Sinified

Chinatown
Another giveaway to Vancouver's "Asian-ness" is its Chinatown. Ranking in the top 3 largest Chinatowns in North America (behind San Fransisco and New York), Vancouver's Chinatown is a great place to find wacky medicinal herbs, cheap fruits and vegetables, and random household knickknacks.

My main purpose in visiting Chinatown is to indulge in New Town Bakery's ridiculously delicious bao (steamed buns): steamed pork & vegetable steamed buns, coconut steamed buns, BBQ pork steamed buns, chicken steamed buns. I like to say that I'm Japanese when I eat pork products to not feel any Jewish guilt! Other delights include almond cookies, egg tarts, sponge cake, etc. I usually roll out of this place a few pounds heavier!

On a recent trip to the bakery, I decided to walk off some of the damage within Chinatown itself. For once, it was not raining in Vancouver!

One of the many lantern posts in Chinatown...


Can't remember what the description said...


Inside Sun Yat Sen Gardens (the free side)
with downtown Vancouver as a backdrop...


The inside wall of Sun Yat Sen Gardens...


The outside wall of Sun Yat Sen Gardens...

This year, Chinese New Years falls on Valentine's Day, February 14, and also falls exactly when the Olympics are in Vancouver. Chinese New Years celebrations bring out thousands of Vancouverites yearly and seeming as I plan not to be in the city during the Olympic chaos, I figured I would at least leave you with some photos from two years past to give you an idea of what the celebrations can look like! According to Chinatown Vancouver Online, 30% of Vancouverites are native-Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, making Chinese people Vancouver's largest ethnic group.

The crowds gather for the fun...


The dragon parade at the main entrance...


Performers in the parade and some white kid...


Dancers in the parade...


A very cute boy...


A popular good luck charm stand...


Even Vancouver Police like to be part of the festivities...

Happy Early Chinese New Year!

Japanified

If it weren't for the odd sprinkling of "white man" here and there, one would think Vancouver is in Asia. I really noticed the change in demographics when I came back from being abroad. Being the Asian-food fanatic that I am, my first few weeks back were spent in hot-spots that are especially "Asian". Half of me blends-in rather undetected, while the other half simply gawks, which - at times - is a dead giveaway for "foreigner"..."intruder"..."alert"!

Japa-Dog
A popular hotdog stand that is 100% Japanified. The options are numerous from miso (salty soybean paste) flavoured dogs with bonito (dried fish) shavings to spicy radish dogs with a bite. My favourite is the terimayo (teriyaki and mayonnaise) dog with nori (dried seawood) sprinkles. When I used to work downtown, I remember waiting in the line-up, barely having enough time to gobble it up and get back to work! That's how popular this stand was and remains still! Rumour has it that there is a special dog here that some workplaces have forbidden their employees to bring into the office due to its potent odour!! Hilarious...

Order to the right...
Pick up to the left...

The options prove too overwhelming for this 'white man'...

Just a small sampler of the menu...

Wish you got one too, right?


Japanese perfection...

Fujiya
A truly 100% Japanified supermarket. Like the Russian supermarkets in Israel, it's like being in another world. It's like being in Japan without having to purchase an expensive plane ticket or worry about accomodation! You can find everything from normal items like red-bean pastries to silken tofu to the strange like fermented nuts to miscellaneous (unidentifiable) meats. I consider a trip to Fujiya like a treasure hunt, in that you'll never know what you'll find!

A different sauce per dish...


Endless amounts of goodies...

The token 'white person', my mother...


Fitting in nicely, my father...

It is tradition in my family to prepare a Japanese feast from scratch for New Year's. This year consisted of maze-gohan, which is steamed rice mixed with shitake (mushrooms), gobo (burdock root), carrot, green onion, chicken, age (tofu sacs), soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine). Other side dishes included hand-made futomaki (fat rolls) stuffed with shitake (mushrooms), spinach, kanpyo (squash), oboro (neon pink-sugared dried cod), cucumber, barbequed eel and dikon (pickled radish); shirai (tofu spinach salad with miso and sesame seeds); inari (tofu sacs filled with sushi rice and sesame seeds); and finally, omochi - something so amazing, it requires its own explanatory paragraph.

Omochi are traditional Japanese New Year's rice-cakes made from sweet gelatinous rice that is steamed and pounded into a smooth, homogenous batch. Luckily, we have a machine that does this for us; however, back in my father's day and that of my Japanese ancestors, it is tradition to cut down a tree, burrow a bowl in the stump, mold the trunk into a pestle, and pound the rice in the make-shift tree bowl - all while chanting. (As the Jews say, "Next year in Jerusalem" after each holiday, I should really start the tradition of saying, "Next year in Japan" after Japanese New Year's!). After the pounding, the mound is divided into little round circular cakes. These cakes are then later toasted in the oven until they blossom into big puffs of yummy goodness - crispy on the top and gooey on the bottom. It's like watching lava flow and harden. Absolutely fascinating! Once cooked to perfection, a soy and brown sugar sauce is drizzled on top and a true delicacy is born.

