Friday, January 28, 2011

Vancouver: Snacking All Day Long - Day 2

After a good bike ride around the park and stuffing ourselves with JapaDog's delicious creation, we got on the seabus (a ferry) and headed towards North Vancouver which is about a 15minute ride. Our goal was to get to the Capilano Suspension Bridge ASAP since weather forecast predicted rain. When we got there, it wasn't rainy but it sure was gloomy and foggy with clouds that look like doom.

Yes, Capilano Suspension Bridge is somewhat of a tourist trap but seriously, it was cool. I've never been on a suspension bridge, let alone the longest suspension bridge in the world. It's wobbly and hard to balance especially when there's a good amount of the people so it is exciting. The view is pretty spectacular too.

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You can find out more about it here.

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Pretty crazy view in the canyon though. On the most right picture you can see there's also these treetop bridges that connect you from one huge redwood to another. (Click to enlarge)

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After our 2 hour trek around the forest, and failing miserably trying to take pictures (kinda hard to have a steady hand when the bridge shakes), we decided to stop by McDonald at the seabus station to check out if they have poutine (fries with gravy), but they didn't so we went for these McDonald McMini chicken sandwiches. They sure are small but they ain't cheap either. Where's the 99cent menu at??

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Pesto McMini. You can choose between grilled chicken or fried, and of course we went with the fried option :P This was my favorite McMini. Surprisingly garlicky pesto with fried chicken = win.

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Spicy Thai McMini. Yea... pretty much sweet & sour sauce with a little kick. It was whatevs.

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Mango Chicken McMini. It's actually more like mango chutney on the chicken so it's actually a little Indian twist on the sandwich. Not bad but seriously, take it easy on the mayo Canada. EVERYTHING is mayo-ed up like crazy.

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Of course, every country's McDonald has their own unique pies besides apple pie and in Canada, it's banana chocolate cream pie!

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Same flaky crust.

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Sorry, it's not the most appetizing picture but yes, the cream pie. I'm not a big fan of banana desserts so... yup. However if you do like banana desserts, it is very banana-y :P

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Lonsdale Quay Market
123 Carrie Cates Ct
North Vancouver, BC V7M 3K7

Afterwards, right next to the seabus station, it's the Lonsdale Quay Market, which is essentially a farmer's market. Small produce, seafood, and specialty stores can be found in this market with a few food vendors. We met up with Amanda T. and proceeded to search for some more fooood.

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First stop, some Canadian pastry, the Beavertail, which is essentially a dough rolled flat, fried, then they add toppings.

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History of Beavertail. I don't want to type it out so click on it to enlarge haha.

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Savory & sweet options.

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The nice Chinese lady frying up our Beavertail orders (btw half of the vendors are Asians... they are everywhere). They butter the thing up like crazy then pour cinnamon sugar over it to make...

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... this! Cinnamon sugar beavertail with lemon. It's bomb. I mean, what's bad about a fried pastry, buttered, then sprinkled with sugar? The lemon is actually an important bit because it's pretty amazing when you squirt the lemon juice onto the beavertail. It's sour yet it works so well with the cinnamon sugar! Can't really describe it.

I wonder if churros will taste just as good with lemon?

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We also chose a savory one, Canadian bacon beavertail with cheddar cheese. Of course Canadian bacon isn't your typical smoked bacon, more like ham. In the end, definitely prefer the sweet one.

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Next, Michael went to Sweet Carrie's Dessert Shop for some cookies from "down under." It was odd. Maybe Aussies like it really hard and dry. HAH.

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Then he got some feta stuffed olives from Prima Italian Market, an Italian grocer. Didn't try it since I was way too thirsty after the beavertails and the combo of olives + feta sounded like sodium overload.

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Crystal Mall
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H 2A9

After Lonsdale Quay (coo-way? cui? cay?), Amanda drove us to Cystal Mall in Burnaby, which is a neighboring suburb. There's a huge Chinese population in Burnaby and Crystal Mall is where they all congrgate. Imagine stuffing half of the Chinese from San Gabriel into one indoor mall. Way too many Chinese people there haha.

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Lots and lots and lots of vendors of shop in the circular mall. Felt like I was in one of those newer Taiwan traditional markets.

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There's also a food court. The difference between US and Canada is that... you can expect to find authentic and legit food in Canada's.

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Tea Plus. Haven't had real milk tea yet so when I got the chance, I went for it.

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Earl Grey Milk Tea. Genuinely surprised that they have this. Very nice earl grey fragrance. They use powered milk for the dairy, and shaken in that crazy shaking machine for quite awhile so it was mixed well. I believe the guy who made my drink fresh brewed my tea. Maybe it's because early grey isn't as ordered as much so it doesn't sit in those big gallon jugs.

Notice the Nike logo on the cup XD

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Next, Wang's Shanghai Cuisine for some xiao long bao, since Michael's been dreaming about this place ever since he came here last time.

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Xiao long bao. 5 for about $4. Again, I'm surprised at how legit the food is here. It's a food court so you would expect fast food quality stuff here but this is good. Beats any average restaurants any day.

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Connie was able to find a stand that sold "gai dan zai" aka egg puff pastry. Sorry if I butchered the Cantonese pinyin but hey, Cantonese is hard :P It wasn't that good since I'm guessing the machine was too hot and it crisped the outside too fast, leaving the inside still slightly soggy.

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By the time we finished all that it was about 7:30pm. You would think we were full but not even close as we were about to try out the world famous Vij's (next post). All that food was just the beginning!

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