We love to hear from our customers & opening the comment box is a great source of fun & entertainment!   WE do take your comments into consideration.  I hope you enjoy reading over them!

#1 It would be so fun for the kids of the picture on the back of the kids menu changed every once in awhile. I agree, so on our next menu re-print we will change it up! Unfortnatley we have about 1000 kids menu’s to get thru first……thanks for your great suggestion.

#2 Time to change the dessert menu. You can look forward to a fresh desert menu in the spring!

#3 Maybe relocate the clock where people can see it better. As long as they promise not panic any more then they already do for the ferry!!

#4 Sticky chickey too drippy (less sauce please), needs moer chickey.   We love sauce and more often than not so do our customers but we will watch how much goes on to the sticky chickey cause it has to be stickey!!

#5 Cool place, yummy fries & great chicken burrito! from Seattle. Hey Seattle, thanks for signing! 

#6 Thank you kindly for your recent inclusion of music that plays to the soul instead of the desire to get out quickly with remaining soul intact. Signed sincerely your jazzy customers.

#7 It is a relief to have changed the station from the coffee house to more broader horizons. The thing with the music is that what one person loves another loathes. Common ground can be hard to attain! We hope you try out our live music Monday’s!!

#8 Really tasty curry – lots of mussels & prawns, always delish! Great service with a smile:) Sue.   Thank you Sue for your wonderful compliment – it means alot! Positivity goes a loooong way.

#9 This place ROCKS!! Thanks Nehala!! Happy New Year 2012. I have to admit that some days we have got it going on!!! Happy New Year to you too.

#10 Best food & drink in a long time. thanks

#11 The crispy noodles in the Kung Pow are not a plus – they are tasteless, too hard and difficult to eat. Nice peanut sauce! Thank you for some feedback on the crispy noodles.In an attempt to offer consistent goodness we felt that getting ride of bean sprouts was a good choice & these seemed like a fun alternative. I wish I knew who you were so I could get you to try them one more time…..

#12 Very tasty food, keep up the good work. Happy new years to you all & thanks for the food. Love Francesca:) We appreciate your sweetness!

#13 Dear Rock Salt Chef: I am a delivery girl on your beautiful island each Tuesday. My highlight of my day would be enjoying your “chicken salad with apricot chutney”. I miss it so much, please bring it back!! Love your food Brenda. Dear Brenda, I am so sorry to disappoint you, but we no longer use the apricot chutney in anything else!! If you called ahead we could make you a chicken salad sandwich with mango chutney…let us know.

#14 For many years my wife and I have come down for coffee at 8:30am. We have coffee and a cheese stick. For over a month now no cheese sticks, why? Stan. Hi Stan, the real reason is that we have had our bakers starting between 5:30 & 6am rather than 4:30am. Sorry to have caused a cheese stick delay!

#15 I had a great time here, good food & service. Extra thanks to Emma for being so helpful & kind to me. Melody Harrison. We love Emma and wish her great times in her travels through India. Thanks for you happy comments, it makes us feel truly successful.

#16 U r the best. STICKY CHICKY ROCKS!! Victoria. Hey Victoria, TY, and we too love the sticky chicky for its tongue twister capabilitiles.

#17 We miss the tuna burger. It was sooo good! Honestly that was my favorite new item on our menu but the cost was increasing & we really didn’t want to raise the price so in all fairness it had to go. I could send you the recipe if I knew who you were!

#18 Have a sharky day, the coffee was delicious! Service & food is way above average!! Rock Salt: 4 stars, Hastings House: 5 stars Wow!! What a comment – thank you.

#19 There are more and more of us who don’t eat wheat. Would you consider making a gluten free option for a lunch take out? Why yes, we would. At times we have offerd salads with a protein but we will develop some better options for our glu-tards (as Lauren calls herself!)

#20 Best place in BC to wait for a ferry:) This comment I have to say that I 100% agree with. We do a slamming job for a ferry terminal restaurant – proof that we are more:)

#21 Time for a NEW toilet seat in the men’s bathroom. Doesn’t fit with the new fixtures. Just a suggestion. Okay, we will talk to our handy man about this, as I personally do not use the men’s, I hope you don’t all off the toilet in the mean time.

I have heard so many men in the past week mention “hallmark holiday” when the topic of Valentine’s day comes up.   I did a little research and found out that these guys are rightly informed in their critisism.  I also know that hallmark or not, any reason is a good reason to celebrate, especially in the dreariness of February, and espcially for the cause of LOVE!

