Vancouver!
Aug. 21st, 2012 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Back from Vancouver, where adelagia, slitherhither and I had a blast. We didn't kill each other and remain friends, which is always a 50/50 prospect when traveling with people for the first time. So yay for that! :D
We stayed in Richmond, at the Westin Wall Centre (see, you know it's Canada because it's spelled like that :P), which I booked on Hotwire. We left around 10am on Friday, after I dropped Talis off at the kennel. We did not have an auspicious start, as B. hurt herself on my front door's latch and began bleeding, then once we were on the road I went into auto-mode and started going south on I5, which I almost always do when I'm out and about normally, but which is not the thing to do if one is headed for Canada. Sigh.
The other thing was that I forgot to bring my camera. Double sigh. Luckily T. had hers.
We arrived at our first restaurant, Kintaro (a Japanese ramen shop), at around 1pm. We were all very hungry. We had to wait in a line, but it wasn't too bad. Little did we know at the time that due to the restaurant selections I had made (all very popular choices, based on recommendations from my foodies list at work), it was the first of many lines we'd have to stand in to get a meal. Anyway, it was very exciting as I've never been to a proper ramen shop before. :D That Friday was supposed to be in the 90s in Seattle; it wasn't as bad in Vancouver, but still warm enough that sitting in a tiny, non-air-conditioned shop with four large vats of boiling soup, eating hot noodles, was somewhat of a challenge. I can only imagine how delicious it would be on a cold day (and how much longer the line is, probably). I can't remember now the names of what all we ordered, but I know you could get your broth light, medium or rich, and choose between fatty and lean pork. The woman who took our orders preferred the fatty pork, so that's what me and T. got -- it was, in fact, extremely delicious, but also, yes, extremely fatty. Oh well. Food on vacation has no calories! Mine was also spicy, as was B.'s (though she got a vegetarian variation), and both of ours also came with a "ball of garlic," which was, literally, a large ball of minced garlic. OMG, I don't think anyone needs that much garlic. Anyway, I wish I could have tried all the flavors. They even had a CHEESE ramen that I was super curious about (when I told K. about this later, she said that San Francisco is full of ramen shops, and yes, cheese is a popular topping!) -- they literally piled on a bunch of shredded cheese -- and you could even get butter as a topping! I am totally abusing the word 'literally' but I feel that I have no other choice.
Our bowls of ramen:
Per advice fromfearthainn, I paid with U.S. cash, which almost all the places we went to would take. They all even had daily exchange rates posted, and the restaurant rates were just as good as, if not better, than the bank exchange rates. O.o But the bank exchange rates were good too, and didn't charge us any fees for exchanging our money. The bank we went to allowed us to exchange up to $200 U.S. with ID. It was a far better deal than using an ATM (where you'd get hit with a foreign transaction fee and potential other bank fees) or getting Canadian cash from a U.S. bank. Plus banks in Canada are open 7 days a week (limited time on Sundays)! (On the flip side, street parking is also 7 days a week and goes from 9am-10pm! Ugh.)
Anyway, for dinner we went to Banana Leaf. Or, I should say, we went to one of the many, many Banana Leafs (Leaves?) that exist in Vancouver. There are so many that when I made our reservation, they reminded me of what street they were on, so that I wouldn't wander into some other Banana Leaf. Anyway, we had been interested in coming here because they had Singaporean chili crab. It was very good, if not strictly authentic, according to T., our resident expert on Singapore. From what I know of chili crab, and she confirmed, it is supposed to be in more of a soupy sauce. Instead, this sauce was like a paste. But it was delicious, and the crab was fresh, though my fingers smelled like chili crab for hours afterward. We also ordered a rendang beef curry that was OK and a papaya-pineapple salad that was yummy. (Sorry it's half eaten. We didn't always remember to take photos before we started stuffing our faces.)
After dinner we went to the gelato place next door, called Gelarmony. Actually we were looking for a specific chocolate dessert place, but we went the wrong way initially, and course correcting when walking takes a lot longer than driving, so we didn't have time because we were trying to make a showing of The Bourne Legacy. :D :D Anyway, I don't remember all the flavors we got. Mine was... pistachio and Ferrero Rocher, T.'s was coconut? And rose? B.'s was Toblerone? And cappuccino?
THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE BOURNE LEGACY!!!!! We went to a really run-down theater that charged $12.75 per ticket. >< It was like a theater straight out of my childhood. No stadium seating, the rows were super close together, and the screen was tiny compared to the size of the theater. And there was no air conditioning! I'm used to always being COLD in theaters; I was sweating in this one. As if I needed another reason to want to be with Jeremy in Alaska!
I can't believe we did all that in one day. Wow. I'm pretty proud of us, in retrospect.
The next day, we went to Lin's for an early lunch. It was a Shanghainese restaurant where we had delicious dumplings. We ate an entire order of soup dumplings before we even thought about taking pictures. >.> I love soup dumplings. Because Bellevue has Din Tai Fung it's not impossible to get them in the Puget Sound area anymore, but they're pricey and there's almost always a wait at DTF.
Green onion pancakes:
Pan-fried dumplings and one order of soup dumplings:
Preserved vegetable and shredded pork soup noodles:
After lunch, we stopped by Goldilocks, a Filipino bakery, where we tried a slice of their ube roll, a purple sweet potato cake. It was underwhelming. It basically tasted like... cake. Then we walked across the street to Death by Chocolate, which was so much less awesome than the name implies. It was a fancy espresso bar with some chocolate desserts. With that kind of name, it should be wall-to-wall chocolate and specialize in chocolate drinks, imo. B. got some kind of coffee there. No pictures of either of these, the cake was gone in about 30 seconds, lol.
Then we went to Canadian Maple Delights, because I realllllly wanted to get some Canadian maple syrup, though Vancouver isn't really the maple syrup producing region of Canada. CMD was an awesome little shop, even if it did obviously cater to tourists. They had a whole selection of gelato that was made from maple syrup instead of sugar and an espresso bar that served maple lattes, maple baked goods and maple-sweetened lemonade. That's in addition to all the (organic!) maple products found in the store. T. got a lemonade, B. got a maple cookie (which was basically like candy) and a maple latte, which was yummy.
I didn't end up buying any syrup. They had a little tasting station and I really loved the darkest syrup they carried (which was the second-to-darkest syrup on the Canadian scale), but I couldn't justify paying that price for it, because it was a teeny tiny bottle. I mean, it was the equivalent of Grade B maple syrup in the States, which I usually buy at Trader Joe's (also the organic kind). The maple syrup I get is always a "product of Canada," which I read somewhere means that it is 100% pure maple syrup (whereas U.S. syrup can have *trace* elements of things like salt). I'm not sure if that's still true even if it's being exported to the U.S., but I assume if there were even trace elements of other things it'd still be in the ingredients list, so I feel it's on the up and up. Anyway, I decided that if I was going to pay that kind of price, I might as well get something that I both loved *and* was unique.
What fit the bill was this incredibly sweet and delicious maple spread -- it looks like creamed honey. It's maple syrup that's been heated and stirred until it turns into this whipped, creamy consistency. It's awesome stuff. It's super sweet though, so a little goes a long way. I bought a jar each for me, K., andjade_okelani (it was the last 3 in the store). You're supposed to use it the way you would honey, so you can use it to flavor drinks, make salad dressing, spread it (thinly) on toast or pancakes, etc. YUM. The shop also had things like maple mustard, maple sugar, etc., and I really wanted some of everything, but I limited myself to the spread.
After that, we bought ourselves a kurobuta pork terimayo hot dog from a nearby Japadog cart. What the heck is that, you might ask. WELL I'LL TELL YOU. Japadog is a super popular chain of hot dog carts/stands in Vancouver that sell Japanese-themed hot dogs. What was recommended to me was the okonomi, but the kurobuta pork terimayo was their specialty and the most popular item, according to the cute Japanese girl who served us, so we went with that.
