Grillled sardines and Chinatown night market

Yesterday, Vancouver held it's annual 'Car Free Day'. Located at various main thoroughfares throughout the city, it helps to promote community within each neighbourhood and closes off the streets to traffic. Live music, street entertainers and clothing and jewellery stalls pop up everywhere to create a lively, colourful event. The absolute highlight for me, however, are the grilled Portuguese sardines for sale at the main street; Commercial Drive. Even the 10km trip on public transport doesn't faze me, I can see the smoke billowing into the air from blocks away. 

Tasty sardines for lunch

Having caught my attention in a supermarket, these 3 small sardines were only $2.08! They were frozen, no problem and whole, a bit of a problem. Being somewhat of an expert now at gutting fish, (in my head), I decided to tackle them for lunch today. The gutting was inevitably messy but miles easier than a whole Sockeye salmon, I'd even go so far as to say their guts seemed 'cute' compared to those large monsters! Even though the guts came out fairly easily, the sheer amount of bones left in were enough for me to know that eating them would be a case of constantly picking them out of my mouth. I was right. They were pretty tasty though. They have a meaty, oily texture that really does taste like the sea, salty and fresh and the Prosciutto adds an extra salty, sweet dimension.