Pike Place Market Good Eats Part I

A whirlwind shopping and eating trip at Pike Place Market for about an hour and fifteen minutes before the crowd swarmed in on a quiet Friday morning.

It was always plenty of fun to go but parking could really be a hassle; Friday morning proved to be not so bad.

We started off with breakfast at The Crumpet Shop.

The store was filled with people and they were certainly speedy as the line moved quickly.

I usually went for simple crumpet with butter and honey with a cup of fabulous and aromatic tea.

Crumpet reminded me of English muffin, perhaps because both were yeasty and with visible holes (one outside and one inside); basic ingredients were similar.

Texture of the 2, however, was completely difference experience.

The crumpet was crust hard outside, chewy, soft and spongy inside.

I loved their honey because it was very floral with lovely sweetness.

I got the Crumpet Store Blend tea heavy with Darjeeling, it was very strong in bergamot, smooth and floral.

My girlfriend got one with egg and salmon.

I ordered a scone to-go for DH.

Their scone was chewier and breadier than traditional scone such as Murchie’s, and amazingly buttery, dry on the edges and crusty.

The zesty lemon curd was delightful — tart, sweet and creamy.

It was a treat to visit the store and had something unique and different.

Next stop, picked up some Uli’s sausages for dinner.

I got a couple exotic sausages and one of them was the spicy Merguez.

This was a very spicy lamb sausage with garlic as the primary flavor.

The sausage was popular in North Africa, France and Belgium.

I loved the flavors but found the meat a little mealy.

Then we had the South African Boerewor.

The flavor was very floral and perfumy likely due to the large amount of coriander.

The bacon sausage was my favorite.

It was a new experience of eating bacon without the grease, coupled with a crunchy bouncy sausage texture which was wonderful.

The German Thueringer had the best bouncy texture of all the sausages with lovely sweet flavors.

Must go back for more!

 

Garlic and Sapphire, Crumble and Flake

Garlic and Sapphire by Ruth Reichl

This book was absolutely eye-opening and an extremely fun book to read, especially for food nuts!

It told the experiences of the author, Ruth Reichl, when she was the restaurant critic for New York Times.

I would have never guessed that multiple disguises, with different personalities would be involved in writing about restaurants!

The author wrote in details of her encounters with people around her, the services and attitudes she received as these alter egos.

All the work to make sure she had a full spectrum and clear understanding of each restaurant she was writing about — and what a contrast to the tweeting and instantaneity of today’s society!

Ruth went to each restaurant at least 5 times before she wrote a review, and made sure she was not recognized in some of those visits — inevitably the New York Times critic would be treated far superior with better table and services, bigger and fresher portions of food and larger berries on desserts.

It was fascinating to read about those encounters when she dressed up as an old lady, or someone who did not seem to be rich, or a blonde.

It gave me to jolt of a reminder that how quickly we tended to judge people in general — is it right or is it wrong?  something to ponder on.

Personally as a food blogger writing about my restaurant experiences, this was a bible.

Particularly the inclusion of the actual reviews that Ruth wrote.

They opened my eyes to how descriptive writing could be; and to experience as if I was sitting in the restaurant having that exact same meal the author was writing about.

The power of descriptive writing — something I am slowly learning — and does not come natural to me especially all my experience are in technical scientific reporting.

The book also contained recipes for times when we wanted to roll up our sleeves!

—-

Finally stopped by Crumble and Flake on Capitol Hill — I was speechless!

Their pastries were really delicious!

I tried the chocolate croissant, lavender cherry scone, double chocolate brownie, cream puff and canele that day.

Since it was difficult to park around the shop, I did a dash and run while DH waited outside in the car.

First thing I ate when I ran back to the car was the cream puff!

Couldn’t let it get soggy!

These cream puffs were amazingly yummy and they were filled-to-order.

They offered classic flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, blackberry etc. and they particular day, they had yuzu — I immediately went for that!

