2 Vancouver meals and 1 in Richmond

Well then, until it's time for our brunch reservation at Elixir, I may as well post a bit more. One thing I appreciate about the holidays is the extra time I get to do things like blogging or planning our NZ trip for the spring.

Photos from three meals out to post: lunch in Chinatown, dinner downtown, and lunch at the airport (so Richmond, in other words).

Lunch in Chinatown. Just a couple of blocks up Main Street is a place we've gone to a couple of times now. On a cold day - not just for Vancouver, but plain old cold that anyone would not enjoy - we wandered up to get something hot for nourishment. Soup! Pho, to be precise.

I might have liked more zing to it, but then, I could have added chili paste to it if I weren't so hungry as to scarf it down within minutes.

Dinner. Voya at the Loden Hotel. I'm not sure what to think of the place. I wish the wine list were a little more moderately priced, and the service was very friendly and chatty (maybe too familiar, but ah well, it's Christmastime) but not as polished as many places we've been to in Chicago. What made it hard for us to judge was the table of heavily scented, presumably-gay (Conrad thought so, my gaydar is too pathetic to tell) men who were seated so close by that we couldn't help but smell them and follow much of their conversation. Also, the one guy with the oh-so-cool, hipster glasses and obviously expensive clothing? Wear socks. The Miami Vice look for shoes is not worthy IMHO, not in very snowy conditions in Vancouver. Sorry, do I sound bitter?

Anyway, the food was handsome enough. They brought round an amuse-bouche of white onion veloute. A big amuse, but very tasty. I liked it a lot. Conrad started with the seared scallop with poached pork belly, creamed leeks, and maple bacon froth. The pork belly was especially tasty, and forkful of it with scallop was a felicitous combination. He liked his albacore tuna with cippolini onion, puree of buttered sprouts, and warm sherry jus, though he didn't rave about it. I liked my octopus carpaccio with lentil salad and winter root crisp a great deal - it was a nice light serving and flavourful. I also liked my roasted breast and braised leg of pheasant with cottage pie and roast tomato sauce, but I'll be honest - I don't think what I got was what the menu said. I think it was all breast meat, and the sauce, from what I can recall, just didn't have any tang or fruit of tomato. I did like it, and I thought it was a very good portion - almost more than I could handle - but looking at the menu this morning, I wonder if I'm imagining the differences between concept and execution or what.

Lunch yesterday: the lounge at the Fairmont Airport Hotel. Our flight was canceled, and we had not other plans as yet. So we regrouped to the lounge and ordered a drink (Sumac Ridge Stellar Jay for me)
each along with a light lunch (not photographed). The blizzard moved through the area impressively outside the windows, and we had a nice conversation with the waitress. I hope she's having a good day off today.