Saturday morning I woke to the worst of Vancouver winter weather, pouring rain, gray almost dark skies and not an end in sight. So My friend and I decided to make the best of it and drive in to town and visit some of indoor sites that we had not seen before. The weather was starting to clear up a little (only drizzling not raining) as we pulled up to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC.
My Father had been here when it first opened and raved about the building and the whale skeleton. He was right it is a beautiful simple building and what greets you at the entrance is an enormous blue whale skeleton.
It is very striking and in a small theatre they have a movie telling the story of finding and restoring this amazing exhibit. We joined a tour that just happened to be starting as we arrived and spent a very interesting 40 minutes learning a little about the collection and evolution. I would highly recommend a visit especially if you are at all interested in the story of how we ended up where we are today.
Having thoroughly enjoyed our visit and with our brains brimming with interesting facts and information that sadly would vanish with no trace in a couple of weeks, we decided to go to Yale town for drink and some appetizers.
It had started to rain again and we stumbled in to Society this restaurant is part of the glowbal group of restaurants specializing in childhood-inspired menu. Pizza twinkies, cotton candy, meat loaf and fried chicken. The drink special was a strawberry mojito with cotton candy on top.
We were sitting up at the bar (as the restaurant was fully booked) and the couple sitting next to us not only let me take a picture, but even gave us a little cotton candy to taste. Who doesn't want a little cotton candy as an appetizer. We on the other hand were very boring and ordered a half litre of very nice red wine.
Being a little undecided we decided to order the Appetizer Platter. What arrived was a large wooden board with a selection of appetizers including kobe beef taquitos, caprese salad, buffalo prawns jumbo onion rings, mini Italian pizza. Sorry about the the rather blurry picture but any way you get the idea.
The first thing we tackled was the tomato soup topped with a mini grilled cheese sandwich.
The tomato soup was absolutely delicious very flavourful with an intense tomato flavour, the little grilled cheese sandwich was served like a crouton and the underneath had soaked up some of the soup not a bad thing.
The buffalo prawns were one very large prawn each, with buffalo sauce and a little creamy blue cheese sauce. We both wolfed these down, I wish I had a picture, but I was really to busy eating. The onion rings were good, though nothing special, but what made them was the home made ketchup.
This was tangy and with a little kick of spice, I think I have to have a go at making ketchup. The pizza was good but again nothing spectacular with Italian sausage and pepperoni. The caprese salad came in a little bowl and was a good counterpoint to the other rich spicy components.
There was yellow and red tomatoes along with a very fresh soft mild mozzarella, the cool mild flavours were a very refreshing addition. The last dish I tackled was the kobe beef taquitos, a corn tortilla wrapped around some shredded beef and deep fried. Also very good with the crisp outer coating and soft beef filling.
As we were sitting up at the bar we talked with the bar tender, who as our time there passed got busier and busier as the restaurant started to fill up. He persuaded us that we should try Heindricks gin and tonic with cucumber instead of lime as it is made to be served this way.
Heindricks is our gin of choice so it had to be done, though as I was driving I just had a taste. The cucumber did give a rather nice subtle flavour, but I wonder if a combination of lime and cucumber would not be even better. Much research needs to be done.
We enjoyed our little outing in Vancouver, it is a good idea to be a tourist in your own city once in a while, though frankly in Vancouver that is much easier to do on a sunny day, but we made the best of what we had.
My Father had been here when it first opened and raved about the building and the whale skeleton. He was right it is a beautiful simple building and what greets you at the entrance is an enormous blue whale skeleton.
It is very striking and in a small theatre they have a movie telling the story of finding and restoring this amazing exhibit. We joined a tour that just happened to be starting as we arrived and spent a very interesting 40 minutes learning a little about the collection and evolution. I would highly recommend a visit especially if you are at all interested in the story of how we ended up where we are today.
Having thoroughly enjoyed our visit and with our brains brimming with interesting facts and information that sadly would vanish with no trace in a couple of weeks, we decided to go to Yale town for drink and some appetizers.
It had started to rain again and we stumbled in to Society this restaurant is part of the glowbal group of restaurants specializing in childhood-inspired menu. Pizza twinkies, cotton candy, meat loaf and fried chicken. The drink special was a strawberry mojito with cotton candy on top.
We were sitting up at the bar (as the restaurant was fully booked) and the couple sitting next to us not only let me take a picture, but even gave us a little cotton candy to taste. Who doesn't want a little cotton candy as an appetizer. We on the other hand were very boring and ordered a half litre of very nice red wine.
Being a little undecided we decided to order the Appetizer Platter. What arrived was a large wooden board with a selection of appetizers including kobe beef taquitos, caprese salad, buffalo prawns jumbo onion rings, mini Italian pizza. Sorry about the the rather blurry picture but any way you get the idea.
The first thing we tackled was the tomato soup topped with a mini grilled cheese sandwich.
The tomato soup was absolutely delicious very flavourful with an intense tomato flavour, the little grilled cheese sandwich was served like a crouton and the underneath had soaked up some of the soup not a bad thing.
The buffalo prawns were one very large prawn each, with buffalo sauce and a little creamy blue cheese sauce. We both wolfed these down, I wish I had a picture, but I was really to busy eating. The onion rings were good, though nothing special, but what made them was the home made ketchup.
This was tangy and with a little kick of spice, I think I have to have a go at making ketchup. The pizza was good but again nothing spectacular with Italian sausage and pepperoni. The caprese salad came in a little bowl and was a good counterpoint to the other rich spicy components.
There was yellow and red tomatoes along with a very fresh soft mild mozzarella, the cool mild flavours were a very refreshing addition. The last dish I tackled was the kobe beef taquitos, a corn tortilla wrapped around some shredded beef and deep fried. Also very good with the crisp outer coating and soft beef filling.
As we were sitting up at the bar we talked with the bar tender, who as our time there passed got busier and busier as the restaurant started to fill up. He persuaded us that we should try Heindricks gin and tonic with cucumber instead of lime as it is made to be served this way.
Heindricks is our gin of choice so it had to be done, though as I was driving I just had a taste. The cucumber did give a rather nice subtle flavour, but I wonder if a combination of lime and cucumber would not be even better. Much research needs to be done.
We enjoyed our little outing in Vancouver, it is a good idea to be a tourist in your own city once in a while, though frankly in Vancouver that is much easier to do on a sunny day, but we made the best of what we had.
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