If you are looking for a fun evening with your signifgant other you should most definatley make a reservation at Rock Salt Restaurant & Cafe.  Why?  Well, we are offering 4 nights of Valentine’s specials starting withour popular Mexican night on Saturday February 11th & will continue the goodness thru the 14th.  If you plan ahead, and make a reservation for one of those evenings, we will enter your name in the draw to win back the cost of your dinner in the form of a Rock Salt gift card.

The Valentine’s dinner specials will consist of a three course Mexican dinner with special deals on fresh “killer” lime margarita’s.  We will offer the Mexican food as a spcial price for all 3 courses ( 3 for $35) or you can order items seperatley or you can order off the regular menu!

Stay tuned for the menu, it will posted early next week!

In the meantime, remember to apprecaite your loved one every day!!

Monday February 6th
Kyra Shaughnessy
Kyra is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and slam poet based out of the Eastern Townships and Montreal area of Quebec. At 24 she has already produced two full albums of original music and is working on a third for 2012. Kyra has toured across Canada, the U.S. and the E.U. Inspired by gospel, folk and roots traditions, her music is both joyful and intelligently critical, lyric-driven and hauntingly melodic. You may find yourself wanting to sing along! 

Monday February 13th
Ruby L.
Enjoy an evening of sounds from Ruby L as she plays an acoustic set of covers and originals and then an electronic set with an eclectic mix using MIDI keys, a loop layers and tasteful DJ ambient dinner music.
After being off island for ten years Ruby L has come home to her favorite island. While off island Ruby L was trained at Selkirk College in Nelson B.C. for Contemporary Music and Technology where she studied voice and audio for film. For the past nine years Ruby has toured B.C. performing at festivals and theaters with various ensembles including her band “Pureblend” and with her children’s music “The Fable Cottage“. She currently teaches voice and basic piano from Acoustic Planet Music and at her home studio. Ruby composes audio for films and videos. Please contact her at: rubylbrunelle@yahoo.ca for more information about her song writing works and sound design. She is a member of SOCAN.

Rock Salt Un-Plugged for Monday January 23^rdHey you Irish musicans out there!  Join us at Rock Salt between 6 & 8pm this Monday for a traditional Irish session hosted by our friend Gregory Gan.  We will offer Nelson IPA beer for $5 just to help along the Irish good times!

Our host of the evening is Rock Salt’s Gregory Gan who started his adventurous life in Russia, and has since lived all over the world including France, Belgium and Latin America.  Greg recently arrived on the shores of Salt Spring Island after a long train journey originating in Newfoundland, which was home for the past 5 years.

Greg “The Whistle” Gan is a conservatory trained recorder player!  His love for Irish music developed during his time in Newfoundland which is known for his vibrant Irish music scene.   Greg would like to invite all interested musicans to bring an instrument & join in the ”traditional” Irish music session, especially if you are familiar with tunes such as, “I killed my wife & danced on her grave” and “Ryan’s Fancy”.

A good Irish night also needs enough joyous bodies to fill the room & appreicate the fun so we hope this suits your fancy & you head down tonight for dinner or just for drinks!

See you tonight!

happy new year from the Rock Salt team!

We wanted to share this simple recipe for our “killer margarita”, of which we served up on New Year’s eve for the Mexican Festivities.  You haven’t missed your chance as we will continue to serve them up throughout the month on Saturday nights for Mexican Night when serve authentic Mexican cuisine!

Ingredients for Killer Margaritas:
1 oz. tequilla
1 oz. triple sec
1 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. sweet lime juice or mix

The how to for Killer Margaritas:
Rub a lime on the rim of your short glass, and then salt.  Toss 3 lime slices into the bottom of the cup and muddle them up.  Pour all 4 ingredients into the martini shaker with a friendly scoop of ice and shake it up!  Pour into your glass and serve with a lime wedge.  Yum!

The best burger ever now comes with fries.

Well, it happened.  After all of these years of holding out on the installation of a deep fryer, the owners of the Rock Salt gave in & bought the dam thing!  This is going to be good.  Delicious in fact.

Think of all of those freezing cold, wet soccer players all winter long that can now warm up in our café with a bag of hot, fresh French fries drenched in malt vinegar & bright red ketchup!   It almost seems like French fries have gotten healthier.   It makes one want to say yum.

