That aside, ethnic amazingness is most obvious in the restaurants. There's a Ukrainian place around the corner, several Korean barbecue joints on the way there, and a fish and chip shop just past it. I told you there are too many Brits.
And then there are the Chinese restaurants. Not for nothing is this city referred to as "Hongcouver", and before we left Californian our Hong Kong-born Vancouverite friend Ken sang the praises of 小籠包. As I'm sure you know, this translates as xiao long bao, or dumplings. More specifically, "juicy" dumplings that have soup on the inside! How is that even possible?
Ken's top recommendation was a place called Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House. He claims to have given up eating dumplings in California, so disappointing is the comparison. We rented a car for the weekend and put it to good use by driving over the Granville bridge and stopping by.
Wow. They are definitely juicy. And popular - Lin claims to make 200 orders a day, and as they're served in sixes that works out at...er...a lot. They're amazing little steamed parcels of porky pleasure, although a little difficult to eat in terms of coordinating chop sticks, a spoon, and not scalding your face off.
Pete looked on with envious disdain, somewhat appeased by eating an entire steamed pork bun by himself. A plate of fried honey prawns was a worthy dumpling accompaniment, and a dish of mouth-watering spicy wantons was so fantastically garlicky that we won't make any friends for the next few days. Heavy rain fell as we ate delicious food. If this is a typical Vancouver day, I'm very happy (and probably should join a gym as a matter of urgency).
Here they are! I've always enjoyed dim sum, as some may remember.
Emily has problems negotiating a 小籠包.
I have no such worries, although can't escape the feeling that someone's watching...
Fine - have a steamed bun instead.
And here's a pic of Em with some totem poles, because it's a nice one.
