AUGUST: Best of Vancouver & Alaska Cruise

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 ~~

Vietnam Part I: Binh Duong: a Wedding, and Ho Chi Minh City

I went to Vietnam for the first time even in August to attend my bff's wedding. A group of us went so we decided to make a trip out of it. I'm splitting my post up in two otherwise there would be too much to scroll through!!

Part I will be Binh Duong (where the wedding was), and Ho Chi Minh City (we stayed there for 3 nights, then back for 1 night before heading home). Part II is our 5 nights in Hanoi. Forgive me when I try to write out the food names. I really have no clue with the language. haha. And I've tried to include prices so you can see how cheap the food generally is in Vietnam. Most of our meals were $3 or less a person I think. The exchange rate when we were there was USD $1 to 22,670 VND. You do the math...


Wedding - Binh Duong

After the Morning Ceremony, tables were set up literally on the side walk in front of the bride's house for lunch. This is how people dine in Vietnam. A lot of eating outside.

A lot of things I've never had before...

Drunken Shrimp (steamed with beer). The shrimp are live in the pot. They're basically get drunk on the beer and get steamed til they're fully cooked. You kinda have to keep your hand on the lid. They like to jump!

Grilled Deer. First time having deer. It's quite good!

After the lunch we went back to the hotel. Tried to go to the pool, but it started raining. So more eating it is! :P

Snacks at Becamex Hotel
Fresh Coconut Juice
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Papaya Smoothie

Bánh Xèo

At the Wedding Reception we got a multi-course meal. Very typical to Asian dinner receptions.
Corn Soup
Appetizers. (Left) Mushroom filled, (Right) Pork on Sugarcane

Drunken Shrimp. They seem to really like this dish.

Fried Soft Shell Crab. Really yum. Quite a lot of meat in them.

Beef Curry (with bread). I loved this dish. The beef was so tender.

Chicken Soup/Hotpot

There were more courses after this, but we left to go take pictures then went back to the hotel. Apparently at Vietnamese receptions, people just come to eat, then go home. There's no dancing or party after. Which totally works for me cuz I was running on about 8 hours of total sleep in the past 3 days...

The day after wedding... walked around the hotel just to see what's around. Found a Gong Cha. It's funny that I haven't even been to the ones in Dallas, and I come to Vietnam to have it. haha.
Gong Cha. We had a lot of boba tea, y'all...
Probably the worse experience for boba this trip. My drink tasted like heavy cream, it was gross.

Snack. Some random cafe.
Sauteed Ramen Noodles (with beef). Surprisingly delicious, and it was like $2 USD!

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 


Tan Lap - Coffee & Juice
Oreo Coffee?

Pho. 65,000 VND

Stuffed Cuttlefish

Crispy Noodles

Beef Stew

Sauteed Water Spinach. 60,000 VND

Fried Rice

Sesame Chicken Wings

Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic 90,000VND

Hàng Dương Quán - quận 7. My friends' family friend owns this restaurant, and many more around town. They serve a lot of fresh seafood. You can see the tanks lined up at the front with all the fresh fish. He treated us to lunch which was so nice of him. :)

He asked if we were adventurous eaters. I said no bugs, otherwise I am. Same with the others. And what does he bring us?? Live Coconut Worms. (I posted a video on my CHOMP! Facebook page.) They feed on coconut trees. And apparently taste like cheese. Ugh. Ok... technically these aren't bugs... but I'd put them in the same group. And they're moving. BLECHHHH! I could barely look at them much less eat them. Yuck! XP We all chickened out, but I couldn't do it, so I won't make others do it. 

Grilled Shrimp on a Stick

Seafood Eggrolls

Sauteed Squash

Seafood wrapped in Tofu. This was my favorite.

Beef Rolls

450+ lb. Catfish. Yowza.

Geoduck. Teehee... they look funny. :P

We got a tour of the place. They have a lot of themed private dining rooms. Pretty impressive!

We found this next place because we were looking for a place to do Afternoon Tea, or High Tea. But we didn't realize we had to reserve in advance for the actual high tea. So we just ordered a la carte. Which turned out fantastic. This was such a great find! We loved it so much we came back again the morning we were flying out to Hanoi.

