Vancouver - Day 4: Antigone & Peking Duck

So, today we woke up to a LOT of rain. Like...rain jackets NOT sufficient, glad the hotel offers solid umbrellas rainy. We decided to pivot the morning plans from Stanley Park over to the Museum of Vancouver. But first! Walk in the rain (kind of zen maybe?) over to Japadog. What is Japadog you ask? Exactly as the name suggests, Japanese style hot dogs. Check out the menu of options! Yakisoba, okonomi, yakiniku, etc etc. 

We ended up with three varietals - R requested a wagyu version, I wanted one with more vegetables, and we got the classic to ensure we gave it a fair shake. Excited!

Here's the wagyu terimayo. 3 stars. Not bad...but the beef was a little dry in hot dog form. Not as juicy as the pork standard. 

Here's the oroshi, which has green onions, a soy sauce, and grated daikon radishes. It was very fresh tasting so not bad for summer, but today was a rainy day. Probably also 3, would be a 2.5 except the pork sausage was yummy. Baba ate the last couple bites with ketchup and mustard. 

This one was the winner. The classic terimayo. Very delicious. We all gave it 4 stars. 

We played a few rounds of cards (I thought I packed poker cards...turns out the swag from the travel show I attended was a knockoff uno) while we waited for the Uber to the Museum of Vancouver. This was definitely a "what is indoors and convenient to our plans for the rest of the day" stop. Expectations were naturally tempered. You start off with a few rooms focused on the ancestral native history of the area where the museum is built -- it was not a great look for archaeology and Western museums... seems the treatment of native peoples in Canada was just as poor as in America. We found the exhibits about the native languages particularly interesting -- as Baba noted, you don't usually see languages that incorporate numbers in the middle of words. I wondered if that was short hand for a tonal marking, but Google confirmed in the Squamish language, it actually stands for something more like a glottal stop. 

The exhibits were based on time periods, so there were Chinese immigration history, lumber history, depression era, pre war and post war eras, civil rights, hippie, and more modern day.  There were a number interactive exhibits (lots of old video footage) -- like this real cross section of a several hundred year old tree. It was cool to see the different sized rings based on rainfall in each year and to see radial growth decline over time as the trees had to expend more nutrients just to staying alive and supporting such a large leaf/branch/etc system. 

I think the twins got bored pretty quickly but I thought it was a decent way to kill a couple hours. For example, I hadn't realized Canada had a Chinese Exclusion Act as well or that there was a huge emptying of entire Japanese neighborhoods and business centers with WWII.  

It eventually got to be close to 1:30 so we ducked outside (rain had lightened up considerably) for the 5 min walk to the Bard on the Beach tents. It would have been a more picturesque location had it not been gray and raining I'm sure. It's right on the banks of False Creek. L had chosen Antigone over MacBeth and Merry Wives of Windsor. I was surprised because I thought Antigone was the most introspective (relying on feelings and emotions instead of plot events) of the bunch but JiuJiu actually played Creon in our high school production so I was interested in seeing a professional rendition!

It ended up being a more modern production that we had been expecting so no difficulties following at all...I have to say I dislike all the characters in Antigone. Antigone is too stubborn and single minded, Creon is too proud, Ismene is too frivolous and Jocasta is too selfish. I thought the staging was done very well -- the actors were decent, a lot of shouting of dialogue which made expression harder but I appreciated it because it was a quasi-round stage format and we would have missed 1/3 of the dialogue otherwise. 

The show was over around 3:30 and we had 90 min to kill before our dinner reservation so we decided to walk over the bridge and see more of Vancouver. Some interesting buildings:

Nice view of False Creek as we crossed the bridge:

I was impressed that the complaining about walking was generally at a minimum! 

As fate would have it...our walk took us right past a micro distillery. Baba doesn't need much convincing to stop for a pre dinner drink. 

He really liked this drink (on the left) which the mixologist had created literally the night before. It had aperol, bitters, disaronno, pineapple juice, and maybe gin? Twist on a paper plane the creator said. 

The twins also got a refreshing mocktail. They were not big fans of the flavors...we agreed to it mostly because we felt grateful they let minors stop and rest here. 

But soon enough it was time for the main star for today's culinary itinerary: Peking Duck at Chang An!

Started with their version of bread and olive oil - it was a chili bean paste dipping sauce which I really really liked. 3.5 stars (mainly because of my enjoyment), though everyone else liked the bread more than the sauce. 

Cucumber and cold noodle salad. The peanut sauce got a 4 star but the chili sauce side only a 2.5.

Lamb with bamboo - the bamboo was too sour for me but the lamb was extremely tender and not at all gamey. 3.5 stars. 

