Dude Ranch

Fresh off my work trip overnight in Vancouver, I headed back into Vancouver the next day (Nov 22) for another overnight trip. Gosh, I’m just so busy and popular and stuff. This time though, it was my old buddy Jen’s place I was going to visit. Since she knows I love to eat, she agreed to make me dinner and the end result was nothing short of scrumtrilescent.




Mmm, coconut tarts.

We spent the evening giggling about this and that and then ended up watching three hours of Saturday Night Live after obtaining some snacks from the local Superstore.

The next morning, we were up bright and early for church. That’s right – I’m not a heathen! While we walked the five blocks to church, we ran home to catch the bus for our lunch reservation at Shabusen for 1:15 PM.

I hadn’t ridden the bus in Vancouver in years, but not much as changed. The bus still shows up when you are a block away and you break into the fastest sprint in years to catch it. Sounds about right. We headed up Granville Street on foot once the bus’s novelty wore off.



Shabusen is a yakiniku house (despite the shabu-shabu nod inherent in its name). I’ve only had yakiniku (translated: grilled meat) once in Japan, which you can read about here. I had read good and bad reviews about Shabusen, but Jen’s enthusiasm encouraged me that this could be tasty indeed.



The place was jamming. Reservations are pretty much required unless you want to wait for an hour or two. For all-you-can-eat yakiniku and sushi, it was the bargain-basement price of $13.50. BRING IT ON.


Yummm, gyuu niku (beef).


Buta niku (pork).


Almost ready…




I’m just grilling away, using the skills I observed from Maya’s mother.

After sufficiently jamming ourselves full of all the deliciousness Shabusen had to offer (yakisoba, tonkatsu, gyoza, miso soup, rice, etc), we wandered down Broadway before heading to Queen Elizabeth Park to gaze and the beautiful west coast sky.








They were friendly enough to extend their arm in welcome, so I was attempting to move some unslightly wax poking out of his inner ear canal to return the gesture. I hope he would do the same for me.


Then he took a liking to Jen…

Jen asked some PDA-loving couple to take it elsewhere and they shot her a nasty look. It was slightly off-putting though…all hands on butts and whatnot. We continued to wander the park and take in the sights in twilight (the pre-dusk period, not the major motion picture).





We headed back towards the bustle of Jen’s East-Indian-filled neighbourhood and stopped at a café for refreshers. Since neither of us was hungry, I hopped into my car for the long journey back home.

Thanks for the good times Djds!