Thriving Asian suburb offers an exotic escape

I am standing before a menu board listing more than 50 types of tea and desserts, but some of them, to my mind, look a bit scary: rei-pei with white jelly fungus, lotus seed with red bean in coconut milk, chrysanthemum tea with pearl.

No sign of my usual safe choice -- Earl Grey with a splash of milk. But I won't fully experience the vibrant Asian community of Richmond, B.C., a Vancouver suburb, if I am not a bit adventurous.

I order five-flower tea with shredded herbal jelly -- purported to clear toxins, balance my chi and give me energy. My bravery is rewarded. It is cool and tall, slightly sweet and definitely refreshing. The shredded herbal jelly -- slices of gelatin flavored with black tea and chamomile -- floats like soft slivers in the brew. You can chew and sip at the same time. Weird, but good.

For those with a desire for an exotic Asian escape without leaving North America, Richmond's Golden Village is the place to go. It's on Lulu Island, just 20 minutes south of downtown Vancouver or 20 minutes north of the U.S. border.

A fertile flat delta at the mouth of the Fraser River, the island's core is now a shimmering city of Asian-inflected glass and concrete that feels a world away. In fact, it has far more in common with modern Hong Kong or Singapore than it does to even the quaint and historic Chinatown that has existed for more than 100 years in Vancouver's Downtown East Side.

Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Asian immigrants -- from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and elsewhere -- have flocked to British Columbia, many of them settling in and around the city of Richmond.

Why Richmond? Says Alan To, the Asian community liaison for Tourism Richmond: "We like the name 'Rich Man' and we like that it is flat. Mountains too close block chi."

Today almost half of Richmond's 170,000 residents hail from the Far East, making it the second-largest Asian community in North America. With them has come an invigorating commercial and social culture that has changed the face of this formerly sleepy, semirural suburb.

Now, popular Asian chain stores, goods, food and culture can be easily found, particularly in a 5-square-mile section known as Golden Village. It is all there: tea shops, feng-shui experts, hair salons, Chinese medicine specialists, bookstores, art and antiquities, jewelry, cameras and electronic shops, fashion and lingerie, furnishings, restaurants and huge Asian grocery stores.

I'm not an avid urbanite or shopper -- my idea of a good time is usually an afternoon hike -- but I love exotic experiences and getting away from the routine of daily life. The Golden Village, with its malls and expensive cars and airplanes descending overhead on a flight path into nearby Vancouver International Airport, is about as urban an experience as they come.

And yet my recent daylong foray there was a fascinating and stimulating getaway. I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that I was still on B.C. soil. The sights, the aromas, the sounds -- and the fact that many of the shops and cultural sites have no English signs nor English-speaking staff -- was an instant immersion into the hustle and bustle of modern Asian life.

I started at the Yaohan Centre, on No. 3 Road. Inside are dozens of stores, but one of the highlights is Osaka, a huge Japanese grocery store. I lived in Japan for six months as a 10-year-old and a single whiff of Osaka's spicy scent of sandalwood mingled with seafood brought back a flood of long-lost memories of my time in Tokyo.

Christopher Grabowski / Special to the P-I

A Japanese bookstore on the upper level of the Yaohan Centre claims to be the largest of its kind in North America.

The bustling Osaka staff is dressed in crisp red-and-white uniforms, the women sporting jaunty red gingham kerchiefs on their heads. It is a treat just to stroll the aisles. The seafood section alone is overwhelming: mounds of shrimp, mussels, clams, sea urchin, and species of fish I have never seen. There is even abalone -- at $44 (U.S.) a pound.

I was seduced, however, by the gorgeous and cheap Japanese housewares -- beautiful bowls, sushi plates, tea services and utensils with simple and elegant Japanese lines.

Needless to say, the potential for tasty experiences is what draws many visitors, of all ethnicities, to Richmond. One of the best places for incredibly cheap, fresh and plentiful food is the Asian food court in the Yaohan Centre, featuring a dozen different Asian food vendors unlike any in a mall in North America.

For just $3.55 (U.S.) -- and cheaper in the hour before closing -- you can select three different dishes on rice. Some have signs only in Chinese, but the food is attractively displayed on steam tables. Just point and they will pile it on a plate.

Across the parking lot from Yaohan Centre is President Plaza, which includes another large exotic grocery store, dozens more Asian shops and an Asian-influenced version of the Radisson Hotel. This is the only North American hotel I know with a Buddhist temple integrated into its sixth floor.

