If you’re ever in Vancouver, be sure to visit Granville Island. Only a ten-minute drive from Downtown, this island that was formerly a declining industrial wasteland is now a thriving and hip artists’ center. The island is home to the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, the Arts Club Theater Company, the Carousel Theater, and lots of craft studios such as printmaking studios, a glassblowing studio, a silk weaving studio, jewelers, etc. There are also various shops, restaurants, bakeries, ice cream shops, a marina, and a brewery. But the thing I like best about the island is that it is home to two markets.
The Public Market is a year-round indoor marketplace with fifty permanent vendors (and over a hundred rotating day vendors) that sell groceries, freshly baked goods and various homemade edibles. Inside, you’ll find everything from perfect looking produce to exotic ingredients and foods. Among my favorite finds were Nopal cactus pads, hijiki, sugar cane, and the chutney stall.
The island also hosts an outdoor Farmers Market from June through October each year. Buyers can find a plethora of organic fruits and vegetables, spices, herbs, flowers, dairy fresh eggs, milk, and cheese and artisan breads. The market sometimes invites chefs for live cooking demonstrations using the ingredients available that day. Watch this video to learn more.
Whichever market you prefer, be sure to make a stop on the island and take advantage of delicious foods and availability of diverse ethnic ingredients and creations.
Granville Island Public Market
1689 Johnston Street
Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9, Canada
(604) 666-5784
The Farmer’s Market is located at Triangle Square on Johnston Street across the Southwest corner of the Public Market.
Currently based out of Boston, Jesal is a blogger, freelance writer, yoga enthusiast and lifelong vegetarian who spent four years eating her way through New York City and various other cities around the globe. After answering hundreds of emails and phone calls answering the question, "Where's a cool place I can take my vegetarian friend out to eat" she started Veggiewala to efficiently share her knowledge of the vegetarian food scene with curious carnivores, flexitarians and other vegetarians.