Day 1: Olympic National Park
I'm not a huge nature buff but I thought it would be criminal to not pay a visit to this UNESCO World Heritage site. The view was breathtaking and the park was filled with some of the most nonchalant deer I have ever seen in my life (seriously, they were just chilling and staring at me).
After about twenty minutes of looking at this, I got tired of it and headed to Port Angeles, the small town in which Olympic National Park is located. We headed to a top-rated-by-Yelp place called Next Door Gastropub. In a small town as this one, I wasn't expecting much - I was certainly not expecting to have one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life.
I ordered the Mrs. Newton, which had thick cut bacon, brie, fig jam, arugula and stout mustard. This burger was so phenomenal that I don't even know where to begin.
The saltiness and fattiness of the thick strips of bacon, the pungent brie, the pleasantly sweet fig jam, the bitter notes and freshness of the arugula, and the complex aroma of the stout mustard resulted in a party in my mouth. I felt as if this burger was made specifically for me by God. It was a culinary embodiment of everything I love: fatty meat, soft cheese, a delightful balance of sweet and savory. I can't say enough good things about this place. If you are in the area, I implore you to check out Next Door Gastropub.
Day 2: Seattle, WA
Day 2 is when we decided to venture out into the city. Naturally I headed toward the iconic Pike Place Market, where I proceeded to wait for an hour to eat at Pike Place Chowder. It was worth it.
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| New England clam chowder, seafood bisque, smoked salmon chowder, seared scallop chowder, and Dungeness crab roll. |
As a bagel & lox fanatic, I was expecting to lean toward the smoked salmon chowder. Surprisingly, my favorite out of the four was actually the plain old New England clam chowder. I do not know what they put in it - I suspect it is crack cocaine because it blew my mind. This clam chowder changed my life. I will never look at clam chowder the same way again because of Pike Place Chowder. They ship anywhere in the continental US so I may order some when I get a hankering for it.
If you go, do yourself a favor and don't order the Dungeness crab roll. It was not very good, and downright depressing in comparison to the clam chowder of my dreams. Stick to what they're known for.
We then stood in line for 20 minutes to grab dessert at Piroshky Piroshky. The line into this pastry shop was muddled by a second line waiting to enter the first Starbucks ever. I honestly couldn't see what was so special about it other than the fact that the Starbucks logo had its breasts hanging out and two mermaid tails.
Naked mermaids notwithstanding, the piroshky was pretty good but not worth 20 minutes of my time. I've had better apple turnovers at any old bakery in Pilsen.
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| But it was huge |
Vancouver is a beautiful city full of my people - downtown Vancouver was essentially Koreatown with its Korean restaurants and two-floor Korean department store selling everything from groceries to cosmetics.
We stopped by Japadog, which is a chain all over Vancouver that sells Japanese-inspired hot dogs. I ordered the donkatsu dog with the shichimi & garlic fries. It was decent.
We had a late dinner at Tasty Indian Bistro in Surrey, BC. The restaurant was surprisingly swanky and the food was amazing. I certainly wasn't expecting to have my best meal in Vancouver outside of Vancouver, but there you have it. I ordered the mango chicken curry and it was very sweet and mango-ey.
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| I was also not expecting six samosas |
Day 4: Seattle, WA (again)
This was our last day so we didn't have much time in the city but I really wanted to try this outrageously famous sandwich place called Paseo. It was one of those dilapidated shacks with no seating space or any signs outside because they didn't need any of that fancy stuff; people were lining out the door around lunchtime regardless.
I ordered the Caribbean roast. It was very good, but I couldn't understand why it gathered the thousands of positive reviews on Yelp that it did. Perhaps I only felt that way because my experience was marred by these two extremely inconsiderate women who sat at a table for 45 minutes taking slow dainty bites and chatting away as if they were at a relaxing cafe instead of a tiny shack filled to capacity. Perhaps these two women will live the rest of their lives completely unaware of how annoying they are and continue to ruin other people's lives by eating very slowly and telling each other their life stories in places where they really shouldn't be. We will never know. All I know is that I will never forget those two women for as long as I live.
Anyway...I had such a great time in Seattle and Vancouver. I hope to return some day and visit Pike Place Chowder again.
Restaurants mentioned:
Next Door Gastropub
113 W 1st St,
Port Angeles, WA 98362
(360) 504-2613
Pike Place Chowder
Pike Place Market
1530 Post Alley
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 267-2537
Piroshky Piroshky
Pike Place Market
1908 Pike Pl
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 441-6068
JAPADOG
530 Robson St
Vancouver, BC V6B 2B7
Canada
(604) 569-1158
Tasty Indian Bistro
8295 120th StreetDelta, BC V4C 6R1
Canada
(604) 507-9393
Paseo
4225 Fremont Ave NSeattle, WA 98103
(206) 545-7440
Places I wanted to go but could not due to time constraints/the finite nature of the human stomach:
Cham Garden Korean BBQ
10518 S Tacoma WayLakewood, WA 98499
(253) 584-2287
Serious Pie
316 Virginia St
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 838-7388
seriouspieseattle.com
Medina
780 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 3A4
Canada
(604) 879-3114
medinacafe.com
Go there for me!
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