chocolatebuddha » Archives » Vancouver: A chronological pictorial

I arrived in at noon and after spending the afternoon catching up on sleep, Heather, my gracious host & Pilates teacher took us to her favourite Carribean joint – The Reef (what a fun website!). These "Jerked Prawns" don’t look as good as it tastes. Crispy, salty & spicy flavours bursting in my mouth.

Our first day of Pilates at Meridian Pilates Studio started off with
some giant Canadian-sized muffin and the first taste of latte at Cahouln’s. Stepping in through a large medieval door, Cahouln’s is spaciously lined with bulky wooden tables giving it a rustic barn feel. Neither muffin or coffee deserved a praise.

The Land of Green Ginger is two doors away from Cahouln’s on West Broadway, Kitsilano. It became a regular pitstop for excellent organic fairtrade coffee and Chai muffins. Tucked in this tiny cafe is just one long communal table, perfect for chatting up your next-door.

Granville Island Public Market is Vancouver’s most popular market offering an array of fresh seafood, wonderful variety of organic salads, sweets and everything else good about fresh produce. A stall in the market was even selling rare produce from Asia so you could get frozen durians and lemongrass!

At the market, we sampled salmon jerk. An interesting way of preservation. Many flavours were on offer and they don’t come cheap! I would call it – flaky bacon.

Not giving up the opportunity of cooking
with such fresh produce, we shopped at the market for some fresh trout. Seen here before it entered the broiler stuffed with lemon, ginger and cilantro. Heather also gave us a lesson on artichoke preparation and the art of eating it. I’ll always be on a lookout for artichokes from now on!

I spent the Saturday strolling in Stanley Park after a gruelling mat class with Noam Gagnon at his uber cool studio in Chinatown. Coming back downtown, I had to visit Caffe Artigiano which had raving reviews from Lonely Planet and many other websites.

Caffe Artigiano is famed for its latte art and is home to the Canadian Barista Champion. On a Saturday afternoon, a number of caffeine drinkers who were getting their daily fix began to pour onto the sidewalk. Best coffee I had in Vancouver, sits right next to Green Ginger’s organic fairtrade latte.

For the first half of my stay with Heather, I hung out as an Eastender. Exploring Main Street and Commercial Road, a tribute to counter culture, was a refreshing change from beachy Kitsilano and trendy downtown. The jewel of the East side is Slickity Jim’s Chat N Chew located at my daily bus stop on Main Street. On one late night at the bus stop, loud heavy metal music and an even louder cleaner singing caught my attention. Peering through its rusty metal doors, a gem lies within. I was at Slickity Jim’s thrice. And still that’s not enough!

Me and Cat were filled with gratitude for Heather who was hosting us excellently, on top of teaching with such inspiring passion. We had to buy her a meal to remember. After months of debate, the Watermark opened on Kitsilano beach as its only steel structure. I reckon the construction was purposeful, for us at least, to dine on the beach, with night view of North Vancouver and equally good food to match. My 10oz dry aged steak went down so well with a glass of Spanish Tempranillo.

The wine sojourn began with my dear friends’ return from Singapore, whom I shall always remember for reminding me all the good things in life : good food, good wine and good travels.

Our first 5pm happy hour at Tapas Parlour Bin 942, a long and narrow bar who kindly allowed us in at 4:58pm for my first taste of British Columbia wine, taken with a platter of green and black olives. Yumm.

I rode past Lumiere on every bus trip to the studio and back. Reading about Robert Feenie and his respect for local British Columbian produce, of course I’d love to try. As you would see by now, the eating budget had been way overused! Not to fret, we found out that Lumiere, being fully-booked almost every day of the week offered a 3 course bar menu as part of a local food festival. Sampling Robert’s signature dishes for C$35. It was a privilege!

By now I was craving for some home-cooked food, perhaps that could be attributed to the Cancerian in me. Time to check the local Asian grocers out. They should be aptly called Asian Superstores! As the three of us offered to cook for some guests at my friend’s place, we came home with fresh alaskan dungeness crabs, fresh scallops and prawns all to be baked and served with fiery Vietnamese chillies and soya sauce.

Stanley Park is an emerald of green woods at the tip of Downtown Vancouver. With a shoreline of 15km for strolling, cycling or daydreaming, it’s where you would want to seek solace and take a breather. Sequoia Grill is a tourist attraction in Stanley Park. While savouring a good old Eggs Benny for brunch, I was presented with this breathtaking view – all in aid of digesting well.

I spent my final weekend in Victoria, a small quaint city on Vancouver Island which is a 1.5 hour ferry ride from mainland. The pros of having friends who are in the travel industry – insane discounts on hotels. No other way could I have stayed at THE hotel in Victoria : Empress Hotel. Even though I had to be out for my Thomas Myers workshop by 8am, I made sure not to miss breakfast in the Dining Room. A traditional yet gourmet English one.

A trip meant for Pilates education had come with a bonus which I have
no complaints of. Eating my way through Vancouver for 3 weeks had
introduced a culture where fresh and local produce is deeply respected
by its people. And everywhere I ate, each dish was made to bring out
the best of its ingredients. So it’s not about how you dress up your dish, it is about the origin and freshness of ingredients.