In spite of having done quite a bit the day before; I awoke refreshed and ready to go. The Missus needed a bit of a caffeine boost. I'd noticed a Caffé Artigiano location the previous day, so I decided to head out and grab us some coffee.
I noticed this food cart along the way. It says Traditional Thai Cuisine right above the window……though I noticed the place served the very traditional "Gluten Free Very Popular Thai Noodle Style Dish"…… Hmmm….. "noodle style?" As in when is a noodle, not a noodle? I just had to crack up. Celiac disease is no joke, but I still had to laugh. One of the guys that used to work for me has Celiac disease….really great guy…..I used to tell him; "you'll know when you mess up. There'll be bread pudding on your desk." His response? "It's better than waking up with a horse head in my bed."
Caffé Artigiano is right on Hornby Street.
A cup of Organic for the Missus, an Americano for your truly.
Nice folks, fast service.
Caffè Artigiano
763 Hornby St
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1S2, Canada
Good thing I got some caffeine in my system. You see, after Her cup, the Missus was ready to go….not sure what kind of jet fuel they put into the organic coffee there.
And of course, the Missus decided that we should walk to Granville Island. Thankfully, even though it was bright and sunny, the temps were still reasonable.
As in not taking the Aquabus. So we had to actually cross over False Creek on the Granville Bridge, come around and figure out which street went to Granville Island. Which actually wasn't too hard.
From there, it's a short stroll to the Public Market.
We had decided to put together a nice early lunch before deciding what to do next. So we did a quick walk around the market.
We put together a plan while walking around the place. The Missus would head off and pick up some gifts for folks back home and then go and pick up some chocolates from chocolaTas. We then decided on a meeting spot….based on what we'd seen during our "walk-through" we knew just the place.
I'd pick up most everything for lunch. First starting with some roast lamb from L'Epicerie.
From there it was quite easy.
Basically, cheese curds from Benton Brothers, Salmon "Candy" from Longliner Foods, bread from Terra, and we'd meet up at Oyama Sausage….where we saw some wonderful looking pate and charcuterie.
At Oyama sausage we were met with a wonderful variety and it was quite hard choosing what we wanted. But since we had one shot we made our decision…..sadly, we decided not to get any cheese.
And, since we had dinner reservations, we'd be doing no cooking……so no sausage.
We stepped outside looking for a table.
It was slightly overcast when we stepped out of the market.
But, as soon as we found an open table, the sun came out!
And we spread out our bounty….that salmon candy was very nice, sweet-smoky-slightly briny, just as expected. The cheese curds were very fresh.
We didn't care for the lamb; very tough, and not seasoned particularly well.
The tongue was sliced to a perfect thinness and wasn't too salty….full of beefy goodness! Really good.
Only to be topped by the Duck Pate with Black Truffles.
Great creamy texture, just enough earthy-pungent truffle flavor with nice rich mildly offally flavor. Decadent, this was so very good.
We saved the remainder of the pate, salmon, and bread for snacking and headed off.
This time the Missus decided that it might be a good idea to catch the Aquabus across False Creek to the Hornby Dock.
Which was a very quick trip.
As we watched the Aquabus leave the dock. The Missus looked up at the bright sky and said, "hey…..I have an idea!"
Oh-oh…..stay tuned!