we went to Fisherman’s Wharf, and ended up having fish and chips.

We had a couple of times that we went out to eat, and whilst we picked fairly well-behaved things, there was just that added temptation to have some yam fries, or for Nic to have a naughty sauce on his pasta.

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

And then there was the fact that the weather was glorious the whole time we were there, so one day we gave in to having an ice cream, and another we succumbed to sitting in a pub garden with a bottle of wine.

This was still all incredibly well behaved compared with our old way of life, but it was still too many bad things to achieve the weight loss we were aiming for.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

One thing that we knew that we weren’t even planning to try to resist, was our favourite Nanaimo bar.

I’ll talk more about these in a later post, but for now, a Nanaimo bar is a very tasty, but very naughty cake, and when we were here last time, we discovered them in a bakery that was on our route home, so we’d often pop in to grab one – peanut butter for Nic and mint for me.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

So one day, we headed up to the bakery, ready to get our treat, only to discover that the location was now a building site. I think Nic may actually have let out a small howl of disappointment! Not to be deterred though, I figured that as this was a pretty popular bakery, there was a reasonable chance that it may have relocated, and luckily, this was right, and we managed to find it just a little further along from its old spot. They didn’t have any mint ones though, so I resisted any alternatives on this occasion, but Nic got his peanut butter one, and was very happy.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Aside from that, we pootled about a bit.  We looked in on some of the live music for the jazz festival including going along to a show one night. That was OK, albeit nothing spectacular. We checked out the Canada day celebrations, which despite this being a big deal because it is the 150^th anniversary of the confederation of Canada, were a bit disappointing. The fireworks were good in the evening though.

Willows Beach, Victoria

We also took the bus out to Estevan Avenue, one day. We got off in Oak Bay Avenue, and walked the rest of the way up, so by the time we got there we felt virtuous enough to allow ourselves a few extra syns with our reasonably healthy lunch at The Village. Then we wandered along to the beach and back, and gave in to having a tiny cupcake. Feeling a bit guilty about that, we decided to make up for it by walking all the way back, which took about an hour. That got the steps up on the Fitbits!

Estevan Avenue, Victoria

I'm not sure that Estevan Avenue is really worth a trip on its own, but it could certainly be done in conjunction with the Oak Bay area for a good day out.

So overall, Victoria was a pleasant place to have spent four weeks in the sunshine, but it ended up being a bit of a “neither/nor” place. We didn’t go completely mad, and revert to our old ways of eating and drinking whatever we liked, but neither had we managed to stick strictly to our regime. In the end, we lost some weight while we were here, but not as much as we should have done, especially when we knew what was coming up next….

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Victoria - arts, markets and music (Throwback post)

Oaklands, Victoria

One of the lovely things about Victoria, is the number of local artisans, and correspondingly, the number of little shops, delicatessens and food and craft markets. It seems to be the kind of place that one might come to if you've retired early, or just decided to quit working, and want to spend your time on your hobby, and maybe sell some things to make a bit of cash.

The Moss Street market on a Saturday is small, but great for freshly grown vegetables, the James Bay on, also Saturdays, is a nice little one with some tasty food stalls and often live music too. More on that later.

Oaklands, Victoria

The Oaklands area is good for a walk round generally, with nice shops and delis, but also has a market on a Wednesday. This one is bigger, and has entertainment as well as lots of stalls.

Oaklands, Victoria

We loved finding great cheeses, breads, chocolates and other freshly grown or made foods, and we were staying in the perfect place, as there were good shops to visit in all directions.  In particular, there is Charelli's Cheese shop in the dodgily named Foul Bay Road, and a multitude of places in Cook Street. Unfortunately we had to walk almost directly past the bakery Tooks on Cook to get home, and one more than one occasion we succumbed to their very yummy Nanaimo bars.

I guess we have been a bit spoiled for good food in London, with fantastic places like Borough Market, and coming here, we realised how rare it is in the places we've been visiting.

O'Brien Family, Victoria

I mentioned music, and we rather enjoyed sitting at markets or outside bars listening to music, and our favourite was definitely the superb O'Brien Family. They are originally from the UK, but now in Victoria. They do covers, but also a few original ones, and are well worth catching if you're around.

Japanese Shinto shrine, Victoria

But this post isn't all about food and music, we checked out the local art gallery too. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria was opened in 1951, in a 1889 mansion house, which now houses the gift shop, while the art has expanded into a number of modern galleries. The main exhibits are Canadian and Asian art, and they are particularly proud of having the only authentic Japanese Shinto Shrine in North America.

Painting by Emily Carr

One of Victoria's most famous names is artist Emily Carr. She was born here in 1871, did her art education in London, and spent time honing her work in Cornwall, Canada and France. Unsurprisingly, her art features highly in the gallery.

She was heavily influenced by the First Nations People, and was one of the first Canadian modernist and post-impressionist painters.  Whilst not an official member of the Group of Seven, she was very closely linked with them.

I quite liked some of her paintings, and some of the other art on show too.

On the way out, we noticed that another woman leaving was attracting some interest. We didn't recognise her, but were told that it was one of The Bangles.