In October 2008, with my group of food and wine-loving travel pals, I spent a few days dining and wining in the Naramata area - A Taste of the South Okanagan. A month ago, on the spur of the moment I decided to book a week's vacation at the Lake Okanagan Resort in Kelowna. Although I realized that the area had changed greatly, memories of a magical week spent at the Resort more than 15 years ago had stayed with me all this time. As it turned out the week I was going to be in Kelowna was when the 16th Annual Okanagan Spring festival was on, so my plans for a sedate, book-filled vacation suddenly got more adventurous.
Well actually getting from Vancouver to Kelowna for normal people is not complicated. If you want to get there fast it is about a 40 minute flight from Vancouver to Kelowna Airport and there are direct flights also from Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. Driving from Vancouver should take around four hours and from Seattle, Spokane or Calgary- about 6 hours.
However, when it comes to driving I am not a "normal person." Firstly while I don't drive especially slowly I can say that the first and only speeding ticket I have ever received was over thirty years ago. And it was not really my fault! I was cruising over the Second Narrows Bridge and got distracted by my kids arguing in the back seat so my foot may have been a little heavier than usual on the accelerator and I did not spy the cops lurking behind the concrete pillar on the Mountain Highway exit.
Secondly, as a downtown gal, I walk rather than drive and in 10 years, I have accumulated the grand total of 50,000 kms on my little Audi. So while several of my neighbours drive back and forth between Vancouver and Kelowna like I drive from Yaletown to Kerrisdale, planning to drive to Kelowna for me became a logistical exercise akin to planning an expedition to the North Pole.
With the Vancouver Marathon closing the streets in our neighbourhood, we needed to make sure we set off on our journey before they barricaded the side streets and prevented us from getting out of the area. Amazingly, since I had had less than three hours sleep, it was actually our planned time of 6:45 am when my little Audi emerged from our underground parking and turned onto Beach Avenue.
As we turned onto Richards I realized that the right side of the road was already barricaded. The left lane was open but the light was red. The problem was that the light responds to pressure pads on the right side of the road so my car could wait in the other lane for hours and the light would not change to green for me.
For the first day of our Kelowna visit I had three pre-arranged meetings and from what came out of those, I planned to let the rest of the day's activities develop spontaneously. First order of the day was to stop in at the Tourism Kelowna Visitor's Centre to pick up an information package that Catherine had left for me.
The drive into Kelowna along Westside Road is both spectacularly beautiful and hair-raising. Round every curve in the road - and there are many curves - you see vista after vista of stunning mountains and lake. Sometimes the road drops down so steeply that it feels as though you are driving into an infinity pool. The hair-raising bit comes from the occasional driver on the road who screams up behind at a speed way over the speed limit and then drives so close on your tail that a sudden need to brake for a deer or anything else would inevitably mean a collision. And we have seen lots of deer munching away on the side of the road.
To set the stage- or perhaps I should say - to set the table - for the "supping" aspect of our Destination Travel: Kelowna I arranged to meet Chef Rod Butters at his restaurant, RauDZ, on Water Street, on the first morning of our visit. An icy wind was blowing through the streets of downtown Kelowna and by the time we arrived at the door of the restaurant we were chilled. Chef Butters invited us in and promptly offered to brew Americanos. We stood at the bar and sipped the coffee and I gradually felt the warmth seeping back into my body.
I was familiar with his culinary biography but curious about a few of his culinary adventures so we began our discussion there. A B.C. native, Chef Butters was born in Port Coquitlam and worked at The Keg during high school. He went to Indiana State on a baseball scholarship and then played in Washington State. He returned to Vancouver to attend culinary school, and then worked at Scaramouche in Toronto, Four Seasons Hotels in Toronto and Vancouver, the opening team at Chateau Whistler among other places.
In 1996 he embarked on an exciting venture as the opening chef and co-manager with Charles McDiarmid, managing owner, for the new Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Opening that quality of world class hotel and restaurant in the middle of nowhere with the challenges of getting staffing and supplies to the West Coast of the Island, was one of the stand-out experiences of his life. Chef Butters commented that this remarkable achievement was a testament to everyone that worked to make this happen from dishwashers, housekeeping and office staff to management.
I understood what he was saying because the Wickaninnish Inn holds a special place in my heart. In October 1999 my brother and sister-in-law came out from South Africa to visit with my husband, who was quite ill at the time. We wanted to show them something special about British Columbia and we picked Wicknninnish Inn as that special choice. The flight we booked stopped in Victoria and then the small plane flew north for a while along the mountainous spine of the Vancouver Island Range. The image of breaking through the clouds into a V of sunlight just before landing at Tofino,is engraved in my memory.
At the Inn we had a beautiful room looking out onto an inlet with huge waves breaking on the rocks. The second memory I hold from that time is soaking in the hot tub in our room and observing the sight and sound of the crashing waves and foam spraying from the rocks.The third memory is of savoring the flavours of the wonderful meals we enjoyed over the days that we were there. Our visit to Wickaninnish Inn was all too short, but it is one of the treasured times that comfort me whenever sad thoughts come to mind.
When I was asking for suggestions for "don't miss" restaurant experiences in Kelowna, the name that kept coming up was RauDZ, so I decided that we would find our way there for supper on Monday evening, the first full day of our Kelowna experience. The restaurant does not have a reservation system but I was told that if we got there early there would no problem getting a table. RauDZ is open seven days a week from 5 pm - and I am an early-dinner person, so that was just fine for me.
