Seattle Bites Culinary Tour

Our stay in Sammamish was complete with mints on our pillows :)

Thanks mom :)

To celebrate our anniversary, we headed downtown for the Seattle Bites culinary tour of Pike Place Market. It was really cool to spend some time getting to know the market where we always go, but know little history about. Plus, we got to try about 12 "bites" (rather hearty) from food vendors that we wouldn't otherwise have tried.

First stop, Taste restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum. This very natural/organic eatery was one of our favorites. Very fresh, real, flavorful dishes. We had freshly baked flatbread with creme fresh, capers, cilantro, red onions and smoked salmon. You better believe we took seconds when they came around offering!

Next stop, Crepe de France.

We had banana nutella crepes, which were, incredible. (They were great, don't get me wrong, but Budapest's Langos definitely win on fatty pastry smothered in chocolate....) I could definitely handle a full size of this crepe!

If you've been to Seattle and seen the tiles, then this photo will look familiar. I loved the tour because even though it was about food, we heard cool stories about the vendors, and things like the love story that made these tiles special. Apparently the guy (math teacher at University of Washington) bought all these tiles ($25/tile at the time) and simply put a prime number on each tile, symbolizing how his love for this woman is only divisible by itself. How cute :)

Our ginger tour guide was awesome! She was energetic and engaging and she knew all the answers! And, I'm pretty sure we got special treatment since Scott's a ginger too! (Do you think Baby Hathaway will be an orange? Im kinda thinking yes since Heather and Bryan were both strawberry blonde, and let's be honest, Scott's hair color is probably dominant!)

ANYWAY, this "I love New York Deli" had pretty great sandwiches :) It came with a delightful pickle spear, and CELERY soda! So good paired with the authentic pastrami. Definitely one of my favorite bites.

I think both of our ultimate favorite was the clam chowder! It is just off post road if you want to go there, just on the edge of the "Sanitary building" with all the dairy products.

This chowder has won Maine's "New England Chowder Cook Off" 3 years in a row. Pike Place Chowder is now not invited to compete, but the owner is now a judge. Here's what the store front looks like so you'll recognize it when you see it. This is a don't miss it. Really, pin it, write it in your planner, save it in your Google account- you've gotta do something to remind yourself to eat here.

And even Seattle's Best had something for us. The hot chocolate was perfect on a cold January day. Pike Place Market promotes the entrepreneur, and does not host chain companies. They don't want a commercial market. But, there are 2 exceptions: Starbucks, and Seattle's Best Coffee. And the only reason they have space at the market is because these were their first sites. The market didn't kick them out for succeeding. It was cool to hear how Seattle's Best went from Stewart Brothers Coffee to SBC to Seattle's Best Coffee! So cool how every business has their story and really neat to learn of everything they went through.

Such a great day :)

Here we have a glazed salmon bite. Phenomenal salmon, prepared in a great fashion. YUM. If only they handed this stuff out on long flights!

Chicken Tikka Marsala! Spicy and good! This is one of those where it just looks like cafeteria bins of food, and you opt for a sandwich instead of stopping at this stand. Well skip this stand no more! The Tikka Marsala was off the hook! Get ready for a spicy experience- very flavorful and loved every bite, but you'll need some milk!

And the gum wall. Who doesn't love the gum wall? The comedy theater just beside the wall began having a gum problem, and prohibiting the young teens from bringing gum into the theater. Well without a garbage to dispose of the forbidden gum, the kids began just sticking it to the brick. They scraped it off once, but since learning that the Seattle gum wall is in the top 3 for "World's least hygenic tour attractions" they've left it up, hoping to win first!

Wearing that coat and jumping around they was I was, I doubt anyone in our tour group even suspected I was 5 months prego.

Oh, and the sausauge. Prepared by a legit German man who trained in Taiwan? Yeah, not sure... Anyway, I didn't like it, Scott loved it. Lucky guy got to eat mine.

And our last stop, DADS OFFICE! Luckily there was a birthday and they'd ordered in red velvet cupcakes (Scott's fav) and moist carrot cake cupcakes (My fav) so we got to party with them. I still love going to visit my dad almost as much as I did as a 6 year old when I followed the copy lady around and begged to make a copy of my handprint and shred papers for her.

We had such a great day, really glad we did the tour. We're not really tour people, but this one worked out great and we have no regrets. Next time, we're definitely getting clam chowder and we're anxious to try Beecher's macaroni and cheese. Anybody heard of it or had it before? The line was about 40 minutes long which is always a sign of good food!