A look back at our vacation to Washington and Vancouver in September 2010. This was my first time visiting Washington and Vancouver and it was great to deviate from me and my girlfriend’s routine of traveling between SF, LA and Vegas. However, I did learn something a couple hours after getting off the plane in Seattle.. Do not attempt to see a Seahawks NFL game, drink 3 large beers and eat garlic fries right after flying the red-eye from Hawaii. I ended up falling asleep during the 2nd half of the game while the 12th man was going wild in the stadium since it was the Seahawk’s season opener. At least I can say I’ve been to an NFL game and got to experience the whole thing. Besides the tiring first day, Seattle was awesome, so much good eats and temperatures comparable to a nice SF morning. We lucked out because we didn’t see a drop of rain until the final day of our trip where it poured in Bellevue. The trip was packed with tons of stuff on our itinerary thanks to all my coworkers; it’s amazing how many of them either went to school or lived in Washington. While in Seattle, I realized quickly that doing any tourist type activities ended up being ridiculously expensive.. I gave up one of my arms to go up the Space Needle, only to get charged more up top for expensive drinks at the cafe.

This is the second time I’ve been out of the country (first time was Japan) and I must say, Vancouver was beautiful. It was amazing seeing the transition of cleanliness while driving into Vancouver and just walking around on the streets you can tell how effective the recycling program is up there. It was also very cozy seeing so many different people of different ethnic backgrounds roaming the streets. It made me feel like I was in a cleaner Hawaii, but with a more urban feel to it. Vancouver joins Japan and San Francisco as one of my top 3 favorites places to be. I can’t wait to go back…

Instead of writing paragraphs and paragraphs of all the amazing things we ate, I’ll just make a list instead:
Seattle
-CRAB POT: aside from Crustacean in San Francisco, Crab Pot was the best seafood and eating experience I’ve ever had. We had “The Alaskan” which was Crab Pot’s largest seafood serving for 2, with tons of various types of crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, corn on the cob, and potatoes. All you need is a bib, a wooden hammer and a table full of seafood spread out with a cold pint of beer to wash it down. AMAZING.
-Cedars Restaurant: in U-District near UW. I was told they have amazing indian curry and my friends were right. We ended up eating humus with pita bread and spicy beef curry. It was a nice way to warm up on a chilly morning.

Vancouver
-Japadog: Japan inspired gourmet hot dogs at stands spanning across downtown Vancouver. We ate the “okonomi dog” and the “kurobuta dog” and they were awesome. There were all types of sauces to add to the dogs; I chose the wasabi mayo every time since it was so delicious with its zest and sweetness. I said “every time” because we actually ate there twice out of the 3 days we were there, it was that good.
–Shuraku: in downtown Vancouver across the street from the theatre. It was funny how we ended up randomly choosing this place while on our way out of an Urban Outfitters nearby. The signs outside the restaurant lured us in and I’m glad we tried this place. The food was great, it was a little more upscale that Shokudo in Hawaii and the food servings were good sizes for the price. My favorite was the sukiyaki and the sushi rolls that we ordered, their sashimi was also very fresh. The atmosphere was very classy and relaxing and the service was great.
-Mink Chocolates: we ended up going there since Malia heard about them before. We bought a bunch of different specialty chocolates and also tried their rich hot chocolate. We lucked out since the lady messed up our order; we ended up getting a free large hot chocolate. I must say, fresh hot chocolate really puts the Nesquik instant crap to shame.

Bellevue
-Daniels Broiler: the filet minion was very good there, similar to Morton’s preparation style. What blew my mind was their French Onion Soup. I haven’t had a “real” French Onion Soup before, but I’m praying that this is close to authentic, because it was amazing. Thinking of the rich, dark caramelized onion broth covered in a thick layer of freshly melted cheese makes my mouth water…
-Pagliacci Pizza: a pizza chain in Washington similar to Boston’s in Hawaii, but the pizza is prepared differently with thicker crust. We stuck to the plain pepperoni personal pan since we had eaten earlier that day, the pizza was prepared perfectly. Although simple, it was everything I look for in a pizza. I wish I tried more, but we were just too full..
-Chantanee Thai Restaurant: Now this was real Thai food; not the fake Keo’s crap in Waikiki. We ended up over-ordering on food because we didn’t realize how massive the servings were. We got the crab wontons, garlic padthai, and crispy basil garlic chicken. The garlic chicken was to die for.. Although it was covered in garlic pieces, they somehow brought out the sweetness in the garlic and got rid of its overpowering features that I’m normally accustomed to. It was hard to stop eating..
-IKEA: sad how I’m putting this on my good eats list, but IKEA’s super-cheap Swedish Meatballs did not disappoint.. After getting lost in the maze of the store, we found our way to the food court. I kind of wish we had an IKEA in Hawaii just for their meatballs. It was a great deal for the amount you get.