After our brewery tour, we wandered around Granville Island some more and happened upon a place called Artisan Sake Maker. When I was planning our trip itinerary, I'd listed it as something we might want to check out, but it wasn't a must since both Will and I had written sake off after bad experiences (for me it was a sip of Hakutsuru that Josh brought to a house party long ago). Even the previous night when we were at Hapa Izakaya, Carm was trying to convince us to have some of his sake, telling us it really was good, but we were like NOPE. The thing was, after the brewery, our taste for drink was piqued. And the placard outside Artisan Sake Maker offered a tasting for only $5, so we figured, why not?
I'm so glad we did it. The sakes we tasted were all lovely! Very reminiscent of white wine but more subtle, with the fragrant notes of, obviously, rice. The girl poured us about two sips each of 3 different sakes, all served chilled. She described the different tasting notes we might be experiencing. She also explained how lower grade sake is often served warm to improve its flavour, but that you could very well warm up high grade sake to make a good thing even better. Like wine, it's all about personal preference. One of the sakes we tasted, which was opaque instead of the typical clear, smelled savoury when we raised the glasses to our lips. But when it hit our tongues, it was surprisingly sweet! I wish I'd bought a few bottles to take home so I could share that little phenomenon with y'all! Next time for sure, because now I know: sake is good, as long as you get the good stuff! Like most things, you get what you pay for.
After sake, I was soon leading us back in the direction of the market. I'm sure I could have easily spent the whole day in the market alone. I was regretting eating breakfast beforehand (no matter how sassy) because I didn't have room for all the amazing stuff I wanted to gorge on.
We did manage a few things though. We sampled various local honeys (tried creamed honey which was new to me and DELICIOUS), I bought more salmon snacks (spicy version this time called "hot bits"), Will bought cafe mocha fudge (I sampled that vendor's caramels too, MMM), and finally, I bought a freshly-made mini cream puff (from a place called Lee's Donuts)!
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| fancy salts! |
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| not just food at the market... beautiful reclaimed wood cutting boards |
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| this vendor makes it easy for anyone to add gourmet to their meals |
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| Will's partialness to fudge is inherited from his dad! |
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| charmingly irregular cream puff! |
There was still SO much more I wanted to try. No worries, Granville Island Public Market... I'll be back *Arnold voice* (a tribute to our True Lies afternoon :P)
Finally we decided that there was still more of Vancouver to see, so we left Granville Island and continued along the seawall to Vanier Park. After some sightseeing, we figured we'd check off an errand my mom had set out for me: pick up some treats for her from Goldilocks.
So for those of you who don't have a Filipino in your life, Goldilocks is THE bakery chain of the Philippines. Whenever a Filipino goes "back home", what they bring back for you definitely includes some treats from Goldilocks. Typically their polvoron. Outside of the Philippines, they only have a few storefronts where there are large Filipino communities. In the States, it's various cities in California. In Canada, I guess it's Vancouver, cuz they have 2. So it was my mission to hit it up and bring back some ensaymada and mamon for my mom, among other things.
Well, to make a long story short, one of those locations (the one closer to where we were) was closed for renovations, and when we eventually got to the other one, they didn't have everything on my mom's list. So it was only a partially successful mission. Also, I don't like Goldilocks anymore. Maybe it's because my baked goods palate has been thoroughly spoiled, maybe the quality just isn't as good as when it's fresh out of the oven. But the last few times I've had Goldilocks, I've found it to be kind of dry and bland. I bought a variety of tart that day that I remember really loving as a kid, but it just didn't do it for me this time around. My mom was happy with what I brought back for her though and asked why I didn't bring more :P
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| brightly coloured cellophane wrappers - distinctly Goldilocks |
Side note: My preferred "pasalubong" (souvenir) from the Philippines these days is Quickmelt Bakeshop's Ensaymada, which can be microwaved back to its original melty buttery sugary cheesy goodness. Yes, I know the cheese sounds weird, but it's a fairly common Filipino dessert topping, and it's surprisingly good! I'm going to have to do a full post on Filipino baked goods and desserts some day.
Anyway, that night we just went out to Moxie's for wings and beer. They have this crazy special that while the Vancouver Canucks are playing, a pound of wings is like $2 or $3 (can't remember off the top of my head) which we definitely took advantage of. Moxie's also has 2 very decent house beers (Euro Lager and Amber Ale) brewed by Big Rock Brewery in Calgary, which we got a couple pitchers of. I loved having beer and wings with Carm and Will. Always brings me back to nights at West End and 104 :)
The following morning we slept in (which we actually hadn't done the whole trip) and packed up to be ready for our flight that afternoon. But of course, we had time to squeeze in one more delicious meal. Me, Will, Carm's roommate and his roommate's girlfriend met up with Carm for lunch and we ate once again at La Brasserie. This time, I left all prudence behind and went big! Carm and I went halfsies on the Brasserie burger, and their lunch special: a chicken sandwich with gravy, plus salad and a yummy mushroom soup.
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| Brasserie burger featuring aged white cheddar, bacon, crispy onions, and truffle aioli |
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| rotisserie chicken sandwich smothered in chicken jus gravy with crispy onions |
SO GOOD!! The mushroom soup was especially yum because it wasn't heavy and creamy, but still had a lovely rich flavour from the mushrooms. Their house-made ketchup was outstanding as well, we asked what they made it with and they mentioned a few key ingredients that I can't remember anymore :( Trust me though, it was delish. La Brasserie is another must-eat in Vancouver... and if you go, indulge!!
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| Will's cold beer AND french press coffee :) |
With that last deeply satisfying meal, our trip to Vancouver had come to an end. After hanging out at the apartment and digesting a bit, we were off to the airport and back to the cold, cold YYZ. As you can probably tell, I had a blast eating and drinking my way through the city, as well as appreciating the beautiful scenery and active lifestyle. I'm halfway convinced to move there. For now, I'll be looking forward to my next visit :) Shout outs to Carm, and his roommates, for being awesome hosts!!
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