Feb 17th - Olympic Street Food Orgy

We hit an all time low today junkfood-wise. I felt bad enough that had had nearly back to back samosa's going to events at the BC Stadium but today was gloriously worse. I met D downtown by Live City Yaletown afterwork.

There was a delightful Canadian cultural show called DRUM! It was a bit odd. It jumped around culturally from African to Aboriginal to Celtic with an underlying story of the expulsion of the Acadians from eastern Canada. If you ignored the choppy story, the music was lovely. The foodcourt in the fenced in David Lam Park come Live City Yaletown, has half a dozen extortionately priced 'Taste of.." booths. Canada, Jamaica, China, and India, that I can remember. I was very disappointed to see that the Taste of Canada was mainly hotdogs and french fries... booo.

D got us an over priced Jamaican Patty from the Taste of Jamaica. Shocking, D had never had a Jamaican patty before. Isn't that crazy!? He got us a veggie one which is normally a pea and carrot based stew. It was not very good. The crust tasted authetic with that flavour that reminds me slightly of a ritz cracker but it was cold, and 70% crust!!! The spice was good but there wasn't much of it.

Taste of Jamaica
David Lam Park - Live City Yaletown
Vancouver (during Olympics)
Cost: $$ (poor value for street food)


We then headed over to Granville Island to meet friends to catch Karkwar on the Francophonie stage. They were great! French version of Radiohead is often said of them. Though I'll say their sound guy must be going deaf because their volume was several hundred decibels way too high for that stage area. It was definitely good to hear french music that isn't folky or celtic. I'm pretty tired of stuff that sounds like our parents used to rock to it. That's all CBC French plays on the radio. Yawn!

On the way down, we bought a family sized bags of Cheddar Sun Chips. D had a decent lunch but I didn't so I headed to the Public Market in the intermission. I had to hustle though because the planners never thought to get the Public Market to consider extending their hours during the Olympics despite the fact that they're surrounded by pavillions. I barely got there in time as most of the vendors were down to their last bits and pieces. I went to a bakery I keep expecting more of and am normally luke warm on the results. Laurelle's fine foods on the Eastside food court near the Arts Club exit. It has lots of tasty looking goodies that look homemade. There are lots of veggie, soy and seafood versions of classic pastries like pot pies, rolles, pasties. That said, they're usually taste slightly old. I don't know if they're baked the night before or if I'm eating yesterdays stuff. The few times I've eaten there, it is under seasoned on top of that old taste. Tonight I had a Wild Sockeye Salmon Roll (like a traditional sausage roll). It was rather small and though had a decent amount of salmon chunks, it was utterly flavourless.

Laurelle's Fine Foods
Granville Island Public Market
Vancouver, BC
Cost: $





I went back to the Francophonie beer tent where everyone was watching the Ladies Speed Skating 500 m medal finals. They were playing that rather than the Medal Ceremony since it was a live event with a Canadian in medal contention. We did see Maelle Ricker recieve her Gold in Boarder Cross after watching Canadian Marianne St. Gelais win Silver in the sprint! I was still hungry after that puny flavourless salmon roll so I got poutine from the poutine truck in the Franco zone.

It is a small, red carnival truck run by what appeared to be a family. Father, Mother and Son. The mom was making the Queue de Castor or Beavertails, which were gianormous and the Pogos. The son was squeezing out fresh BC potatoes into french fries while Dad served up the poutine with a nice load of cheese curds and gravy. Where did this family get so many cheese curds? Whenever we go to the farmers' markets, the curds always sell out so fast! The fresh cut fries fried to order were great. The curds could have been squiggier but they were good. The gravy could have used more seasoning. D thinks it was a celery based gravy. I couldn't pick up on that. I doused half the dish in ketchup like is done by some. Not by the purists, D would say. The fries were crispy and hot with a good texture. The cheese melted under the gravy well.

We both have roots or history in Quebec so we know our Poutine! The best permanent place to get good poutine in town is Fritz on Davie near Granville Street. Actually, my first Ultimate Frisbee team in University was called Cold Poutine! I named it when I had come up with something to put on the form last minute.

Poutine Truck
Francophonie Place - Granville Island Tennis Courts
Vancouver, BC - During Olympics
Cost: $$ (for Street Food)