GCA XII: Chinese Food, Indian Bridge, Canadian Gelato

Kenji and Andy took leave to spend the day with us. Actually Andy called in sick. Lol. Not wanting them to come all the way down to fetch us, we took the Sky Train to Lansdowne. Nearly everyone on the train was of Chinese-descent. While waiting, we did some shopping at Lansdowne Mall. They took us out for dim sum that day. Some say that dim sum in Vancouver is better than Hong Kong due to the freshness of the ingredients, but I don't agree. Sam Sui Wah looked like your typical dim sum place with Cantonese-speaking waiters, typical furniture and gilded Chinese characters on the walls. The prices were relatively steep but the portions gweilo-sized. Some of the stuff were good, but some I did not like. The weirdest item was the baked melon lolo. Halfway through, felt a bit 'zhai' and Kenji's stomach reacted to something we ordered too. Andy sent us back to their place so that Kenji could purge a bit. The place they live in is quite nice, with several housemates. The living room is conquered by gamers judging by the multiple LED displays and powerful desktops. At the other end is a large TV surrounded by an impressive DVD movie library and a collection of anime figurines, including Ichigo and Ryo's zanpakutou from Bleach.





Next up, we did the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Kenji and Andy had a year pass for the place and luckily they were expiring on that day itself. Saved quite a bit of money there. From the name, one could guess that the main attraction is a suspension bridge. One that could take the combined weight of 1,300 adults at any one time. Even an old tree falling on it after a prolonged snowfall couldn't bring the bridge down. Other than that, there was a treetop walk and cliff walk that was quite interesting. However, the park did not offer any spectacular views of the cityscape. We got our "I did it" certificates and went to Grouse Mountain. Our initial plan was to do the Grouse Grind, basically a 2000+ step elevation to the summit. But our days at Banff had taken the wind out of us, so we considered the gondola ride up instead. Unfortunately, it was pretty expensive and our host's year passes had expired so we just gave that a miss.













Headed back to town and was caught in the usual rush hour jam on Lionsgate Bridge. Had gelato at Bella Gelateria, loitered at Toccino and did some shopping at Hollister. After meeting Kenji's di, it was time to meet his gor, Eric over dinner at Coast. A fantastic seafood restaurant in the downtown area with fresh fish and fantastic service. We shared the seafood tower which was basically the seafood equivalent of an afternoon tea set. KH and I shared a tomato-based seafood soup and sturgeon. Our server was very attentive and made sure the food came out in the correct order. My food was served split and nicely plated! Eric was from Beijing and had lived many years in Vancouver and Toronto. He seemed to be planning to bring his mother over and the question of mother over boyfriend came up. And when discussing about ex's, it was revealed that Kenji and Andy actually shared the same ex. Small world. When it was time for the bill, we could even split and share items according to groups and it was all nicely presented in the print out. Since we did not do the view of Vancouver from Grouse Mountain, Andy drove us up Cypress instead. A dark lookout point perfect to look at the stars (been ages since I saw Big Dipper) and the night lights of the city. Perfect place for lovebirds. Hehe.