Il profilo di moonrising

Hundreds of years ago London Fields was on the edge of London, and was the site of plague pits: mass burials during the Black Death. Though there’s no visible sign of what lies underneath, this park still has the same type of peaceful but mournful atmosphere found in cemeteries, with its London plane trees and resident crows. At the South end a dried up concrete pond is presided over by some intriguing mosaic pearly king and queen sculptures. In the North things are a little more cared for, with a well-used children’s play area, a popular pub and the newly re-opened lido: a 50m open air swimming pool.

On sunny days the park transforms as the locals come out in force and it becomes crowded and noisy as a seal colony. At other times you’ll find a school sports day, or maybe some small event like a recycling fair. But mostly it’s the place people pass through on the way to or from work or the shop. If you run you could find worse: once round, cutting the corners a bit, makes roughly a mile, largely on grass. It’s also lacking in toilets, so unless you are visiting the lido or pub, you may not wish to linger too long.

Update: Location now changed to Chapel Market on Sundays...

Tucked away behind the Town Hall in a school car park, it’s easy not to be aware of this market. Which is a real shame! It runs every Sunday, with a really good range of stalls selling fresh produce. Though some of it is ‘luxury’, there’s lots that’s really good value. Most of the cuts of meat would be a treat for me, but I got a fabulous deal on fruit. I’d picked up a bag of apples, thinking it was £3, and was surprised to be asked for £1.50. It turned out it was £3 for 3 bags… I got 2 bags of apples and 1 of pears. Big bags too… of various varieties. I’m especially enjoying some Cox’s Orange Pippens. Haven’t had those for years!

They also have a selection of stalls selling tempting breads, savouries and cakes. Or I could have got some cider, a burger, or goats cheese flavoured in various delicious ways… Stalls vary from week to week.

Originally built as a reservoir, and once run down, in recent years Clapham ponds has been spruced up considerably. There’s now one large pond in one of the two areas with railings. The pond looks especially lovely on a sunny day with the fountain going (though they do seem to turn it off on the hottest days).

Both little parks also include beds of perennials and bushes, and wandering paths. There’s a nice wooden bridge over the pond.

More ‘square’ than ‘park’, but a lovely little space in this somewhat tired-looking area.

This place was on my list of things to do on my second trip to Vancouver, having somehow stumbled on their rather intriguing website. You see, their selling point is bad service… Go along and you can expect to be told to get your own (tap) water and be generally abused by the waiters. I was a little scared… Especially as no-one else fancied it and I ended up going alone!

Once I finally found it (It’s on a long street… note its near to the junction of Davie and Seymour Streets), it turned out to be a fairly normal looking café, give or take a selection of autographed pictures on the walls. Did I get a tongue lashing? Well, actually no… maybe they picked up I was nervous or something, but they were fine. I even asked for them to do one of their regular burgers without mushrooms (since I’m allergic) and they did it without a murmur. The ‘worst’ of their ‘attitude’ I got was when they brought out my root beer float, followed significantly by the half-empty root beer can so I could top it up myself… I was in at a quiet time, mostly single folks in, and I think a party over the other side was getting some banter, but I was too far away to hear. Maybe they pick on the groups…

Anyway, the food was good. The burger tasted home made, and with fillings ended up looking about a foot tall tall! I did have a brief not too hopeful try at biting it, but sure enough I resorted to eating with knife and fork! I also had hash browns, which were nice, though a little singed. All in all, good tasty stuff. They do stuff like burgers, sandwiches, omelettes, pancakes and cooked breakfasts. If you don’t finish your food, you are expected to give a donation to a local AIDs charity. I did, but gave a donation anyway!

So… not for you if you are going to be offended by being asked to re-fill your coffee yourself at the pot. Or if you don’t like camp waiters… Otherwise, the food is good enough to justify a visit. Maybe take a crowd of friends and you might just get some laughs as well.

Yes, they have the equivalent of pound shops in Canada… It’s a few years back, so I’ll admit to straining to remember what they had in here. Just as varied as a UK pound shop… One thing I did get, to carry with me as part of my ‘safety kit’ when doing the Grouse Grind trail, was a plastic rain poncho. What makes it special is it has Canadian red maple leaves printed on it. How camp is that? Definitely worth stopping by.

One of my favourites on the food court in the Richmond Centre. They sell Chinese canteen style: you choose a selection from dishes of hot food ready at the counter. Service is quick and helpful. Prices are cheap, portions very generous, and the food is tasty. It’s a while back now, but I remember very much enjoying tofu, vegetables (which still had bite), noodles and satay chicken. Not fine dining, but a great place for a quick and tasty meal.

Great shop, selling good quality, solid, casual clothing at reasonable prices. Stuff like jeans and sweaters, that you’d wear on a nice weekend walk in the woods. Or pretty but practical dresses for a trip to the beach. On my second trip to Vancouver it was high up on my list to head here and buy more of their socks. And I still have a pair of jeans.

I’d already acquired a liking for red bean paste buns when I founds this place, but I don’t think I’d seen a Chinese bakery on this scale. Rather like Golden Gate in London’s Chinatown, you take a tray and some tongs, and use them to gather the products you want. At the checkout they are put into a box and totalled up for you. But it’s a lot bigger than Golden Gate…

Besides conventional looking cakes, they do a range of cakes and buns stuffed with fillings sweet and savoury (and often both). It’s great for if you want something a little unusual, especially if you also crave something that’s probably not that healthy! While I was staying in Richmond I probably ate far too much of their stuff: hot dog buns, lotus bean cakes, pork and pineapple bun (which I didn’t like). Unfortunately they did seem to lack in red bean paste… I tried a yellow bean paste bun as an alternative. The paste was sweet (as expected). I noticed a lump of what seemed to be carrot in it. Fine by me (and after all, carrot cake is popular in the UK…). Then I bit into something else. Being sweet it took me a moment to work out what it was, and I’d already swallowed some. It was a mushroom… I’m allergic to them.

Oh well, I survived and have forgiven them! If I go back I’ll be careful to ask if there are mushrooms in any other of their sweet buns!