Vancouver, British Columbia

We just spent the past 3 days up in Vancouver, B.C. for a conference G was attending for school and I tagged along with for a little get away.

Vancouver is an awesome city. Very international, clean and with literally over 7000 eateries within the city (statistic learned from one of our accompanying foodie friends.)

During the days G attended his conference with his colleagues while me and another wife "tag along" enjoyed the cities' shopping & sites.

Some tidbits that I researched about Vancouver: Located in the lower mainland of Canada. Which is less than a 3 hour drive from our home. The Greater Vancouver area is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the country  with 2,116,581 residents.

 While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban center surrounded by nature, and surrounded by beautiful nature at that,

making tourism its second-largest industry.

Vancouver has ranked highly in worldwide "livable city" rankings. It has hosted many international conferences and events, including the Expo of 1986 World's Fair which my best friend and I drove up just after graduating high school. 

views from our 35th floor hotel room

And of course the 2010 Winter Olympics.

During our daytime excursions Tara & I walked all over the city. And I mean we literally walked ALL OVER THAT CITY having blisters to prove that statement true, we saw a lot of what the city has to offer;

the beautiful waterfront,

 the massive and tranquil Stanley Park,

tons of art, sculpture and fresh corner markets,

 of course a shop or two or twenty, well maybe two hundred shoe shops.

But the evening was for FOOD.

Our first evening we ventured over to Stanley Park and visited the Fish House.

Our goal was to try to stick with small plates at as many restaurants as allowable to try as many things as we could.

We toasted our first Vancouver meal while trying lobster oil dipping sauce (seems to be a Vancouver speciality),

Salmon Frites

and some B.C. grown oysters.

 The 3 of us were happy with our first start to our eating adventure. The rest of that evening of eating ended a bit convoluted. Trying to find eateries to accommodate 30 teachers and drag everyone all over of the city was a difficult task.

So evening two we scaled it down and stuck with the 3 of us to try some of what seems millions of sushi offerings available.

Our first venture was a complete underground hole in the wall kind of place. Called Ichiban-Ya. I started with a B.C. Chenin Blanc, the boys started with water that night.

We had the special which started with miso soup

and included tuna, spicy salmon and a cucumber roll.

We ordered an additional order of spicy tuna.

 In my opinion our first stop at Ichiban Ya was mediocre at best.

Frost researched our second sushi stop, Miyako Sushi, which had earned a 96% like rating on Urban Spoon.

We had some more sockeye salmon,

 hamachi and a tuna roll.

This spot was a huge improvement from our first sushi stop.

We were pretty full at this point and decided to explore the city on foot a bit more.

And oh boy did we. A lot of miles were put on our feet over the past 3 days. Finally we hit our last food stop of the evening at Milestones Bar & Grill on the Waterfront.

I had a yummy Pineapple Martini and

we indulged in Pork croquettes,

a recipe developed by Canada's Top Chef evidently.

We also had some calamari strips.

Our last evening in Vancouver we did dinner with a large portion of the group.

We started with cocktails at the steamboat but ended up having dinner at the Alibi Room in the Gastown area of the city.

The Alibi Room had great ambiance.

Since we had such a large group we did go downstairs which was a bit dark for  my photos.

G had the pork belly sandwich which  he loved.

 I had the chicken wings with garlic and chile sauce they were delish.

We had a great time in Vancouver. And highly recommend it for any food loving traveler.