Ohmygawd you guys, we were shocked by how much we enjoyed this hot dog. It was soooooooooo good. I didn't really expect to like it that much because it just sounded so strange: kurobuta pork (the pork equivalent of kobe beef), fried onions, teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, and seaweed. It was totally delicious! It's probably a good thing Japadog doesn't exist in Seattle (though I hear there's a faux place) because otherwise I would probably eat way more hot dogs than I should. >.>
Dinner was at Vij's, this insanely popular, upscale Indian restaurant that had been recommended to high heaven by many and various sources. We got there around 5pm and there was already 50 or so people in line (it opens at 5:30). O.o We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get in or if it was worth the wait. The pregnant woman ahead of us in line was like, "It should tell you something that I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant and I'm standing here waiting. IT'S WORTH IT." We decided that if we got in (pregnant lady's husband was pessimistic about all of us), great, but if we didn't, we wouldn't wait around for the second seating but would go to a different restaurant, maybe Rangoli next door, which has the same owner (but like Tom Douglas restaurants, they're all themed slightly differently). But guess what!! WE WERE THE LAST PEOPLE THEY SEATED. It was so awesome. They had to cut it off right after us because we got the last table in the restaurant, and then only because we were willing to sit with 3 of us at a 2-person table. They brought out chai and free appetizers for everyone, which was a very nice touch. The people who didn't get in but wanted to wait for a table were taken to the back and also served appetizers. During the dinner itself naan bread and rice kept getting refilled until we could take no more. The service was really excellent. We never once had to fill our own water glasses, and the second our naan plate was empty we were asked if we wanted more.
The pictures from our dinner here are terrible, apologies in advance. :/ There was very dark lighting and we didn't want to disturb everyone around us with a flash, so... yeah. What we each ordered (and shared samples with each other):
Lamb popsicles (me): Wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on turmeric and spinach potatoes. This was the pregnant woman's favorite dish and I totally know why. It was delicious. I assume they're called "popsicles" because the lamb chop bones make them resemble little popsicles. The sauce was... indescribable. I pretty much soaked up every drop with naan. :D
Spot prawns (B.): BC spot prawns in coconut and fenugreek masala with wheat berry pilaf.
Split pea and spinach dumplings (T.): Split pea and spinach mash and spicy milley/bulghar dumplings with vegetables sauteed in pomegranate curry.
After dinner we went to Bella Gelateria, which has very unique gelato flavors, but is really pricey. Gelarmony had more traditional/boring flavors, but was just as good. Anyway, we shared a triple. Flavors we got were: Meyer lemon with basil, salted hazelnut, and pandan with coconut.
After all that, we could not eat one thing more. Which was a shame, because the Night Market was only a few blocks from our hotel, and despite wanting to fall into immediate food comas to veg and play Pandemic the rest of the night, we forced ourselves to go to the Night Market. We paid our $1.50 entrance fee, then marveled at basically being transported to Asia. It was an open-air market that resembles those that can be found in any big city in Asia. The place was PACKED with people. There were tons of booths selling useless crap (practically every other booth was selling cell phone cases) that's still somehow compelling. I really wanted a Hello Kitty blanket but they were asking too much and I didn't feel like haggling.
On top of all the merchandise, there were food booths and more food booths. I was very, very tempted by this one thing, a fried potato tornado or whatever, where a single potato is sliced into a long, connected spiral, skewered, then deep fried and topped with your choice of flavoring. I would have done it if the line hadn't been like 5 miles long. There was also deep-fried cheesecake (like any respectable fair), deep-fried octopus, other things on skewers, and more prepared Asian food. One of these days I'm totally going back there and just gorging myself. Anyway, as we were leaving, I totally sniffed something in the air and turned to T.: "Do you smell what I smell?" She looked puzzled at first, then her eyes grew round with excitement: "YES!" It was so funny. We were totally smelling some pungent stinky tofu, which I'm sure was also deep fried and on a stick, though we didn't actually locate the booth selling it. That, too, I might've gotten had I been hungrier and had the place not been packed with so many people and lines.
The next morning we went to Medina Café for breakfast. It was another place that had been recommended to me. We got there at 8:40am and, you guessed it, A LINE HAD ALREADY FORMED. Again, by the time the restaurant actually opened, there were tons of people behind us. WTF seriously, is it like this all over Vancouver??? Anyway, it was an upscale place like Vij's. The food was good and presented beautifully. Witness:
Fricasse (me): 2 fried eggs, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, watercress and smoked applewood cheddar. Grilled foccacia.
Waffle (also me): With white-chocolate pistachio rosewater dipping sauce. You guys, this was the best waffle I've ever had. It was yeasty and bready and just plain delicious. T. said that she'd never cared for waffles, but that was before she had this one. We are so going to have to learn how to make waffles like this.
