Who doesn’t love cheese? Beecher’s Handmade Cheese is often crowned as a must-go food place in Seattle, located in the renowned Pike Place Market, the shop is always crowded with people from all over the world. Everyone’s reason here is clear, he/she including me would like to taste the best cheese! From Beecher’s official website, they have also stated that “The enzyme source in our “World’s Best” Mac & Cheese and all of our cheeses is microbial rennet, which is vegetarian and gluten-free!” Therefore, vegetarians can also eat without ease!

Beecher’s Seattle location serves grilled sandwiches, soups, and their signature mac & cheese (which is claimed as “world’s best”!), visitors could also buy different kinds of cheese and related products as food souvenirs. My friend I only wanted to have some instant good food so we had got the “World’s Best” Mac & Cheese and Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

GRILLED SANDWICHES: Grilled Cheese --- $7.99 USD

MAC & CHEESE: "World's Best" --- $6.49 USD - 8oz  

Rating: 9/10

Location: 1600 Pike Place, Seattle, WA 98101

I couldn’t even remember how many times I’ve seen cinnamon rolls in cafes, grocery stores or fast food places in Vancouver, but I never tried one because I felt like it would be a bit too boring and overly sweet to have a big cinnamon roll on my own. However, I was very attracted by a vegan cinnamon bun chain called “Cinnaholic” since their cinnamon rolls are firstly healthier; and the most important thing is: they offer flavor varieties and customization!

I visited their bakery at Seattle to experience their handcrafted cinnamon rolls; which are claimed 100% vegan, dairy & lactose-free, egg-free and cholesterol-free. The best part for me was being able to choose from more than a dozen decadent topping choices, the process of picking and creating is always fun. And what I got was a cinnamon roll topped with caramel sauce, brownie bites, pie crusts, and some fresh strawberries (in case of being too indecisive or simply lazy, the shop also offers a list of recommended combinations for you)!

The cinnamon roll itself was fresh and yummy, love how they reheated it by oven before serving to customers. While for the toppings, things can’t go wrong with the combinations that I picked (I guess…), the fruits balanced the sweetness and heaviness from the brownies (which are awesome) and the pie crust added some more texture to the whole dessert. I definitely recommend people who have a sweet tooth to pay a visit and have fun there!

Self-customized cinnamon roll

$8.26 (USD)

[4 toppings|without frosting]

[strawberries, brownie bites, pie crust, caramel sauce]

Rating: 8.5/10

Location: 816 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122

Recently, articles about the upcoming Vegan Night Market in Vancouver went viral in my personal news feed. This reminds me of my unforgettable gourmet night in the Vegan Night Market held on September 12, 2019; in “At the Waldorf”. I believe it’s now a good time to share my experience since the next night market, which shall be more or less similar, is coming back in December!

This night market I’d been to was organized mainly by “The Vegan Project”, participants could enjoy shopping, eating, listening to music, and more; simply by paying a minimum admission fee (aka donation) of $2. And of course, my focus through the night is on all the scrumptious food!

These are all the things I had tried (actually there was so much more that I wanna eat!! but I was already full…), and they ALL TASTED GOOD. The ice cream was coconut-based and tasted really flavourful since strawberry and coconut always match well, the ice cream itself is creamy and the cone is crispy. The pita from Chickpea tasted awesome too, the crispy tofu wasn’t oily and you can freely add different sauces provided by the shop; the whole thing was much better than my previous experience in their restaurant. All the other savories are also just as good as they look like in the pictures and I definitely recommend vegans (or even non-vegans) to grab some food there. You’ll surely feel satisfied.

The next Vegan Night Market will be held on 19th December 2019. I want to go again so badly but I wouldn’t be able to make it because I’ll be back in Hong Kong already at that time… Those who are in Vancouver, you better don’t miss the chance!

Rating: 9/10

Location: 1489 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC V5L 1S4 (At the Waldorf)

Though my time in Vancouver is short, I still have a strong feeling that Chickpea is one of the most commonly known vegan restaurants in the city. I had actually tried Chickpea’s food from their food truck not long ago, but it was the first time that I actually visited their restaurant, so I was quite excited.

The reason I was having dinner in Chickpea is that it was my housemate’s birthday and she’s a vegetarian. As you can see from the snap on the right, most of us had ordered Pitas so I believe these shall be highly recommended for newcomers. The restaurant also serves a variety of cocktails, but I’m not a fan of alcohol so…I haven’t tried any. The portion of the Pita is quite generous and is surely enough to make you feel full; most of us find it difficult to eat by bare hands, you simply have to pour out stuff from the Pita to a plate and use forks and knives to eat.

So, here’s another picture that shows my weighty Pita.

SABICH (GF) Pita $10.5
[Sabich: fried eggplant, warm yams, & warm chickpeas; Pita: fresh pita along with organic hummus, fresh vegetables tossed in olive oil lemon dressing, some spicy schug sauce and pickles]

The whole thing is quite tasty in general, you can easily have a mouthful of different textures and flavors. However, I feel like there are too many chickpeas and it gets boring after eating 30-40% of the Pita. Also, the sauce all goes down to the bottom of the Pita, which makes part of the bread too soggy and salty. The fried eggplants are also a bit too greasy for me, I didn’t feel very comfortable eating that as a typical weight-conscious girl.

Rating: 7.5/10

Location: 4298 Main Street
Vancouver, BC. V5V 3P9

Japanese and Korean food are my two all-time-favorite Asian cuisines. Green Leaf Cafe is a Japanese and Korean fusion restaurant serving dishes that incorporate tastes from a variety of cultures, it’s exactly my perfect choice. The restaurant itself isn’t a purely vegetarian/vegan place, but they have quite a number of vegetarian choices for vegetarian diners to choose from, you can easily have meals with tofu; veggies; or eggs here, and my dining experience there is simply fantastic.

Since it’s my first visit to the restaurant, my approach is to try some of their signature dishes (which also sound the most appealing to me); including their quality aburi-oshis and good looking omelette rice. We also had a salad-pasta, which tastes so good too. Aburi-oshi is a kind of Osaka style pressed sushi, so it’s in a rectangular shape. Our choice today is “Crispy Yam and Avocado Oshi”, the crispiness of yam and creaminess of avocado matches perfectly and the sweet soy paste on top simply tops it off. While for their signature omelette rice, the egg is so rich and soft that it coats the rice very nicely; the garlic flakes just added a bit more layer to the dish and the curry is tasty. Last but not least, the salad-pasta is definitely a surprise, the greens are very fresh and the pasta underneath is linguine and is super yummy as well, they’re using kind of a citrus sauce to mix the two things together and it’s simply refreshing.

CRISPY YAM & AVOCADO OSHI $9
[Yam fritter, avocado, sweet soy glaze]

SALAD PASTA $10.5
[Fresh greens, oriental dressing]

HOUSE OMELETTE RICE $12
[Sweet & savory dem glaze, garlic flakes, tomato, chili]

Rating: 9/10

Location: 9604 Cameron St, Burnaby, BC V3J 1M2