Travels: Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver, Canada

Spoiler alert: This place was awesome. It was better than Pike Place Market in Seattle and any other market we visited during our three week vacay on the west coast.

Environment

20160710_103204

Granville island may sound inaccessible, but it is very easy to get to with public transportation. We took a bus here. The entire area feels like a different part of the country. It is cute, full of colorful stores and parks. There are tons of local shops selling art, clothing, etc. Then, of course, there are a couple breweries and many different restaurants to try.  The views of the city are also fantastic!

20160710_105459

But everyone knows that you come to Granville Island for the MARKET!

Public Market

The first section of the market is packed full of restaurant vendors. Everything from French bakeries, Indian cuisine, fish and chips, etc.

20160710_104733    20160710_104812

20160710_103715

The first thing I ate was a pear and butter crepe from Muffin Granny. It was the special for only $5.95 (Canadian money…even cheaper in U.S. bucks). You can watch them make the crepes right in front of you.

20160710_104436

20160710_104401

Was it good? Very! And very large. I split it with Drew and that held us over for a while.

20160710_105211 20160710_105239

The second, and largest, part of the market is the actual market. Here, it seems like hundreds of vendors of all sorts sell their goods. Everything from fresh produce, to fresh-made pastas, to baked good, to raw meats and bones, fresh seafood, and so forth.

20160710_110111

20160710_110236
Fresh made pastas: flavored fettuccines, stuffed raviolis, etc.
20160710_110909
Bone marrow bones!
20160710_110918
Perfect macarons!

20160710_111034

20160710_111209

20160710_111243
Dried salmon and other fish jerky. Weird.

To say this market was overwhelming is an understatement. It was impossible to pick just a couple of items to buy. I walked through the place three times stressing about it. Everything just looks too good! If I lived in Vancouver, I would come here for lunch a couple times a week, for sure!

Food Review: Baodown in Vancouver, Canada

The hubs and I went to Vancouver, Canada for the first time. We spent three days there and this is the first food purchase we made. Baodown is a very small restaurant in the Gastown district. Gastown is a very hip part of downtown that is is being revamped. We were walking through the district, trying to decide on where to eat for dinner. There were too many great options, so we decided to get an appetizer at Baodown and entrees at somewhere else.

Environment

20160709_212907

20160709_212815

This restaurant is extremely tiny. There are only a handful of seats. However, there are a couple picnic tables outside. You order at a counter and they deliver your food to you. They also have free cucumber water, which I love.

Food

20160709_212122

We ordered two different bao items. While poke bowls and other options sounded delicious, the waitress told us that the bao options were the best. Plus, the place is named after them, so we had to try them.
We got the “Bao Chicka Bao Bao” ($6 Canadian, or $4.70 U.S.) which is lemongrass fried chicken, daikon, carrots, cilantro, lettuce, fish sauce, garlic mayo, and crispy garlic. We also got “The Big Bang” ($6 Canadian) which is crispy pork belly, sweet and sour sauce, pickled carrots and daikon and scallions. Honestly, the names of these dishes are the best part. To be fair, these names are awesome. I’m a sucker for a pun. The “Bao Chicka Bao Bao” was a little disappointing. The description sounded heavently, so my expectations were high. However, the chicken was very dry. There was not enough sauce to make up for the dryness, so it was somewhat difficult to eat. I did not detect any garlic, which I definitely missed. I love garlic! The flavors overall were lacking. I would not get this dish again.
“The Big Bang” was better than the chicken option. The pork belly was tender, yet had crispy edges. The sweet and sour sauce was more sweet, but worked very well with all of the other ingredients. I would get this dish again.

Overall
I would not visit this restaurant again. I have had better bao dishes from food trucks here in Little Rock (way to go, Little Rock!). Also, these baos were so tiny that you could get about three bites out of them. So, paying $2 Canadian (or $1.57 U.S. dollars) per bite was not worth it.