Light Up Chinatown's Food Fare

BC smoked fish cakes at one of the stalls

Every summer the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation holds Light Up Chinatown! A two-day festival to entice the city's residents to come down and check out the neighbourhood, have some Chinese street food, maybe patronise one or two restaurants, and re-visit some sights, like the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, the Chinese Canadian Museum, or the Vancouver Chinatown Storytelling Centre.

This year's event started today and I arrived half an hour before it started officially at 11am. Booths were still getting ready so I wandered around and met some people I haven't seen in a while, catching up with them.

Chicken sausage hot dog with pickle cream drink

For me, Light Up Chinatown! is about the food, so at 11am my first stop was at Say Hey Cafe, where the sandwich eatery was doing a collaboration with Dicky's Dumps, best known for their frozen handmade dumplings.

On their menu, the Dumpling Glizzy sounded interesting, where they took their chicken and ginger dumplings but made them into a sausage that was boiled then grilled, and placed in a sesame hotdog bun, with thinly sliced cabbage, mayonnaise and scallion oil on top.

The 'pickle cream' lemonade definitely piqued my interest and I had to try it. If you are a fan of pickles, it's definitely an enjoyable drink, slightly tart, slightly vinegary. Best of all I carried it around with me and the ice cubes took a while to melt so the drink was still cold! I almost went back to get another cup...

Then I headed to Hawkers Lane on Columbia Street where the main festival was held. 

Chicken wings, spring rolls, wontons & fish balls

First up was chef Dez Lo using seafood from EatFish and seasoned with chilli products from Holy Duck Chilli. I had the BC smoked fish cakes that were fantastic -- I could taste the smoked fish flavour and two slices was a good hearty portion with spot prawn chilli oil and spicy mayo.

I was already half full when I made it to Mama in the Kitchen with chef William Lew. They were cooking up a storm with four items to choose from. The HK curry fish balls I've tried before and they are delicious and nostalgic, while I liked the crispy spring rolls choc full of vegetables and dipped in a plum sauce.

New for me to try were the chili chicken wontons in a shrimp garlic chili oil, and the num num chicken wings. The wings were grilled then seasoned with a mala dry spice. The wings were juicy fresh off the grill, and got progressively spicier as you ate them.

Recreating a radio studio in the 1970s

I gave my stomach a break by heading into the new section of the Chinatown Storytelling Centre in the basement. It opened about two months ago and features Chinatown in the 50s, 60s and 70s. There are mini recreations of apothecaries, a mural of the Marco Polo, a supper club that became well-known for its smorgasbord and live entertainment.

The space includes a large screen with objects that float around -- you can touch it and a window pops up with more information about it. Otherwise visitors need to have a tour guide to show them around to explain everything.

My last stop was at Saan Saan Cafe, a few blocks away, but that meant walking along Main Street where numerous people hang out in the Downtown Eastside. It can be daunting to walk along there, but for the most part they are harmless. It's just shocking how the three levels of government cannot come up with a comprehensive plan to help these people get off the streets and rehabilitate. 

HK style milk tea gelato sandwich

The tables at Saan Saan Cafe were almost all occupied when I arrived at 2pm. I got one of their specials for the month -- a Hong Kong style milk tea gelato sandwich. While it looked like a big portion, it was actually delicious. The gelato had a lovely fragrant milk tea flavour with bits of cookie in it for texture in between two slices of firm cake.