Thursday, June 26, 2008

Savor Seattle Food Tours

Savor Seattle Food Tours
8521B Interlake Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98103
(800) 838-3006

"Savor Seattle Food Tours specializes in guided walking food tours of some of Seattle’s tastiest neighborhoods. Our signature tour invites you to sample the gems of Pike Place Market, a beacon in Seattle’s vibrant culinary scene."


Anthony Bourdain best sums up the reason I like to stop at the local food markets first, "Food is maybe the fastest, easiest and best way “in” to an unfamiliar place and culture. Once you’ve sat down with people and eaten their food, their whole world opens up to you in ways that wouldn’t ordinarily happen. Food, after all, is the purest expression of a country, of a culture, a region and a personality."


Seattle is not a foreign country that I am unfamiliar with, but one can always get good tips from the locals and vendors about where to eat and places to avoid. The Savor Seattle food tour is a good place to start your exploration of Seattle if you like food since Pike Place is where many of the local chefs shop.


I have been on a few food tours and the Angela's was a well-oiled machine. One of the good things is that you are provided with a wireless earpiece so you do not have to stand in one place while she describes the food and vendor. It’s easy to do a little exploration of your own and see some of the other sights of Pike's Place and still hear the information. You can see that she also has a great relationship with each of the vendors; it is like they are old friends. When you complete the tour you get a 10% off card for any of the vendors that you visited. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Seattle.


Here are a few highlights of the tour.



Where they throw the fish and they are interesting characters to talk to. They whipped the fake pillow salmon at me while I was not looking, but I still caught it. Ha! :)



Chukar Cherries
http://www.chukar.com/

We had sorts of samples: salsa, trail mix and several kinds of candy.




The Confectional

http://www.theconfectional.com/

This is where we sampled Colombian drinking chocolate. How was it? Holy cow! If you like chocolate they you have to try a sample.



Beecher's Handmade Cheese
http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/


Got to sample the Flagship cheese, "Flagship is a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese with a uniquely robust, nutty flavor. It is carefully aged for one year under the watchful eye of the cheesemaker to fully develop its complex flavor and ever-so-slight crumble. Outstanding on a Beecher’s Cracker!"


Etta's Seafood
tomdouglas.com/ettas/index.html