P365 TE Day 362

Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl from Lowell's

Travel Bite: I used to associate Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl with the San Francisco Wharf, and I still do, but ever since I tried it from Lowell's at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, it will always have a place in my Seattle to eat list.

You can read my post on it here.

Location: Seattle, USA
Date Photo Taken: May 2013

P365 TE Points for today: 2 out of 3 (for now)
P365 TE Points from Audience Interaction as of Dec 24: 309

P365 TE Running Points: 990 out of 1037 as of posting)

You can read the background of Project 365 Travel Edition here.  

Feel free to come back everyday. just saying...

P365 TE Day 361

Pike Place Market

Travel Bite: My favorite place to visit in Seattle is Pike Place Market. In addition to housing the first Starbucks branch, it's also a nice place to visit for sightseeing.

You can read my post on it here.

Location: Seattle, USA
Date Photo Taken: May 2013

P365 TE Points for today: 2 out of 3 (for now)
P365 TE Points from Audience Interaction as of Dec 24: 309

P365 TE Running Points: 988 out of 1034 as of posting)

You can read the background of Project 365 Travel Edition here.  

Feel free to come back everyday. just saying...

P365 Te Day 360

Space Needle

Travel Bite: The Space Needle is an iconic Seattle landmark. We were lucky enough to stay at a hotel very close by and also close enough to downtown.

You can read my post on our stay at the Hyatt Place Seattle Downtown here.

Location: Seattle, USA
Date Photo Taken: May 2013

P365 TE Points for today: 2 out of 3 (for now)
P365 TE Points from Audience Interaction as of Dec 24: 309

P365 TE Running Points: 986 out of 1031 as of posting)

You can read the background of Project 365 Travel Edition here.  

Feel free to come back everyday. just saying...

P365 TE Day 202

Seafood Chowder in a Bread Bowl

Travel Bite: Just like the San Francisco Wharf must eat, if you're in Seattle, you also need to have Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl. There are a lot of seafood places that offer it, but we enjoyed it so much when we tried it from Lowell's at Pike Place Market (where you can even enjoy a nice view of the water from the second floor) that we went back to have it again when we came back from the cruise.

You can read my post on our Seattle layover here.

Location: Seattle, USA
Date Photo Taken: May 2013

P365 TE Points for today: 2 out of 3 (for now)
P365 TE Points from Audience Interaction as of July 18: 198

P365 TE Running Points: 601 out of 606 (as of posting)

You can read the background of Project 365 Travel Edition here.  

Feel free to come back everyday. just saying...

P365 TE Day 201

First Starbucks in Pike Place Market

Travel Bite: Being the coffee lover that I am, my favorite tourist attraction in Seattle is the First Starbucks Store in Pike Place Market. Be ready for long lines when you visit this branch that still sports the original Starbucks mermaid logo. You can order your favorite drink, but seats aren't available, however, they have a collection of merchandise exclusive to the First Starbucks Store in Pike Place. It's almost impossible to walk out without a tumbler or mug.

Location: Seattle, USA
Date Photo Taken: May 2013

P365 TE Points for today: 2 out of 3 (for now)
P365 TE Points from Audience Interaction as of July 18: 198

P365 TE Running Points: 599 out of 603 (as of posting)

You can read the background of Project 365 Travel Edition here.  

Feel free to come back everyday. just saying...

Seattle's Must Try Dish: Porchetta

When we were planning what to do and where to eat in Seattle,  several foodie friends of mine recommended the Porchetta at Salumi, the deli of Mario Batalli's parents. Unfortunately, Salumi is only open from 11am-4pm Mondays to Fridays, while we were only in Seattle one Saturday and one Sunday.

Porchetta is pork loin, roasted the Italian way, served with crisp Pork Skin. Our mouths were watering at the thought of yummy roast pork that we googled until we found an alternative porchetta place with good reviews that we could go to.

We opted to go with Lecosho since their porchetta also made
it to several Must Try Lists.
If the menu is any indication, it seemed like a good choice.

Lecosho is mid-way along the Harbor Steps,
On University Street.

We all wanted to order porchetta but we played it safe by ordering 1 dish to share between 2 people so we could also order something else.

