For half of August I was in Vancouver and Alaska (7 day cruise). Naturally I ate a lot of food on the trip. So here's my Top 10 dishes of the trip! Not ranked in order.
Vancouver is a food mecca. It's a great place for Asian food because the Asian population is very large. We literally ate Asian food every day there... haha. Had to get my fill.
Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) - Dinesty Dumpling House
1719 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC V6G 1C8
This place was recommended by my cousin that lives in Vancouver. We just happened to be in the area so decided to go. I love XLB but Dallas doesn't really have great ones. There are a couple places that people swear by in Dallas, but I don't think they're that good. Gasp! Haha. I grew up in Taiwan so I know what good XLB tastes like. Dinesty wasn't the best, but it was pretty dang good. The restaurant was really hot though, and service was subpar. Oh well. At least we enjoyed the meal.
Brown Sugar Pearl Milk - Xing Fu Tang
2675 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5R5H4
We had bubble tea every day. I've always stayed away from the brown sugar (or tiger) boba because they just sound too sweet. However, this place was highly recommended by my cousin. We realized there was a new location like 15 min walk from our Airbnb so we went. They have a display of how they cook the boba in a wok... pretty freaking cool and looked yummy. Usually I just have a few sips from my husband's drink but this time I got my own because I wanted less sweet. I'm so glad I did. It was amazing. The tapioca pearls (boba) had the perfect texture and were infused with the brown sugar. It was sweeter than I'd normally take my drinks but it was so delicious I didn't care. Would 100% get it again. Please come to Dallas!
Pork Chop Rice and Beef Rolls - Typhoon BBT
175-11700 Cambie Road, Richmond, BC V6X 1L5
We found this place just yelping what is close to our airport hotel the night before we flew out. We didn't have a car so it had to be walkable. Came across this little shopping center that had several food options. Decided on this one because yelp said they had giant bubble teas. Plus we haven't really had much Taiwanese food on this trip (it was mostly Cantonese), and a pork chop rice sounded pretty good. We weren't very hungry so got 1 dish and 1 app to share. I really wish I had more stomach room because we both agreed that this was the best meal we had in Vancouver. Haha. It was by far the cheapest too. It doesn't take much to satisfy us. The dishes brought back memories. Pork chop rice is one of my favorite dishes of all time.
Holland America Volendam:
Cruises are all about eating... And in 7 days, we consumed A LOT of food. The Dining Room definitely had better food than anywhere else on the ship. We had dinner there every night.
Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding - Ledo Market (buffet). This was at the lunch buffet the first day and I never saw it again. Bummer. It was definitely the best version of bread pudding they put out that week.
Beef Short Rib Stroganoff - The Dining Room dinner. Pasta was cooked al dente. The short rib was fork tender. Yum!
Banana Bread French Toast - The Dining Room breakfast. This was my husband's favorite. We dined at the dining room for breakfast a few times so he can get this.
Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake - The Dining Room lunch. They do their chocolate desserts well. Rich ganache, decadent, sinful. I'd say most of their chocolate desserts were pretty delicious.
Pork Chop with Parsnip Puree - The Dining Room dinner. This was a featured special one night. So glad we got it. One of the best dishes on the entire cruise. The pork chop was cooked perfectly which is not easy to do.
Pacific Cod Fish & Chips - Alava's Fish-n-Chowder - Ketchikan.
420 Water St., Ketchikan, AK 99901
I have to say I was quite disappointed with the food in Alaska when we docked. But finally in Ketchikan, we went to this little shack for some fish and chips. Too bad they were out of Clam Chowder. Just a tip... if you want clam chowder when the ship docks, get it early... apparently it sells out fast. Alava's was the 3rd location we went and they were out too. However, we decided to stay for the fish and chips and it was awesome. The best I've ever had. Even the fries were perfect. Everything was perfectly crispy on the outside and tender and flaky on the inside. Highly recommend!
Wiener Style Schnitzel - The Dining Room dinner. I liked that the dining room offered different types of specials every night. I very much enjoyed this dish. I think it was the last dinner of the cruise.
Overall it was a pretty good food trip. We certainly did not go hungry. Although... the one night where everyone wanted food on the ship around 9PM, everything was closed/in transition. We had docked earlier that day so it would make sense to have the buffet open when everyone returned to the ship, but the late night buffet didn't open until 10:30PM. Kinda weird.
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Sorry for the delay but here's my July pick!
My boss wanted to take the new team out for a team lunch and we decided to go to Cattleack BBQ. I've been wanting to go there but always heard there's a long line. Luckily it's like 5 minutes from our office.
They're only open for dine-in on Thurs-Sat, I think. And lunch only. I think we arrived a little past 11AM and ended up waiting over 75 minutes. Damn. The line didn't seem long at first, but once you get inside, the line wraps all around the place... it's deceiving. Was totally STARVING by the time we ordered. I may have gone a little overboard. Haha. And sorry for the lack of pictures. We were too hungry.
Cattleack Barbeque
13628 Gamma Rd.
Farmers Branch, TX 75244
cattleackbbq.com
(972) 805-0999
Price: $$$
Brisket (moist or lean) $18.99/lb~ For the meats I got a pound of Brisket, moist of course! Gotta get the good fatty meats. The half pound seemed too little, but once he piled the whole pound on the tray, I was like "whoa". Haha. The brisket was amazing. So freaking moist and tender. I'd highly recommend this.
Pork Ribs $15.99/lb~ I also got half pound of this. Also very tender but the brisket stole the show. As far as ribs went, these were great.
Sausages $5.50 per link~
Original, Hatch Chile & Cheese, Spicy Texan, Triple "B"
I never order sausage. I usually just want one bite. The ones I tried were pretty good. They always tend to be a little too salty for me.
We got the sides to share. A few pints of each.
Burnt Ends Beans. Pretty good! Beans aren't my thing though.
Cole Slaw and Potato Salad. LOVED the potato salad. The slaw was great too. I would get these two again.
We ate so quickly... and the meat sweats hit before we got back to the office. Hahaha. I'm not sure if I'd stand in line for this again, I don't like to wait for food... but it's legit good. Next time you have a party, you can pre-order so you don't have to wait. 20 lbs minimum per pre-order though. Enjoy! Hehe.