The cream puffs had crunchy tops with crystalline sugar, but bready and chewy inside.

The yuzu filling was this dense pastry cream which was very nice with just the right amount of sweetness and the lovely scent of sweet grapefruit.

This definitely made Beard Papa paled.

The chocolate croissant was very flaky — as the store name!

It had a generous amount of chocolate, buttery with many layers to savor on.

The scone was another buttery treasure with mild lavender and plump cherries.

I applauded the perfect amount of lavender used in the scone — it tasted just a hint of floral without the soapiness or perfumey scent when it was overused.

Sugar on top of the scone gave the crunch on the overall dryer and denser yet tasty scone.

It was lavished with cherries in it which I loved!

I just wish the scone would be bigger!

The Canele was amazing!!

Tiny little treat, they only made them on the weekends.

It had a crunchy hard outer shell tasted like it was made with burnt sugar and the inside was moist, custardy, heavenly laced with vanilla and rum.

It was very eggy which was ultra delicious and tasted just like the custard in bread budding except quite a bit chewier in texture.

The double chocolate brownie was incredible.

It had strong dark chocolate flavor without the sweetness.

It was not chewy in texture but much softer and gentler in the mouth.

It almost boarder to be chocolate mousse instead but it had the rigidity to stand on its own and sustained the car ride home in a bag.

These awesome treats were pricey, they were $3-$4 a piece in small sizes.

What we were paying for was delectable art work.

 

 

 

 

 

A Food Tour of Bainbridge Island, WA

Doof Out

For our wedding anniversary, I had planned a get-away to a quint little town, Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island is not very far from Seattle, about 30-min ferry ride from downtown.

Many people commute from Bainbridge to work in the Seattle area every day.

For me, however, it was something special — it felt as if I was travelling to an exotic location again!

Managed to snap the picture of the Seattle Great Wheel with the unintentional effect showcasing the inside of the Washington State Ferry

Unfortunately after searching high and low for accommodation, I concluded that everywhere on the island was pretty expensive.

I decided to only going for food.

We walked along the main street on the island and found Blackbird Bakery.

I heard praises for this bakery for a long time and glad that I finally made the trip.

The bakery offered wide range of selections from pastries, cookies, sandwiches to full and beautiful cakes.

I got an orange cranberry ginger scone and it was fantastic.

The inside of the scone was fluffy with plenty of flavors – an overall sweet orange flavor, with zesty ginger bits and tart cranberries.

All the additions compliments the sweetness of the scone dough.

The outside was dry and had a nice harder crust, it was perfect!

Although there were plenty other lovely pastries, I told myself that restrain was necessary as a big dinner was near in sight.

Well, that thought lasted for 2 seconds.

We stepped out of the bakery, looked to our right, was Mora Iced Creamary.

I wanted to try ice cream from Mora for a very long time.

All the ice cream at Mora were made in small batches with clean ingredients.

I loved the store’s simple design, clean and sleek.

Each flavor of the ice cream was hidden in a stainless steel bucket with stainless steel lids.

I really wanted to have the goat cheese fig ice cream that day, but it was sold out.

I tried the Marron Glace – chestnut cream.

It was creamy and tasty with excellent roasted chestnut flavor; however, DH did not like it.

We settled with Maraschino cherry flavor.

I knew the cherry flavor wasn’t the freshest kind, and the color was the most unnatural, but I grew up with those little cherries on top of ice cream sundae or in canned fruit cocktail, the maraschino cherry flavor was every bit nostalgic for me.

The sweet cream flavor came through fantastically and it was very creamy.

The little snack before dinner was delicious and against all Chinese parents’ teaching, “no sweet food before dinner, you will spoil your appetite!”

I am glad that the ice cream did not do too much damage, and I was able to enjoy my 6-course tasting menu at Hitchcock (the meal was fantastic and deserved its own page…stay tune!)

On our way back, we joined the city in celebrating the Seahawks’ advancement into the NFC Championship Game, and now SuperBowl!!