Pike Place Market Foodie Tour

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Geo: 47.6353, -122.302

Vacation Day 3 Monday Sept 19th

Where do I start? Today was long, exhausting, and fantastic. We started the day with some kisses & cards and a mini celebration of our 2 year wedding anniversary! Yay! We were up early and out the door by 6:30 as we had a driver to take us from the airport to downtown Seattle. The traffic getting to downtown Seattle was bumper to bumper.

We got to our hotel much quicker than expected – we had a great second generation Chinese American named Rocky as our driver. He was quick and polite – two things everyone likes in a driver. We arrived at the Warwick early and our room wasn't ready so we left our bags with the concierge and said we'd be back in a few hours. We made a quick stop at Starbucks on the corner (they are at every corner here it seems) for another Carmel Light Frappuccino. We had a morning tour scheduled and had some extra time ahead to walk around and explore just a bit. Something interesting we learned today – Seattle is known as a “sleepy” town and none of the businesses open until 10:00 am. NONE of them. Odd, we thought.

We finally finished walking around seeing a few sites and closed stores and met at yet another Starbucks for our 10:00 Savour Seattle Tour of Pike Place Market. The tour is advertised as 16 bites for 16 people – you travel in a small group with a tour guide who leads you to specific businesses in and around Pike Place Market where you taste various foods and learn lots of interesting history about the market and Seattle. I would describe the tour as ALL KINDS OF DELISHNESS. It was fabulous!! I will try to write about the best parts.... We met our tour leader… Ezra... he was quite the jokster. There was a small group of us… probably 12. We were all given miniature pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. They were amazing and I want one right now, again. It's my new favorite. Ezra led us through the market to various vendors and historical sites. This tour was a delight to our taste buds and our minds. After a brief history of how the market came about (long but interesting story), our first tasting was at a wonderful doughnut booth. The little doughnuts here are made daily by two machines - one machine turns out 12,000 per day and the other makes approximately 40,000 per day. The donuts we tried were small and seemingly perfect ~ soft and light on the inside with a nice cripsy outside. Sinful.

Our next stop was a Spice Market. We had a orange, clove, & cinnamon tea here. It had too many oils in it for my tea-loving tastes. This stop on the tour was a treat for your nose, for sure... lots of wonderful and interesting smells. Did you know the average spice you buy new in the store is already 4 to 6 years old? Spices sold in this shop are all 6 months "old" or less, only!

The next stop was the famous fish-throwing company in the market... We were given three samples of fish ~ all three varieties of salmon with the last being a salmon jerky made from the fat on a salmon. We watched the guys throw some huge fish. They only throw when someone orders but luckily, lots of locals wanted some fresh fish this morning. They sing and make a semi-big deal of the throwing of the fish. It's interesting. Hubby was convinced he was going to throw a fish but that didn't happen. He did, however, get some extra salmon. I suppose that appeased him. We noticed a sign that says "We only sell 100% sustainable seafood" - which, as we learned in our tour, they will only sell local seafood (obviously) and refuse to sell any seafood caught by nets - they are against any type of commercial fishing that would use a "net" to not only gather the fish but other sea animals/creatures - which would have to be killed or ruined. There was lots of information about Seattle and the area given to us at every booth/shop we visited.

We then walked across the street to the Pike Place Farmer's Market where we enjoyed some delish blueberries, peaches, & possibly one of the best apples I've ever tasted.

Our next stop was hubby's favorite tasting of the tour and my second favorite. Pike Place Chowder. Pike Place Chowder won the National Chowder Competition for so long they finally told them they couldn't enter anymore and gave them a lifetime winners award. Kinda funny, huh?! Well, this chowder is worth the wait in line (we didn't have to wait but many others were waiting) and is probably worth every penny they charge. It is wonderful, hot, creamy, and sooo soooo good. We were each given a little cup of the chowder but I would have enjoyed a bowl! I think all of us agreed. They also gave us their award-winning bisque to sample which was good but would have been better with some bread.

Next we went to a wall-to-wall people inside area of the market. We were allowed behind the counter at a place called Chukar Cherries - which was advertised as a chocolate covered cherry establishment. I don't like cherries and I'm not a big chocolate fan. Neither hubby nor I were too excited about this stop on the tour. Once we arrived, we were lined-up behind the counter as one of the Chukar Cherries reps began telling us the story behind these treats while we watched others line-up to make their purchases. We were each given a cup of various items and asked not to eat them.. just yet...We ate each item as a group... one at a time... and were given details as to the origin of the ingredients, etc..
We tasted...
*a dried bing cherry ~ so-so ~ again, I'm not a cherry fan
*a chocolate and espresso covered cherry ~ good ~ I'm warming-up to this tasting
*a merlot infused chocolate covered cherry ~ yum yum ~ anything with red wine and chocolate has to be good, right?!! Yes. Good. Good.
*a raspberry (powder) covered white chocolate cherry ~ amazing ~ I'm actually not for sure there was a cherry in this item... we let it melt on our tongues and it was sooo good to taste each flavor melting in your mouth.
and for the grand finale...
*a powdered-sugar covered, honey-infused, chocolate covered pecan ~ a little drop of heaven!! I think this may have been the best "sweet" item I've ate in years. It was, by far, the best tasting on the entire tour.
I loved Chukar Cherries so much we returned to their stand after the tour and purchased a bag for our cruise and a bag to nibble on throughout the day. I nibbled... and nibbled... and nibbled.. I'm writing this update as we are on the train, our way to Vancouver, about 24 hours from when we purchased them... and I think we probably have less than 10 of the 50 or 60 we purchased yesterday. Hubby said he has only ate one. I'm sure he's had at least 10. (ha) These chocolate covered pecan thingymajigs are FANTASTIC and I am going to be sure and keep them in mind for future gifts!

Next we went to Oprah's favorite macaroni & cheese maker... Beecher's cheese. Beecher's use real, whole milk to make their cheese. Earlly every morning the milk truck hooks-up to an outside portal at Beecher's store and pumps in 400 gallons of whole milk so they can begin making cheese for the day. They are so popular they cannot keep up with requests for cheese. We both loved the macaroni & cheese and the jack cheese on crackers we tasted. I like any cheese but this was definitely some better-than-normal cheese and the mac n' cheese was like a tangy, cheese, whole wheat pasta. It was allll good.

We stopped by a Russian bakery with a fascinating history (my favorite story of the day). To make a super long story short... a lot of wonderful people came together to help two not-so-wealthy people start this bakery.. which makes a yummm-o piroshky. We had an apple and cinnamon piroshky and a beef and cheese piroshky. Even though I was hesitant to even try it at first, I liked the beef and cheese piroshky the best. They were both great and, again, I'm glad we didn't have to wait in line for their items because the people waiting made a line that went out the door the entire time we were here.

We visited a few other places and sampled and/or drank a few other items. I would recommend Savour Seattle Food Tours to anyone as not only was our tour guide funny and knowledgable but the history lesson and the great food combined is a fantastic way to spend several hours in a strange city. We both loved it and it was the highlight of our day today.
However, it was a long morning and lots of pictures were taken and, for now, I will end part one of this day of our vacation. I will post part two sooner or later.... our harbor cruise, late lunch/early dinner at the Crab Pot Restaurant, and our hotel room with a surprising view! For now, I am a sleepy girl on a train about 10 minutes from our stop in Vancouver, British Columbia and ready to board the Carnival Spirit cruise ship for twelve nights!! Yahooooo!!

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