Monday, September 6, 2010

Very Vancouver

 

Vancouver grabs you as soon as you enter its airport, with displays of totem poles, boats and artwork of the indigenous people referred to in that part of the world as First Nations. The beautiful city on Canada’s west coast was the starting point for our 7-day cruise along Alaska’s Inside Passage and subsequent visit to Denali National park.

You probably remember it was also the site of the 2010 winter Olympics in February. The Olympic torch is still on display near Canada Place (without the flame of course). olympic flame

Canada Place juts out into the harbor near cruise ship berths and is home to the city’s Convention Center and the Pan Pacific Hotel. Canada Place’s sails are an iconic landmark on the city’s skyline.

July 2010 Alaska 023 

When the lighting is right, the sails make a beautiful reflection in nearby windows.

reflections

  A spacious and lovely promenade sits right below Canada Place, stretching out for a long distance along the waterfront. The promenade is an outdoor living room for inhabitants of the city, with restaurants, parks, sculpture and seating all along the walkway.  We were impressed by the active lifestyle of so many of the city’s residents who were biking or rollerblading in a separate lane created for them.

 

Among the restaurants in a section along the promenade called Coal Harbor, is Cardero’s, where we had our first night’s meal. I was determined to eat fish as often as I could and it wasn’t hard to find it on the menu. The hard part was deciding. I got the Cajun lingcod, while my husband ordered the grilled halibut. Both were perfect and just the right portions, unlike some places where a plate for one could easily serve two or more.

This is Vancouver’s public library – a very controversial building that some say resembles Rome’s Colosseum, but on a much smaller scale. Maybe that’s why I like it – anything that draws on Roman architecture for inspiration is ok in my book.

Vancouver library Through this portal, we headed off to explore a little of Vancouver’s Chinatown.

Chinatown entrance I love perusing food stores wherever I am, and those in any Chinatown always contain surprises I would never have imagined, including these dried geckos – yes, geckos. They’re not used for culinary purposes, but for brewing tea that helps with asthma, back pain and cough. Shall I start the water boiling?

Gecko anyone

It was midday by now and the perfect time for some dim sum. We ordered a variety of dishes, including this fried squid and these pork dumplings, but we both agreed that we’d eaten better dim sum in other cities.

dim sum in Vancouver

Still, Vancouver’s Chinatown has a lovely Chinese garden at Sun Yat Sen park.

There’s an interesting supermarket not too far from Chinatown that has a lot of unusual items.

T&T market

You don’t see lotus root or live tilapia and barramundi in any supermarket in New Jersey like we did in Vancouver.

You can’t go to Vancouver and miss Gastown, a historic part of the city with cobblestone streets and plenty of shops. This section of the city was named for “Gassy Jack” Sleighton, who ran a saloon and could spin tale tales.

gassy jack 

Time for a little culture at Vancouver’s Art Gallery – that’s what they call their art museum. While we were there, we saw a traveling exhibit from Paris’ Musee D’Orsay.

I want to give a special shout-out to Phyllis from the blog Me Hungry for steering me to some really great ethnic restaurants in Vancouver. She knows the city like a native – which she should since she was raised there. She now lives not too far from me in New Jersey, but returns often to Vancouver to visit family.  Naturally, we took her up on many of her suggestions including a place with the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten anywhere. The restaurant is called Vij’s – and a long wait is always to be expected. But it was sooo worth it.

It was pretty dark at our table so my photos are rather lacking, but this is one of the dishes we shared – spot prawns in a sauce with beets. Believe me, it tasted infinitely better than it looks, as did all the other dishes we devoured.

This stone sculpture is called an Inukshuk, and it sits along Vancouver’s English Bay. Inukshuk are used by many of the First Nations people of the Arctic Circle and were believed to have been used for navigation, as a landmark or a marker for hunting grounds.

Indian sculpture

The park along English Bay is a great place for watching spectacular sunsets, and the night we visited we got a extra special treat from a street performer:

You can walk along the bay to catch a ferry to Granville Island, a short 10 minute ride to a veritable cornucopia of markets, eateries and interesting shops. One of my favorite places there was Terra Bakery, where we bought some great foccaccia that we used as the base for sandwiches with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto also purchased there. Aside from the normal things you’d expect at farmer’s markets, like heirloom tomatoes, you can find almost anything else you’re looking for, including a plethora of pates and even sea asparagus, also called hijiki.

Pop into the Granville Island brewery for a sampling of beers – and don’t forget to stop at the seafood place (whose name escapes me) for a platter of oysters.

One serendipitous find was this coffee roasting place owned by a fellow named John Sanders. It’s not a retail establishment, rather a place where John roasts beans and sells them to coffee shops and restaurants. After talking to him for a while, we were impressed by his story and honored to have met him. He’s a man who worked in pest control for many years but found his true passion was coffee. He buys fair trade coffee from farmers all over the world, but what really sets him apart is the humanitarian work he does in those African nations where he buys the coffee. Not only has he sponsored schools in Africa, but each year he spends several months there, volunteering his time to teach people how to become self sufficient through the cultivation and selling of coffee beans.

John Sanders

While we were there, he was giving lessons on making espresso to a young couple interested in opening a coffee shop. One of his baristas made these for us.

decorative touch

Before we left Granville Island, we stopped in to visit the Maritime museum there. What a great place to learn about the seafaring history of this part of the world, including the search for Canada’s Northwest passage.

If you drive a few miles from Vancouver’s downtown, you’ll find the serene and beautiful Nitobe Japanese Gardens at the University of British Columbia:

serene scene

The Museum of Anthropology is also located on the university’s campus. It contains an extraordinary collection of work by First Nations peoples.

inside Vancouver's anthropology museum

Surprisingly, there’s a really well-displayed collection of mostly European ceramics and interesting contemporary art too.

Yaletown is another destination within Vancouver that every foodie needs to visit, since it’s loaded with bars, cafes and restaurants. It’s also the site of the most heralded Italian restaurant in the city - called Cioppino and owned by Pino Posteraro. When I spotted him adjusting something on the menu just outside the restaurant’s doors and started chatting with him, he was extremely gracious. He invited us in (complete strangers no less) and gave us a tour of the restaurant, including the kitchens and private dining rooms.  His award-winning restaurant has been featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and he has cooked for many luminaries, including Bill Clinton and Frank Sinatra.

Sadly, it was our last night in town and we were already booked for dinner elsewhere, but you can bet I’ll be making a reservation for Cioppino’s the next time I visit Vancouver.

 

The food we did eat that night was nothing like Italian cuisine but really delicious nonetheless. Phyllis of Me Hungry, clued us in to the Japanese pub food scene, known as izakaya. It’s recently exploded in Vancouver, and she steered us to a couple of places.  The one we tried (and loved) is called Kingyo. Here are just a few of the delicious dishes we tried: fried squid, shrimp and braised ribs – all with a Japanese accent of course.

Five days in Vancouver was not enough. It’s a fantastic city with something for everyone – from foodies to art lovers to outdoor enthusiasts. On our last morning there, we rented bikes and rode around the perimeter of Stanley Park, a scenic ride along the sea where you’ll pass a display of beautifully-painted totem poles.

July 2010 Alaska 1428

At one point we stopped for a few moment’s rest to soak in the view, when we spied these two little creatures peeping over the sea wall, looking for help from their mama.

babies need help

Thankfully, mama came back to give them a boost and off they all went, traipsing down the path.

mom lends a hand

And so did we, after pausing for a few minutes at this sculpture based on Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid.  Thanks Vancouver, for a great visit to your beautiful city.

 

 

little diver

26 comments:

  1. What a wonderful trip, Linda! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Thanks for another wonderful post about your vacation, Linda! My husband and I hope to take an Alaskan cruise in the future and we
    will be sure to add time to enjoy Vancouver. You highlighted so many interesting places in this beautiful city and the meals you had looked very delicious! It is always nice to have good recommendations.

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  3. I've always wanted to visit Vancouver and this post just underscores it. What a lovely town... and the environs are supposed to be gorgeous, too.

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  4. A nice city! Thanks for sharing!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  5. Vancouver has been on my radar for over ten years! I want a tour of the gardens also. And I;ve read so much about their food/restaurant explosion. I have some lovely art work courtesy of my parent's trip there which I treasure. The post was a lovely journey of glimpses- each more enticing than the last.

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  6. Hey! Lovely pics and interesting post... A real slice of Vancouver life.
    Robyn x

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  7. I haven't been to Vancouver since BEFORE my 22 year old son was born. I recognize some of these places and am glad to discover new ones. If I ever win the lottery, I'd like a second home right here. It's a beautiful place. Well done!

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  8. You've had such nice trips this summer. Those pictures are fantastic. Thanks for sharing. It makes me want to go to Vancouver even more.

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  9. Grazie a te per questo bellissimo post. Buona settimana Daniela.

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  10. The kids just drove back to Vancouver half hour ago. Now that they live there I hope to explore all it has to offer more often.

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  11. Wow! Your photos and little stories are wonderful, I especially love the cute photo of the raccoons! I have never been to Vancouver... it really looks beautiful! Thank you for sharing! - Megan

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  12. What a nice spotlight on Vancouver. It's high on my want-to-see/visit list.

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  13. It is a lifetime dream for me to visit Canada someday...so thanks for the ride !!! I enjoyed looking at your photos with my morning cup of coffee...much more if I had had your glorious Lemon Blueberry Scones !!!!!

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  14. Thanks to you for sharing your vacation memories with us, and for the most terrific photos!

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  15. I'm still stuck on the dried geckos, and not only that, dried geckos on a stick! This was simply too much fun to read and look at.

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  16. What a marvelous photo tour. I've not been to Vancouver, but that will change. Your pictures have convinced I must visit. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  17. Beautiful! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip I went to British Colombia myself this summer spending the majority of my time in the Okanagan valley! Beautiful wines and worth the trip!

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  18. Thank you for such a lovely visit to Vancouver this morning. It is truly one of my favorite places.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  19. I love seeing your photographs, Linda - I'm such an armchair traveler. Looks like Vancouver is beautiful.
    I'll skip the dried gecko and have one of those creamy espressos, though.

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  20. Hi! Thanks for stopping by. It's ok blogs are a little bit confusing especially with all these gadgets & everything. I can show you how to have a follow button.

    1.Click on dashboard on the top of your blog.

    2.Then click on designs.

    3.It will bring you to a page that says page elements, on the right side you will see “Add A Gadget”, click on that.

    4.It will bring you to a pop up box scroll down to where it says “Followers”, there will be a + button, click on that. After you click on that your follower gadget will be added.

    5.Then click save. Go to view blog, & you will now see your new gadget.

    You can follow anybody that has the follow button gadget on their blog, just “Click” follow.
    Hope this helps, if you have any questions or if you’re confused you can ask

    Once you get the follow button I will follow you & you can follow me if you like.


    Let me know if it works for you. :)

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  21. Really enjoyed the tour!
    I have been meaning to cook lotus root, that vegetable medley has inspired me.
    LL

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  22. What a trip Linda, I want to go on vacation with you, where to next?
    I love the photos, the lingcod was calling my name, but sorry to say the raccoons I can do without, I still picture the hole they put in my roof last year!

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  23. Wonderful post. Beautiful city and love the dim sum. Even the airport is pretty with the local art work. Glad you had such a fun trip.
    Joyce

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  24. Thank you for sharing your wonderful pictures from Vancouver. They brought back great memories of my childhood summer vacations spent in that great city with my English great aunties.

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  25. Fabulous post, Linda! Your photos are making me homesick. Glad you enjoyed the food, the sites and the wonderful native art!
    ps. thanks for the shoutout :)

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  26. yep, one of my favorite cities right after my home town TO...aka Toronto.

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