I am not afraid of the Queen. (whoever she may be).
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The food scene from what I’VE seen is grim.
Also the fact that her mom lives just a few minutes away helps with logistics.
Oh, I wasn’t afraid of her but her snark if one disagreed was just not worth it.
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By the way, is/was there a king?
Yes.
Hi,
I understand that your dissatisfaction with particular individuals may directly lead to a diminishing SF food forum scene, your points have already been clearly articulated. While names haven’t been named, for the sake of making newcomers feel more welcome, can I please ask that specific grievances against particular individuals on the SF board be made via the User Messaging function please:
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Time to move where?
How long is the list?
New Orleans. Houston. Austin. Portland. Chicago. Vancouver B.C. Montreal.
Fine list, -Vancouver, +Philly
Sorry. What does -Vancouver and +Philly mean? Do you mean Philly is better than Vancouver in term of the food scene? Or do you mean the HungryOnion Vancouver discussions are not as god as the HungryOnion Philly discussions? Thanks.
Looks like he’s remove Vancouver from the list (odd as that sounds).
You mean remove the HungryOnion Vancouver on his watch list. Actually, that is not that odd. The HungryOnion’s Vancouver board has been quiet, I think.
edited Re-read. Ok. I think I know now.
Sorry for the shorthand. I thought the discussion was where one would want to move because the bay area was overexpensive. Were you discussing which HO boards to add to the discussion?
If the list was which cities to move to because the bay area is too expensive, I would remove Vancouver, and I would add Philly.
As I posted on CH, I spent a bit of time eating in Vancouver this summer. Not a lot of time, but about 10 days. I decided I needed to get out of the bay area and chose Vancouver as a natural spot to “work remotely”.
I didn’t like the food. That is, the renound Chinese food in the district with all the chinese restaurants seemed tasty enough, but that district is far from any of the normal parts of town, hard to get around in, and hard to park. The area seemed long on cantonese ans short on all the regional stuff we have in the bay area. The quality of “regular food” in either the greater downtown ( not downtown-downtown but the districts around there like GasTown ) weren’t terribly exciting. My friend’s neighborhood seemed to have better places, but also limited in range compared to what we’re used to in the bay area. By contrast, Philly, Portland, Houston, and many other US cities ( and international cities: Montreal and Mexico City ) have been very pleasant and tasty during extended-weekend vacations. While that’s not and apples-and-apples test, one does best with the evidence one has, so I don’t plan on more extended periods in Vancouver, nor would I seriously consider moving there.
I spent a little over a week in Vancouver a bit after bbulkow did (though he may have had a car, and I didn’t), and I would agree. It’s not a food destination, and in terms of overall liveability, I don’t think it has much to offer over SF. My limited experience with Austin was not overly positive on the food front, and the same is true of a little more experience with Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. Chicago strikes me as having the most potential both on the food front and as a place to live.
bbulkow said, “Time to move to new orleans,”
raison d’être moving there - eating there
I’ll remove Vancouver, B.C. for bbulkow, and add Richmond, B.C. for ‘eating there’
I hope greyelf doesn’t come over here and read your post.
I’ll agree that Richmond, BC, where most of the good Chinese food is, is depressingly suburban and hard to get to from Downtown Vancouver without a car. We did find some decent Shanghainese there (thanks to my wife and her sister’s radar). I don’t know if it still exists, but I was wowed by the upstairs level of the Richmond Publc Market, which was the closest thing to a hawker center I’d seen in North America before the Golden Mall in Flushing took shape. It had a number of regional Chinese stalls (including the best XLB we found in Greater Vancouver) and hand-pulled noodles, as well as a Singapore chili crab stall (with Dungeness crabs!) and some Filipino food.
Vancouver’s traditional Chinatown near DT seemed pretty dead, though we found a good soy milk breakfast place there (with cifan and savory doujiang). DT Van was also the most difficult place I’ve ever been to find off-sale beer, and the only place I’ve ever encountered a 10¢/bottle “chillage fee” for cold beer.
High-speed transit access to Richmond from DT Van would make a world of difference. Imagine how frustrating the existence of DT Flushing NY would be without the #7 Subway line. So close, yet so far!
In the abstract, though, I don’t think Vancouver’s reputation for Chinese food (and, allegedly, Indian food) can be discounted, even by the likes of me who generally eschew automobile travel.
CAVEAT: I probably was last in Vanvouver around the time $1 USD = $1.50 CND and didn’t find Vancouver expensive -)
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I had dinner with Greyelf, very pleasant, but we had a straightforward but tasty Cantonese place. When I inquired on vancouver CH about regional chinese, there was a bit of silence. Yes, there are a few places ( I’ve got my notes somewhere ).
Richmond can be reached from downtown by the Canada line in 25 minutes. But… then what? It’s so suburban, a car is the only pleasant way to get around. Vancouver has a system called Car2Go which is a flex-rental system, but it took weeks for my account to open. Uber doesn’t work there. There are very few cabs.
My point is that other than the rather excellent pocket of richmond restaurants ( which you can’t really live near ) Vancouver is too dead for me. The local music scene is terrible. The non-chinese food scene is “coming on” but poor. I just never got a good “vibe” there, unlike, say, Montreal. Personal preference.
Agree 1000% on Montreal. It helps that I grew up 90 miles from there, and for years made annual stopovers on my East coast swings to visit my mother, but it’s one of my three favorite North American Cities, and has more élan than TO and Van combined. Food is definitely part of the attraction.
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A day in Richmond, B.C. with greyelf was one delight followed by another - all day - ending with a spectacular dinner after noshing at food stall snacks…Hainanese Chicken Rice and roast duck all afternoon, force fed by choice. Van/Richmond, B.C. tops my list on our road trip from SF-Portland-Seattle-Van.
At the U.S. Customs checkpoint, our car was a culinary diversion for our inspector as he searched our load of groceries with genuine curiosity. I have not replenished any of my Richmond,B.C. shopping spree on Clement Street/Irving St./Chinatown or 99Ranch Market because I can’t find them here in the U.S.
Montreal for cheese and Fairmount bagels?
FYI- Montreal hounds just learned about this forum this week. A number joined- please feel free to engage with them.
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