I ordered the Columbia City Bakery Baguette (US $3)
with sea salted butter and olive relish for Fi because I wasn't
sure if she'd like the porchetta,  but the artisanal baguette
was so good, we kept on ordering more.

The sea salted butter went really well with the crusty bread.

Ady and I shared the house salad with boiled egg (US$7),
Cooked in the semi-soft way as when served with ramen.

The highlight of our meal was the Lecosho Porchetta (US $19),
Described as Pork Belly wrapped around Pork Tenderloin,
Usually served with Corona Beans and baby turnips.
However,  as our family is not fond of beans, they changed it.

You can see from the picture that the pork skin was cooked till it was crisp, and if I remember right, the fat of the pork was evenly distributed,  so you can pretend it never existed, as if you eat it fast enough, there would be no evidence left. It was good that we ordered it to share with a salad so it felt like we tried to make it a healthier meal.

We also ordered a Cheese Plate (US $12).

And a Chocolate dessert which I remember tasted better
than it looks.

Lecosho has an open kitchen set-up.

You can see the chefs cook, but I don't think we ended up
smelling like dinner afterwards. 

The place wasn't crowded on a Sunday night, but the concierge
at our hotel made us a reservation just to make sure.

This was the last meal in our US-Alaska trip and it was just
the right way to end our holiday. 

While I really enjoyed all the dishes we ordered from Lecosho,  I can't wait to try Salumi. If I ever find myself in Seattle again, I will definitely plan to be there for a weekday lunch. just saying.

Lecosho
The Harbor Steps (Mid-way)
89 University Street
Seattle,  Washington

Hyatt Place Seattle Downtown

When we were in Seattle, we stayed at the Hyatt Place Seattle Downtown one day before our cruise and another day when we got back. My aunt chose this hotel for it's proximity (around 15 minutes or around US$15 by cab) to the Cruise Terminal.

I loved the location of the hotel on 6th Avenue. We had such a great view
of the Space Needle, I didn't feel any need to see it an closer.

Sofia trying to "buddy-up" with Tito Ian when we arrived.

The front desk staff are also trained as Starbucks baristas,
but they don't carry the Venti size at the hotel.

We weren't really that close to Pike Place Market (it's around a 20 minute walk), but the good thing is the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle anywhere within a 1 mile radius covering most of the downtown area. We normally took the shuttle to go downtown, then you can call the hotel for a shuttle pick-up, or you could also just opt to walk back to the hotel which we did a few times.

Sofia horsing around with Lolo Bong while we were
waiting for the shuttle.

The van was just the right size for our group. Hahaha.

The rooms at Hyatt Place were also big and comfortable. On our first night, we shared a room with Auntie Celit, Me, Ady and Sofia, but on our last night after the cruise, we shared the room with Pa and Ma, so Ady, Sofia and myself shared one bed.

We had a room with 2 queen beds.

There was also a large couch in the living room side.
I think someone could also sleep here comfortably.

Across the couch, there's a table for working,
and a counter with the complimentary coffee and tea.

Then on another side, there's a toilet and tub, with the sink for
washing up outside the bathroom.

The room was big enough for our hole group to hand out and have pizza delivered for dinner, our for Sofia to get everyone together for Bingo Night.

Our Bingo Master with her new Bingo Set from Ross.

Everyone had to pay US$1 to get 2 Bingo Cards to play. Hahaha.

Another great thing about the location was the Walgreens across the street that was open until midnight. We normally went over before calling it a night hoping to find something more to buy to fill our luggage with, as Seattle was our last stop before flying back home.

You can also see the Space Needle at night behind Walgreens.

Sof and I found the Clearance Bin at Walgreens and it took a lot of
self-control to walk away from the 1Direction paraphernalia on sale.

Another great thing about Hyatt Place is the breakfast! In my experience, the hotel buffets in Asia are normally so much better than the hotels in Europe and the US where you normally just get some orange juice, weak coffee and bread, but at Hyatt Place they had a complete spread of food that we love. 

It's generally help yourself to everything. You just enter and eat.
They don't even have a person standing by to ask for your room number.

They had fruit (and grapefruit), muesli and yogurt.

Different breads and pastries

Single serve cereal and oatmeal

This is my favorite section.

