***FULL DISCLOSURE:  This is NOT a fully gluten free culinary post:  the market is great, but the food stalls are NOT GF***

I found myself with a couple of hours to spare to myself, outside of my house, away from my work and chores yesterday….(wow, who knew what THAT feels like!?)  and after dropping one off at a movie, went out in search of food.

I have long loved Vancouver Chinatown, but it has dwindled immensely since my childhood, and what was once a thriving market area is limited to a couple of kitchen shops, a bakery, tea house and a whole fleet of new hipster restaurants.  It’s not the same.

Enter the Crystal Mall.  I had never been in there, never walked across the street from Metrotown where most of my business went.  And here is where I rediscovered my market.

The Crystal Mall is a thriving and densely packed community of fruit and vegetable stalls, Chinese Medicine shops, bubble tea, phone cards, octopus and food from what looked like every region of China.

There was a food court upstairs, and I toured around:  everything looked and smelled delicious! (Editor’s note:  this is not GF, or GF-friendly.  Full disclosure, I was using this opportunity to not have to worry about gluten or cross-contamination, as my GF-child was safely ensconced in Avengers).

I ended up at the “Want! Want! Noodle House” and ordered beef tendon rice noodle soup, medium spicy, with boiled peanuts and garlic sauce.  O. M. G.  My lips swelled from the spice and I was still savouring the flavours of tendon, pickled bitter melon, peanut and chili for a long time later.  It was incredible.