Le Sante (B.): Soft boiled egg, ripe tomato, avocado, prosciutto, extra virgin olive oil, grilled ciabatta. You guys, had my server not recommended the fricassee, I so would have gotten this. All simple flavors that I LOVE.
Saumon Fumé and Roasted Potatoes from Medina Cafe (T.): Open faced ciabatta sandwich. Fried egg, smoked salmon caper cream cheese, sliced avocado, arugula peppadew and artichoke salad. T. also got roasted potatoes on the side and they were awesome. I don't know which herbs they used to flavor them with (there were at least 3), or what kind of cheese they melted on top, but it was a delightful combination.
And then it was time to go home. :( The one thing that was less than satisfying about Vancouver was that the coffee there left a lot to be desired. I don't know if it was just a weird fluke (according to K., she went somewhere that had amazing coffee, so maybe we just had bad luck), but we did not drink one good cup of coffee while we were there. After Medina we went to Blenz (the Vancouver equivalent of Tully's, because there were plenty of Starbucks -- we counted ~20 unique stores), and it was about as good as the worst Starbucks I've ever been served. So it was bad, but not undrinkable. Maybe we just didn't go to the right coffee places (I didn't research it beforehand.)
So, all in all, a total blast. Too short, really, but I think we were very productive with the time we had. :D
I was worried about the pets, but they both made it through unscathed. According to Talis's kennel report card, he ate well and got along with his roommate (a Bichon named Natasha!! Oh how I wish Talis was named Clint -- THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME lol). Jaime seemed none the worse for wear, though when I left my overnight bag out he climbed right into it as if to say, "Next time, take me with youuuuuuuu." LOL.
Edit: I was so concerned with detailing all the food we ate that I didn't make note of the non-food stuff. >.> So I am copying and pasting some other stuff fromadelagia's post on this exact same trip, for posterity.
****
We kicked things off on Friday morning playing Fictional Character Twenty Questions on the way up, though we couldn't remember what fandoms we all shared or what shows we had all seen, so that was a tricky game to pull off, lol. The record was 7 questions
[It was sooooo fun. We did not manage to stump one another.]
****
Dinner conversation was predictably cultured and erudite. To wit --
B: "Did you see that one commercial about the swimmer from Bremerton?"
J and T: "~*Nathan Adrian*~? ♥___♥"
Following which we had an imaginary date with Nathan Adrian's older brother, with eloquent conversational gambits such as, "So, tell me all about Nathan," and "How does he feel about older women?"
(We really like Nathan Adrian.)
[Hells yeah we do.]
****
After dinner, we thought we'd walk to dessert (to really earn it) -- plus we had gotten a sweet parking spot that was miraculously free. (Omg, parking in Vancouver is SO EXPENSIVE. There was one space we got where it cost $2 for 20 minutes. WTH.) So we walked.
("Bear left," said the map. "Where did it go?" asked J.)
And walked, and walked. All the while continuing our car game, an alphabet game naming fictional, and then eventually real people. Finally, after blocks and blocks of residential neighbourhood, J flagged down a guy to ask if we were going the right way (he met her cuteness criterion; she let several other candidates walk on by before settling on him), and we most definitely were not.
[He WAS cute. In an Aaron Paul kind of way. Also, if I'm going to talk to a random stranger, it might as well be a cute guy, amirite??]
****
By the time we got back to our hotel it was past midnight and we didn't sleep till about 2am, as B and J had gotten into an intense round of the alphabet name game.
[IT'S ADDICTIVE OK]
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The secret of xiaolongbao, which blew J's mind, is that the soup is placed in the dumpling skin in solid, gelatin form, and when it gets steamed, the gelatin melts into liquid.
[*mind blown again*]
****
While at Japadog, B noticed some zombies lurching about. There was possibly some con going on, as there were also little ragtag groups of cosplayers popping up here and there. B and I agreed that, should the zombie apocalypse strike, we'd both prefer to just lie down and die. J is going to stock up on weaponry.
[:)))))))))) I watch The Walking Dead. I'm totally prepared. My first move: Kill any annoying children around who will only slow you down and lessen your chances of survival.]
****
The secondary theme to our trip, as it turned out, was to run out the parking meter whenever possible to get our money's worth; sightseeing happened only by default.
