So much Food!

Back in Vancouver we countered our week of healthy outdoor loving with a day of total indulgence. We met up with Penny, Jason and George's friend Richard who was visiting from England - Richard is Penny's brother. To start the day off we headed to the Cambie to watch the final of the World Cup, it was rammed, we just grabbed the last table. The support between Argentina and Germany was pretty even, so tensions were high. Finally after all that extra time we could head off to our next appointment, the plan was to go to the Food Cart festival, this was easily one of the things that George was most excited about. So we headed across the bridge to the disappointing venue of concrete car park, with the sun ridiculously hot again there was minimal shade. 

The food carts however definitely made up for it, everything from Oriental to Pizza and Hot Dogs to Curry, the selection was amazing. I myself went for spicy pork rice dish, whilst George really mixed up the different cultures with some Japanese style fried chicken followed by a curry wrap. You know a standard combination. Anyway it was super tasty and made that much better by my table nabbing skills that got us a spot in the highly valued shade. We braved the waves of heat radiating off of the ground for as long as possible before giving in and buying an artisan Ice lolly - a blackberry mojito which was delightfully alcoholic - and heading down to the water. 

Fortunately there was a bar that exclusively sells craft beers next to the water, so that was a logical way to continue the day, we sat there for a couple of hours enjoying the glorious weather, watching the kayakers in the bay and tasting the beer. They do little tasting 'flights' where you pick 3 different ones to sample, which is fun until you make a terrible choice. 

Penny then mentioned a night market in Richmond that had a load of different Chinese and Japanese foods, and as we had spent all day eating and drinking we were obviously starting to feel a little peckish. 

The night market is a collection of Asian food stands, cheap iPhone cases and genuine samurai swords and switch blades. Personally I opted for something a little less lethal, a pair of socks with pandas on. The food on offer seemed to be an equal combination of awesome and hazardous; there was dim Sum and ramen on the healthier end of the spectrum, with deep fried cheesecake and rotatoes occupying the artery clogging end. So after being greeted by this little old guy singing away in traditional Chinese style - he was still going when we left several hours later - we made a beeline for the food.

Now wary of peaking too soon we looped all the food stands before making any decisions, this was important, we didn't want to behave too rashly. What we were all pretty sure about was the Rotato, it's deep fried potato, cut so it spirals down a skewer, then flavoured with various flavourings. So the end result is a kind of like skewered thick crisps, I went for Salt and Vinegar (obviously) George decided on pizza. Both were incredibly tasty, even if the predominate thought going through my mind was OMG I'm eating a whole potato covered in salt! 

We then split up and all chose different things rice noodles, tasty meat skewers, dim sum you name it, we had it. It was all pretty scrummy. As it darkened it started to get crazy busy, so much so you had to push through the hordes of people queuing just to get from stall to stall. 

After a little wander to help us digest our mains we headed back to the food for the big daddy, The Deep Fried Cheesecake, now personally I didn't indulge (cheese isn't my thing) but George described it as 'sour, like a sour, chewy bite of disappointment.' Well worth $6 then. Anyway after that we headed home with ridiculously overfull stomachs.

On Tuesday to help burn off all those calories we'd accrued we went kayaking with Penny and Richard, we headed back to Deep Cove the scene of our less than successful hike. Luckily the sun was shining and for even us to get lost in the bay would have been a struggle. So we hired some kayaks, and headed off to some islands that are supposedly quite nice to meander about. 

It was an absolutely spectacular day, hot (but not sticky courtesy of the sea) sunny and there were loads of people on the water. As we headed out the wind was against us making the going pretty tough to begin with, because of this us girls lagged behind a bit and to pass the time the boys invented a new use for the water pumps. They turned those water bailing devices into water guns, I mean how could one not! 

George also started showing off by speed kayaking without paddles, which was only slightly annoying. We paddled round the island, which whilst tiny had a couple of houses on it, and then headed back into the Cove. 

This time we were helped both by the tide and wind so it was far more relaxed, except for when a big boat would fly past and the wake hit us turning it into a mini rollercoaster. Fun! After a couple of hours we messed around before turning back in, on the way a seal popped up right next to us. It was so cool, it just chilled there for a couple of minutes bobbing up and down before disappearing below the water. A pretty awesome way to finish the kayak. 

I unfortunately continued my weird tan/burn line streak with semi circles on my legs from where the kayak blocked the sun. Looking good.

All in all a pretty good way to spend our last couple of days in Vancouver before heading South.