Seattle: Piroshky Piroshky!

What is "piroshky?" It is essentially a stuffed pie filled with all sorts of fillings, from sweet to savory. It's similar to a calzone but the dough consistency is different, more like bread rather than pizza dough.

For the 3 times I've been to Pike Place Market, I've always seen a line form at Piroshky Piroshky. The first two times I/we didn't bother to wait in line cause there was so much to try still but on the last day of the trip, decided to grab a piroshky from this famous spot, just to see what all the hype is about, and holy crap no wonder this place got 4 1/2 stars on Yelp from 500+ reviews. It is daaamn legit.

Piroshky Piroshky

1908 Pike Place (between Stewart St & Western Ave)

Seattle, WA 98101

http://www.piroshkybakery.com/

Always a line.

The full menu, with beef & cheese and salmon being the most popular.

Stuffing the filling.

Looks like she was making potato, cheese & onion piroshky

Man prepping the dough. Zagat rated!

It has a slight yellowish color... probably from the eggs and the butter.

Finally got my piroshky!

Opted for the beef & cheese, the most popular item. It is... ADDICTING. Seriously of the best things I've had. Ground beef with cheese melted throughout. It's salty but it's a good saltiness that just makes you want more and more. The dough itself is amazing too: soft, buttery, and salty.

After trying that, I really really wanted to go back in line for more but the line got even longer, and since we were on a time restraint... decided to let go and hope sometime in the future I get to have these babies again! Seriously makes me sad that I can't get those piroshky here in LA... there's so many others I wanted to try too!

That's the last of the food I got to check out in Seattle. I would put pictures of Pike Place Market up but since the group only used my camera for the majority and my good friend Mikol already blogged about it, just go check it out here :]

Seattle: Where's the Milk Tea at?

While in Seattle, I started craving milk tea on our last day there so it was good that Chinatown Seattle was in our itinerary as I got to try out two of the spots. I didn't do any research beforehand and when I got to Chinatown, I went straight to the first store that had a sign for boba or milk tea.

Of course, the gate is a must for any Chinatown.

A Piece of Cake Bakery

514 S King St (between S 5th Ave & S 6th Ave)

Seattle, WA 98104

First shop that I saw with milk tea? A Piece of Cake Bakery.

Typical Chinese bakery, with buns, bread, and cakes.

Opted for the coffee milk tea. I tried to get it half sugar but the lady said the sugar was already mixed in... which meant it wasn't gonna be freshly made, except for the coffee part, which meant it wasn't gonna be any good... and I was right. Boo.

After walking around a bit more, saw plenty more more cafes and tea spots which totally made me regret jumping at the first spot but finally decided to try another from Oasis, a cafe that has a similar vibe to Guppy's in LA.

Oasis Tea Zone

519 6th Ave S (between King St & Jefferson St)

Seattle, WA 98104

Typical boba shop menu with snacks. Drinks MAY be customized which is a good thing haha.

Oasis didn't have honey milk green tea on their menu so I had to ask them to custom make it for me. It seems like they use condense milk for the milk part, which is okay, but not my first choice to be used for milk tea. Solid though. Love the honey, cause for some reason the honey flavor was stronger even though I asked for half the honey to make it not as sweet. Must be those crazy Washington bees.

To be honest, I did expect Seattle to have a Tea Station or something since it does have a pretty big Chinese population. Oasis wasn't bad and there were a few other tea spots that I didn't get to try but at least if I lived in Seattle I won't die from withdrawal of not having any milk tea hahah.

Seattle: Lola

Giada DeLaurentis on the show "Best Thing I Ever Ate" mentioned these donuts that were so amazing that its a must for her whenever she gets a chance. Of course, Connie and I were desperate to try the donuts and since we failed to try it at Dahlia, the next day we went to Lola, another Tom Douglass restaurant across from Dahlia Lounge, to have another shot at them donuts (and for breakfast of course).

Lola

2000 4th Ave (between Virginia St & Lenora St)

Seattle, WA 98121

www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola

Gloomy morning in Seattle

After trying to get it at Dahlia Lounge and Lola the previous night, finally the famous donuts arrive!!

More like beignets. Really soft and fried to a perfect golden crisp.

Vanilla marscapone and fresh apricot preserve. They are the real stars.

My golden brown pancakes and pork-maple sausage, vanilla marscapone, and spiced maple syrup.

Very light and airy. Delicious :]

One of the best sausages I've ever had. Of course, made in-house. It had a light sweetness. Perfect with the syrup.

Connie's omelette with goat cheese, fennel, and onions. Comes with bacon and toast.

Goat cheese is the real star.

Lola Breakfast, comes with two eggs, pork-maple sausage, smashed garlic fried potatoes, and hella buttered toast.

Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Never knew grapefruit juice could be this good when fresh made.

This was actually from the night before when we came to Lola after Dahlia Lounge hoping that they still had the donuts. Unfortunately, they ran out so I just ordered garlic oregano fries with garlic aioli. Good late night snack with a beer!

Tom Douglass is seriously too good. Got a great fine restaurant and then opens an awesome breakfast/brunch place right across. And the donuts... overpriced... yes, but man it definitely lived up to its hype.

Seattle: Dahlia Lounge

After searching for penguins at the Woodland Park Zoo on the 2nd day, we met up with Mikol who stayed behind since he was feeling sick for dinner at Dahlia Lounge in downtown, a restaurant by local celebrity chef, Tom Douglass.