Ahhh the duck was so good!! It really did live up to Beijing standards which has NOT been the case at any Peking Duck restaurant I've been to in the US. I had about 5 pancakes I think. It was so so good. 5 stars. Best thing I've had all trip so far.

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The duck soup on the other hand...was very much a letdown. Maybe just 2 stars. Would definitely skip this and get the cumin stir fry instead. 

We also got the eggplant and green beans. Not great. Probably a 2.5 stars. Not flavorful enough. I had to dip the eggplant in the duck sauce! And it was almost tempura style. Not what I was hoping for. 

But highly highly recommend the Peking Duck at Chang An if you come to Vancouver!!

We went home after that and streamed Nezha on the TV before turning in on the earlier side. A little too action packed for me but animation and story were all very impressive. Tomorrow we have a day of driving the Sea to Sky highway!

Vancouver - Day 3: XLB & Capilano

Today is the end of our little Richmond pre-trip to Vancouver proper. We were originally thinking of doing a visit to the Olympic Center...but after reading some reviews...I got a little worried it would be very very disappointing. So, naturally we decided to replace it with another mall visit. 😆 But first! Time for the Richmond king of soup dumplings -- Dinesty. 

Ahh so good. Everyone agrees it was a 4.5 showing. 3 of the 4 tasters preferred it to Dough Zone. Our Dough Zone diehard remained loyal to her favorite restaurant. They were smaller and more compact but oddly seemed to have more soup? The flavor was more meaty, if that makes sense. 

Another highlight? The smiling robot cat (how can we tell it's a cat you ask? L says it's obvious because of the ears). 

 

It delivers the 25% off boba from the tea shop next door. 

Here's a favorite of mine, the wontons in red oil. I actually liked the flavor of Dough Zone's version more (more spicy/sweet) but everyone else disagreed with and liked these better. 4 stars. 

Here's our "a little off menu" order, the sweet and sour spareribs with pine nuts. Too sweet, not sour enough. And the meat was kind of hard to get off the bones. Also the sauce was too artificial seeming. So even though I love this dish normally, only giving it a 3 here. [Okay update, these oddly improved significantly as a cold leftover dish in the evening -- went up to a 3.5 in my book, now I understand why this dish is often served as a room temperature appetizer!]. 

Here's the obligatory smashed cucumber side dish to any order of XLB. I liked the flavor more than the one we got at Tony's yesterday. 3.5 stars. 

Here are the fried dough balls with custard sauce (gotten on recommendation of our neighbors who are transplanted Vancouver locals). Big hit for the twins. I would only recommend if you have children (basically it's like a Chinese version of a beignet or churro), but they gave it 4.5 stars. 

Lastly, we also took their recommendation to pick up these beef rolls. I don't know if this is normal, but they wrap it with duck sauce and cucumber sticks and green onion so it really reminded us of Peking Duck! But only scored a 3.5 overall, not special enough to shine on its own without getting credit for Peking Duck references. 

Our neighbors actually happened to be in Vancouver so they stopped by to say hi! Their two daughters are roughly the same age as the twins so they were way more knowledgeable than I in terms of blind boxes and keychain characters and "Jennie bags" -- tips were traded on shopping locations and Canadian snack recommendations before they headed off to their own lunch and we went off for one last round of Daiso/Miniso/etc. 

We wanted to make it to our next hotel by 3 though so that we could settle in before catching the shuttle to Capilano tonight where we have entrance tickets for 5pm. The forecasted rain came back around, so after checking in, we donned our rain jackets and headed off. 

The shuttle stop was super easy to find and the ride itself didn't take very long, the best part of the drive up was probably crossing the bridge into North Vancouver -- I can see why everyone recommends the coastal drive up to Whistler! On our plans for later this week.  Pretty quickly we left the "city" behind and were deep in forest. 

I have to admit I knew this would be very touristy and probably feel overpriced. But it seemed very iconic for Vancouver and hey, the US dollar exchange rate is favorable these days, no? 

We hadn't eaten since our 11am dumplings so I agreed to indulge in some otter balls. One of the other visitors noted that these are the "West Coast version of Beavertails." They were a fun visual snack (topped with caramel, chocolate, whipped cream) but taste wise pretty on par with a standard waffle. I'd only give it 3 stars.

We then moved on to the main attraction: the suspension bridge. 

The park still felt pretty crowded, even though I'm told this was much lighter compared to daytime. But the twins commented even in downtown Vancouver that they think they might prefer Richmond to Vancouver because there were less people. I think they also enjoyed getting so much attention and compliments because all the laolaos and ayis were so impressed with their Chinese language capabilities! 

On the other side of the suspension bridge was a series of more walkways and lookout platforms -- the so called "treetop adventure." We were back to the classic mugging for the camera (you may need to zoom in for the expressions). 

