Picture of the Day: The Living City

Oakridge will become a futuristic mini city in Vancouver

When I went back home for the holidays, the shopping mall Oakridge was not the same as before.

Large stores like Gap was closing its doors and everyone had already picked through most of the remaining clothes -- even the mannequins, tables and display shelves were for sale too. Eddie Bauer also closed around Christmas time and others had shuttered long ago.

What was really sad was on the 41st Avenue entrance, several trees were chopped down instead of moved. They had been there for a very long time.

Are Hong Kong people buying Oakridge?

They were being cleared because the mall will be torn down and redeveloped into a giant residential complex built by developer Westbank.

It has several other projects in Vancouver, particularly downtown and Chinatown and now Oakridge on 41st Avenue and Cambie Street.

Westbank has an office in Hong Kong and is actively selling its projects here. And just in case you weren't aware of this latest one, it has taken out a big billboard advertising space right at the Peak Tram.

That's pretty impressive and we wonder how much that cost, but we also wonder if the tagline couldn't be a bit more snappier. "Oakridge: The Living City" makes you wonder if most cities are dead? Of course you'd want to have a living city!

Or is that something that not everyone would know...

Epic Meal at Phnom Penh Restaurant

A unique (and delicious) place serving Vietnamese and Cambodian cuisines

Yesterday I met up with an acquaintance in Chinatown and he suggested we eat at Phnom Penh, a Cambodian-Vietnamese restaurant.

He was shocked to find that I had never been there and insisted we eat lunch there.

I arrived at the appointed time to find a crowd of people standing in the foyer waiting for a table, while others preferred to soak up the sunshine before their name was called to come in.

Watching people come in and out, there were not only Cantonese-speakers, but also Mandarin, as well as non-Chinese who seemed to be very familiar with the place. Guess it was a good sign.

Deep-fried chicken wings have alight batter and tart sauce

By 1pm the restaurant was still bustling, and after about a 10-minute wait we finally got a table. And since my acquaintance is such a regular here, he practically knew all the dishes we should order, adding that four of the items on the menu are ones one should eat before they die. Die? Really?

He asked me if I had such a list... I had to answer in the negative.

I'd never thought of it that way before, but that just made me more skeptical of how good Phom Penh really was.

Nevertheless, the food soon arrived fast and furious on the laminate table. A half portion of deep-fried chicken wings were garnished with spring onions, garlic, and coriander, with a peppery lemon sauce on the side. Fantastic, and perfect beer food. The batter wasn't heavy and was quite crunchy.

Cubes of beef covered in a dark sauce, topped with fried egg

Next came fillet beef luc lac on rice with egg (CAD$10.95). Honestly it doesn't look pretty -- the cubed beef was smothered in a very dark brown shiny sauce with a fried egg on top. The egg was a bit more cooked than runny, which would have made it takes a bit better.

My friend mixed these all up as well as he could, minus the salad on the side. This wasn't a dish I would consider a must-have before dying -- the flavour was actually flat -- even the egg couldn't save it.

However, we really liked the beef fillet anchois (CAD$19), which was basically beef carpaccio topped with a soy sauce mixed with lots of coriander, garlic and lemongrass. The sauce complemented the beef, and interestingly for a restaurant in Chinatown we did not get sick after eating a raw meat dish!

Finally the flavour of the Phnom Penh hot and sour soup with prawns (CAD$12.95) was fantastic. I like sour tastes, and this one pretty much hit the jackpot. It was a curious combination again lemongrass, and probably lime for tartness, added with tomatoes, pineapples, beansprouts, potatoes and overcooked prawns.

 SE Asian beef carpaccio with lots of coriander and garlic!

The food we ordered was enough for three people, but we somehow managed to almost finish it all. Needless to say I was so full afterwards that I could have almost skipped dinner.

When we came out of the restaurant, there was yellow police tape cordoning off the sidewalk a few doors down with police cars on the street and people in uniform checking out the area. One wiped blood off the sidewalk which meant that it was probably a stabbing.

And we didn't even know! We were too busy eating to hear any commotion if there was any...

Phnom Penh restaurant is pretty good, but as long as you're willing to wait...

