September 9: Food, family, and friends

My second day in Vancouver was filled with more food, family, and friends.

I started off accompanying my father to his daily tai chi session. Remember when I said that one of my goals for this year is to maximize my health? I would like to work on my agility and balance and have been debating whether I should take up tai chi or yoga. Maybe you, my readers, wish to weigh in on the nuances between the two.

It has been only 1 1/2 weeks since the start of this blog but it has already facilitated bringing me in contact with friends that otherwise would not have occurred. This was the case with Esther and Dino, who just happened to be flying into Vancouver this morning. Esther and her family has had a long history with our family--our fathers have known each other for over half a century! She is a beautiful, intelligent, and graceful young woman who recently married Dino, a charming, handsome, diplomatic man--they make a beautiful couple. In addition, I can appreciate Dino’s credentials as a chef. We had dim sum at Rainflower Restaurant, as I make a regular pilgrimage here for the aromatic durian puffs.

In the afternoon, I stopped by the Richmond Olympic Oval, which was one of the few new buildings erected for the recent Winter Olympics. It hosted the speed skating events. The building has already won a significant architectural award.

http://www.suite101.com/content/richmond-olympic-oval-wins-architecture-award-a158287

The environmentally conscious among us can also appreciate the use of lumber salvaged from pine beetle infested forests as its main building component.

After much debate over where we should have dinner, we opted to return to Rainflower. This was more out of convenience than anything else, but the second meal was one of the best vegetarian friendly Chinese family style meals I’ve had. The 5 dishes, unlike some dining experiences where all the dishes are served with the same brown sauce, varied in texture, colour, and taste: the pumpkin and taro hot pot in curried coconut sauce, the slightly sweet and hot sauce with the tofu and eggplant, the fish (while I can’t really comment, I was told it was very good), the garlicky sauteed pea shoots, and the lotus root in ‘nam yu’. It was a nice way to finish my very short (35 hour) visit to Vancouver.