Sunday, May 6, 2012

Yesterday we drove up to Vancouver for our three hour sausage-and-bacon-making course
at Save-On-Meats.

There's quite a back-story to this establishment. It started in business back in 1957 as a meat market and diner. It's just a block or two down from the infamous Main and Hastings Street intersection, the "worst neighborhood in Canada."

An ambitious and public-spirited couple have revitalized this market, serve good (and cheap) meals in the diner, and serve several hundred meals a day at virtual cost to people living in one-room suites in this area. In addition, they're offering a variety of classes and using such vehicles as Groupon to attract customers like us.

More power to them!
"
We enjoyed our sausage-and-bacon-making experience, and dined on our home-made sausages for lunch today. It was supposedly Otto von Bismarck who first said "Laws are like sausages - it is better not to see them being made." We made our sausages out of high-quality pork, and we'd far rather do that than watch the average politician in action.





From making our own sausages we went back downstairs to learn how to make bacon and pancetta. First, take a pig...



After the course we walked almost literally next door to one of Canada's most famous traditional discount stores, the venerable Army & Navy, where we bought a cheap cooler to transport our sausage and bacon home.

We then ambled three blocks to Chinatown, eating our way through a Hot-and-Sour soup and Dim Sum lunch at an establishment we'd last visited with one of Kathy's brothers many years ago. As we ate, a short parade went by on the street below, honoring Falun Gang, the religious sect that faces problems in China. For us it was entertainment. For the Chinese it's something far more serious.







From there we walked up to the Heritage Canadian Pacific station and caught the SeaBus over to North Vancouver. It's a cheap ocean cruise for a total of $5 for both of us both ways.



After that, we took a brief spin through Granville Island, stopping for glass of the house plonk at one of the waterfront joints that sits almost directly under the Granville Street Bridge.


From there we drove back to another part of Granville Street, parking our car and finding the UVA Wine Bar, sipping wine and enjoying some pleasant appetizers before walking across the street for a rousing performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto and Brahms Second Symphony by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Not a bad way to spend a day...



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