Wandering around the city centre of Kelowna we noticed several sushi restaurants.
After my first visit to Japan in the early eighties I became a sushi devoteee and my kids were in their teens before they realized that raw fish was not the staple food of Canadian cuisine.
So despite the many other cafes and bistros we also saw on our wanderings, for our first lunch experience we decided to try Wasabi Izakaya. It proved to be an excellent choice.
The cold wind seemed to penetrate our jackets as we walked around and by the time we were seated in the warmth of the restaurant we were craving something hot. So we decided to share the Dynamite Roll and Tempura combo, and the Salmon-tuna Sashimi and California Roll combo, both of which came with a bowl of steaming hot miso soup. The first combo also came with a salad.
Supping Away: Kelowna. Wild Apple Restaurant and Lounge
@Manteo Resort
3762 Lakeshore Road
Ph: 250-860-4488
The second day of our Kelowna trip started off with a breakfast meeting at the Wild Apple Restaurant. Despite delays with construction on Lakeshore Road we arrived on time for our 8:30 meeting. We enjoyed yet another beautiful view as we sipped our coffee before the others arrived shortly after.
I decided to opt for the double smoked bacon and cheddar cheese omelette. It came with a huge portion of roast potatoes and multigrain toast. The potatoes were quite delicious and after I tasted the first mouthful it was really hard to resist eating the lot, but I restrained myself with some effort.
Amanda had the wild salmon crab cakes "benny" with free range poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, sliced tomato, roast potatoes and grilled rosemary pannini bread. The eggs were perfectly cooked but the verdict on the salmon cakes were that they were good, but not great.
After breakfast we had planned to drive further south to visit Carmelis Goat Cheese farm and three wineries, Cedar Creek, Summerhill and Tantalus. We figured we would be back in the vicinity of Manteo Resort around 1 pm and decided to return to Wild Apple for lunch to try out Chef Bernard Casavant's lunch "signature cuisine."
For the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival, two of Kelowna's favorite boutique venues joined together to pair fine food and wine in a three course prix fixé dinner menu. We had supper at the Greenroom restaurant, where chef Scott Nystrom offered an interesting choice of two appetizers, three main courses and two dessert dishes on the special menu.
Each of the three entrees was paired with a wine from The View Winery, an establishment so new that it does not yet have a tasting room open, but whose Pinotage and Gewürtztraminer were both finalists in the 2010 Wine Festival Best of Varietal Competition.
Destination Travel Kelowna as seen through the eyes of Guest Writer, Amanda Lockitch
May 3, 2010
Destination: Kelowna. Designated Driver: Not!
It was only the day before we left Vancouver that I was informed that the real reason my mom invited me to accompany her to Kelowna for the Spring Wine Festival was so that I could be her designated driver. As I am a bit of a teetotaller anyway, this was not really a big deal. However, the reality is that my mother apparently doesn't actually trust me to drive, so in my time in Kelowna I have had the chance to taste many a fine wine. More on that in a bit...
My mom and I are both working towards actively lowering our irrationally self-induced stress levels. We both have the tendency to live in the future: Where am I going to park when I get there? or the past: Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said/done that.
Now, however, instead of getting riled up about the things we cannot control, we breathe. As my mom would say courtesy of the TV show "Dharma and Greg" - we just put it in a bubble and blow it away.
In October 2008, with my group of food and wine-loving travel pals, I spent a few days dining and wining in the Naramata area - 
Getting there. It's Complicated!
With the Vancouver Marathon closing the streets in our neighbourhood, we needed to make sure we set off on our journey before they barricaded the side streets and prevented us from getting out of the area. Amazingly, since I had had less than three hours sleep, it was actually our planned time of 6:45 am when my little Audi emerged from our underground parking and turned onto Beach Avenue. 
For the first day of our Kelowna visit I had three pre-arranged meetings and from what came out of those, I planned to let the rest of the day's activities develop spontaneously. First order of the day was to stop in at the Tourism Kelowna Visitor's Centre to pick up an information package that Catherine had left for me.
To set the stage- or perhaps I should say - to set the table - for the "supping" aspect of our Destination Travel: Kelowna I arranged to meet Chef Rod Butters at his restaurant, 
RauDZ Regional Table
Wasabi Izakaya
After my first visit to Japan in the early eighties I became a sushi devoteee and my kids were in their teens before they realized that raw fish was not the staple food of Canadian cuisine.
Supping Away: Kelowna. Wild Apple Restaurant and Lounge
I decided to opt for the double smoked bacon and cheddar cheese omelette. It came with a huge portion of roast potatoes and multigrain toast. The potatoes were quite delicious and after I tasted the first mouthful it was really hard to resist eating the lot, but I restrained myself with some effort.
Amanda had the wild salmon crab cakes "benny" with free range poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, sliced tomato, roast potatoes and grilled rosemary pannini bread. The eggs were perfectly cooked but the verdict on the salmon cakes were that they were good, but not great.
The Greenroom Restaurant and The View Winery
Each of the three entrees was paired with a wine from The View Winery, an establishment so new that it does not yet have a tasting room open, but whose Pinotage and Gewürtztraminer were both finalists in the 2010 Wine Festival Best of Varietal Competition.
Destination Travel Kelowna as seen through the eyes of Guest Writer, Amanda Lockitch
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