TRAVEL TUESDAY / VANCOUVER WONDERFUL CITY FOR TACONE

GUEST BLOG / By Jennifer Silva Redmond, Author of Honeymoon at Sea.  The next in a series of liveaboard sailboat adventures. 

Who knew Vancouver in summer could be hot and humid? Not us—we'd always pictured Canada as cool, and our first visited Canadian city, Victoria, had been temperate. 

 But now it was the second week in July and our sailboat was tied up in a slip right in the middle of the city as the bright hot sun beat down. It was our first day at Fisherman’s Wharf Marina on False Creek, just south of Granville Island, and there was a lot to get done before it was time to play. 

In the early afternoon, Russel scrubbed the boat and I lugged a bag of recycling up to the marina office. On the way back I spotted Go Fish, a tiny outdoor place that served fish and chips. Their version of a fish taco, called a tacone, is served in a flour tortilla cone with tangy cole slaw on the side. I ordered us both a salmon tacone ($16 each, Canadian) and they were superior. 

The previous night, when we were still anchored in False Creek by Science World’s huge geodesic dome, Russel came back from checking out the marina by dinghy with a pound of fresh lingcod. He’d paid about $20 for it straight from the fishermen and it was some of the best fish I’ve ever eaten; sauteed in butter and garlic, the texture was reminiscent of monkfish (“poor man’s lobster”). 

 After our lunch I headed up to the laundry. What a relief to see that the laundry room wasn’t the tiny closet that so many marinas and yacht clubs have. I put everything into the washers and headed to the showers, then was able to recline on a comfy couch while our clothes got dry. 

 

Granville Island at False Bay

Back at the boat we got dressed in our night-out finery and headed along the waterfront path that led from the marina over to Granville Island, a place we’d been seeing on YouTube videos for months. In fact, it was about the only place we knew about in Vancouver, so we were happy to have found a slip for our boat so close by. 

The waterfront walking/biking path was crowded with people exercising their dogs and zooming by on bikes, we had to carefully look both ways in order to stop and check out a lovely pond covered with lily pads. Granville Island has a vibe that reminded me a bit of Key West and a bit of New Orleans’ French Quarter. 

We went straight to the huge covered Public Market and strolled around, checking out the produce, the bakeries, and the myriad small stalls with every type of food for sale. I got hungry again just smelling the different aromas—Chinese egg rolls, Mexican burritos, and a variety of savory hand pies. 

We noted the location of the renowned Lee’s Donuts and Siegel’s Bagels for future reference, then headed to the Granville Island Brewing Company. We weren’t too enamored by their light-weight IPA, but it was fun to sit and watch servers hustle around the bright space crowded with diners. The pizza smelled good—I was truly hungry by this point—but that sort of a meal wasn’t what we had in mind. We quizzed the bartender about fish restaurants, but he was no help, being from outside the city. Vancouver is extremely expensive so it isn’t surprising that someone making minimum wage can’t afford to live near Granville Island. 

Instead, we strolled back across the island along the main drag, looking into the stores and stopping briefly outside Tony’s Fish and Chips. It looked good but greasy seafood wasn’t quite right either. 

I’d spotted the Vancouver Fish Company on our way onto the island and now it was just what we were looking for: a casually elegant setting right on the water, but inside out of the sun. We were seated right away and ordered a Fat Tug IPA on draft for the Wildfire's captain and a festive elderberry mocktail for me. The menu was limited in a good way—I get thrown off by restaurants that offer a five page menu and specialize in nothing. I ordered a seafood linguini which turned out to be tasty and well seasoned, if a bit on the small side. Russel picked the winner this time, a delicious tuna poke bowl with edamame and rice in a tangy sauce, filling and satisfying but not overwhelming. 

 The next morning we went out for a walk after a light breakfast of fresh sesame bagels on the boat. We wandered out of the marina and dropped by the local boat chandlery, then checked out the closest grocery store, called No Frills, which was exactly that. I’d been informed by Alicia, the editor of Womancake Magazine, that we simply had to go to The Naam for a meal, and I consulted my paper map and figured we could make it on foot. It turned out to be a long walk, but worth it. The Naam is a small place, but furnished in a comfortably spare style that made me feel right at home. 

The Naam

Russel ordered the Dragon Bowl which was full of brown rice and tofu and other goodies as well as shredded beets and carrots all dressed in the amazing miso gravy Alicia had told me about. I opted for the Thai Noodles which were perfectly cooked and spiced just right. It was a massive plate for lunch, as the server had warned me, but by leaving aside half of the green peppers (there were a lot of green peppers) I managed to do it justice. 

To get back to the marina we headed over to the water and took a scenic path along a few parks, and continued past so many stunning homes, and along the sparkling inlet to Kitsilanto Pool, and then strolled down the beachfront walkway. 

The beach was set up for the big beach volleyball tournament, and a lot of tanned and fit young people were practicing on the sand courts. There was also a Chi Ball game happening, so we stopped to watch that. Chi Balls are like homemade woven Whiffle Balls and the game is sort of like Hacky Sack. 

The next day we headed out by bus to see downtown Vancouver. We caught a bus near Granville Island and rode it almost to Canada Place, then we got off and walked around, checking out the cruise ship terminal, reading the many historical plaques, and enjoying some prime people watching. Back on the bus, we went to Chinatown, where there was a street festival happening. 

We watched a puppet show, then enjoyed a perfect break in the peaceful Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and public park (above), then walked over to have dim sum at the Jade Dynasty restaurant. The pastry style buns with pork BBQ inside were the best of the three choices, but the steamed pork dumplings were tasty too. I wasn’t a fan of the steamed pumpkin in black bean sauce, since the black bean sauce was just broth with a couple of back beans floating in it. Russel treated himself to a rum and cola, and I had a small glass of Asian Ice Wine, which tasted like cold sherry to me. Refreshing, but not as exotic as I’d hoped. 

That gave us the strength to walk over to the Costco a few blocks away to pick up a couple of small things we couldn’t do without. Our next stop was Gastown, where we planned to be true tourists and see the Gastown Clock strike the hour, so we had to stop and have a drink to kill 40 minutes. 

We were lucky enough to find the perfect cocktail spot—the Pourhouse, a few doors south of the clock. The Pourhouse is the sort of modern, yet old-school watering hole that makes you relax the second you enter it. The bar stools were comfortable and the drinks—a Hurricane for me, and an Old Fashioned for the captain—were mixed and served with suitable panache by a stylish young woman. 

Our last tourist day in Vancouver was just as entertaining and charming but much easier—we were picked up by two local friends who took us touring out the highway to see some colorful portrait murals in a waterfront park whose name I missed, though I snapped a photo. We spent a restful afternoon in their East Vancouver backyard garden, eating seedless watermelon—did I mention it was hot?— sipping Prosecco, snacking on chips and hummus, and telling tales. 

Our eyes mostly stayed focused on a pair of juvenile bald eagles trying their wings from a neighboring tree. The adult eagles flew by with snacks a few times, and every bird in the neighborhood chimed in to comment. Vancouver turned out to be hot in every sense—exciting, diverse, cosmopolitan and yet so scenic. It was more walkable and friendly than we’d thought such a big city would be, and we can’t wait to go back. 

Top of page illustration: F. Stop Fitzgerald, staff illustrator, PillartoPost.org