Radio: Food Tour of Granville Island, Vancouver

Part one of our British Columbia Road Trip starts in Vancouver with a food tour.  We choose Context Tours and their “Made in BC Food Tour on Granville Island.”  We love their small tours (up to 6 people) and their guides are all professionals within the culinary industry. We started by taking an Aqua Bus over to Granville Island.

LISTEN to the Savory Road Radio Feature 

Granville Island was used for industrial purposes into the Second World War.  By 1970’s only a few industrial factories remained. The city’s eyesore either needed to be torn down or revitalized into something else.    A cultural center was born with, artist, theater and a Public Market all within the old industrial building.

We were fortunate to have Anya Keefe as our food tour guide.  She has lived in Vancouver for nearly 40 years and knows all it’s epicurean delights.  Trained at a chocolatier, Anya guided us through the Granville Island’s Public Market.  We stopped for bites at many of her favorite stops.  We had several tastes from Terra Breads.  They make delicious artisanal European style breads and desserts.  From the Sea Food City, Ray offered tastes of Sockeye Candy and Salmon Chiliflaked Maple Nuggets. The french macaron’s from Bon Macaron Patisserie had an interesting display of macarons, from Goat Cheese and Fig to a Maple Caramel. We literally drooled over the soups, sauces and stocks at The Stock Market.  Brent at Benton Brothers Fine Cheese, served us samplings of their cheeses.  From a five year cheddar to 18 month Alpindor, raw milk cheese from heritage cows. We ended out cruise around the market at ChocolaTas, where our guide Anya informed us that they has won the 2015 award for the most gifted Chocolatier.  We all got to pick three delightful chocolates to try. I picked green curry, grapefruit vodka and a salt and Rosemary Caramel.

On the island Anya took us to Artisan Sake Maker where owner Masa Shiroki told us that they actually grow all their own rice in British Columbia for their sake.  We ended out tour at the Liberty Distillery were we sampled a flights of their vodka and gins.  At the end of our visit we went back to the market to pick up all the fixings for our dinner that night that included:    Kusshi Oysters from Sea Food City, pasta and sauce from Zara’s Italian Deli, and roasted chicken from L’Epicere Rotisserie.  Anya had informed us that L’Epicere Rotisserie served up chicken as good as she had back in France (she was so right!). For dessert we picked up tarts and cookies from Terra Breads.

We would like to thank Anya and Context Travel for a fun, informative, filling and delicious tour.

This Weeks Events:  Downtown Ontario’s historic Euclid Avenue will be the center for over 2,000 vintage automobiles and motorcycles.along with food and live music. That’s the Route 66 Cruisin Reunion happening  Sept 16 through 18. The Lake Arrowhead Oktoberfest and German Food Fest starts September 17 and continues every weekend through Oct 23rd And celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with cultural workshops, mooncake tasting, live music and a craft beer garden! Happens Tuesday Sept. 13th 5pm to midnight in Chinatown downtown LA.