Royal Bakery

Green Tea Cake (top)

Green bean bread (bottom)

Royal Bakery

Although the front window features a wizened monstrosity that might just be Miss Havisham's wedding cake, the rest of Royal Bakery's glass cases are filled with fresh and attractive Korean-style breads, tarts, and cakes.  The green tea cake is a delicate sandwich of sponge and whipped-cream frosting with a mild but appreciable bitterness--ideal (green) tea party fare.  For breakfast treats, there's a range of soft, yeasty buns buns filled with velvety jam made from beans of every available hue.

The Royal Bakery

15210 Aurora

Shoreline, WA 98133

206/362-5188

Read More

New York Suggestions?

I'm heading to New York tomorrow--first, to teach a weekend jewelry workshop at the 92nd St Y, and then to eat myself silly for the following week. My agenda currently includes:
Payard
The Hungarian Pastry Shop
Rice to Riches
Minamoto Kitchoan
Bespoke Chocolate
Babycakes
Momofuku
Vesuvio
Mitsuwa

Jacques Torres

The Doughnut Plant

Any other suggestions? The more obscure, the better, and I'm quite willing to travel to anywhere worth trying!

Read More

Buñuelos

Buñuelos de Miel

Guanaco's Tacos, $4

If Guanaco's excellent pupusas and tacos leave your stomach with room to spare, then the buñuelos de miel will do their best to satisfy.  These pillowy balls of golden-fried yuca dough have a pleasing texture but little flavor of their own, so they're drenched in miel de panela, a syrup made from cane juice that's been evaporated and re-liquified; it's as sticky as runny honey but lacks honey's complex flavors.  Buñuelos de miel bear more than a passing resemblance to gulab jamun, but they are less sweet and served blisteringly hot. 

While I'm thrilled that I no longer have to schlep all the way to White Center for pupusas, the Salvadorean Bakery remains my top spot for sweet Salvadorean treats.   

Guanaco's Tacos and Pupuseria

4106 Brooklyn Ave NE (at 41st)

Seattle, WA  98105

206/547-2369

Read More

Sweet Laurette's

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Sweet Laurette's, $3.50

Word has it there are no bad choices to be made at Sweet Laurette's, a bakery, cafe, and bistro located a short (uphill) walk from downtown Port Townsend. It was enthusiastically recommended to me by a local grandmother who takes her granddaughter for breakfast every week.

The French-inflected bakery offers coffee by the bowl and indulgent treats such as "Oblivion Torte" (a flourless chocolate torte with bittersweet glaze) and black bottom cupcakes (above; a grown-up Hostess cupcake filled with cream cheese rather than "creme"). There are a few tables out front (below left), a few more inside, and plenty of sunny weather seating in the arbor-shaded side garden. Breakfasts and lunches at the adjoining bistro feature French favorites made with PNW ingredients.

Sweet Laurette's

1029 Lawrence St
Port Townsend, WA 98368

360/385-4886

While in Port Townsend, I stayed at Rosewood Cottage, a ridiculously charming guest house in a quiet, convenient neighborhood between downtown and Fort Worden.

Read More

On Common Grounds

Vanilla "Wedding" Cake
On Common Grounds, $4.50/slice

I recently read something that surprised me: serving for serving, vanilla cake generally contains far more sugar than chocolate cake. I decided to take a scientific approach to my doubts, ordering a slice of vanilla "wedding" cake at On Common Grounds, a cheerful bakery and cafe just off the road that most travelers take between Port Townsend and the Hood Canal Bridge. The cake was everything vanilla cake should be: light, buttery, generously frosted and generously proportioned. It was also made with such powerful vanilla that I knew it would be coming out of my pores for at least the next 24 hours.

Just minutes after I scraped the last frosting off the plate and set down my fork, my eyes went glassy and my pancreas started revving like an airplane engine: scientific proof from the Marie Curie of cake.

On Common Grounds
8972 Beaver Valley Rd (Hwy 19)
Chimacum, WA 98325
360/732-4467

Read More

Elevated Ice Cream

Elevated Ice Cream

62¢/oz.

Established in 1977, the Elevated Ice Cream parlor on Port Townsend's main drag is a long-standing local institution that became a "destination parlor" more recently, when the Travel Channel voted it one of the best in the country.

Elevated's ice creams are made on the premises at least twice a week, using a base mixture manufactured to their specifications in Snoqualmie. Elevated products aren't organic, but they are made with the highest quality ingredients and RBST-free milk, and they're currently working on new recipes free from corn-based sweeteners. The ice creams are 12% butterfat--satisfying but not stupefying--and the non-dairy Italian ices are low- or non-fat.

After sampling an embarrassing number of Elevated's innovative flavors, I ordered apricot and cardamon ice creams and chocolate Italian ice; all were great, but the spicy-warm cardamon was a standout. Another Elevated innovation is selling by weight rather than by the scoop (no more silent prayers for a heavy-handed scooper!). According to the list of average weights and prices for small, medium, and large cups my "medium" cup was on the small side, but I was consoled by the thought that I hadn't paid for more than I'd gotten.

Elevated Ice Cream

627-631 Water Street

Port Townsend, WA 98368

360/385-1156

Read More

La Boulangerie

Tarte Normande

La Boulangerie, $4.50
The need for carbohydrate comfort first steered me into La Boulangerie several years ago, when a movie I was desperate to see at the theater across the street sold out just as I got to the ticket window. Fast forward to now and I can't remember the name of the movie, but I can recall every bite of my consolation treat, a meltingly tender and spicy baked apple encased in a buttery croissant--a chausson au pomme.
Today, the knowledge that a chausson was waiting just down the street got me through a routine physical with a smile on my face. Sadly, by the time I got to La Boulangerie, my chausson had gone home with somebody else--probably while I was still reading a tattered Popular Mechanic in the doctor's waiting room. Although it was once a much larger business, La Boulangerie is currently a one-man show, and patchy selection is perhaps inevitable. Owner/baker/barista Xon N. Luong fires up the ovens at 5am daily (except Monday when the shop is closed and Luong allows himself to sleep as late as he likes), but things can and do sell out. (Some online reviewers have also reported inconsistent service and cleanliness, but I've never experienced these issues myself).

Scanning the cases for a chausson substitute I couldn't for the life of me remember: is it tarte tatin that I like....or tarte Normande?

Turns out it's not tarte Normande ($4.50). A beautiful thing with a crenellated crust and a filleted apple fanned out on top like a hand of cards, it was as golden as an ingot--but nearly as dense, weighed down by almond paste and a gummy glaze. It was just too heavy for my tastes, in terms of both texture and flavor.

A buoyant and balanced almond croissant ($2.70) was just the opposite, teetering between flavors and textures like a master tightrope walker. The crisp exterior cracked into shards (not that dust that just blows away when you try to eat it), tethered together by the chewier inner layers. The sweetness of the perfectly-proportioned almond paste seam was enhanced by the salted butter in the pastry.

As ephemeral as they are, Luong's pastries are also reminders of the enduring, widespread, and oddly quotidian ripples that emanate from political conflict. Chaussons, tartes, and croissants all belong to a culinary tradition introduced to Luong's native Vietnam in the 19th century under French colonial rule. Luong himself picked up the skills at age 13, when his father died suddenly, leaving Luong in charge of the family bakery. Although he has had many other occupations, baking helped Luong to cope with the upheavals of the Vietnam war and his later relocation to Seattle, where he has been baking (and telling fascinating true stories) at La Boulangerie since 1995.

La Boulangerie
2200 N 45th Street
Seattle, WA 98103-6904206/634-2211

Read More