A toast to Taste of the City

My old friend Frank and I attended Vancouver's 3rd Taste of the City yesterday at The Plaza of Nations, part of the old Expo 86 site. The bottom picture is my last Samubuca prawn from Rossini's, also the source for Frank's Jamabalaya- much tastier than Fumiyo's at Ouisi's, along with some superb pasta. The top picture is Frank's daughter Leah and my daughter Monique at Expo 86 nineteen years ago. I ended up waiting in line for the bouillabaise and prawns from Oasis as long as I had to wait to get into the more popular pavillions at Expo 86. After I finally got the long-awaited tidbits, Frank and I attempted to find seating by stepping over some stair-benches and I spilled half my long-savoured prawns. The one I didn't spill was pretty good though.
Among the tastes we enjoyed were watermelon topped with Dungeness crab- just as refreshing as it sounds from Ch'i. An Alsatian pizza- onion on top of a pastry, which the server told me was addictive. Perhaps she has an addictive personality. The dilled lox from the same place, Feenies, was just as refreshing as the watermelon thing. I savour shrimp as much as Monique used to, and the Sambuca prawns were the best. The worst was the scampi on a skewer from Temp-tations, a cooking school very much in need of a taste teacher. The ratatouille on a piece of micro-toast from Observatory at Grouse Mt was also excellent. Frank had never had this classic French veggie stew before but it's a staple in my kitchen, usually served on top of Yaki-soba, a Japanese-Chinese noodle dish.
Frank had eaten at C before and raved about it but they only featured some deserts at this event. He sampled some Indian food without me and we both avoided the offerings from Cassis, an excellent and cheap French bistro we were both quite familiar with. I also avoided The Mouse and Bean as I've already sampled its fine Mexican fare. The idea was to have something NEW.
My last food tickets were exchanged for a delicious bite of smoked salmon from O'Douls which reminded me a lot of the lox I had at a reception for Stephen Hawkings when he lectured in Vancouver in the early 90s. It was so good I didn't even mind Steve running over my foot in his wheel chair, on his way to get some more. If I were stuck in a black hole with such food, I wouldn't mind at all. No matter either.