“FieldTrips” is either a day trip or a few days where I visit food areas of interest which may include farm visits, producers, wineries, restaurants and/or other places that people can visit. This is about offering Vancouver Foodster readers a chance to get out of town and take a “Field Trip” for the day or a few days to explore, learn, taste and experience.

Field Trip to Tulalip

Leaving Vancouver, driving Highway 99 South crossing the USA border, it was about a 2 hour drive to the Tulalip Resort Casino in Tulalip, Wa.

Arrived to the beautiful Tulalip Resort Casino which was home for the next couple of days. Situated next to the Seattle Premium Outlets, this AAA Four Diamond Tulalip Resort Casino is among the premier destinations in Washington State offering luxurious accommodations, award-winning dining options, a rejuvenating spa, casino excitement and shopping. The property features a 24 hour casino with slot machines and tables, along with a 14,000 sq foot spa, 300 + guestrooms and several restaurants and bars.

We stayed in a well appointed guest room that featured a king bed, refridgerator, bathroom with shower, and some nice amenities in the bathroom.

We worked out in the fitness room in the afternoon which is located inside the Spa on the main level of the hotel.

Had welcome drinks and appetizers in the Destinations Lounge to start, enjoying a Cheese and vegetables tray and Tapenade trio along with a Cranberry Margarita.

Dinner followed at Blackfish Restaurant where Chef de cuisine David Buchanan has been running this restaurant for over the past 10 years. Here we enjoyed an outstanding dinner accompanied by wine and cocktails.

We started off with some of their house-made Lavash and 3 Spreads along with one of their newest cocktails the tasty Pineapple smoked Tea Margarita which is made with Townshend’s Tea Spirit No. 5 Smoke Tea a unique ingredient for this margarita.

We enjoyed the 2007 Brunello Wine that Tommy suggested and poured for us from this magnum.

I had the outstanding Walla Walla French Onion Soup and the Northwest berry salad along with the delicious Filet mignon with thyme Demi, tilamook cheddar mash and broccolini.

Lawrence had the Prawn Mary followed by the Lobster Salad which he loved, Maine lobster salad with assorted micro greens, shaved beets, cucumber, teardrop tomatoes and orange vinaigrette.

Their Signature Dish is the Heritage Salmon, a dish which has been on the menu since day 1, Chef David gave me a tour of the kitchen to show me the process of how this salmon is prepared and cooked night after night. We both enjoyed the 2014 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley, WA) which was perfectly paired with the salmon dish.

They served us some refreshing Yuzu Sake which Lawrence loved which paired well with his main dish, the Tuna.

After dinner we headed over to Tula Bene Italian Restaurant where we shared a selection of their outstanding desserts. Here we had a chance to try some incredible desserts starting off with my favourite; Budino layered Valrhona caramelized white chocolate pudding, marzipan blondie, strawberry sorbetto; equally loved the Sweet Antipasto this was incredible and creative.

The Cannoli was large and came with a crunchy hazelnut and orange tuile, chocolate ricotta filling and orange; the Gianduja & Mascarpone Cake was divine with a chocolate and hazelnut biscotti crust, cacao nib and hazelnut tuile, milk chocolate sauce, bruleed bananas; lastly the Sugared Ricotta Fritters with orange blossom honey gelato, lemoncello curd were light and tasty as well. Here our desserts were paired up with A Midwinter Nights Dram a blend of straight rye whiskeys.

The resort features many live concerts each year, often a couple a month, we headed off to see 38 Special in concert in the ballroom, this was a stellar show featuring the bands hits from the many years they have been together.

After the concert we went over to Blazing Paddles Pizzeria, a pizzeria adjascent to the casino’s slot machines that makes everything from scratch including the dough,  I had the Blazing Bbq Chicken Ranch pizza and Lawrence had the Dark Door BLT pizza.

The next morning started off at the gym with a good workout, had a Nitro Cold Brew coffee at Killer Coffee, followed by breakfast at Cedars Cafe where I enjoyed the Granola Bowl with yogurt and berries, along with a Short stack buttermilk pancakes and an Orange juice.

Afterwards visited the spa for a wonderful relaxing body massage.

The Tulalip Resort Casino is located at 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd in Tulalip, WA. You can call for reservations at +1 360-716-6000

Stay tuned for my next Field Trip outside of Vancouver.

By: Richard Wolak

Disclosure: The Tulalip Resort Casino provided us with complimentary accommodation, spa experience, concert and meals.  As always, all opinions and photos are my own.