We had informal Saturday brunch with families of kids in our second-grader’s class in Old Chinatown at The Emerald, once a dim-sum joint, now a hipster supper club. The old-Chinatowners are aging out and some of the people moving in look Chinese because hey, this is Vancouver, but they’re younger and single-er and probably don’t speak much 廣州話. Whatever it’s becoming will probably be interesting, but not the same.
Old Chinatown is still full of life and bustle and color, but to me there’s something of a museum-piece feeling. I wonder how long there’ll still be this kind of shop? Lots of fish!
It’s not just Vancouver; hipsters are invading Chinatowns up and down the West Coast. And last time I was in Shanghai, I was shocked at how plastic-wrapped and cosmopolitan much of the shopping had become.
Anyhow, this lady seems happy with her choice. And my hope is that my grandkids will still be able to go shopping where you can pick through the fish to find the one you want to take home.
You might want to enlarge the picture because that is one great-looking fish.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Tony Baer (Mar 29 2014, at 13:23)
Here in NY, not so long ago the story was that Chinatown was gobbling up the last of Little Italy. Now the hipsters are gobbling up Chinatown.
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From: Aaron (Mar 29 2014, at 19:23)
Dang them hippersnappers!
Sadly, you seem to be on the downward slope. If only I could be as objective about myself...
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From: Hanan COhen (Mar 29 2014, at 22:09)
What caught my attention were the tongs.
Here (in Israel) the fresh fish are behind a glass window - I point at the fish I want and a store employee packs it for me.
Is using tongs to get your fish a common thing in Canada or just in Chinatown?
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From: Daniel Veillard (Apr 02 2014, at 05:05)
Well in china they prefer to buy their fish live, even in 10cm of water in a plastic bucket sitting on the street, like at the small market here. Also China
is changing fast and they have little regrets for how things looked in the past, hipster or not ! Also the handle would not be used here, dead fish and piece of meat are taken with bare hands, looked closely and put back onto the counter, even at Carrefour or Walmart !
There is a reason all meat are thoroughly cooked :-)
Daniel
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From: Anand Mani (Apr 10 2014, at 18:58)
Great photo's. It's doubtful that your children, or grandchildren will be able to shop this way. A massive amount of fish and other food is discarded because it's not sold and the price is marked up to accommodate this. But they're taken from the sea anyway.
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