Kerry Park

 

Kerry Park is the most popular location to enjoy Seattle skyline.  Kerry Park is located North of downtown Seattle.  The park offers panoramic view of Seattle and can also see Mount Rainier on the far side.  Kerry Park is usually the busiest during sunset and can occasionally be busy during sunrise as well.

Driving to Kerry Park was pretty straight forward. We got there around 6AM in the morning and still had to wait for about an hour until sunrise.  We got here early because we could still enjoy the night view of downtown Seattle before the sun comes up.

As we parked our car and walked towards the viewing deck. we spotted a girl ran towards the back of our SUV and squat down behind our car.  We thought it was a homeless person trying to sabotage our car, thus we walked back to our car really fast to see what was going on.  As we walked closer, we realized that the girl was peeing behind our car.  Then we just pretended to grab a bottle of water from the car.  The girl felt really embarrassed and walked the other way instead of going back to her car.  She was probably holding it in for a very long time because there was no restroom at this park.

The view from Kerry Park was amazing.  As the sun comes up, we started to see Mount Ranier.  Unfortunately the weather was a bit cloudy and thus we couldn't see the entire Mount Rainier.  The sun was also covered by the cloud.

While we were there, there were 2 people using film camera shooting documentary video of Seattle.  They also took out a sport trophy and filming it along with the Seattle skyline.  There were several groups of people sitting on the bench and having breakfast while enjoying the view.

Kerry Park was definitely a great place to enjoy Seattle skyline.  We wish that the weather was a bit better so that we could see Mount Rainier as well.

Mee Sum Pastry

Mee Sum Pastry is a very popular Chinese pastry shop located right across from Pike Market.  It specializes in not only Chinese pastry and bread, but also sells amazing Dim Sum dishes.  Mee Sum Pastry opens at 8AM everyday and there was always a waiting line in front of the shop.

We have never tried Mee Sum Pastry before but wanted to give it a try this time because the waiting line was much shorter compared to before.  While we were waiting in line, we saw that most people ordered BBQ pork bread and BBQ chicken bread.

When it was our turn, we decided to get a Sesame Ball, an Almond Pastry Pie, and a Pineapple Bun.  The Sesame Ball was huge.  It was three times the size of the Sesame Ball served at other Dim Sum restaurants.  We took a bite and it was very flavourful.  The red bean paste filled the entire Sesame Ball.  There was no air pocket inside the Sesame Ball, it was very amazing.

The Almond Pastry Pie was great as well, although it was a mess when we were eating it because the pie breaks apart very easily.  The Almond Pastry Pie was sweet and crunchy.  The Pineapple Bun was one of the best we have ever had.  It was extremely fresh and the bun was so soft.

We highly recommend Mee Sum Pastry if people are visiting Pike Market.  Its pastries are fresh out of the oven and very flavourful.  However, make sure to eat the pastry as soon as possible after the purchase because it won't taste as good after few hours.
 

ChiHo Bistro

 

ChiHo Bistro is a restaurant specializing in Chinese cuisine.  Most notably it serves various kind of famous Xiao Long Bao in different colours.  ChiHo Bistro is located at downtown Seattle.  The restaurant is about 15 minutes walking distance from Pike Market.  So people can park at Pike Market garage, shop at Pike Market, and then head to ChiHo Bistro for food.

We went to have lunch at ChiHo Bistro on a Thursday after we finished up our errands at downtown Seattle.  ChiHo Bistro was not far, but it was sketchy for us to walk to there as there were many homeless people on the street.

We got to ChiHo Bistro right around noon and we were the second group of people there.  The restaurant was not big, but it was decorated nicely with Chinese culture element in it.  There were 2 menus.  The first menu was the regular menu and there was also a lunch special menu.  We were very interested in the special Xiao Long Bao offered here.  So we ordered a Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao, and a Spicy Xiao Long Bao.  In addition, we also got a Dan Dan Noodle, and a Braised Beef Brasket lunch special.

The Dan Dan Noodle was served first.  The noodle was thin and placed in a bowl of spicy and numbing sauce.  The sauce was full of Szechuan peppercorns.  This Dan Dan Noodle was not very spicy and most of its taste was about being numb.  We really liked this.  It was very flavourful.

The Braised Beef Brasket was not as good as we were expecting.  The beef brisket was a bit tough to chew and not soft enough.  The broccoli that came with the dish was seasoned well and the jasmine rice was well cooked and sweet.  The lunch special also came with hot and sour soup, which was a great addition.

Finally, the Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao and Spicy Xiao Long Bao were here.  The Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao were wrapped in black dough, which was pretty cool.  We sipped the juice inside the Xiao Long Bao and it was very flavourful.  The Spice Xiao Long Bao was in red colour.  It was not very spicy but we were able to taste the mix of spiciness in the Xiao Long Bao.  We liked innovation of both Xiao Long Bao very much.

Overall, CHiHo Bistro had a lot of innovative dishes.  There were different flavours of Xiao Long Bao and each had its own unique colour.  We were thinking that it was best to not order lunch menu item next time and just go for the special dishes that ChiHo Bistro offers.

Dough Zone

 

Dough Zone is a popular Chinese restaurant that specializes in dumplings, baozi, and other dough related Chinese dishes.  It is a successful chain restaurant brand that has locations in many different states.  Dough Zone established its first Oregon location at Portland Downtown near the water front and has since then being very popular among the locals.  Year later, it has opened its second Oregon location at Beaverton.

We have never tried Dough Zone before and it was our first time dining at this place.  Our expectation was high and was going to compare it with what Din Tai Fung offers.

We got to Dough Zone around 12:30PM and it wasn't very busy.  The restaurant was about half full.  The restaurant had large windows at all sides and the natural sun light made the customers feel more comfortable sitting in there.  As we sat down, we were offered mashed ginger and hot sauce.

There was an order sheet but there wasn't a physical menu.  There was a QR code for customers to scan to see the menu on the phone.  We ordered Beef Pancake Roll, Jianbing Guo Zi, Pot Stickers, Pork Wonton with Hot Sauce, Shrimp Dumpling, Vegetable Dumpling, and Pork Dumpling.

Beef Pancake Roll was delivered to our table first.  It was cut into 2 pieces.  We felt that the beef was a bit dry and not enough sauce.  It was not as good as what we were expecting.  The Pork Wonton with Hot Sauce had 6 pieces of Wonton in the bowl.  This was less than what Din Tai Fung offered.  The taste of the sauce was not very strong and not spicy enough.

We then got the Pork Dumpling.  This dumpling dish was boiled not steamed.  There were also 6 pieces in a serving.  The pork inside the dumpling was good but the dumpling skin was quite thick.  The Shrimp Dumpling was interesting as it has a large piece of shrimp in there and the tail was actually outside of the dumpling.  The taste was good but again the dumpling skin was thick.  The Vegetable Dumpling was quite different than what Din Tai Fung had.  The Vegetable Dumpling had tofu, carrot and other stuff in it.  We liked the taste quite a lot.

The pot sticker was not bad in our opinion, just not presented very well in the dish.  The best dish was Jianbing Guo Zi.  It was cut into 4 large pieces.  It was crunching and had a lot of taste in it.  The egg was wrapped around the pancake.  This was the dish we enjoyed the most.

Overall, Dough Zone was a lot cheaper than what Din Tai Fung charges, but also gave smaller portions per dish.  In terms of taste, some dishes were decent but some were below our expectation, such as the dumplings.  We would probably visit it again but may not order dumplings next time.