We made it to CANADA! 🇨🇦 (Crossing the border + Asian FOOD at an Asian Mall in Richmond)

Where are we going today? Going to Canada! Yes! Back when we lived in Seattle we would go to Canada pretty often but between moving into the van and COVID we haven't been to Canada or even out of the United States in three years and we cannot wait to be back. We're crossing the border at Blaine, Washington and the border is just right over there behind me and this park has a really neat feature called the Peace Arch. The arch was constructed to honor the centennial of the treaties from the result of the war of 1812. These treaties were between the U.S. and Britain that would allow a peaceful undefended border between the U.S. and Canada. And what's really cool about this park is that the southern half is in the United States and the northern half is in British Columbia, Canada and I am standing in two countries right now at the same time. Hello from Canada! Hello from the U.S. All right enough goofing off let's go officially cross that border. Real quickly before we get in line to cross the border we wanted to share what the process is especially right now and what you need. Most importantly you need a passport to cross the border and we also have nexus cards which is basically like a TSA pre-check for the border which allows us to get into a special faster lane. We're filming this video in May 2022 and the current process with COVID protocols is that if you're vaccinated you only need your vaccination card to cross the border and if you're not vaccinated you need a negative COVID test within 72 hours of crossing. And regardless of your vaccination status everyone must fill out the arrive can app within 72 hours of crossing the border which basically just makes you list your port of entry, the date, and the time. One thing we'll have to worry about as we get further north and closer to Alaska are bears. There's a bunch of things you can and can't bring into Canada we don't know them all but one thing that causes a lot of confusion is bear spray. We do know that you can't bring pepper spray into Canada but you can bring bear spray because it's an animal deterrent. We have a couple of these and we're leaving them up front in case they want to check them out. We hope they give them the okay because they are not cheap. We also shared a few rules about crossing the border with a dog in our last video including rabies as well as food packaging so go check that out. But with that said are you ready to go to Canada? Heck yeah let's go! I don't know why but every time we cross the border I just get so nervous they're kind of intimidating and we haven't done anything wrong but I don't know I just feel so nervous. I don't know why I'm nervous my heart is racing though. Hello we are going to Alaska. We're in Canada! That was honestly one of the easiest border crossings we've ever had. She asked us a few questions I think we felt really awkward answering them. She didn't really want to know much about our plans. I don't know if Nexus made it easier but oh we are in Canada. I have been looking forward to this day for so long. I cannot believe like this is when like it feels like the journey to Alaska is really ramping up because we are out of the lower 48 and we are not coming back down here for four months. A couple problems we're having right now just minutes into Canada is our phones they haven't switched over to the Canadian cell service yet. We have international service so that's something we're trying to figure out. They should switch over hopefully any minute now and then also most cars I've ever driven the speedometer has kilometers per hour. This van does not so we're gonna just have to google it for a little bit so that we get the conversion in our head and then just a minute later we have both problems solved. Catherine's phone is on TELUS now which is one of the Canadian cell services and then I just as I was finishing that last thought remembered like oh there's like an electric or Catherine reminded me it's electronic so we can maybe switch the units on here so I'll go into the menu switch it over kilometers Bob's your uncle. We have filmed a handful of videos in Vancouver on previous trips which we'll link to below so today we're just gonna have a chill day in the area since the last couple weeks have been completely exhausting and the next few weeks until we get to Alaska are also going to be pretty insane and since Vancouver has a very large Asian population we're going to an Asian mall to eat some Asian food. The Vancouver area is said to be the most Asian city outside of Asia and we're in Richmond which also has a large Asian influence with over 50 percent of its residents claiming Chinese heritage. We have experienced some of the Asian influence here in Richmond before at the Richmond night market years ago which is actually the largest night market in North America but today we came to Yao Han Center which has shops a popular Chinese supermarket and a food court which we thought would be a great way to try a handful of things easily. This place is amazing almost all of the signage is in what we think is Chinese and it really feels like we've been transported to another country. First up we're going to check out Osaka market to hopefully find some goodies to take with us on the road. There are so many unique and cool and tasty looking things in here. That was one of the coolest experiences that we've had in a very very long time. Everyone was speaking a different language there were so many delicious looking foods and so many things that we had never seen before. It really felt like we were in Asia and we want to go to Asia so badly so this is as close as we could get for now and it just made us so happy and we had the hardest time deciding what to get in there because everything looked different and fun and unique but we googled what are some of the top Chinese snacks and one of the things that came up is this