Vancouver: Granville Island Public Market

Sorry for the lack of updates!  Been busy lately and I really wanted to make sure I had free time for this post since I had a ton of fun exploring Granville Island.  I'm a sucker for these sort of public market or farmer's market.  Usually you can find a lot of interesting and unique things that you can't find anywhere else, so I always try to make an effort to visit a local farmer's market if I can when visiting a new place, even if it is one as touristy as the Granville Island Public Market.

Granville Island Public Market

1661 Duranleau St

Granville Island/False Creek

Vancouver, BC V6H 3S3

granvilleisland.com/public-market

Since the market opens fairly early and we were short on time, we woke up around 8am, checked out, took the cab to Granville Island, and started to explore the place.  It wasn't packed but plenty of people already.  Of course another gloomy morning.

It reminds me of a smaller Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Lots of local and organic fresh produce.  Not cheap at all O_o.

Seafood.  Again, not cheap, but the quality of the fish here does look amazing!

This particular vendor had lots fishes that Asians love haha.  

Starting to get crowded around 9am.  Lots of tourists, but plenty of locals as well shopping for the holidays.

One of the butcher shops.  There carry different wild games you don't really see in the States.  I remember seeing a pound of rib eye steak for over $20CAD!  By this point, I have decided that you must be fairly well-off to be buying your grocery here..

Stuart's, one of the first place we stopped by, cause we could actually afford it :P  

Variety of pastries and cookies!

Since the three of us didn't have breakfast yet, we decided to each get something.

I went with my usual Chocolate Croissant.  Chocolate-y, but not as flaky as I'd thought.

Alice's fruit pastry.  I actually like this better than the chocolate croissant. 

Strawberries on the other end!

Calvin's cinnamon roll.  Big!  Probably amazing if it was fresh out of the oven.

The chocolate croissant wasn't enough and as soon as I saw a donut shop, I had to get something.  Gotta eat donuts in every city!

Asian owned!  They had all these Asian flavored donuts.  Very interesting.

Breakfast round two.

I decided to go with the mango filled and the melon cake!  Wasn't a fan of the melon cake donut since the melon flavor was really light.

Mango-filled donut was awesome though!  Just like your normal jelly donut, except this has a mango custard/cream!  Tastes just like your Asian mango candy haha.  

Variety of fresh raviolis!  If we stayed longer and the hotel had a kitchen, definitely all over this.

Crazy packed vendor selling charcuterie.

They have all these crazy house-smoked items!  Wanted to buy a few slices just to try but the line was ridiculous.  I guess many were buying it as gifts to families and for Christmas dinners.

Cheese vendor.

Cheeses.  Some imported, some local.

Of course, gotta have a florist at a market.

After devouring the two donuts, I needed a drink.  Decided to get something from Petit Ami.

Fair trade, organic, estate grown coffee!  Went for the latte.

Latte.  Nothing too fancy. 

The whole time we were in Canada, we were searching for maple flavored gummy bears.  Didn't really know if it existed but we figured there was a very good chance that they do sell it somewhere.  Finally found it at the market!

Calvin super happy with his maple-flavored gummies!  Tasted odd though :P

Fresh wasabi!  $22/100g meant that is is roughly $110/lb of the spicy stuff o_O

Shot of the back of the market.

Want to buy stock to bring home so you can lie to your family and friends about how you spent hours making the soup?  Stock Market is your best friend then!

Before we left, I stopped by Granville Island Tea Company to buy some loose-leaf tea as gifts.  Learned a bit about all the different type of teas.

Decided on the organic Assam and the Formosa Oolong as gifts.  Granville Island Tea Company also sell chai tea, in addition to the loose leaf and the guy helping me out said that the organic Assam was the type of tea they use as base!  As for the oolong tea, Formosa oolong tea is quite common, and my family gets a lot from Taiwan, but I gotta say, the quality from Granville Island Tea Company's pretty good!  Even my mom was impressed.

In the back of the market, in addition to more food vendors, there were a lot of vendors selling paintings, crafts, soap, jewelry, and anything that people hand make.  You can also get a great view of Vancouver so we spent a bit of time outdoors taking pictures.  Since we were short on time and wanted to grab ramen in Vancouver, we did a quick walk and window-shopped through the rest of Granville, then took a cab back to downtown area for lunch.

