Want to combine the ambiance of a posh high tea with contemporary Hong Kong-style dim sum? Then check out the weekend dim sum brunch at the The Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia’s capital city.

I was surprised to learn that this fairly traditional hotel serves dim sum in its gracious Pacific Restaurant—at least until I found out that the hotel’s executive chef, Rick Choy, hails from Hong Kong. He and his team cook West Coast fare the rest of the week, but on Saturdays and Sundays, Choy goes back to his Hong Kong roots.

Like any serious dim sum dining room, the Grand Pacific is serious about its tea.

You choose your brew from an extensive menu that was compiled in consultation with local tea experts, Silk Road Tea. I sampled a delicate white tea that had hints of orange.

The dim sum menu is small, with dishes all made to order, using local ingredients like seafood from B.C. waters or duck from the nearby Cowichan Valley.

I love congee, and the Grand Pacific version, full of local salmon, was especially delicious.

Another favorite was this fresh, crisp, and garlicky gai lan (Chinese broccoli).

The dim sum offerings are artfully arranged, perhaps reflecting Chef Choy’s background; he was an interior designer before he became a chef!

I also sampled these delicate scallop-filled dumplings, earthy and delicious sticky rice with mushrooms and pork (another one of my favorites), and puffy steamed chicken buns.

For a sweet finish to your dim sum experience, try these excellent Hong Kong-style coconut tarts, which are stuffed with a sugary, chewy coconut filling.

Chef Choy has graciously agreed to share his recipe for coconut tart recipe with WanderFood readers. Come back later this week for the recipe!

About WanderFood Wednesday
Want to share a recipe, photo, or food post of your own? Join the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and post title to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

If you go…
The Hotel Grand Pacific, 463 Belleville Street, Victoria BC, serves dim sum on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 am to 3 pm in their Pacific Restaurant. Reservations are recommended; call 250-380-4458 or book online through Open Table. Most dishes are C$8 each.

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Now that I’ve wrapped up my “Hit the Road Hungry” road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, I wanted to share more details about the car service I used and recap the highlights of the trip.

Hitting the road with Hit The Road: How it works
To arrange the car that I drove to Los Angeles, I worked with a Toronto-based company, Hit The Road, that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved.

Their trips fall into two categories: travel between Canada and the United States and travel within Canada.

They frequently match drivers with “snowbirds”—Canadians who winter in the southern or western United States. Many “snowbirds” need their cars transported between major Canadian cities and destinations like Florida, Arizona, or southern California. Many of these trips are southbound in the fall or early winter and northbound in March, April, and May.

Hit The Road also offers cross-Canada trips: Toronto-Vancouver, Halifax-Calgary, Montreal-Edmonton, or other long-distance journeys. Most of these cross-Canada trips are in the spring, summer, or fall.

Trips can crop up at other times, too. For my trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles in April, I drove a car for a family who was relocating from British Columbia to California. You can check the list of available cars (and where they’re going) on the Hit the Road website, which is updated regularly.

What it costs
Hit the Road pays drivers a stipend to cover gas and some of your travel costs. While the stipend varies depending on the car, destination, and other factors, for a five-day Vancouver-to-Los-Angeles trip like mine, the standard stipend is about $500, or roughly $100 per day.

You won’t be staying at the Ritz, but if you consider accommodation options like AirBnB, couchsurfing, hostels, budget hotels, camping, or bunking with friends along the way, the stipend should cover the majority of your expenses.

Because all trips are one-way, you also need to budget for airfare, train tickets, or bus travel for your return trip if you’re heading back to your starting point. Still, you’re saving money on transportation, since you’re not paying for round-trip travel.

HitTheRoad.ca has a detailed FAQ for prospective drivers that explains how to apply and how to arrange a trip.

What I liked about driving with Hit The Road

• The price is right: You essentially get a free one-way road trip.


• The process is straightforward: Once you agree on a trip, Hit The Road handles the paperwork (which, in my case, included documents for bringing the car across the U.S.-Canadian border).


• It was fun! And there was lots of good eating along the way.

