2009 August : Tiny Bites

Dine the Canada Line Series: opening day eats

7 Comments Karen HamiltonAugust 27, 2009

When the Canada Line opened its doors on August 17, 2009, I wasted no time in taking my first train ride to Richmond, a city whose culinary delights have been, until now, rarely featured in my Lower Mainland eating schedule.

Now that this newest Skytrain line has subverted the irritations of driving and bridge congestion, I will be hopping on a Richmond-bound train as often as I can, reporting on Skytrain-friendly eats between now and the wrap-up of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Today’s report: where we ate on Opening Day

Our adventure began at 4 o’clock around Yaletown Station. The Canada Line had been up and running for 3 hours, but the line was still hundreds of people deep. Our wait began near the entrance of Rodney’s Oyster House, moving at a thankfully rapid pace considering the crush of commuters. I grabbed a passionfruit iced lemonade at the Starbucks across from the main entrance while we waited. Others passed the time chatting with neighbours about the traffic found at other stations: Waterfront’s queue was 2-3 hours and the estimate for the airport was similar.

For us, the snaking line took 45 minutes to get through before we witnessed our first train at the platform. We hopped onto one of the two already packed cars and hoped to high heaven that my brother would be able to jump onto the correct car from where he waited at Broadway – City Hall Station.

Thanks in large part to the cellular signal that was meant to be available even underground, we managed to connect with my brother with little difficulty. It petered out between Oakridge – 41st Ave Station and Marine Drive Station, but otherwise was stable throughout the rest of the trip.

This line is the least visually entertaining as a Skytrain tourist, understandably – the commute is mostly underground until Marine Drive Station, just in time to glimpse a bit of the Fraser River as one approaches Bridgeport Station on the other end. I comforted myself with the fact that this line opens more doors to shopping than the others do: 5 malls and 3 shopping districts connected to 8 stations. Food-wise, I cannot wait to explore the lunchtime cafes around Broadway – City Hall Station, the Asian delights around the Golden Village off of Aberdeen Station, and the seafood of Steveston Village, which will be connected via Richmond – Brighouse Station by September 7th. I will, however, have to remember to downplay the proximity of Bridgeport Station to River Rock Casino from my Vegas-loving husband.

Since the line-up at the airport was hours long, we decided to stop instead at Aberdeen Station and reacquaint ourselves with the food of the mall of the same name. Our threesome indulged in savoury buns from Saint Germain Bakery and a New York cheesecake Qoolala from Qoola’s second location before touring the food court at the topmost level.

You may scoff at the idea of being interested in food court stalls…but my dear readers, the food to be had in a Golden Village mall is nothing like the McDonald’s and the Burger Kings of your typical food court. We didn’t have time to linger despite our curiosity about the chicken wings at Wo Fung Dessert and my brother’s googly eyes at Beard Papa’s. I had a prenatal class to return to in the city while my brother wandered off to try a nearby Taiwanese restaurant (his girlfriend claims that Richmond houses the best Taiwanese food to be found in Greater Vancouver). But don’t fret. I’ll be back very soon to give you a much better report of the eats around Aberdeen Station. I hear there’s a great restaurant close by called Shanghai Wonderful whose soup dumplings are not to be missed.

Join us in dining across the Canada Line

As we jump aboard this newest of Skytrain lines leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, we’ll report the good food and sightseeing to be found in our journeys. Reporting style will be a little different for this series: we’ll add new content to existing posts, so that one can bookmark the article about, say, Richmond – Brighouse and have all the recommended eateries laid out for you in one spot.

Expect the next such article in a few weeks, which will give you a much better idea of Aberdeen Station and the eats that surround.

Want to come along for the ride? Have Canada Line food stops to recommend? Comment here or contact us and we’ll try to organize a field trip!

Categories: Food, Restaurants, Richmond

LaStella makes music in a glass

1 Comment Degan BeleyAugust 25, 2009

LaStella is an Okanagan winery making Italian-style wines. They make 6 wines, named after musical instructions, and at a recent tasting they tried to pair wine and music and food together. That’s difficult to do in an open house style of tasting where people are not necessarily drinking the same wines at the same time, but cello and violin music filled LaStella’s lush Italianate office and set the stage for the oeuvre of wine.

First up was the Leggiero Unoaked Chardonnay, as light and delicate as it’s name, tasting of pear and honeysuckle. Paired with seared scallop, it was a good start to the evening, but didn’t stand a chance against the Vivace Pinot Grigio. The Pinot is lemony and citrus, nice and crisp. LaStella focuses on Italian style wines, so the choice of grigio over gris is obvious, but even though it’s the same grape, most Okanagan wineries favour the French style and it’s nice to taste an BC grigio done well.

The Lastellina Merlot rosé was a bit weak and no one flavour really stood out from it. This is the only wine that is not named after a music instruction, so maybe they have other plans for it. Allegretto means to pick up tempo, and so we did, moving on to a Merlot of the same name. This is a beautiful wine, 100% merlot, that tastes of black fruit and berries with a little bit of spice. It’s my favorite until I try the Maestoso. Also 100% merlot, but made from 1 ton of hand-picked grapes per acre, it means “grandiose” in Italian, and it is. Plum, berry and spice flavours roll around in your mouth. In the glass it’s dark in color and dense; the legs on it were incredible.

We also had an opportunity to try the Fortissimo, their first blend of Merlot and Cab Sauv from multiple vineyards and so new it has a hand-written label. It’s a good one.

Categories: Food, Wine

Not your granny’s chamomile

1 Comment Degan BeleyAugust 23, 2009

Sometimes my granny puts whiskey in my tea when I’m sick, but that’s the closest I’ve come to mixing tea and alcohol until last week when I tried J.Witty’s Chamomile liqueur. A friend brought it back from Portland but she wouldn’t tell us what it was and we were at a loss to guess. It tasted vaguely medicinal, with floral and spicy notes, not unlike a flowery gin, but the caramel colour was a problem.

There was a bit of an aha! moment when we were told the secret ingredient, and now I’m wondering what other tea-alcohols would be good. Rooibos and rum? Matcha vodka? So much for the stereotypes about tea drinkers! Looking around the internet, I discovered Qi Sprits, who make an orange white-tea liqueur and a smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea liqueur that I’m dying to try.

And then, as always, is the problem with mix. J. Witty has some recipe suggestions for the chamomile liqueur that sound intriguing. I particularly like the Cherry Blossom:

2 oz. gold rum
1 oz. J. Witty Chamomile
½ oz. Cherry Heering
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Stir ingredients with cracked ice. Strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass.

I’d be interested to see what Lauren at the Refinery would do with it, but first I’m going to have to go to Portland to get some, since it’s not available in Canada.

Categories: Beyond Vancouver, Downtown, Food, Yummy Products

Older Entries →