Taipei: Originators of Milk Tea - Day 1 (Pt. 2)

This time in Taipei, I also got to try two of the originators of boba milk tea! Why two? Well, the Taiwanese government officially recognizes Han Lin 翰林 and 春水堂 Chun Shui Tang 春水堂 as the inventors of milk tea! Both started out in Taichung 台中 and now they have locations throughout Taiwan. Han Lin I had after the buffet with my grandma, aunt, and cousin, while I had Chun Shui Tang with a few friends. Somehow things worked out and I had both places on the same day!

A little backstory. Skip this part if you want :P

If you know me, then you know I'm a huge HUGE milk tea fanatic. Even this blog's name is oolong milk tea. I don't really know when this obsession started, but I think it was due to the lack of selections when I first moved to the States that made me realize how much I love this drink.

It really was a common thing when I lived in Taiwan as a kid, and I'm sure most of the population don't think too much of it, but when I moved here, I can honestly say there was no good milk tea around the South Bay area in LA. I had to wait until the weekends when my parents would drive my sister and I over to the 626 area to do errands, grocery shopping, or visit family friends to get milk tea from Tea Station or something. I never liked the "chain" tea shops like Lollicup and TapEx cause... well they are horrible! Nothing in the States was close to the milk tea in Taiwan so that just made me want it more. Tea Station did alright to satisfy to cravings, and only these last few years did legit tea shops pop up (Half & Half, Le Arbre, Oh My Pan etc).

My sister probably also fueled my obsession for milk tea, since like me, she's also crazy about it. It is funny to see people's reaction when they hear how I've driven 40-50 minutes to San Gabriel just to get milk tea, and how she's done the same, but really, we just want a cup of milk tea. I see it as.... our coffee obsession?

This year, I've decided to keep a tally of how many milk teas or any similar Asian tea drinks I've had and so far I've tallied around 40? Yes.. I admit it is a bit much, for AMERICANS! Talking to my cousins in Taiwan, they are either around the same as me or more! Some people in Taiwan have it at least once a day, so I'll just use the Taiwanese milk tea average and say my consumption rate of these drinks is just average :]

Han Lin 翰林 Milk Tea. The location I went to is the one located inside Uni-Hanyu Department Store 統一板急. It is just a tea stand but there's always a line. It's also quite expensive for Taiwan's standard with a regular size drink at around $55NT! But it is definitely worth it... there's just something about the tea and the way they make the milk tea that makes the drink almost.. creamy.

That night, I met up with Hubert & Tina for dinner and they suggested Chun Shui Tang. Comparison purpose, it is like the Tea Station in the States. They have various of Taiwanese dishes and a drinks menu.

I went for the large boba milk tea. This was even more expensive at well over $100NT! I guess they justify it since this is a sit down place. Again, VERY GOOD milk tea. Creamy, frothy, and you can still taste the tea. Boba balls were cooked in brown sugar and smaller than the usual ones. Pretty damn awesome how big it is hahaha.

Small boba milk tea.

Tina went for the you fan 油飯.

Hubert and I ordered the 3 Cup Chicken Plate 三杯雞.

Definitely had better 3 cup chicken before :P

What the plate comes it. Pretty healthy meal actually! Plenty of veggie and there's a braised egg as well.

Multigrain rice is a nice touch.

After the meal they also serve red bean soup as dessert. Suuuuper sweet so perfect for the ones with a sweet tooth.

After having both on the same day, I got to say... I might like Han Lin's better, just because it's not as expensive but both were very good and are exactly how a traditional milk tea tastes. Strong milky flavor that's shaken so well that's it's somewhat creamy and frothy... damn... I can go for a milk tea right now.

Taipei: Buffet Madness with Family - Day 1 (Pt. 1)

After arriving in TPE at 10pm, then out until 4am, I was surprised that I was able to wake up at 9am, and leave from Diana's place to 新光三越 Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11 Store for a Sunday lunch with my mom's side of the family. Jet lag didn't hit me hit so I was ready to feast!

I haven't seen that side of the family for over 8 years so imagine how surprised I was when I found out one of my cousin is already a freshman attending college! The last time I saw her she was just starting middle school. Seeing her and the new baby cousin made me feel super old... But of course, what better way to rekindle and catch up than pigging out at a top notch Japanese buffet?

My aunt decided on 欣葉 Shin Yeh, which is one of my favorite buffets anywhere! High quality Japanese food with few items changed to suit a Taiwanese's palate, but for the most part, fairly authentic Japanese items. It's pricey, at $750 NT, even for US's standards but it's definitely worth it! There's several locations but they chose the A11 since it was closer to the bus transfer station.