I was hoping to get some photos of the feast, but in the heat of the moment, hunger consumed all thought and prevailed over all mental processes. The camera remained in its case for the full duration of the meal. I guess it'll just have to be saved in the ol' memory bank.

More Asian goodness to come...


Happy New Year!

Feliz Navidad

This year I was invited to spend Christmas with Roisin's family. I got to decorate their Christmas tree. Aside from fulfilling a secret childhood fantasy (having been deprived of even a Chanukah bush in my youth), I also got to experience an Irish-flavoured Christmas. Both Roisin and I chuckled (later on skype) at how funny it was that I was spending Christmas with her family as her replacement, and she was in Jerusalem celebrating Chanukah with my fellow brethen!

I even attended Midnight Mass. I am completely guilty of falling asleep during the service, but in my defence, I wasn't the only one. The cherry on top was not understanding a single word the Head Priest had to say until he wished us all, "Feliz Navidad". I was reassured later - when in the car and out of earshot - that I too wasn't the only one lost.

Feliz Navidad!

The most fascinating part of this holiday has got to be the food. It is quite the production. On the Eve, Roisin's mother prepared roast ham flavoured with cloves and grapefruit juice, and an array of delicious trimmings too long to list. I thought this was the "big meal", until Roisin's father started to calculate at which hour the turkey needs to be in the oven the following day. Stuffed to the gills, we attended Mass to return home only to continue cooking. I helped Roisin's mother prepare the Christmas breakfast special until 3am in the morning! It pretty much is a monsterous casserole consisting of the following layers (bottom to top): wonder bread, leeks, green pepper, cheddar, bacon & ham (for the vegetarians, shitake mushrooms), another layer of wonder bread, soaked in an egg-milk mixture, topped with Special K cereal, and drenched with maple syrup. The name's "Christmas Morning Wifesaver". (It's okay to laugh).

For the millionth time, too much food was consumed and I was in need of exercise again! Using the dog as an excuse, Roisin's father and I took the dog out for a walk, when it was really us who needed to go for a walk. Roughly, 3 hours of it! We ventured along Homestead Trail, Seymour Trail and up around Rice Lake. One of the most magical hikes ever!

On the way up...

Frost evaporating...


A tree stump is a place for new growth...


Frosted tips on a cedar sapling...


Winter has arrived...


Meet Venus! She's part chow...


Frozen winterland...


It deserved a close-up...


Tiny frozen pools...


Shattering icerods...

At first, I thought this was cotton wood. Turns out, it's ice! I am guessing that moisture or sap emanating from this particular type of tree, at this specific altitude and temperature, freezes into fine puffs of ice, creating ice forms as fluffy as cotton.

Seymour river...


The riverbed...


Downstream...


Upstream...


Final destination: Rice Lake!


On the way back...

Remnants of a turn-of-the-century
logging community...


I wouldn't mind living under this tree...

That evening, we stuffed ourselves silly again, only this time with the traditional Christmas dinner of my dreams. On the table was a turkey with sausage drippings, decadent gravy, shitake bread stuffing, homemade cranberry-orange sauce, boiled purple potatoes, and spicey brussell sprouts. Although this meal completely reversed the good the walk had done us, it was well worth it!

Bowser Trail

5 minutes from my back porch is Bowser Trail.

The entrance...


A funky tree stump...


The wood staircase...


The concrete staircase...


Merry Christmas to whoever did this!


Bylaw #5981...


Meet my father...


Along the trail is a creek.

During the summer, skunk cabbage grows here. Yes, it stinks, but it is not as hideous-looking as Eastern skunk cabbage!

Plant foliage...


A spider web on an ivy vine...


I used to be so scared of getting
anywhere near this tree!


To this day, I'm still scared of this hill!

This trail holds many good memories for me. As a child, I used to play in the park mid-way along the trail. Instead of going through the neighbourhood, I used to take the trail to go to the grocery store, and I have even used the trail (a.k.a. the stairs) from time to time in attempts to shed some weight. But my favourite memory of all time is walking with my father in the wee hours of the morning just after a fresh snowfall. Aside from the slight crunching of our feet on the light powder, it was dead quiet. The snow glistened in the moonlight as we strolled along. To this day, nothing has ever come close to match the essence from that walk. A pristine winterland. Easily one of the most magical experiences of my life. Glad to have shared it with you, pops!