The International Buddhist Progress Society is a Fo Guang Shan temple that is home to Buddhist nuns. Everyone is welcome at its peaceful setting, with prayer hall, library, vegetarian cafe and garden. Through its Buddhist Light Cultural and Art College, it holds regular courses in calligraphy, knots, tea ceremony, floral arranging, yoga and other Asian arts.

A block away is Aberdeen Centre, whose renovation was just being completed when I visited. It boasts one of the largest collections of Asian stores and entertainment, but I went instead to nearby Parker Place, another top Asian mall.

There at the Pearl Castle I had my first taste of tea with shredded herbal jelly. The cafe is also a popular spot for bubble tea or "pearls," in which large tapioca-like balls floating in a sweet-flavored tea are sucked up through an extra-large straw. Bubble tea is growing so popular that it is now found in many mainstream teashops and cafes.

As a writer enthralled with language, at all the malls I got a kick out of simply strolling and reading the English names of stores and services: Danger Figure Spa, Melody Shake Karaoke, Cherry Fruit and Icy Bar, Happy Veggie World.

Christopher Grabowski / Special to the P-I

In the Osaka Supermarket, enjoy a freshly made fish-shaped wafter or wander the aisles exploring the enormous variety of seafood and Asian products.

My Heart Lingerie in Parker Place had lacy, racy confections at a fraction of the price of Victoria's Secret. The Hong Kong sizing, however, is tough on North America women's egos. I'm a rather petite size 6, but the clerk looked at me and said: "In Hong Kong, you extra-large." Nevertheless, at just $11.20 for well-made bra sets, I bought three.

After a few hours of the hurly-burly of Golden Village's commercial focus, however, it all became a bit overwhelming. Time for the quiet, beautiful and serene International Buddhist Temple on Steveston Highway, whose traditional-style grounds and devotional buildings look as if they have been transplanted from Beijing's Forbidden City.

With its soothing fountains and ponds, bonsai gardens, dozens of huge golden sculptures of Buddha and various bodhisattvas, and stunning halls -- including the main Gracious Hall, the Thousand Buddha Hall and the Meditation Hall -- it was a refreshing oasis of spirituality and calm.

I spent more than an hour in peaceful contemplation, wandering the grounds, smelling the incense, admiring the remarkable architecture and landscaping, watching the monks glide by in their saffron robes as they carried big white plastic pails to collect offerings of oranges and apples for the Buddhas.

As I drove away, I passed the market gardens and Asian farms on the Richmond delta with immigrant workers toiling in the rich black earth. It was a historic reminder of the generations of immigrants from the Far East who have been drawn to Richmond's flat fertile soil to grow new roots and bloom on Canadian ground.

IF YOU GO

* The Golden Village -- The heart of commercial Asian Richmond on Lulu Island is bound by No. 3 Road, Garden City Road, Sea Island Way and Alderbridge Way. It is just over the Oak Street Bridge from Vancouver or the Sea Island Bridge from the International Airport. If you are coming north from the border, take either the Steveston Highway exit or Alderbridge Way exit, going left (West) until No. 3 Road, then turn right.

* Malls and stores -- The Asian stores in Richmond have hours different than most Canadian stores, opening late (at 11 a.m.) and staying open longer (7:30 p.m. Sunday-Tuesday, and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Yaohan Centre: 3700 No. 3 Road; President Plaza: 8181 Cambie Road; Aberdeen Centre: 4151 Hazel Bridge Way; Parker Place: 4380 No. 3 Road.

* International Buddhist Temple -- 9160 Steveston Highway, between No. 3 and No. 4 roads. Free admission, open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Special events and celebrations occur throughout the year, including a thrilling Chinese New Year celebration, lasting until midnight each year. More information: www.buddhisttemple.org.

* Summertime Night Market -- Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in July, August and September, a vacant lot in Richmond turns into a makeshift Asian festival of food, products, sights and sounds. Under tent marques, vendors hawk everything from silk pajamas to auto accessories and kitchen mops. Three generations of mostly Asian Canadian families, even toddlers in strollers, amble by eating barbequed corn on the cob, skewers of barbequed meat, dim sum and other Asian delights, enjoying the carnival atmosphere. This year, the Night Market is scheduled to run each weekend 7:30 p.m.-midnight, weather permitting on a lot on Bridgeport Road near No. 5 Road. More information: www.targetevent.com.

* A second -- and third -- opinion: Seattle P-I food writer Hsiao-Ching Chou and restaurant critic Penelope Corcoran have written in great detail about the city's Asian food, which they rate the best in the Northwest. See their Nov. 12, 2003, articles in the P-I's online archive.

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