9 Best Restaurant and Bar Experiences in Vancouver and Seattle in September 2011

Bánh tàm bi, a smiple noodle salad with coconut milk and fish sauce at Green Leaf, my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle.

The lemongrass grilled eggplant with fried onions at Green Leaf is equally good. I love that they pickle crispy jicama instead of daikon. Nice touch!

Uneeda Burger has a beautiful, spacious patio. Their burger selection is impressive. I enjoyed the mushroom burger with truffle salt the best, but the caramelized onion + blue cheese + watercress burger was a close second. I just wish their fries were crispier.

The kids (and admittedly, I too) had fun dressing our pancakes and French toast at the self-serve topping bar. This is my ginger and berry bread pudding that was sliced and griddled before I loaded it up with fresh berries and whipped cream. It's so decadent that I only finished one slice. Don't worry, the rest did not go to waste :) Portage Bay Cafe in Seattle, WA.

Dim Summing (is a verb) at Red Star Seafood Restaurant in Richmond with the familia. Clockwise from the top left: braised beef tendon, stuffed sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, thin crepe with crushed peanuts and shredded coconut, prawn and seaweed spring roll, pan-fried taro cake, Chiu-Chow steamed dumplings.

Post cook-out dessert buffet that guilted me into doing the Insanity workout for oh... a week.

Jason Broowne's winning cocktail at the Made with Love cocktail competition. That would be hemp foam.

Smack-yo-mama fresh sashimi at Guu Garden in Vancouver. Coho and Sockeye salmon, scallops, hamachi, and spot prawns.

Naturally, the spot prawn head did not escape from my mouth of fury! It was deep-fried and consumed whole - spines, eyeballs and all.

Doing a tasting for Vancouver Food Tour. Cocktail, beer, and vamped bar snacks: Scotch eggs and Devil on Horsebacks (Gruyère stuffed prunes, wrapped in bacon). It was a tough work day.

Napoletana pizza with anchovie and creamy roasted garlic cloves at Verace Pizzeria in Vancouver

We also enjoyed the Funghi pizza, loaded w fresh shrooms and Grana Padano. The whole wine list at Verace Pizzeria is Italian - I like that.

I adore these ginger and miso rice crackers from Muji. It's too bad we don't have more Muji stores in N. America.

2 desserts I love, combined into 1. Black sesame dessert soup with tofu-fa, a slippery and silky tofu that resembles the texture of pudding.

I was thrilled to find pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tarts) at a Portuguese bakery. These were unfortunately too cloyingly sweet and dense for my taste.

Thursday special: lamb shank on risotto at Tableau Bistro in Vancouver. The food was quite good and I loved the room too. The service, however, was a bit lacking.