Metro Vancouver Talk

It’s that time of the year again, when people from all over the Metro Vancouver area swarm into the downtown core and Kitsilano area to feast their eyes on the most exciting fireworks show in Western Canada. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

The Celebration of Light competition takes place on four separate days, with 3 and sometimes 4 different countries competing with their own special arrangements and themes. It always begins on a Wednesday, and then is followed by another show on Saturday, and then Wednesday and Saturday again. When only 3 countries compete, the final Saturday show will be what is called the Finale night when the other countries use a portion of their presentation to form another full 25 minute fireworks show. 

This year, we are lucky, because 4 different countries are competing. The reason I say that is because I have never really been a fan of the Finale show. The individual shows are usually pretty good, but when they try to mix up the themes into a finale, it just never seems to work. In fact, I’m not even interested in watching any more finale shows. Since 4 countries are competing this  year, though, there will be a full presentation from that country on day 4, and if it is the same as other years when there were 4 countries competiting, that will be followed by a short finale with an especially large amount of fireworks going off at once. 

This year, the competing countries for the Celebration of Light fireworks show are:
(copied from the official Celebration of Light website) 

U.S.A.

Date	Wednesday, July 21
Theme	In the Mood
Description	The Show is a tribute to the Big Band era and promises to be high energy, with a lot of hoppin’ swingin’ fun. The show opens with mine shots, lots of color and movement of devices and develops into patterns, water effects and fountains, then to an exciting finale.

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Spain

Date	Wednesday, July 24
Theme	Hell & Heaven
Description	Hell & Heaven is an exercise of imagination and force, the audience will enjoy with the recreation of the fight beetwwen the light and the darkness. With his particular style, Pirotecnia Igual mix the power of the Iberian fire with the last trend choreographies, all this using the last technologies of desing and display.

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Mexico

Date	Wednesday, July 28
Theme	Journey
Description	A wide variety of rythms were selected for this Journey, we play with Rock “en español”, pop, Mexican contemporary, and blends of popular (Banda) music with electronic elements. We invite everybody to enjoy this journey thru rythms and emotions.

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China

Date	Wednesday, July 31
Theme	The Butterfly Lovers legend
Description	Coming from a wonderful Chinese history tale, the public will travel through a world full of sound and visual and they will enjoy exotic choregraphies of fireworks which will take on a whole new dimension.

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Keep in mind that these fireworks are meant to be watched with musical accompaniment. Usually, it’s not a problem hearing the music, as they have some speakers located around the viewing areas and some people bring their own radios. If you are really unlucky, though, and there is a no music playing around you, you’re really going to miss out on the experience. Hopefully, you’ll be lucky enough to hear the music from where you are standing, or you could always bring your own radio with you.

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.

Out of all the many great seafood restaurants that specialize in oysters in Vancouver, one of my favorite places to go is a place in Yaletown called Rodney’s Oyster House.

It’s not the easiest place to find. Located on Hamilton Street south of Davie, it has a really small sign that isn’t really outstanding if you are looking in that direction from Davie Street. In fact, during my first 2 years in Vancouver, I continually failed to notice it during my many trips to Yaletown.

I was really impressed with the interior design the first time I entered it. It doesn’t look at all like any of the modern restaurants like Earls, Moxies, Cactus Club, and Joeys. In constast, it has a simple, old-fashioned looking interior with a lot of white. It reminded me of the interior of a ship, actually, which helped me to enjoy the seafood even more.

I was there with 4 other people at the time, and we decided to sample pretty well everything there. There wasn’t much to choose from there, so it was pretty easy to decide. They just have a simple menu with few selections.

The first thing we ordered was a selection of fine, fresh oysters.

Following that, we ordered the Oysters Rockerfellah, Pan Fried Oysters, and Shrimp Cocktail. This was, by far, my favorite moment of our dinner party.

And then, we couldn’t call it a night until sampling one of their fine desserts. I ordered the Banana Creme Brule.

And that was it for our evening dinner. By the time we left, it was night time, and we were all stuffed to the max with a full selection of various items from their menu and plenty of beer. Before heading home for the night, I took one more picture of how the restaurant looks from outside at night.

After seeing my photos of Rodney’s Oyster House and all the amazing kinds of seafood you can get there, you are probably already making plans to go and check it out for yourself. If that is the case, and if you want more information about the restaurant and its menus, I recommend checking out the Rodney’s Oyster House website.

Among all the spectacular cuisines that you can enjoy in Vancouver, one of the easier things to find, and something that I have to go out and eat around once a week, is a nice bowl of ramen.

There are several ramen restaurants located in the downtown area of Vancouver. I haven’t tried all of them yet, mainly because the ones I have tried were so good, I ended up just going back to those. One of my favorite ones to go to is the one called Benkei (pronounced ben.kay) Noodle Shop.

There are several Benkei restaurants located throughout the city, including the following:

• 747 Thurlow Street (between Robson and Alberni)
• 1741 Robson Street
• 3217 West Broadway
• 43 East 5th Avenue

They make 5 different kinds of ramen at Benkai Noodle Shop. You can find your traditional Japanese flavours such as Shio, Miso, Shoyu, and Akaoni, and also one with a local twist called the Shiro (recently renamed to Peko).

My favorite ramen is the one they now call Peko (was Shiro just 3 weeks ago). It has a white creamy soup base with a garlic flavour, and besides the nice portion of ramen noodles inside, also has corn, spinach, and slices of BBQ chicken inside. The flavour of the soup is a bit similar to clam or corn chowder.

My Japanese friends in Vancouver often tell me that the Peko ramen that I like the most is not real ramen. I guess they feel as though some rule has been broken in messing around with their basic ramen flavours, and it can’t technically be called ramen because of the soup base and what is inside it. Someone even said it is more like spaghetti than ramen. Well, they might call the Peko ramen “not real ramen,” but I call it “the best damn ramen I’ve ever had.” Highly recommended.

When you are paying for your ramen, you will also be given a Benkei Noodle Shop service card, which contains a list of their locations, and on the back, an area for them to stamp your card. After you get that, don’t forget to bring it in with you every time you go because after your card has been stampled 10 times, you can use it to get a free ramen.

For more information about Benkei Noodle shop, its staff, menu, and locations, visit the Benkei Noodle Shop website.

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