Well, it’s 10:30 on a Monday evening and I’m hungry.
No surprises there, really. I’m often hungry. I’m trying to satiate myself on stale rice crackers—you know, the ones that get nice and chewy from being left in the back of the cupboard to absorb the humidity—but it’s not working so well. You see, I made the mistake of going through my photos of all the memorable meals I had on my journeys through the lower mainland. So now there’s a nice little puddle of drool on my laptop that’s growing larger as I flip through my photos of merangues, banana splits, pan-fried sturgeon and other goodies.
So rather than write about one place, I’m just going to dedicate this blog post to a few particularly good meals I had. It’ll give me an excuse to sit here and reminisce about the days when people went out of their way to feed me unreasonable amounts of fancy food.
When I was in Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast, I paid a visit to the Painted Boat Resort. After a short tour of the resort and facilities, the resort manager told me she would take me to lunch at the resort’s restaurant. I didn’t think too much of it until we got to the restaurant and I realized that we were the only two people dining there. It was shoulder season and the restaurant only opened on weekends, but the head chef and manager made an exception and opened the restaurant especially for me.
Ballin’. Outta. Control.
It was here that I had my first taste of sturgeon, which is a prehistoric fish that lives in the Fraser River. It’s an endangered species that’s catch-and-release only, but there’s an ethical, sustainable sturgeon farm near Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. The folks at the Painted Boat were eager to show it off…and with good reason. Yummmmm.
http://www.paintedboat.com/the-restaurant.php
Salt crusted sturgeon on top of edemame beans, shittake mushrooms, carrots, parsnips, and broth.
Vanilla custard of some sort with a meringue and raspberry coulis
One time I was in Richmond and my host insisted on treating me to authentic Chinese Dim Sum for lunch. I’d never had Dim Sum before, so I told her to go ahead and order for the two of us. We ended up with more food than either of us could handle. I ate a stupid amount of Chinese food that afternoon. My poor stomach had no idea what hit it, but it was totally worth it.
Dim sum yum!
Then there was the Big Sky Golf Course. They were told to treat me to drinks and maybe an appetizer before I headed to the nearbly Black Squirrel Golf Course for dinner. But they were eager to outdo the competition, so they also served me a banana split dessert that looks like Mount Currie.
http://www.bigskygolf.com/default.asp?mode=webpage&id=318
The chocolate Mt Currie mountain kind of lost its peak, but trust me, it was pretty convincing.
This was before I even touched my main course.
OH! And there was the Heritage Grill in New Westminster that also did a number on me with their stuffed mushrooms.
http://www.theheritagegrill.com/
As you can see, I didn't enjoy my meal at all.
Of course, I could never forget the lobster brie grilled cheese sandwich (with gluten-free bread!) I had at Big Feast in Maple Ridge. My host claims that this is one of the best restaurants in the lower mainland. After that sandwich, it was hard to disagree.
http://www.bigfeast.ca/aboutthechef.htm
*drool*
And just for the record, this duck dish was delish. Thank you, Tap Restaurant in Surrey!
*growl*
That was the sound of my stomach. Good thing Thanksgiving is next weekend!
Next blog will probably be about all the hikes I did, just so you all don’t get the wrong idea.
After that thanksgiving dinner is going to pretty routine!!
That was your mom commenting not “colin”
Wow! My packed lunch is looking a bit lame. Thanks for sharing the experience but none of the calories!!
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