I love brown and serve sausages so much, I honestly don't know
how many sausages I ate on the whole trip!

Fruit, Water, Milk and Juice

Ady had the brilliant idea of eating her toasted bagel with honey
and cream cheese so I bummed some from her.

The breakfast crowd.

Another plus of having Walgreens nearby...
It was easy enough to run and get Sofia some bubble bath.

Bath tub #availed just before we left!

If we were going to take another Cruise departing from Seattle, I would love to stay at Hyatt Place again. But if we were just visiting Seattle to shop, I would probably look into staying at the other hotels closer to Pike Place market.  just saying. 

Hyatt Place Seattle Downtown

110 6th Ave N  Seattle, 

WA 98109, United States

+1 206-441-6041

Layover Seattle

When we were planning our trip, Seattle was just a place we needed to visit because it was where we were catching our Cruise from. We did some research of course, and our top picks included 'seeing' the Space Needle, doing some shopping, and visiting Pike Place Market, with the only touristy thing we wanted to spend time doing was to go to the very first Starbucks Store. 

We've been told that Seattle is always cloudy and it always rains, so we were in for a pleasant surprise when the weather was wonderful the day we arrived as we had a day to explore before catching our Cruise.  

The skies were clear and it was sunny even before we landed.

We were the first team to arrive at the pick-up point. Hahaha.
Always on amazing race mode.

We were starving, so we just dropped off our bags at the hotel, and off we went to lunch.

It was great that we could 'see' the Space Needle from the
Hyatt Place Downtown, where we were staying.
One thing ticked off on our Seattle To Do list.

Our first stop was Pike Place Market.

We didn't really know what kind of market it was so we didn't know what to expect, we just knew that we were hungry so we went in search of a place to eat.

You immediately see beautiful flowers.

The market was quite busy on a Sunday.

It had everything from Fresh Seafood,

Fruits and Veggies

And there were also Sea View Restaurants.

We picked Lowell's because we wanted to try their clam chowder,
more than eat at the Seafood Restaurants beside it.

You just line up, order and pay, then they bring you your food.

They have a sitting area on the third floor with
a great view of the waterfront.

Ady and Fi while waiting for our food.

Ady and I ordered the Clam Chowder in a bread bowl to share
with Sofia. It was as good as it looks!

We also ordered Calamari Strips with Red Pepper Aioli
and it was well-seasoned and very tender.

My other favorite dish was the Pulled-Pork with Mashed Potato.
It might not look like much, but each bite was a burst of flavor.

We occupied 2 tables by the windows so we could enjoy the view.

"Almost Classy"

I also asked myself if everything tasted so good because we were close to starving to death, so we ate at Lowell's again for lunch when we got back from the Cruise and we were still very happy.

Tita Ignie treated us to lunch there the second time around
and we ordered exactly the same thing.

The only difference is the sky was gray, not blue.

Anyway, after stuffing ourselves, we like walking around Pike Place Market.

There's a pasta place giving out free samples.

The lady was handing out Chocolate Pasta that you can munch on
even when it's uncooked. It tasted really weird though.
It would probably taste better cooked.

Dried Fruit Stand

More flowers

The crabs were so huge, a tentacle was a long
as Mama's arms.

We were on a mission to find the first Starbucks Store.

Downtown skyline from Pike Place Market.

On our way to Starbucks, we saw this place that smelled like yummy
freshly baked stuff, with really long lines.

And you could see how they were making their
pastries.

It turned out to be a really popular Russian Bakery.
I really, really, wanted to try it but we were so full from lunch.

Since I have a one-track-mind when it comes to food,
I dragged Ady all the way back to Pike Place next day while everyone
was at mass so we could try the Piroshky.

They had some samples out and a list of their bestsellers,
 but I wanted to try everything!

This was just about to go into the oven.

We bought their savoury best seller,
the Beef and Onion Piroshky.

I think literally, Piroshky means baked stuffed buns. It reminded me of
the asado roll from Chinese bakeries in the Philippines. It was quite good.

Then we ordered a Whole Bake Apple. I couldn't resist the Cream Cheese frosting, and it looks very similar to my mom's Apple Dumpling.

