Life in Vancouver

We came to live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on January 2nd 2004. Neil and I had sold our house, our car and decided to start a new life in a new continent. This is not as scary as it sounds when your husband's company is paying for the flights, the furniture to be shipped, the hotel until an apartment can be found, a company car for as long as we needed it and all visa and work permit costs, not to mention permanent residency a few years later. Not everyone is as lucky, but for us, it was a breeze, thanks to Neil already working for a very successful company, (EA Computer Games).

Coming to live in North America has changed me in many ways, some good and some bad. One thing that has definitely improved since coming to live here is my understanding of food from all over the World. I can see how this has influenced the way I cook now, how I fuse and improvise using ingredients that may have been unavailable to me before. Here, in this multi cultural city, if I want to experience the food of any other nation, I can find a restaurant that will serve it or a shop that will sell the ingredients to make it at home.

 
I've discovered cuisines alien to me before such as Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Mexican and Brazilian. I may have had a little knowledge, but just like dipping your toe into the water of a very deep pool. Now I can learn not only from the restaurants, but from the people from these places; their descriptions of food from home, the places they buy their ingredients, their family's recipes and their techniques.

Vancouver has many local specialties. Examples are salmon, sushi, poutine (chips with cold cheese curds and hot poultry gravy poured over – a Montreal invention, akin to the kebab after too many drinks) and the sublime chicken wing served everywhere in varying forms. My favourite variation are the small drummettes sprinkled with sea-salt, paprika and pepper, roasted in  a medium  hot oven for 45 minutes until their skin is golden, crispy and sticky underneath and then coated in a sauce made from heating cider vinegar, sugar and paprika together. Sometimes they are deep fried after roasting to give them an incredible crisp and you often hear people specifying ‘extra crispy’. These are eaten with the fingers and usually served with a blue cheese dip. Not so sophisticated but a lot of fun.

Vancouver has a lot of fine dining and some very exclusive restaurants and the local markets and shops have a variety of unusual and exotic ingredients. But, I still remember the excitement of driving deep into the Cheshire countryside to find a free-range chicken or some wild mushrooms, imagining I am on a mission fuelled by a hot tip. Now I take pleasure in discovering some new Asian dish such as Korean Bulgogi or Japanese Donburi which comes with the excitement of living in an urban environment.