white rabbit candy. This is a milk candy and it's said to be very very delicious. Then we also got this tau kai noi which is a seaweed snack it's kind of like a seaweed chip. We got sour cream and onion. I think I've had seaweed snacks before but it's been a very long time so I don't really remember but these look good. Oh wow it's really big. Crispy crunchy like we said we got sour cream and onion flavor so you get a little bit of that but you also taste that seaweed flavor kind of like after you crunch on it it kind of melts in your mouth a little bit. It's super flimsy and just crackery. Oh it's so thin. It kind of tastes like a kale chip to me. We used to make kale chips a lot back in the day. It kind of has that more earthy flavor then you get the spices of the sour cream and onion. Yeah it's actually really good. Oh it's hard. Milky. Yeah it just kind of tastes like a milky sucker. I don't know. So the outside of it is covered in rice paper which you can eat. God it's really hard. It's kind of like a harder version of a tootsie roll with like a slightly less sweet vanilla ice cream flavor. It's softer as you chew it or like kind of mess with it. That's good. So these white rabbit candies they taste like I don't know if you've ever seen those little candies that it's like caramel on the outside and in the middle there's a like a milky creamy center. That's what this tastes like. My mom would have those all the time. Bringing back old memories again. All right now for something with a little bit more substance. There's quite a few vendors here and we hear one of the best one is Ajiya noodles so that's where we came to try a couple different dishes. First up we got their special Chongqing noodle which is a spicy noodle dish that originated from the Chongqing municipality in southwestern China. As you can see it is a giant bowl of noodles and there is a spicy broth base here and you can choose your spice level and we got a little spicy because we hear it can get really hot. And then the toppings here there's cilantro there's some red beans these are Sichuan peppercorns and then you get your choice of meat and we got braised pork ribs. Oh yeah. Yeah buddy. Looks hot. That was all noodle but hold on. Little spicy is still spicy. Whoa man that has tons of flavor in there. I can't even describe it though it's got a really deep flavor. I don't even know where to start on that. It's spicy savory. So I don't know how to use chopsticks so to not embarrass myself for the world to see I'm just gonna do some of the broth. Oh yeah. That is so flavorful. Has a good kick to it. Feel it in your throat. Yeah I'm struggling just like Adam but it's just loaded with flavor. I absolutely love it. It is incredible. The perfect thing for kind of a cold rainy day. The meat's really good and tender. These red beans on top give it a nice little crunch. Oh my goodness. I don't know it's just like kind of reminds me of when you go and get pho and get like a really spicy broth. It's just like that. It's just a spiced broth with tons of flavor. We also got their clay pot rice and this is a popular dish in Hong Kong. They actually cook the rice in this clay pot here so it gets nice and crispy on the bottom. And we asked what's their more popular order of this because you can get a variety of meats on this one as well. And so we got pork chops and some chicken here and looks like there's jalapeno. And they gave this broth on the side as well. I'm not sure. I guess kind of add it in there maybe loosen it up a little bit. Yeah this is a really crispy on the bottom. I'll spin it around. Oh whoa. Yeah it's like so good. Yeah. That is super tasty and savory on the bottom there. As you can see all that the rice has got a little bit of crunch to it. This is just very comforting. It's so hot and not spicy. It's just temperature hot. The meat just has a nice simple soy sauce glaze to it. It's definitely not as spicy or as flavorful as the soup is but it's just so comforting. The meat and rice together. One thing to know though is that the pork has bones in it so you have to be a little careful when you're eating it. They do have other meat options as well. For our final stop at Yao Han Center we went to a place called A Whole Mango which has bubble tea as well as mango treats and this is the mango lover which has mango, coconut milk, pomelo bits, and sago which is made from the pits of sago palm trees. And as the name implies they apparently do put a whole mango in their drinks. That tastes like a whole mango. That is so refreshing. Just the fresh fruit taste. They don't put any like bad ingredients in it. It's very very like natural. Yeah that is super fruity. A little creamy and then the like the sago balls in here very just give it a little texture to it. Yeah that's very refreshing. Not overly sweet though. We have been dying to experience other cultures and one of our favorite ways to do so is through food so we cannot express how much we loved coming here. It just felt very authentic and it was mega delicious. Vancouver is one of our favorite cities in North America. It is so exciting to be back in the city especially for the first time in our van brisket. We wish we could have done more while we were here but we are just hitting a wall. We're getting so tired so we're gonna head to our campsite. Tonight we're camping at Porto Cove Provincial Park which is located north of Vancouver along the Sea to Sky Highway which if you cannot tell is a gorgeous area and we'll show you more of the campground in a couple weeks when we're back here and we have a more scenic campsite. Tonight's campsite's kind of tucked in the trees but we just needed something convenient because tomorrow we are ferrying to Vancouver Island for the next two weeks. How many white rabbits have you crushed? At least 10 by now. It's so good. They're addicting. Are you a Canada dog? Did you get your passport stamped? Oh Canada land of maple leaves. Those are the right lyrics right?