欣葉日式自助料理 Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet

台北市松壽路11號5樓

新光三越信義店A11館

SongShou Road #11 5F, Taipei City

ShinYi Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11

Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet!

The drinks station. They have espresso machine, juices, Calpico, cocktails, and even all the beer you want!

Sashimi and cold item section.

Hot food section. My favorite part of the buffet.

Selection of fruits.

This station is a little bit more random, with a variety of salads, steamed items, noodles, and rice.

One of Shin Yeh's most popular item, huge tempura shrimp!

Grilled chicken wings. Lighting seasoned.

Kama, aka fish collar! Nothing crazy like salmon or hamachi fish collar but for a buffet, this is awesome! I don't know what fish it is but I never turn away from a fatty piece of fish collar :D

The wings are prefect with a little bit of white pepper salt.

The fish collar. Grilled with only salt so again, perfect with a bit of white pepper! I think I must've ate 10 of these. They are pretty small :P

Some type of grilled fish. My aunt told me the fish is pretty expensive in Taiwan. No clue what it is but I'm guessing it is 竹魚, which is Japanese horsemackerel.

Unlimited sashimi! Tuna, salmon, swordfish, whitefish!

More sashimi! This time with smoked shark!

The always popular shrimp tempura. It's the combination of huge fresh shrimp with prefect flaky tempura batter, and always fresh-fried.

Chicken cartilage! Weird to some people cause they can't stand the soft and crunchy texture but I love it!

Duck fried rice? Yes.

Started out with a coke cause I was craving it for some reason :P All sodas come in tiny bottles!

Cold soba noodles.

Fried rice and udon.

This is the "healthy living" section with healthy tea pot & steamed egg.

Pork sukiyaki! There's a huge controversy with beef right now due to politicians being stupid so there's essentially no beef on the menu right now.

Salmon roe handroll and shrimp hand roll. I like how the salmon roe handroll is not stuffed with rice. The shrimp handroll is my favorite out of the two cabbage, shrimp, bonito flakes, peanut powder, and a little of Japanese mayo!

Salmon belly miso soup. Miso + seafood is so simple but so good.

Some Calpico to wash it all down!

Now, this is the "healthy" tea pot.

What is it? Well it is essentially just water boiled with some ingredients that are good for you body.

Clams, shrimp, chicken, ginger etc. It 's all about the essence and the flavor.

Steamed egg. So smooooth. Japanese's steamed egg is the best.

Ham carving station. Again, this used to be roast beef or something but Taiwanese people are freaking out about beef because US beef is added with leanness enhancing additives. Meh... been eating beef all my life...

Popular flavors of vinegar drinks! For awhile, flavored vinegar was extremely popular in Taiwan because, well, vinegar is good for you! Looks like people still love it. Personally, I can only take 1 or 2.

For desserts, I started out with red bean soup with hot 湯圓 tang yuan and boba. Japanese buffet offering boba as a topping? Taiwan's buffet is awesome.

Chocolate fountain! I'm sure this is better than the crap Golden Corral serves.

More Asian sweets & pastries.

Ended up with chocolate-covered marshmallow, chocolate-covered tomato, mochi, creme-filled bread, and sesame ball.

Chocolate-covered marshmallow & tomato. I admit, I'm not a good chocolatier :P

Creme-filled bread. Soft spongy bread that's filled with vanilla creme.

Mochi dusted with peanut powder and sesame ball. More traditional items.

Went for more and got creme brulee with a cup of cappucino!

Now... for some reason the milk in Asia always have a much stronger milky flavor so any items that have dairy in it, you get a more flagrant, milky flavor out of it. This creme brulee was so rich, thanks to the milk!

I had to save some room for the fruits!

Guava and passionfruit. The green guava is my favorite fruit! None of these in the US so I always eat as much as I can.

蓮霧 lian wu and starfruit! Again, two fruits that I can't find in the States! Lian wu is also called wax apple, and another one of my favorites.

Decided to end the meal with something cold! It used to be Haagen Daaz but I don't think it is anymore.

Went for the mango and red bean. For the mango, if you've had any Asian mango-flavored candy, you'll know that the flavor is very different from any Western flavored mango food items.

Even though I've been to Shin Yeh several times, I really tried to try everything at least once this time around, so by the end... I was stuffed beyond belief. Funny thing was I didn't even realize I ate that much because I was talking to my relatives for the majority of the meal and not paying attention to exactly how much I've ate.