SoBo Cookbook = Feel-good food

Lisa Ahier uses key limes to make
unforgettable ceviche.

Every November, my family goes to Tofino for a few days of surfing, eating, reading, walking, and relaxing. The pilgrimage that we share with friends has become an annual highlight.

And every time we’re out that way, we go to SoBo Restaurant (unless it’s closed, which it is at some point every winter, which results in us being very, very sad).

The place started out as a food truck selling fish tacos and has gone on to become the best place to eat in the area: delicious fare made with high-quality, local ingredients offered at extremely reasonable prices. If only there was one closer to home.

I was thrilled to go to the book launch for The SoBo Cookbook: Recipes from the Tofino Restaurant at the End of the Canadian Road and meet Chef Lisa Ahier and her husband and business partner, Artie, a man who knows his wine.

The couple serves up the kind of food that just makes you feel good eating it. It’s natural and unfussy and very, very tasty.

The book contains the recipe for Killer Fish Tacos that made SoBo famous, and I can’t wait to try Health in a Bowl: a recipe for soup she made for her ailing father, it contains red lentils, leeks, zucchini, and carrots purred with Madras curry powder and topped with a cilantro cream. There are stunning photos of food and Tough City throughout.

It also has stories about seaweed and fiddleheads, spot prawns and halibut, family and friends, and life on the wild West coast.

It makes me long for November, when we can breathe in the ocean air, splash in the cold surf, walk on wet beaches, drink wine by a fire, and eat very, very well.