A foodie day in Gastown

We were very excited about today. For those that know us, we are big foodies. Absolutely love the food. Today we got to divulge from the standard wrap, crisps, apple, cereal bar diet and branch out. I personally had my eye on poutine, Japadog and candied salmon. Despite these treats ahead of us we still indulged in a large bowl of porridge with added peanut butter and marshmallows, we have to use them up after all. 

We headed out at around 10 on our walk through Stanley Park and into the city. Vancouver seems a pretty great city. A lot of green planting purveys through the streets and the roads, despite being the typically overbearing North American gridded system, are surprisingly pedestrian friendly. Although it’s still clear the city has been designed primarily for the car. Enough on the urban design chat. We were headed for Gastown, a more historic district of downtown where all our food delicacies are housed. 

Our first pitstop was Pure Bread, a bakery with a lot of very appetising cakes. It was about 11 by the time we got here so I was still pretty full from breakfast but Amelia obviously tucked into a cinnamon roll, admittedly she did give me quite a lot of it too. I had a very tasty coffee, a bit of fuel for our urban adventure. 

We had arrived into Gastown earlier than imagined so we held off on lunch to have a little look around. Pride of place at the centre of the district is a steam powered clock, which sings a song and spurts out steam occasionally. It unsuccessfully attempted to drown out a relatively abusive neighbouring busker who had previously worked on a cruise ship earning thousands (not relevant to our day, just a little snippet to add some spice to the story). After this we wandered over to the port and generally took in the city. 

Lunch for Amelia was a Porchetta sandwich from Meat and Bread. One of the best sandwiches she’s ever had apparently. I went for a slightly more niche choice from an establishment called Japadog. Finding Japadog however wasn’t exactly simple, a theme which would continue that afternoon. Google said a variety of locations, the first two of which didn’t exist. We finally found the shop and I got what is essentially a hotdog, with a really good pork sausage, spicy mayo, seaweed and other bits and pieces on top. An odd selection, but meaty and fishy and delicious nonetheless. A sort of surf and turf fusion of Japanese flavours in North American cuisine. 

By this point it was raining pretty heavily, so we wanted to head and get some dessert. However successive sweet shops/bakeries did not exist so we gave up, visited a very wet park, and found ourselves in Urban Brioche after attempting to enter a very much closed pub for happy hour (which starts at 3 and includes food. Winner). Here we indulged in decadent and rich chocolate and pecan cakes (separate cakes) and another coffee. 

Next stop was a pub that we’d walked past before so knew unequivocally that it was open. Here we got far too much food and a few beers. I finally had poutine, which is basically chips, gravy and cheese, heaven. We also got croquettes (obviously) and Amelia got some spicy bbq drumsticks. We managed to snag a window seat, perfect for people watching, and there was plenty of drama to keep us amused for a couple of hours. A flock of police cars arrived at an adjacent building, a bag was retrieved, paperwork was done, and many homeless druggies walked past. Gastown is quite an edgy area. 

After this we went to Gastown’s oldest pub, Lamplighter, which was just over the road so didn’t get too sodden in the downpour. The Vancouver Canucks ice hockey team was playing so we watched that on the big screen while a pub quiz went on around us. Leaving here following the game we realised the stadium was literally a stones throw away from the pub. Although the ice hockey fans didn’t seem rowdy at all, and a delightful, very British queue was formed at the bus stop to take us home to Kevin.