Monday, November 29, 2010

Vancouver Street Vendors

Have you ever wanted to try all the different street vendors in one day? Today, Minna, Yvonne and I gave ourselves a tour around downtown Vancouver to at the various street vendors. We picked some stands and headed towards the drool-worthy aroma!

Located on Granville at West Georgia.

The company has its own philosophy – healthy living, liciously easy. They have other services like meal delivery and suggesting fitness and diet programs.  They work closely with their nutritionists to create meals, snacks and beverages.

At the stand, salads, sandwiches and smoothies were available. And they serve from 8am-6pm Monday to Friday! The salesperson is so energetic and it definitely rubbed off on her customers!

We ordered the “Very Berry smoothie” ($5.09+tax).  She took it straight from the fridge; already prepared (this didn’t make it seem as fresh!). It was strong in the yogurt taste and it had a berry seed texture.

  • Kimono Koi  Crepe

Located on West Georgia at Granville.

The stands use lots of cute pink color! We ate “Tuna eggs crepe” ($6.75). It’s like a tuna egg sandwich in thin and soft wrap. Surprisingly they put seaweed on the crepe! I’ve never seen it in Japan, so this was very interesting! I liked the texture – soft with a bit of crunch from the lettuce. When you want to eat something different from a pizza or hamburger for lunch, it’s a great choice!

Located on Burrard at West  Hastings.

There are 4 different types of skewers: Pork, Lamb, Tofu, Vegetables (Each $2.5). We all ordered the pork skewer with spices. After 5 minutes, it smelt delicious! It was soft but well cooked with the pork capturing all the flavours. If you come to this stand on your lunch break, watch out, the smell will have you drooling!

They also sell toasted bread ($1.00) and combos are also available from $5.50!

  • Dim Sum Express

Located on Howe and north of Cordova.

We ate shrimp dumplings ($3.50, 4pcs) and “Xiao Long Bao” – pork dumplings ($3.50, 5pcs). The stand is noticeably larger than others – a big station wagon with a whole kitchen. The complimentary hot sauce is pretty intense. So, for people who can’t eat anything spicy, like Yvonne, I recommend that you stay away from it! My favourite was the “Xiao Long Bao”. When you bite into it, watch out the soup that’s inside! It’s delicious but don’t get it on yourself!

Combos were also available.

We ate Japadog at a stand in front of Waterfront station.

Do you know the last year’s top 3 japadogs? Spicy Cheese Terimayo,  Oroshi,  and Okonomi.

The president,Tamura Noriki had a job in Japan and after coming to Vancouver, he launched  Japadog in 2005. Now they have a store (530 Robson St) and 3 stands (Burrad and Smithe St, Burrard and Pender St, in front of Waterfront Station).

Today we ordered “Ebichili”($ 6.75). It had a shrimp sausage that was sprinkled with baby shrimp. The baby shrimp color was so vivid, it made me even more hungry!

We don’t have Japadog in Japan so, to me, it’s one of Vancouver’s specialties. It was so good, I wanted to try all different Japadogs!

I love street vendor food and today I got to try different ones around Downtown Vancouver. It was like my taste buds were traveling to different countries!

I have found a new interest. Where should I go and what should I eat next time …

Posted via email from minna's posterous