I was so used to the redwoods and cedars of Northern California that I didn't expect this to be mostly a Douglas fir forest. I actually asked the park naturalist to confirm that these were the same trees as our little 9 foot Christmas trees -- clearly they can grow MUCH taller if left out in nature undisturbed. 

A look down at the nature walk pathways below. 

Perhaps the most amazing part was the fact that they constructed the entire treetop adventure without putting a single nail, screw or bolt into the trees. Seems unbelievable, no? But apparently they use a system of clamps that exert enormous amounts of pressure on the trunks and use that to keep everything up. Notice the reddish metal clamps peeking out on the trunk there connected to the metal rods holding up the platform? After I told the twins and Baba, everyone responded with some variation of "let's get off this thing it could fall at anytime!" 😆 

Back down on ground level, we met at "Grandma Capilano" for the guided nature walk. Baba let me try out my recently discovered vertical panorama feature again to capture the full height of Grandma, the oldest tree in the park. 800+ years! While we've got lots of old growth redwoods that top 1000 years in our local hiking trails, that is like midlife for a redwood. I learned that most Douglas firs die around 500-700 years max, so this is truly a rare "grandma" of the species!

Injecting an artsy canopy shot here (I was quite proud of it) of Grandma Capilano and some younger members of her forest family. 

Turns out L is growing at the same rate as the red cedars (and would be very tall for her age for a hemlock!) Though I think all the trees will have comfortably overtaken her in another couple years...

The nature walk guide was very nice and gave us some interesting info about the wildlife that exists in this forest -- the twins thought the little Douglas squirrels were super cute -- but apparently grizzlies even visit sometimes! They tend to stay away while the park is open though (phew - we did NOT pack any bear spray). She also told us about this native American fable about mice hiding in the Douglas firs in a fire -- taken a look at a cone from the Douglas fir next time -- they really do look like they have mice hiding in there with the tails sticking out!

Next up was the Cliffwalk, there was some trepidation heading into this, which I found a little ridiculous - I think the twins have watched too many influencer shorts of the really harrowing cliffwalks in Asia with the clear glass panels that intentionally "break" as you step on them. 

This was a much milder version. 

Honestly felt way more secure than the suspension bridge. 

The crowds had also died down a bit as we got towards 7pm. Allowed for some more relaxed enjoyment of the surroundings. 

The walkway after the Cliffwalk has a bunch of interesting trees and sculptures and educational plaques about water conservation and forests. It was very surprising to learn that Canadians are actually worse at water conservation than Americans! One of the plagues explicitly said Canadian water usage was getting worse while the US had actually decreased water consumption because of conservation efforts. 

L playing to the camera again:

It would have been nice if we came in a sunnier day, I bet the sunlight streaming in would have made for some cool photos. But...then there probably would have been more crowds. 

All in all, it was an enjoyable excursion, but glad we had the 25% discount for going after 5pm and that it's still a 0.7 dollar exchange rate. 

On the shuttle ride home, we noticed that another passenger asked to get off at an unmarked drop off that was only 1 block away from our dinner spot -- Guu with Garlic -- so we quickly hopped off too. We've been averaging 15K steps each day so no need for extraneous walks! 

Back to the food blog -- this was a highlight, the soy fried chicken wings. Skin/coating was super light and flaky. Wings were juicy. Flavor was strong but not overdone. 4.25 stars.

Unagi-meki -- eel with egg in stone pot fried rice (what I usually associate with a bibimbap). Loved how the egg cooked against the stone pot. Baba though the ginger was a little overpowering but overall still good. L and I both enjoyed quite a bit - I'd say 4 stars. 

Sweet chili mayo fried shrimp. Very good. Everyone wanted seconds. 4.25 stars as well. 

Tuna sashimi - Baba and I both thought this was better than what we got in Richmond, though I didn't care as much for the salmon sashimi (sorry, forgot to take photo). So sashimi overall averages to 3.5 perhaps. 

Wagyu tataki. I actually ate more of the salad underneath than the beef. 😆 But R enjoyed the steak and Baba has not met a wagyu he didn't like, so we will give this 3.75 stars. 

Lastly, my yuzu mojito. It came with this little bottle that I had to pop open with that green plastic push piece...and then a glass ball fell in to sit in the upper section (unclear why? Just a gimmick?). It was amusing and a little confusing. I poured most of it in thinking that was my sake...but then later realized that was the sugary soda mixer. Oops. No wonder they served it on the side. 

All in all, Guu was a solid entrant in the Vancouver culinary itinerary. We finished eating around 8:30 and strolled down Robson to our hotel - we aren't sure what we will end up doing tomorrow yet given that the rain forecast has been getting steadily stronger. The original plan to bike around Stanley clearly won't work...maybe a museum? We shall see!