I love the wilderness aspect of living in LA and no, I’m not talking about that metropolis’s grossly underestimated cultural heft, but of its uniqueness amongst all the places where we’ve put down roots in containing genuine wilderness areas within its limits!
And yet every visit that we make to the Pacific Northwest convinces me that perhaps it is here that true ‘urban(e) outdoorsman nirvana’ resides, especially as fire, flood, and earthquakes (though this last threat can be an issue), don’t seem to be constantly conspiring to wipe you off the map.
Seattle and Portland have both played host to us more than once in the last couple of years and each city thoroughly merits (and will receive) its own memoir, but we have all fallen hard, really hard, for Vancouver these past four days and if there’s a finer urban environment for a neoprene-clad flâneur, an omnivorous foodie and a curious eleven year old like our daughter, we’ve yet to find it. Sabrina, who always comes alive in a new city, has been especially enthusiastic.
A ‘cold climate Sydney’ might sound like a bit of a stretch as that city is so much larger, but aside from the obvious commonalities of a spectacular setting and ready access to beaches downtown, both cities are incredibly multicultural, laid back and friendly, and both have frightening fauna (whether an encounter with a funnel web or huntsman spider is scarier than one with a grizzly bear is a debate I won’t enter into). Finally both have seaplanes and ferries, those most romantic of transportation options, to get around.
Having spent a week in the mountains above the city in Whistler last year we’d arrived in Vancouver prepared for rain (coming back to the hotel room soaked to the skin from horizontal sleet after a morning’s skiing and shoving our ski suits in the dryer while we ate lunch, then putting said toasty suits back on for the afternoon’s session is a delicious memory), but miraculously the sun has shone on and off for three of our four days here and we have been able to experience the city’s wild heart and its deeply civilized spirit at their best.
Sabrina’s acrophobia made tackling the alarmingly swaying footbridge suspended high over the Capilano river an impossibility, but I managed to coax our daughter across and while Sabrina was happily ensconced in a café well away from the ravine’s edge we explored the suspended walkways through the Douglas fir forest on its far side.
Our daughter was equally entranced by the totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park and the view across Coal Harbour to the city’s waterfront in low winter sunlight, as the seaplanes took off and landed from their crossings to Vancouver Island, was wondrous.
By this time we were getting cold and hungry. Our concierge had unexpectedly raved about the city’s Breton Crêperies so grabbing a cab to the nearest one we warmed up with hot Breton cider toddies whilst we waited for our crêpes. Treating this as a starter we then moved on to dinner at a traditional French bistro in Gastown, the oldest part of the city, after a cruise round the area’s galleries (the Inuit sculptures and carvings are winsome and our daughter would have loved one of the ‘dancing bears’ pieces but at $5,000 and up for the stone equivalent of a soft toy, we had no hesitation demurring)!
Breton-style Crêpes with Seafood: Serves Six
These feather-light buckwheat crèpes are a delicious gluten free option. You can fill them with pretty much anything sweet or savoury.
100gm buckwheat flour
250ml almond milk or cow’s milk
3 eggs
60gm butter melted ( I prefer salted)
Filling
800gm peeled prawns
6 cloves garlic finely chopped
Small bunch of parsley finely chopped
1 large tomato finely diced
3 tbsp tomato passata
Chilli flakes to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Put the flour in a bowl then add the milk, whisk until smooth, add the eggs, whisk again to combine then the butter, whisk until the batter is smooth. Cover and rest for 10 minutes.
Heat a 20cm crêpe pan or frypan brushing a little olive oil, add enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer. Cook until the edges start to lift off the pan and the batter is no longer shiny, flip and cook for 1 minute. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Cover the crêpes and keep warm.
Heat another frypan with 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, add the garlic toss for a minute then add the prawns tossing all the time until the prawns are cooked through. Add the chilli flakes ( if using), chopped tomato, parsley, passata and season to taste, tossing until everything is cooked through.
Fill crêpes and serve.
The city’s Chinatown is justifiably famous and we knew that dim sum here would be a sure fire bet (Floata Seafood is a gem), but we were equally impressed by cocktails followed by a Thai dinner in and amongst the waterfront warehouses in Yaletown.
We were all fascinated Dr Sun Yat-sen’s Classical Chinese Garden, the only one of its kind outside mainland China. It is modelled on the Ming Dynasty private gardens of the city of Suzhou and reflects the Daoist philosophy of yin and yang. If you’re wondering why I’m going into such excruciating detail, it’s because it was drilled into us laboriously and repeatedly by Wilma, the melodramatic docent who gave us the tour.
The rain started at midnight on our last day here, and continued until well after dark-a perfect excuse to spend the day ducking in and out of the produce stands, craft stores, galleries and cafés on Granville Island, a superior Canuck simulacrum of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, without the annoying fish being tossed around for tourist entertainment. Having turned up our noses at the nosebleed prices of the Inuit stone carvings we were staggered at the cheapness of the Shona stone sculptures in one of the art galleries and added a beautiful piece to the small collection we have at home. It was also long overdue for us to treat our daughter who we had dragged around (mostly uncomplainingly), for the last three days to a visit to Science World, in its remarkable geodesic glass dome on the waterfront.
While this short visit has been incredible, it’s also tinged with sadness as we were due to have made this trip with a family friend in LA who originally hails from here. Sadly he passed away suddenly a few months back. This memory is dedicated to you, Elliott.
Captures what we hear and imagine Vancouver to be like, multicultural, natural beauty, rains ... but with your inimitable poetic and humorous flourish. Can't wait to go visit!
Thank you, Anupam! Vancouver really is the jewel of the Pacific Northwest and we are long overdue for a return visit. A seaplane trip to Vancouver Island beckons!