Monday, October 31, 2011

Granville Island

Every big city has a great market, Seattle has Pike Place Market London has Borough Market and Vancouver has Granville Island.  It truly is a world class market, and I am lucky enough to work with in walking distance to it.  But going at lunch time is bitter sweet as their really is not enough time to wander around and really enjoy it, and so it was a treat this Saturday to share hunting and gathering for dinner with my good friend Nancy.


The fruits and vegetables are beautifully displayed by all the vendors and really I do not have a favourite one for fresh produce, I just wander around and find which one has the best of what I want that day.  There is one who sells produce directly from the Okanagan, so the selection available varies by the time of year.  Right now there is an abundance of fresh crisp apples and on their stall this week they had these wonderful gourds which look for all the world like a pair of swans in love.


There are a couple of permanent stores that are my favourites, that I nearly always go to, one of those is Oyama Sausage



They have a wonderful selection of pate, and cured meats, but the real draw for me is their sausages.


They have an amazing ever changing selection of sausages made from lamb, chicken, bison and of course pork.  Today we had decided to make  Cassoulet so we picked up some toulouse sausage which is the sausage that is traditionally used in cassoulet.  Though actually any of these would have been good.  Directly across the aisle from Oyama Sausage is a fish vendor, which is the one that I often get my fish from.


But the thing that I really like to pick up from them is the double smoked salmon nuggets.  These are wonderful as an appetizer and certainly were a good to nibble on as we were waiting for the cassoulet to cook.

Another favourite vendor is South China Seas Trading company they are situated at the far East end of the market and have a wonderful selection of fresh and dried ingredients.


There are always a good selection of fresh and dried chili peppers and at least two types of limes and sometimes you can get meyer lemons.  I picked up a bag of fresh lime leaves as I had used all the ones stored in my freezer.

It is close to Remembrance day and there was a veteran of the second world war selling poppies. I am proud to say that he pinned mine on to my jacket for me. Over 60 years after the end of the war, you wonder how many veterans there are that are still able to stand for hours reverently pinning on poppies to remember all the friends that they must have lost.

Though my life and my friends lives are far from perfect, we do live in a very privileged time and place, and that evening as we were enjoying our pre dinner glass of wine I looked up and saw this sun set.

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