three meals in the desert

Two dinners and a lunch for us to talk about.  Here we go.

Wally's Desert Turtle.  Our favourite place to get to.  Yes, there is better, more adventuresome food in the desert.  And, honestly, service was kind of lacking this time.  But we love it there.  My streak continued:  so far as I can recall, I have had liver and onions every time I have eaten there, and this time was no different. 

Yum!  Also, chocolate souffle shared for dessert. 

What a nice evening it was, service glitches aside.  So happy to be back.  Conrad was able to chat with the owner about a possible big birthday dinner for himself later in the year, too.  You know that made him happy.

King's Highway.  Brunch and an opportunity to catch up with Kent for the first time since he and Geoff moved to France, split up, moved back to the desert.  Nice to see him, and a nice choice for brunch.  A diner, but a few cuts above.  I had a mocktail to sip,

then a substantial breakfast burrito because I was in a breakfast-y mood. 

I stole fries from Van, yum.  I'd be happy to go back.

Bar Issi.  The other restaurant at our hotel.  Van and I had been there the year before, but it was nice to get Conrad there with us.  We had a table outside, and the temperature, while warm, was entirely pleasant.  We had cocktails and then dug into a few courses.  A tomato salad that was just dressed, thick slices of heirloom tomatoes - simple and good.  Puccia bread with butters, piping hot and delicious. 

Zucchini blossoms, a nice little treat. 

Two pizzas, one pepperoni and one with chicken and asparagus. 

We ate our fill and took the rest back to the room.  A very nice night, but Van and I did think that some of the little service issues we experienced last year hadn't yet been fully fixed.  Ah well.

All in all, good dining in the desert.  And there are yet new places to try next visit as well as old faves to return to.

Monday in Vancouver

Sigh.

So every good intention to blog this week hit up against what turned out not to be sniffles from seasonal allergies but an actual cold.  Always fun.  I've been in bed an awful lot the past few days and eaten little and have done absolutely nothing of note beyond, perhaps, watching one more Oscars contender (Sinners, good movie).  But I'm feeling better today, happily.  100%?  Nope.  But I'm sitting here, sniffling a bit, half-watching Monday's American Idol, and digging into another blog entry.

Jeepers, it was a month ago that I was in Vancouver, right?  Still, let me do my duty and check in on the Monday there.  And what do you know, it starts off with a morning walk.

I love my morning walks.  With Conrad or others or alone, I just love that peaceful part of the day.  It will be interesting to go up to BC in the future now that they have changed their time zone to favour light evenings (meh) and find myself walking in darkness more, but ah well.  I still had a nice walk to start off a quiet-ish holiday Monday.  So once again, a photo dump from a walk that took my west and then back along the waterfront to the hotel.

But that's not all!  I was meeting Bryan for lunch, and I decided to do a bit of a stroll before that, taking myself almost right the way around Canada Place and getting some shots

before meeting up with him at Nightingale.  It was threatening rain later, and I wanted some step count before that.

Good to see Bryan. 

I made the right choice in giving myself one more day in Vancouver to catch up with people.  It meant getting together with him for a tasty meal of charred cabbage (so good!),

a vegan pizza with squash and peppers (nice and light),

and a carrot cake dessert (pretty but not as good as many carrot cakes I've had). 

What was especially cool was that in all the years I have known Bryan - 6 or 7 by now - I didn't know about his figure skating past.  So we were able to gab at length about Winter Olympics stuff, and it was great to hear his perspective on the performances and judging and personalities.

I came back to the hotel after lunch and chilled with the three-part ANTM documentary series before girding myself to head out into the rain and walk to dinner.  Hotel umbrella, thank you for your service!