[This is sadly so true.]
adelagia, slitherhither and I had a blast. We didn't kill each other and remain friends, which is always a 50/50 prospect when traveling with people for the first time. So yay for that! :D We stayed in Richmond, at the Westin Wall Centre (see, you know it's Canada because it's spelled like that :P), which I booked on Hotwire. We left around 10am on Friday, after I dropped Talis off at the kennel. We did not have an auspicious start, as B. hurt herself on my front door's latch and began bleeding, then once we were on the road I went into auto-mode and started going south on I5, which I almost always do when I'm out and about normally, but which is not the thing to do if one is headed for Canada. Sigh.
The other thing was that I forgot to bring my camera. Double sigh. Luckily T. had hers.
We arrived at our first restaurant, Kintaro (a Japanese ramen shop), at around 1pm. We were all very hungry. We had to wait in a line, but it wasn't too bad. Little did we know at the time that due to the restaurant selections I had made (all very popular choices, based on recommendations from my foodies list at work), it was the first of many lines we'd have to stand in to get a meal. Anyway, it was very exciting as I've never been to a proper ramen shop before. :D That Friday was supposed to be in the 90s in Seattle; it wasn't as bad in Vancouver, but still warm enough that sitting in a tiny, non-air-conditioned shop with four large vats of boiling soup, eating hot noodles, was somewhat of a challenge. I can only imagine how delicious it would be on a cold day (and how much longer the line is, probably). I can't remember now the names of what all we ordered, but I know you could get your broth light, medium or rich, and choose between fatty and lean pork. The woman who took our orders preferred the fatty pork, so that's what me and T. got -- it was, in fact, extremely delicious, but also, yes, extremely fatty. Oh well. Food on vacation has no calories! Mine was also spicy, as was B.'s (though she got a vegetarian variation), and both of ours also came with a "ball of garlic," which was, literally, a large ball of minced garlic. OMG, I don't think anyone needs that much garlic. Anyway, I wish I could have tried all the flavors. They even had a CHEESE ramen that I was super curious about (when I told K. about this later, she said that San Francisco is full of ramen shops, and yes, cheese is a popular topping!) -- they literally piled on a bunch of shredded cheese -- and you could even get butter as a topping! I am totally abusing the word 'literally' but I feel that I have no other choice.
Our bowls of ramen:
Per advice from
fearthainn, I paid with U.S. cash, which almost all the places we went to would take. They all even had daily exchange rates posted, and the restaurant rates were just as good as, if not better, than the bank exchange rates. O.o But the bank exchange rates were good too, and didn't charge us any fees for exchanging our money. The bank we went to allowed us to exchange up to $200 U.S. with ID. It was a far better deal than using an ATM (where you'd get hit with a foreign transaction fee and potential other bank fees) or getting Canadian cash from a U.S. bank. Plus banks in Canada are open 7 days a week (limited time on Sundays)! (On the flip side, street parking is also 7 days a week and goes from 9am-10pm! Ugh.)Anyway, for dinner we went to Banana Leaf. Or, I should say, we went to one of the many, many Banana Leafs (Leaves?) that exist in Vancouver. There are so many that when I made our reservation, they reminded me of what street they were on, so that I wouldn't wander into some other Banana Leaf. Anyway, we had been interested in coming here because they had Singaporean chili crab. It was very good, if not strictly authentic, according to T., our resident expert on Singapore. From what I know of chili crab, and she confirmed, it is supposed to be in more of a soupy sauce. Instead, this sauce was like a paste. But it was delicious, and the crab was fresh, though my fingers smelled like chili crab for hours afterward. We also ordered a rendang beef curry that was OK and a papaya-pineapple salad that was yummy. (Sorry it's half eaten. We didn't always remember to take photos before we started stuffing our faces.)
After dinner we went to the gelato place next door, called Gelarmony. Actually we were looking for a specific chocolate dessert place, but we went the wrong way initially, and course correcting when walking takes a lot longer than driving, so we didn't have time because we were trying to make a showing of The Bourne Legacy. :D :D Anyway, I don't remember all the flavors we got. Mine was... pistachio and Ferrero Rocher, T.'s was coconut? And rose? B.'s was Toblerone? And cappuccino?
THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE BOURNE LEGACY!!!!! We went to a really run-down theater that charged $12.75 per ticket. >< It was like a theater straight out of my childhood. No stadium seating, the rows were super close together, and the screen was tiny compared to the size of the theater. And there was no air conditioning! I'm used to always being COLD in theaters; I was sweating in this one. As if I needed another reason to want to be with Jeremy in Alaska!
I can't believe we did all that in one day. Wow. I'm pretty proud of us, in retrospect.
The next day, we went to Lin's for an early lunch. It was a Shanghainese restaurant where we had delicious dumplings. We ate an entire order of soup dumplings before we even thought about taking pictures. >.> I love soup dumplings. Because Bellevue has Din Tai Fung it's not impossible to get them in the Puget Sound area anymore, but they're pricey and there's almost always a wait at DTF.
Green onion pancakes:
Pan-fried dumplings and one order of soup dumplings:
Preserved vegetable and shredded pork soup noodles:
After lunch, we stopped by Goldilocks, a Filipino bakery, where we tried a slice of their ube roll, a purple sweet potato cake. It was underwhelming. It basically tasted like... cake. Then we walked across the street to Death by Chocolate, which was so much less awesome than the name implies. It was a fancy espresso bar with some chocolate desserts. With that kind of name, it should be wall-to-wall chocolate and specialize in chocolate drinks, imo. B. got some kind of coffee there. No pictures of either of these, the cake was gone in about 30 seconds, lol.
Then we went to Canadian Maple Delights, because I realllllly wanted to get some Canadian maple syrup, though Vancouver isn't really the maple syrup producing region of Canada. CMD was an awesome little shop, even if it did obviously cater to tourists. They had a whole selection of gelato that was made from maple syrup instead of sugar and an espresso bar that served maple lattes, maple baked goods and maple-sweetened lemonade. That's in addition to all the (organic!) maple products found in the store. T. got a lemonade, B. got a maple cookie (which was basically like candy) and a maple latte, which was yummy.
I didn't end up buying any syrup. They had a little tasting station and I really loved the darkest syrup they carried (which was the second-to-darkest syrup on the Canadian scale), but I couldn't justify paying that price for it, because it was a teeny tiny bottle. I mean, it was the equivalent of Grade B maple syrup in the States, which I usually buy at Trader Joe's (also the organic kind). The maple syrup I get is always a "product of Canada," which I read somewhere means that it is 100% pure maple syrup (whereas U.S. syrup can have *trace* elements of things like salt). I'm not sure if that's still true even if it's being exported to the U.S., but I assume if there were even trace elements of other things it'd still be in the ingredients list, so I feel it's on the up and up. Anyway, I decided that if I was going to pay that kind of price, I might as well get something that I both loved *and* was unique.
What fit the bill was this incredibly sweet and delicious maple spread -- it looks like creamed honey. It's maple syrup that's been heated and stirred until it turns into this whipped, creamy consistency. It's awesome stuff. It's super sweet though, so a little goes a long way. I bought a jar each for me, K., and
jade_okelani (it was the last 3 in the store). You're supposed to use it the way you would honey, so you can use it to flavor drinks, make salad dressing, spread it (thinly) on toast or pancakes, etc. YUM. The shop also had things like maple mustard, maple sugar, etc., and I really wanted some of everything, but I limited myself to the spread.After that, we bought ourselves a kurobuta pork terimayo hot dog from a nearby Japadog cart. What the heck is that, you might ask. WELL I'LL TELL YOU. Japadog is a super popular chain of hot dog carts/stands in Vancouver that sell Japanese-themed hot dogs. What was recommended to me was the okonomi, but the kurobuta pork terimayo was their specialty and the most popular item, according to the cute Japanese girl who served us, so we went with that.
Ohmygawd you guys, we were shocked by how much we enjoyed this hot dog. It was soooooooooo good. I didn't really expect to like it that much because it just sounded so strange: kurobuta pork (the pork equivalent of kobe beef), fried onions, teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, and seaweed. It was totally delicious! It's probably a good thing Japadog doesn't exist in Seattle (though I hear there's a faux place) because otherwise I would probably eat way more hot dogs than I should. >.>
Dinner was at Vij's, this insanely popular, upscale Indian restaurant that had been recommended to high heaven by many and various sources. We got there around 5pm and there was already 50 or so people in line (it opens at 5:30). O.o We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get in or if it was worth the wait. The pregnant woman ahead of us in line was like, "It should tell you something that I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant and I'm standing here waiting. IT'S WORTH IT." We decided that if we got in (pregnant lady's husband was pessimistic about all of us), great, but if we didn't, we wouldn't wait around for the second seating but would go to a different restaurant, maybe Rangoli next door, which has the same owner (but like Tom Douglas restaurants, they're all themed slightly differently). But guess what!! WE WERE THE LAST PEOPLE THEY SEATED. It was so awesome. They had to cut it off right after us because we got the last table in the restaurant, and then only because we were willing to sit with 3 of us at a 2-person table. They brought out chai and free appetizers for everyone, which was a very nice touch. The people who didn't get in but wanted to wait for a table were taken to the back and also served appetizers. During the dinner itself naan bread and rice kept getting refilled until we could take no more. The service was really excellent. We never once had to fill our own water glasses, and the second our naan plate was empty we were asked if we wanted more.
The pictures from our dinner here are terrible, apologies in advance. :/ There was very dark lighting and we didn't want to disturb everyone around us with a flash, so... yeah. What we each ordered (and shared samples with each other):
Lamb popsicles (me): Wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on turmeric and spinach potatoes. This was the pregnant woman's favorite dish and I totally know why. It was delicious. I assume they're called "popsicles" because the lamb chop bones make them resemble little popsicles. The sauce was... indescribable. I pretty much soaked up every drop with naan. :D
Spot prawns (B.): BC spot prawns in coconut and fenugreek masala with wheat berry pilaf.
Split pea and spinach dumplings (T.): Split pea and spinach mash and spicy milley/bulghar dumplings with vegetables sauteed in pomegranate curry.
After dinner we went to Bella Gelateria, which has very unique gelato flavors, but is really pricey. Gelarmony had more traditional/boring flavors, but was just as good. Anyway, we shared a triple. Flavors we got were: Meyer lemon with basil, salted hazelnut, and pandan with coconut.
After all that, we could not eat one thing more. Which was a shame, because the Night Market was only a few blocks from our hotel, and despite wanting to fall into immediate food comas to veg and play Pandemic the rest of the night, we forced ourselves to go to the Night Market. We paid our $1.50 entrance fee, then marveled at basically being transported to Asia. It was an open-air market that resembles those that can be found in any big city in Asia. The place was PACKED with people. There were tons of booths selling useless crap (practically every other booth was selling cell phone cases) that's still somehow compelling. I really wanted a Hello Kitty blanket but they were asking too much and I didn't feel like haggling.
On top of all the merchandise, there were food booths and more food booths. I was very, very tempted by this one thing, a fried potato tornado or whatever, where a single potato is sliced into a long, connected spiral, skewered, then deep fried and topped with your choice of flavoring. I would have done it if the line hadn't been like 5 miles long. There was also deep-fried cheesecake (like any respectable fair), deep-fried octopus, other things on skewers, and more prepared Asian food. One of these days I'm totally going back there and just gorging myself. Anyway, as we were leaving, I totally sniffed something in the air and turned to T.: "Do you smell what I smell?" She looked puzzled at first, then her eyes grew round with excitement: "YES!" It was so funny. We were totally smelling some pungent stinky tofu, which I'm sure was also deep fried and on a stick, though we didn't actually locate the booth selling it. That, too, I might've gotten had I been hungrier and had the place not been packed with so many people and lines.
The next morning we went to Medina Café for breakfast. It was another place that had been recommended to me. We got there at 8:40am and, you guessed it, A LINE HAD ALREADY FORMED. Again, by the time the restaurant actually opened, there were tons of people behind us. WTF seriously, is it like this all over Vancouver??? Anyway, it was an upscale place like Vij's. The food was good and presented beautifully. Witness:
Fricasse (me): 2 fried eggs, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, watercress and smoked applewood cheddar. Grilled foccacia.
Waffle (also me): With white-chocolate pistachio rosewater dipping sauce. You guys, this was the best waffle I've ever had. It was yeasty and bready and just plain delicious. T. said that she'd never cared for waffles, but that was before she had this one. We are so going to have to learn how to make waffles like this.
