November 4, 2016. Asia food orgy in Vancouver

LOCATION: Vancouver, British Columbia WEATHER:  Cloudy but no rain. High about 50   We took the SkyTrain to Richmond, a suburb where mostly Chinese live.  Our goal was to try some authentic Chinese food.  Our friends Daniel and Minnie, real Chinese food afficianados from San Francisco, told us that we could not go wrong....that the food here is even better than San Francisco. Our first stop was a dim sum restaurant.  We knew that the restaurant was authentic because we were about the only Caucasians, and the menu was mostly in Chinese.

 

We checked items on the menu, then waited to see what they would be like.  A waiter brought us each dish with a flourish.  First up was a "Steamed Scallop Dumpling".

Next was a dish called "Steamed Fish, Tofu and Mixed Mushrooms in abalone sauce".  It was my favorite.

Next was "Steamed sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf".  It was good, too.  

 

Our last dish was our least favorite, "Fried meat dumpling" as it had a rather sweet covering.

In the back of the restaurant was a tank of large Alaska king crabs, on display for dinner. 

We had read about a "dumpling trail" in Richmond created for tourists, like a wine or beer trail.  I looked up a few restaurants featured on the trail, and we headed for them, walking to try to create more of an appetite for more food!

 

As we walked the streets of Richmond, we were astounded at the number of Chinese restaurants.  It seems that every other building is a restaurant, and they all seemed pretty busy.  There are also a lot of natural medicine shops like this one.  

 

I saw dried birds' nests for $2000/pound!  

 

Our next restaurant was actually in a mall food court.  It wa recommended on the dumpling trail, so we gave it a try.  We watched them make our order of "Steamed juicy pork buns".

The buns were delicious, and lived up to their juicy name.....one burst all over George's pants.  

 

 

We walked a few miles to a Sky Train terminal, as we were quite full.  We stopped at a Chinese supermarket.  In addition to eating in restaurants, the locals must cook a lot of food, too.  Really strange seafood and vegetables.  There was also a Chinese food court, where people were eating at noodle stalls, seafood shops, dumpling places, and others.  I can't understand how they eat so much and stay thin.

 

We negotiated the Sky Train system and found our way to Vancouver's east end, kind of an ethnic hippy area.  Here we meet our son-in-law's cousin and family for dinner.  We went to a great sushi restaurant.  George and I split this beautiful sushi assortment.

It was great seeing them and sharing a delicious Japanese meal.  

 

They dropped us off at the Sky Train terminal, and we waddled back to our hotel!