Change is Afoot: Unemployed & Homeless

As the title eludes, we have traded in our jobs and our apartment in Vancouver for a bit of an open-ended existence. The long and short of it is that for a long time we've been seeking a shift in our life balance. However, dismantling a comfortable life is scary, so we had settled for daydreaming. Then comes along a baby and the desire and necessity to prioritize the things we value in life becomes immediate. 

Being teachers, we see children toddling off to school, being wonderfully independent everyday. In three short years, we know that will be our child too. Presently, if we didn't change a thing, Baby J would be in daycare while we both work for 10+ hours a day. He's awake for about 12 hours a day, and basic math tells me that just doesn't leave us enough time in the day. So we've decided to prioritize and value this fleeting time in our lives. 

He thinks he's helping--Moving with a baby is hard!

That's the why, but actually what in Sam Hill are we doing? This question has the potential to keep me up at night.

Spoiler: We don't know what we're doing, but we're taking a pause to figure it out.

Our plan at present is to leave Vancouver and take three-ish months to drive&camp across Canada in our converted van. Last time, we made the hurried pilgrimage across Canada in four days, and are definitely looking forward to a much more relaxed pace-- Somehow driving for 17 hrs and eating 3 Big Macs a day does not fall into that life balance we're talking about. Besides some cool sights and cool people to see, and a general direction on the compass, we've got no real plan. Reminding ourselves to live in the day, not to borrow worry and to be open to what comes our way has us jazzed. 

And come Thanksgiving we'll reevaluate, because ya know, life ain't free. 

So yah, living in a van with a baby. We'll let you know how that goes.

Oh! And if it all goes tits up (which it totally could), or we make it 100kms down the road and decide to set-up shop, then that's cool too. Really feeling like we're in a can't-lose place right now.

If You Find Yourself in Vancouver's Chinatown...

I'm going to keep this brief because I have dumplings to eat. 

This picture makes me laugh.
No time to wait for the ciggy break to be over, we've got food to eat!

Chances are if you are visiting Vancouver, you're going to pay a visit to Chinatown--It's Canada's largest, and one of the most historic Chinatowns in North America, so not to be missed. Sure you'll find the gate and visit the classical gardens, but let's be honest; you came here to eat. 

There are so many places to eat, the range and variety of food is abundant, and there are really no bad options. On an average day we're looking for authentic (non-fusion), big flavours and bang for our buck. We can talk dim sum and cocktails later.

So, if you're out for a wander and looking to do a bit of a food crawl, let me share a few north stars that will guide you through Chinatown.

Stop One: T&T - Char Siu Bao/ BBQ Pork Bun

Get a couple of these hand pies (of the Chinese persuasion) for your initial walk about. The whitest, fluffiest bread wrapped around sweet pulled pork will be the warm hug you didn't know you needed. Honestly, we generally just pop into T&T Grocery (conveniently located across from a parking garage and the Sky Train) and grab a couple of these bad boys before even getting on with our day. If you're feeling weird about starting off at a grocery store, I get it. We also have been known to stop in at New Town Bakery.

Tyler's Pick: Pan-fried pork and chive dumplings.

New Town always has a huge line-up down the sidewalk.
If it were me, I'd skip the bao at New Town and fill up on egg tarts.

Stop Two: Chinatown BBQ - Wanton Mee 

Chinatown BBQ has some of the best Hong Kong style BBQ meats in town. Think Peking duck, soya chicken, char siew and all the other favourites. Their ginger-scallion sauce is above the rest and really makes the dishes POP! If you have to choose just one dish, we love the wanton noodles with BBQ pork, dry or in soup - you can't go wrong. The soup feels like a nourishing broth with the freshness of ginger on the side, while the dry noodles have just enough dark soy sauce to give them a tangy sweetness. Our go-to on an all-too-frequent rainy Vancouver afternoon.

Tyler's Pick: Anything with a hefty spoon of their ginger-scallion sauce and chilli oil to give it a kick. 

Stop Three: Money Foods Enterprises - BBQ Meat and Butcher

Next, you're going to want to toddle your way over to Gore & Keefer. Right on the corner is a butcher (the one with all the meat hanging in the window next to the fish market). Go in and grab yourself some rice and a good portion of crispy pork belly, roast duck, char siew...basically meat, it's a butcher. Get it to go, and pay in cash because there is no other option. Aptly named, this place is money. 

Tyler's Pick: 5 bucks worth of char siew, barbecue sauce dripping pork wrapped in brown paper, the perfect pocket food.

Stop Four: Kent's Kitchen - The General Cafeteria Line-Up 

Kent's Kitchen is one of Tyler's picks. The food is good, the price is right, and the authenticity takes him right back to Malaysian lunches at the Chinese food court. Cash only, you can walk right in and choose noodles or rice and point to a couple of dishes to plop on top. You'll end up with a container of something yummy that is in the ballpark of about 2kg of food and you'll be working on it for the next couple of days...yum! 

Tyler's Pick: The spicy pork neck, beef with broccoli on a pile of rice noodles.

Nothing fancy, but so so good!

An Adriatic AdVANture: Choose Your Own Adventure

Many moons ago I wrote about a prospective summer roadtrip, outlining the loosely made plans to travel around the Adriatic Sea. We did it and had a blast.

Now, with the prospect of a post-pandemic world (I've been optimistically proclaiming this since April 2020), it's time to dust off the old passports and start plotting. To pique some wanderlust, I took a jaunt down memory lane, reliving the seasides, the wine, the cheese, the misadventures and epic scenery of that summer.

This is a bit of a 'choose your own adventure' situation--Read in chronological order or click around the links. So where are we going first?!

Prerequisite reading- Time to Hit the Road!

• The Montenegrin Chapter
• The Croatian Chapter
• The Bosnian Chapter
• The Swiss Chapter
• The Italian Chapter 



The summer circuit!