Paddle Meals: Trifling with Porlier Pass

August-September 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Deb Leach with Mary Ann Snowden

“We were heading from Southey Point on Saltspring into Porlier Pass poised for a crossing at slack. We saw boats coming at us broadside and were shocked to be facing a full flood. Having reversed the current tables, we reversed course and camped back on Saltspring.”

This confession comes from Mary Ann Snowden, author of the modern classic guidebook, Island Paddling. I caught up with Mary Ann following her two week solo around Saturna and Galiano to update the third edition of her book which will hit stores next year. She was born and raised in BC, and started paddling in 1984. After one trip to the Charlottes she was hired to work at Ocean River Sports in Victoria, more because she loved to talk about trips than for her technical skills, which came later, she says.

It was through ORS that Mary Ann took me paddling for the first time in 1992 and changed my life forever. Her philosophy of packing follows Audrey Sutherland’s motto: ‘Go Light. Go Now’—but she admits she once forgot the stove and resorted to spreading pasta sauce on crackers!

Mary Ann prefers sharing dinners—making mealtime less onerous. “The social part makes the meal and we love outdoing each other on desserts.”

Simplicity includes homemade raspberry and strawberry jam with fresh Camembert for her morning bagels—never forgetting bread and butter pickles and gummy bears.

PORLIER PASS TRIFLE

Sponge Cake or lady fingers

Instant vanilla pudding mix

Brandy or Cointreau

Fruit: At the beginning of a trip, fresh fruit, or fresh frozen fruit; toward the end of a trip, canned fruit

Make the pudding as per directions. Drizzle the sponge cake or lady fingers with brandy, or Cointreau. Alternate layers of cake, pudding and fruit. This Porlier Pass Trifle was served individually in clear plastic cups—the visible layers added greatly to the presentation!

DUTCH ALMOND CAKE (Courtesy of Pacific Rim Paddling Company)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp almond extract

Cream butter, egg, and sugar. Add dry ingredients and almond flavouring. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Dust with icing sugar or mix 1 egg with 1 tsp milk and glaze with slivered almonds. This is a dry cake—almost like shortbread. It travels very well.

PIRATES COVE CHOCOLATE FONDUE

(serves 2 chocoholics, otherwise 4)

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup marshmallows

Mix and stir over low heat until smooth. Dip fruit pieces. Fruits that seem to kayak-travel the best include oranges, melons, apples and pineapple.