The 'England' up north
Canada's Victoria a very British city
April 24, 2012
By Jay Jones, Special to Tribune Newspapers
VICTORIA, British Columbia
— The flags of the United Kingdom and British Columbia flapped in the breeze atop Government House, Britain's official outpost in this westernmost Canadian province, as the Honourable Steven Point sat down to write birthday greetings to his boss, Queen Elizabeth II.
"Long live The Queen!" Point, the province's lieutenant governor, exclaimed as he concluded his message. Indeed, Elizabeth II's 86th birthday is a time for celebration in this most English of Canadian cities.
"When I first moved to Victoria, I couldn't believe I was still in Canada," observed Jerymy Brownridge, director of operations at Government House. "If you look in the phone book, it's almost all British names."
In this year when Britain hosts the Summer Olympics and boasts pomp and parties to celebrate the queen's 60 years on the throne, there is no need to head to crowded and pricey London to soak up the atmosphere. Victoria is a smaller, less crowded and less expensive alternative. Still, it offers many of the delights of the homeland, including regal gardens and the best fish and chips this side of the Atlantic.
Afternoon tea, a sort of fourth meal that was once the exclusive domain of the rich and famous, is both relished and cherished in British Columbia's capital. The tradition has been celebrated at the Fairmont Empress, the chateau-style hotel that towers over Victoria's Inner Harbour, for more than a century.
For 42 of those years, it's been Marlene Watson serving afternoon tea at the Empress. "Our sandwiches are a pork pate, a cucumber, curry chicken with mango, egg salad in a croissant, and smoked salmon and cream cheese," she told her guests. "The middle tier is our scones with strawberry jam and Empress cream. (On top are) a raspberry cheesecake, Earl Grey shortbread, marzipan Battenberg cake and mint Verona chocolate truffles."
Catering to a tourist crowd, the hotel has no formal dress code. Still, it offers some etiquette advice. When stirring your tea, be careful not to clink your spoon against the cup. If the tea is hot, leave the cup on the table to cool. Do not blow on the tea.
As for the food, be sure to take small, delicate bites. This will ensure you can still participate in the conversation without always having a full mouth. Taking small bites is easier said than done when the finger foods are so inviting. At the White Heather Tea Room in the oh-so-British neighborhood of Oak Bay, there is a more festive attitude to afternoon tea, where a spread called The Big Muckle is served.
"Muckle" is an old English word meaning "large amount," and that's no exaggeration. The selection of tasty treats includes a "krispie" with cream cheese and apple, a savory mini-quiche and a plethora of pastries.
In Victoria, "tea" definitely doesn't refer to the Orange Pekoe found in supermarkets. The White Heather offers 24 varieties, and servers are happy to let customers try the hand-blended concoctions.
But for a real education in tea, head to Silk Road, a tea emporium in Victoria's Chinatown, the oldest Chinese community in Canada. Tea connoisseur Daniela Cubelic has been offering her bounties of some of the world's freshest teas for 20 years, and there isn't a supermarket variety anywhere in sight.
She explained that by the time tea reaches grocery shelves, it's often 3 to 5 years old. In contrast, her blends, with exotic names such as Gate of Longevity and Moonstone Temple, were picked only weeks before making their way to her shop.
Cubelic offers regular tea tastings to introduce guests to her offerings from around the world. "It's almost like buying Persian carpets. If it's your first trip to Turkey and someone is trying to sell you carpets and you don't know a lot about it, it's very easy to get confused and not really know what you're buying," she said. "It takes a great many years to develop the skills to purchase tea well and to understand it."
In Britain, "tea time" is synonymous not with afternoon tea but with dinner. The staple fish-and-chips dish is traditional and trendy at restaurants throughout Victoria. Red Fish Blue Fish serves up takeout, without the traditional newspaper, from its waterside location inside a former shipping container. A more upscale variety is featured at Spinnaker's, the country's oldest brew pub. "Sustainability" is the watchword in the kitchen here; 95 percent of the produce is locally grown.
Walking off a big meal is a popular pastime. Victoria abounds with trails as well as the array of gardens that have earned it the moniker "City of Gardens." The Butchart Gardens are world-renowned, but visitors also can enjoy 26 acres of plantings at Government House, from a traditional Edwardian garden to a Victorian rose garden, all linked by a series of paths. The gardens offer free admission.
Don't, however, expect to get an invitation to step inside for a dander through the mansion's 112 rooms. Even the locals only occasionally get a peek, because the place is pretty much under wraps unless royalty is in town. Elizabeth II has visited several times, most recently in 2002, and her son Prince Charles spent three nights there in 2009.
"We're kind of like the official provincial guesthouse," Brownridge said. That means that while in Victoria, the emperor and empress of Japan were welcomed as overnight guests. Sir Elton John, however, was turned down — oh so politely, of course.
Source: Sunday Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2012, Travel Section, Section 5, page 1
