Despite the fact that I have lived in Seattle for several years, and that Vancouver is really only a few hours away by car, I hadn't had the opportunity to go up there until last weekend. According to my mum I have actually been to Vancouver once before, back when I was a wee awkward lass of 12 (or 13) and my family took a road trip up to Victoria. For whatever reason I don't have any memories of being in Vancouver, so as far as I was concerned it was going to be a new experience for me.
Of course, being the foodie that I am I knew that I wanted to do at least one food-related thing while in Vancouver. So I looked up free/touristy things to do, and low and behold came across Granville Island's Public Market. Granville Island, located directly across from downtown Vancouver, is a human-made (I don't like saying man-made because women can make things too) island that was created in 1915 after the Vancouver Harbor Commission decided it would be a good idea to dump a bunch of fill onto a sandbar. Originally it was an industrial area, but today it's a very artsy part of Vancouver. One of the main attractions is the Public Market, which was supposed to be like Pike Place. Since the Brit loves Seattle, and Pike Place Market, when I told him this he agreed to go with me.
We decided to walk from our hotel (in downtown Vancouver) across the Granville Street Bridge, rather than taking a bus or ferry. This ended up being a longer walk than we thought, but the sightseeing along the way made up for it. This little sign outside of a restaurant caught my eye:
Is this really considered a traditional Canadian breakfast? I did see at least one other cafe advertising the same meal, so maybe so, but it just doesn't seem that unique to me. The one Canadian food that I really wanted to have but didn't get a chance to was poutine, partly because the name amuses me and partly because I love french fries. Ah well, there's always next time. Here is a shot of the inside of the market:
The Brit and I spent quite a while just wandering among all the stalls. All of the food looked and smelled so amazing! The problem was that a lot of it seemed to be geared towards tourists, and was therefore somewhat expensive. For example, one of the first stalls I saw walking in was selling herbs and spices. There were all these really delicious spice mixes, and I thought about buying some before realizing that it would be way cheaper for me to just make my own mixes since I already have most of the individual spices. Speaking of spicy things, here's a wall of hot sauce (at a different store):
Anyway, overall the Brit and I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed checking out all of the different stalls. However, we both agreed that Pike Place Market is better. While this market had more food, Pike is more affordable. I don't think the farmers market was going on the day we were there, which is too bad, because I would have loved to see it. So my opinion is this - it's definitely worth visiting, but beware of spending tons of money. Just enjoy the sights and smells :)
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