So who is Tom Douglass? Well, he was the recipient of the James Beard Award in 1994 for Best Northwest Chef. If you don't know what the James Beard Award is, it is sort of like... the Oscar of the culinary world. He also beat Masaharu Morimoto in an Iron Chef America so the man's got some skills.

Dahlia Lounge

2001 4th Ave

Seattle, WA 98121

http://tomdouglas.com

Cool neon sign. Seattle businesses use a lot of neon signs for some reason.

Manny's Pale Ale, a great local Seattle brew. Seattle's got a lot of great microbrewery.

Rustic bread. Dahlia's also got a bakery right next door, selling everything from rustic artisan bread, pastries, desserts, salads, and sandwiches.

Connie started off her night with the Tsuyu Broth with Hudson Valley foie gras, shittake dumplings, and scallion. It seriously tasted like liquid mushroom hahah. Nice hint of foie gras.

Mikol ended up ordering the Sea Bar Sampler, which had 5 small plates of seafood appetizers.

Ahi tuna with yuzu kosho, avocado, and tobiko roe. Delicious and great textures too.

Dahlia smoked copper river salmon with hot mustard and sesame. Salmon was great. I'm not a fan of hot mustard though :P

King clam sashimi with pickled beet and fresh horseradish. Subtle sweetness from all the ingredients.

Halibut ceviche.

Dungeness crab with house kimchi, radish, and tofu. The kimchi was actually legit and the tofu gave it a creamy texture rather than the texture we're all used to.

Puget Sound oysters with daikon mignonette. Fresh caught oysters from the bay 10 minutes away with a sauce made with daikon, shallots, and vinegar? Yessir. Connie and Mikol approves.

Connie's entree: Pan roasted king oyster mushrooms with cheesy truffled potato, josh hyatt's greens, fennel crumbs, and grape must syrup. She went mushroom crazy that meal.

Diana ordered the Tom Douglass's famous Lemon Scallion Dungeness Crab Cakes with New Bay spiced cauliflower, pickled asparagus, watercress, remoulade, and bacon salt! Bacon salt!! Tom Douglass is known for crab cakes. One of the best crab cakes I've tried.

My Rotisserie Roasted Five Spice Duck with Hong Kong style noodles, bok choy, snap peas, mung bean sprouts, and pear jam. I'm not kidding when I say this is one of the best duck I've ever had, anywhere. That noodle too with the sauce was like crack. I couldn't stop eating it. The pearl jam is similar to the orange sauce Chinese restaurant gives out but 100x better. One of those times when I wish I could eat Chinese food everyday, and this was done in an American restaurant!! Really speaks for the versatility of Tom Douglass and his chefs.

Freaking delicious crispy skin.

We wanted donuts since Giada DeLaurentis raved about it on Food Network but they were sold out :[ Settled with another one of their famous dessert, Triple Coconut Cream Pie with white chocolate and toasted coconut shavings. Not gonna lie, it was damn good. The toasted coconut totally made the difference.

Dahlia Lounge is a great option if you're looking for fine dining in downtown Seattle. Menu can change depending on the season. It's a relaxing atmosphere and doesn't require you to dress up. You can if you want but I prefer to stick to my tees and jeans if I can!

Seattle: Tilikum Place Cafe

After grabbing Top Pot for breakfast and walking 30 minutes to the Seattle Space Needle to check out the view from up top, we decided to grab brunch somewhere and randomly stumbled upon Tilikum Place Cafe, a neighborhood American restaurant & bar, which just might be my favorite restaurant this trip.

Tilikum Place Cafe

407 Cedar St (at 4th Ave)

Seattle, WA 98121

http://www.tilikumplacecafe.com/

One block away from Space Needle.

Brunch menu.

Mikol's Roasted Golden Beet Soup with herbed goat cheese & hazelnut. I'm not a fan of beet but definitely surprised me. Sweet and creamy.

Mikol's Roast Chicken "Salad" with potatoes, peppers, egg, and some sort of aioli. It's interesting and funny how they deconstructed each and every major ingredient of a salad! Definitely a playful way of presenting a "salad!"

Connie's Pulled Pork Sandwich with grilled onions, peperoncini aioli, cilantro, apple-chartreuse chutney, and housemade potato chips. The pulled pork is so so succulent and the chutney combined grilled onions gave it a really nice sweet flavor to it.

Lots of grilled onions & cilantro :]

Diana's Egg Benedict with pancetta crisp, roasted red pepper with paprika hollandaise. She's a egg benedict freak and almost orders it every time it is on the menu. Diana gave it her stamp of approval!

My Tilikum Fry Up. Egg, bacon, housemade sausage, beans with pulled pork, roasted tomato and cheddar toast completes the Fry Up. The pulled pork is the same from Connie's sandwich but they simmer it with the beans to give the beans extra dept and flavor. Orgasmic. The best savory breakfast plate I ever had.

I liked their homemade sausage so much that I convinced Mikol to share an extra order with me hahah.

Any place that makes their own ketchup shows me that they are willing to make the effort and give their customers something unique!

Tilikum Place Cafe is definitely on my list of restaurants that I must visit again for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. I want to live around this area just because of the quaint neighborhood-feel this place gives off.