In July of 2012, I moved to Pemberton. I followed my heart from Vancouver to the magical town of Pemberton where my then-boyfriend (now-husband) lived. I fell in love with the town. How could you not? The only problem that I had when I moved to town was that I had no friends. I did meet a few people through Shayne but I quickly developed three new friendships: Amy, Pauline, and May.
I love Chinese food. One of the first places that Shayne took me in Pemberton was to Centennial Café and I had such a great experience. I also fell in love with the Centennial experience and the ladies there got to know me and my “regular order.”
Whenever I would go in to get takeout I felt immediately welcomed with open arms. Because I like to eat my feelings, when I was feeling sad I would order Chinese food. I mostly did this because I knew that when I went to pick it up I would be greeted with smiles and compliments from my three new friends.
A lot of us had our favourite things to order and I was a huge fan of the deep fried spicy tofu, ginger beef on chow main and spring rolls. In my opinion, those spring rolls were to die for. Sometimes I would go there just for an order of spring rolls. They were so good that there was a 100% chance that I would burn my mouth when eating them because I didn’t have the patience to let them cool down upon arriving at my table.
After being a regular for a few years I graduated to being greeted with a hug. It’s like I was ordering spring rolls with a side of hugs and I loved it.
I’m bummed out that they closed down. Aren’t you? I get it. It was time to retire/move on. The owners worked really hard and deserve to retire and I’m excited for them.
I went for two last meals there (the last-last one was for three spring rolls). After moving here, I would always joke that I had five friends in town and Amy, May and Pauline were three of them. Those ladies, those memories, and those spring rolls will always be a part of my Pemberton story.
Traced Elements 