Steph and Jason decided that Costco would be the theme of this road trip up to Vancouver BC. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this exciting adventure. Despite being friends for about a decade, this would be our very first road trip together. Steph and I both have motion sickness but Steph is definitely “ahem” the more assertive driver so I luckily got the shotgun seat.
We were all thrilled to make Costco the central focus of this trip. We are all avid fans and shop there frequently. Jason knew all the price tag symbols like * meaning that this was probably the end of the stock and is on markdown to sell through the products. We all shop there covering the Aloha, Tigard, and NE 138th locations and frequently share notes of deals or new Asian food products we find. The product mix of Costco has definitely shifted in the last decade to cater to the growing Asian consumer base who often buy in bulk. We all follow Costcodeal IG handles and this article right here illustrates “while Asian Americans only make up 7% of the population, they comprised 10% of Costco’s consumer base in 2023.” Steph created a google map and started to add “boba” emojis to pin the Costcos we should visit on our drive up North.
I advocated to have lunch at my favorite Korean Traditional Beef Soup place in Federal Way, WA. Timing was perfect as well cause I was starting to feel a tad dizzy and had to pop some ginger Dramamine pills so hearty soup for lunch was the perfect way for me to recover from the onset of my motion sickness. It’s become a tradition for me to make this stop every time. In addition to their soups, their kimchi and seafood pancakes are also my favorite.
We decided to make it to the Costco in Richmond as our first Costco stop. We picked up specialty Canadian chips, snacks,etc. Jason even saw his favorite scented Downey beads and stocked up for his entire family. The Costco in Richmond did not disappoint. We also bought some fresh fruit for breakfast. Our first dinner of the night was at Guu Thurlow for izakaya food. Their uni pasta was rich and decadent. Their hamachi carpaccio, eggplant dish , and garlic fried rice were all so delicious. We had some leftover garlic fried rice to take back to the listing.
The next morning we went to pick up banh mi sandwiches and Cà Phê Sữa Đá from Banh Mi Saigon were excellent. The coffee drink was not too sweet. We had all their #1 special. The bread was warm, with a light crunch with delectable pâté smeared across the baguette with a squirt of fish sauce, mayo, and soy sauce. They are cash only and luckily I happen to have $50 CAD on me. We then went to the Burnaby Costco and picked up more goodies. Jason and Steph bought ramen noodle baskets and they got like 4. The cashier questioned our purchase and asked if we owned a restaurant.
Our next stop was dim sum for lunch at my favorite place, Kirin. While we charged our car, we proceeded to fill the table with geoduck congee, seafood rice noodles, pan fried lotus root, pea sprouts, chicken feet, ha gow, siumai, and my favorite Malay yuzu sponge cake. We were so stuffed that we had some leftovers again. One of the servers came over to be in awe of how much we ate. I am starting to notice a pattern of how we buy and eat. We had to walk around the Richmond Mall to help digest some of it. I picked up a jar of XO sauce from a local purveyor.
I scheduled dinner at Fish Man at 7 pm to give us a decent gap. I think we were all in a food coma and went back to the listing for a little bit to rest and nap. We decided to go all out when we studied the menu at Fish Man. We splurged with a “small” king crab of 6 lbs at $55 CAD/lb. Jason kept saying everything was 30% off. 😣 King crab 3 ways – Beifengtong style, garlic steamed legs, and fried rice. Then we added a starter of steamed scallops which were so-so. We also ordered pickled veggies with ling cod, which was delicious. We also paired it with beer and plum juice. My preferred choice was plum juice and I didn’t make it through the beer (Steph had to cover for me). It was spendy but so worth it. We had A LOT of leftovers. We decided to skip our breakfast plans and just ate King Crab for breakfast.
On our way back to the states, we stopped by to pick up more banh mi and mango mochi and that was divine. Note to buy more for my May trip ! We left BC at noon. Our late lunch was just a random conveyor sushi place near the Northgate charging station and it was a very spendy and disappointing food moment and a sad way to end our trip. Steph safely got me back home by 7:30 pm. It went by so quickly and I look forward to the next adventure.
Travelogue 