Vancouver, Day 15: Making the Best of It
Not going to lie, it’s Saturday, I’m tired... I didn’t want to do much. But it’s also my last full day in the city, so I wanted to make the most of it. What actually got me out of bed was the fact I needed gifts for my family. Off I went to Kits, to re-visit Thomas Haas and get a shitton of macarons to bring back with me.
I told myself I would get myself an aztec hot chocolate to-go, and nothing else. That... didn’t work out.
Aztec hot chocolate, for here, with a crispy chocolate raspberry pastry. I think Thomas Haas takes the cake for best patisserie. I got through at least two prompts there.
Since I was already halfway there, I hopped the 99 bus to UBC and spent most of the day in their Museum of Anthropology. On the way, I passed through their rose garden, and yeah-- I could live there. Like, on campus. I could totally be a student. It was move-in day. I could have snuck in and never left.
I didn’t get any shots inside the museum, because I didn’t know their policy and honestly it slipped my mind like two minutes in. What I LOVE about this museum is that a) while centered on First Nations peoples, it’s multicultural, b) it focuses on how the artifacts were developed and used. I’ve grown up on museums, and so many times you’ll see items curated by date, origin, and source, and not much else. But these items were all about “my great-grandfather explained this housepole to me when I was a young child...” and detailed how and why they were used and what they signified.
Not only that, nothing in the museum is static. It all ties together, even the multicultural exhibits. There’s artist exchanges and an overall distinct sense of interconnection. It really drives home that nothing in history exists in isolation-- it’s all interwoven and traded. Distinct cultural identities, shared between visitors and hosts. Some museums feel clinical in their curation, but here, when you see a dozen ceremonial face masks crowded into a single display case, it feels like a celebration of cultural history.
There’s an enormous focus on the LIVING culture behind the displays, and as an anthropology major, it’s probably the best museum I’ve ever been to in my life. Most museums act like they’re recording the last vestiges of dead cultures. UBC’s MOA took one look at them and went, lol nope.
Since I missed out on my food truck experience yesterday, I decided to be spiteful and hit up the Japadog restaurant on Robson. I got the same dog I tasted on my tour (with the fancy sausage, nori, teriyaki and japanese mayo), and paired it with their aonori fries-- seasoned with nori and sea salt. Best choice I ever made.
The restaurant is a little hole in the wall, and it was hopping so I ate quickly and bailed to the library to write and digest. When it closed for the day, I stopped in for one last dessert at Cacao70. It’s a chocolate cafe on the corner of Granville and Georgia that made me go ooh! every time I walked past, so I finally did.
Welcome to their Camp-Out waffle. Vanilla soft serve in a chocolate dipped cone on a chocolate dipped waffle, topped with toasted marshmallow, brownies, whipped cream and chocolate/caramel drizzles.
The toasting on the marshmallow is cosmetic only (as a proficient roaster of marshmallows, I was a little offended), but the toppings and soft serve were tasty. Sadly, their waffle had no taste. Considering it’s about 60% of the dessert (it may not look it, but that thing is dense), it was actually a bit of a disappointment.
