24 Hours in Seattle - According to a Foodie, Seattle, Washington

When in Portland (more on that in the next few weeks), do as the Oregonians do and take a city trip to Seattle. Better still, drive up the Oregon coast and stop off at the beaches and forests to take in some Pacific air en route. We had only 24 hours in Seattle, but we made the most of them the only way we know how - by eating! If you want to follow our itinerary, you’ll need to arrive by lunchtime on day 1 and leave after brunch on day 2. Just enough time to catch a few restaurants, a market and some Seattle coffee houses. Enjoy!

Split across multiple levels and spilling out into the street as well as indoors, the Pike Place Market is a feast for the senses - especially of the gustatory variety. Walk past vibrant flower stalls on the upper level until you reach Pacific-fresh fish mongers and patchworks of colourful fresh produce. We stopped at a bagel stall for a just-baked sesame bagel with cream cheese and lox (I believe it was made from chinook, the local northwest salmon). We also headed inside for a pasta-and-wine stop at Casalinga. What’s the one thing I wish I’d had room for? Typical Northwest clam chowder from Pike Place Chowder!

I expect Portland and Seattle have an ongoing feud about which is the capital of coffee in America. But one thing Portland can’t lay claim to (and they’re probably not too upset about this) is the invention of Starbucks. Now, I don’t like Starbucks any more than the next coffee snob, but arguably we have quite a lot of thank them for. In England, at least, we’d all still be drinking Nescafé if it wasn’t for the purveyors of the Frappuccino. So no trip to Seattle would be complete without a visit to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, with its Willy Wonka copper-tastic interior and truckloads of expensive coffee paraphernalia. Just be careful as you walk outside that you don’t hit some poor tourist in the face - we watched several people attempting to have their photo taken outside the iconic star-studded doors and getting repeatedly knocked over. (If I were in Amsterdam, I’d say more fool the tourist - but since I was on holiday I’m feeling a little more charitable…) ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).