Manitoba Regional Cuisine

The Canadian prairies are still considered farm country but the food here transcends the Wheat-belt image these days. The staple pork, beef and poultry producers have made way for bison, elk and wild boar producers. Farmers markets are abundant with intelligent organic producers of every kind, assorted wild honeys, specialty preserves and “foraged” foods: a term that describes the harvest of people who pick edible things from the local woods.  Any chef could have a day that inspires creativity at one of these markets.

 

Some chefs do. Brent Barna at the exclusive Niakwa Country Club buys from this type of local producer. 

“Have you ever seen a fresh porcini or chanterelle” he inquires?"Of course", I say. Then he proudly takes me into his fridge where he has a shelf of mushroom exotica, all very fresh. There is a box of luminous bright yellow chanterelles, big and perfect with no scrap pieces;  the porcinis, so plump and beautiful, it seems a shame to cut them up. Then something Brent was particularly proud to show off: Lobster mushrooms, something I had not seen before. They are bright orange, the colour of pumpkins. Brent says the texture is meaty and the flavor is reminiscent of lobster. He knows a woman who picks them in the Sandilands Forest southeast of Winnipeg. He buys everything she gathers. Brent tells me that there are people cultivating truffle mushrooms in

North America now.  Elsewhere in his fridge were boxes of spiral beets, fresh carrots, parsnips, squashes and herbs all brought to him by nearby growers. 

"There is nothing like it", Brent exclaims! He puts these fresh local ingredients into his daily and nightly specials for the member’s dining room as well as the Provence dining room (which is open to the public) creating his own brand of Manitoba regional cuisine. A gem in a city of a thousand restaurants!

 

Provence

Bistro

Reservations 256-7326