A couple of cautions

• Your trip has a time limit: Because the car owners (understandably) need their vehicles as soon as possible, you need to keep your road trip to a fairly tight schedule. While five days was enough time for me to make it from Vancouver to Los Angeles by myself without feeling like I had to spend 12 hours a day behind the wheel, it would have been nice to have more time to stop and explore along the way.


• Dealing with the car owner can have its downsides: Hit The Road makes the arrangements, but the driver needs to work out the details of picking up and dropping off the car directly with the owner. In my case, once I delivered the car, the owner balked at giving me a ride to the nearby metro station (which was part of the Hit The Road deal). Although she eventually agreed, the delay meant that I missed my train onward to my next stop and spent three extra hours in LA’s Union Station. A big deal? No. An inconvenience? Yes.

“Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip Highlights

Would I do a Hit The Road trip again? Definitely. Overall, my trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles was awesome!

Here’s a recap of some of my adventures:

Most unexpected treat: Wine cupcakes, Los Olivos, CA

Best place to spend a sunny afternoon: La Bicyclette, Carmel, CA

Most deliciousness on two wheels: Bites By Bike foodie cycle tour, Portland, OR

Most fun farmers’ market: Thursday night Farmers’ Market, San Luis Obispo, CA

Most interesting discovery: Cold-brewed coffee, Portland, OR

Worst karma: An encounter with the California Highway Patrol at a Buddhist monastery, Ukiah, CA

Best meal overall: Pok Pok, Portland, OR

It took me five days to drive the 2500 kilometers (1500 miles) from Vancouver to Los Angeles. I flew the same distance home in less than three hours.

Of course, we don’t always have time to meander along the coast, searching for tacos, biscuits and gravy, or a Buddhist vegetarian lunch.

But wouldn’t it be nice if we did?

About WanderFood Wednesday
Every Wednesday, you can share a photo or post about own food adventures as part of the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and post title to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Ask a local. That’s always the best way to get the inside story about a place you’re visiting. And when that local also happens to be a travel writer, all the better…

As I’m road-tripping down the California coast, a fellow travel writer—Indie Traveler Sara Benson—tips me off to the San Luis Obispo Farmers’ Market that runs every Thursday evening year-round. I love wandering through markets, but I’m surprised when Sara and I wander onto Higuera Street and find a full-blown, music-fueled street party in progress.

Alongside the stalls brimming with giant artichokes, fresh strawberries, ruby beets, and oranges large and small, are honey makers and nut vendors, student farmers and grizzled field hands, one group preaching evangelical salvation and another promoting the virtues of atheism.

It seems like nearly everyone who lives is this central California city of 45,000 has come out for farmers’ market night.

And it’s not just for the berries and beets. An entire section of the market is devoted to street food!

We weave through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds toward the aroma of grilling meat. Sara tells me that the market’s “signature dish” is a barbecued tri-trip (steak) sandwich. Alas, one vendor is already sold out and the other two have multi-block-long line-ups.

As I’m weighing up whether to brave the lines—how badly do I need to try the barbecue?—I spy a tamale vendor.

Chile verde tamales? Sold!

I’m glad I asked a local and found this farmers’ market party!

Many thanks to Sara Benson for her California travel tips! And if you’re heading for Las Vegas, she’s the gal to know: she’s the author of the best-selling Viva Las Vegas, Baby! travel app.

Got your own travel tips to share? Every Wednesday, you can share a photo or post about own food adventures as part of the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and post title to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

About the “Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip
I’m doing a solo road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, working with a company called Hit The Road that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved. I’m delivering a forest green 1998 Honda Civic for its owners who are moving from British Columbia to southern California, and I’m eating my way down the west coast.

The previous posts in this series are:
When Plans for Pie Go Awry
Taco Craving
Pok Pok in Portland
Living The Serious Coffee Lifestyle in Portland
Bites By Bike, with Portland’s Pedal Bike Tours
Taste of Korea: A Taste of the Food Cart Scene in Portland
I Should Have Had the Deep-Fried Pickles
Winding Through the Redwood Forest
Ten Thousand Buddhas, One Highway Patrolman, But No Lunch
Time for Biscuits and Gravy!
California Cuisine at La Bicyclette in Carmel

I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I “Hit the Road Hungry!”

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn