Alexandra Road in Richmond aka Food Street - Cattle Hot Pot.

Our last night in Richmond, and what a better way to celebrate than heading down to the heart of Richmond's Golden Village to Alexandra Road - Vancouver’s "Wai Sek Kai" or "Food Street." In all the guide books and websites I’ve read, Richmond is said to have the best Chinese food outside of China.

Alexandra Road has over 200 Asian restaurants packed into three short blocks, including all different types of Asian cuisine including Cantonese, Szechuan, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and more.  

We asked Lui (the guy who’s house we are staying in) which was a good place to eat. His answer was pretty simple. “They’re all good! If they weren’t, they just wouldn’t survive here. It’s all Asian people eating in them and if they suck, they close down.”

So we were pretty excited about the prospect of this “Food Street.”

It was unfortunately pouring with freezing cold rain (not an odd occurrence in Vancouver), so we didn’t take too much time walking around the restaurants. Some apparently don’t even look like restaurants. 

We found one that looked really busy, the Cattle hot pot, which we thought was good stuff for a Tuesday night.

A hot pot or steamboat is where you have a simmering metal pot of stock at the centre of the dining table on a hot plate - usually built into the table).  

The Cattle hot pot offers an ALL-U-Can-Eat menu, where you choose your soup – and then you can have unlimited amounts of thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. 

The menu is a bit like ordering dim sum, where you have a pencil and just tick away.

They bring the hot pot with the soup to your table and the raw ingredients. The hot pot is kept simmering on the table and you cook the ingredients yourself in the hot pot. 

We chose the satay soup. 

We had already had a few hotpots in Thailand so we knew what we needed to do this time!

On this image you can see sliced sirloin steak, marinated beef, chicken.

Fresh kings prawns, lotus root, rice noodles.

Medley of mushrooms.

Feshly made lobster balls, goyoza, wontons.

You also have a metal scoop each and a ladle for the table to scoop out your food when it’s cooked. You are also given extra chili to add to season your dish in your bowl.

In the background is bok choy and spinach.

The trick is to not chuck everything in at once (which is what we did the first time!). Think of what takes a bit longer to cook and add that first. You also just keep adding new bits of food in as you eat so the food is so freshly cooked the way you like it.

The waitresses are constantly coming around topping up your green tea and the soup which is great. You can also keep ordering more food to add to your hot pot.

The food was totally delicious. I was stuffed.

Double thumbs up for Food Street!

Shoop, Shoop, Shoop: Skiing at Mount Seymour

Snow shoeing was such a fun day, that we couldn’t wait to get back up the mountain and try out skiing. Dave had been some 15 years ago so we both decided to take the Discover Lesson – which is a two hour introduction to skiing. There had been a lot of new snow so the conditions were pretty good:





Luckily as Dave had been before we were able to get our boots and skis on without help and have a little pre-lesson walk around to get the feel for the boots.








We had a small group of four which was great so we managed to progress quite quickly. We started with walking up hills, which apart from getting up when you fall down, is probably the hardest thing to do when you ski.


First we practiced our pizza’s (or plough as some of you might know it) and our turns on the small slope surrounded by five year olds whizzing around us on snow boards. I wasn’t jealous of them at all. Honest. It’s similar to ice skating in the way that you can’t move your ankles at all, so it’s all movement from the hips and the knees. I found it hard to make a big enough pizza at first, so I zoomed into Dave nearly knocking him over, I also fell over on my arse. After that I tried not to fall back on my arse by learning forward, but must’ve leant forward too much as I ended up in a reverse snow angle position, face down with a mouthful of snow. To top it off I had no idea how to get up from that position and I had to wait for my instructor (lovely Madeline, who was only about 15 and half my size) come over and help. We tried several attempts to get up and in the end, due to the position I was in, I had to step backwards with my hands sticking my arse out to the whole crowd of people waiting to go up the magic carpet (the baby slope lift). You leave your dignity at the door when you start skiing.


I’m not sure what people are like I other countries, but thankfully in Canada they are nice, polite and helpful and don’t seem to laugh and point. Also snow doesn’t hurt when you fall in it – well not at the speed I was going anyway.


We all perfected out turns and our pizzas and ended our lesson with a couple of tries down the Rookies run and I didn’t fall down – I know, I was so impressed with myself!

We were shown (thankfully) how to use the chair lifts. I was just as excited about getting on the chair lifts as I was skiing, but it’s a bit tricky to use them first and both of you trying to line your skis up!





Our lesson ended and we tried to go down the run from the top, I fell in about two seconds of the starting and my ski popped off. I just couldn’t get it back on as the snow was too deep. It was really frustrating being stuck at the top of a really steep slope with one ski off. In the end we both had to take our skis off and walk back up to the top! After a nice warm coffee and some chips, sorry fries, we were back out and the sky cleared.





We decided after a few runs to make it up to the next slope taking the mystery chair lift.





The lift went on for AGES. I started to realize how high we were actually going up, the wind really picked up the higher you went. Just as we got to the top we stopped for ages blowing in the wind, I really wanted to get off at that point. Finally it was our turn to get off and we both fell over as soon as we hit the snow. They had to stop the lift until we could get out of the way – which took a while to say the least. I just couldn’t get up. I was laughing so much which made it even harder. In the end I had to ask another skier to help with Dave to pull me up. I finally made it upright with my pants full of snow. The view from the top was amazing.





But it made me realize just how far up we were. When we got to the top of the slope (sorry no pics at this point, as I was too damn petrified and couldn’t maneuver a camera and my poles). I felt like we were in heaven, literally and the only way down was to ski down this really steep slope. 


We both zoomed down trying to keep our pizza’s but within seconds were both over in the snow. I managed to get up easier this time as I used the angle of the slope. I was so scared and thought to myself, why I had gone up a really big slope when I had been skiing for about three hours and also scared of heights? But you know what, I’m so glad we did it. It took us a long time to get down, but after that the smaller slope was so easier and looking back even though I was so scared, it was such an adrenalin rush.





As the sun started to set we started to realize how absolutely knackered we both were and also that we were pretty cold, so decided it was time to call it a day. 


And what an awesome day. We can’t wait to go back. 


I’m just aching so much today. I ache in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.


You can see the full set of pictures on Flickr.




Created with flickr slideshow.

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Vancouver food crawl... dougieDOG's, WINGS and La Belle Patate Poutine!

As we hadn't quite had enough junk food from Vegas, we thought hey why not have another afternoon of beer and good Canadian fast food?!

Starting off our mini crawl was dougieDOGs. We'd seen this guy on the Canadian version of Dragons Den. He didn't get the money, but his dogs looked and sounded amazing! Dougie had re-invented the hotdog and introduced all-natural dogs, free of hormones, preservatives and chemical additives.

Styled on the European hotdog recipes using only meat and seasoning and married these beautiful wieners with weird and wonderful toppings, like their signature DougieDOG with Italian Pastrami, grey poupon, mustard, horseradish and cheddar cheese – you can check out all their weird and wonderful concoctions here on the menu.

The Coney Island dog was the dog of choice. All natural hotdog slathered in homemade beef chili, chopped onions and mustard.

The first thing you notice when you bite, is the "pop". mmmm just tasted so good, and I didn't have to worry about biting on a piece of something I wasn't sure of - which is generally what puts me off eating that type of meat. The chili in a Coney Dog should be bean-less - just meat and spice, which it was here. Even though I do prefer beans, I was happy Dougie is keeping it real!

Next was WINGS. Yes the actual place is called WINGS, so I'm sure you can guess what their specialty is...

We also hit the jackpot when we arrived as between 3-5 is happy hour for wings, only 35 cents a wing - woohoo!! Not only are they award winning wings, but they also offer 21 flavours ranging from mild to the Bobby Wing where you have to sign a release form to eat them.

OK, so we weren't that brave, but opted for the original Buffalo wings ( I just can't get enough of that flavour) and some Texas Dry Rub. All washed down with a pitcher of Sleeman Honey Brown lager.

I'm sorry this picture doesn't quite do the wings justice, but to be honest the wings were so damn good that I couldn't wait another minute before I shoved them in my mouth. You could tell these wings were not cooked in the fryer as the meat just fell off the bones, and as good as the dry rub was, the Buffalo style sauce is still my favourite.

We had a bit of a break after to watch the Canucks (Vancouver's nhl team) vs the Predators, which they won. I'm starting to really like watching the hockey...

After the game victory and another pitcher of beer, we needed another food high and what better that Canada's own Poutine? We had walked past La Belle Patate a few times who boasted 24 different types of poutine, so we just had to make a stop there. You can get anything from smoked meat poutine to breakfast poutine.

Lots of places have game day deals, where of the Canucks are playing they have awesome deals on food and drink and La Belle Patate was no exception. Two poutines for $8, we slightly considered the "all you can eat for $19.95" but decided you would need to be able to eat a lot of poutine to make that worth while!!

We sat and waited and after about 5 minutes a very red eyed guy came over and said he had forgotten about the fries and burnt them. Hmmm, I think this sort of thing must happen quite often in Vancouver judging by the general green aroma. But we didn't mind at all and he even offered us two larger sized portions to say sorry for the wait.

Now the picture below may or may not tickle your taste buds, but until you have tried poutine... you just don't know what you're missing. I'm totally hooked.

Snowshoeing at Mount Seymour

We had wanted to try out snowshoeing since we got to Canada. We hoped we would get a chance at Christmas but there just wasn’t enough snow. There was an offer on Groupon for 60% off Full-Day Snowshoe Rental and Snowshoe Trail Pass at Mount Seymour and as that mountain, well like a lot of the mountains in Vancouver, was accessible by public transport – we jumped at the chance.

Sunday was the day. 

The shuttle bus up the mountain runs from Parkgate Community Centre but it’s not really regular so we headed off early.  As we boarded the bus, we both commented that there probably wasn’t too much snow as we were already quite high and there was no snow around. Wrong! As the bus climbed the mountain road the amount of snow by the side grew and grew. I had never been anywhere before with so much snow.

When we arrived, it was all pretty easy and we exchanged our Groupon vouchers for our snowshoes with ease.  We were handed a map of the trails, attached our trail passes and headed off.



The atmosphere was great even with a DJ spinning 80’s tunes! There are several different trials to choose from.

When you reach the trail you instantly hit quite a steep hill, which at first is pretty daunting. But you just have to trust the shoes and go with it. When you do it’s pretty awesome. It’s also actually easier to run downhill that it is to walk – or slide.

The weather was pretty cloudy and as we were in the clouds the visibility wasn’t great, but the trials are in the trees so we didn’t miss much scenery. It was just great to see so much snow.

I even built a snow man!

The Discovery Trails we walked are maintained really well - there are even bridges constructed out of snow.



It started snowing quite heavily also which was pretty ace. All in all we walked about 5k, which doesn’t sound that far, but hills in snowshoes take their toll on your calves… great work out for your butt. We were pretty shattered by the time we finished and with my waterproof walking shoes turning out to be not so waterproof I was also pretty cold.




But who cares, it was so much fun, I had a constant smile on my face, even if I did look like Gene Simmons by the end of it with my mascara all down my face, I loved it and so did Dave.

Next stop, ski slopes.

You can see the full set of images on Flickr.


Created with flickr slideshow.

My first Canadian Beaver Tail

So I've eaten Poutine, drank Tim Hortons but I was still yet to try a beaver tail. Don't worry it's not actual beaver tail, they're a type of fried dough in the shape of... a beaver's tail!



You can choose from an array of flavours from maple butter, skor bar, Oreo cookie, rieces pieces, chocolate and banana. We went for a hazlenut chocolate spread.



It was so delicious, I thought it might be too greasy being fried but it was just really crispy and quite light - well the dough not the Nutella!!



I also ended up looking just like this little girl... Mmm beaver tails rock!

First days in Vancouver – Stanley Park

Arrived in Vancouver after a heavy week of goodbyes in TO, Chicago and Vegas, we were greeted by Vancouver with glorious sunshine. As soon as you step outside you notice how fresh the air is and then you see the mountains. Bam. What a sight and all around you.

We took a walk around Stanley Park an evergreen oasis of 400 hectares (1,000 acres) close to downtown Vancouver with a 9km seawall walk which starts by the harbour.

With great views of the city skyline.

The view is just amazing and the clouds form in great shapes even under the bridge.

For the second half of the walk was the most stunning sunset. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

 

Hello Vancouver!