Le Sante (B.): Soft boiled egg, ripe tomato, avocado, prosciutto, extra virgin olive oil, grilled ciabatta. You guys, had my server not recommended the fricassee, I so would have gotten this. All simple flavors that I LOVE.
Saumon Fumé and Roasted Potatoes from Medina Cafe (T.): Open faced ciabatta sandwich. Fried egg, smoked salmon caper cream cheese, sliced avocado, arugula peppadew and artichoke salad. T. also got roasted potatoes on the side and they were awesome. I don't know which herbs they used to flavor them with (there were at least 3), or what kind of cheese they melted on top, but it was a delightful combination.
And then it was time to go home. :( The one thing that was less than satisfying about Vancouver was that the coffee there left a lot to be desired. I don't know if it was just a weird fluke (according to K., she went somewhere that had amazing coffee, so maybe we just had bad luck), but we did not drink one good cup of coffee while we were there. After Medina we went to Blenz (the Vancouver equivalent of Tully's, because there were plenty of Starbucks -- we counted ~20 unique stores), and it was about as good as the worst Starbucks I've ever been served. So it was bad, but not undrinkable. Maybe we just didn't go to the right coffee places (I didn't research it beforehand.)
So, all in all, a total blast. Too short, really, but I think we were very productive with the time we had. :D
I was worried about the pets, but they both made it through unscathed. According to Talis's kennel report card, he ate well and got along with his roommate (a Bichon named Natasha!! Oh how I wish Talis was named Clint -- THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME lol). Jaime seemed none the worse for wear, though when I left my overnight bag out he climbed right into it as if to say, "Next time, take me with youuuuuuuu." LOL.
Edit: I was so concerned with detailing all the food we ate that I didn't make note of the non-food stuff. >.> So I am copying and pasting some other stuff from
adelagia's post on this exact same trip, for posterity. ****
We kicked things off on Friday morning playing Fictional Character Twenty Questions on the way up, though we couldn't remember what fandoms we all shared or what shows we had all seen, so that was a tricky game to pull off, lol. The record was 7 questions
[It was sooooo fun. We did not manage to stump one another.]
****
Dinner conversation was predictably cultured and erudite. To wit --
B: "Did you see that one commercial about the swimmer from Bremerton?"
J and T: "~*Nathan Adrian*~? ♥___♥"
Following which we had an imaginary date with Nathan Adrian's older brother, with eloquent conversational gambits such as, "So, tell me all about Nathan," and "How does he feel about older women?"
(We really like Nathan Adrian.)
[Hells yeah we do.]
****
After dinner, we thought we'd walk to dessert (to really earn it) -- plus we had gotten a sweet parking spot that was miraculously free. (Omg, parking in Vancouver is SO EXPENSIVE. There was one space we got where it cost $2 for 20 minutes. WTH.) So we walked.
("Bear left," said the map. "Where did it go?" asked J.)
And walked, and walked. All the while continuing our car game, an alphabet game naming fictional, and then eventually real people. Finally, after blocks and blocks of residential neighbourhood, J flagged down a guy to ask if we were going the right way (he met her cuteness criterion; she let several other candidates walk on by before settling on him), and we most definitely were not.
[He WAS cute. In an Aaron Paul kind of way. Also, if I'm going to talk to a random stranger, it might as well be a cute guy, amirite??]
****
By the time we got back to our hotel it was past midnight and we didn't sleep till about 2am, as B and J had gotten into an intense round of the alphabet name game.
[IT'S ADDICTIVE OK]
****
The secret of xiaolongbao, which blew J's mind, is that the soup is placed in the dumpling skin in solid, gelatin form, and when it gets steamed, the gelatin melts into liquid.
[*mind blown again*]
****
While at Japadog, B noticed some zombies lurching about. There was possibly some con going on, as there were also little ragtag groups of cosplayers popping up here and there. B and I agreed that, should the zombie apocalypse strike, we'd both prefer to just lie down and die. J is going to stock up on weaponry.
[:)))))))))) I watch The Walking Dead. I'm totally prepared. My first move: Kill any annoying children around who will only slow you down and lessen your chances of survival.]
****
The secondary theme to our trip, as it turned out, was to run out the parking meter whenever possible to get our money's worth; sightseeing happened only by default.
[This is sadly so true.]