The word on the restaurant scene is that “ ½ inch, skin on, fresh Kennebecs” are the best choice for fries.  What exactly is a Kennebec potato?

“The Kennebec potato is making quite an imprint on the culinary world… potato-wise. The days of ‘just use any old potato’ for french fries are gone, and finer restaurants are switching over to the Kennebec for a variety of reasons and for many kinds of dishes. Why?   As with all basic food items, the qualities of that particular food are important to how it is cooked by itself and how it is used with other ingredients in recipes. The Kennebec has great potato qualities and, although this strain of potato has been around for over 50 years, it’s just beginning to get its due by being noticed by restauranteurs.    The Kennebec is a large potato, and it looks very pretty with its light tan skin, nice uniform appearance and attractive white fleshy insides. The skin is thin so it peels quickly (and is fine to use even unpeeled), and it’s a nice oval potato so it is more attractive on the plate than some other irregularly-shaped ones.” (http://www.kennebecpotato.com)

So there we have it folks, fresh cut, delicious,  ½ inch, skin on, Kennebec fries.  Come try ‘em & let us know how you like them.

And if that wasn’t enough, we got really inspired by our staff with Frech-Canadian roots and started POUTINE!  The food almost deserves its own cheer leading squad.  “A melange of warm, fresh, hand-cut french fries, topped with cheese curds & smothered in gravy”.    You’ll have to get in onthe debate on whether the cheese curds should traditional go under the fries or on top.

Last but certainly not least, yam fries in all of their popularity made thier way into our hearts and onto our menu.  Chipolte mayo to boot.

The perfect match for those awesome home cut fries is one of our burgers.  My personal favourite is the cranberry chicken burger but we have got options!  Check out the blog post written by Hummingbird, who made this fairly serious accusation, “I have discovered what I think are perhaps the best burgers in all of British Columbia.”  Here is the recipe for our “best burger ever” as declared by our customers.

Beef Burger

Combine:
2 large eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4  cup minced onion (really really small or burgers will fall apart)
1  Tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1  teaspoon pepper

Then add and mix well:
1 cup bread crumbs
1 kilogram hamburger meat

Form into balls and then press firmly into patties.  Burgers are always best if cooked over a flame.  Be careful to ensure that they are done all the way through but not over done.  When the juice runs clear they are done.

Happy holidays from all the crew at the Rock Salt Restaurant & Cafe!

In an effort to keep you posted about what is happening inside this lovely little restaurant, in this frosty little village, I thought I’d send out a holiday greeting.  May your season be filled with love, warmth & happiness.

The Rock Salt will be operating at full force right up until Christmas Eve when we close our doors at 4pm & remain closed through the 25th.  

Lauren has agreed to open the cafe bright & early for all of you off- island boxing day shoppers hoping to get an early start!  The coffee will be brewing & the doors unlocked at 7am.  The resaturant will not open up until 9am at which time we will be serving brunch ALL DAY!

We will be hosting a 3 course Mexican dinner on Saturday December 31st from 6pm-9pm for $35 per person.  Reservations are highly recommended for this night.  We can help you get a great start to your evening’s events with fresh lime margaritas, cervaza for $4 and the traditional flavours of Mexico.  The party tunes will be playing and a fun dinner atmosphere shall overtake the village!

Then we reach New Year’s day!  Happy New Year!  This year the cafe & restaurant will be opening at 9am on New Year’s day for brunch ALL DAY.  The fun part is that if you join the staff in wearing your pj’s to the Rock Salt for brunch you will get FREE LATTE’s!

Wishing all of our customers, staff, friends & family a fantastic end to 2011 & begining of the new year.

“Patterson’s may be closed but Fulford is not!” is the holiday message being sent from the Fulford Harbour local – Marilyn who runs the Fulford Marina with her husband.  

Fulford would like to welcome Holiday goer’s for some

Festive Fulford frolicking on the eve of Friday December 16th 

Starting at 5pm there will be hot apple cider & music in the street by Samba de Soliel & the Sir Bassa Crew,  followed by holiday carolling.  The businesses will be open late for evening shopping & weather permitting (cross your fingers) the boats will be on parade in Fulford Harbour!   We will also be accepting donations of non-perishable food items & clothing for the Copper Kettle.  Bruce will be pulling back the fence to make room for all to enjoy the festive events safely!  We do, howerver, recommend bringing a flash light.

