Dîner en Blanc Vancouver: A brand new cool experience

You know, I'm not a very 'updated' person at times as I'm usually not at the forefront of all the new hits in town. So, the question is, how did I actually get to know about this event?

Tee Hee! I'm glad my good friend is very socialized and well informed about Vancouver events. Xin went to this annual event last year and highly recommended it to me. From her description, I could totally sense that it was an exciting event and something that was very different to my day-to-day life. 

There are many rules to this event. The tradition of this event is about everyone dressing in white only for a mass picnic dinner in a secret location. Location will only be revealed at the very last minute, so everyone will be meeting up in their selected location with their relative group mates.

Oh, and another big rule is, everyone has to bring their own picnic accessories (Yes, I meant folding table,chairs and the list goes on) as well as preparing their meals unless you pre-purchase the on-site meals prepared by Hawksworth Restaurant. 

In short, it's a dinner in white as claimed by its title.

Because it sounds like a stunning picnic, getting an invitation to it is challenging. There are three phases to the application process. Phase 1 is for returning guests exclusively. Phase 2 will be open to anyone nominated by the guests from Phase 1, and Phase 3 is generally for the people on waiting list. Due to an overwhelming response, this event leaves many disappointment to people every year who fail to grab a seat. I was lucky I was one of the 3500 picnickers to join this elegant event.

We met up with our group leader and other group mates at Vancouver Art Gallery. It was mesmerizing to see a white crowd segregating in such an artistic building on a weekday, and the event concept was outstanding instantly . I could not imagine seeing 3500 people in white at the actual event when I was already fascinated seeing 300 people dressed up in the same colour as me at once, it was definitely a feast for the eyes.

This year's location was revealed to be David Lam Park at Yaletown. I had been to this park once to volunteer for a Tom Lee's Music Festival few years back, and I was a little disappointed when I saw the venue at first, as compared to last year's spectacular view at Stadium Science World. The place looked smaller and simply lacking the vow factor.

As more and more people set up their table and chairs, the entire place instantly transformed into a fancy place as though it was hosting a Gala dinner. Felt so surreal to be immersed in a romantic atmosphere as such.

One fun part of the event was the way dinner time was announced, guests would wave their napkins in the air  together to signal the start of dinner time. 

Baby and I split up the cooking task this time, in which I was in charge of the appetizer and I left the main course entirely to him. So grateful to have a man who is willing to go into the kitchen to prepare a meal for me.

My prince charming was glowing under the sun and looking good effortlessly. :)

The organizer was thoughtful to come up with some extravagant decorations, including the love balls and vintage car.

Somehow, the venue looked much better after all the decorations. It gave 'partying in the centre of the city' kind of feel.

The dinner ended with sparklers lighting and sending the paper lanterns into the sky. Every guest was given a sparkler to light up together when announcement was made. Yes, this is an event about 'togetherness' to create a uniform view. :) It was also the uniformity which made me feel magical.

While the former part was easy, latter one was definitely much more challenging. Paper lantern floats in an uncontrollable direction, hence it's actually quite dangerous to do this in a tight space with so many trees and buildings around. I did not realize this until I saw the lantern flying right across my friend's head, slightly touching his hat before going all the way up. Whoaaaa that was really nasty! I'd rather forgo the beautiful moment for safety.

Let alone the little nasty moment, I really enjoyed myself that night. :) What's more awesome than having a good meal with my lovely friends, chilling under a sunny weather while enjoying the visual wonder created by people who share the same feeling. It was one-of-a-kind experience that I'd barely have.

Food Cart Festival

I've long heard about the Food Cart Festival from my friends as well as online sources, and I finally made my way there this year after hearing so much upsides about this event for foodies. Food Cart Festival is an annual summer event in which most of the popular food trucks will gather together in 1 location to serve everybody, so it's very similar to a summer food market to me. I've only known about the Olympic Village location in the past, but this year the organizer sets up another new location in Holland Park, Surrey on every Saturday for the entire August.

