While Caroline is roaming the streets of Paris and Brussels, undoubtedly filling herself with good wine, good cheese, good bread, good fois gras and good chocolate, I ended up in decidedly less chic yet dazzlingly beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia on Saturday for business.
The way my flights worked out, I had the whole day to roam the city. My plan of attack was to find an open air market. But this being Canada, a country in which the harsh winter lasts 7 months, there isn’t one. I was told that I needed to visit a place called Granville Island; that there was a food market there that wouldn’t disappoint.
From where I’m staying in the city, you have to take a water taxi there. As we approached, my heart sank. It looks like tourist trap.
Was I wrong. The place is INSANE. It has everything from some of the most gorgeous produce I’ve ever seen to a butcher specializing in any kind of meat to an amazing offerings of local honey and flowers. Let’s first start with the specialty of the region: the salmon. Such a vibrant pink-orange that it literally glowed behind the glass.
And then there was the smoked salmon, salty and peppery flavors, though always sweet.
Then there’s the fruit. The Fruit. Shipped up from California, it is so vibrant, so colorful, so utterly and godly perfect that I inevitably fall victim to the longing I’m sure many lifelong East Coasters experience when setting foot on the Pacific coast. Longing being: Why the hell don’t I live here?!?! Because in New York we don’t have golden berries. (Full disclosure: I had never seen a golden berry until today.)
Or raspberries like this.
And the funky Asian kinds. I forgot what these are called.
Dragon fruit.
Perhaps my favorite part of the market, though, besides all the people in Canucks jerseys, was the little donut stand, which made one of the best old-fashioned ones I’ve had in years.
Now that my fresh market craving has been sated, what’s next for me? I plan to single-handedly put a dent in the Pacific Northwest’s oyster population. More on that soon.