Come on down to sample the world’s flavours and artisan markets! 

You can enter to win some very fabulous prizes!  Each business will have a draw; Stuff & Nonsense – $50 gift certificate, Jambalaya – Leather Journal, Spokepeople – $50 Bike Tune-Up, Knotty Threads – Hand Woven Wool Scarf & Rock Salt Restaurant & Cafe – Mexican Cooking Lesson with our Chef Joel!  To enter you need to fill out a ballot at each of the participating businesses as each business will have their own draw.

If you have any questions regarding this event please give Shannon @ the Rock Salt Restuarant & Cafe a call 250-653-4833. 

Hope to see you there with bells on your toes.

In an attempt to liven up the south end a little, we’ve decided to start hosting Rock Salt Unplugged.   

This coming Monday (November 28^th) please join in the fun at the Rock Salt Restaurant & Café to enjoy an evening filled with the gorgeous voice of Billie Woods.  Billie will be preforming from 6pm – 8pm in the dining room at the Rock Salt.  You are welcome to come down for dinner or pass through for a coffee & desert – choose your pleasure! 

Chances are you have been lucky enough to be flashed a great smile from this beautiful Salt Spring musician – and if you haven’t, well, you are missing out!  Billie Woods is a vivacious, captivating woman who was first inspired musically by her Grandma!  Grandma’s whole life was music and she would just pass Billie an instrument and say, “start playing”!  Playing the guitar was influenced by her sisters’ boyfriend back in the day.   When asked about performing on stage, Billie replied, “it is scary & exciting! at its best i get really high from it and in that state magic can happen”. 

This talented woman has a passion for photography as well as music and both art forms have always been a part of her life.  Where music intrigues Billie & provides a never ending journey that will last a life time, photography provides an experience, that brings her closer to many people through the lense.  

Favorite song?  Billie doesn’t have a favorite song and  finds that it depends on what mood she is in as well as what stage of life she is passing through.   Right now she is really digging the song “Teardrops”  done by Jose Gonzales.  Billie will be playing it this Monday!!

The response to having live music in the dining room has been great thus far, and after the first month and we have decided to continue this trend through the winter.

Tis the season for egg nog lattes!  We have them available now at the Rock Salt Restaurant & Cafe.

Egg nog seems to be one of those things you either love or hate.  My son who is five years old can not get enough of the stuff & when we are in Jamaica he is in his bliss as it is available all year round!  Now, I have not been nice enough to mix him up a batch in the middle of summer but if you would like to impress your holiday guests you can brave this very traditional recipe at home. 

Traditional Egg Nog Ingredients

12 eggs, separated
6 cups milk
2 cups heavy/ thickened cream
2 cups bourbon
1+ 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup brandy
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

Traditional Eggnog Directions

In a large bowl and using a mixer, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar for approx 10 minutes (you want the mixture to be firm and the colour of butter).
Very slowly, add in the bourbon and brandy – just a little at a time.
When bourbon and brandy have been added, allow the mixture to cool in the fridge (for up to 6 hours, depending on how long before your party you’re making the eggnog).
30 minutes before your guests arrive, stir the milk into the chilled yolk mixture.
Stir in 1+ 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg.
In a separate bowl, beat the cream with a mixer on high speed until the cream forms stiff peaks.
In yet another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture.
Gently fold the cream into the egg mixture.
After ladling into cups, garnish with the remainder of the ground nutmeg.

Serves: 8

To kick your egg nog into high gear, try mixing up these magical martini’s!

Eggnog Martini Ingredients

1 ounce spiced rum, something like Captain Morgan’s.
1 1/2 ounces dark rum, your favorite brand will do.
1/2 ounce vanilla vodka
3 ounces of eggnog
1/4 ounce plain syrup
Crushed graham crackers
Honey

Eggnog Martini Directions

Mix the dark rum, spiced rum, and vodka in a martini shaker. Add ice.
Add in the eggnog and a dash of syrup.
Dip the rim of a chilled martini glass in honey, then into the graham crackers.
Shake, strain, then pour into the chilled martini glass.
Optional: garnish by adding a cinnamon stick, or a small amount of powdered cinnamon to the top of the drink.

Serves 1. Scale up ingredients for multiple martinis.