Phnom Penh

244 East Georgia

Vancouver

604 682 5777

Tree Appreciation

For Hong Kong visitors, the number of trees in the city makes a big impression

While I was in Vancouver, some relatives from Hong Kong came for a short visit for the first time.

We showed them around the usual spots -- Stanley Park, VanDusen Botanical Gardens, the University of British Columbia, Queen Elizabeth Park, Chinatown, Gastown, and so on.

It was interesting to see what they took pictures of, and what they were most thrilled about were the trees.

They were amazed to see so many trees in the city, in particular how large and tall they were.

Lots of greenery in Queen Elizabeth Park

Many times they commented about how Hong Kong doesn't know how to manage its trees well due to a lack of knowledge, and most of the time chops them down for fear that the branches will break off and fall, especially during typhoons, and doesn't want to take any chances.

Another reason is that the trees are somehow assigned to different departments and they manage them in their own way. There is a Tree Management Office, but it seems to coordinate with the various departments that have trees under their jurisdiction than have overall management of all the trees in the city.

This leads to an uncoordinated philosophy on how to look after trees in Hong Kong, and why some seem to be haphazardly chopped down, and others pruned to the point where the tree can't recover and eventually dies (and is chopped down).

Looking at the fairway at Point Grey Golf Club

Being in Vancouver, just being able to look up and see the blue skies and clouds so easily is something people there take for granted, because in Hong Kong, having a shoe box in the sky doesn't necessarily mean you have a zillion-dollar view. Some look directly into another person's flat a metre away. Or you have a sliver of a view if you crane your neck at a certain degree.

Seeing my relatives in awe of how trees are left to flourish in Vancouver made me even more acutely aware of how lucky the residents are to live in such a green environment.

I found myself paying more attention to them too, and how Hong Kong really needs to protect what trees it has left to create a more liveable place.

Chinatown's Changing Face

The happening scene at The Keefer Bar in Vancouver's Chinatown

After dinner at The Farmer's Apprentice, my friend took me around to see neighbourhoods in Vancouver that have changed.

She drove us down to Chinatown, and the landscape there has changed considerably. The area was very vibrant when I remembered it in the 1970s and 80s. But next door the Downtown Eastside became known as the poorest postal code in Canada with a number of homeless people, prostitutes and drug addicts who inhabited the area and spilled into Chinatown.

This also coincided with other Chinatowns sprouting up in Richmond and then Coquitlam, so Chinese families didn't have to go all the way downtown to get Chinese groceries and cheaper fruits and cuts of meat.

Cool Chinese furniture sold here

As a result, some businesses folded and meanwhile the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes would wander the streets of Chinatown, which made it a tricky problem for the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Area Society.

No matter how much security the group would hire or contact police, the issue would not go away -- until business owners were open to the idea of inviting non-Chinese and non-traditional Chinese entrepreneurs into the area to set up shop.

This happened when I was in Vancouver in the early 2000s, with Wild Rice, a fusion-style restaurant opened on Pender Street next to the Lotus Hotel. The hip dining establishment was known for creating items like lychee martinis and western takes on potstickers and char siu bao.

One shop called Peking Lounge was opened by a pair of Caucasian men who liked going to China, where they bought antique furniture and knick nacks and sold them in Vancouver.

And then another big milestone happened when real estate marketing guru Bob Rennie bought the Wing Sang Building, the oldest building in Chinatown in 2004. Rennie kept the facade of the building that dates back to 1889 and renovated the inside which had been left neglected for decades.

It is now an office and gallery where visitors can come for free tours by appointment to look at the historical building that was both a home and storefront for businessman Yip Sang. He also had 23 children with four wives...

The rejuvenated Wing Sang Building

But back to 2014 -- many of the old shops have been changed into cool bars and restaurants. One that used to be a corner grocery store has been transformed into Oyster Express, serving freshly shucked bivalves with drinks, The Keefer Bar offers slick cocktails. Upstairs used to have suites for rent and had a luminous swimming pool on the top floor, but now are under private ownership.

There's also Caffe Brixton, a neighbourhood eatery and on the edge of Chinatown is Pizzeria Farina, a small pizza place my friend raves about.

When we visited on a Monday, most of the places were closed, but it was still heartening to see the momentum of breathing new life into Chinatown. The place isn't like I remembered, but has definitely become the hip place to be in Vancouver.