At Piroshky, Piroshky, because when it comes to food,
we're partners in crime.

A few doors down, is the first Starbucks Store. It seems like we weren't the only ones who wanted to visit this branch because the line was long despite their being a Starbucks on almost every other corner in Seattle.

More on Starbucks Pike Place in a separate post.

Across Starbucks, there an open air market with sellers of their crafts.

There's this lady selling tents. Yes. Tents.

Then there's the usual souvenir art with a lot of Seattle scenes.

Ironically, heading Downtown from the market requires some effort because of the steep uphill climb.

This is me on the steep street with the market behind.

Sofia didn't mind the walk, as long as we stopped in 'her' kind of stores.

Beggars need to be creative nowadays.

Our favorite store in Seattle is ROSS, Dress for Less.

Branded Stuff, at discounted prices.
I shopped vicariously through Ady most of the time.
I exercised self-control because I shopped in Florence.

Sofia also likes Ross because they have a toy section,
and their carts are big enough to nap in.
Here, she's just pretending to sleep.

But she was so tired, she really did fall asleep.
Only after picking out her toy of course!

Not all the buildings downtown look drab.
I loved the look of the Banana Republic building.

There was an Urban Outfitter's store where I loved browsing through the junk. I didn't buy anything because it was all overpriced.

Sofia would have loved this.
9 differed Fart Sound Effects.

They had Nerds as big as the Tote Bag I bought.

Our walking around took us to Westlake Center, the most boring shopping mall on earth except for Nordstrom Rack where I didn't find anything to buy, and believe me, it wasn't for lack of trying!

Surprisingly, there's a Daiso in Westlake.

But even among their $1.50 selection,
I didn't find anything that remotely tempted me.
So the learning is, I only love Daiso in Asia.

In front of Westlake is this beautiful Square.

The tree trunks are blue.

And there was a playground for Sofia to enjoy.

My favorite about Seattle is still the Starbucks on every (other) corner.

This is the Starbucks across the Square with the blue trees.

And this is a Starbucks somewhere on 6th Avenue.

Ady and I love ordering the Iced Cinnamon Dolce Latte
Venti to share.

Sofia also likes sharing with us.

When we were too tired to shop, we went to
Starbucks (again!) and felt bad we didn't get to avail
of Happy Hour for our first drink because we didn't know.

But the baristas were so disorganized, a few minutes
after our Cinnamon Dolce Latte (hot this time)
was served, they kept on calling from Audrey.
BTW, Starbucks also gives away free App cards.

We ended up with two drinks! Yay! Buy1Get1 Free works as well for us.

On our next visit to Seattle, a week after, when we got back from the Cruise, we headed directly to Pike Place Market to have lunch at our favorite place.

We just had to stop at the Flatten the Penny Machine since Sofia
now has a Penny Collection.

Sofia on Rachel the Piggy Bank, the unofficial mascot
of Pike Place Market.

It was Mother's Day so the flowers were more expensive that usual.

The tulips were beautiful.

They had all colors and kinds.

Sofia picked out a red one for me.

She was bank-rolled by her Lolo,
so she gave one to all the moms in our group.

Pike Place had a free Arts and Crafts booth where the kids can make
Handmade Cards.

Sofia was busy decorating her card for me
and her gammy.

Thanks Fi. Mommy loves you so much.

This busker was eating 1 guitar, playing 1 and
keeping 2 Hula Hoops on his waist.

On our second trip, we stilled stayed at Hyatt Place,
and this is how the Space Needle looks when it's cloudy.

The weather was cooperative enough for Sofia
to be able to wear her trench coat
from Ninang Jem and Ninong Tim.

Surprisingly, I really liked Seattle.
But I prefer it on the rare days that it's sunny.
just saying.

Lowell's Restaurant

1519 Pike Pl, Seattle, WA ‎

Pike Place Market

+1 206-622-2036 ‎  

www.eatatlowells.com

Piroshky Piroshky

1908 Pike Pl  Seattle, WA 

Pike Place Market

+1 206-441-6068

www.piroshkybakery.com

First Starbucks Store

1912 Pike Pl, Seattle, WA

Pike Place Market

ROSS Dress for Less

301 Pike St

Seattle

+1 206-623-6781