Tag Archives: market

Honeymoon: Seattle- Pike Place Market

7 Jul

After an amazing week in Maine getting married, we spent one night back at our apartment in Manhattan before jetting off to the other coast.  We spent much of our first day in Seattle exploring the Pike Place Market, which may have been one of my favorite places ever.

I have a soft spot for markets in general, but the Pike Place Market is just a huge treasure trove of all sorts of goodies.  They have a lot of nicknack stores and some oddities, but my favorite parts of the market were 2 things.

1- The flowers:

The likes of which I had not seen before and were just show stopping.

 

 

2- Tons of fresh food:

The fish tossers are famous

And the same market had some of the biggest lobster tails we’ve ever seen

We got some great fresh made donuts for breakfast one morning and I took a video of the cool mini donut maker they had:

And we picked up some great things to bring home, including gooseberry jam and chocolate pasta. But the fresh Washington cherries were perfect snacks for the road trip.

It made me really wish we had a kitchen so we could sweep up all those amazing ingredients and make meals from them.

 

But the market itself was very cool to walk through.

There were some cool big sculptures, including this huge squid…

And a few pigs…

Right outside the market is a huge gum wall, which is surprisingly cool to see (and Mike made a contribution)

 

The Pike Place Market is also across from the original Starbucks (which had too long a line for us to bother with, but was cool to see).

 

If you are going to Seattle, I highly recommend setting aside a good amount of time for exploring the nooks and crannies of the Pike Place market.

 

Eataly: Il Crudo

6 May

I finally got the chance to actually eat at Eataly with a friend recently.

I really liked the fresh farmer’s stand at the entrance.  Everything just looked great.  Made me want to go home and cook!

DSCF3691

We mulled around a bit and looked for a place to sit down so we could have a bite and a glass of wine.

We saw some open seats at the bar in front of Il Crudo (which is the side bar to Il Pesce) and decided to give it a whirl.

DSCF3696

Crudo usually isn’t something I’d seek out.  I like fish and a I like sushi, but isn’t crudo just glorified sashimi?

We ordered a sampler of 3 from their specials menu.

DSCF3692

And NOW I see what all the fuss is about.  Each one was better than the next, with fantastic, full flavors that didn’t overpower the fish.  They complimented each other incredibly well. These were 3 very enjoyable bites.

DSCF3695

We also ordered a meat and cheese board to make it a meal.  Each selection was packed with flavor, meat and cheese alike.

DSCF3693

And it came with a perfect pairing of honey and dried fruits.  Yum!

DSCF3694

Overall, I was very impressed with all the nibbles we had here.  It really convinced me that I need to go back and really dine here, as I was so impressed by the simple freshness and care to preparation.  Very good!  Can’t wait to return.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10