I met Sherri

at Tavola for dinner.  She knew the GM well, but he didn't realize that I was meeting her when I arrived.  I liked the place.  Good neighbourhood spot with interesting food and good drinks.  I got served the wrong drink first, but they let me keep it while they made mine, and that was kind.  Her friend also topped up our wine, so that may have been the booziest meal we had.  But I very much enjoyed our food

and the seating at the end of a long communal table.  Also, Sherri and I had so much hometown gossip and more to get through.  It was a blast.  I think we were together for over 3 hours, not at all rushing and not at all being rushed.  I think Mark told me that he and Linda go there sometimes even though they don't live at all close, and I could see being a regular there if I lived nearby.

Sherri dropped me off back at the hotel.  My day of walking was done.  I put on some more ANTM and headed off to bed, very happy with the day that was. 

Saturday in Vancouver

Ready for a lot of photos?  No matter, you're getting them.

One thing I love about being in Vancouver is that it's a familiar city with which I'm comfortable but it's also not the city in which I currently live.  What that means is I can go for my early morning walks and feel fairly at ease, but also that I'm not seeing the same old thing day after day.  Last Saturday morning in Vancouver, I was up early enough and out the door to take advantage of that.

It's a cool way to get shots of buildings,

public art,

nice gardens and parks,

the natural surroundings (such as they may be in a city),

and more. 

Accordingly, I walked and snapped.  I think I did a little over four miles that morning. 

It truly was a weekend for getting my step count in!

And then it was off to my first meal of the day with other folks.  Steven and Patrick

and brunch in New Westminster.  Man, it's been a long time since I last saw them.  Pre-pandemic!  And that's the shame of the visit:  seeing people I haven't made time for in far too long.  I felt badly about that, truly.

Anyway, I

hopped SkyTrain out to meet up with them, enjoying the last seat on the train, getting a view out the back window as we went along. 

Patrick was at the station,

waiting for Steven

(who snuck by him somehow and was waiting at a nearby corner outside of our lunch destination, Piva), and so I got a big hug right off the train.  Yay!  Brunch was nice.  A breakfast pizza (tasty, maybe needed something a little saltier on it) was my choice,

and much catching up ensued.  Always such delightful guys to hang out with.

I let them go on their way after brunch - Steven is an avid knitter, and he had a yarn shop he wanted to get to.  I took myself a short way uphill,

and in a few minutes I was ringing the buzzer to get into Marie's apartment. 

I hadn't seen her place in years, and that's even considering she hasn't had a cat for a while.  She and I gabbed, then headed back onto SkyTrain and downtown where we turned up at Open Outcry for the start of their happy hour. 

Alas, the bar seems to be a shadow of what it was before the pandemic, and after that drink, we headed to the hotel so that I could get ready for dinner.

Marie and I had dinner with Chris

and Allister

over in Chinatown.  I was a little surprised that Chris and Allister hadn't been to Bao Bei

before - they don't live far from it, it's been around for at least 15 years, and it has a good reputation still (I hope!).  I've only been the once, a long time ago, and I've always intended to go back.  They were having a special Year of the Horse menu,

and we were excited for it.  Here's a rundown of it:

Seafood "Bing".  Nice start.  A simple pastry, a turnover.

Lobster crudo.  Lovely.  Reminded me of amaebi.

Lucky dumplings.  Tasty!  Don't be shocked, but I liked the mushrooms with this dish.

Taiwanese knife cut noodles with clams, mussels, and pork.  Really good.  More of a seafood dish than a noodle dish, and we had no problem with the generous portion.

Crispy whole branzino.  Loved loved loved the sauce especially!

Dark chocolate leche flan.  I usually don't go for chocolate desserts, but this turned out to be an excellent way to finish the meal.

We opted for drink pairings which started with the 12 Knots,

included two bottles of wine for the table, and then a finishing cocktail

whose name I didn't catch but that I liked so much that I (and Chris!) ordered another each.  Dinner and drinks done, we walked Marie to the SkyTrain then headed home ourselves on foot.  That was my indulgent meal for the trip, and it made for a lovely Valentine's dinner away from Conrad and Van (and Olive!).