If you haven’t read my first post on Granville Island, you can check it here (=

Welcome back to the lovely little haunt that Adri and I so adore for our (so far) bi-annual catch-up. I’ve done almost all my exploring on this island exclusively with her, really. Today we delve a little deeper into the shops and stores that dot Granville Island.

You know you’re on the coolest island in town when there are gummy bear shaped soaps to buy.

On this particular visit, Adri and I walked into every single store. Every. Single. Store. There are plenty of craft studios and trinket shops, as well as artisan booths and shops. The island itself is only 35 acres (read 0.14 square kilometres) but we spent 4 hours on this visit crawling over every inch.

As you can see from the gummy bear photo, there are plenty of strange trinket shops, with things like grippy or psychedelic mobile device cases, hand carved chopping boards, and a rice cube shaper. That’s right. Now you can eat sushi (and more!) in cubic form.

Perhaps one of the things Adri and I enjoy the most about Granville Island is the food, so we’ll save that for last. One shop we spent quite a bit of time in particular that wasn’t about food was Vancouver’s very own Broom Shop. That’s right. This shop sold brooms and brooms alone (and you might recall the outside of the shop from last post’s visit too!)

I first noticed that someone famous had been in our very places at the Broom Shop. He had neater writing than I had imagined him to have.

And really, I can see why this would be the only shop that The Boy Who Lived would frequent. Brooms of all types, of all sizes, and even for all purposes, covered the walls, shelves, and even baskets (for the smaller brushes, of course). The effect really, dare I say, swept me away.

You saw that one coming, right?

 

 

 

In the back, you could see brooms in the progress of being made, which was neat all on its own, and a sign over a closet *teehee*.

‘Twas only after an engrossing fifteen minutes that we finally emerged from the shop, ready to brush away thoughts of any merchandise to head into the Public Market. (Could ya handle that last pun? Okay, I’ll stop.)

Inside the Public Market, we were confronted by mountains of goodies. I really do mean mountains. Loads and loads of scrumptious things to look at and contemplate buying and then look at some more. Here’s one mountain (out of several similar ones):

Seriously though, editing all those photos just now made me so hungry I had to stop and grab a snack to eat before I continued to blog.

That’s how good the food looks, no joke. If it weren’t for the premium pricing I’d be as happy as a chubby bunny and my wallet would be gone. Fortunately the quality prices (and I say these words because I do actually think the homemade stuff is worth the price most of the time, but it is a little more expensive than your regular grocery store) present enough of a mental barrier to my poor (or fortunate) tummy.

Let’s start with the appetizers. There are piles of different cheeses (check out that green hunk), a shop dedicated to sausages and preserved meats alone, tureens of olives, and plenty of snack/savoury breads to stimulate your hunger.

 

Next up are the main courses. Of course, main courses could consist of a lot of things: pies, stews, casseroles, bagels, and even fresh-made pasta. Oh guah.

And regardless of how much you eat, you’ve always got to save room for desserts.

Fun fact: If I don’t eat something sweet to end a meal, I can increase my eating capacity to probably 50% more than what I normally eat, simply because I’m not getting an end-of-meal signal from the sweetness that is found in dessert.

Fun fact 2: If I want to eat less at a meal I just eat dessert earlier and my mind tells me I’m full even if I haven’t eaten as much as I usually do.

Fun fact 3: I always have room for dessert. Always.

Enough talk! Time for desserts! The desserts in Granville’s Public Market are probably my favourite things to look at. The fruit tarts, the cream confections, the pies, and all the rest of those baked goods just … mmmgrumpshmack! No words exist to describe the gloriousness of dessert, especially fresh fruit tarts.

And of course, who can forget the chocolates. Oh, the chocolates.

So detailed and gorgeous and yummy-looking! And chocolate mobile phones for the person in your life who needs encouraging to put down his/her phone to eat some chocolate.

I sure hope you don’t know anyone like that. This is chocolate we’re talking about, for crying out loud.

Man…

I’m hungry again and it’s almost time to go to bed. I guess this means I’ll save the actual eating for the next post.

Happy drooling!