Exclusive Access To Vancouver Food Scene

Vancouver’s Granville Market, where we’ll get to explore with a local chef

Its been a few weeks since I announced my Food Tour to Vancouver, and I just realized that the deadline for us to confirm the tour is June 6 – next Friday. We still need to fill a few more seats, so wanted to remind you of why this trip is an especially unique (and delicious) one. The key – as with any of my trips – is access.

The first night we arrive, Sept. 6, we’ll hit the boisterous Richmond Night Market with the aid of local food writer Mijune Pak, who will tell us which stalls to wander to and where to find delicacies such as grilled squid, octopus and other Asian street food staples. Navigating the market on your own is fun, obviously, but having the aid of a local who has eaten at every one of the stalls is truly an insider experience.

Next morning, the city’s highly-esteemed, award-winning chef – David Hawksworth – will take half of our group on a guided tour of a local farmer’s market, while the other half will go out on a fishing boat to set spot prawn traps with a local fisherman; they’ll have some of those prawns sashimi-style on the boat, then bring their catch back to the hotel and meet the other half of the group around noon. The entire group will then get a private cooking lesson from Hawksworth, followed by a two-course lunch in his namesake restaurant utilizing whatever the group caught and purchased that morning. Right after lunch, one of my favorite bakeries in Vancouver – Beaucoup – will be dropping off some of their signature sweets for us to have with coffee, for a casual dessert service.

In the afternoon, it’s off to Granville Island, for shopping, sightseeing and a visit to a local distillery for a private tour and a bit of vodka, gin or whisky (your choice). Then we’ll walk a few minutes over to  Edible BC, also on Granville Island, where Vikram Vij (whom I profiled in The Chicago Tribune’s Travel section) will lead us through a lively, three-course interactive cooking class/dinner, paired with all British Columbia wines from Road 13 Vineyards.

On Monday, September 8, we’ll take the super-efficient SkyTrain 20 minutes back to Richmond, where most of the Hong Kong ex-pats have established businesses, casinos and restaurants, and meet up with Vancouver Magazine’s Lee Man, who also serves as a judge for Vancouver’s prestigious Chinese Restaurant Awards. He’ll lead us around the area, then take us to one of his favorite places for dim sum, Sea Harbour, where he’ll discuss how Chinese chefs have adopted British Columbia ingredients into their Hong Kong-style preparations. He’ll also be able to answer any questions, since his Cantonese is far better than mine.

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