One Scoop or Two?.....

Vancouver - what a majestic city. It is flanked by mountains, a temperate rain forest, and of course the Pacific Ocean.
With my impeccable timing and my usual good fortune - I just happen to be traveling when the Canadian Dollar is at a ten year high against the US Dollar. But with that being said - everything was still relatively cheap up north - except for......deli meat. That stuff was worth more than gold going for $15 dollars a pound. Crazy Canadians.....

As for the places that I went to - the best and most amazing place was called La Casa Gelato. I simply will just refer to it as "208". That's right it had 208 flavors of ice cream. Both Baskin Robbins and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in Manhattan don't hold a candle or in this case a cone against this place. I went there on two of the three nights I was in town and I was able to sample about 100 of the 208 flavors. Besides the normal and popular flavors, there was - Death By Mango, Chile Chocolate, Spumonti, Apple Wasabi, Pear Gorgonzola Blue Cheese, Durian Jackfruit, La Dua, Pineapple Poppy, Green Basil, Wild Mushroom and oh about 198 other flavors. If you ever go to Vancouver that is a definite must-stop place. It is located in the middle of Vancouver's Little Italy and China Town. And a bit of advice, just get one scoop because you will be so full sampling all of the flavors. And plan on being there for oh...say...two hours or so before you finally decide on what flavor you want.

Also, having been recommended by a friend to try an exotic fruit called Mangosteen - I was on the hunt for these so called juicy delicacies. Having never eaten one, let alone seen one before - I had no idea what it looked liked. Finally I went to a store that had a sign saying what it was and I was able to purchase two small ones. Now, the big question after buying them was - how to eat these weird looking things. The outside cover is hard and leathery, and the name had the word mango in it- so I figured I would just bite into it. Boy was that a big mistake, it was the most bitter, tart and nasty thing I ever ate. I thought, maybe this isn't ripe yet and I was quite at a loss as what to do next. I thought about just tossing them and being done with it. But of course not - what did I do instead, I took another bite of course. I thought that it would somehow miraculously ripen between my first and second bites. Well of course it did not, and I was like forget it as I was mumbling to myself "thanks alot DC for recommending this to me". So as I was walking towards a trash can to throw it away, I sort of just poked and squeezed at it along the way. And as I was just about to throw it away, I noticed it had a softer interior and decided I might as well tear it apart it to see if it would look any different in the middle or would it be the same. After ripping it apart - I then noticed that there actually was an edible part of the fruit. It had white slivers of flesh on the inside that had a nice aromatic and exotic taste to it. Of course naturally, the second mangosteen was much more enjoyable and much easier to eat.

I also got to go see the salmon run, although it was almost the end of the season. There were still some stragglers but not alot. They also took me on a hike through the rain forest, across a suspension bridge and a gorge. The city was very scenic and b-e-a-u-tiful. All in all - the trip was quite enjoyable and relaxing - except for the mangosteen rind.