three Vancouver meals with friends

(and let me pause before launching into this to say that, with this post, I will essentially have caught up on the backlog of travel and dining and more)

(and let me also say, Peter: it's about bloody time!)

Anyone who has even casually skimmed this blog would know that I like to eat well and drink well.  Our brief visit to Vancouver afforded us opportunities to do so, happily.  Let's dig in!

Thursday evening Conrad and I walked and trained and walked on over to Zarak to meet Chris

and Allister

for dinner.  The restaurant, which features Afghani cuisine, was Chris' suggestion.  And you know, well done, Chris.  Very well done.

All of us had cocktails, save for Conrad who started with a bottle of wine that we eventually shared (and ordered a second one of).  I liked mine, a light cocktail called Heritage

that seemed not to be alcoholic at all, which means it was dangerous.  Chris, however, got the show thanks to ordering the Dr. Damji's Negroni.  Fun!

And then we got down to food.  Oh, what food!  I didn't get a shot of the green beans, but they were a highlight.  The mantu were beautiful but not as flavourful as the beans. 

I still enjoyed them.  The buttermilk fried chicken was a delight. 

The lamb shoulder was equally as delightful. 

The bolani was fine, the least memorable of our dishes (and yet, still tasty enough). 

The Uzbeki palaw was a jewel. 

Piping hot, the rice grains each distinct, chunks of tender meat hidden in there.  I would go back just for that dish alone.

We also ordered one of each dessert (there were four).  I wasn't all that interested in vegan chocolate mousse, and although I tasted it and thought it was fine, it proved to be the least interesting to me. 

The tres leches cake was tasty but I still don't understand what it was doing on that menu. 

The shir yakh was lovely - I like rose water as a flavour, and having it in an ice cream tamed it well. 

The firni, a milk pudding, I dismissed at first, but I kept coming back to because the subtlety lured me in. 

My favourite of the desserts.

An excellent dinner, and we've been spreading the word about the place since.

Friday!  Friday lunch was at the club, sitting out on the terrace under mostly cloudy skies but still enjoying being out there.  Our friends from Germany, Gerd

and Uwe,

joined us.  The day before had been Uwe's 60th birthday, and Gerd's 60th will be in October, so we wanted to treat them to a meal.  This is the second time that we have met up with these friends on a Vancouver vacation - our original connection is through the magic of Instagram.  We sipped a BC white and had a leisurely lunch.  My seafood Cobb salad

was different than I have had it before, I think - they could have dialed back on the tomatoes (which I didn't even get to, the salad was so big) and maybe not used such a mix of greens (it was a little rough by contrast to the seafood).  But I didn't go hungry, that's for sure!

Dinner was with Jenny and Steven, whom we always enjoy seeing when we're in town.  We went to the Main Street location of Sula for Indian food.  The restaurant had a good cocktail program, which is not something I have seen very often in Indian restaurants, and a nice wine list.  The bar

sent out our drinks, and mine was a light variation on a Last Word. 

Refreshing!  When I ordered wine with the meal, the waitress let us know that they were out of the one I ordered and instead recommended an Indian red wine.  She let me try some, I liked it, and it turned out to be a doubly good recommendation:  we had a nice wine with the meal, and it was a first time trying wine from India.  Oh, and the winery?  Also named Sula.

I didn't photograph much of the food.  A few of the dishes were meats or vegetables or cheese in a sauce, a curry or gravy, however we might call it.  And, sorry, those don't always make for the most interesting photos, alas.  Not a worry.  Here is the appetizer platter we shared. 

All of it was good.  Sula is on the list of places to go back to, I have to say.

After dinner, Conrad and I went to see Steven and Jenny's new (to us) home and sat and had a bit more wine before heading back to the hotel.  It was a full day of food (and steps for me!), and a very good one all in all.

appreciation for the city

Two nights in Vancouver, two morning walks, both of them without Conrad, who opted to stay in bed.  He's so cute.

I think I might have said this before, but I didn't like Vancouver when I was younger.  Too big, too much for a smalltown boy to deal with.  I knew very little of the city (and I won't pretend to know all that much all that well now).  It wasn't my favourite place despite it being my birthplace.  My, how things change.

I could see myself living in Vancouver one day.  Or Victoria.  Or the Sunshine Coast.  But Vancouver offers a lot.  On the Friday morning, I set off southeast-ish

then came along the False Creek waterfront and eventually back to the hotel.  I caught some photos,

but mostly walked and listened to music and felt great about being back in the city.  When I got back to the room, Conrad was up and around, and we wandered the the nearby Honolulu Coffee Company to start our day together.

Saturday morning I set out in the opposite-ish direction,

walking a bunch through the West End before coming along the water in English Bay

and back to the hotel.  I took almost no photos on that walk, but just enjoyed the sunny, cool weather and being out on foot.

I'm not dumb.  Vancouver is a city with the problems of a city.  Our condo when we owned it looked out on a lot of those problems.  It is a far from perfect place.  But then you walk about, see the bigger and smaller details, and you think how delightful the place really can be.

and then we headed to Vancouver

Two nights in Victoria, that was it.  Two.  Better than zero, far from enough.  Darn it.

At least it was a beautiful day for the crossing back to Vancouver.  Really lovely coming through the Gulf Islands. 

We were out on deck enjoying that part of the sailing.

We dropped the car off at the airport, ate some lunch, and headed to our hotel.  More modest accommodations,

and a lesson in being willing to spend the money needed when going to Vancouver (or just don't go in the summer).  We had dinner plans for the evening, but I'll save our Vancouver dining for the next post....

another gentle reminder

Olive.  Is frickin’ adorable.

Happy birthday, Dick!

The main reason for our trip to Victoria last week was to celebrate a friend, Dick, as he turned 80.  On a Wednesday afternoon, his actual birthday, family and friends gathered together in Goldstream Provincial Park north of Victoria to fete him.

Dick and his wife, Annalee, owned Don Diego's restaurant in Terrace as well as Cow Bay Cafe in Prince Rupert.  I started work waiting tables at Don Diego's in the summer of 1990, and after I finished by undergrad in 1992, I began work at the restaurant full time, learning to cook.  I did any job, really, though mostly I was in the kitchen.  I also spent much of one summer going down to Prince Rupert to work with Dick at the newer restaurant there.  Their eldest son, Aaron,

and I met in grade 8 and graduated high school together.  Their middle son, Andy, was a year behind us.  Neil, the youngest, I've known since he was in grade school.  I've known the eldest grand-daughter, Nerissa, pretty much since her birth.  No, I am not related, but Dick and Annalee are family.

Don Diego's was a family as well.  No, I don't keep in touch with everyone I used to work with, but oh, how awesome to see folks again.  Laura,

Chiron,

Renetta

- it was a mini-reunion for the restaurant.  And there were longtime customers/friends, like Glen (and hooray for meeting his husband Casey after hearing so many lovely - and true! - things about him over the years). 

And there was even my fifth grade teacher! 

That was a trip, meeting up after over forty years.

Conrad and I spent a handful of hours at the event, then headed back to the city before it got dark.  He was a little peckish, so we headed to Marilena, across from the hotel and sat at their remarkable bar. 

We had some raw bar items - oysters

and tuna tartare

- and cocktails (two each, both delicious). 

And then went to bed.

It was great to be in Victoria, however briefly, after all these years, and I'm sorry it took a major event to get us there.  But ah, how terrific to celebrate!  Happy birthday, Dick.  I hope there are many more to come!