During the Horizons Unlimited rally at Nakusp, Jo and I attended a presentation by Ekke and Audrey on their recent travels in Japan, and South East Asia. Twice during the presentation, and much to our surprise, Ekke flashed up pictures of a piece of cake of the type we call a slice in Australia. With great delight he pointed out that he was able to find nemo bars in Japan and Cambodia at places run by ex-pat Canadians. This brought applause, cheers and a round of general approval from the mainly Canadian audience. We asked a friend exactly what is a nemo bar and were quickly corrected. It is, we were assured, a nanaimo bar and it is one of the greatest of sweet treats and just the thing to have with coffee.

I got the impression that nanaimo bars (slices in Ozspeak) are like lamingtons; a sweet comfort carried forward from childhood, made by grandmothers and sold at school fetes. Perhaps I sell it short. Perhaps it's more like a vanilla slice or a sticky, chocolate iced eclair. Regardless of its real significance, long time readers will see where this is going immediately. We were off on a search for the nanaimo bar to find out what the fuss was about. Not that we rushed into nanaimo bars all at once. We saw them for sale in Vancouver as we touristed our way around but it never seemed to be the right time for such an important purchase. No, we  figured we would wait until we got to the town of Nanaimo which had given the bar its name.  As this is also the ferry terminal town on Vancouver Island we reckoned it wouldn't be too hard a task to find the best possible example. Well, you would think that wouldn't you!

As it turned out, we rolled off the ferry at Nanaimo and headed south without stopping having decided to use the afternoon of a beautiful day to continue to the provincial capital Victoria. We returned to Nanaimo a couple of days later but our plans for an original nanaimo bar were thwarted when I stopped at an auto parts place to buy a replacement M8 screw and we ended spending an hour chatting with locals rather than drinking coffee and eating sweet treats.

Oh well, we spent the next few days exploring the island west and north to Port Hardy, the  dog-eared port town for the ferry north. Then, in the chilly 5:30AM morning, we rolled Elephant  onto the famed Inside Passage Ferry bound for Prince Rupert. The 17 hour journey is eye wateringly expensive but is one of those iconic journeys that somehow justified the expense.  We spent most of the journey on the back deck taking in the ever-changing view, looking for  elusive Canadian wildlife and snapping photos of the relentlessly spectacular scenery. A  number of friends have done some version of the same journey on luxurious cruise ships,  some starting further south and some ending further north, so I should make clear that BC  Ferries don't run one of those luxury cruises. This is a vehicle ferry and, while many like us  take for the journey for its own sake, its basic business is business.

Despite its utilitarian nature, the Northern Expedition was comfortable enough and provided the  great benefit of having Elephant securely strapped down on the vehicle deck. To our delight, bikes were loaded near the ramp and were first off at a weary 11:00PM. By midnight we had  found shelter in a cheap motel near the centre of town and climbed into a warm bed. The Inside Passage had been a long, tiring but mostly rewarding day.

We stayed on in Prince Rupert for a while and explored this interesting little town in a lot more detail than was necessary. The place had a nice feel to it; rough and ready, but also a little  sophisticated in the things that count... like coffee, for instance, or a secret sunken garden in  a disused ammunition storage facility, or a street enigmatically named Bill Murray Way. Of course, we hadn't forgotten about nanaimo bars and eventually found as many as we could eat  (which is not that many at all) and formed our own judgement on them. What are they like? That you will have to discover yourself and to help you with this task the official Nanaimo Bar recipe is as follows:

The Ultimate Nanaimo Bar Recipe

The nanaimo bar is a three layered slice with a biscuit base, a custard centre and a chocolate top.
 
The Base:
½ cup of unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa
1 egg beaten
1 ¾ cups of graham wafer crumbs
½ cup of finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut

Base Directions:
Melt the first three ingredients in a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the crumbs, coconut and nuts. Press firmly into an un-greased slice tray.

Middle Layer:
½ cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp and 2 tsp of cream
2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
2 cups icing sugar

Middle Layer Directions:

Cream the butter, cream, custard powder and icing sugar together well. Beat until light.  Spread over the bottom layer.

Top Layer:
4 oz semi sweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Top Layer Directions:
Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat. Allow to cool. While still liquid, pour over the second layer and chill in the refrigerator.
Cut into portions (small, very small) and serve with the strongest coffee possible!