Seattle Spotlight: Pike Place Market

First of all, I love Seattle. I’ve been three times now and this trip was particularly awesome. Second of all, I love Pike Place Market. Yeah, it’s completely touristy but it has so many amazing things to offer. Beautiful sights, delicious smells, great people watching, and just an overall cool vibe. There are a million places to eat, all different than the next and offering something yummy and affordable. The public market itself is incredible with flowers and produce everywhere. And then there’s all that’s in between – the novelties, the hidden treasures, and the undiscovered. Pike Place is just magical to me.

Here are some of my favorite things:

The Novelties

Smoked Salmon Sticks from Totem Smokehouse (John went crazy upon seeing these):

Chukar Cherries offers snacks and treats, all made with cherries.

And who doesn’t need Kethcup & Mayo in a tube? A Bavarian Meats Deli classic.

The Food

Your first stop on any trip to Pike Place should be to Piroshky, Piroshky. I recently learned that it’s pronounced pee-ruzh-ki and not puh-rosh-kee. Also it’s really one pirozhok (pee-ruzh-uk), pirozhki is the plural. If you want to get technical about it. And I do.

John was psychotic from the time we got off the plane until we got here. I’ve never seen a man so crazed. We bought several piroshky (celery/mushroom/onion, cheddar and green onion, and a salmon pate) and a souvenir tote bag and everything was ok again.

They are just the perfect food: hearty, warm, filling, fresh, hand held, made with simple ingredients, not overspiced (I think just salt and pepper in most), ideally portioned, sweet or savory (or both), and comforting.

Next up: Beecher’s “World’s Best” Mac & Cheese. I don’t know if it was the world’s best but it was mighty fine: creamy, rich, buttery – but a little on the pricey side.

On to my personal favorite: the Daily Dozen Donut Company. For under $2 you can get a bag of a half dozen (though our half dozen equaled 8) perfectly cooked, fresh, crispy, warm mixed flavor mini donuts (cinnamon, plain, powdered, and chocolate glazed with sprinkles). These little pillows of heaven are the perfect snack for a person with a sweet tooth: ME.

Later we hit up the DeLaurenti Pizza Window. DeLaurenti is a specialty foods store with every imaginable thing under the sun. It has rows and rows of jars, bottles, and cans of the most delicious and perfect looking foods. Plus they have fresh bread and an enormous deli counter.

Pizza Nom Time for Me:

Pike Place Nuts looked delicious (caramel cashews? cinnamon almonds?!) but we were too stuffed at that point to get anything else. There’s always next time!

The Market

Talk about food grabbing all five of your senses! The colors are brilliant, smells are exotic, everything feels fresh and juicy, and it’s all local so it tastes like food should taste. I could have taken pictures all day of the produce at Pike Place.

The Flowers

My god the flowers. So beautiful they will take your breath away. Let me be clear for folks who have never been here: there is not one flower stand, there are dozens. Each packed with flowers, each bouquet more lovely than the next, the smell of fresh flowers enticing you at ever corner. If I lived in Seattle I’d be down here every week buying fresh flowers.

I have to mention that I fell head over heels in love with all of the dahlias. Specifically the white ones and more specifically the white ones tinged with purple (see below). Dahlias are so delicate and intricate, and the color variety was unbelievable. They are just gorgeous.

Have you ever been to Pike Place Market? What are your favorite things there?