Villa Royale Downtown - Antiques & 

Tea Room

Pot of Tea for 1 - 95,000 VND
Pot of Tea for 2 - 175,000 VND
We tried many flavors of tea. They had so many selections so it satisfied all our different taste buds. And how cute are the teapots and cups? Pinkies up!

Between our 2 visits, I think we tried most of their desserts... definitely all the cheesecakes cuz they were phenomenal. All made by their in-house chefs, btw.

Hershey's PB and Chocolate Cheesecake - 100,000 VND

Wild Blueberry Ripple Cheesecake - 95,000 VND. This was one of the favorites, so we ordered this twice.

Short Bread Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Scones (with jam and chantilly cream)

Hazelnut Tart (with ganache)

Dalat Raspberry Cheesecake - 95,000 VND

Oreo Cheesecake

Australian Meat Pie. 

The owner of the tea house is from Australia, so this is probably pretty authentic. It was great chatting with her too. Since I don't spead Vietnamese, my conversations were usually limited to those in my travel group. Finally someone new that speaks English! hehe. Cheers!

Marukame Udon. One of the best udon places ever. I first had it in Hawaii and fell in love. I told my friends we had to go. They all loved it. They had some interesting flavors that I didn't see in Hawaii too.

Mi Udon Tantan Miso. Loved this.

Mi Udon Bo. This was my favorite. I always prefer dry over soup noodles.

Mi Udon Hai San Cay

Various Tempuras

We walked around the night market by the hotel a little. It was meh.... nothing like the night markets in Taiwan. Ben Thanh Street Food Market.
Fresh Lychee Juice

I told you we had a lot of boba... Basically hit up a tea house or cafe every day. One drink is typically more expensive than a meal tho...

Royal Tea
Fruit Teas. 39,000 VND Freaking loved these cups. How genius are they? There's a capped hole to drink from, a hole for the thick boba straws, and a hole for regular straws. We need them in Dallas.

Cream Cheese Green Tea. So rich, but done right! Not like my gross heavy cream tea from Gong Cha. It was creamy but still had a lot of matcha flavor.

Highlands Coffee
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Some sort of fruit tea with cream

Matcha Latte (with green tea jelly)

Peach Tea
Chocolate Freeze

This place uses too much ice. They basically fill the ice up to the top and just let the drink fill in the cracks. But at least the drinks are pretty tasty.

Bánh Xèo 46A. My friends wanted Banh Xeo so they did a search and this place was highly rated. Apparently celebrities come eat here when they visit Vietnam? I dunno.
Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese pancake) 80,000 VND. It was my first time having a legit Vietnamese pancake. It was huge! Good thing we didn't order one per person! Easily shareable among 3-4 people. The outside was perfectly crispy til the last bite. Loved it!

Pork Prawn Wrapped in Rice Paper (10 rolls) 150,000 VND
Shredded Pork and Vegetable Wrapped in Rice Paper (5 rolls) 50,000 VND. I have to say I like the spring rolls in Dallas better.

On our last night in Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to try Korean Fried chicken by our hotel. I actually saw a lot of Korean restaurants in Vietnam. Glad we got to try one.

Coco Dak

Deep Fried Chicken with Spicy Sauce 160,000 VND. Wasn't spicy much... but yummy.

Spicy Soy Sauce Chicken 160,000 VND. Also good. All the chicken was very tender.

Deep Fried Powder Chicken (cheese flavor) 210,000 VND. I didn't know what to expect with this powder thing. But It was really good!

Cheese Corn 80,000 VND. Disappointed. And I've never been disappointed by Korean cheese corn.

Mango, Strawberry, and Peach Smoothies

We had one night back in Ho Chi Minh City before flying back to the states. We weren't able to find broken rice in Hanoi so we found a place that only sells it in Ho Chi Minh. We didn't even look at the menu. Just ordered the loaded versions. haha.

Com Tam Ba Ghien
Broken Rice Plate - (with pork chop, meatball, shredded pork, egg loaf, and fried egg) 85,000 VND. This is a massive amount of food for $4. It was delicious. I love me some shredded pork.

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~