Oh well, you wouldn't believe what I saw when I arrived, I my self didn't want to believe it.. For almost 40 minutes of driving, we saw 4-5 food trucks, small crowd and a few Vancity game stalls. The pictures on the website capturing huge crowd and many different food stalls were deceiving,  I expected similar size as the Olympic Village for the Surrey location. Also, they claimed to have 'more than 15 trucks every week from Vancouver' on their official website which was not happening at all.

Albeit a little disappointed with the actual scene, the food was a boom! We tried the all-time-favourite Kaboom box's Venison burger, the meat was so lean and juicy! Felt like this burger suited my liking because the meat was so tender and contained less fat, giving it a tasty mouthfeel. Our friend had the Jalepeno&Cheese Dog by Dougie Dog. Delicious but overpriced, a hot dog for almost $9, you must be kidding me.

Vancity was also giving out some little perks to the attendees, they had free lollipops and game stalls to win free goodies this year.

After filling our stomach with a salty treat, we decided to satisfy our sweet tooth now. Baby and I visited the local handmade ice-cream called Rocky Point Ice Cream. They had some unique flavours available, including Espresso flakes, Chai Spice as well as their Signature Rocky Point Road. I was quite curious about the Espresso flakes, so we had that with Rocky Point Road on a cone. The ice-cream had a heavy Espresso scent and taste, but just too sweet for my palate. Rocky Point Road on the other hand, was nothing too special but a sweet-chocolate-flavoured-ice cream with nuts.

Fried vegetables topped with very unique spices which tasted like Indian Curry.

Thumbs up to the organizer for picking a nice spot to hold the event. Holland Park was a beautifully-renovated park flourishing in the centre of the town. Unfortunately, it seemed like not many people made full use of this huge park as it was so quiet on the day we went there.

The event was meh but we managed to enjoy ourselves out of the good weather and awesome companies. :) Not too bad after all!

Saturday date: Britannia Shipyard

Yesterday was a lovely date full of surprises for us. Baby's initial plan was to bring me to Steveston for a walk along the seaside, which sounded like a good plan to me because we barely have the chance to go to Steveston if baby wasn't driving. It's not the kind of distance where we'd love to take public transit, when we live in a place that takes 75 minutes of bus/train ride to reach there.

As much as I was happy with the plan, God made it even better. Our surprising discovery of Brittania Shipyards which was hiding at the west end of Steveston simply made our day. I was pretty excited to see various cultural sites lying along the boardwalk as we walked further down.

You can totally sense the vibrant past of Steveston through looking at the complex. It has a mix of Western and Asian culture, with traditional building like Murakami house, Chinese Bunk House to Western twist in Stilt House.

Murakami House

 The Stilt House ( the blue one is also known as Men's Bunkhouse) has to be my favourite. It satisfies my fantasy of having a blue house with vintage theme. There are also 2 red houses beside the Men's Bunkhouse,  but I only took the blue house ( oops, please forgive my bias).

Decoration wise, the Murchison House (red one) won my heart. The decoration is heavily adapting the British vintage style, everything is so vintage from floral wallpaper to lacey curtains. I felt like I just went back to the 70s, ready to take a sip of coffee and few scones while looking at the garden view outside.

I also like how the decoration is consistently adapting the same style at every corner of the house, making it look so pleasantly comfortable.

Whereas the Men's Bunkhouse adapts a more free and simple style, perfectly reflecting the traditional life of men employees. Beer and playing cards after work, good life eh!

City of Richmond did a good job in preserving this precious heritage site considering that there's no entrance fee charged. Part of the maintenance fee relies on public donation. I highly recommend this place for a weekend date or family day, as it fits perfectly for a short walk down the memory lane to the past. With the good weather nowadays, it shouldn't be too hard to stay outdoor.

:) Forgive me that I'm not a good history teller, so I'll leave the link about it here City of Richmond- Britannia Shipyards. It does a much better job in explaining the details about this awesome place.

After taking tonnes of picture, we finally left the village and went to the seaside to continue our walk. The weather was just great for pictures, everything captured through the lens turned out great.

Awww, even the residential area nearby is so lovely and looks like vacation home.

I had a great time with baby. :) Had to appreciate his effort in preparing surprising date like this once in a while. especially when I know he's not an outdoor person. Thank you so much baby :')