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Good Eats: Seattle’s Pike Place Market

The Pike Place Market – a Seattle mecca for fresh produce, handcrafted items, artisan chocolates, fresh flowers, fish mongers tossing the daily catch for tourists and an endless list of places to nosh.

Pike Place Chowder is highly rated on Trip Advisor, Yelp and Urbanspoon so I figured it was a contender in the world of chowder, but I’ll have an opinion. It was difficult to choose but I selected the combination with half a Dungenous crab roll and 8oz of chowder with seared scallops, dill and lime juice. The first taste of the chowder was an epiphany with the creaminess just coating the palate and purple potatoes added a nice color nuance. The scallops were an irregular diced/pulled style perfect for single bites, full of fresh flavors and wonderful texture. It was excellent! The crab roll was stuffed full of shredded crab, bits of crunchy diced celery and creamy mayo dressed with shredded iceberg lettuce. The briny freshness of the crab was the standout, carrying the sandwich as it should. Very good stuff but the chowder is the real star!

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese is located on a corner, providing the opportunity to nearly encircle the cheesemaking kitchen with windows, allowing a live demonstration of all three of those tenets in an entertaining format. Next, it was time to sample the Mac & cheese, some say it’s the “World’s Best”, to savor the richness of penne pasta with their award-winning Flagship cheese made with premium milk from Holstein and Jersey cows with nothing artificial added. This creamy concoction has the right amount of pepper to give it a noticeable kick which then succumbed to the flavors of “full on” rich and creamy cheese in every bite.

Offering spectacular views of Elliott Bay, Matt’s in the Market  has several appealing options but the Farro-Bacon soup and Pork Belly Sandwich were calling my name. A soup bowl filled with farro-giving it texture, bacon, finely diced carrot, onions & celery with a light tomato broth that gave off just the right amount of savory without veering into the “tomato” taste. The pork belly confit sandwich “bahn mi” style, succulent slow cooked pork belly, including the fat,  pickled radish & carrot, Fresno chiles, hoison sauce, fresh cilantro, and sambal aioli.  What a challenge for the taste buds, it’s a great combo of sweet heat all crammed into a baguette from local bakery Le Panier.

Posted from wine enthusiast and foodie Shawn Luke