Vancouver: Granville Island Public Market Tour

The Friday I was in Vancouver for the TBEX conference, the awesome folks at Tourism Vancouver arranged for complimentary tours around the area. Since I’m absolutely obsessed with both food & farmers markets/public markets, I chose Edible British Columbia’s chef-led tour of Granville Public Market. I thought it would be the perfect thing for me & indeed, it did not disappoint.

The Logistics
Edible British Columbia started as a way to introduce people to the foods of British Columbia & Canada by emphasizing local products & restaurants in all their tours & events.

While my tour was complimentary, it was well worth the $39.20 the tour normally costs. Tours run daily from 9:00am – 11:00am & are involve anywhere from two to eight people. The small group size really helps keep things moving along, especially toward the end when the market gets crowded. Tickets can be purchased online & must be purchased prior to 3pm the day before your tour. In addition, Edible BC can also arrange for a private market tour that can accommodate up to 64 people. They can tailor that tour to whatever your particular group is interested in.

Edible British Columbia sells a variety of products in their Granville Market store, including their most popular seller bacon salt (we tried it, it tasted like, you guessed it, salty bacon). In addition to the retail store & market tours, they also offer dinners & events with local chefs.

The Tour
Our little group of six bloggers assembled bright & early in front of the Edible British Columbia store inside Granville Market. I was very jet-lagged, having only gotten four hours of sleep the night before, but eager for my tour. Right at 9:00, our guide Carolynn led us to the first stop on our journey: the Granville Island Tea Company.

A dedicated coffee drinker, I was ready to write this stop off, but I’m glad I didn’t. We learned all about different types of tea & the history of tea. For instance: did you know that chamomile & peppermint teas aren’t really tea at all? There are no tea leaves in them, it’s actually just dried chamomile & peppermint leaves. We sampled some masala chai tea, Granville Island Tea Company’s signature drink. It definitely tasted different than the chai tea lattes I normally order at Starbucks, probably because this one contained a secret ingredient: butter. Granville Island Tea is run by a husband & wife tea loving team – in fact, the wife loves tea so much she claims that she has never even tasted coffee!

Next we headed over to La Baguette to sample some of the most delicious French bread I have ever tasted. Also run by a husband & wife team, the bakery opened in 1979 as a carcutcherie & then expanded to be a full service bakery a few years later. Now they supply many of the restaurants around Vancouver & Whistler with bread. They bake during the day, & in the evenings, & use the open air (covered) space around the bakery to cool their baked goods outside at night. We sampled pain au chocolate which rivaled any croissant you could have in France. It was fresh, flaky, perfect.

Continuing on with the carb theme, we visited Terra Breads next. A family owned business that distinguishes their bread by using olive oil based baking & a slow rising process. A community oriented business, they donate their unused bread at the end of the day to shelters & food banks in the area. We tasted a sourdough focaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach & a hint of olive oil. I could have eaten the whole loaf!

Ready for some meat, we next visited Oyama Sausage. A Dutch & German sausage company, they raise their own pigs & grain, resulting in a delicious product. We sampled spicy black truffle salami, perfectly-fatty prosciutto, & smoky bison sausage. Their meats all originate from the Oyama fruit & meat area of British Columbia.

To give our stomachs a brief respite from all this delicious eating before 10am, we strolled over to Seafood City, a Japanese owned booth that has been at the market since 1981. They sell fresh, local flash frozen fish & offer many unique items, including a wide variety of oysters, mussels &, for the summer season, spot prawns.

As if anticipating our mood for something sweet, our next stop was at ChocolaTAS, a Belgin chocolate vendor with creative designs, including patterns to appease even the pickiest chocolate eater. The owner chatted with us while we held paper-wrapped chocolates in our hands to warm them up to room temperature – the only appropriate temperature to eat chocolate. The dark chocolate mandarin, a hazelnut praline made with local organic hazelnut, I had melted in mouth & left me wanting more.

Armando’s Meats is one of the original vendors in the market, opening in 1983, & our next stop on the tour. In Canada, butchery & meat cutting is very technical, so the owner of Armando’s trained himself in proper Canadian cutting techniques. Popular with the local chefs, this vendor has the distinction of selling the most exclusive, expensive Canada Prime Beef in the market. Also popular with locals, Armando’s can sell up to 1200 kabobs a day during the summer – that’s a lot of barbecuing!

I stepped out on a limb at Zara’s Italian Market, where we sampled olives. Normally not a big fan of the shiny green & black ovals, I popped the Bareso Nero green & black olives in my mouth & hoped for the best. Filled with flavor, these were a cut above the olives I’ve disliked in the past! Zara’s is known as the “one stop Italian shop” in the market, selling dozens of fresh pastas & cheeses.

The last stop was the highlight for many of us: Lee’s Donuts. Lee’s hand makes, hand flips, & hand fills all their donuts. Honey dip (or glazed as we call it in the States) is their most popular variety &, based on the melt-in-your-mouth sample that I had, I can see why. It tasted nothing like a Dunkin Donut or Krispy Kreme glazed; it was fresh, light, puffy & delicious. It takes Lee’s about two hours start to finish to make a donut & we watched Alvin roll out some dough for his next handmade batch.

As we made our way back to the Edible BC store, the group marveled at the produce vendors in the market, & how high their goods were piled. We learned that there are three different produce vendors in the market, & they compete to see who can create the most beautiful displays. The mountains of cherries, berries & oranges around the market balanced precariously & beautifully.